Author: Admin

France’s public health authority announced Friday that deaths rose by nearly a third during the most intense week of last month’s record-breaking heat wave, with at least 2,000 more fatalities recorded compared to the week before — a period when temperatures were already rising and emergency rooms were already being overwhelmed with heat-related cases.

Public Health France released updated figures that are double what the agency initially estimated. Just last Sunday, the agency had reported at least 1,000 additional deaths, a figure that only accounted for three of the most extreme days of heat. The newer numbers now cover the full week.

In the French capital, funeral service directors have reported serious difficulty finding storage space for bodies ahead of burial or cremation, with some mortuaries reporting they were at capacity and turning bodies away.

The updated figures cover the week of June 22 through June 28 — the period during which France experienced its hottest days ever recorded, with peak daytime and nighttime temperature records broken in cities and towns across the country. The extreme heat also set records in numerous other parts of Europe.

Public Health France reported a preliminary death count of 8,973 for that week, while cautioning that the data remains incomplete. That figure represents a 29% increase over the 6,948 deaths recorded during the previous week of June 15 through June 21, when the heat wave was just beginning. The difference between those two numbers — 2,025 deaths — is considered the excess mortality from one week to the next, across all causes and all age groups.

At Paris-Saclay Hospital, a wave of patients suffering from heat-related illness began arriving on June 20, according to Dr. Nicolas Gonzales, head of the emergency department, who spoke with The Associated Press. He described treating patients — ranging from children to elderly people living alone — for heart attacks, dehydration, kidney failure, and other heat-related conditions.

Public Health France noted that deaths in private homes saw the most dramatic increase, surging 91% compared to the prior week. Deaths in care facilities for older residents climbed 37%, while hospital deaths rose by nearly 20%.

The Paris region was among the hardest hit areas, with deaths increasing by nearly 63% from one week to the next.

The agency acknowledged that its numbers likely undercount the actual death toll due to the incomplete nature of the data collected. “The mortality will as a consequence be higher than these first figures,” the agency stated.

Brazilian federal police have launched a major operation targeting individuals who were recently placed on a U.S. sanctions list due to alleged ties to the Primeiro Comando da Capital, known as the PCC, one of Brazil’s largest criminal organizations. Two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed the operation to Reuters on Friday.

While federal police declined to name the specific suspects involved, officials released a statement saying the operation was aimed at breaking up a criminal network accused of washing money generated through international drug trafficking.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control added two Brazilian citizens to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, citing their alleged connections to the PCC. In addition to the two individuals, three Brazilian entities — two of them operating in the financial sector — were also sanctioned due to their alleged ties to one of those individuals.

The designations come after the United States officially classified both the PCC and its rival gang, Comando Vermelho, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations last month.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration had previously pushed back against such classifications, expressing concern that terrorist designations could eventually pave the way for U.S. military involvement or financial penalties against banks that unknowingly conduct business with gang members.

GENEVA — The United Nations’ top human rights official issued a dire warning Friday, declaring a “red alert” over the threat of mass atrocity crimes in and around a key city in central Sudan, and calling on global leaders to step up efforts to end the country’s devastating ongoing conflict.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addressed the Human Rights Council at the UN’s Geneva office, warning that signals coming out of the city of el-Obeid were “clear and unmistakable: Another human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan.”

The council — the UN’s highest human rights authority — convened an urgent debate on the el-Obeid situation amid mounting alarm from diplomats, advocacy organizations, and others who fear a fresh wave of violence against civilians. The war in Sudan is now in its fourth year.

“This is not a drill. It is a red alert that needs to land on the desks of heads of state and government around the world,” Türk declared. “Their phones should be running hot in the coming days and weeks, with ideas on how to prevent atrocity crimes in el-Obeid and in other places in Kordofan.”

Türk described how civilians in the region have endured siege-like conditions for 18 months, subjected to what he called “relentless drone strikes” as Sudan’s national armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — known as the RSF — fight for dominance in areas surrounding the city.

The council’s 47 member nations were reviewing a draft resolution introduced by Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway. The resolution condemns the RSF and its allies for escalating violence in and around el-Obeid, calls for increased financial and logistical support for countries sheltering Sudanese refugees, and denounces “all forms of external interference” in the conflict, among other provisions.

