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Protests, revolution in Strip cannot succeed while Hamas remains in control, Gazans tell 'Post' Israel hits IRGC crypto funding network in major counterterror operation Trump briefed on all-out war options in Iran but opts to stick with talks After U.S.-Iran war, Oman said to propose Hormuz fee plan Iran says it won't meet with U.S. envoys, clouding prospects for peace deal Middle East Political Information Network’s Eric R. Mandel: Iran’s ceasefire trap As war stalls, Putin concedes he never cut a deal with Trump in Alaska Russia approved secret China military training at top level, sources say NATO allies have grown silent on rights concerns in Turkey A dispute over opening Hormuz drives a wedge into U.S.-Saudi Relations Former Kurdistan Regional Government official Heyrsh Abdulrahman: Why is Iraq hosting the Islamic Republic’s farewell? Rwanda-Backed rebels have 30,000 fighters, UN experts sayIn The News
Israel
Israel’s Finance Ministry said on Tuesday it was launching a 1.6 billion shekel ($537 million) programme to support the country’s technology and export sectors, which have been hurt by a rapid appreciation of the shekel. – Reuters
A leading Israeli general who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war Cabinet after accusing him of lacking a strategy in Gaza has emerged as one of the premier’s most serious challengers in elections scheduled for the fall. – Associated Press
A press freedom group, the Committee to Protect Journalists says it is conducting a review of its database of journalists killed during Israel’s war against Hamas, after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries that listed some individuals originally identified as journalists as terrorists. – New York Sun
The Israel Defense Forces shut down the headquarters of a Palestinian nonprofit in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, saying it supported terrorism, Palestinian officials said. – Agence France-Presse
Rabbi Amos Guetta, a well-known rabbi in Netanya, was stabbed to death on Wednesday inside a yeshiva on Shimon Bar Yochai Street in the city following morning prayers. – Jerusalem Post
“Voluntary migration” from Gaza remains on the table, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday night, while he declined to rule out renewed Jewish settlement in the strip. – Jerusalem Post
The IDF’s failure to defend Gaza border communities on October 7 was also at the root of failures in evacuations from combat zones, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman found in an audit published on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
An American citizen in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of maintaining contact with Iranian intelligence operatives and carrying out paid assignments that included photographing sensitive sites in Israel, the Israel Police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Tuesday. – Jerusalem Post
“People are simply too afraid to protest, even now after all what they’ve been through,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “This is because Hamas is still here, controlling people’s lives, and nobody can say a word,” he said. – Jerusalem Post
A pair of Israeli Air Force fighter jets was scrambled on Tuesday to escort a commercial flight that had departed Warsaw and was en route to Tel Aviv, after the plane appeared to send an alert that it had been hijacked. – Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops in the southern Lebanon security zone on Tuesday that the military would remain in the area for the foreseeable future, crediting the soldiers’ work for the recent agreement between Israel, Lebanon, and the US that demands Hezbollah’s disarmament to enable an Israeli withdrawal. – Times of Israel
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has signed sanctions orders against 37 cryptocurrency wallets identified as part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) terrorist financing network. – Arutz Sheva
Israeli security officials are expressing growing concern over the continued use of drones to smuggle contraband into the Gaza Strip, following reports that dozens of drones have successfully crossed the border since the beginning of the year. – Arutz Sheva
Editorial: Netanyahu deserves credit for articulating that aspiration. But aspirations alone cannot erase years of political polarization or convince a skeptical public overnight. If he truly believes Israel requires a broad national government, then he should begin laying the foundations for one through his conduct, his rhetoric, and his willingness to pursue genuine consensus rather than simply promise it. – Jerusalem Post
Adam Scott Bellos writes: If Iran is still standing, Hezbollah is still standing, the Iranian people are still abandoned, and Israel is still being asked to wait while its enemies breathe, then Israelis have every right to ask what exactly was won. The 60-day clock is ticking. But the real clock is older than this deal, older than Trump, older than Netanyahu, and older than the American-Israeli alliance itself. It is the clock Jews have heard every time someone else promised to manage our danger for us. And it always ends the same way. – Jerusalem Post
Duvi Honig writes: Critics, however, argue that Iran’s long-term strategy has often been to outlast its negotiating partners, betting that future American administrations may be less willing to apply maximum pressure than the current one. For that reason, any diplomatic initiative must be measured not by its promises, but by verifiable actions and meaningful enforcement. Israel’s security cannot depend on optimistic assumptions or the hope that Iran will voluntarily abandon ambitions it has pursued for decades. Testing Iran’s intentions may be a legitimate negotiating strategy. But allowing Iran to use diplomacy simply to buy time would carry consequences that could extend well beyond this administration-and those consequences would be felt first and foremost by Israel. – Arutz Sheva
