Category: World

Almost all asylum applications by Russian deserters are being denied by German authorities. DW and Russian-language media outlet Astra spoke to one of the young men who fears he’ll be sent back to die on the front lines.

Nikita Zvezdov was just 15 years old when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He was drafted into the Russian military straight after his 18th birthday in April 2024. Shortly before that, he had been failed at a vocational school he was attending in Krasnoyarsk and he believes that his expulsion was deliberate.

Over the past few years there have been reports that Russian students were not only drafted into the army but also prevented from passing their exams or deliberately flunked, so their conscription could not be hindered. This information has not been verified.

In May 2024, after receiving his conscription notice, Zvezdov was assigned to military unit 25573 near Ussuriysk. Soldiers are frequently killed serving this unit and there have also been reports of harassment, extortion and beatings. On various internet forums, the unit is well known for its criminality.

Zvezdov said officers in the unit pressured him and other conscripts to commit to a longer period of service in the army. “I promised myself and my relatives that I would not sign a contract for the [conflict],” Zvezdov said, adding that he had never wanted to fight against Ukraine in the first place.

“They sent me to a training ground where they also did whatever they wanted — officers shot many conscripts in their legs, beat them up and punished them for everything they could and could not do,” Zvezdov continued. “Do 200 pushups in a gas mask and run 50 laps in a bulletproof vest with 25 to 30 kilos on top.”

Zvezdov said he started having suicidal thoughts and even tried to jump off a cliff, but was prevented from doing so by officers. After that, another officer forced him to sign a service contract.

The young man is not alone in this experience. The Russian military is experiencing personnel shortages and conscripts are regularly pressured to join for longer.

The mothers of a number of Russian soldiers told the Russian media outlet Astra, which operates mostly via its Telegram channel and which has been designated a “foreign agent “by the Russian government, that their sons were deceived or harassed until they signed contracts.

‘No choice but to run’

A month after signing his contract, Zvezdov was told he was being sent to units operating in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, near Melitopol, which were well-known for a high rate of casualties. “I realized that in principle I definitely have no choice but to run. You won’t be able to wait it out either,” he explained.

After Zvezdov got his first pay as a soldier — 40,000 Russian rubles (€450/$510) — the young man applied for leave, ostensibly in order to stock up on provisions before he left for the front. A former convict, who’d also been conscripted, was assigned to monitor him.

Zvezdov was supposed to check in with him via WhatsApp every few hours. But he was lucky — his minder didn’t pay all that much attention to the job. Zvezdov threw away his uniform and fled to Armenia.

He wasn’t actually classified as a deserter for another six months. By then Zvezdov had traveled further, first to Bosnia and Herzegovina, then onto Croatia, where he applied for political asylum.

But without waiting for a decision on his asylum application, the young Russian then moved on again, arriving in Germany in December 2025, where his grandfather lives. In Germany, he applied for asylum once again.

The German authorities rejected his application, citing the European Union’s so-called Dublin rule, which means that the country where an asylum-seeker enters is the state responsible for their application. In Zvezdov’s case, this is Croatia.

Germany was supposed to send Zvezdov back to Croatia within six months; the deadline for that would be at the end of July 2026. If he is not sent back, responsibility for his asylum application returns to Germany.

However, according to human rights activists, Russian deserters have almost no chance of getting approved for asylum in Germany. That is despite the fact that the last German government, which was more politically left, had said in 2022 that conscientious objectors and deserters deserved protection.

But public statements made by politicians don’t make any difference to interpretations of the law, explained Alexey Kozlov, manager of human rights and research projects at Solidarus in Berlin, an organization that supports civil society in former Soviet Union states. Many similar applications have been rejected based on the rationale that deserters do not face a “real risk” of severe persecution or deployment to Ukraine upon return.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, or BAMF, confirmed this. According to BAMF, every asylum application and the applicant’s risk of persecution is investigated on an individual basis.

Protection is granted only “if there is a real, individual and justified fear of persecution,” BAMF stated.

Improvised prisons and torture chambers

In fact, there are hundreds of reports of Russian deserters being sent directly to the front lines and mistreated. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, media outlet Astra has identified 29 illegal detention centers for Russian conscientious objectors, mostly in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk but also on Russian territory.

The improvised prisons are set up in basements, abandoned industrial buildings, camps, private homes and other structures. Thousands of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian citizens, including wounded and disabled individuals, have been held there. In the prisons, officers extort money from prisoners, urinate on them, starve them, beat, torture or even kill them.

According to Astra, the Russian military has set up something akin to a “torture chamber “in the Petrivka quarry in Donetsk.

“They bring the soldiers there with bags over their heads,” a former Russian soldier told Astra on condition of anonymity; he escaped from his unit in 2024. “They don’t feed them. If you want to go to the bathroom, they give you a bag and tell you to go. They hung us from the ceiling by our hands and feet.”

The former deputy platoon leader was imprisoned there along with the men under his command because they refused to go to the front line. He said almost all his men were killed there.

According to figures from the Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, a total of 126 people were deported back to Russia in 2025. Solidarus’ Kozlov said since Germany’s new coalition government took office a year ago, the already-slim chances of asylum for Russian deserters are now practically zero.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/russian-army-deserters-in-germany-no-choice-but-to-run/a-78020377

Fires broke out across the Ukrainian capital after Russia’s latest missile attack, which used the highest number of ballistic missiles of the war so far. Several people have been injured in Kyiv.

Russia launched a major overnight missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, involving ballistic missiles, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow launched the largest number of ballistic missiles — around four dozen — ‌in ⁠a ⁠single attack since the ​start of its full-scale war, ​Kyiv’s acting foreign ​minister ‌said on Sunday.

“We urge ​appropriate ⁠and strong responses. We ⁠need devastating ​pressure on Moscow to end this terror,” Andrii Sybiha ‌wrote on X.

At least one person was killed and 16 others injured, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy wrote on X, reiterating the country’s need for anti-ballistic interceptors.

“Protection against ballistic missiles is our constant and top priority right now. Interceptors are needed every day, and I am grateful to everyone who takes our agreements seriously and ensures the delivery of anti-ballistic capabilities,” he said.

What do we know about the latest attacks?

The attack began at around 1:30 a.m. local time (22:30 GMT, Saturday), continued for several hours.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 18 ‌out ⁠of ⁠41 missiles launched ​by Russia overnight, according to ​Kyiv’s air force. It said 23 ‌missiles and 10 ‌drones ​had hit 20 locations during the ​attack, which was aimed ⁠primarily ​at Kyiv.

About 108 ‌out of ​125 ⁠Russian drones had also ⁠been downed.

Witnesses on the ground reported hearing several explosions, including those from air defense systems. An AFP journalist reported that one of the explosions was so powerful that it set off car alarms across the city center.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said several fires had been reported across the city in residential and non-residential areas. Fires broke out at a dormitory, a residential block and at a supermarket, he said in a series of posts on Telegram, adding that emergency services had been deployed.

Rescue workers pulled four people from a burning private home in the Sviatoshynskyi district, while in the Shevchenkivskyi district they rescued residents from a burning three-story building.

Russia’s latest strikes come a day after Ukraine sent attack drones to destroy e-commerce warehouses in the Moscow and Tambov regions, killing at least eight people and causing major fires. On the same day, Russian strikes killed at least two people in Ukraine.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/russias-largest-ballistic-assault-of-war-rocks-kyiv/a-78022851

JUST 100 miles from the coast of America, sprawling underground cities built by China are feared to be spying on US military plans for a Cuba invasion.

Nestled in the hills outside Havana, a facility bristling with antenna masts, radars and satellite dishes has been built up over decades – with millions of dollars still being poured into the spy stations with a 5,000-mile radius.

As many as 12 Chinese listening posts could be operating in Cuba, a report by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), warns.

Ron MacMannon, a retired US Special Forces colonel, told The Sun: “The Chinese bases could be much more dangerous than the government has let on.”

Dr Alan Mendoza, from the Henry Jackson Society, told The Sun: “China has had a long standing kind of spy base outside Havana because it’s a very valuable place in order to spy on US ships, naval traffic, but also things like space launches.

“All of this makes sense from a Chinese perspective. If you’ve got a potential ally in the form of Cuba that sits so close to the US mainland, you’re going to take advantage of it.”

The suspected intelligence facility is equipped with dozens of high-powered antennas capable of spying on US military comms, according to Pentagon reports and satellite imagery examined by The Sun.

Chinese military-linked companies also operate Cuba’s “digital police state”, according to US intelligence analysts.

It enables Cuba’s regime to shut down the internet to quash protests and cut communications between opposition activists and the outside world.

Despite Cuba’s paralysed economy, crippled by shortages of petrol, food and medicines, vast amounts of money is being used to maintain the spy complexes.

The main fortress in the town of Bejucal has been expanded since Cuban armed forces chief Raul Castro held meetings with high level Chinese PLA bosses in 1999.

Former Cuban special forces officer Carlos Calvo told The Sun that he strongly believes the barracks built in Bejucal were “for the Chinese”.

Satellite images of Bejucal indicate tunnel entrances to underground bunkers – believed to be the HQ of the Radio-Electronic Brigade of Cuban military intelligence, whose officers have been trained by China and Russia.

Other pics show circular arrays of up to 30 antennas, which spy base operators can focus or “beamform” on specific military bases, warships or aircraft to “interfere” with radio and other signals.

Large 22ft radar dishes have recently been installed to track satellite burst transmissions and space launches from Florida’s Cape Canaveral.

US Army War College professor Evan Ellis told The Sun: “Military and other sensitive government communications are highly encrypted limiting the scope of the information Bejucal gathers.

“But picking up frequencies, intensity and direction of the signals traffic can reveal critical aspects of US plans, intentions and scale of military movements.”

While there is no official confirmation that PLA personnel are manning the stations, experts believe military installations built and used by China would also have to be partially staffed by Beijing’s intelligence officers.

Cuban military defectors also claim to have seen Chinese workers at several of the facilities.

Experts warn that Cuba’s electronic warfare facilities could be used to jam, blind or deceive US communications and radar defences in the southeast of America, where Centcom HQ direct global military operations.

Dr Mendoza added: “The fear is that not only is China gathering significant amounts of electronic intelligence on the US from the bases, but it is also able to potentially intervene should there ever be a conflict between the US and Cuba.

“So it does run the risk, of course, of creating a bit of a flashpoint between two superpowers.”

Intelligence gathered in Bejucal can also be shared with Russia and Iran – which have long standing military connections with Cuba’s regime.

Bejucal could also be on the “target menu” for airstrikes if Trump launches military operations against Cuba, according to Pentagon sources.

Professor Ellis says initial attacks would focus on Cuba’s main “command nodes”.

The spy complex could be disabled by taking out its electricity supply already under strain from Cuba’s energy shortage, state department sources said.

Solar parks have been recently installed inside the base for back up power in case of major blackouts.

Satellite images show that another electronic spy base appears to be under construction in the southwestern tip of Cuba, near the US naval base of Guantanamo.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16712791/cuba-spy-cities-china-trump/

Spain climbed again to the summit of world football on Sunday when substitute Ferran Torres struck in the ​106th minute to prise the World Cup from holders Argentina with a 1-0 victory that crowned a new era but brought precious little beauty.
The biggest prize in football deserved a classic. Instead, the world’s ‌two finest teams produced a suffocating stalemate that drifted towards penalties before Torres finally found the extra-time breakthrough with Spain’s 20th attempt on goal.

It was perhaps fitting that the final whistle sparked the game’s liveliest moments, with players pushing, shoving and falling to the ground as Argentina’s frustrations finally boiled over into a brawl.
The euphemism “one for the purists” might have been coined to describe this contest. It was a match almost entirely devoid of quality, chances and risk until Torres, introduced from the bench, finally broke the deadlock.
“It was a goal scored by ​47 million people – it wasn’t even mine or from the 26 players,” the striker said. “It was destined to happen; it was meant to be a winner.”
Argentina’s talisman Lionel Messi, the second player after Brazilian great Cafu ​to feature in three World Cup finals, was a pale shadow of his earlier self, unable to inspire his team.

For Spain, teenager Lamine Yamal barely registered. These two had ⁠been billed as the stars of this match, but it was Spain substitutes Torres and Nico Williams who injected some much-needed energy and dynamism into a drab affair.
It was the fifth of the last six World Cup finals to ​go to extra time, but none of those crowds had endured such flat, joyless football.

SHOT-SHY ARGENTINA

Spain, masters of the suffocating, pressing style, had nothing to press, nothing to suffocate. The Argentines were the first-ever team to fail to muster one ​shot — on target or off — for the entire 90 minutes of a World Cup final.
Argentina seemed content to niggle, pull shirts, shove, foul and disrupt rather than attack. In some respects, it was remarkable they finished with only one red card, Enzo Fernandez being dismissed for flattening Pau Cubarsi in stoppage time.

After more than a month of scintillating goals and exhilarating sport, this was no advertisement for what the hosts call soccer.
One can only imagine what U.S. President Donald Trump, watching alongside FIFA chief Gianni Infantino in a glassed-off VIP box, ​made of the spectacle. Trump later presented the World Cup trophy to the Spaniards.
In truth, this was the toughest of sells, even for the purists. Spain dominated possession but were toothless in attack.
In total, they had 20 attempts on goal, 12 ​on target. Possession only gets you so far in a sport where goals settle results.
The official FIFA statistics registered Argentina as having two attempts at goal. None were on target and the term attempt was being used loosely.

SHOWBIZ RAZZMATAZZ

Singers, flags, fireworks, podiums, pop ‌stars and Hollywood ⁠idols had flooded the pitch in the buildup to this clash. The greater surprise was that the kickoff was delayed only five minutes by all the showbiz razzmatazz.
Three-quarters of the stadium had resembled a Buenos Aires barrio, with supporters draped in blue and white belting out Argentine chants, as the 2022 champions kicked off.
But Spain were denied what they need to perform at their best — an attacking, dangerous opponent. Instead, Argentina looked as though their stirring semi-final comeback in the 2-1 win against England had been their last great surge.
Spain play without an out-and-out striker, something they could have done with as they repeatedly opted against shooting and relied on cutback after cutback with nobody willing or able to apply the ​killer touch.
Few might have expected Justin Bieber, Madonna and fictional ​coach Ted Lasso to provide the afternoon’s most memorable ⁠entertainment in the halftime show, but that was how pedestrian the football had become.
“Allez, let’s go,” sang Shakira. Well, quite.
‘Light it Up’, the big screen flashed, and the word Dynamite flickered across the jumbotron, almost as a taunt to two teams who had failed to light any sort of fuse.
The traditional break of 15 minutes almost doubled in length with all ​the singing, dancing, fireworks and packing away, but the extended interval brought no change in tempo.
None of that will bother the Spaniards though, or their delighted coach Luis ​de la Fuente, who, aged ⁠65, became the oldest World Cup-winning coach.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/torres-grabs-extra-time-winner-spain-beat-toothless-argentina-win-their-second-2026-07-19/

At least six people were ​killed and 21 injured after two earthquakes struck ‌a mountainous region of Peru, the country’s civil defense chief said on Sunday.
The quakes, measuring magnitudes 5.1 and 3.7, ​hit on Saturday night in Chupaca province in ​the Junín region, about 300 km (186 miles) east ⁠of Lima, according to Peru’s National Seismological Center ​post on X.

The first quake struck at a depth ​of 24 km (15 miles) and the second at 18 km, the center said.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre earlier reported that the first ​earthquake had a magnitude of 5.6.

Luis Vásquez, head ​of Peru’s National Civil Defense Institute, told local radio station Exitosa ‌that ⁠preliminary reports showed about 48 homes had been destroyed and another 18 damaged, affecting around 300 people who are being provided with tents.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/earthquake-magnitude-56-strikes-central-peru-emsc-says-2026-07-19/

Andy Burnham, dubbed the ‘King of the North’, becomes Britain’s seventh prime minister in ​a decade on Monday, promising to “rewire” the nation to better focus on issues people care about, such as ‌a cost-of-living crisis and poorly performing services.
After Keir Starmer makes his farewell speech outside his Number 10 Downing Street office and tenders his resignation formally to King Charles, Burnham, a former mayor of Greater Manchester, will also meet the monarch to become prime minister.

Then the hard work begins.
Burnham, 56, ​faces a long list of problems, from Britain’s underperforming utilities to anaemic economic growth, and must first unveil his ​top team of ministers – already the subject of much debate in the governing Labour Party.

BURNHAM TO ⁠LAY OUT NEW GOVERNMENT PATH

Describing his election to become Labour leader as “the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 ​years”, Burnham has promised to radically change Britain’s political system to quickly raise living standards.
“The government I lead will confidently lay that ​path out starting next week,” he said on Friday when he promised to offer Britain the hope and change the country “was crying out for”.

“It will take us to a country where life is more affordable and all people and places are lifted from where they are now.”
That message was ​made directly to Labour lawmakers, who, after he returned to parliament last month, see him as one of the few politicians ​who can reduce the threat from veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party – something they doubted the unpopular Starmer could do.
Burnham’s first hurdle will ‌be ⁠the appointment of his cabinet team, particularly his choice of finance minister. Friction in this crucial partnership at the heart of government has led to the downfall of previous administrations.
An early frontrunner for the position, energy security and net zero minister Ed Miliband, has been on the receiving end of some hostile briefing and interior minister Shabana Mahmood now appears to be favourite for ​the job.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/pledging-rewire-britain-king-north-burnham-becomes-pm-2026-07-19/

Supporters of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement were caned by police on Monday as they sought to march on parliament in the capital New Delhi, despite ‌authorities denying permission for the protest.
The months-old movement and the planned protest are seen as the biggest public challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term in office, drawing millions of supporters on social media before broadening its appeal.

A police decision to forcibly move hunger-striking activist Sonam Wangchuk to hospital on Saturday has galvanised the movement, with thousands of supporters arriving through the night at the protest ​site of Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi for the march on the opening day of parliament’s monsoon session.
Delhi police held meetings with ​Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) members, but no consensus had yet been reached, Sachin Sharma, Delhi’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, told Reuters.
“The protest site ⁠has already run out of space and this can lead to an untoward situation,” he said, adding that there were around 10,000 protesters on Monday morning.

Scores of police ​and paramilitary security personnel were also deployed at the site, threatening a standoff close to parliament if the march goes ahead.
Television visuals showed police caning some protesters in a ​heavily barricaded area.
Delhi Police denied any use of force and said the “protest is being handled professionally.”
Protesters chanted slogans as they arrived peacefully in a rainy central Delhi.
“Quit, quit,” they chanted. “Dharmendra Pradhan quit”, “Narendra Modi quit”, they chanted in Hindi referring to the education minister as well as the prime minister.
“The administration is trying to open talks with the government… They have come very late, but we have ​opened our hearts and said that we are willing to talk to them,” Saurav Das, chief CJP spokesperson, told the ANI news agency.

The CJP movement began after national ​medical school entrance test papers were leaked in May, affecting more than 2 million students as it forced them to sit the test a second time.
“All these leaders in power are illiterate and ‌I am ⁠here to protest because we do not want question papers to leak,” said Adi Nathan, 21, a student from Meerut city, about 100 km (62 miles) from the capital. “This should come to an end.”
Mohammed Tabrez, 22, a student preparing for competitive examinations that allow students admission into professional courses or jobs, said he had come from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh state, about 165 km (103 miles) away.
“We want this corruption to end,” he said. “We want all the frauds in paper leaks, in competitive examinations to end and this is the ​reason I have come here.”

ACTIVIST SETS TERMS ​TO END HIS FAST

The CJP initially drew support ⁠largely online, amassing 22 million followers on Instagram within days but has since drawn support from some opposition parties.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and his supporters began a sit-in last month seeking the resignation of Pradhan. Wangchuk joined them on June 28, launching an indefinite hunger ​strike at the site.
In a handwritten note from hospital posted on his X account on Monday, Wangchuk said he would end ​his fast if the ⁠government took responsibility for recent failures in the education system and for paper leaks, or if CJP protesters were allowed to reach parliament and lawmakers assured them they would take up the issues.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-cockroach-movement-supporters-gather-march-despite-police-ban-2026-07-20/

Global crypto experts believe India possesses many of the ingredients needed to become a major crypto hub.

Japan has taken one of its biggest steps yet towards mainstreaming cryptocurrencies.

The country’s parliament has passed a landmark amendment that recognises cryptocurrencies as financial assets, moving them away from a payments-focused framework and bringing them closer to the same regulatory regime that governs stocks and bonds.

The move is expected to introduce stricter insider trading rules, tighter disclosure norms, stronger oversight and tougher penalties for unregistered operators. It also paves the way for lower taxes on crypto investments and could eventually open the door for spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The development has caught the attention of the global crypto industry. And while it does not immediately change India’s rules, experts believe it sends an important signal to policymakers in New Delhi.

Why Japan’s Move Matters

Japan has been among the earliest countries to regulate cryptocurrencies. But until now, digital assets largely came under the country’s Payment Services Act.

The latest amendment shifts crypto under Japan’s financial markets framework, treating it more like an investment asset than merely a payment instrument. Besides investor protection measures, the reforms are expected to align crypto taxation more closely with equities, replacing tax rates that previously went as high as 55 per cent with a flat 20 per cent over time.