The war broke out in April 2023, fueled by long-standing tensions between Sudan’s army and the RSF. Since then, the conflict has claimed the lives of at least 59,000 people, forced approximately 13 million from their homes, and pushed large portions of the country into famine. More than 30 million people are currently in need of humanitarian aid.

In February 2025, Sudan’s military managed to lift a siege on el-Obeid that had been in place for over a year. However, the RSF has since launched several offensives in an effort to reimpose the blockade from multiple directions.

The UN and several nations have raised alarms over reports of RSF forces massing around el-Obeid, a city of half a million residents located in North Kordofan. Recent strikes on critical infrastructure have left civilians with severely limited access to food, fuel, water, medical care, and transportation, according to Türk’s office.

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic has launched its 60th edition, with celebrated actors Dustin Hoffman and Juliette Binoche set to receive special recognition during the event.

Hoffman, a two-time Academy Award winner for best actor — earning the honor for his performances in “Kramer vs. Kramer” in 1979 and “Rain Man” in 1988 — will be presented with an award recognizing his extraordinary artistic contributions to global cinema on opening night Friday.

The following day, Saturday, Hoffman is scheduled to introduce a screening of “The Graduate,” his landmark 1967 film that earned him his very first Oscar nomination.

French actress Juliette Binoche, who took home the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role in “The English Patient” in 1996 along with numerous other accolades, will receive the same recognition as Hoffman during the festival’s closing ceremony on July 11.

Three of Binoche’s films will be shown at the festival: “Certified Copy” from 2010, “Three Colors: Blue” from 1993, and “In-I in Motion,” released in 2025.

American cinematographer Robert Richardson, widely recognized for his collaborations with directors Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino, will also be honored at the festival. Richardson, a three-time Oscar winner for best cinematography, will introduce a feature documentary about his life and career titled “Robert Richardson: The White Devil” on Saturday.

A grand jury will evaluate 12 competing films for the festival’s top honor, the Crystal Globe. The festival is held in the western Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.

MONACO (AP) — International law enforcement agency Interpol has publicly named a suspect wanted in connection with a bombing in Monaco that reportedly targeted a Ukrainian tycoon linked to Russia.

The organization identified the suspect as Anastasiia Berezovska, a 39-year-old woman from Ukraine, through a Red Notice published on its official website calling for her arrest.

According to the notice, Berezovska was born in Ukraine, has dark hair, speaks German, and has a tattoo — possibly depicting a snake — running along her right arm from the shoulder to the elbow.

Authorities in Monaco are seeking her arrest on charges that include attempted murder, along with additional criminal counts, according to the Interpol notice.

NATO leaders are heading to Ankara for a summit on July 7-8, where they will confront a series of significant challenges that could shape the future of the alliance for years to come. While some officials are concerned that the Iran war could steal attention from the gathering, they are hoping leaders stay focused on the core mission of defense and deterrence.

Keeping the U.S. on Board

One of the top priorities for NATO officials is preserving unity and ensuring the United States remains committed to Article 5 — the provision stating that an attack against one member nation is considered an attack against all. Two major flashpoints this year have strained the transatlantic relationship: U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for control over Greenland, an autonomous territory belonging to NATO-member Denmark, and his anger toward allies over their handling of the Iran war.

Trump went so far as to call the alliance a “paper tiger” and raised the possibility of pulling the U.S. out of NATO altogether. The alliance’s Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, has worked to ease the friction, combining diplomatic flattery with hard data to convince Trump that European members are living up to their commitments.

Shifting the Defense Burden

The Trump administration has been pushing European governments to assume primary responsibility for defending the continent, as Washington redirects its focus toward the Indo-Pacific region. Steps are already being taken: the U.S. has reduced the military capabilities it makes available to NATO during a crisis, and European members have stepped in to cover nearly all of those gaps.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has launched a new review of American troop deployments across Europe and threatened to hold back some U.S. financial contributions to NATO if allies he considers “free-riders” fail to meet their defense spending obligations. European officials say they are working to do more, but some have pushed back, arguing that any meaningful transition takes time and expressing unease over the unpredictability of policy decisions coming from Washington.

