Russia closing Polish consulate in Kaliningrad in tit-for-tat move
In May, Poland ordered Russia’s consulate in Krakow to shut after accusations Moscow orchestrated fire at Warsaw shopping centre. Russia says it will close Poland’s consulate in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, after Warsaw decided to shut down the Russian consulate in Krakow. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the move on Friday. This follows Poland ordering the Russian consulate in the southern city of Krakow to shut in May after authorities accused Moscow of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a Warsaw shopping centre last year. The May 12, 2024, arson destroyed more than 1,000 shops at the Marywilska 44 centre, but no one was injured. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused Russian special services of involvement, saying there was evidence they had committed a “reprehensible act of sabotage” against the centre. Russia denied any involvement in the attack. In May, Russia promised an “adequate response” to Poland’s move, and on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said it was “withdrawing consent for the functioning of the Consulate General of Poland in Kaliningrad from August 29”. It also said Poland’s charge d’affaires in Russia was summoned and handed a formal note announcing the move, citing “unfriendly” and “unjustified” actions by the Polish government. “This step was caused by the unfounded and hostile actions of the Polish side, expressed in the reduction of the Russian consular presence on the territory of Poland,” it added. Strained ties Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pawel Wronski said Russia’s decision to close the consulate was unjustified. Advertisement The possibility of this decision “was taken into account by the Foreign Ministry”, he told reporters on Friday. But he added that this “doesn’t mean that it is a legitimate decision”. “Unlike Russia, Poland does not engage in sabotage, cyberattacks or conduct actions against the Russian state,” he said. He added that Poland would “respond adequately” to the decision, without elaborating. Diplomatic ties between Moscow and Warsaw have been historically strained and have frayed further over Russia’s war in Ukraine. Poland, a NATO and European Union member, is one of the main countries through which Western nations supply weapons and ammunition to Kyiv. In May 2024, Poland imposed restrictions on the movements of Russian diplomats on its soil due to Moscow’s “involvement” in what it called a “hybrid war”. Poland later ordered the closure of Russia’s consulate in Poznan and said it was willing to close the other consulates if acts of “terrorism” continued. In January, Russia closed the Polish consulate in St Petersburg in retaliation. Apart from the embassies, both countries now only have one consulate left on their respective territories. Adblock test (Why?)
Democrats publish leaked Justice Department messages on US deportation push
Democrats in the United States Senate have released a string of text messages and email correspondences that they say raises questions about the executive branch’s commitment to complying with court orders. On Thursday, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, released what he described as “whistleblower” evidence about government lawyer Emil Bove. In his role as acting deputy attorney general for the Department of Justice (DOJ), Bove directed his colleagues to ignore or mislead courts about President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts, according to Durbin. “Text messages, email exchanges, and documents show that the Department of Justice misled a federal court and disregarded a court order,” Durbin wrote on social media. “Mr Bove spearheaded this effort, which demanded attorneys violate their ethical duty of candor to the court.” Bove – formerly a personal lawyer to President Trump during his criminal trials – was recently nominated to serve in a lifetime position as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. But the Senate must first vote to confirm him to the role. “Emil Bove belongs nowhere near the federal bench,” Durbin wrote. “This vote will be a litmus test for Senate Judiciary Republicans.” Durbin indicated the emails and texts he released come from a Justice Department source: Most of the names in the correspondences have been redacted. But they appear to corroborate allegations made in a complaint in June by Erez Reuveni, a Justice Department lawyer who worked under Bove until his dismissal in April. Advertisement In his complaint, Reuveni alleged that Bove told Justice Department lawyers that they “would need to consider telling the courts ‘f*** you’” if they interfered with President Trump’s deportation plans. The expletive came up in the context of Trump’s controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a law that, until recently, had only been used in the context of war. Trump, however, has argued that undocumented immigration constituted an “invasion” and has attempted to deport people under the law’s authority, without allowing them to appeal their removal. According to Reuveni, Bove explained to the Justice Department that Trump planned to start the deportation flights immediately after invoking the Alien Enemies Act. He “stressed to all in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what”. Reuveni understood that interaction as an attempt to circumvent the power of the courts. In another instance, Reuveni said he was discouraged from asking questions about the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant wrongfully deported to El Salvador despite a court protection order. When Reuveni admitted before a Maryland court that he did not have “satisfactory” answers about Abrego Garcia’s return, he said Trump officials pressured him to make assertions against Abrego