For global investors, the message is clear: cryptocurrencies are steadily becoming part of mainstream finance.

No Direct Impact, But Indian Investors Still Benefit

Indian crypto investors should not expect any immediate changes in taxation or regulation.

India still taxes crypto gains at 30 per cent, imposes a one percent Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on transactions, and does not allow investors to offset crypto losses against gains.

However, industry leaders believe Japan’s decision could improve the overall global crypto ecosystem. Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, says Japan’s move reinforces the growing global acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a mainstream investment class.

“Japan’s decision to classify cryptocurrencies as financial assets is another sign that global markets are moving toward treating crypto as a mainstream investment class rather than a speculative alternative,” Patel says.

According to him, while India’s tax regime remains unchanged, Indian investors could still benefit indirectly through stronger institutional participation, improved market infrastructure and deeper liquidity, leading to healthier price discovery for crypto assets.

Patel also believes the move highlights the widening policy gap between India and several developed economies. “Japan has paired stricter oversight with a more competitive tax framework to encourage innovation and capital formation. As more countries adopt similar approaches, India has an opportunity to build on its leadership in crypto adoption by creating a regulatory environment that protects investors while enabling the ecosystem to grow,” he adds.

A Comparison India Cannot Ignore

For Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX, Japan has achieved in one legislative package what many large economies are still debating. “Crypto now sits under the same law as stocks and bonds, with insider trading rules, mandatory disclosures and a planned flat 20 percent tax replacing rates that ran up to 55 percent,” Shetty says.

He points out another key feature that could interest Indian investors — Japan’s proposal to allow crypto losses to be carried forward for up to three years, similar to equities.

“India taxes gains at a flat 30 per cent with one percent TDS and no set-off of losses. When the world’s fourth largest economy concludes that crypto is an investable financial asset deserving of parity with securities, that is a data point Indian policymakers cannot ignore,” he says.

Shetty also believes deeper Japanese participation could improve global liquidity, while a Tokyo-listed spot crypto ETF in the coming years may encourage similar products across Asia.

Stronger Rules Can Build Confidence

Industry experts also see Japan’s reforms as proof that stronger regulation and innovation can go hand in hand.

Sumit Gupta, Co-founder of CoinDCX, notes that the reforms will require crypto firms to register with Japan’s Financial Services Agency while bringing insider trading restrictions similar to those in equity markets.

“Such developments are a net positive movement for the global crypto industry as it can bring more legitimacy and clarity, potentially attracting more institutional and retail investors and fostering a safer environment,” Gupta says.

He adds that greater legal certainty benefits both investors and regulators by reducing uncertainty and strengthening confidence, while urging India to closely study the experiences of peer nations.

Dilip Chenoy, Chairman of the Bharat Web3 Association, echoes a similar view. “Japan’s decision to recognise virtual digital assets as financial assets reflects the continued evolution of digital asset regulation globally,” Chenoy says.

“As jurisdictions refine their regulatory frameworks, the emphasis is increasingly on balancing innovation with investor protection and market integrity.”

According to Chenoy, these developments offer valuable lessons as India continues to evaluate a balanced, future-ready regulatory framework for digital assets.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/business-news/japan-gives-crypto-financial-asset-status-bitcoin-vda-indian-investors-11793901?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

 

Araghchi also rejected Washington’s claims that Iran could be forced into submission through military pressure. He drew comparisons with Venezuela, where the US forced regime change with the capture of President Nicolas Maduro during a military operation in January.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has spoken about the constant danger faced by the Iranian negotiators during peace talks with the United States. Araghchi recounted a conversation with US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, where he told him about how American and Israeli threats have created a hostile environment for Tehran’s negotiators.

“I asked Witkoff, have you ever been in a meeting where at any moment you think the whole meeting might be bombed? Have you ever been on the phone while you’re talking? You might, as they say, explode or be destroyed. Have you ever, for example, while checking in on your family over the phone, thought to yourself this might be the last time?” the Iranian foreign minister, who is also one of the top negotiators in the Islamic regime, recalled during an interview with Mehr News Agency.

On Iran’s Defiance

Araghchi said that despite the constant threats, Tehran refused to back down.

“In response to the illegal and unreasonable demand for zero enrichment, we resisted and stood firm. When they saw that they couldn’t achieve what they wanted through negotiations, they started the war,” he said, in an interview also aired by RT news.

“You have to talk. You can’t threaten us, and you can’t bribe us.”

The Iranian minister noted that the US first established contact with Tehran for nuclear negotiations last year and has since then continued communicating intermittently. He claimed Tehran’s steadfastness at the negotiating table forced the US and Israel to choose the harder path.

“They were defeated in the 12-day war,” he said, adding Iran wasn’t scared of US threats.

‘Iran Is Not Venezuela’

Araghchi also rejected Washington’s claims that Iran could be forced into submission through military pressure. Drawing comparisons with Venezuela, where the US forced regime change with the capture of President Nicolas Maduro during a military operation in January, he stressed that Tehran doesn’t have a single power system and removal of one leader won’t force the collapse of the Islamic republic.

“This isn’t Venezuela where you take one person and everyone else gets scared and backs down,” he said, referring to Tehran’s mosaic power model, which diversifies the decision-making process under the unified leadership.

US-Iran War

The Iranian leader’s comments came at a time when the ceasefire brokered between Washington and Tehran has effectively broken down. US forces struck Iran for a ninth consecutive day on Monday as the number of confirmed American military deaths in the renewed fighting rose to three and concerns grew over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement, US Central Command said it started “a new wave of strikes” aimed at “degrading” Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels in the strait’s vital shipping lanes. The Central Command announcement gave no further details.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/death-threats-bribes-and-more-irans-abbas-araghchi-details-talks-with-team-trump-11793924?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Victims, aged 18 to 27, were treated at local hospitals. As of Sunday morning, no arrests have been made, and authorities are seeking witnesses for further information.

Nine people have been injured in a shooting outside a nightclub in Minneapolis, with two of the victims suffering life-threatening injuries, police have said. Officers were called to reports of gunfire outside the Reign Event Center on Hennepin Avenue in the city’s Uptown neighbourhood shortly before 00:30 local time on Sunday.

Minneapolis police said officers arrived in less than a minute and requested assistance from all five precincts because of the large crowd and the number of casualties.

According to investigators, the shooting began outside the venue following an altercation. Police are also investigating whether some of the shots were fired from a vehicle.

The victims include seven men and two women aged between 18 and 27.

At the scene, officers found four people with gunshot wounds. They included a 20-year-old man with potentially life-threatening injuries, a 21-year-old man and two women, aged 22 and 27, who suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening. All four were taken to Hennepin Healthcare.

An 18-year-old man later arrived at Hennepin Healthcare with a gunshot wound that police said was not life-threatening.

Four more victims sought treatment at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. They included a 21-year-old man with potentially life-threatening injuries, who was later transferred to Hennepin Healthcare, and three men aged 20, 21 and 22 with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Police said no arrests had been made as of Sunday morning.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/minneapolis-mass-shooting-injured-reign-nightclub-hennepin-avenue-suspect-identity-article-155134667

Pundits offered mixed opinions, with Wayne Rooney labeling it “crap” and Gary Neville enjoying it, highlighting contrasting views on this controversial innovation.

The first halftime show in the history of a FIFA World Cup final has prompted mixed reactions from fans, pundits and players, with many questioning both the performances and the length of the interval. The entertainment took place during the final between Argentina and Spain and lasted 27 minutes and 19 seconds, delaying the restart of the match.

Under the Laws of the Game, set by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), halftime intervals should “not exceed 15 minutes”.

The show opened with Madonna performing her 2000 hit Music, accompanied by Brazil World Cup winners Ronaldinho and Ronaldo.

The programme also featured The Muppets and Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel performing Seven Nation Army, K-pop group BTS singing Dynamite, appearances by Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt as their Ted Lasso characters, Justin Bieber performing an acoustic version of Everything Hallelujah, Shakira and Burna Boy singing the tournament anthem Dai Dai, and Coldplay closing the show with a children’s choir.

The extended halftime interval prompted criticism from some supporters on social media. One X user shared a scene from The Godfather and wrote: “Halftime show at World Cup final. Look how they massacred my beautiful game,” referencing a line spoken by Don Corleone in the film.

Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher also reacted on X, writing: “It’s a good job I’ve got my spiritual socks on or that halftime entertainment could have tipped me over the edge.”

“The players should have not tolerate that. It’s the biggest game of most of their careers and they should not be bending their routines around half-hour half-time shows,” one user wrote.

However, not all reactions were negative.

One viewer posted: “Didn’t even know there was a World Cup halftime show and it’s better than any Super Bowl halftime show I’ve ever seen.”

Another joked: “Madonna with more World Cup Final appearances than Cristiano Ronaldo.”

On the BBC’s coverage, former England striker Wayne Rooney described the show as “crap”.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/fifa-world-cup-halftime-show-shakira-madonna-justin-bieber-bts-backlash-article-155135199

Visuals circulating on social media showed plumes of black smoke and flames billowing from the Al-Subiya facility

Iran on Sunday struck Kuwait’s Al-Subiya power generation and water desalination plant, causing a massive fire, as the United States carried out its ninth consecutive night of attacks on Iranian targets. Visuals circulating on social media showed plumes of black smoke and flames billowing from the Al-Subiya facility.

Footage from the Al-subiya Kuwaiti power station and water desalination plant struck by Iran today. pic.twitter.com/FelPIe4lWN

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 19, 2026

Kuwait’s military said it intercepted a series of hostile missiles and drones that entered its airspace during the day, News18 reported.

“The armed forces have detected, since dawn today, hostile ballistic missiles and drones within Kuwaiti airspace, which have been intercepted and dealt with,” Major General Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, said. He further said, “The reprehensible Iranian aggression continues to target civilian and vital facilities in the country.”

US launches fresh strikes

 

The US military says a service member was killed after an Iranian attack in northern Iraq on Saturday, a day after an attack on a base in Jordan killed two US soldiers and left another missing.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the individual was killed during “a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance” from a downed Iranian attack drone, which also wounded a second service member.

In its update, Centcom said it had found “unidentified remains” after a search of the location of Friday’s attack in Jordan. “An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing,” it added.

It comes as the US and Iran exchanged strikes for an eighth day of escalating attacks.

Both sides have been accused of striking critical infrastructure in recent days. Meanwhile, Washington has reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran has declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and targeted US allies in the region, as a preliminary ceasefire collapsed less than a month after it began.

The US military said its latest attacks had been designed to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping” in the strait, and to “swiftly punish” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces it said were responsible for the attack in Jordan.

Verified footage from inside the Jordanian facility showed at least two impacts and an explosion.

The US death toll in the conflict has now reached 17, after an American Navy pilot who went missing earlier this month was declared dead.

In Iran, at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 injured in US strikes over the past three weeks, the country’s health ministry has said.

As attacks continued on Sunday, Iranian media reported that an under-construction nuclear power plant in the south-western city of Darkhoveyn had been struck overnight, as well as Qeshm Island.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog called for restraint, while noting that the site was “in the very early stages” and contained no nuclear material during its last visit.

Three Iranian missiles were later shot down by Jordan’s military and a fourth fell in a remote area, Jordan’s state news agency reported. It followed a US warning that the port of Aqaba could be targeted.

Jordan summoned Iran’s charges d’affaires in Amman to demand an immediate end to what the foreign ministry called “unjustified and blatant Iranian attacks”, insisting that its security was “a red line that cannot be crossed”.

Israel’s military meanwhile said that “several interceptors were launched toward missile debris in order to prevent debris impact within Israeli territory” after projectiles were launched towards Jordan.

It said “interceptor fragments” were subsequently identified near the southern city of Eilat, near the countries’ shared border, with no damage or injuries reported.

Separately, the IRGC said two vessels had ignored Iranian warnings not to transit the Strait of Hormuz and were consequently involved in “an accident”.

It warned that all vessels “influenced” by the US and which used “unsafe routes” would “certainly face accidents”.

In Kuwait, local officials said an electricity and water plant struck on Saturday had been hit again, resulting in a fire.

The Gulf Cooperation Council – an alliance including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – had accused Tehran of targeting civilian infrastructure after the first strike, calling it a violation of international law.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk417jp83po

 

Andy Burnham will promise to give people “more breathing room” when he gives his first speech as prime minister outside No 10 on Monday.

He is expected to say he is “acutely conscious” of the UK’s high turnover of prime ministers – and that politics needs to be more stable and responsible.

And he is expected to characterise the moment as one of “reflection and resolution”, arguing Britain must be honest about the challenges it faces.

Burnham will officially replace Sir Keir Starmer and become the UK’s 59th prime minister – and seventh in 10 years – on Monday, following a meeting with King Charles III.

In a letter published on Sunday evening, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wished Burnham “every success” as prime minister, but warned he was entering office without “any clear plan”.

“You have refused calls to come to Parliament for questions from MPs, and you have not submitted yourself to serious media scrutiny,” Badenoch wrote.

“This is not a promising start.”

It also included a promise of Conservative support to cut the benefits bill, and urged the incoming prime minister to rule out any new tax rises.

The letter followed earlier remarks from Badenoch that Burnham was a “people pleaser” at a time when the country needed someone who could “take tough decisions, who can face down Labour MPs”.

Burnham was officially declared Labour Party leader on Friday following a short contest in which he was the only candidate, having secured the backing of 379 MPs.

Some opposition parties have urged Burnham to call a general election in order to ensure he has a mandate for his premiership.

However, earlier Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell insisted Burnham would stick to the promises made in Labour’s manifesto in the 2024 general election but will be more ambitious.

“He really understands the bigger, bolder measures that are needed to live up to the manifesto promises,” she told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme.

In his maiden speech on Monday morning, Burnham will reportedly set out his domestic priorities.

The Makerfield MP and former mayor of Greater Manchester is expected to argue that political stability must deliver “tangible” improvements along with “giving people more breathing room” on the cost of living.

But it is not yet clear who Burnham will appoint in his top team. He is expected to start appointing his senior ministers once inside No 10.

There has been fevered speculation as to who will get which job, particularly the crucial position of chancellor.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had initially appeared the most likely candidate, but in recent days Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has emerged as another potential replacement for Rachel Reeves at the Treasury.

The incoming prime minister’s team has already teased some of the measures Burnham is expected to take in his first months in charge.

This includes scrapping plans for a government-issued digital ID for all British adults, in what has been called a “reset of priorities” for Burnham.

Plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea are also expected to be on the agenda, forming part of a flurry of measures from Burnham including plans to take water and energy companies under public control and a new council house-building programme.

But environmental campaigners have urged Burnham to stick to Labour’s 2024 manifesto, which promised not to issue new licences for North Sea drilling, arguing they would not reduce energy bills.

While details of the oil and gas plans are not yet clear, the incoming prime minister is expected to uphold the manifesto commitment, and only produce oil and gas at sites that already have licences.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump welcomed the move for more drilling in a post on social media.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8m7k98p3no

Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance welcomed their fourth child to the world Sunday morning — marking the first time in over 150 years a child’s been born to a sitting vice president.

Usha gave birth to little Alec Neel, the couple’s third son, at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, the vice president announced in a statement.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning,” Vance wrote.

“Usha and the baby are happy and healthy and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother,” the vice president said, thanking the staff at Walter Reed for the baby’s safe delivery.

Baby Alec Neel will be joining his three other siblings in the Vance family, including Ewan, 9; Vivek, 6; and Mirabel, 4.

The vice president, 41, and Usha, 40, who have been married since 2014, announced they were expecting in January, a historical occurrence for a second family.

The last time a sitting vice president and second lady welcomed a child was when Ulysses S. Grant’s Vice President Schuyler Colfax Jr. and his wife Ellen had their son Schuyler Colfax III — 156 years ago.

The Vances are the latest in a string of Trump administration higher-ups who’ve welcomed children into their family over the past year.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, and his wife Katie welcomed their son Hawthorne Hayes in June.

Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, and her husband Nicholas Riccio welcomed her second child, a daughter Vivianna, in early May.

Vance himself has long been an advocate for Americans to have “more babies.”

He’s also argued that more should be done to support families bringing children into the world.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/07/19/us-news/vice-president-jd-vance-second-lady-usha-welcome-4th-child/

 

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs on Canada after hundreds of wildfires have left much of the northern US covered by a blanket of smoke.

The threat follows complaints by US lawmakers over the wildfires and Ontario’s premier Doug Ford asking the US to send support to fight the fires, rather than complain.

“The United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,” Trump said, threatening to impose new levies over Canada’s “willful negligence”.

As of Saturday, there were about 955 fires actively burning in Canada, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System – with the majority burning out of control.

More than 190 of those blazes are burning in Ontario, some out of control.

Trump said in his post to Truth Social that he would call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to demand an explanation over his country’s “willful negligence,” accusing the country of “not properly maintaining” their forests and brush.

Fellow Republicans have used the issue to renew Trump’s call to make Canada the 51st US state, a musing that has offended Canadians and prompted many to stop travelling to their southern neighbour in protest. Others online suggested a delay in opening the Gordie Howe International Bridge, a Canada-funded project that will connect Ontario to Michigan.

Carney earlier noted that it was the responsibility of both countries to fight climate change.

After Trump’s remarks, Carney’s emergency management cabinet minister said the two countries remain in constant contact and share a long history of working together on such disasters, citing a reciprocal fire-fighting agreement from 1982 and another assistance agreement from emerged from the 2025 G7 summit.

Canada has worked to prevent wildfires and invested about C$12bn ($8.5bn; £6.4bn) in forests sustainability and fire prevention, MP Eleanor Olszewski said in the statement.

“This is a challenge that knows no borders, and Canada is working with speed, collaboration and coordination to keep people safe,” she added.

Relations between the US and Canada have been tense at times over the last year, mostly due to trade. Last year, Trump imposed tariffs on Canada – a country that had enjoyed decades of free trade with the US – and both countries have still yet to reach a trade deal.

What started the wildfires?
According to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, nearly 3 million hectares of land in Canada has already been destroyed by the wildfires.

The impacts have been far-reaching, with a thick blanket of smoke spreading across US states, from Minnesota and Michigan to Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.

“Hazardous” air quality alerts have been issued across much of the region, leading to the cancellation of many outdoor events.

As of Friday, air quality in Detroit was worst in the world, Swiss air quality tracker IQAir said, followed by the Midwestern city of Chicago, Washington DC, and New York in seventh place.

In the open letter addressed to Canadian officials, US lawmakers John James, John Moolenaar, Jack Bergman and Lisa McClain said their “patience has run out”.

“We are done accepting apologies in place of action,” they said, warning the US could explore direct involvement in cross-border wildfire protection and firefighting if Canada failed to act.

“We were told last year that this would be treated with urgency. It was not,” they claimed, adding that instead “American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year”.

They said that issues such as “chronic under-investment in forest thinning, fuel reduction, and prescribed burns, along with inadequate enforcement against arson”, had not been addressed “adequately enough”.

But scientists BBC Verify have spoken to say the picture is more complicated.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyq93j34lgo

An ominous new Iranian billboard unveiled after the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham alludes to President Trump as the Islamic Republic’s next target — the latest escalation in a series of threats on the president’s life over the past week.

The red billboard, splashed in the busy Valiasr Square in central Tehran, asks “Who is D nexT one?” — capitalizing the letters of the commander-in-chief’s initials — along with the hashtag #LindseyGraham.

The late South Carolina lawmaker was among the fiercest critics of the Islamic Republic, repeatedly branding it the “mothership of terrorism” and warning the United States would use military force to “knock Iran out of the oil business.”

Graham, 71, died suddenly last Saturday — just two days after returning home from a trip to Ukraine — after having chest pains. The medical examiner said he had a tear in the aorta, but after FBI agents were seen searching his DC home Monday, theories about whether foul play was involved have swirled.

Just five days before his death, the Republican defiantly scoffed at images of Iranians parading around with a poster of a bullseye on his head.

“At least they used a good photo of me,” Graham snapped.

Tehran’s latest billboard is controlled by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked media organization and is regularly used to project messages for the regime, according to Iran International.

Its chilling message is the latest in a growing wave of threats targeting Trump that have flooded Iranian public space since the funeral of slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei concluded on July 9.

A giant poster showing Trump lying inside a black coffin was erected Wednesday in Tehran’s Enghelab Square, with Persian text displayed over the casket reading “We Kill Trump.”

Another one, at Palestine Square in Tehran, displayed headshots of several members of Trump’s family, including Melania, Ivanka and Don Jr, on top of coffins draped with US flags.

Iran’s state media, Fars News Agency, even published an English-language video on social media this week titled “Where Do We Kill Trump?” purporting to show the motorcade route to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Source: https://nypost.com/2026/07/18/world-news/new-iranian-billboard-threatens-trump-is-next-one-after-death-of-regime-critic-lindsey-graham/

As renewed hostilities flared on Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to teach the United States, who he referred to as Satan, “unforgettable lessons”.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in a new statement on Saturday, said that US President Donald Trump’s signature on the interim deal signed by both countries last month was “worthless and invalid”. His comments come after there were repeated violations of the memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

Earlier in the day, a negotiator said Iran was suspending its commitments to the interim deal after at least 50 people were killed and more than 500 injured in strikes by the United States this month.