Iran
President Trump has weighed a return to all-out war with Iran, holding multiple conversations in recent days with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine on more strikes, but has decided to stick with diplomatic talks for now, according to U.S. officials familiar with the discussion. – Wall Street Journal
A power struggle inside Tehran is threatening U.S.-Iran peace talks, with civilian leaders seeking billions in frozen assets and hardline military officials pressing for control of the Strait of Hormuz, said officials familiar with the negotiations. – Wall Street Journal
Iran and U.S.-allied Oman are moving forward with plans to collect payment for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, despite public American objections, according to an Iranian official and four diplomats with knowledge of the matter. – New York Times
One of Iran’s negotiators in talks with the United States, Kazem Gharibabadi, reasserted claims this week of permanent Iranian control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and rejected internationally recognized shipping routes established in 1968. – New York Times
Iran said on Tuesday it would not meet with top U.S. envoys who flew to the region following an outbreak of hostilities, clouding the prospects for a lasting peace between the two countries. – Reuters
Shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war could keep global liquefied natural gas trade flat this year if flows return to normal in the next three months, Shell said on Tuesday, though it expects growth to resume in 2027 and demand to rise sharply by 2050. – Reuters
Giant portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s late supreme leader killed in US-Israeli airstrikes, hung from Tehran’s Grand Mosalla on Tuesday as workers raced to prepare for his grand funeral ceremony. – Agence France-Presse
Attackers shot dead two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at their home in the western city of Paveh, near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region, state media reported Tuesday. – Agence France-Presse
Speaking to a variety of top officials with knowledge regarding these issues, The Jerusalem Post’s impressions regarding the threats start with the most significant: the Islamic Republic’s 400-plus kilograms of 60% highly enriched uranium. – Jerusalem Post
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf threatened the United States on Wednesday, warning that “any violation of the clause ending the war will be met with a reciprocal response.” – Arutz Sheva
Joseph Bosco writes: Deterrence and defensive clearance measures will be needed against an adversary’s asymmetric operations. They should be accompanied by a credible U.S. commitment to escalate as necessary to defend vital U.S. and Western interests. Trump must wield his unorthodox diplomatic and deal-making skills to convince our allies of the need to cooperate fully in collective defense planning — in advance of the threat, not after kinetics are already imminent or underway. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who said he greatly admires Trump’s decisive leadership qualities, would be a willing, capable and supportive partner. The Trump administration needs to finish the task of regime change in Iran, so that one major hostile player can be removed from the equation. – The Hill
Eric Mandel writes: The stakes extend far beyond the Persian Gulf. America’s response will be closely watched in Beijing, Moscow, and other capitals. If Washington appears unwilling to enforce freedom of navigation against a regional power, larger revisionist states may draw conclusions that increase the likelihood of broader conflict. What happens in the Middle East rarely stays in the Middle East. The one caveat is that, with an unconventional US president, he may at any time determine that enough is enough. Let’s hope so. – Jerusalem Post
Salem Alketbi writes: Thus, rebalancing strategic attention is urgent. This requires integrating the chemical and biological weapons file into the core of security assessment, strengthening civilian and military detection and response capabilities, developing early warning centers and health-security coordination, and conducting regular joint exercises for managing such scenarios. Supporting international efforts to enhance transparency and oversight of dual-use activities also remains an essential part of any effective preventive strategy. – Jerusalem Post
Steve Apfel writes: Like Christopher Marlow’s Mephistopheles, and later Hitler, Iran will never strike a bad deal. But Trump’s MOU bid or bet is more reckless than the deal Dr Faustus made. The medic gambled his own soul. Trump gambles with the lives of hundreds of millions. Iran signs pacts with blood, and that’s another thing he ought to bear in mind. Iran likes to break its word before signatures have time to dry, another thing to bear in mind. In short, pacts with crazies and the paper they’re written on are equivalent in value. The fate of Faustus was eternal damnation. But the gambling medic was not the President of America. Faustus, Mr President, sealed his own fate, not the fate of mankind. – Arutz Sheva
Russia and Ukraine