Garcia that “were not supported by law or the record”. He was fired shortly afterwards. The documents gathered by Senate Democrats appear to offer a look inside those incidents. In one series of emails, dated March 15, Reuveni responded to a notification that planes bearing deportees under the Alien Enemies Act were still in the air. “The judge specifically ordered us not to remove anyone in the class, and to return anyone in the air,” he wrote back. The emails reflected an injunction from District Judge James Boasberg barring deportations and ordering the planes to turn around. Nevertheless, the planes landed in El Salvador and delivered their human cargo to a maximum security prison, where many remain to this day. In another instance, a member of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) replied to an email thread by saying: “My take on these emails is that DOJ leadership and DOJ litigators don’t agree on the strategy. Please keep DHS out of it.” Text messages also show Reuveni and an unnamed colleague discussing Bove’s request to tell the courts “f*** you”. “Guess we are going to say f*** you to the court,” one text message reads. In another, the colleague appears to react to Trump officials lying before the court. “Oh sh**,” they write. “That was just not true.” Advertisement In an interview published with The New York Times on Thursday, Reuveni underscored the grave dangers posed by an executive branch that he sees as refusing to comply with judicial authority. “The Department of Justice is thumbing its nose at the courts, and putting Justice Department attorneys in an impossible position where they have to choose between loyalty to the agenda of the president and their duty to the court,” he told the Times. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has responded with defiance, repeating its claim that Reuveni is simply a “disgruntled employee” lashing out at the employer who fired him. “He’s a leaker asserting false claims seeking five minutes of fame, conveniently timed just before a confirmation hearing and a committee vote,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “No one was ever asked to defy a court order. This is another instance of misinformation being spread to serve a narrative that does not align with the facts.” Bove himself denied ever advising his colleagues to defy a court order. The Senate is set to decide on his confirmation to the circuit court in the coming weeks. If he passes the Senate Judiciary Committee – in a vote scheduled for July 17 – he will face a full vote on the Senate floor. Adblock test (Why?)
US widens public benefit restrictions for undocumented immigrants
Health Department says immigrants will lose access to 13 more federal programmes, including an educational project for low-income children. United States officials are cutting down further on undocumented immigrants’ access to healthcare programmes and benefits as part of President Donald Trump’s widening immigration crackdown. On Thursday, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was broadening its interpretation of a 1996 law that prohibits most immigrants from receiving federal public benefits. The decision means that undocumented immigrants will no longer be eligible for an additional 13 programmes. They include Head Start, a pre-school educational programme, and projects that address family planning, mental health, substance abuse and efforts to reduce homelessness. “For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivise illegal immigration,” HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said on Thursday. “Today’s action changes that – it restores integrity to federal social programmes, enforces the rule of law and protects vital resources for the American people.” Critics fear the added restrictions will further marginalise a vulnerable group of immigrants who often have scarce resources, exacerbating public health crises in the US. The new restrictions relate to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. That law — passed under Democratic President Bill Clinton — barred those living in the country without valid immigration documents and those on temporary visas, like students or foreign workers, from receiving major benefits from the federal government. Advertisement However, the scope of the restrictions was not spelled out, as the law did not define what counted as “federal public benefits”. To make things clearer, the HHS issued a legal interpretation in 1998, which prevented access to 31 programmes. Medicaid — an insurance programme for low-income households — and Social Security were among them, as was the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In a statement released on Thursday, the HHS claimed “the 1998 policy improperly narrowed the scope of PRWORA”, allowing undocumented immigrants to access programmes which “Congress intended only for the American people”. With Thursday’s additions, the total number of restricted programmes rises to 44. The HHS’s new policy, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period, will take effect when it is published in the Federal Register. Since starting his second presidential term in January, Donald Trump has made it a priority to tackle undocumented immigration. Critics have accused his administration of violating human rights and the US Constitution, as well as exceeding his presidential authority. As part of Trump’s campaign of mass deportation, for example, the president invoked a controversial wartime legislation to deport hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March. Opponents argue that Trump falsely declared undocumented immigration to be an “invasion” in order to justify denying the immigrants their right to due process. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,233