As renewed hostilities flared on Saturday, Khamenei vowed to teach the United States, who he referred to as Satan, “unforgettable lessons”.

Now that the American enemy is seeking to escalate the conflict thereby incurring even heavier costs and further humiliation, it should know that the noble nation of Iran and the Resistance Front have unforgettable lessons in store for it.

— Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (@MKhamenei_ir) July 18, 2026

“Now that the American enemy seeks to incite war and bear its most serious consequences, it should know that the dear Iranian nation and the axis of resistance have unforgettable lessons to offer it,” he said.

He criticised the US for revealing its “true, unmasked face” and said that the breaches in the agreement served as a testament to America’s “dishonesty, irrationality, unreliability, and malicious nature”.

“Coercion, totalitarianism, and brutality are inseparable components of the US creed and doctrine,” Khamenei said in his statement.

US Strikes Iran For The Seventh Day In A Row
The US Central Command said early Saturday that its seventh straight night of strikes hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities”.

The US has violated its commitments under the deal that was signed about a month ago, and now Iran is “no longer implementing them”, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told state TV.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/worthless-devoid-of-credibility-mojtaba-tears-into-trump-over-iran-deal-11789866?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

British prosecutors announced Saturday that they were seeking the Tate brothers’ extradition on charges alleging they raped and trafficked women between 2010 and 2017.

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, whose social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny has made them among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities, were arrested Saturday in Miami as British authorities sought their extradition on rape and sex trafficking charges.

The brothers were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service on a sealed warrant, agency spokesperson Brady McCarron told The Associated Press, placing the United States at the center of an international legal saga that has stretched from Romania to Britain.

British prosecutors announced Saturday that they were seeking the brothers’ extradition on charges alleging they raped and trafficked women between 2010 and 2017.

The dual U.S. and British citizens moved to Romania in 2016. They were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations and the case didn’t go forward because of legal and procedural irregularities.

The brothers are expected to appear in Miami’s federal court early next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations.

The pending charges in the United Kingdom accused the brothers of abusing women in an area north of London, where they grew up. Their lawyers had said they denied the allegations.

Joseph McBride, an attorney representing the Tate brothers, said in a phone interview Saturday evening that he has not been able to speak with his clients but called the new charges out of the U.K. “filth and slander” intended to derail defamation lawsuits filed by the brothers in the U.S.

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

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/social-media-influencers-andrew-and-tristan-tate-arrested-in-miami-us-marshals-service-tells-ap-11790421?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Jens Spahn, a senior member of Germany’s ruling conservatives, ​resigned on Saturday after having a baby ‌born to a surrogate mother in the United States, a move at odds with his own party’s opposition to ​surrogacy, according to a letter seen ​by Reuters.

Spahn, 46, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Friedrich ⁠Merz’s Christian Democrat party and its sister Christian Social ​Union (CDU/CSU), drew heavy criticism after news emerged that ​he had become a parent with his husband through a surrogate mother.

Surrogacy is prohibited in Germany, although it ​is not illegal to bring up a ​child born of a surrogate mother outside Germany.

“Over the ‌past ⁠few days, I have come to realise that my personal happiness — starting a family with my husband and becoming a father — is incompatible with my ​political office,” ​Spahn wrote ⁠in the resignation letter.

The CDU voted to uphold the ban on surrogacy ​inside Germany at its party conference ​in ⁠February, and the news about Spahn’s move to use a surrogate in the U.S. prompted numerous ⁠calls ​from within the party for Spahn to ​step down.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/senior-merz-ally-spahn-resigns-after-coming-under-pressure-germany-over-2026-07-18

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week ordered annual testosterone-deficiency screening for active-duty and reserve service members age 30 and older, which he says will help to maintain military readiness.

But many medical ​professionals warn it might do nothing of the sort and instead could increase service members’ risk of infertility or other consequences if testosterone is prescribed inappropriately.

The mandate is one of several recent healthcare policy ‌changes implemented by Hegseth and other Trump administration cabinet officers that have sparked debate among experts and raised questions about what scientific basis, if any, supports them.

Hegseth has also reversed the military’s long-standing flu vaccine mandate, a decision that was walked back after a flu outbreak, while the Department of Health and Human Services removed 17 members from its vaccine advisory panel and altered its vaccine recommendations.

Five of six men’s health experts contacted by Reuters for this story said they were puzzled by the announcement on testosterone testing and concerned it may lead to unnecessary — or even harmful — ​treatment.

Hegseth said testing would be accompanied by advice to help soldiers make decisions about treatment, which would be voluntary.
The goals, he added, are to ensure troops have the right testosterone levels to operate at their absolute best ​and to improve their resilience, longevity and performance, so as to ensure the military’s combat readiness.

Four of the six doctors said there was no solid evidence suggesting that screening for ⁠low testosterone in all military personnel aged 30 and older would optimize U.S. readiness for combat.

“We hear from patients that when you treat low T, things like cognitive alertness and stamina improve. But the evidence is not concrete, and it comes ​from patients who were treated because they were symptomatic,” said Dr. Kevin McVary, a urologist on the medical advisory board of Rugiet, a telehealth platform that provides testosterone supplements.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter beyond its brief official statement

TESTING RECOMMENDED ​FOR SYMPTOMS

The American Urological Association and the Endocrine Society advise testosterone supplementation only for patients with confirmed testosterone deficiency and symptoms such as reduced libido, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, decreased muscle mass and low bone density.

Giving testosterone without medical symptoms leads to overtreatment, McVary said, which can have its own adverse consequences.
Levels naturally decline with age, starting around age 30. But age 30 itself is not an appropriate point for screening, said Dr. Haleem Mohammed, chief medical officer of men’s wellness and medical clinic network Gameday Health.

“There is a population-level decline of 1% per year after ​ages 30-40 that accelerates as you get older,” but the patterns are not the same for all, Mohammed said.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/doctors-question-evidence-behind-pentagon-plan-testosterone-screening-2026-07-18

The United States launched new strikes against Iran, Central Command said, after it earlier announced that two U.S. military personnel were killed in Jordan and another was ​missing following an Iranian attack.

Before the strikes on Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader said Washington would pay for “seeking to escalate the conflict.”

Central Command said in a statement that the airstrikes began ‌at 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT), at President Donald Trump’s direction.

“The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched attacks against American service members in Jordan last night,” it said, without providing further details.

Iran’s Mehr news agency said the U.S. carried out an attack near Sirik in southern Iran, adding that no casualties or damage to infrastructure have been reported.

The U.S. and Iran have intensified attacks since an interim ​ceasefire deal signed a month ago fell apart last week, raising the possibility of a return to all-out war.

Central Command said the two deaths occurred on Friday and that a third U.S. service ​member was missing in action. The announcement brought the number of U.S. service members killed since the war began to 16, while more than 420 have been ⁠wounded.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.”

Iran appeared to target Saudi Arabia as well as other U.S. Gulf allies and Jordan on Saturday after U.S. attacks on Iranian bridges, power facilities ​and other infrastructure.

In a written statement carried by the official social media accounts of Iran’s supreme leader and Iranian state media, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said U.S. actions have shown that Trump’s signature was “utterly worthless and ​devoid of credibility.”

The statement warned of “even heavier costs and further humiliation” for the United States. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Khamenei’s whereabouts remain a mystery.

The conflict, which began when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran at the end of February hoping to disable its missile programme and its regional proxies, has led to major disruption to energy supplies, fears over global inflation and a battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-renews-strikes-iran-after-two-military-personnel-were-killed-by-iranian-2026-07-18

CHILLING details have been disclosed about the currents around the uninhabitable island where the body of a promising college football player was found that could explain his mysterious death.

Brian Trascher, the national vice president of the United Cajun Navy, recalled the calm, warm air over the Mississippi Gulf Coast while surveying the waters below from the air during his search for Nolan Wells.

“[It] was mostly calm, very, very shiny, hot. Water temperature [was] in the 80s,” Trascher told The U.S. Sun.

Nolan, 18, and a group of friends took a private boat out to Horn Island, about 10 miles from the Mississippi mainland, at around 9:56am to celebrate the Fourth of July.

It was one of the final days Nolan had to celebrate summer vacation with his friends before reporting to football camp at Southwest Mississippi Community College on July 6, his dad, Elmore Wonsley, said.

Horn Island is a popular destination for locals during the summertime, as dozens of boaters embark on the 45-minute trip for an escape from reality.

“All summer long, it’s popular. There’ll be anywhere from a few hundred boats to, I mean, it could be over a thousand,” Josh Gill, the Cajun Navy’s incident coordinator for the search for Nolan’s, previously told The U.S. Sun.

Nolan’s friends told Jackson County investigators they last saw him between 3 and 4:00pm, before they headed back to the mainland after experiencing mechanical issues with their boat.

The group made a distress call to a police dispatcher at around 4pm before making the journey back.

“Hey, we’re at the west tip of Horn, and our bilge pump stopped working. We’re going. We’re sinking. Can you all please come?” the male is heard communicating to a dispatcher, according to NBC News.

“I want to get this boat unsank and towed back.”

The boat left the island at 4:31pm and was towed for around three miles before resuming normal operations less than an hour later, according to GPS information from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

The vessel returned to the private dock at 6:06pm.

Several friends claim Nolan decided to stay behind after meeting a young woman on the island and told them he would catch a ride back with another group.

The last reported sighting of Nolan was around 4pm when witnesses told authorities they spotted him on the northwest tip of the island.

That part of the island can be life-threatening to unsuspecting sunbathers, Trascher said.

“That island, they have a very strong current on the northwest tip,” he stressed.

“From what people [who were] there told me, it’s very strong there.

“The other thing to have in mind is that there’s a drop-off on that side.

“And, so, you can be in three feet of water, and then, the next step, you could be in 20 feet of water.

“If all of a sudden, you’re 20 feet in the water and a current starts carrying you, it can drag you out fast, violently.”

Gill, the incident coordinator, also said that part of the island could experience “increased tidal” activity due to its location.

“There is a pretty heavy tidal surge and tidal movement on that portion of the island where they were at,” Gill previously said.

“It’s a pass between two islands. So, there’s increased tidal influence there, along with wind and wave action.

“Conditions can change rapidly there.”

Trascher recalled being several hundred feet in the air, combing the waters, when two law enforcement boats began circling a portion of the northwest tip of the island on the morning of July 6.

“Even though I was about 400 feet or so, I could see the body,” he told The U.S. Sun.

“I was zooming in with my land gear so I could get a closer look, it matches the description of what he was wearing.

“So we were pretty sure, without confirmation, that was probably him.

“When we came back, the sheriff had said they had people there that had eyes on him right there on the beach.

“Their words were, there was no reason to think it’s not him.”

A cause of death for Nolan has not been determined, pending an autopsy.

On Wednesday, Ben Crump, the attorney retained by Nolan’s parents, Elmore and Christine Wonsley, said the case will be presented to a grand jury after the sheriff’s department completes its investigation.

“The hope is that when this is presented to the grand jury, all relevant witnesses and evidence will be presented to them, so that we can have a fair and impartial investigation into the death of Nolan,” Crump said.

District Attorney Angel McIlrath’s office said convening a grand jury is standard practice in the county for unnatural or suspicious deaths, and does not indicate there is any criminality involved.

Jackson County officials have said that preliminary evidence suggests Nolan died from accidental drowning.

Authorities said that so far in their investigation, they have yet to find evidence of foul play.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16702885/nolan-wells-search-island-detail-rescuer-death-cause-explained/

A school bus in Uganda has crashed during its return to Kampala from a trip to the Sipi Falls. The government has temporarily halted all school trips in response, as families mourn at least 20 dead children and an adult.

A school bus crash overnight in Uganda has killed 20 pupils and one adult, injuring several others, police said on Friday.

Uganda’s government said it would be halting all school trips until further notice in response to the accident.

Parents and other relatvies rushed to the elementary schoolyard in Kampala on Friday morning seeking information about their loved ones.

What do we know about the crash?
Uganda Police Force community liaison officer Michael Kananura said in a statement on social media that the crash took place late on Thursday in Chekwatit Village in the Kapchorwa district of eastern Uganda.

The Suzuki bus belonging to the King David Junior School in the capital Kampala from an excursion to the Sipi Falls waterfalls in the region.

Kananura said that 20 pupils and one adult male had been confirmed dead after the crash.

“Several survivors, whose identities are yet to be established” were rushed to local hospitals for treatment, he said, later saying that three adult males and “several juveniles” sustained injuries in the crash.

“Preliminary investigations indicate that the school bus had taken pupils on an educational tour to Sipi Falls in Kapchorwa District,” Kananura said. “While returning from the tour, the driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle, which veered off the road, struck a large stone along the roadside, and overturned.”

Police were still investigating the exact cause of the crash and would provide updates as soon as possible, he said.

How did the government respond?

Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport said on Friday that Education Minister Chrysotom Muyingo had “put on hold all school trips and excursions, effective immediately and until further notice.”

The sparsely populated Kapchorwa district in eastern Uganda near the border to Kenya is home to the Sipi Falls in the Mount Algon national park.

Road accidents are common in the East African nation and are often blamed on poorly maintained vehicles, reckless driving and poor road conditions, which are problems across Africa. Infrastructure-related problems are often exacerbated further in more isolated regions.

At least 14 people died when a bus collided with a truck in a remote area of northern Uganda earlier this month. Last October, 46 people were killed in a crash on a major highway between the capital Kampala and the northern city of Gulu.

According to World Health Organization and United Nations data, Africa has the worst continental road safety record in the world on a per capita basis, with around 26 deaths per 100,000 people per year, just under three times the rate in Europe.

Former Health Minister Jens Spahn of the conservative CDU, who opposed legalizing surrogacy in Germany, has become a father with the help of a surrogate mother in the US.

Conservative politician Jens Spahn and his husband have announced that they have become parents with the help of a surrogate mother in the US. “It’s hard to put this feeling into words.” Spahn told German mass-circulation tabloid BILD. “My husband has become a dad, and so have I. Georg is our whole world.”

The news has sparked a political debate because such a procedure would be prohibited in Germany.

A surrogate mother makes her body available to carry a baby to term and is typically paid for doing so. Spahn’s party, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is staunchly opposed to making this legal in Germany.

As recently as February 2026, the party passed a resolution reiterating this at their federal party convention.

“In light of ethical, legal and practical concerns regarding surrogacy, the CDU of Germany reaffirms its demand that surrogacy — including altruistic models — remain prohibited in Germany in order to prevent abuse, exploitation and health risks,” read the resolution.

Jens Spahn, Germany’s former federal Health Minister and currently leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, was present at the convention. At the time, a surrogate mother based in the US, was already pregnant with the child of Daniel Funke, Spahn’s husband.

Spahn and his husband don’t have to fear legal consequences. Surrogacy is not prohibited in the US. In Germany, only the doctors and intermediaries involved would be liable to prosecution. It is not illegal in Germany to raise a child who was born abroad to a surrogate mother.

Jens Spahn has spoken out against surrogacy
Throughout his career, Spahn has consistently expressed criticism of surrogacy. In 2015, he told GQ magazine: “As a gay man and a Christian, I personally find it very difficult to come to terms with the idea of a ‘rented womb.'”

However, he added at the time: “Accepting that I will not become a father naturally requires a great deal of humility. I don’t know if I can muster that.”

In 2020, the opposition neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) sought to initiate a debate on liberalizing Germany’s surrogacy laws, when Spahn was health minister. He opposed the move, citing the CDU’s familiar arguments, but also arguing that surrogacy could lead to “particular difficulties in the child’s sense of identity.” Now, he stands accused of double standards.

Daniel Peters, head of the CDU in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , is calling for Spahn’s resignation.

“Jens Spahn is no longer acceptable as chairman of the Union parliamentary group and must resign,” Peters told BILD. As parliamentary group leader, Spahn has “a special role as a role model within the Union.” By using a surrogate mother in the US, he “deliberately flouted the law that’s in force in Germany.”

“Furthermore, he claims that, as a private individual, he can act in a completely different way that contradicts his stated position as a CDU elected official,” Peters added. “That is absolutely unacceptable,”

Hubert Hüppe, chairman of the CDU seniors’ organization, told Focus magazine that he was shocked.

“Surrogacy is rightly banned in Germany,” he said. “It’s not right for politicians to use their power and money to circumvent that ban.”

Criticism has also been voiced by the opposition. “Political standards should apply to private life as well,” Kathrin Gebel, spokesperson for women’s issues for the socialist Left Party, argued.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-debates-surrogacy-and-hypocrisy/a-78009366

Javits Center convention-goers Friday said the lawless shantytown marring Manhattan’s West Side makes them feel “uneasy” — and blamed the sprawling skid-row blight on do-nothing lefty leaders.

The shocking homeless encampment — which sits roughly five blocks from the center, near 45th Street and 12th Avenue — made attendees of the “Fanatics Fest” sports convention feel “like you’re watching over your back,” said Candace Martino, who was in town for the event.

“It almost comes down to a Democratic state versus Republican state, because I lived in both. And I can tell you, it’s a day and night difference,” said Martino, 33, who lives in Florida and was previously a Pennsylvania resident.

“When you come up to a Democratic state, the cities are not clean,” she said. “The buildings are empty. It’s almost like these states are not progressing the way those other Republican states are.

“And with that, you’re seeing, like, all this homeless population increase, so it’s almost like they’re not trying to help, in a sense,” she said of Dem leaders.

Martino said the blocks-long Manhattan tent city — which Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed Thursday to finally clean up — made her “a little scared.

“I don’t think it’s safe,” she said.

Martino said she already moved hotels last week because of a homeless issue.

“The first hotel had a bunch of homeless sitting outside, and being a female, you know, when they’re trying to talk to you, you feel a little, little scared,’ she said. “

“You’re always watching over your back, and I feel like in a family event like this one, they shouldn’t be around this,” she said of the Fanatics Fest, a massive multi-day sports culture convention.

“It’s just, you get an unsafe, uneasy feeling,” she said.

Christine Baize, a crew member for the event, said the tent city reminded her of the Big Apple’s bad old days.

“It’s horrible. I don’t know what the answer is, but they gotta figure out something,” said Baize of Queens.

“They don’t want it looking like, I don’t know how familiar you are with New York, like in the 70s and 80s. It was bad. They don’t want it looking like that. They have to find a place for them.”

Source:  https://nypost.com/2026/07/17/us-news/uneasy-javits-convention-goers-blame-lefty-leaders-for-nyc-skid-row-its-horrible/

Argentina and Spain are playing for more than the World Cup trophy on Sunday. They’re playing for rings as well. For the first time, FIFA is awarding rings to commemorate a championship.

Argentina and Spain are playing for more than the World Cup trophy on Sunday. They’re playing for rings as well. For the first time, FIFA is awarding rings to commemorate a championship. Title-winning teams receiving rings is a tradition in North American sports that dates back to the late 19th century, but something that isn’t commonplace in other parts of the world. With this final in the U.S., the move by FIFA seems to be a nod to that tradition. Players on the World Cup-winning team will get gold medals, as usual, and the captain and coach of the winning team will get temporary rings as well shortly after the title match. Eventually, the winning team will get 30 customized rings. The World Cup trophy will be on one side, while the other side will be created “to reflect the identity of the winning team,” FIFA said.

Only 2,026 rings — a nod to the year — will be made, and each will be individually numbered, custom-fitted and delivered with its own certificate of authenticity. The 1,996 rings that will not go to the winning team will be on sale to the public.

FIFA has not said how much those rings will cost.

The tradition of championship rings is believed to go back to at least 1893 when the Montreal Hockey Club was awarded the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, the precursor to what is now called the Stanley Cup. That team also commissioned simple bands with tiny hockey sticks attached at the top.

Major League Baseball teams began giving out championship rings in the 1920s, while NBA champions have received them basically since that league’s inception in the late 1940s and NFL teams have gotten them throughout the entirety of the Super Bowl era that dates to the 1960s.

Source: https://sports.ndtv.com/fifa-world-cup-2026/first-time-in-96-years-fifa-world-cup-2026-champions-to-receive-special-prize-11786671?pfrom=home-ndtv_fifa

The proposed deployment comes as US weighs a broader campaign targeting critical infrastructure and nuclear-linked facilities inside Iran.

The United States is preparing to send dozens of additional aerial refuelling aircraft to Israel as President Donald Trump considers a significant expansion of military operations against Iran, Axios reported.

The proposed deployment comes after Trump was presented with several new military plans during a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday. The options under consideration could widen the campaign beyond the current US strikes around the Strait of Hormuz and target critical infrastructure and nuclear-linked facilities inside Iran.

Trump has not taken a final decision, but US and Israeli officials told Axios that he could order an escalation in the coming days.

US Weighs Wider Strikes Inside Iran

Among the options being considered are attacks on Iranian power plants and further strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities, aimed at burying its enriched uranium stockpile even deeper and making it more difficult to access.