Fuel shortages across Russia have triggered a new political challenge for President Vladimir Putin, as a relentless Ukrainian drone campaign aimed at the country’s oil refineries has brought the war home for most ordinary Russians. – Wall Street Journal
Russia’s war in Ukraine is stalling — on the battlefield and in the corridors of diplomacy. For months, high-ranking Russian officials insisted that a path to ending the war in Ukraine — largely on Moscow’s maximalist terms — had been decided at a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump last August in Anchorage. Only Ukraine’s intransigence stood as an obstacle. – Washington Post
Ukraine is asking its European Union partners to direct €6.6 billion ($7.5 billion) available under the European Peace Facility to military aid, to take advantage of what is sees as a six-to-nine month “window of opportunity” on the battlefield. – Reuters
China’s covert military training of Russian forces last year was personally approved by President Vladimir Putin’s defence minister and directly involved at least four Russian and Chinese generals, according to two European officials and documents seen by Reuters. – Reuters
Ukraine has expanded the range and intensity of its missile strikes inside Russia, triggering alerts across nearly half of the regions in the world’s largest country so far this year. – Bloomberg
Denmark said it will provide Ukraine with an additional 4.4 billion kroner ($670 million) in military support, underscoring its commitment to the country as the war to defend itself against Russia drags on. – Bloomberg
The Russian regime is likely to remain a threat to its neighbors well after President Vladimir Putin’s time in office ends, the head of Sweden’s military intelligence agency said. – Bloomberg
Ukraine believes it has wrested back the initiative on the battlefield by striking Russian troops, logistics hubs and oil infrastructure. Now it is racing to secure billions more in Western military aid before Moscow adapts. – Politico
Bernard-Henri Lévy writes: But what do France’s and America’s domestic Putinists think of it? What do those who, in recent opinion pieces in France, called for an “awakening” and urged us to “renew ties” with an “eternal Russia,” forever “a friend of France,” have to say? Those articles, those appeals for “de-escalation” and “peace,” those outstretched hands toward a country that seeks, in an increasingly undisguised manner, our destruction and that of Western values, already inspired profound unease. But what remains of this supposed wisdom, and what is the value of the argument that Russia protects “Christian values,” when it allies itself with the worst forms of Islamism? Only shame, cynicism and infamy. – Wall Street Journal
Tom Rogan writes: His false protestations to President notwithstanding, Putin is plainly uninterested in making concessions for peace. He wants Ukraine and the West to believe that he’ll continue to wage war until they yield. Putin will certainly engage in new provocations in an attempt to intimidate the West as he carries forward this effort. Alternatively, recognizing the Russian leader’s quiet admission that Ukraine is causing him trouble, the West — including the Trump administration — should boost support for Kyiv. And ensure credible deterrence against Russian escalation. – Washington Examiner
Phillips Payson O’Brien writes: For the past few days, Ukraine has been insisting that the future will only get worse for Russians. On June 25, Zelensky announced “a 40-day influence operation” meant to compel the “aggressor state” to end the war. This was Ukraine’s second strike on the Dubna facility in about a week. Zelensky’s announcement of the latest attacks taunted Vladimir Putin, declaring matter-of-factly that “relevant actions are also being prepared against other similar enemy facilities.” The intended message to the Russian public is that the drone campaign, which Ukraine coyly describes as “long-range sanctions” against the country that invaded its territory, is nowhere near plateauing. – The Atlantic
Hezbollah
A security deal between Israel and Lebanon risks entrenching a stalemate rather than resolving Israel’s underlying conflict with Hezbollah by tying Israel’s pullout from southern Lebanon to the Iran-backed terror group’s disarmament, a condition regional analysts and politicians say is unattainable. – Times of Israel
The US and its partners in the Gulf on Tuesday announced co-ordinated sanctions on five companies and 16 people linked to Hezbollah, the Treasury Department said. The Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre – whose member states also include the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – imposed the sanctions on two financial networks linked to the group. – The National
Anthony Elghossain and Grace Wermenbol write: Creating Levant working groups and commissions on cross-border challenges, they should support Lebanese, Syrian, and Jordanian ministers, staff, and officers — including those that Americans may train — who improve security and assert sovereignty on the ground. While engaging the Iranian regime to find an end to the war, moreover, U.S. officials should seek to obtain commitments to stop rearming Hizballah — and could withhold, make contingent, and monitor fund releases or sanctions relief on that basis. Though flawed and frayed, the Republic of Lebanon — not Hizballah — remains the best hope for its people. Leaders should work to realise that hope, so the people who have struggled to keep it alive may finally live with dignity and in peace. – War on the Rocks
Turkey
NATO is adjusting to a shifting security landscape and the United States is not seeking to leave the alliance, Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara next week. – Reuters