Here are the key events on day 1,233 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is how things stand on Friday, July 11: Fighting Russia’s escalation of drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities led to a three-year high in the number of civilians killed or wounded in June, the United Nations said. The UN verified at least 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded during the month – the highest combined toll since April 2022. Russia unleashed heavy air strikes on Ukraine, killing two and wounding 26, before a conference in Rome at which Kyiv won billions of dollars in aid pledges, and US-Russian talks at which Washington voiced frustration with Moscow over the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s latest assault involved about 400 drones and 18 missiles, primarily targeting the capital. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it had hit “military-industrial” targets in Kyiv as well as military airfields. It denied targeting civilians, although towns and cities have been hit regularly in the war, and thousands have been killed. Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defences had brought down four Ukrainian drones bound for the Russian capital. Three airports in the Moscow area – Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky – suspended operations temporarily but later resumed, Russia’s aviation authority said. In the Kursk region in western Russia, Acting Governor Alexander Khinstein said a Ukrainian drone had killed a man in his own home, two days after four people died in a drone attack on the city’s beach. Russia’s Defence Ministry said 14 drones were shot down over the Bryansk region and another eight over the Belgorod region, which border Ukraine. A later ministry bulletin said 26 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Kursk and Bryansk regions. The Vatican’s embassy in Kyiv was slightly damaged during Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital on Thursday, the embassy said in a statement. Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Vatican’s envoy to Ukraine, told Vatican News he had witnessed drones circling the embassy grounds and heard several explosions. Advertisement Weapons United States President Donald Trump, for the first time since returning to office, will send weapons to Kyiv under a presidential power frequently used by his predecessor, two sources familiar with the decision told Reuters. The package could include defensive Patriot missiles and offensive medium-range rockets, the sources said. Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has signed a previously announced deal to supply Ukraine with more than 5,000 air defence missiles from Thales. The deal was first announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on March 2. Politics and diplomacy Participants in a Rome conference on the economic recovery of Ukraine have pledged more than 10 billion euros ($11.7bn) to help the war-torn country, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced. Meloni said Russia should face tougher sanctions to increase pressure on it to halt the war in Ukraine. She also said that firms that have helped Russia fund its war on Ukraine by doing business with the country should be excluded from profiting from Ukraine’s reconstruction. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had reinforced the message that Moscow should show more flexibility in dealing with Kyiv during his 50-minute talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ summit in Malaysia. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged President Trump to “stay with us” in backing Ukraine and Europe. Speaking in Rome, where a Ukraine summit was being held, Merz said Germany was prepared to buy Patriot air defence systems from the US and provide them to Kyiv. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has complained that the Trump administration’s contradictory actions and words made it difficult to work with, though Moscow was dedicated to working on improving ties with Washington. However, he denied that there was a slowdown in efforts to normalise US ties. France and the United Kingdom agreed to reinforce cooperation over their respective nuclear arsenals, as the two European countries seek to respond to growing threats to the continent and uncertainty over their US ally. The deal was reached after French President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day visit to the UK. The UK has announced that Paris would be the new headquarters for the so-called “coalition of the willing” to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, with plans under way for a future coordination cell in Kyiv. Zelenskyy said he would replace Ukraine’s ambassador to the US and was considering his defence minister, Rustem Umerov, for the post. He said the main task would be to strengthen Ukraine in its defence efforts in the war against Russia, and Umerov was a key figure in doing that. Hungary has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador after a report that a Hungarian-Ukrainian dual citizen was beaten to death during forced mobilisation, an allegation Ukraine’s army rejected, saying he died of a pulmonary embolism. Beijing said it was still “verifying” the case of a Chinese father and son detained by Ukraine for allegedly trying to smuggle navy missile technology out of the war-torn country. Relations between Kyiv and Beijing, a key Russian ally, are strained, with Ukraine accusing China of enabling Russia’s invasion through trade and of supplying technology, including for deadly drone attacks. Advertisement Crime A senior Ukrainian spy officer has been shot in a residential car park in Kyiv before his assailant fled on foot in broad daylight, according to authorities and video footage verified by Reuters. Kyiv’s police force said it was working to identify the gunman and that “measures are being taken to detain him”. Adblock test (Why?)