Another possible target is the underground Pickaxe Mountain site, which is suspected of being a facility under construction.

According to Axios, Trump appears willing to inflict enough damage on Iran to force it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and accept his demands over its nuclear programme.

Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has been consulting Vice President JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine as he weighs his next move.

Dozens More Refuelling Aircraft Expected

The US currently has around 30 military refuelling aircraft stationed at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv and roughly the same number at Ramon Airport in southern Israel.

Israeli officials told Axios that Washington wants to deploy several dozen more aircraft in the coming days, restoring the fleet to approximately the level maintained at the beginning of the conflict.

Aerial refuelling aircraft allow fighter jets and bombers to remain airborne for longer and sustain operations over greater distances, making them important for any prolonged campaign against targets inside Iran.

The Trump administration has asked the Israeli government to accommodate the additional aircraft, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to take the final decision on the request.

US military officials prefer operating the aircraft from Ben Gurion Airport because other bases in the region are considered more exposed to potential Iranian attacks, Israeli officials said.

US Targets Bridges Near Bandar Abbas

The planned deployment comes as US strikes against Iranian targets in and around the Strait of Hormuz entered a seventh consecutive day on Saturday.

US forces bombed at least seven bridges around Bandar Abbas, a port city that serves as a major hub for Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operations in the strait, according to a US official cited by Axios.

The official said ammunition, supplies and reinforcements are transported through Bandar Abbas to other parts of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran, meanwhile, has stepped up attacks targeting US military installations in Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/countdown-to-a-bigger-war-iran-warns-of-zero-hour-us-readies-aircraft-deployment-to-israel-ws-l-10219388.html

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that three people were killed and eight others wounded in the southern province of Hormozgan following US attacks.

The United States and Iran on Saturday exchanged fresh attacks for a seventh consecutive night, with Tehran claiming US strikes killed three people in southern Iran while its forces retaliated by targeting American military sites in Kuwait and Jordan, further widening the Middle East conflict.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that three people were killed and eight others wounded in the southern province of Hormozgan following US attacks.

At the same time, Iran’s army said it had launched strikes on US military targets in Kuwait and Jordan in response to the American offensive.

According to Iranian state media, the attacks in Kuwait targeted an ammunition depot at the Al-Adiri camp, headquarters buildings and ammunition depots at the Ali Al-Salem base, as well as several communication bridges. In Jordan, Iranian forces reportedly struck fuel tanks at the Al-Azraq base.

The latest escalation came as US Central Command said its forces were carrying out attacks intended to “continue degrading Iranian military capabilities,” according to a statement shared on X.

Iran accused the United States of broadening its campaign by striking civilian infrastructure, including an airport, a railway station and two bridges. While US President Donald Trump had previously threatened to target Iranian infrastructure, Washington has not officially confirmed attacks on such civilian sites.

Oil Tankers Explode After Hitting Mines In Hormuz
Adding to the tensions, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said two oil tankers exploded after hitting mines in the Strait of Hormuz, alleging they had been directed by “deceptive American intelligence agencies.” The US military denied the accusation.

The Guards also claimed they had “stopped” four ships attempting to transit the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil shipping route that has become a flashpoint since the conflict reignited.

‘No Political Border Will Be Safe’
Major General Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, warned that Tehran would resume “full-scale offensive operations” if US attacks continued for another two or three days.

“Iran will no longer limit itself to retaliatory, like-for-like responses…and no political border will be safe,” Rezaei was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency IRIB.

The current war began on February 28 after deadly US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Tehran responded by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz and launching attacks on Israel and American interests across the Gulf.

The conflict has also affected neighbouring countries. Kuwait said an Iranian strike damaged a power and water facility, while its military reported several soldiers were wounded in drone attacks on military bases.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/three-killed-as-us-pounds-iran-for-7th-straight-night-tehran-warns-no-border-safe-10219384.html

During his address, Trump recalled the moment US forward Folarin Balogun was shown a red card and said he personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to register a complaint.

US President Donald Trump on Friday hailed the FIFA World Cup 2026 as “a tournament like no other”, praising the competition for its intensity and memorable moments while speaking at an official FIFA reception at Trump Tower ahead of Sunday’s final.

During his address, Trump recalled the moment US forward Folarin Balogun was shown a red card and said he personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to register a complaint. He added that the situation ultimately ended without controversy.

“This (FIFA World Cup 2026) has been a tournament like no other, filled with fierce competition and unforgettable moments. The most unforgettable was when they gave that gentleman (US forward Folarin Balogun) a red card. I was forced to call FIFA President Gianni Infantino and just make a recommendation. I said, I’d like to wage a complaint. I had no idea what was going to happen. But, know, so much better the way it worked out because there’s no controversy. They won the game, and our team had all of its players. You made another great decision,” Trump said ahead of the final scheduled for Sunday (local time).

Balogun had originally received a one-match suspension after being sent off in the United States’ Round of 32 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, following interventions by Trump and US Soccer’s legal team, FIFA overturned the red card under Article 27 of its disciplinary code, allowing the striker to play in the Round of 16 against Belgium. The United States lost that match 4-1, ending its World Cup campaign.

Spain Vs Argentina
Looking ahead to the final, defending champions Argentina will take on European champions Spain in a blockbuster showdown featuring Lionel Messi and teenage star Lamine Yamal.

Trump also joked that the United States should host another FIFA World Cup without its co-hosts, Mexico and Canada. Standing alongside Infantino, he also laughed about the FIFA chief’s suggestion of a future tournament jointly hosted by the US and China, joking about the long travel involved.

“What we should do is, you should choose the United States of America again, this time we’ll leave Mexico and Canada out. But then what you do is you – which I was very nice to get them in – but what we do is, you leave – you choose us, but you pick somebody else for the next one, and that would take some of the anger, hatred, and steam out of everyone. But Gianni also had another idea; he said we could do it in China and the United States next time. We do them in China and the United States, so you have a nice short flight in between games, you know. The players would love that,” Trump said.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/trump-hails-fifa-2026-as-tournament-like-no-other-jokes-about-hosting-future-world-cup-ws-kl-10219378.html

The External Affairs Ministry said it takes up issues related to genuine travellers, including students, whenever they face challenges.

India on Friday said it is engaging with US authorities to address concerns and minimise difficulties faced by Indian students and visitors following changes to American visa rules.

The External Affairs Ministry said it takes up issues related to genuine travellers, including students, whenever they face challenges.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said visa and immigration policies are sovereign matters of individual countries.

“We’ve seen some reports regarding the visa rules. Visa rules and visa functions and immigration matters are sovereign functions of any state,” he said at a media briefing.

Raised issues with US
However, Jaiswal added that India continues to raise concerns with the US side when Indian nationals require support.

“But having said that, let me tell you that as and when there are issues of difficulties, which are brought to our attention, in regard to genuine travellers [and] students, among others, who seek support from the US, we take up those issues with the US side so as to minimise the difficulties that our people face,” he said.

The comments came after the US Department of Homeland Security announced changes that introduce fixed stay periods for foreign students, exchange visitors and journalists.

The new visa rules for foreign students, exchange visitors and journalists effectively ended a decades-old policy that allowed them to remain in the country indefinitely without government oversight.

The new regulations establish a fixed period of admission for nonimmigrant visa holders in F, J, and I classifications, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Thursday.

The F category visas are for students, the J category for exchange visitors, and the I category is for journalists.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/taken-up-issues-india-engages-us-over-new-visa-rules-affecting-students-visitors-ws-l-10219347.html

Andy Burnham, nicknamed the “King of the North”, was elected leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party on Friday, the final step ​before becoming its seventh prime minister in a decade on a pledge to thwart the rise of the populist Reform UK.

Burnham, who earned the ‌regal moniker for his determination as mayor of Greater Manchester to defend the region’s interests, told a special conference on Friday he was ready for power and would work to offer hope to people in “forgotten places everywhere”.

Warning that it was Labour’s last chance to turn its fortunes around, the 56-year-old promised to spread power away from Westminster, the heart of British politics, to the nation’s regions and preside over ​a united team to deliver the change the country was “crying out for”.

“We are united and we put the power that comes from that unity at ​the service of people and places who have been waiting too long for politics to let them hope again,” he told a ⁠room full of Labour lawmakers and party officials.

“And that’s what we’re going to do, everybody, we’re going to give them hope back.”

He also paid tribute to Keir Starmer, the ​man he will replace as prime minister on Monday, when the party will be eager to find out his cabinet team and learn more about his approach to government.

BURNHAM’S BIG ‘REBALANCING ​OF POWER’

Despite repeating his offer to hand power to regions and to be decidedly pro-business, there is still much to know about Burnham’s policy priorities.

Burnham said he had not yet decided on his top team of ministers but would make sure it “reflects all parts of our party, all communities”, listing five priorities, largely targeted at party unity and being a leader for all parts of Britain.

In his ​message, delivered after a contest in which he was unopposed, he did little to elaborate on the plans set out in the one speech he had given since returning ​to parliament last month after winning a seat in Makerfield, the start of a process to replace Starmer.

In it, he sketched out some of his domestic agenda, saying he wanted to oversee ‌the “biggest rebalancing ⁠of power” to Britain’s regions — something he believes will reduce inequality and the anger felt by neglected communities who have increasingly flocked to Reform UK and, in some cases, to the leftist Green Party.

On Friday, he said Labour could fight the threat from both of those parties not by trying to “out-Green the Greens or out-Reform Reform” but instead being “boldly, confidently, authentically us — Labour”.

Veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK won seven seats at the last election, called Burnham’s speech “utterly vacuous” as he addressed “CPAC Great Britain”, a gathering of conservative politicians ​and activists.

Farage, who has resigned his own seat ​amid parliamentary investigations of his finances, ⁠and hopes winning it back will strengthen his position, said Burnham was coming into office “with absolutely no mandate of any kind at all”.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/andy-burnham-be-made-uk-labour-leader-way-becoming-prime-minister-2026-07-16

President Donald Trump has ramped up U.S. air strikes on Iran and threatened broader escalation, but there is little sign that a military strategy that has already failed to extract concessions from Tehran will succeed this time.

With ​the collapse of an interim ceasefire deal reached a month ago, Trump finds himself in a bind as he seeks to break Iran’s grip on the vital Strait of Hormuz and force Tehran ‌to accept his demands.

While the two sides have so far avoided a return to full-scale conflict, hopes of finding an off-ramp anytime soon have faded in a crisis that has again driven up global oil prices and sent shockwaves through financial markets.

A wave of tit-for-tat attacks continued into a sixth day on Thursday while Iran signaled it could prod its Houthi allies in Yemen to close another key oil-shipping strait — the Bab al-Mandeb at the mouth of the Red Sea – if Washington hits Iran’s power infrastructure as Trump has threatened.

Signaling increased frustration, Trump has discussed ​with aides, and in some cases spoken publicly, about possibly expanding targets to include energy plants and bridges, sending ground forces to seize Iran’s Kharg Island oil hub and bombing a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe ​Mountain.

Some of these options may be unrealistic due to the high risks and potential for domestic and geopolitical blowback. He has issued similar threats before only to back down.

But ⁠most analysts agree that a major U.S. escalation – short of a dangerous and politically untenable ground invasion to oust Iran’s rulers – would have little chance of being any more effective in forcing Iran to change course than earlier phases of ​the 4-1/2-month-old war in which U.S.-Israeli strikes killed senior leaders and heavily damaged military capabilities.

“There’s no reason to believe that this latest set of attacks or whatever the president has in mind will compel the Iranians to change their thinking,” said ​Jonathan Panikoff, a former deputy U.S. intelligence officer for the Middle East now at the Atlantic Council think tank. “It’s perhaps more likely to harden their position.”

A senior Trump administration official, responding to Reuters’ questions, said the president’s preference is for diplomacy but “the only language that Iran understands is military might” and the U.S. will continue to hold it accountable for “terrorist acts” in the strait.

INTERIM DEAL UNRAVELS

The unraveling of the deal comes as Trump faces pressure to end a war that has killed thousands, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, inflicted economic pain at ​home and driven down his approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Negotiations meant to turn the interim accord into a permanent peace deal have stalled, though there have been hints of diplomatic movement. Trump hailed what he described as the release ​of a U.S. citizen detained in Iran, though Iran’s judiciary denied any prisoner had been freed or exchanged.

Trump may be hoping he can bomb Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear program, which he set as his main war objective. But at ‌the root of ⁠the latest hostilities are differing interpretations of what the preliminary deal means for control of the strait, where Iran showed during the war it could choke off one-fifth of the world’s oil shipments.

Iran sees itself having a role in managing the waterway, possibly charging fees or tolls, while the U.S. and its Gulf allies insist on a return to free passage. Most experts see little indication Tehran will make concessions Trump is seeking.

Tehran’s resumption of attacks on shipping in recent days – which the White House on Thursday called a violation of the interim accord – triggered the latest U.S. response, including reinstatement of a blockade of Iranian ports.

Washington also revoked a waiver allowing Iran to sell oil internationally, undoing one of its gains under the interim ​agreement.
Three U.S. officials told Reuters the wave of U.S. ​strikes could serve as “shaping operations”, giving Trump more options ⁠by targeting Iranian military capabilities that the U.S. would want destroyed before taking bigger steps.

Iran has responded by signaling its readiness to widen the war, warning that it could hit the civilian facilities of U.S. Gulf allies if Trump escalates further. It retains significant missile and drone arsenals.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-threatens-new-iran-escalation-risks-repeating-old-mistakes-2026-07-16

The Philippines has condemned the “dehumanising and racist” portrayal of the country as a timid monkey strong-armed by the US and Japan to take Beijing on over the South China Sea.

Last week, China Daily posted an AI-generated video featuring a monkey in a Filipino shirt. It screams as arms bearing the Japanese and US flags shove it onto a rickety karaoke stage set up in a boat.

After it gets scolded for singing the wrong song, it pulls out a sheet reading “South China Sea arbitration award”. It is then flung into the sea and blasted by a water cannon.

Tense stand-offs and occasional violent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed waters have grown in recent years.

At the centre of tensions between Manila and Beijing are the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China), a little more than 100 miles (160km) from the Philippines and 500 miles from China.

The Chinese Coast Guard routinely uses high-pressure water cannons against Philippine vessels in the disputed shoals, which have led to damage and injuries.

“Disagreement over legal and political issues does not justify resorting to disturbing imagery, which has no place in the civil public discourse of a responsible state,” Manila’s foreign ministry said, demanding that the clip be removed.

“Such imagery and misinformation only serve to widen the distrust between the Philippines and China,” it added.

The Philippine defence ministry called the video “contemptible propaganda”, saying it “exposes the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of China’s propaganda machine”.

“The recent spate of schizophrenic behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party is too clear to disregard or ignore,” defence secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.

The video, posted on 10 July, remains on China Daily’s Facebook page at time of writing.

The past week marks a decade since the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favour of the Philippines, concluding that China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis under international law.

Beijing has ignored the ruling, saying the tribunal lacks jurisdiction.

Tensions between Beijing and Manila have sharply escalated in recent years due to their overlapping claims, with each side accusing the other of provocations and altercations at sea, including some involving weapons such as swords, spears and knives.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj632307934o

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise move to replace popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has caused an outburst of anger from civil society and protests from MPs.

A crowd of mostly young people gathered in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Thursday morning, holding up signs reading “Hands off Fedorov” and “Stop sabotaging victory!” and chanting “Shame!”.

By evening, Zelensky had put forward the name of Maj-Gen Yevhenii Khmara, the acting head of the Security Service (SBU), as acting defence minister.

“Khmara has gained extensive and, in many respects, unprecedented experience with technological combat operations,” Zelensky said.

Initial rumours that the end of Fedorov’s tenure was related to tensions between him and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi were all but confirmed by Fedorov himself and Zelensky.

On Thursday, Fedorov revealed he had suggested to Zelensky that Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov should be replaced.

Zelensky, speaking at a press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, acknowledged that the conflict between the General Staff and the defence ministry had been “systemic” and occurred “at various levels”, and that Syrskyi and Fedorov would only work together with his mediation.

“When the president said he did not plan to replace Syrskyi, I… said I would learn to work with him,” Fedorov said at his own press conference. But “all the initiatives we proposed were blocked,” he added.

“Instead of finding a way of defeating Russia asymmetrically – which is the commander-in-chief’s job – he’s found a way of splitting our country,” Fedorov said of Syrskyi.

In a curt message, Syrskyi wrote on Telegram that he was “proud” of the defence operation that was mounted around Kyiv in 2022 when Russian troops were closing in and said he would continue to “focus on the war and on an effective strategy”, before wishing Fedorov “continued success”.

Fedorov, 35, was appointed only in January but has been credited with energising the ministry, heading a drive against corruption and using data to analyse and try to improve performance on the front line.

MPs were due to vote on Thursday on the proposed replacement as defence minister, Ihor Klymenko, who currently heads the interior ministry – but Zelensky said his was only one of the names being considered and that no official proposal had been submitted yet.

As part of Zelensky’s reshuffle, parliament approved the appointment of state oil and gas boss Serhiy Koretsky as prime minister, after Yuliia Svyrydenko resigned earlier this week.

Fedorov also revealed that Zelensky offered him to stay on his team as an adviser, but that he refused.

He was not seeking to antagonise the president, he explained, saying he was “confident” that Zelensky “hears the Ukrainian people, knows what to do, and the situation will be 100% resolved”.

“I don’t believe he has yet chosen a side in the Syrskyi matter. I spoke with him today and said that I am acting according to my conscience,” he said.

“This is the worst mistake Zelensky has made during his entire presidency,” Oleksandr, a Ukrainian soldier, told the BBC.

He had signed up to the army earlier this year because he trusted Fedorov’s team and vision, he said: “I don’t know anyone who supports the decision to replace him. Not within the army, not in society.”

“I have lots of friends in the military. Lots of them died. I don’t want this to go on,” Maria Lavrynets, 31, told the BBC at a protest in Ivan Franko square in central Kyiv. “We see [Fedorov’s] results. We see the motivation of the soldiers, we should stand for them.”

“People wanted to come out, and that’s right. I understand, I hear, and I even react to what society is saying,” Zelensky said when asked to comment on the protests.

When he was brought in, Fedorov set off to restructure the defence ministry, which many in Ukraine see as too bogged down in bureaucracy and old Soviet-era attitudes.

A former minister of digital transformation, he was active from the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 in setting up a volunteer “IT Army of Ukraine” to launch cyber-attacks against Russians.

Later, he led a successful fundraising campaign called the Army of Drones and brought in elements of “gamification” to the war, designing a system that awarded Ukrainian military units with credits for hitting Russian assets.

Fedorov’s focus on drones, high-tech warfare and procurement continued after he became defence minister.

In the early days of his tenure he also asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to stop Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks – a move that caused considerable disruption to Russia’s frontline operations and advance.

His ministry also played a significant part in Ukraine’s recent attacks on the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula, which last month Fedorov vowed to “cut off” from Russia entirely, with the use of mid-range drone strikes.

In a Facebook post shortly after his dismissal, Fedorov listed his achievements and said he would “continue… to defeat the enemy through asymmetry, speed of innovation, and organisational strength”.

Prominent blogger Serhii Sternenko, whom Fedorov brought in as an adviser, hailed his former boss as “the best minister of defence in our entire history” and bemoaned the “bureaucratic obstacles and artificial delays” he said had stood in the way of deeper reform.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx76069n3do

US fast-food chain Taco Bell is removing lettuce from its menu in some states after investigations found it could be linked to an outbreak of explosive diarrhoea caused by a parasite.

The decision was taken “out of an abundance of caution” following discussions with health officials, Taco Bell told the BBC.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 1,645 people in five states that reported “exposure” to Taco Bell have been infected by cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that spreads through contaminated food or water.

“Do not eat food items with shredded iceberg lettuce from Mexico served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia,” the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

No deaths have been reported but 94 people have been hospitalised due to cyclosporiasis infections, which were first detected on 13 May, the FDA added.

The company said lettuce from one of its suppliers is being removed indefinitely and will be replaced.

“While no official advisory has been issued, we believe public health is a shared responsibility among restaurants, their suppliers, and authorities,” the restaurant said.

It did not identify in which states lettuce will be removed from menus, but most of the infections have been reported in Michigan where more than 3,300 cases have been detected.

Taco Bell did not identify where the lettuce reportedly linked to the outbreak had come from, but US media have named the supplier as Taylor Farms. The BBC has contacted the company about the reports.

Symptoms of infections by cyclosporiasis can take about two weeks to present.

Watery diarrhoea that lasts for days, sudden weight loss, and a loss of appetite are some of the more common symptoms.

Experts have told the BBC the parasite is notoriously difficult to trace, a task possibly complicated in part by cuts to federal health agencies.

“This isn’t like detecting a needle in a haystack. It’s like detecting a microscopic portion of a needle in a haystack,” said Steven Manderach, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2gnglyv0jo

More than 800 wildfires are burning across Canada, with air quality alerts now extending south into multiple US states.

A thick blanket of smoke clouded skylines from Detroit and Toronto to New York and across New England, causing “hazardous” air quality alerts across much of the region.

