As talks toward a peaceful settlement to the war in Ukraine have all but collapsed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow received a workable proposal from Ukrainian negotiators soon after the conflict began, but claimed Kiev abruptly broke off all dialogue and has been ‘silent’ ever since.
Ankara and Moscow have put forward potential solutions to reopen Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, with Russia offering safe passage to grain ships while Turkey said it could help guide vessels around Ukrainian naval mines deployed to stall the Russian advance.
American military contractor L3Harris is planning to purchase controversial hacking technology from the Israeli firm NSO Group. The Tel Aviv-based spyware company was placed on the US sanctions blacklist after several governments used its Pegasus espionage tool to target politicians, diplomats and human rights groups.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised that his forces will retake the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, despite warnings from other officials that Kiev will soon lose the Donbass region to Moscow without substantial military aid from the West.
Tensions between China and the US continue to escalate as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned of a Ukraine-like crisis in Taiwan, accusing Beijing of pursuing “aggressive” foreign policies after trading threats over the disputed island with his Chinese counterpart.
One of the 37 men imprisoned at the Guantánamo Bay detention center has pleaded guilty to four out of five charges brought against him by US authorities, claiming he belonged to al-Qaeda and was responsible for war crimes in Afghanistan.
US energy security envoy Amos Hochstein has acknowledged that Russia might be making more revenue from fossil fuels than before its February invasion of Ukraine. Washington has responded with waves of sanctions aiming to crush the Russian economy. Hochstein made the comments during a hearing for the Senate Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation. In response to a question about whether Moscow was making more money now off its fossil fuel sales, Hochstein said, “I can’t deny that.” In May, the International Energy Agency said that Russia's oil revenue was up 50% this year....
Lawmakers with the bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus have introduced a bill in the House and Senate that will require the Pentagon to coordinate missile defense upgrades for Israel and several newfound Arab allies, pointing to potential “attacks from Iran.”