Why is India forcing 80 million people to justify their right to vote?
Mumbai, India – A move by India’s top election body, the Election Commission of India (ECI), to re-scrutinise nearly 80 million voters’ documents in a bid to weed out “foreign illegal immigrants” has prompted widespread fears of mass disenfranchisement and deportations in the world’s largest democracy. On June 24, the ECI announced that each of the nearly 80 million voters – equivalent to the entire population of the United Kingdom – in the eastern Indian state of Bihar will need to re-register as voters by July 26. Those unable to do so will lose their right to vote and will be reported as “suspected foreign nationals”, as per the ECI directive and could even face jail or deportation. The state’s legislative elections are expected to be held in October or November. Critics say the move is a backdoor route to implement the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has proposed in the past as a way to identify “illegal immigrants” and deport them. The move comes at a time when thousands of largely Bengali-speaking Muslims have been rounded up, and many of them have been deported from India as alleged Bangladeshi immigrants in the last few weeks. Al Jazeera sent questions to the ECI about the move, but the commission has not responded, despite reminder emails. Patna District Magistrate Thiyagarajan S M talks to voters holding the forms they are required to submit to the Electoral Commission to confirm their right to vote, in Patna, Bihar, on June 29, 2025 [Santosh Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images] What is the controversy about? Bihar is India’s poorest state in terms of per capita income (PDF), and more than one-third of its population falls under the Indian government’s threshold of poverty. Advertisement But as the country’s third-most populous state, it is also one of India’s most politically important battlegrounds. Since 2005, Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power in Bihar in alliance with a regional party, the Janata Dal (United) (JDU), for the most part, apart from short periods of rule by opposition-led alliances. Coming ahead of state elections, the election monitor’s move has led to confusion, panic and a scramble for documents among some of the country’s poorest communities in rural Bihar, say critics. Opposition politicians as well as civil society groups have argued that wide portions of Bihar’s population will not be able to provide citizenship documents within the short window they have to justify their right to vote, and would be left disenfranchised. India’s principal opposition party, the Indian National Congress, along with its Bihar alliance partner, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), called for a shutdown of Bihar on Wednesday, with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi leading the protests in Bihar’s capital, Patna. A clutch of petitioners, including opposition leaders and civil society groups, have approached India’s Supreme Court asking for the exercise to be scrapped. The court is expected to hear these petitions on Thursday. The ruling BJP has been alleging a massive influx of Muslim immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar and has backed the ECI’s move. In fact, it has demanded that the move be replicated across the country. Al Jazeera reached out to BJP’s chief spokesperson and media in-charge, Anil Baluni, through text and email for the party’s comments. He has not responded yet. But political observers and election transparency experts caution that the move carries deep implications for the future of Indian democracy and the rights of voters. Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram, AICC Media and Publicity Chairman Pawan Khera and AICC Bihar Incharge Krishna Allavaru address the media during a briefing on the issue of the Bihar voter list revision at Indira Bhawan on July 3, 2025 in New Delhi, India [Sonu Mehta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images] What is the Election Commission’s justification for the move? The ECI’s June 24 announcement said that the exercise was meant to ensure that “no ineligible voter is included in the roll”, and cited reasons like rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, new voters, dead voters and “the inclusion of foreign illegal immigrants” in the list as reasons. The last such full revision was carried out in 2003, but since then, electoral rolls have been regularly updated and cleaned, including last year before the national elections. Advertisement According to the ECI, those voters who were on the 2003 voter list have to only re-submit voter registration forms, while those who were added later, depending on when they were