Five years ago, the West risked a full-blown diplomatic crisis with NATO ally Turkey when 10 ambassadors called for the release of a man they saw as a political prisoner, prompting an angry President Tayyip Erdogan to order their expulsion. – Reuters
Turkey’s president on Tuesday dismissed an Israeli proposal to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide, and turned the accusation back at Israel by pointing at the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. – Associated Press
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is due to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday ahead of a critical NATO summit in Ankara next week, according to two EU officials familiar with her plans. – Politico
Gulf States
More than 100 U.S. military aircraft were taking off from bases and warships across the Middle East as part of an effort to crack open the Strait of Hormuz this past spring when they hit a glitch: Saudi Arabia, whose bases and airspace were critical to the mission, was saying no. – Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund has swelled over the past half decade to hold $1.2 trillion in assets. But the Public Investment Fund’s vast portfolio is showing little in terms of returns on its investments, with most of the growth coming from government injections and borrowing, according to its annual report published Tuesday. – Wall Street Journal
The United Arab Emirates boosted crude oil and condensate exports to a record high in June, preliminary Kpler and Vortexa ship-tracking data showed, shortly after the Gulf producer left OPEC. – Reuters
US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff had positive discussions with regional leaders in Qatar and technical talks with Iran are moving ahead, according to a senior administration official, as the countries seek to ease tensions in the wake of recent attacks that imperiled an already fragile ceasefire. – Bloomberg
Or Horvitz writes: The Palestinian issue will continue to cast a shadow over any attempt to build a regional coalition. But it does not blunt the fact that Iran will remain the central threat to the moderate Arab states. The latest war only demonstrated that this threat is real, severe, and strategic – and that confronting it requires strategic insurance that is not only American. Israel must seize the “Aramco moment” and become precisely that insurance policy. – Jerusalem Post
Joshua Yaphe writes: But some of this should also be seen as a misunderstanding in Washington of Oman’s unique and precarious position on the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran declared that the strait was sovereign territory, Iran established an authority to administer tolls, Iran laid mines in the way of civil maritime traffic, Iran declared that it is not bound by the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and Iran decided that Oman would somehow participate in all of it. And if Oman does push back against that Iranian pressure in any substantive way, Iran can escalate to the point of seizing the entire strait. Unless America plans to maintain two aircraft carrier battle groups in the vicinity indefinitely, rebuilding the relationship with Oman is probably the only credible form of deterrence in the long term. – The National Interest
Middle East & North Africa
Some 400,000 Lebanese uprooted by war have returned to southern Lebanon, with more expected to follow in the coming week, the social affairs minister said on Tuesday, encouraged by a lull in the four-month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. – Reuters
An organization has begun restoring Damascus’s main Jewish cemetery, the group’s founder told AFP on Tuesday, as members of Syria’s dwindling community seek to revive their heritage after ex-ruler Bashar Assad’s ouster. – Agence France-Presse
Heyrsh Abdulrahman writes: A sovereign Iraq should not become the funeral route of the Islamic Republic. It should not allow Tehran to turn Iraqi holy cities into symbols of Iranian state power. And it should not ask Iraqi citizens to accept foreign domination wrapped in language. The real test of Iraq’s sovereignty is not what its leaders say in speeches. It is whether Iraqi institutions serve Baghdad or Tehran. If Iraq hosts the Islamic Republic’s farewell as an official state affair, it sends a dangerous message: Iran’s leader may be gone, but Iran’s grip on Iraq remains alive. – Washington Examiner
Edward M. Gabriel writes: The United States must lead an international effort to support Lebanon’s recovery, reconstruction, and humanitarian needs as quickly as possible. Importantly, the United States must establish a strong, verifiable coordination mechanism to assist the LAF in performing its tasks and to oversee and support LAF training, equipment, and intelligence gathering. Lebanon and Israel have taken a bold step forward that promises eventual security and stability for the people of both countries, and beneficial effects for the wider Middle East. But the agreement is fraught with challenges. It will take all three parties working in tandem and quickly for this agreement to succeed. – The National Interest
Jonah Brody, Giran Ozcan, and Rena Gabber write: The window for course correction is narrow but real. The integration framework remains in motion, Hamo and Kobani still hold their appointments, and CENTCOM has already established a precedent for direct counterterrorism cooperation with both Syrian state institutions and the formerly autonomous SDF brigades. The decisions Sharaa and Washington make in the coming months will determine whether Syria emerges as a more capable or more vulnerable state. The time to focus on ISIS, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the PMF is not when these threats become inescapable. It is now, while Damascus, the SDF, and Washington still have the architecture in place to roll them back together. – The National Interest