Many outdoor events were cancelled as officials urged for people to stay indoors, stressing the dangerous health ramifications of inhaling the fumes.

In Canada, one fire in northern Ontario forced residents from local First Nations to evacuate, with one chief saying that her community has been “burnt to ashes”.

Hazardous air quality alerts have been issued in cities, including Chicago and Grand Rapids in Michigan, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and Toledo in Ohio, according to the US Air Quality Index program.

Many outdoor activities were cancelled on Thursday, including events for children’s summer camps, and beaches were shuttered along popular lakes. An outdoor concert for the rock group The Black Keys was being rescheduled in Chicago due to the dangerous air quality.

There are currently 858 fires actively burning in Canada, including 30 new fires that sparked on Thursday, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. The vast majority are burning out of control.

The large cluster of fires affecting northwestern areas of Ontario are responsible for sending thick plumes of smoke and poor air quality across Thunder Bay and Toronto, with lower concentrations of smoke high in the atmosphere drifting over the Great Lakes and above New York with hazy skies.

The far-reaching impacts of wildfire smoke – and how to protect yourself
“We’re in a very serious health situation right now,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in an announcement on Thursday. She noted thick smoke was “blanketing” much of the state, making it “very unhealthy to be outdoors” in many areas.

“This is bad news for every New Yorker,” she said. “There will be great impacts.”

In western regions of New York state, the air quality on Thursday is considered “very unhealthy”, while in the New York City metro area the air quality is “unhealthy”. Many across the city – the most populous across the US – were wearing masks over their mouths and nose hoping to protect themselves.

A thick haze of smoke blocked views across the city of sights including the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

New York has extended its heat emergency plans and activated its air quality emergency protocols – with hundreds of cooling centres and KN95 masks being made available citywide.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0m7n427xd8o

For far too long our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot — a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left.

Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy. It’s treated this way by many in the press, by many in academia and our universities, and by many of our legacy institutions. You will no doubt see the dogma rear its head in the coverage of this very conference.

In spite of the clear and the undeniable reality, in spite of the objective numbers and statistics, in spite of the fact that in this room today there are representatives from across the political spectrum, we will hear this organized — that this kind of organized violence and terror will be dismissed. It will be dismissed as a partisan fiction.

A whole industry grew up in our countries around the study of extremism. We have think tanks and fellowships and journals and consultancies, with the unspoken understanding among them that the only kind of political violence that was a true threat to our system — I’m sorry — that only one kind of political violence was a true threat to the system.

A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was a nefarious and murderous act of evil. It is.

But a bomb planted by a Marxist revolutionary — well, that’s just merely a tragic excess of idealism. Perhaps its means were misplaced or overzealous, but its ends were virtuous and just. That’s the implication of how they treat it.

Ideological prejudice

For years, this extraordinary ideological prejudice was embedded in the way we talked about political violence and extremism. It was repeated again and again, until it was accepted as the neutral and objective baseline, so entrenched in the mainstream conventional wisdom that it came to be regarded as an apolitical fact.

It is the reason why, here in my country, so many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression so long as they served a left-wing cause.

It is why during those so-called George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020, as criminals and extremists burned and looted their way through America’s great cities and nearly brought the country to its knees, city governments all across the country simply refused to prosecute the people conducting these acts of violence and terror.

It is the reason for the now infamous image of a news anchor from a very prominent agency standing in a neighborhood consumed in flames; meanwhile the chyron on the bottom read that the protests were mostly peaceful.

This was something worse than a double standard. Left-wing violence was not just excused; it was treated as sacrosanct, a protected class unto itself. That era has to end.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/07/16/opinion/marco-rubio-america-will-no-longer-ignore-the-threat-of-left-wing-violence

The heartbroken family of the grandmother killed after falling into a steaming, open manhole two months ago has filed a wrongful death suit against Con Edison for failing to secure the access point that also left her long-term boyfriend burned and bedridden.

Donike Gocaj’s family and partner filed the lawsuit against the utility company in New York Supreme Court on Thursday, alleging the utility company’s negligence led the Westchester woman to plunge into the uncovered, sweltering utility hole on May 18.

Gocaj, 56, had stepped out of her vehicle to meet up with her boyfriend, Jashar “Jack” Kameraj, between work shifts that night when she plummeted into the manhole near East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, family attorney Howard Hershenhorn told The Post.

The hardworking mother screamed, “I’m dying, I’m dying,” as Kameraj tried to get down into the manhole to retrieve her, and terrified bystanders ran up and down the street in search of a ladder to pull her to safety.

But Gocaj eventually succumbed to horrific scald burns, inhalation thermal injuries, and blunt force trauma as she remained trapped.

Kameraj also suffered devastating inhalation thermal injuries and burns while trying to save Gocaj, leaving him now bedridden, according to the lawsuit filed by the firm Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman, and Mackauf.

“It was a frantic scene, right there with everybody trying to save her because they could see her through the hole. They could hear her through the hole, but they could not help her,” Hershenhorn said.

“And Jack … she was really his family, and she was the closest person to him, and they would see each other all the time, every day, and they were extremely close,” he added.

Gocaj’s family now claims that ConEd endangered Gocaj, Kameraj, and scores of New Yorkers by not implementing proper safety measures to prevent manhole covers from dislodging.

The company knew that its manhole covers, including the one Gocaj fell into, could “become dislodged and displaced by, among other things, vehicle traffic and/or heavy vehicles,” the filing alleged.

A representative for ConEd previously told The Post that a passing truck appeared to have dislodged the utility hole’s cover less than 15 minutes before Gocaj arrived Monday night and parked along the avenue.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/07/16/us-news/family-of-grandmother-who-was-killed-falling-into-open-nyc-manhole-files-wrongful-death-suit-against-coned/

Top officials in the Trump administration, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, defended the US Navy’s Blue Angels after a jet performed an unusually low-altitude flyby over a crowd at Pensacola Beach, Florida, sending sand, chairs and umbrellas flying.

Top Trump administration officials rallied to the defence of the US Navy’s Blue Angels on Thursday, backing a controversial low-altitude flyby that scattered beach gear and sent sand flying into a crowd of spectators. Even as the Navy launched a safety review into the incident, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Pentagon leaders dismissed calls for disciplinary action, with the administration portraying the manoeuvre as a patriotic display of “freedom”.

Video footage online showed a jet from the famed flight demonstration squadron flying close above a crowd at Pensacola Beach, Florida, sending sand and beach items flying during an airshow celebrating the squadron’s 80th anniversary and the United States’ 250th anniversary.

The Blue Angels, in a statement, said the incident on Wednesday was under review. Current and former officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said video of the incident raised safety concerns but they did not want to prejudge any formal investigation without more information.

Hegseth came out in support of the pilots.

“The flyovers will continue until moral improves,” Hegseth said on X, in a play on words that appeared to reference a saying attributed by some to a British captain about beatings continuing until morale improves.

Later on Thursday, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said a “flight debrief” had been completed and there would be no reprimands.

“That’s the sound of Freedom!” he added.

Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, also defended the flyby on social media, criticizing what he called the “manufactured outrage” of the mainstream media and saying the display was “undoubtedly the highlight” of the beachgoers’ day.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/thats-the-sound-of-freedom-trump-allies-defend-blue-angels-beach-flyby-11782451?pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

Iran has installed a giant billboard in Tehran showing Donald Trump lying in an open coffin. It comes amid calls from Iranian hardliners to avenge Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and anger over the Minab school strike.

Amid an escalating wave of attacks, Iran has installed a gigantic billboard depicting US President Donald Trump lying in an open black coffin at its main Enghelab Square. The mural, which shows Trump lying with his eyes closed and his hair dishevelled, carried a chilling text – ‘We kill Trump’. The installation comes days after Trump mentioned the possibility of an assassination attempt by Iran.

The development comes at a time when Iranian hardliners close to the government have called for avenging the killing of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The pent-up anger against the US was witnessed during the week-long funeral ceremonies of Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the conflict. Chants of ‘death to America’ and massive ‘Kill Trump’ posters flooded Iranian cities during the ceremonies.

ESCALATING THREATS AGAINST TRUMP

The gigantic billboard with Trump lying in a coffin is being seen as an escalation of the rhetoric. A graffiti splattered beneath the installation reads “in memory of Minab’s children”. It is a reference to strikes on an elementary school in the Iranian city of Minab on the first day of the conflict, killing over 150 people, including 120 girls.

The threats against Trump have only grown louder following a rare statement by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has kept out of the public eye.

“We pledge that we will avenge your pure blood and the blood of all those martyred in these two wars from the criminal and disgraced killers,” Mojtaba said. “This revenge is the demand of our nation, and it must certainly be carried out,” he further said.

A section of Iranian hardliners, buoyed by the public support received during Ali Khamenei’s funeral, has also opposed diplomacy to broker a lasting peace deal with the US.

As of now, the ceasefire between the US and Iran appears to have entirely collapsed, with fears of a return to full-scale war. Over the past week, the US has targeted Iranian missile sites and coastal facilities and has also reimposed its naval blockade.

Iran responded by firing a barrage of missiles at US military bases in the Gulf, particularly in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iran-donald-trump-coffin-billboard-us-president-death-threat-2949269-2026-07-16

The IOM and UNHCR say two boats carrying mostly Rohingya passengers departed Rakhine State in late June.

Two boats carrying more than 500 people are feared to have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days, United Nations agencies have said.

According to preliminary information reported on Thursday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the two vessels departed from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers.

One boat, believed to have been carrying about 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. A second boat, reportedly carrying some 280 people, is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on July 8, they said.

“While the incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed, UNHCR and IOM are gravely concerned by the potentially devastating loss of life,” read the statement.

Before the latest incidents, more than 300 people had been killed or reported missing in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, it said. These included Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals, it added.

″While the incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed, UNHCR and IOM are gravely concerned by the potentially devastating loss of life,” the agencies said.

The Rohingya, who have in recent years fled both Myanmar and Bangladesh’s refugee camps by the thousands, typically avoid such boat journeys at this time of year, when monsoons are frequent, and conditions at sea are particularly dangerous. The UNHCR and IOM noted this in their statement, saying that recent torrential rain and flooding across the region would have made such journeys especially risky.

About 1.2 million stateless, predominantly Muslim Rohingya remain in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing waves of violence by Myanmar’s security forces. Steep cuts to foreign aid by the US and other countries have led to ration cuts in the camps.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/16/more-than-500-feared-dead-after-reports-of-boats-capsizing-off-myanmar

A purported Balochistan independence declaration has sparked debate. But what does it take for the region to become a recognised country under international law?

A purported letter issued in the name of the “Republic of Balochistan” has sparked fresh debate over Pakistan’s restive southwestern province, with claims that Baloch separatists have declared independence and taken control of large parts of the region.

However, the claims made in the document have not been independently verified. While Pakistan remains in control of the region, Baloch separatists claimed to seized 85% of the area.

The development has renewed global attention on the long-running Baloch separatist movement.

For any region seeking independence, declaring itself a country is only the first step. Gaining recognition as a sovereign state requires navigating a complex combination of legal requirements, political negotiations and international diplomacy.

So, if Balochistan were to seek independence, what would it take for it to become a recognised country?

Four Requirements For Balochistan Statehood

The most widely cited framework for determining statehood comes from the 1933 Montevideo Convention. Under this standard, an entity seeking to become a country must generally meet four conditions:

1. A permanent Population

A state must have a stable population living within its territory.

Balochistan has a long-established population with distinct cultural, ethnic and linguistic identities. However, any future independent state would also face questions over citizenship, minority rights and the inclusion of different communities living in the region.

2. A Defined Territory

A country must have a clearly identifiable territory that it controls.

This would be one of the biggest challenges for any Balochistan independence claim. The historical Baloch region extends across parts of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, while the largest and most politically significant portion lies within Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Any independence movement would need to establish control over a clearly defined territory and resolve questions over borders.

3. An Effective Government

A country needs a functioning government capable of maintaining law and order, running institutions, delivering public services and administering its territory.

For separatist movements, this is often among the biggest challenges. A declaration alone does not create a functioning state; the entity must demonstrate effective governance and stability.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/balochistan-independence-pakistan-process-independent-nation-10216663.html

In a devastating blow to Pakistan’s security apparatus, a highly coordinated ambush by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) in the Khadkocha area of Mastung has reportedly left more than 45 Pakistani soldiers dead. The assault, claimed by the BLA’s elite Fatah Squad, targeted a military convoy of troop transport buses, their dedicated security detail, and the subsequent reinforcements sent to salvage the situation. With clashes reportedly still ongoing in the region, this high-casualty encounter highlights the increasingly sophisticated lethality of the Baloch insurgency and exposes deep-seated tactical and strategic vulnerabilities within the Pakistani military’s operational model.

The Highway Trap: Predictable Routes in a Vast Landscape

The sheer geography of Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most sparsely populated province, presents a logistical nightmare for the military. To move troops across these vast, arid expanses, the armed forces are forced to rely on a highly limited network of primary highways.

This severe geographic constraint makes troop movements incredibly predictable. Insurgents can easily monitor these solitary transit corridors for days, identifying patterns and selecting the perfect geographic choke points to launch premeditated, devastating ambushes. By controlling the high ground along these isolated roads, the BLA is consistently able to dictate the terms of engagement before the first shot is even fired.

Soft Targets: The Cost of Under-Equipped Convoys

Compounding the predictability of these routes is a critical lack of appropriate defensive equipment. According to BLA statements, the Pakistani military frequently transports its personnel across active conflict zones in standard, soft-skinned passenger buses rather than specialised Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.

This reliance on civilian-style transport turns convoy movements into incredibly soft targets. Lacking heavily armoured hulls, these buses offer virtually no protection against command-detonated Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) or concentrated, heavy small-arms fire. When an escalation occurs, the lack of immediate physical protection inside these vehicles results in catastrophic initial casualty rates, leaving survivors highly vulnerable during the critical opening minutes of an ambush.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/the-mastung-ambush-blas-deadly-strike-killing-45-soldiers-exposes-pakistans-tactical-frailities-exclusive-details-10216958.html

Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to stand ready to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States strikes Iranian power infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a potent new threat ​to global energy supplies.

The idea has been discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership, and the message has been conveyed to Iran’s Houthi allies, two senior Iranian ‌sources and a regional source familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The sources said the Houthis had been informed recently of Tehran’s request, which has not been previously reported.

They did not give further details on how it had been conveyed or whether it was after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iranian power infrastructure on Tuesday.

Iran’s foreign ministry and a spokesperson for the Houthi group were not immediately available to respond to ​Reuters’ request.

HOUTHIS DEPLOY DRONES NEAR BAB EL-MANDEB, SAYS SOURCE

A source close to the Houthis said the group had completed preparations to attack shipping by deploying missiles and drones ​near Bab el-Mandeb strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, in Yemen’s highlands overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden and was awaiting the ⁠order to begin.

Any threat to the Red Sea and its Bab el-Mandeb gateway risks hugely exacerbating the global energy crisis triggered by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and underscores the explosive ​risks stemming from a new round of warfare.

With the Hormuz strait already shut, any Houthi attacks on vessels or ports in the Red Sea would leave the Middle East’s two main oil export ​routes disrupted simultaneously, opening a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran’s wider conflict with the United States.

Representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who are already in Yemen will control the decision on when to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait, said the source close to the Houthis.

In a sign of escalating tensions in the region, the Houthis 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 group.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-tells-houthis-close-red-sea-gateway-if-us-hits-power-network-sources-say-2026-07-16

Russian and Ukrainian attacks on civilian areas in towns and cities, many ​on the front line of the more than four-year-old ‌war, killed at least 13 people on Thursday, local officials said.

A Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed three people and wounded ​15, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

Reuters TV footage showed firefighters ​dousing the aftermath of blazes and crews sifting through ⁠the rubble of shattered buildings in the city, which has ​come under intensified attack in recent weeks.

Russian missiles struck ​the Black Sea port of Odesa, another frequent target of Moscow, killing two people, injuring six and damaging civilian infrastructure.

Outside the city of ​Kharkiv, near the Russian border, a Russian drone attack killed ​one person, the national emergency services said. Earlier in the day, a drone ‌attack ⁠near the city of Kupiansk, farther east, killed three people.

In Donetsk region, the focal point of most fighting along the 1,200 km (775-mile) front line, the regional governor said one person ​was killed and ​five injured ⁠near Kramatorsk, one of the “fortress towns” where Ukraine has bolstered defences.

On the other side of ​the border, local officials in Belgorod Region said ​one ⁠person had died when Ukrainian forces shelled a settlement near the border.

And the Moscow-installed head of areas of Donetsk region ⁠under Russian ​control, Denis Pushilin, said one person ​died in an area held by Russian forces.

Reuters could not independently verify ​accounts from either side.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-ukrainian-attacks-kill-least-13-officials-say-2026-07-16

Rajan will serve on the balance sheet policy task force to examine the costs, benefits, and institutional implications of the Federal Reserve’s current balance sheet regime, including its asset holdings and their role in implementing monetary policy.

The US Federal Reserve has roped in former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan, along with two other Indian-origin experts — Delhi-born American economist Raj Chetty and senior Microsoft executive Asha Sharma — to review its balance sheet as part of a sweeping reform program aimed at reshaping monetary policymaking after years of elevated inflation.

The appointments are part of the five task forces announced by the newly appointed US Federal Reserve chairman Kevin Warsh, which also include former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

“I am honoured that the best minds from a range of disciplines have agreed to work with us to sharpen our performance as an institution. The goal is straightforward: to ensure the Fed is best positioned to achieve our objectives in this consequential time,” Warsh said on Thursday.

What Will Raghuram Rajan Do For US

The Fed Chair did not elaborate specifically on Rajan’s role but said the task force is intended to inject fresh thinking into the Federal Reserve after more than five years of inflation running above the central bank’s target.

But, according to a PTI report, Rajan will serve on the balance sheet policy task force alongside Harvard economist Karen Dynan and former Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein. The panel will examine the costs, benefits, and institutional implications of the Federal Reserve’s current balance sheet regime, including its asset holdings and their role in implementing monetary policy.

“I reached out to 15 people who I have known and trusted with a diversity of views. It’s a move towards transparency and new ideas,” Warsh said.

He said the groups would examine five core areas of the Fed’s work: communications, balance sheet policy, the use of economic data, productivity and jobs, and the inflation framework.

“Our purpose here is to make better decisions in the conduct of monetary policy and put these years of high inflation behind us,” Warsh told senators.

Rajan, who served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 to 2016, is internationally recognised for his work on financial stability and monetary policy. Before leading India’s central bank, he was chief economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund and has remained an influential voice on global macroeconomic issues.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-ropes-in-ex-rbi-governor-raghuram-rajan-2-other-indians-for-key-fed-roles-11777737?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

IRGC has claimed it has intercepted and destroyed an “enemy” MQ-9 drone over the southwestern city of Andimeshk

The United States carried out a fresh round of airstrikes on Iran overnight and renewed a blockade of its ports, while Tehran targeted American allies in the Middle East as it vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed “until the US ends its aggression.” In Iran, explosions were heard in several locations, including Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Chabahar, Konarak, Rask City, Khondab, and the western city of Khorramabad, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

Explosions were also heard in Ahvaz, where Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that Shahid Baghaei Hospital was impacted by the American bombardment, damaging its child cancer treatment department. As a result, the hospital, which provides chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients, including children, had to be evacuated.

The American strikes also hit an Iranian army barracks, killing at least seven troops and wounding hundreds of people across the country, Iranian officials said. Overall, Tehran said at least 35 people have been killed, and more than 300 people have been injured in American strikes so far.

Air defence systems were also activated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, to “counter hostile threats,” state media reported. Earlier reports also cited blasts around southern sites including Qeshm and Bandar Imam Khomeini, while state media later said fresh US strikes hit Bushehr, home to Iran’s only civilian nuclear plant.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it targeted Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting the vital waterway. The US military also said one of its aircraft fired on and disabled an empty oil tanker that was trying to break the naval blockade of Iran’s ports.

Central Command said the Curacao-flagged M/T Belma was stopped after the aircraft fired Hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack. “The ship is no longer transiting to Iran,” it said on X.

Iran’s Response

In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said they targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, where air sirens rang out as attacks against civilian targets were intercepted, while Jordan’s armed forces said they had downed three missiles from the Islamic Republic.

IRGC also claimed it has intercepted and destroyed an “enemy” MQ-9 drone over the southwestern city of Andimeshk, according to the Tasnim news agency. The Iranian force said the aircraft was brought down by a new air defence system operated by its aerospace force.

In Iraq, Kurdish forces said the US-led coalition downed eight explosive-laden drones over Erbil, the capital of the northern Kurdistan region, where AFP journalists heard explosions and saw smoke near the US consulate. No casualties were reported.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-iran-war-tehran-downs-mq-9-drone-as-us-strikes-damage-childrens-cancer-hospital-in-iran-11777568

US president backs tactic despite agency announcing temporary pause after fatal shootings in Texas and Maine.