added, would have to submit proof of their date of birth as well as place of birth as well, along with proofs of one or both their parents. Of the 79.6 million-odd voters in Bihar, the ECI has estimated that only 29 million voters would have to verify their credentials. But independent estimates suggest this number could be upwards of 47 million. The exercise involves ECI officials first going door-to-door and distributing enumeration forms to each registered voter. The voters are then expected to produce documents, attach these documents and submit them along with the forms to election officials, all this by July 26. The draft new electoral roll will be published on August 1, and those who have been left out will get a month more to object. Jagdeep Chhokar, from the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a 25-year-old nonprofit that has been working towards electoral reforms, said the ECI’s choice to scrutinise all new voters added since 2003 casts a shadow on all the elections that the state has seen since then. “Is the ECI saying that there has been a huge scam in Bihar’s voter list since 2003? Is it saying that everyone who got elected from Bihar in these 22 years is not valid, then?” asked Chhokar. What is the criticism of this exercise? First, the timeline: to reach out to nearly 80 million at least twice, within a month, is a herculean task in itself. The ECI has appointed nearly 100,000 officers and roped in nearly 400,000 volunteers for the task. Second,
Texas mourns flood victims at vigil as search continues for dozens missing
Texans gather in Kerrville to mourn 120 flood victims and pray for more than 160 still missing. Several hundred people have gathered in Tivy Antler Stadium in Texas to mourn the many lives lost and pray for those still missing from the catastrophic flash floods that battered the state over the United States July Fourth holiday. The vigil, held on Wednesday in Kerrville – one of the worst-affected areas – brought together grieving families, local clergy, and volunteers. “Our communities were struck with tragedy literally in the darkness,” youth minister Wyatt Wentrcek told the crowd. “Middle of the night.” At least 120 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 160 still unaccounted for, making it the deadliest inland flooding in the US since 1976. No survivors have been found since Friday. Blue shirts bearing the school’s slogan, Tivy Fight Never Die, and green ribbons for Camp Mystic – a century-old all-girls Christian camp where at least 27 campers and counsellors died – were worn by many attendees. Officials said five campers and one counsellor from the camp remain unaccounted for. Ricky Pruitt of the Kerrville Church of Christ addressed the crowd, noting the emotional weight of holding the vigil at a stadium more often used to celebrate sporting triumphs. “Tonight is very different than all of those nights,” he said, as reported by The Associated Press. People attend a Catholic rosary service for the Texas flood victims at Notre Dame Catholic Church in Kerr County, Kerrville, Texas, USA, July 8, 2025 [Dustin Safranek/EPA] As mourners held each other and wiped their tears, search crews continued scouring the Guadalupe River – on foot, horseback, and by air – for those still missing. Search dogs were deployed to sniff through trees and piles of debris. Officials admitted hope of finding survivors had all but faded, with efforts now focused on giving families closure. Advertisement Worst flood in 50 years Meteorologist Bob Henson said the disaster ranks as the most lethal inland flood in nearly five decades, surpassing the 1976 Big Thompson Canyon flood in Colorado, which killed 144. Governor Greg Abbott said many of those who were in the Hill Country during the holiday were never formally registered at a camp or hotel, making it harder to account for everyone. He has faced growing criticism over the state’s flood preparedness, with many asking why warnings were delayed and evacuation measures insufficient. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha assured residents that accountability would come but said the immediate priority remains to recover the missing. Abbott has urged state legislators to approve a new flood warning system and boost emergency communication networks. He is pushing for the issue to be addressed during a special legislative session already scheduled to begin on July 21. He also called for financial aid to support recovery efforts. For years, local officials have debated installing a flood siren system, but concerns over cost and noise meant the idea was shelved – a decision now under intense scrutiny. US President Donald Trump has pledged full federal support and is expected to visit the affected areas on Friday. Adblock test (Why?)
Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders meet for peace talks in UAE
Draft deal to end bitter decades-long conflict agreed 4 months ago, but timeline for sealing it remains uncertain. The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks in the United Arab Emirates after nearly four decades of conflict. The meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, confirmed by both their governments, comes after the two countries finalised a draft peace deal in March. The South Caucasus countries have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Peace talks began after Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh in a lightning offensive in September 2023, prompting a huge exodus of almost all of the territory’s 100,000 Armenians, who fled to Armenia. But the timeline for sealing a deal remains uncertain. Ceasefire violations along the heavily militarised 1,000km (620-mile) shared border surged soon after the draft deal was announced, though there have been no reported violations recently. In a potential stumbling block to a deal, Azerbaijan has said it wants Armenia to change its constitution, which it says makes implicit claims to Azerbaijani territory. Yerevan denies this, but Pashinyan has repeatedly stressed in recent months – most recently this week – that the South Caucasus country’s founding charter needs to be updated. Azerbaijan also asked for a transport corridor through Armenia, linking the bulk of its territory to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani enclave that borders Baku’s ally, Turkiye. Advertisement Pashinyan and Aliyev’s last encounter was in May, on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Tirana, Albania. In June, Pashinyan made a rare visit to Istanbul to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a meeting Armenia described as a “historic” step towards regional peace. This week, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope for a swift peace deal between the Caucasus neighbours. The outbreak of hostilities between the two countries in the late 1980s prompted mass expulsions of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim Azeris from Armenia, and Armenians, who are majority Christian, from Azerbaijan. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,232
Ukrainian air defence units were defending Kyiv against Russian drones early on Thursday for the second night running, with officials reporting a fire in a city-centre apartment building and drone fragments landing in different districts. At least two people were injured in the latest attacks, according to the AFP news agency. A Russian air strike killed three people and injured one in the front-line town of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s east, national emergency service officials said. A post on Telegram said the strike also destroyed a one-storey administrative building. Firefighters also extinguished blazes in four buildings, according to officials. Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which encompasses Kostiantynivka, said on Telegram that it was time to “take a responsible decision. Evacuate to less dangerous regions of Ukraine!”, amid Russia’s latest offensive westward. A five-year-old boy died of burns sustained in a Ukrainian drone strike on a beach in the Russian city of Kursk, regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram, raising the death toll in the attack to four, including a member of Russia’s National Guard. Russian forces advanced at key points along the front in eastern Ukraine, defeating Ukrainian units in at least six regions, including Donetsk and Kharkiv, and using missiles and drones to strike ammunition depots and airfields, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow said. It also claimed Russia captured a village in Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he held a “substantive” conversation with Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, in Rome shortly after Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv. Zelenskyy met Pope Leo at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where the pontiff told him that the Vatican was willing to host Russia-Ukraine peace talks. It was the Ukrainian leader’s second meeting with the pope in his two-month-old papacy. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will open the Rome conference on Ukraine on Thursday, with Zelenskyy and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen in attendance. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Dutch leader Dick Schoof and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis are also expected to attend. Merz has announced that he will make an offer of air defence systems to Ukraine during the Rome conference. Ukraine said it detained a Chinese father and son, both suspected of spying on its prized Neptune antiship missile programme, a key part of Kyiv’s growing domestic arms industry critical to its defence against Russian invaders. Kyiv has accused Beijing of helping the Kremlin’s war effort. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Kremlin had evidence that Ukraine has repeatedly used antipersonnel mines that have injured civilians. Ukraine in June announced its withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention banning the production and use of antipersonnel mines. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov will visit North Korea this weekend, the latest in a series of high-profile visits by top Moscow officials as the two countries deepen military ties, according to Zakharova. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Lavrov on Thursday on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a senior US State Department official said. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump assails ex-FBI, CIA heads amid reports of criminal probe
US president attacks John Brennan and James Comey amid reports two men are under investigation over Trump-Russia probe. United States President Donald Trump has suggested that former CIA director John Brennan and ex-FBI chief James Comey may have to “pay a price” amid reports that the two men are under criminal investigation. Asked about reports on Wednesday that Brennan and Comey are being investigated by the FBI, Trump said he did not know anything other than what he had read in the news, but he viewed both as “very dishonest people”. “I think they’re crooked as hell and maybe they have to pay a price for that,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with African leaders at the White House. “I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people, so whatever happens happens.” Fox News, which first reported on the probe, said the two men were being scrutinised over unspecified “potential wrongdoing” related to investigations into the 2016 Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. Multiple other outlets, including CNN and The New York Times, confirmed the investigation. The FBI declined to comment. The US Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview with MSNBC, Brennan said he had not been contacted by the authorities, but any investigation was “clearly” politically biased. “I think this is, unfortunately, a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicisation of the intelligence community, of the national security process,” Brennan said. “And quite frankly, I’m really shocked that individuals are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility, their decency.” Advertisement Comey did not respond to a request for comment sent through his website. Trump has repeatedly hit out at Brennan and Comey over their role in what he has dubbed the “Russia hoax”. A 2019 report released by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Trump, but did not find that his campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Moscow. Adblock test (Why?)