Korean Peninsula
South Korea’s Oceans Ministry said on Wednesday the cargo vessel Namu, operated by HMM, would exit the Strait of Hormuz in mid-July at the earliest once the damage sustained in an attack in May was repaired. – Reuters
South Korea’s antitrust regulator alleged on Wednesday that Alphabet’s Google abused its dominant position in the Android app marketplace to hinder competition and will recommend corrective measures and a financial penalty. – Reuters
South Korea’s parliament on Tuesday approved the appointment of Han Seong-sook as prime minister, elevating the former chief executive of South Korean internet giant Naver to the post. – Reuters
China
A private gauge showed China’s manufacturing activity grew at a slower pace in June due to tapered factory production, diverging from a pickup shown in a competing index. – Wall Street Journal
China is intensifying a campaign of pressure on Japan. In recent days, China has banned more Japanese companies from receiving Chinese exports. It and Russia flew bombers near southwest Japan. It has confirmed that two Japanese businessmen in northeastern China were detained. – New York Times
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway over July 2-8, and hold talks with his respective counterparts, said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson at a regular news conference on Tuesday. – Reuters
China’s ruling Communist Party must keep pace with changing circumstances while safeguarding the advances it has made, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday during celebrations for its 105th founding anniversary. – Reuters
Li Changguan has been appointed party chief of China’s civil affairs ministry, the ministry’s website showed on Tuesday. – Reuters
The European Union and China set an October deadline to make progress on trade disagreements, as tensions rise between the two economic powers. – Bloomberg
Jay McVann writes: While the People’s Liberation Army faces many challenges outlined above, so do Taiwan’s forces. They share a lack of recent combat experience. Under sustained attack, their forces would face problems with survivability, command, targeting, logistics, and morale. But the argument does not require Taiwan’s defenses to work perfectly. It requires only that enough survive to disrupt China’s landing operations. Taiwan and its partners should invest in exactly the capabilities that make each of the Three Nevers more costly: more coastal defense missiles and better low-altitude air defenses. These are the direct answer to the operational problem the Three Nevers describe. The best deterrent is not confidence that China will never try. It is Beijing’s doubt that any attempt would succeed. – War on the Rocks
South Asia
Unanswered questions about the whereabouts and well-being of Myanmar’s former leader and tainted pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi have emerged as an obstacle to a push by the country’s military junta to end years of international isolation. – Wall Street Journal
Indian oil marketing companies have cut the price of 19 kg commercial LPG cylinders for industrial clients by 183.5 rupees ($1.94), with no change in rates for household cylinders, local media reported on Wednesday – Reuters
Leaders of India’s youth Cockroach Janta Party neared two weeks of sit-in protests on Tuesday, backed by a well-known activist who has started a hunger strike in support of their demand for the resignation of the education minister. – Reuters
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will visit India from Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi focused on boosting trade, investment and strategic cooperation between the two Asian partners, the foreign ministry in Tokyo said. – Reuters
Fourteen children died after the roof of a tutoring centre collapsed in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday, rescue officials said, as authorities opened the way for a possible negligence investigation. – Reuters
Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday to use diplomacy to resolve their longstanding differences. A Foreign Ministry statement referred to the “tragic episode” of Pakistan airstrikes carried out on border areas. – Reuters
Pakistan’s government Tuesday warned that any attempt by India to deprive Pakistan of its share of water under the Indus Waters Treaty would amount to the “weaponization of water” and could have serious consequences for regional peace and security. – Associated Press
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, emphasizing the importance of freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz as Indian vessels gradually resume voyages to the Persian Gulf. – Bloomberg
Asia
An Australian man has been charged with homicide in Thailand, after a Thai teenager’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase and abandoned in the southeastern beachside city of Pattaya, a police official said in a video statement. – New York Times
A court in Indonesia sentenced the nation’s most prominent tech tycoon on Tuesday to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of abusing his power and causing losses to the state, in a closely watched case that has sent shock waves through the country’s elite and foreign business community. – New York Times