Just a day after his administration announced it was temporarily pausing most ICE traffic stops following two fatal shootings, President Donald Trump is urging United States immigration agents to keep using the tactic.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump praised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers for doing a “GREAT job” and argued that traffic stops remain one of the agency’s most effective tools as it carries out his mass deportation campaign.

“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.‘s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump wrote. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”

He also urged officers to be “judicious, fair and smart” as they “go back and do your very important job”.

The comments came a day after Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said ICE was temporarily suspending most traffic stops while it reviewed the practice after two deadly shootings within a week.

“It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” Homan told Fox News on Tuesday. “This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing.”

Homan said officers would continue making arrests using other tactics while the review was under way.

The review was prompted by the fatal shooting on Monday of 25-year-old Colombian national Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero during an ICE operation in Biddeford, Maine.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, initially told Maine Senator Angus King an officer fired after Duran Guerrero tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. Later, the department publicly said only that Duran Guerrero had tried to flee and an officer, “fearing for public safety”, opened fire.

Source : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/15/trump-urges-ice-to-keep-using-traffic-stops-after-deadly-incidents

The bill, a softened version of the Sanctioning Russia Act introduced in the Senate in April 2025.

A bipartisan group of US senators on Tuesday unveiled a new sanctions bill that proposes tariffs of up to 100% on exports from India, China, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan for purchasing Russian oil, in the latest effort to throttle Moscow’s energy revenues and force an end to the war in Ukraine.

The bill — a softened version of the Sanctioning Russia Act introduced in the Senate in April 2025, which proposed tariffs as high as 500% but failed to advance to a vote — could be passed before August, according to its backers. The US Trade Representative (USTR) would determine the exact tariff rate imposed on each country.

Threat and India’s increased purchase of Russian crude

The threat of renewed tariffs comes at a time when India’s purchases of Russian crude have surged — primarily because the disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran retaliated against US-Israeli military strikes choked off Gulf crude supplies that previously accounted for roughly 40% of India’s oil imports, forcing refiners to turn to Russian crude as the main alternative source.

Washington itself facilitated this pivot through a series of OFAC general licences — the last of which expired on June 17 — that temporarily waived sanctions on Russian oil transactions to stabilise global energy markets during the crisis.

Indian imports of Russian crude oil rose 34% in June 2026 to record levels, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, and were valued at €4.5 billion, accounting for roughly 36% of Russia’s crude oil export revenues. India was the second largest buyer behind China.

The new bill also lands at a time both sides are engaged in trade talks. A framework in February had settled on an 18% rate for Indian goods, but that arrangement was overtaken when the Supreme Court ruled later the same month that President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers under IEEPA to impose tariffs was unlawful. Indian goods currently enter the US under a flat 15% tariff imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — a temporary authority due to expire on July 24, with the broader bilateral trade agreement between the two countries still unfinished.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-senators-propose-tariffs-up-to-100-on-top-russian-oil-buyers-101784141132501.html

Like every Iraqi prime minister over the past two decades, Zaidi faces the difficult task of maintaining ties with both the United States and Iran.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi attended the funeral procession of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes, last week. Just days later, he was in Washington on Tuesday, shaking hands with Donald Trump as the US president praised the “tremendous chemistry” between them.

Zaidi’s visit took place as military tensions between the US and Iran, Iraq’s two key allies, continue to rise. Follow live updates related to US-Iran war here.

Friend or foe? Zaidi’s balance in focus amid US-Iran war
For years, the rivalry between Washington and Tehran has made Iraq a stage for proxy conflict, forcing one government after another to carefully manage relations with both sides.

Last week, Iraq’s holy cities, which are home to some of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines, witnessed huge funeral processions for Ali Khamenei, who died in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran in February.

As Khamenei’s coffin reached Najaf International Airport in Iraq, Zaidi and other senior government officials and religious leaders attended an official reception.

Only a few days later, he travelled to the US for talks with Trump, Iran’s long-time rival, who has repeatedly been the target of assassination threats and calls for revenge from Tehran, including during Khamenei’s funeral processions.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/friend-or-foe-a-week-after-honouring-iran-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-iraqi-pm-ali-al-zaidi-shakes-hand-with-trump-101784169039053.html

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to outline an ambitious vision for China’s role in ​global AI governance at a forum on Friday, as Huawei showcases its most advanced AI computing cluster yet in a sign of ‌Beijing’s drive to build a domestic alternative to U.S. technology.

Xi’s attendance at the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) for the first time underscores Beijing’s view of AI as both a driver of economic growth and a strategic technology in global competition.

Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPoD large-scale AI computing system will make its public debut during the July 17 to 20 ​forum in Shanghai. The launch is one of the clearest demonstrations yet of China’s efforts to assemble such systems without U.S. giant Nvidia’s (NVDA.O), opens new tab ​most advanced chips.

Designed for large-scale AI training and inference, the system links thousands of Huawei’s Ascend AI processors through high-speed ⁠interconnects so they operate as a single computing cluster.

DeepSeek’s latest V4 model has been adapted to run entirely on clusters built using Huawei’s Ascend chips, highlighting ​progress by Chinese firms in building AI ecosystems independent of U.S. technology. Domestic media reported that Chinese chipmakers including Biren and MetaX would also release new “supernode” ​computing clusters.

AI GOVERNANCE

The gathering comes as Washington and Beijing prepare for their first government-level AI talks under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, turning WAIC from a technology showcase into an early test of how China intends to compete for influence over the rules governing AI worldwide.

The two rivals set out competing visions for AI governance at a UN AI ​dialogue last week, where Washington argued that sweeping regulation would stifle tech breakthroughs and Beijing framed its low-cost, open-source AI models as a public good ​that would bridge global AI inequality.

“Against this backdrop, WAIC has become more than a technology showcase; it is now a geopolitical stage where Beijing seeks to articulate its vision ‌of AI ⁠as both a national priority and a diplomatic instrument,” wrote George Chen, chair of digital practice at the Asia Group.

In a January speech, Xi compared AI to an “epoch-making, major technological transformation following the steam engine,” and Beijing has explicitly bet future growth on diffusing AI throughout its economy and achieving self-sufficiency in frontier technologies.

China proposed the creation of a World AI Cooperation Organisation (WAICO) at last year’s conference but no countries have formally announced membership.

The conference coincides with a ​High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in ​Shanghai, where progress on WAICO ⁠and implementing the Global AI Governance Initiative are expected to be announced.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-outline-ai-diplomacy-vision-key-shanghai-forum-2026-07-16

The U.S. launched two waves of attacks on Iran’s coastal defenses and missile sites on Wednesday after reimposing ​a naval blockade of its ports, while Iran struck back by targeting U.S. military sites in neighboring countries in what it called an “existential war” with America.

The latest escalation comes days after a ‌fragile truce collapsed, raising the specter of a return to full-scale war, with Iran once again threatening to shut off more regional energy exports.

Hostilities have intensified since Iran said late on Saturday it had closed the Strait of Hormuz. Military operations are also keeping ships from transiting the vital artery, which carried about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments before the war. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, closed at a one-month high of $84.95 a barrel on Wednesday.

U.S. Central Command said the military had attacked coastal defense ​systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Iran’s Greater Tunb Island starting around 6:00 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT), then launched a second wave of strikes against multiple cities nine hours later.

“U.S. forces struck ​Iranian command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities,” it said in a statement, adding it also hit targets in Bandar Abbas, ⁠home to Iran’s largest port and key navy and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards facilities on the Strait of Hormuz.

“Earlier this morning, American forces struck coastal defense and cruise missile sites on Greater Tunb Island during a 90-minute wave,” ​the U.S. military added.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday it had struck U.S. military targets in the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. The Guards said they targeted a gathering for U.S. military personnel and ​a radar system at Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait with a missile and drone attack.

Three U.S. officials told Reuters that U.S. strikes aimed at forcing open the strait are also targeting Iranian military capabilities the U.S. would want to destroy before executing more complex operations.

The U.S. military also said it disabled an unladen oil tanker attempting to sail toward Iran’s Kharg Island after it ignored multiple warnings, firing Hellfire missiles into the ship’s smokestack. Since resuming a naval blockade against Iran on Tuesday, the U.S. ​has redirected two ships and disabled another, the military said.

Iranian news media reported a series of explosions, mainly in coastal areas such as Bandar Abbas. Other explosions or projectile strikes were reported around the city of Ahvaz, ​just inland from the northern end of the Gulf, and Konarak, Sirik and Qeshm in southern Iran.

Press TV reported at least two explosions in the central Iranian city of Khondab, about 250 km (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Mehr news agency reported ‌Iran activated its ⁠air defenses in Tehran to counter “hostile threats.”

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that the U.S. attacks struck near a hospital in Ahvaz that houses a pediatric cancer center, forcing the temporary evacuation of the hospital. Families have come out to the streets around the hospital to care for their children, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said.

After the first wave, Tehran’s top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf issued a statement declaring that Iranian security depended on maintaining what he called “Iranian arrangements” in the strait.

“We are in an essential and existential war with America,” Qalibaf said.

The war has killed thousands of people and displaced millions, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, where conflict restarted between Israel and Iran-backed militant group ​Hezbollah. In July alone, U.S. attacks have killed 35 ​people, Tasnim reported, citing a health ministry official.

TRUMP ⁠SAYS IRAN WANTS TO SETTLE

Trump struck a triumphant note, as he has repeatedly since the U.S. and Israel started hostilities on February 28, saying, “We’ll have Iran defeated soon. They’ll be defeated very soon.”

Speaking at a roundtable event at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, Trump also claimed the Iranians want to “settle so badly.”

“They don’t like what we’re ​doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” Trump said.

On Tuesday, ​Trump said U.S. negotiators had ⁠been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell them “you better make a deal.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-threatens-block-more-vital-seaways-trump-orders-renewed-iran-blockade-2026-07-15

Top Russian energy firms are seeking gasoline from Indian refiners after Ukrainian strikes severely impacted Russia’s refining capacity.

Russia has purportedly turned to India for gasoline supplies after Ukrainian drone strikes crippled a significant portion of its refining capacity, marking a rare reversal in the two countries’ energy trade, Reuters reported, citing sources. India, which is the largest buyer of Russia’s seaborne crude, has already shipped at least one gasoline cargo to Russia, with more exports expected as Moscow reportedly grapples with its worst fuel crisis in years, the report claimed.

Sources at three Indian state refiners claimed that Russian companies had approached them for more gasoline but that they had no surplus volumes to export. Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Lukoil, are among the companies that have contacted Indian counterparts, including private and state-run refiners, they told Reuters, adding that any supplies would be routed through traders if deals are agreed upon.

Nearly 40% of Russia’s refining capacity is unlikely to return for at least two months if there are no further attacks, one of the sources with knowledge ⁠of the matter told Reuters.

One of the sources familiar with ‌the ⁠matter said any further supplies from India could reach Russia through ship-to-ship transfers. Russia would seek supplies of diesel if Ukrainian attacks knocked out further refining capacity, though there were enough supplies of the fuel for now, the source added.

Major Indian state refiners including Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, the three Russian oil companies, and Russia’s energy ministry have not confirmed the report.

Nayara had denied selling to Russia
This comes after Reuters reported early this month that traders have sold gasoline produced by Indian refiner Nayara Energy, partly owned by Rosneft, to Russia. However, Nayara told Reuters it “has neither sold nor has any plans to sell fuel to Russian companies”.

“Nayara Energy remains committed to serving the Indian ⁠market and meeting the demand for fuels across the length and breadth of India,” it said in response to questions from Reuters.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/india/russia-seeking-more-gasoline-from-india-after-ukraine-attacks-refineries-report-article-155108608

The Maharashtra FDA raided Pravin Goyal’s shop at Pune’s Market Yard, seizing 4,172 kg of food products worth Rs 8.14 lakh over alleged food safety and licensing violations. The shop is linked to Siya Goyal, an accused in the Ketan Agarwal murder case, though the FDA said the action is unrelated. Meanwhile, police verified reports of Siya Goyal’s alleged secret marriage in Rajasthan.

Pune: The Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pune Zone-1, conducted a raid at M/s BG Goyal & Company, the shop owned by Pravin Goyal, at Market Yard in Pune on July 14 and seized 4,172 kg of food products worth Rs 8,14,630 over alleged violations, officials said.

The shop is associated with Pravin Goyal, father of Siya Goyal, who is an accused in the Ketan Agarwal death case. The FDA has not stated that the present action is connected to that case.

According to the FDA, four samples were collected for analysis on suspicion of being substandard or unsafe. The samples included brands related to turmeric powder, sesame seeds and mini chunks.

The seized stock comprised 598 kg of a brand of turmeric powder, 1,258 kg of another brand of turmeric powder, 538 kg of sesame seeds and 1,778 kg of soya mini chunks.

The FDA said the action was taken over the alleged operation of a storeroom without a licence, label contraventions and suspicion that the food products were substandard and unsafe.

China’s fourth-highest-ranked official, Wang Huning, held talks in Pyongyang with a top official of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday (Jul 16).

The meeting is the latest in a series of high-level exchanges between Beijing and Pyongyang following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to North Korea in June – the first in seven years – and reflects China’s efforts to reinforce its influence over its traditional ally amid North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia.

The Chinese delegation led by Wang arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday, at the invitation of North Korea, and met Jo Yong Won, a top official of the Workers’ Party, KCNA reported.

At the meeting, Wang affirmed “the will of the Chinese party and the government” to implement the agreement reached between Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during Xi’s visit to Pyongyang last month, KCNA said.

Xi and Kim agreed to expand cooperation in politics, economy and culture, as well as strategic communication through visits by high-level officials, KCNA said at the time.

Kim also told Xi that he would fully support the “One China principle”, which Beijing views as meaning that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country.

Taiwan strongly objects to Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only its people can decide the island’s future.

In their meeting, Wang also referred to the 65th anniversary of friendship ties between the two countries, while Jo told Wang that North Korea seeks to develop strategic communication and tactical cooperation with Beijing, KCNA reported.

The two officials discussed ways to improve public welfare and to deepen mutual cooperation in business, culture and between the two countries’ ruling parties, KCNA said, without elaborating.

Earlier this month, North Korean Premier Pak Thae Song met Xi in Beijing during his visit for an event marking the 65th anniversary of the neighbours’ friendship treaty.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-north-korea-officials-meet-pyongyang-cooperation-6257081

 

The United States on Wednesday (Jul 15) announced a new tariff on various imports from Brazil, after a year-long investigation into the Latin American giant’s trade and other policies.

The 25 per cent tariff is set to take effect Jul 22, a senior US official told reporters.

But a range of products, including beef, coffee and certain aircraft parts, would be exempted, the official added.

The exclusions also cover certain goods that the United States does not produce.

“Brazil’s unfair trading practices have prevented US workers and producers from accessing this important market,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.

“We remain open to continuing negotiations with Brazil to bring about long-needed changes to the problems identified in this investigation,” he added.

In earlier findings, the US investigation deemed that certain practices by Brazil were “unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict US commerce”.

The latest move also comes as President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to rebuild his economic agenda after the US Supreme Court in February struck down a swath of his global tariffs.

The Brazil tariffs were justified under Section 301 of the Trade Act, and the Trump administration this year initiated other probes using the same authority.

Already, in one set of probes, US officials proposed new tariffs targeting dozens of trading partners for their alleged failures to act against forced labour.

In the case of Brazil, a senior US official took aim Wednesday at what Washington deemed as adverse actions on digital trade, alongside “unfair” competition linked to state-owned electronic payments system PIX, among other issues.

The US official said the door to negotiations remain open, although Washington wishes for its concerns to be resolved.

For example, the United States seeks to access preferential tariff treatment Brazil provided to partners like Mexico and India as well.

The official, however, rejected criticism that Section 301 probes were being used for political purposes.

While the Trump administration does not expect retaliation following Wednesday’s announcement, it warned that pushback could invite further US countermeasures.

For now, the United States has held constructive talks with Brazilian counterparts recently, the official said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-tariff-brazil-imports-trade-6257546

 

The free trade agreement allows zero-duty market access for nearly 99% of India’s exports to the UK. Meanwhile, US senators have proposed a new bill to impose 100% tariffs on India for buying oil from Russia.

 

The Trump administration has replaced panels at a Philadelphia memorial about people enslaved by George Washington. Critics argue that the new exhibit presents a sanitized view of US history.

The Trump administration has implemented its plans to replace panels at Philadelphia’s President’s House site, where George Washington lived during the 1790s, when the city served as the US capital.

The President’s House, which is part of the Independence National Historical Park, currently offers panel displays and videos focused on the lives of nine enslaved people who lived with and served Washington and his wife, Martha.

Critics say panels soften slavery’s history

The administration sought to revise the exhibit under the 2025 executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order aimed to remove content from historical and cultural institutions that the administration said “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

The new version of the exhibit, which was installed on Wednesday, retains references to those enslaved at the house, as well as information about the abolitionist movement.

However, critics argue that the exhibit now presents a less critical account of Washington’s views on slavery.

Thus, a panel headline titled “The Dirty Business of Slavery” has been removed and replaced with “Celebrating Independence Throughout the Years.”

The new panels also omit some material featured in the previous exhibit, including a map of slave trade routes and a timeline tracing the history of slavery, while descriptions of Washington’s views on and treatment of enslaved people were softened.

Legal battle between federal and city governments

The exchange of panels, which occurred before the site opened on Wednesday, marked the latest chapter in a dispute between the Trump administration and the city of Philadelphia.

After the President’s House site was selected for changes, the original panels were removed in January. Some were reinstalled the following month after Philadelphia successfully challenged the move in federal district court, arguing that the government was required to consult with the city before making changes.

The exhibit remained only partially restored for months as the legal case proceeded, even during Philadelphia’s Fourth of July celebrations.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/trump-administration-replaces-philadelphia-slavery-memorial/a-77975299

 

 

Thousands of visitors were told to evacuate a remote Minnesota wilderness area accessible only by boat as wildfires send dangerously heavy smoke over the U.S. Midwest and Northeast this week.

More than 100 wildfires are burning in Canada, where a train crew in northern Ontario filmed themselves surrounded by flames before being safely evacuated. Winds are carrying the smoke southeast.

Warnings about unhealthy air conditions Wednesday extended from Minnesota through Toronto and into New York. Unusually hot summer temperatures were expected, too.

The best advice is to stay indoors to avoid both the smoke and the extreme heat, said Tyler Hasenstein, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

“Those two things coinciding with each other is not good from a health perspective,” he said.

Rangers try to get thousands of campers out of remote Minnesota wilderness

In far northeastern Minnesota, rangers were trying to warn people that the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was closed Tuesday because about 17 fires caused by lightning more than a week ago were spreading through the vast wilderness accessible primarily by canoe.

Rangers estimated anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 people were inside the 1.1-million-acre (445,000-hectare) wilderness, which is almost the size of Delaware, Superior National Forest spokesperson Joy VanDrie said.

“It’s an arduous job,” VanDrie said of rangers and campers having to canoe for hours or even carry their boats over land to evacuate.

No injuries or deaths have been reported. Rangers were going through every lake and waterway and officials estimated they had about 90% of the people out Wednesday.

Campers rescued this week said skies quickly darkened from smoke and they could feel the heat as they paddled or were taken by boat to safety.

Jan Bailey was camping with her husband, daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren and three dogs when they noticed wispy smoke on the horizon. Two hours later, they could see a raging firestorm. A paddleboarder with a satellite phone fled to their campsite and they called forestry rangers who sent a boat to rescue them and others.

“We had fire on both sides of us at that time,” Bailey told Minnesota Public Radio. “So we’re just weaving between the lakes. It’s a little smoky. Campsites are going up.”

Even authorities in Canada pitched in. They rescued two groups of youth campers Wednesday who had crossed the border. One group was stuck on an isolated sandbar, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said.

VanDrie didn’t know when the area might reopen. Minnesota officials said some fires in the Boundary Waters will be allowed to burn indefinitely but will be monitored to ensure they don’t threaten people or property.

Severe drought and heat have led to a busy wildfire season

Dan Westervelt, associate professor at Columbia University’s Climate School, said severe drought conditions combined with heat in Canada and the U.S. have created “a perfect storm for really dry conditions to provide a lot of fuel for these wildfires to burn.” Research shows warming temperatures from burning coal, oil and gas are making fires more frequent and intense.

High levels of fine particulate matter in the air from wildfire smoke may be unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as children and people with heart or lung conditions. The particulates can cause shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness or fatigue and aggravate heart and lung diseases and other chronic health issues.

Experts suggest wearing a N95 mask if you have to be outside and keeping your indoor air cleaner by closing windows and running an air purifier or air conditioner.

It’s been a particularly busy and deadly fire season in the U.S. About four dozen large fires are currently burning across 15 states, from Minnesota and North Carolina to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and California, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Prolonged drought and record low snowpack levels combined to make conditions ripe for rapid fire growth.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-smoke-canada-minnesota-08d3fb58a434a5d42803ab1c2bbda0b3

 

FORMER President Joe Biden has revealed his cancer treatment is “going really well” in a rare personal health update as he announced a new book about his four years in the White House.

The 83-year-old thanked supporters for their prayers and well-wishes as he spoke about spending more time with his family while battling the disease.