More than 100 premature babies in Gaza at risk as hospitals run out of fuel
Two of Gaza’s largest hospitals have issued desperate pleas for help, warning that fuel shortages caused by Israel’s siege could soon turn the medical centres into “silent graveyards”. The warnings from al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in southern Khan Younis came on Wednesday, as Israeli forces continued to bombard the Palestinian enclave, killing at least 74 people. Muhammad Abu Salmiyah, the director of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest facility, told reporters that the lives of more than 100 premature babies and some 350 dialysis patients were at risk. “Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil,” Salmiyah said. “The hospital will cease to be a place of healing and will become a graveyard for those inside,” he said. Abu Salmiyah went on to accuse Israel of “trickle-feeding” fuel to Gaza’s hospitals, and said that al-Shifa’s dialysis department had already been shut down to conserve power for the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which cannot be without electricity for even a few minutes. In Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex said it, too, has entered “the crucial and final hours” due to the fuel shortages. “With the fuel counter nearing zero, doctors have entered the battle to save lives in a race against time, death, and darkness,” the hospital said in a statement. “Medical teams fight to the last breath. They have only their conscience and hope in those who hear the call – save Nasser Medical Complex before it turns into a silent graveyard for patients who could have been saved.” Advertisement Mohammed Sakr, a spokesman for the hospital, told the Reuters news agency that the facility needs 4,500 litres (1,189 gallons) of fuel per day to function, but it now has only 3,000 litres (790 gallons) – enough to last 24 hours. Sakr said doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning, and the sweat from staff is dripping into patients’ wounds, risking infection. A video from Nasser Hospital, posted on social media, shows doctors sweating profusely as they perform a surgery. “Everything is turned off here. The air conditioning is turned off. No fans,” a doctor says in the video as he demonstrates conditions in the ward. “All the staff are exhausted, they are complaining [about the] high temperature.” Israel’s relentless bombardment has decimated Gaza’s healthcare system in the 21 months since it launched its assault on the Palestinian enclave in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Since then, there have been more than 600 recorded attacks on health facilities in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of May this year, only 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, with 94 percent of all hospitals damaged or destroyed. Israeli forces have also killed more than 1,500 health workers in Gaza, and detained 185, according to official figures. The WHO, meanwhile, has described Gaza’s health sector as being “on its knees”, with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties from Israeli attacks. Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that “hundreds” of people could die in the territory if fuel supplies are not brought in urgently. This includes “dozens” of premature babies who could die within the next two days, he said. Dialysis and intensive care patients would also lose their lives, he said, adding that the injuries of the wounded were worsening amid deteriorating conditions, while diseases like meningitis were spreading. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recently returned from Gaza, said, “You can have the best hospital staff on the planet”, but if they are denied medicine and fuel, operating a health facility “becomes an impossibility”. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,575 people and wounded 136,879, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive. Adblock test (Why?)