The South American trade bloc Mercosur launched negotiations with Japan on Tuesday for an economic partnership agreement as it seeks to expand trade ties following a recent deal with the European Union. – Reuters
A legal framework could be drawn up this year on regional cooperation to monitor and seek to adapt to falling water levels in the Caspian Sea, which is shrinking at an accelerated pace, a senior Azerbaijani water official told Reuters. – Reuters
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has promised a fundamental reshaping of the Central Asian nation under a new constitution that takes effect on Wednesday. – Reuters
New Caledonia’s non-independence coalition emerged as the largest bloc in the legislature after the French Pacific territory’s provincial elections, but fell short of an outright majority, leaving a small centrist Pacific party in the role of kingmaker, final results showed. – Reuters
Europe
The U.K. government said it would commit 15 billion pounds ($19.89 billion) in additional funding for its armed forces, moving to buttress its defense industry in the face of what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a more dangerous and volatile world. – Wall Street Journal
The European Union will limit the amount of tariff-free steel its member states can import from Wednesday, as part of officials’ efforts to protect its steel industry from oversupply from countries like China. – Wall Street Journal
The warning came booming over the airwaves, in a voice unmistakably from the American south: “Warship! Get out of our waters!” Norwegian Lieutenant Thomas Johannesen and his sailors were preparing for a simulated boarding operation — a core mission for their NATO maritime unit. – Reuters
Greek rescuers were searching for people trapped after a four-storey apartment block collapsed on Tuesday in the Petralona area of Athens, the fire brigade said. Four people who were earlier reported trapped had been located and were safe, but the operation continued, the service said. – Reuters
Germany should end a boycott of Russian oil and gas to bolster its flagging economy, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, Alice Weidel, told Reuters as she outlined the party’s ambitions to lead a national government. – Reuters
Germany is demanding a €400 billion ($456 billion) cut to the European Commission’s proposed budget of €2 trillion for 2028-2034, warning that the current plans are “unaffordable,” according to an internal government document seen by Reuters on Tuesday. – Reuters
The government of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was directing an ever greater share of spending toward politically-connected companies in the two years leading up to a landslide election defeat, a report from an anti-graft body showed. – Bloomberg
Romania’s president said he won’t nominate a new prime minister until political parties strike a deal to form a parliamentary majority, a move needed to break a months-long deadlock that’s stalled vital reforms tied to European Union funding. – Bloomberg
Europeans are increasingly pessimistic about the state of the world, but their belief in the EU is riding high, according to polling published Wednesday. – Politico
The French Green party announced Tuesday it would put forward a motion of no confidence against the government over its handling of last week’s record-breaking heat wave. – Politico
Adrian Wooldridge writes: Perhaps she may come to be credited, alongside Burnham, with saving Britain’s two-party system from shattering into permacrisis. The Tories are nervous that Burnham will bank his current popularity and call a general election for next spring. They also fret that, even if Burnham balks, Reform will continue to split the right and hand Labour victory in dozens of marginal constituencies. Nevertheless, they are more confident than they have been for years, convinced that the exodus to Farage will reverse and hopeful (perhaps too hopeful) that Burnham will prove to be an empty vessel. Above all they reckon they have a formidable chief in Badenoch. – Bloomberg
Lionel Laurent writes: The greater likelihood is that both extremes reaching the runoff would make for a grim choice — one that in some ways would be no choice at all. As former presidential adviser Jacques Attali recently wrote: Whether Melenchon or the National Rally’s Le Pen or Jordan Bardella, identity politics would come first and European solidarity would come last, bringing much joy to Europe’s Russian, American and Chinese enemies. A Frexit in all but name. Instead of treating Pigasse’s words as a forecast, the political establishment should see them as a warning: The center needs a plan and it needs it now. Free advice from investment bankers is usually to be treated with caution — a little less so this time. – Bloomberg
Africa
Last year, President Donald Trump falsely claimed there was a “genocide” against White farmers in South Africa and made White South Africans eligible for refugee status in the United States. – Washington Post
The United Nations said on Tuesday that an Ebola outbreak could cost Africa up to $3.6 billion and hundreds of thousands of jobs, potentially causing a development crisis. – Reuters
A leading East African media group whose outlets in Uganda were shut down at the weekend by soldiers is in talks with the military to reopen, with staff still unable to access offices, the organisation’s managing director in the country told Reuters. – Reuters
Anti-immigrant protesters draped in flags and wielding wooden weapons marched across cities in South Africa on Tuesday to mark a deadline they had set for undocumented migrants to leave, with some marches hit by violence and looting. – Reuters