In a video released on Wednesday, Biden said, “I’ve been spending a lot of time with my family. I’m dealing with a cancer diagnosis, been getting treatment, and it’s going really well.”

“I want to thank all those who have offered their prayers and support and well-wishes. It’s meant the world to me and to Jill.”

The update came as publishers Little Brown and Company announced that Biden’s presidential memoir, Promise Me, America, will be released on November 17.

The book will look back at the major crises and decisions that defined his one term in the White House, including the controversial end of his 2024 re-election campaign.

“‘Promise Me, America’ is about the challenges we faced as a nation. It’s about the decisions I made and why I made them,” Biden said.

“Most of all, it’s about my faith in the promise of America.”

Biden said the memoir will explore leading the country through the Covid pandemic, rebuilding the economy and the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

It will also cover the withdrawal from Afghanistan, his efforts to strengthen NATO and US support for Ukraine.

The former president said he will address why he initially chose to seek a second term, and why he later made the dramatic decision to step aside.

Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in July that year following mounting concerns about his age and fitness for office.

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him as the Democratic nominee before losing the election to Donald Trump.

Biden was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May 2025 after experiencing urinary symptoms and doctors discovered a nodule.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16694667/biden-health-update-cancer-diagnosis-new-book/

 

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has faced a tense bipartsian grilling on Capitol Hill, as he seeks a permanent appointment to lead America’s top law enforcement agency.

Blanche was questioned about his personal relationship with President Donald Trump, the Epstein files, and a controversial settlement between Trump and the US tax agency that a federal judge nullified this week.

Trump dismissed his previous attorney general, Pam Bondi, amid a political firestorm over the Epstein files release. Blanche has led the agency in the interim.

Here are five key moments from Blanche’s confirmation hearing.

Blanche asked if he is Trump’s friend

Going into Wednesday’s hearing, Blanche faced questions about whether he would operate independently from Trump, who has vowed “retribution” against his political enemies in his second term.

Trump has pressured the justice department to pursue controversial prosecutions of several of his critics, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Blanche served as Trump’s personal attorney in three of the four major criminal cases he faced leading up to the 2024 election. Most notably, Blanche led Trump’s legal defence in his New York criminal trial.

Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who broadly supports the administration, asked Blanche on Wednesday if he was “friends” with Trump.

“I’m his lawyer – was his lawyer,” Blanche said in response. “And now I’m the deputy attorney general.”

“I met him as his criminal defence attorney, I’m not sure there’s very many people who have ever had a criminal defence attorney who calls that person their friend,” Blanche said.

Is the ‘anti-weaponisation fund’ dead?

The day before Blanche’s confirmation hearing, a federal judge quashed a settlement between Trump, his business and family, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The deal included immunity from future audits and the creation of a $1.7bn (£1.2bn) “anti-weaponisation fund” for people who believed they were unfairly targeted by the government.

The settlement had sparked bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill, and senators from both parties questioned Blanche about the agreement. Republican senators, in particular, seemed to want Blanche on the record saying that the fund was truly dead.

“You have no reason to believe that the so-called weaponisation fund will continue because of the settlement, agreement, is that correct?” Senator Mike Lee, a Republican, asked Blanche.

“I am confident it will not,” Blanche said.

“It should never be paid out,” said another Republican senator, Thom Tillis. He pressed Blanche for an “agreed to piece of text, coming from the administration, that just renders this thing dead, gone.”

Blanche apologises for Epstein files ‘mistakes’

The Epstein files are the biggest challenge to face the justice department since Trump’s return.

After public outcry, Congress mandated that the justice department release its trove of millions of files related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, the slow pace of their release and extensive redactions have drawn criticism from lawmakers and survivors.

Blanche faced probing questions from both parties about the justice department’s handling of the files.

About a dozen women, wearing T-shirts that featured images of the redacted files, attended the hearing to protest.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the panel, asked Blanche about “problematic redactions”, “insufficient effort” on following investigative leads and “refusal to meet with victims”, as well as questions surrounding the Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s move to a lower-security prison.

Blanche responded that redacting and releasing six millions pages of files within a short timeframe was a “Herculean task”.

“There were mistakes that were made, and so approximately 1% of the redactions had to be fixed,” Blanche added. “We had dozens of lawyers on call.”

During one exchange, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal asked if Blanche would apologise to Epstein survivors for “the mishandling and mistakes”.

“I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made,” Blanche said. “And I very much. I very much apologise.”

Blanche says Trump not eligible for third term

Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, asks Blanche about calls from some of Trump’s backers that he should serve a third term as president, which is prohibited under the US Constitution.

“Is President Trump, just as a simple matter of constitutional law, eligible to run for another term as president in 2028?” Coons asked.

“I don’t believe he is, no,” Blanche responded.

Trump himself has said he would “love” to seek a third term, but rejected the possibility of seeking the vice-presidency as a loophole.

Trump has also praised two likely Republican contenders, Vice-President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as potential future presidential candidates.

‘An extraordinarily obnoxious question’

Blanche mostly tackled pointed questions with technical and lawyerly responses. At times, however, he surfaced flashes of the pugnacious defence attorney who had grilled witnesses in Trump’s criminal trial and sparred with the judge.

“That’s an extraordinarily obnoxious question, Senator,” Blanche told Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who had asked him about FBI Director Kash Patel’s fitness for office.

Later in the hearing, Blanche took issue with Democratic Senator Cory Booker’s rapid-fire questioning about a proposed merger between two major media corporations, Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery.

Booker asked him about his role in reviewing a decision to close an investigation of the proposed merger, then immediately asked a follow-up as Blanche began to answer.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62q3g32204o

 

 

Spain suffocated France deep in the heart of Texas on Tuesday, powering into their first World Cup final since lifting the trophy ​in 2010 with an utterly dominant 2-0 victory that left the tournament’s most feared attack gasping for air.
From the opening whistle, the Spaniards wrapped themselves around France like ‌an anaconda, tightening their grip with every wave of pressing and every spell of possession until the life had been squeezed from a French strike force that had looked irresistible throughout the tournament.

Mikel Oyarzabal and Pedro Porro supplied the goals, but the scoreline barely reflected Spain’s authority as the European champions monopolised possession, dictated the tempo and denied France’s vaunted forward line any platform from which to attack.
“A dream come true … to be honest, I never even imagined anything ​like this, not even in my wildest dreams,” Porro said. “We did everything right against a team that was having a brilliant World Cup.”
Spain are now within one victory of completing a ​World Cup-European Championship double.
They will discover their final opponents on Wednesday when England face Argentina in Atlanta for a place in Sunday’s showpiece.

BLEAK CONSOLATION

France, meanwhile, ⁠were left to contemplate the bleak consolation of a third-place playoff after their Bastille Day hopes were comprehensively extinguished.
“The players are devastated, but we have to be clear-headed: technically, we were second best,” coach ​Didier Deschamps said. “That is on us.
“We lacked technical precision and energy. The Spanish are very good at breaking up moves by reading interceptions and passes. We would have liked to cause them more problems ​going forward.”
For a country that waited generations for its first World Cup, a second title 16 years later would herald the arrival of another Spanish golden era, this one inspired by Lamine Yamal but driven by one of the most complete collective teams in international football.
Expectation and tension were high in Arlington as ringside announcer Bruce Buffer, a man who has never knowingly used an indoor voice, bellowed the teams onto the pitch to launch a heavyweight clash.

A ​contest that had promised so much, however, swiftly tilted into a lop-sided affair as the Spaniards controlled the tempo as comprehensively as the ball, and left France chasing shadows.
France had come armed with the ​most lethal attack in world football, but it made little difference. Spain monopolised the ball, closed up the space and starved Les Bleus of the one thing their forwards needed — possession.
“One of the key factors that got ‌us into the ⁠final was keeping possession of the ball,” Porro said. “It’s a victory for an incredible team, a group of spectacular players – a victory for all 26 players.”

TELEPATHIC MOVEMENT

Spain played with the fluency and understanding of an elite club side, telepathic in their movement and passing. France were reduced to the role of spectators and mustered only two shots on target.
It took 22 minutes for Spain to break the deadlock. Marc Cucurella swung a deep cross into the French area that Lucas Digne brought down on his chest, but as the left back tried to clear, Lamine stepped across him and was caught by the follow ​through. The referee had no hesitation in pointing ​to the spot.
Oyarzabal drilled the penalty high ⁠into the net, giving Mike Maignan no chance. France, who had not trailed at any point during the tournament, looked unsure how to respond, and the scheduled water break could hardly have come at a better moment for Deschamps, giving him a chance to regroup his rattled side.
It made little difference. France ​still struggled to find any breathing space for their free-flowing football. Michael Olise was a virtual spectator, smothered by Cucurella, the 24-year-old losing possession ​20 times and failing to ⁠complete a single dribble.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/spain-choke-life-out-france-reach-world-cup-final-2026-07-14/

Russia on Tuesday accused Ukraine of terrorism over its escalating attacks on shipping in the Sea of Azov, a route ‌that handles about a quarter of its grain exports.
Ukrainian drones hit 11 Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight, Kyiv’s drone forces commander said.

In a statement on Telegram, Robert Brovdi said the targets included five tankers, five dry cargo vessels and a tugboat, bringing the total number of vessels struck in the past nine days to 116.

The report did ​not specify any attacks on grain ships. Industry sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, told ​Reuters that several grain ships were hit on July 13 and July 14 and caught fire.
“They are standing there like targets ⁠before a firing squad. In a couple of days, there won’t be a single intact boat left in the Sea of Azov, only damaged ones,” ​one of the sources told Reuters.
“What the Ukrainian regime is doing goes beyond even piracy. Pirates, at least, plunder and keep the spoils for themselves,” Russian ​Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“But here, it benefits neither them nor anyone else – the goal is simply to cause damage and intimidate. It is terrorism, pure and simple,” Lavrov said.
A Ukrainian military source told Reuters: “The Ukrainian Armed Forces strike only military targets or targets that contribute to strengthening Russia’s combat capability.
“Civilian cargoes are not among them. By talking about attacks ​on civilian vessels, Russia is looking for a pretext to justify its cynical strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.”
Russia has stepped up its strikes on Ukrainian Black ​Sea ports since the end of last year, and Ukrainian officials say ports in the Odesa region could see their monthly grain export capacity cut by as much as ‌one-third.

AZOV SHIPPING ⁠RESTRICTED

Shipping in the Sea of Azov remained restricted on Tuesday, according to Reuters sources. It lies at the mouth of the Don River, which flows through Russia’s main southern grain-producing region, and handles mostly smaller, coastal ships.

A source told Reuters on Monday that commercial vessels were unable to enter or leave the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait or the Azov-Don channel connecting the sea with the Don River.
In recent months, Ukraine has carried out a series of attacks ​on Russian oil refineries, fuel depots, ​ports and other energy infrastructure, which ⁠have created fuel shortages across Russia and disrupted exports.
Neither the Agriculture Ministry nor the Transport Ministry confirmed that Sea of Azov traffic was restricted.
However, the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday acknowledged that exports may get diverted to other routes.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-prepares-reroute-grain-exports-sea-azov-after-ukrainian-attacks-2026-07-14/

U.S. Senate Democrats blocked a $1.15 trillion annual defense policy bill on Tuesday, citing ‌frustration with the Iran war and President Donald Trump’s failure to consult with Congress about his decision to send U.S. forces into the conflict.
“Trump started this war without authorization, without a strategy, and without an exit,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate’s Democratic leader, said in ​a Senate speech announcing he would vote no.

The procedural vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, failed. ​Even though the yes votes outnumbered no votes by 50-46, the bill fell short of the ⁠60 votes needed to move ahead in the 100-member Senate.
The vote was along party lines. Every Republican voted in favor ​of moving ahead except for the chamber’s Republican majority leader, John Thune of South Dakota, who voted no under Senate rules ​only in order to enter a motion to reconsider.
The bill had been expected to stall, after nine Democratic members of the Armed Services Committee voted against the NDAA when the panel considered it last month. The NDAA typically passes with strong bipartisan support.

Democrats are concerned that authorizing ​a huge Pentagon budget would be seen as approval of the war on Iran that began with strikes by the ​U.S. and Israel on February 28.
The vote came just as Trump the administration said it had reimposed a naval blockade of all Iranian ports ‌in the ⁠latest escalation of the conflict and began a fresh round of strikes.
Democrats also object to the Trump administration’s push to increase military spending to a total of $1.5 trillion, even as social programs for Americans are being cut. Besides the $1.15 trillion authorized in the NDAA, Trump has asked for another $350 billion from Congress under the budget reconciliation process, which would allow the funding to ​pass without Democratic support.
In remarks ​urging support, Thune accused Democrats ⁠of putting politics ahead of security.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-senate-democrats-block-115-trillion-defense-bill-over-iran-war-objections-2026-07-14/

Billionaire Elon Musk likely broke Wisconsin law when he promised to hand out $1 million checks to voters in the 2025 state Supreme Court election, a bipartisan panel has found.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission last week referred two complaints to the Brown County district attorney’s office, which can choose to bring criminal charges over violating the state law against election bribery. Prosecutors have 40 days to report back to the commission.

Musk, the founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, was deeply involved in the effort to flip majority control of the highest court in battleground Wisconsin.

The tech titan and groups he supported spent at least $20 million on the candidate backed by Republicans, Brad Schimel. However, he lost by 10 percentage points to Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford.

A month after the lopsided loss, Musk announced that he would be spending far less on political campaigns. Spending on the election topped $100 million, making it the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history.

Prosecutors will decide if Musk should be charged over the $1 million checks

The complaints, which are confidential under state law, were brought by voters in Milwaukee and Green Bay, which is in Brown County. Musk handed out checks at a rally there just days before the election.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 in closed session on Thursday to refer the complaints to the district attorney, the commission’s spokesperson Emilee Miklas said.

Brown County District Attorney David Lasee, a Republican, did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.

The motion approved by the elections commission said it found probable cause that Musk broke Wisconsin law by making a social media post offering $1 million to people who voted in the Supreme Court election “in order to induce them to vote in that election.”

Spokespeople for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk gave $1 million checks to 3 Wisconsin voters

Three Wisconsin voters received checks from Musk, including two who got them in person at the Green Bay rally. Two weeks before the election, Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, offered $100 to voters who signed a petition in opposition to “activist judges,” or referred someone to sign it.

Crawford’s win kept liberals in control of the state Supreme Court, and their majority grew to 5-2 after Democratic-backed candidate Chris Taylor’s victory this year.

Musk’s spending on the 2025 race has already resulted in one lawsuit filed by a government watchdog group, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which seeks to prohibit him from ever again offering cash payments in the state.

That lawsuit is pending in Brown County. It alleges that Musk and two groups he funds violated prohibitions on vote bribery and unauthorized lotteries and that his actions were an unlawful conspiracy and public nuisance.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-wisconsin-election-million-dollar-checks-2900f27acc373c9f1661a934f00c0c3d

A group of 26 Meta employees has sued the company, claiming it used artificial intelligence systems to select people for layoffs, disproportionately targeting those on medical, parental or family leave.

They are among the 8,000 employees, or about 10% of its workforce, Meta said it would lay off in May. The lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Oakland, California, claims the company used internal AI systems, keystroke and activity-monitoring data, AI token-usage dashboards and algorithmically assisted performance rankings, among other methods, to determine who would be laid off.

Many of these scores and ratings “by design, cannot be accumulated by an employee who is on protected medical or family leave, or whose output is reduced by a disability,” the lawsuit says. Meta, according to the lawsuit, did not account for protected leave when taking employees’ scores into account and “did not pause the system for the individualized, leave- and accommodation-neutral review that the law requires.”

As a result, people on protected medical or family leave were disproportionately selected for layoffs, the lawsuit says. Each of the 26 anonymous employees in the lawsuit took protected leave and requested or received a reasonable accommodation for disability. Though they have been notified of their layoffs, all 26 remain employed by Meta, with separations set to begin July 22.

Many workers were on parental leave

Many of the employees in the lawsuit took pregnancy or parental leave, during which time they wouldn’t have worked and thus had their measured output reduced. Others took medical leave — one disclosed a “serious health condition and disability” that was approved by Meta’s own provider. But according to the lawsuit, he was “discouraged and deterred from taking that leave by a manager” who warned that doing so would result in his selection for the anticipated layoffs. Meta offered no accommodation for his disability, the lawsuit says.

Meta said in a statement that the claims “lack merit and are not based on facts. Workforce management and organizational decisions were and are made by people, not AI.”

About half the plaintiffs had taken leave for caregiving or pregnancy-related reasons. Eight are women who had taken maternity or pregnancy-related leave, four are men who had taken parental leave and one is a woman who had taken leave to care for a family member and later bereavement leave.

The lawsuit says the layoffs violated several state and federal laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

Lawsuit cites ‘disparate impact’

The complaint also references “disparate impact liability,” a longstanding civil rights concept that President Donald Trump’s administration moved to abandon. Disparate impact, codified in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, holds that facially neutral policies or practices can be discriminatory if they disproportionately burden a protected class of workers and aren’t necessary for the job.

The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to deprioritize disparate impact liability enforcement, arguing that its use undermines “meritocracy” and encourages the assumption that any racial or gender imbalance in a workforce is the result of discrimination. The order has led the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to drop discrimination cases on behalf of some workers.

However, the lawsuit against Meta underscores that companies remain vulnerable to disparate impact litigation in the age of AI despite the Trump administration’s efforts to stamp out its enforcement. Workers are still free to pursue such lawsuits on their own if the EEOC rejects their complaints, and several state laws specifically prohibit disparate impact discrimination.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/meta-lawsuit-workers-target-ai-layoffs-leave-019fb9c7fdc09167e91547546bce5be8

 

The U.S. military early Wednesday reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports over Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, sparking new strikes on nations hosting American forces as an interim deal to end the war further unraveled.

Days of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East by Iran — and both nations’ attempts to vie for control of the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passes during peacetime — threaten to push the region back to all-out war.

The U.S. first imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after signing the interim deal that set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues like Iran’s nuclear program, but talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Wednesday to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade.

“The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.

When U.S. President Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade Monday, he also said he would impose a 20% fee on ships passing through the strait. But he dropped the plan to collect fees hours before resuming the blockade, citing requests from allies in the Persian Gulf.

Both US and Iran launched attacks as blockade reimposed

The U.S. carried out another wave of strikes as it reimposed the blockade, striking dozens of targets over seven hours, the U.S. military’s Central Command said Wednesday.

Missile alert warnings went out in Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday morning as they faced incoming Iranian fire, something that’s been a daily occurrence, further straining a ceasefire in the war.

U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads Central Command, said in a statement that Iran had launched dozens of missiles and drones at neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

“U.S. forces are holding Iran accountable for unwarranted aggression that continues to endanger innocent lives,” Cooper said.

There are at least 19 U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship with more than 1,000 Marines aboard. Central Command also said in a social media post that there are “hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East.”

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively shut the passage by attacking and threatening ships. That sent the price of oil, fertilizer and other goods soaring.

Iran has more recently attacked ships moving through the strait on a route near Oman overseen by the U.S. military that is outside Tehran’s control, setting off the recent violence. The U.S. has threatened to reopen the strait by force — but experts say that would require a much bigger armada if not tens of thousands of ground troops.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, criticized America’s ongoing attacks targeting his country.

“The U.S. is the aggressor, not the victim,” he wrote to the world body’s leader, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Trump says he’s replacing the fees with Gulf investments

Trump said Tuesday that he was called by the region’s “kings and emirs,” who suggested an alternate arrangement to charging ships fees to pass through the strait like the president proposed a day earlier.

“They said we’d love to do it a different way. We’d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,” Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office.

Trump said he preferred that arrangement to charging tolls “because I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the strait.”

It was unclear if the investment deals would be new commitments relative to what Trump announced after a visit last year to the Middle East.

Trump’s plan to charge fees would have been a change to longstanding American policy and a departure from U.S. promises that the strait would remain open to all without tolls.

Trump told Fox News Channel on Tuesday night that more U.S. strikes against Iran were coming over the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targets by next week unless negotiations resume. Already, the U.S. has struck at least one bridge.

“You better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left,” Trump warned.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-14-2026-abd060c55feea216625689e57d8f76be

Oil producers in the Persian Gulf are making plans to bypass the Strait of Hormuz with new pipelines and a new port after Iran has repeatedly attacked ships and blocked traffic.

The idea is to minimize Tehran’s leverage on the waterway that once saw 20% of the world’s oil pass through it as the war stretches into its fifth month.

Iran has already insisted that it will impose tolls on the strait, which could cost tens of billions of dollars. And in some cases, it is extracting millions of dollars of protection money per oil tanker.

Two such projects are already underway in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq — with Saudi Arabia eyeing its own and Dubai also seeking to establish a new port to further reduce dependence on the strait.

There should be enough pipeline capacity to divert up to 45% of the pre-war Persian Gulf oil export by the end of 2027, Goldman Sachs analyst Alexandra Paulus told investors on Monday.

Given that pipeline projects can move quickly in the Middle East, the bank estimates that output bypassing the strait could reach 7.3 million barrels by the end of 2028 — making 60% of the Gulf’s oil strait-proof.

The UAE’s much-touted West-East Pipeline project is about 50% complete, with Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed ordering its completion by 2027.

Once completed, the 252-mile pipeline would run parallel to the Fujairah pipeline and double the country’s overland capacity to 3.6 million barrels a day.

Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said the war in Iran proved Dubai was moving in the right direction with the project to free more of the world’s oil supply.

“Right now, too much of the world’s energy still moves through too few choke points. That is exactly why the ​UAE made the decision more than a decade ago to invest in infrastructure that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz,” Jaber told the Atlantic Council in May.

A much more ambitious project is underway in Iraq with the 435-mile-long Basra-Haditha oil pipeline, which would connect with Jordan, Syria and Turkey.

Source : https://nypost.com/2026/07/14/world-news/middle-east-allies-rushing-new-pipelines-port-to-bypass-irans-grip-on-strait-of-hormuz/

 

Another record-breaking heatwave has hit parts of Canada and the US, bringing extreme temperatures and poor air quality.

Extreme heat warnings have been in place across multiple Canadian provinces, including most of Ontario and part of Quebec, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories – affecting millions of people.

The high temperatures are expected to continue for Canada, as well as for parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, into Wednesday as the strong area of high pressure moves eastwards.

It has already led to all-time temperature records being broken in parts of Montana and Utah, and comes after a record-breaking heatwave hit large portions of the US earlier this month.

The Canadian city of Toronto was braced for possible record-breaking heat on Tuesday, but stopped short at 98F (36C).

Commuter trains were running on delays due to “weather related track conditions”, according to the regional public transit service, while Environment Canada warned that hot and humid air could result in deteriorating air quality.

Central and eastern areas of Canada have also been hot, but a cold front is set to bring lower temperatures over the next few days. It will also bring the threat of severe thunderstorms, which could also affect parts of New England in the US.

Those thundery conditions will develop more widely across the east of North America by the weekend, pushing away the worst of the heat – although temperatures in many areas will remain above the seasonal norm.

Meanwhile, millions of people are under heat advisories in the US cities of Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and as far west as Buffalo, New York, that will last through Wednesday.

The northern Plains, Midwest and Northeast will bear the brunt, with temperatures in Chicago forecast to reach 97F on Wednesday.

New York could reach 100F, while Washington DC is expecting 102F. A few places could get even hotter, with high humidity expected to make it feel even more uncomfortable.

Earlier this week, the city of Billings in Montana reached 111F, where its previous heat record was 108F. In Utah’s Salt Lake City, the previous record of 107F was broken when it reached 109F.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yzyep6z63o

US President Donald Trump has threatened to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants next week if the country does not return to talks.

The comments, made in a Fox News interview, aired as the two countries exchanged fire for the fourth day in a row.

Trump earlier reversed a threat of a 20% fee on all Strait of Hormuz cargo shipping but resumed blockading Iranian ports.

“Next week it gets really bad for them,” Trump said. “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.”

Back in April, Trump threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran, including bridges and power plants.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk responded at the time by saying: “Under international law, deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime.”

The 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians.

“I’ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we’ll hit energy targets,” Trump said in an interview on Special Report with Bret Baier that aired on Tuesday night.

He said US negotiators had conveyed to their Iranian counterparts on Tuesday evening that they “‘better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left'”.

The escalation in rhetoric comes after Trump said a 20% toll he had threatened to impose in the Strait of Hormuz would be replaced by “massive” trade and investment deals with Gulf states.

The announcement came hours before the US military carried out a seven-hour wave of strikes on Iran and resumed a blockade of its ports.

US Central Command (Centcom) said it hit “dozens” of Iranian military targets near the Strait of Hormuz, with the aim to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews”.

At least seven Iranian military personnel were killed in US strikes on a base in the southeastern city of Bampur, Iran’s army said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Tehran fired missiles and drones on US targets in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, Iranian state-run television IRIB reported.

In the early hours of Wednesday, Kuwait’s military said it was intercepting Iranian attack drones, while Bahrain’s military said it had “succeeded in intercepting and destroying” aerial attacks.

The US also said Iran had “intentionally targeted civilians” in the region by attacking seven commercial ships, which had resulted in “nearly a dozen civilian crew members killed, missing, or injured”, the commander of Centcom said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Monday night that Iranian cruise missiles had targeted two national tankers, killing an Indian crew member and wounding eight others, four seriously.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later confirmed the strikes via a statement to Telegram, where it said two tankers had ignored warnings, turned off navigation systems and attempted to pass through a mined route.

It was unclear which other attacks the Centcom statement was referring to. The IRGC did not immediately comment.

Separately, an Indian sailor who went missing after his ship was attacked off the coast of Oman last week was found dead, his family confirmed on Wednesday.

The other 23 crew members aboard the Cypriot-flagged GFS Galaxy were rescued after the vessel was disabled on Sunday. Centcom accused the IRGC of launching the attack, but Tehran is yet to respond.

Renewed strikes between the US and Iran triggered a sharp rise in oil prices as tanker traffic through the Strait has virtually stalled.

It underscores the strategic importance of the waterway – with Iran accusing the US of interfering in its management of Hormuz – but controlling it means Tehran can also threaten the global economy.

On Monday, Trump declared that the US was now the “guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz, and vowed to impose a 20% charge on all cargo shipped through the waterway to pay for protecting it.

Raising the stakes further, Trump said the US would also reimpose its naval blockade on Iran in a bid to further squeeze the country’s struggling economy.

In his latest post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.

“Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future.”

The US president provided no further details.

He also said the strait “is open to ALL Ship traffic except for Iran” and that “oil is flowing like never before, thanks to the awesome Power of the United States Military”.

Speaking later, after talks in Washington with the new Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Trump said: “I don’t like the concept of a fee, but at the same time, it’s not fair that we’re protecting this Strait for the entire world.”

He said he had changed his initial fee plan after receiving numerous calls from Gulf leaders.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0608wy8pro

 

 

As Bangkok kicks-off an investigation into a fire in a bar last Sunday, three people among the wounded have died. The number of deaths from the blaze now stand at 30.

Deaths in a devastating fire at a pub in Thailand’s capital Bangkok have risen to 30, reports said Tuesday, citing updated figures from city officials.

Three more victims succumbed to their injuries pushing up the tally from the initial 27 dead, local media reports said.

More than 70 people continue to receive treatment in hospitals, with 24 of them in critical condition, officials said.

Meanwhile, police are probing possible negligence including obstructed emergency exits as people scrambled to flee the flames. Most killed were found trapped in windowless bathrooms.

Bangkok blaze deadliest in 17 years

An explosive fire ripped through Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao, a pub near the popular Chatuchak Weekend Market in northern Bangkok late on Sunday night.

Footage circulating on social media showed a powerful inferno jetting out of the bar’s doorway as people ran to escape.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/thailand-bangkok-bar-fire-death-toll-increases/a-77944364

 

The US military said the strikes were “to continue degrading Iranian capabilities.” Iran meanwhile has said the US renewed blockade “dismantles” the truce deal.

Ukraine said it struck tankers and cargo vessels in the Sea of Azov, in the latest strikes on Russian commercial shipping. Moscow’s Agriculture Ministry said “alternative shipping routes” are being sought.

Ukraine said on Tuesday that another 11 Russian vessels were targeted in overnight strikes on the Sea of Azov.

Kyiv’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, known by his callsign “Magyar,” said in a statement on Telegram that the targets included five tankers, five cargo vessels and one tugboat.

He said the aim was to damage Russia’s “shadow fleet” and to limit Russia’s fuel supplies to Kremlin-controlled Crimea.

The Reuters news agency reported that shipping in the area remained restricted on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

Ukraine says more than 116 Russia vessels hit in Sea of Azov

Ukraine claims that forces have struck 116 vessels over the past nine days in the Sea of Azov in operations targeting Russian shipping.

On Saturday, Ukraine said 21 Russian oil tankers were struck in the Sea of Azov in one of the largest Ukrainian drones strikes on Russian shipping since the start of the war.

Ukraine has ramped up its drone-producing capability and has increasingly targeted Russia’s energy infrastructure, including oil refineries, causing disruption to Russia’s production means while bringing the war home to Russians.

Kyiv is also launching strikes deeper into Russian territory with more frequency.

Russia looking for ‘alternative shipping routes’

Russia’s Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday said it was looking to reroute grain shipments from the Sea of Azov amid Ukrainian strikes on shipping in the region.

“Alternative shipping routes are currently being worked out in collaboration with relevant agencies and the business community,” Russia’s agriculture ministry said in a statement and insisted that exports would continue.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-drone-attacks-azov-sea-ships-russia/a-77949717

 

 

The outbreak, which has infected almost 2,000 people and killed more than 700, could be at least two to four times larger than official figures, the UN health agency warned. The current outbreak is in the DRC and Uganda.

On Tuesday The World Health Organization said the ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa was much larger than official figures suggest. The WHO is the UN’s health agency.

The current outbreak is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 20 cases having been confirmed in neighboring Uganda. So far, the virus has infected almost 2,000 people and killed over 700, according to official figures.

WHO faces funding shortfall amid battle to contain virus

“The scale of the outbreak is at least two to four times the number of cases that we have found,” WHO emergencies director Chikwe Ihekweazu said during a media briefing in Geneva. Many of the cases are unrecorded.

Ihekwazu said the WHO received less than half of the $115 million (around €100 million) needed in the first six months to combat the ongoing outbreak.

“This outbreak requires resources that match the scale of the challenges that we are facing. And this is not a burden DRC can be allowed to carry alone,” Ihekweazu.

Ihekweazu had just come back from a week-long visit to the DR Congo. The outbreak there is concentrated in Ituri Province in the northeast and the neighboring North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

The WHO official said the spread of the virus in the affected regions “continues to outpace response efforts by the national authorities, international partners, including WHO, and the communities most affected.”

“Perhaps the most alarming finding is that many newly reported cases are individuals who died in their communities, without ever reaching a health facility and receiving care,” Ihekweazu said.

He said that survival rates are higher for infected people who go to the hospital and the WHO is working to fight myths that hospital treatment for the virus is ineffective. Patients in the hospital are highly isolated, given intravenous (IV) fluids to stop dehydration and oxygen to support breathing.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/ebola-outbreak-much-larger-than-official-figures-who-says/a-77951823

 

The planned US withdrawal is linked to the disarmament of influential Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

US troops are set to fully withdraw from Iraq by September 30, the country’s prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, said at a meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington.

“Well, we don’t think we need the military there anymore,” Trump said at the White House.

Previously, about 2,500 US troops were deployed in Iraq, carrying out counter-Islamic State operations, but that number has declined in recent months.

Al-Zaidi’s government has tied the planned US withdrawal to the disarming of powerful Iran-backed militias.

“On September 30th, American forces will leave, and American companies will enter,” Zaidi said. “After 30 September, we will not allow any entity to bear arms outside the state.”

Trump says US will do ‘lots of deals’ with Iraq

The main focus of al-Zaidi’s trip to Washington is securing major US investment in his country’s oil, gas, and power sectors.

During the Oval Office meeting, al-Zaidi previewed an announcement of an “economic partnership” between the two countries.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-troop-withdrawal-from-iraq-set-for-september-30/a-77959648

 

The response came after Sheikh Hasina said she would return to Bangladesh by December despite facing a death sentence.

As Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina plans to return to Dhaka from self-exile, India on Tuesday reacted cautiously, saying there is no change in New Delhi’s approach to the matter.

Hasina has lived in India since she fled Dhaka after the collapse of her government in August 2024 following weeks of student-led anti-government agitation.

She has said in a recent interview that she plans to return to Bangladesh, where she faces a death sentence, by December this year and surrender to judicial authorities.

“There is no change in our approach to the matter. Any extradition matter is a legal issue, and it will be dealt with accordingly,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters when he was asked about whether India has been in touch with the Bangladeshi side about Hasina’s safe return.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/no-change-in-indias-stance-clarifies-mea-as-hasina-plans-return-to-bangladesh-101784079848200.html

 

US President Donald Trump warned Iran that the US would target its power plants and bridges from next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations with Washington. He said military strikes would intensify, refused to rule out ground operations, and warned Iran it would “have nobody left” without a deal. The US also resumed its naval blockade around Iranian ports.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) warned that the United States would start targeting Iranian power plants and bridges “next week” as part of its border strikes on the Islamic Republic, unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Ultimately, we’ll hit energy targets in Iran. Next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all of their power plants. We’ll knock out all of their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate” pic.twitter.com/CwbiDxHcwx

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 14, 2026

He further cautioned that Iran would not “have anybody left” if it failed to reach a deal with Washington.

Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Trump said the United States would intensify its military campaign against Iran in the coming days unless negotiations resume.

.@POTUS on Iran: “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… We’re going to knock out all their power plants, we’re going to knock out all their bridges, unless they get to the… pic.twitter.com/kPhMQKHqe9

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 14, 2026

“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. 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,” Trump told Fox News.

Trump’s remarks come as US military strikes on Iran have continued for a fourth consecutive day following the collapse of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran to end the hostilities in West Asia.

Trump Hints at Kurd Ground Invasion of Iran

FOX: Are you ruling out a ground campaign in a limited capacity?

Trump: No. Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have OTHER people that will do the ground campaign for us.

The other people he is referring to are the Kurd he… pic.twitter.com/7Lmyx6o8EI

— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) July 14, 2026

According to CNN, US and Iranian representatives remain in contact, but the Trump administration has maintained that negotiations cannot move forward while Iran continues to limit maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked about the duration of the military campaign, Trump said the strikes would continue until he decides otherwise.

The US President also declined to rule out the possibility of deploying American ground troops to Iran, although he indicated that he preferred other options.

.@POTUS on the Strait of Hormuz: “It’s open if people want to go through it. We’re not opening it for Iran. That’s the only one it’s closed for… Now, a lot of things have happened in the last few months—pipelines are being built. We’re coming up with great alternatives,… pic.twitter.com/uq92tbLUYz

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 14, 2026

“Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us,” Trump added.

Trump also increased pressure on Tehran to reach an agreement with Washington, warning that Iran faced severe consequences if it refused.

“You better make a deal,” Trump said, adding, “You’re not going to have anybody left.”

President Donald J. Trump sits down with @TreyYingst on negotiations with Iran.

His message to what’s left of the Iranian regime’s leadership is: “You better make a deal. You’re not going to have anybody left.” pic.twitter.com/hxtEFMED7H

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 14, 2026

Trump further stated that the US was taking precautions to minimise civilian casualties.

“We’re being very careful with the civilian population,” Trump said, before repeating, “But I said, you better make a deal. You’re not going to have anything left.”

According to Trump, the warning was conveyed during the latest communication between US representatives and Iranian officials, which he said took place “about an hour ago.”

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/you-wont-have-anybody-left-us-president-donald-trump-threatens-strikes-on-irans-power-plants-bridges-unless-tehran-agrees-to-deal-video

 

 

The FBI has added Indian national Nitish Kaushal to its Most Wanted list for allegedly working with the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria organised crime group. He is accused of involvement in murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking, extortion, weapons trafficking and money laundering. A US court has issued an arrest warrant, while Operation Hard Ball targets the gang across the US, Canada and Europe.

The FBI has added gangster Nitish Kaushal, allegedly involved in murder, kidnapping and drug trafficking in the US, to its list of most wanted criminals, as it closes in on the Bhagwanpuria gang.

Nitish Kaushal is #wanted by the #FBI for his alleged involvement in a transnational criminal organization engaged in, among other things, acts involving murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking, extortion, weapons trafficking, money laundering, and human smuggling. This… pic.twitter.com/xuEXpJIx6u

— FBI Most Wanted (@FBIMostWanted) July 14, 2026

Kaushal, an Indian national, allegedly carried out acts of violence on behalf of the Bhagwanpuria organised crime group, including, but not limited to, kidnappings and assaults, the FBI said on Tuesday.

“Nitish Kaushal is wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in a transnational criminal organisation engaged in, among other things, acts involving murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking, extortion, weapons trafficking, money laundering, and human smuggling,” the FBI said.

The FBI said Kaushal should be considered armed and dangerous, and an escape risk.

The probe agency has urged people to contact the local FBI office, the American Embassy or consulate with any information regarding Kaushal.

It said the Jaggu Bhagwanpuria Organised Crime Group originated in the Punjab state of India and operated in the Central District of California and elsewhere.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/fbi-adds-indian-gangster-nitish-kaushal-to-most-wanted-list-intensifies-global-crackdown-on-bhagwanpuria-gang

 

The U.S. military carried out a third consecutive night of strikes against Iran on Monday as President Donald Trump reinstated a blockade of Iranian shipping and proposed charging a ​20% fee to guard the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command said it began strikes at Trump’s direction just after the U.S. president told the “Hugh Hewitt Show” that Iran would be hit “very hard tonight, and we’re going to ‌hit them hard tomorrow. And there’s not a damn thing they can do about it.” He later told reporters at the White House that the U.S. was attacking Iranian capabilities in the strait.

The UAE Ministry of Defense later said Iranian cruise missiles struck two Emirati oil tankers, the Mombasa and Al Bahiyah, while transiting the southern lane of the strait in Omani territorial waters, wounding one crew member and injuring eight others.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said a tanker had been hit by an unknown projectile while travelling 40 nautical miles northeast of Oman’s Qalhat and that all crew were safe.
Reuters could not immediately verify ​whether the UKMTO report referred to the same incident as the one reported by the UAE Ministry of Defense. Iran has not commented on the latest attacks.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said two “offending” supertankers had been hit and disabled in the ​strait after ignoring repeated warnings and turning off navigation systems, Iranian media reported.
The IRGC’s statement did not name the vessels or say whether they were the same tankers cited by the UAE ministry. ⁠But it accused the U.S. of “inciting vessels to use an illegal route” and warned that cooperation with the “aggressor enemy” would result in damage, delays in reopening the waterway and a global energy crisis.
Bahrain’s air defense systems intercepted and destroyed Iranian aerial attacks over the kingdom, ​Nabeel Alhamer, media adviser to Bahrain’s king, said in posts on X.
“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump had said earlier on Monday on Truth Social.

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, ​known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT’, but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped.”
Iran’s top joint military command said the U.S. had no role in determining the future of the waterway and would not be allowed to intervene. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X that Tehran was the guardian of the strait and would remain so “forever”, adding in response to Trump’s comments that: “20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”

‘HOSTILE’ U.S. VESSEL

Soon after the U.S. military announced renewed strikes on Iran, Iranian media reported explosions in ​the port city of Bandar Abbas, Iran’s Kish and Qeshm islands and on Abu Musa Island in the Gulf.
Iran’s Fars news agency said residents in the city of Jam in Iran’s Bushehr province also heard several explosions but that the exact location of the blasts ​was not clear. No casualties were reported. Iranian media reports of explosions continued for more than three hours.

Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province was hit by U.S. projectiles early on Tuesday, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported, citing a provincial security official, adding that four people were wounded and rescue operations ‌were underway. A ⁠loud explosion was also heard in Iran’s southern city of Bushehr, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.
Iran’s state TV cited the Iranian army as saying that it targeted a “hostile” U.S. vessel with cruise missiles and U.S. facilities and equipment in Kuwait with drones. Iranian media also said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shot down a U.S. MQ-1 drone over Hormuz, while sirens sounded early on Tuesday in Bahrain – home to another U.S. military base.
The incidents, which followed earlier exchanges of missile and drone attacks, extended the hostilities that followed Iran’s announcement at the weekend that it was closing the vital waterway, casting further doubt on an interim deal to halt the war and driving oil prices higher.
The U.N. shipping agency pushed back against Trump’s proposal, saying it opposes any fees for straits used in international navigation and stressing that there is no ​legal basis for introducing mandatory tolls on strait transits.
Trump has previously ​suggested the U.S. could charge tolls on shipping through the ⁠strait, but has not done so and it remains unclear whether he would follow through this time.
The U.S. Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center said the blockade would take effect at 2000 GMT on Tuesday and apply to all vessel traffic regardless of flag, covering the entire Iranian coastline including ports and oil terminals.
It said the measure would not impede neutral transit passage through the strait to or from non-Iranian ​destinations, and that humanitarian shipments would be permitted subject to inspection.
The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and U.S. Consulate General in Dubai have cancelled consular appointments from July 13 to 15 due ​to the regional security situation, the embassy ⁠said in a security alert.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-escalates-attacks-us-bases-gulf-states-warns-more-incidents-strait-2026-07-13/

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that the U.S. would ​take out Pickaxe Mountain in Iran, as he ‌warned that Washington would continue to hit the country hard.
“We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ​ready,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh ​Hewitt Show.

“We’re watching (Pickaxe Mountain) closely. We see no ⁠activity there. They’re not doing well with their nuclear ​situation. Every time we hear about it, we blow ​it up. So they don’t like talking about it. But we’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon,” Trump said.

Pickaxe Mountain, located ​near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, is ​a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes that ‌experts ⁠assess as beyond the reach of the most powerful bunker buster bombs in the U.S. arsenal.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-says-us-will-take-out-pickaxe-mountain-iran-2026-07-13/