At least 36 students and one staff member abducted by gunmen from a secondary school in Lassa in northeast Nigeria remain in captivity, while eight others have been rescued, a state official said on Tuesday. – Reuters
Congolese health authorities are tracing people potentially exposed to Ebola in two provinces not previously affected by the latest outbreak, amid fears the virus could spread further, a health ministry report and a senior health official said. – Reuters
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday decided to hold an urgent debate on the situation in Sudan’s al-Obeid later this week, with Britain’s envoy warning of the risk of large-scale atrocities. – Reuters
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reshuffled his cabinet after the Democratic Alliance, the second-biggest party in the governing coalition, requested changes to posts it had been assigned. – Bloomberg
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who occupy a large part of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have built a force of around 30,000 troops and are consolidating their hold on the region, according to United Nations’ experts. – Bloomberg
The UN on Tuesday condemned an attack the day before on a “clearly marked” humanitarian convoy in South Sudan that killed five humanitarian workers working with the United Nations. – Agence France-Presse
The Sudanese army said it had retaken Kulbus, a strategic town near the Chadian border, in what appeared to be its biggest battlefield gain in western Darfur since the fall of El-Fasher last year. – Agence France-Presse
The Americas
When the ground shook in Venezuela, Alejandro Palombizio was home in Los Palos Grandes, a wealthy Caracas neighborhood. He heard a jarring noise, looked out, and watched the twin towers of an apartment complex fold into a cloud of dust. – Washington Post
As the window of opportunity shrank in the search for earthquake survivors trapped under rubble in Venezuela, relief efforts on Tuesday began to focus on the longer-term ripple effects of disaster that are often less reported. – New York Times
María Corina Machado, the exiled Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has made a forceful bid in the past week to return to her country, telling the Trump administration and the Venezuelan people that she wants to help with the recovery from the devastating earthquakes. – New York Times
The woman’s son, now known in court records as “John Doe 3,” was one of at least 1,300 people killed by an elite Venezuelan security force between 2017 and 2020 during a major police surge launched by President Nicolás Maduro, ostensibly to fight crime, the lawsuit says. – New York Times
Jordanian emergency workers in Venezuela, which was hit by devastating twin earthquakes last week, rescued a child early on Tuesday, the only reported survivor on the sixth day of rescue efforts, according to Venezuelan authorities. – Reuters
Miguel Gomez has been appointed finance minister by Colombia’s president-elect, Abelardo De La Espriella, Gomez told Reuters on Tuesday. – Reuters
The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it had imposed sanctions on two Mexican nationals and nine entities tied to a cartel-linked smuggling scheme that moves fuel from the United States into Mexico without paying a hefty tax on the imports. – Reuters
Cuba’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that talks initiated earlier this year with long-time foe the United States had stalled, leaving little hope for an end to U.S. sanctions that have laid seige to the island`s ailing economy. – Reuters
A Colombian senator, who recently lost the nation’s presidential election, said Tuesday he will not recognize his opponent, Abelardo de la Espriella, as the nation’s new head of state, if he does not comply with several demands, including renouncing his U.S. citizenship. – Associated Press
Carolina Jiménez Sandoval writes: Venezuela now needs to resupply emergency rescue and medical teams, secure more machinery to lift debris, find food and shelter for the potentially tens of thousands of people who have lost their homes or been displaced, establish protection systems for unaccompanied children who survived the earthquakes and come up with a reconstruction plan. This crisis has exposed more than the fragility of the country’s neglected infrastructure. How can Venezuela chart a path to recovery when public confidence in the government is so low? How can Venezuelans feel protected by a U.S. government that won’t respond to questions about where their money has gone? How can Venezuelans expect help from a regime that has repressed and abandoned them? Those questions will demand answers, and Venezuelans deserve them now, not tomorrow. – New York Times
United States
The Supreme Court term that ended Tuesday was one of the biggest in recent years, featuring cases that tested the limits of presidential power, the Constitution’s grant of birthright citizenship and longtime civil rights protections for voters. – Washington Post
The Trump administration is drafting a ban on imports of foreign inverters, which connect solar projects and batteries to the grid, over concerns China could use them to disrupt power supplies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. – Reuters
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be staking out differing approaches to carrying out President Donald Trump’s national security agenda as the possible 2028 presidential rivals jostle for position in a divided Republican Party. – Associated Press
President Donald Trump reported earning at least $1.4 billion in 2025 from crypto and memecoin-related businesses, according to his latest annual financial disclosure. – Bloomberg
The US Supreme Court agreed to consider whether Americans have a constitutional right to own so-called assault rifles, the popular weapons that have repeatedly been used in mass killings. – Bloomberg
The US should lead an initiative to expand the International Monetary Fund’s financial capacity by at least $650 billion to help blunt the impact of the Iran war on the global economy, a group of Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday. – Bloomberg
President Donald Trump announced Republicans would host a midterm convention in Dallas on Sept. 9-10, an event first floated last year as a way of rallying party voters ahead of what’s expected to be a hard-fought battle for control of Congress in the November elections. – Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that most nations aren’t yet ready to purchase Iranian oil, wary over the potential of the US reimposing sanctions, and that this is an incentive for Tehran to negotiate with Washington. – Bloomberg
The House Rules Committee canceled a planned vote on an amendment to block US funding to Israel’s military on Tuesday, after intense debate among House Democrats. – Jerusalem Post
John Roberts writes: From the multiple assassination attempts on Trump to Charlie Kirk’s murder and the thousands of social media posts lauding this violence, it’s clear that no organizational structure is needed to foster domestic terrorism. So how should we understand the antifa defendants’ draconian sentences? The answer is that they are a desperate attempt by our legal system to deter the rising tide of political violence through long jail sentences. It’s desperate because if legal deterrence fails, our government will have no alternative but to resort to even harsher measures to quell the terrorist violence, as it did with al Qaeda and ISIS. – Washington Examiner
Dustin Walker writes: Congress should also back up America’s allies. It should streamline arms sales to Taiwan by passing the Porcupine Act. It should prohibit consultation with Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan with the Six Assurances to Taiwan Act. Congress should accelerate and expand foreign military financing for the Philippines. To demonstrate solidarity with Japan amid Chinese pressure, Speaker Mike Johnson should invite Prime Minister Takaichi to address a Joint Session of Congress this year. A more stable relationship with China is a laudable goal. But achieving it is a test of America’s resolve, not its restraint. Forget the “China calendar.” The time for action is now. – The National Interest
Cybersecurity
Investors have had to gulp down the motion-sickness tablets this year as the turmoil from the Iran war has clashed with a seemingly unstoppable boom in all things AI and otherworldly. – Reuters
China’s factory activity returned to expansion in June, driven by demand for chips, computers and other AI-related products, as robust export orders and front-loading to the United States to get ahead of tariffs offset weakness elsewhere in the economy. – Reuters
Anthropic said on Tuesday that the U.S. Commerce Department lifted export controls on its Fable and Mythos AI models, less than three weeks after the company was ordered to suspend access to its most advanced AI models over national security risks. – Reuters
Ireland’s data watchdog will decide “in the coming period” whether to pursue fresh sanctions against TikTok after a court told it to reconsider an order that the short-video platform suspend data transfers from the European Union to China. – Reuters
CIA Director John Ratcliffe vowed to step up the agency’s efforts to deploy artificial intelligence and quantum computing, stressing that rapid developments in emerging technologies are changing the nature of geopolitics. – Bloomberg
The Department of Homeland Security is bringing back a key cybersecurity information sharing effort with critical infrastructure, more than a year after the Trump administration shuttered an existing nerve center between government and private sector. – Cyberscoop
The head of the CIA on Tuesday publicly touted a number of recent changes the spy agency has made that mark a “fundamental reshaping” of how it uses, and pursues, cutting-edge technology. – The Record
Garrett Carstens writes: In modern ransomware incidents, CISOs and other leaders need to take a similar approach to understand how a broad criminal ecosystem, corporate-level structure, multi-extortion techniques, data audits, cyber insurance assessments and deadline manipulation come together to make for a more formidable opponent. With this understanding, security teams gain insight into how they can more effectively conduct negotiations in real time. As a result, they will ensure their organizations survive these incidents with minimal operational damage and financial losses while discouraging cybercriminals from future attack attempts. – Cyberscoop
Defense
The U.S. military has established a robust footprint of U.S. forces in and around Venezuela to support relief operations, with more than 900 personnel inside the country and another roughly 800 in Caribbean hubs Puerto Rico and Curacao, the top U.S. general for Latin America told Reuters. – Reuters
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mandate to slash by more than 75% the staff and senior officials of the decades-old Pentagon weapons testing office has “impaired oversight activities,” according to a new congressionally mandated assessment. – Bloomberg
The U.S. Navy’s decommissioned Austin-class amphibious transport dock ship USS Juneau (LPD-10) was sent to the ocean floor during the ongoing Valiant Shield exercise taking place from June 22 to July 1. – Defense News