The Push to Spend More

European NATO members and Canada are under heavy pressure to increase defense investment — both to strengthen deterrence against Russia and to show Trump they are serious about shouldering more of the burden. At last year’s summit in the Hague, NATO leaders agreed to Trump’s demand for higher spending, committing to direct 5% of GDP toward defense and defense-related measures within a decade. Of that total, 3.5% would go toward core defense items like troops and weapons, with the remaining 1.5% allocated to broader related measures.

Alliance data shows that European NATO members and Canada boosted defense spending by 20% in 2025 compared to the previous year in real terms. However, not all countries are on pace to hit the new targets, and several governments are beginning to face domestic political resistance to increased defense budgets.

Turning Money Into Military Capability

As defense investment climbs, a major hurdle for the alliance is converting that funding into actual military capabilities within a reasonable timeframe. In Ankara, NATO members are expected to announce tens of billions of dollars in new contracts. Still, some officials have expressed frustration that production has not ramped up as quickly as hoped, and that securing some orders still takes years. NATO’s leadership has urged defense industries to collaborate more, open new production lines, and speed up delivery timelines.

The Russia Threat

NATO leaders meeting in Ankara are expected to reaffirm that Russia represents a long-term danger to security across Europe and the Atlantic region. While alliance officials acknowledge that Russia is dealing with serious economic difficulties and that Ukraine has strengthened its military position, Secretary-General Rutte has warned that nearly half of Russia’s national budget is now devoted to defense spending — and that the alliance must not be complacent about Moscow’s intentions.

Continued Support for Ukraine

European NATO members have continued to fund assistance for Ukraine, more than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Aid flows through multiple channels, including direct bilateral support, a European Union loan program, and an initiative that allows European nations to pay for U.S. weapons to be supplied to Ukraine. While most European leaders say they remain committed to backing Kyiv, keeping that support at a high level is increasingly difficult given competing demands on national budgets and growing concern in some capitals that the financial contributions are not being shared equally among member nations.

ABUJA — The United States has pulled back the majority of military forces it deployed to Nigeria for a recent operation against Islamic State militants, with American support now shifting to intelligence sharing at Nigeria’s request, the commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced.

Back in May, U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out joint military operations in northeastern Nigeria, resulting in the killing of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, who held the second-highest position in ISIS’s global leadership structure. That mission came after a Christmas Day strike against the militants ordered by President Donald Trump, who stated that the group had been targeting Christians in Nigeria.

Speaking at a conference of African defense chiefs held in Angola on Thursday, AFRICOM Commander General Dagvin Anderson called the May joint operation a blueprint for how the U.S. should approach security partnerships across Africa going forward.

“We have withdrawn much of our forces that were just there for that operation, but are continuing the partnership that Nigeria has asked for to help continue with the intelligence sharing,” Anderson told reporters during a briefing hosted by the U.S. State Department following the conference.

Anderson explained that the operation, which took place in Nigeria’s Lake Chad Basin region, reflected Washington’s broader strategy of offering specialized military capabilities while letting African partner nations take the lead in their own security operations.

He noted that the collaboration with Nigeria had dealt a significant blow to Islamic State’s leadership structure, and said the effects were felt beyond West Africa due to the group’s far-reaching international network. The operation also disrupted broader ISIS communications and activities, not just local commanders, he added.

“Nigeria has been very active since that operation in May,” Anderson said. “They continue to prosecute targets themselves.”

Anderson also pointed out that sustained military pressure from Nigeria, combined with publicizing the operation’s success, had prompted more ISIS fighters in northeastern Nigeria to defect or surrender.

The three-day gathering in Luanda, Angola’s capital, brought together military leaders from 35 African nations, as well as representatives from the United States and Brazil.

The remains of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were placed on public display Friday in a large ceremonial hall in Tehran, drawing clerics, government officials, foreign dignitaries, and thousands of grieving supporters following his 37-year reign.

Iran has organized a full week of large-scale funeral processions for Khamenei, who was killed in February during U.S. and Israeli airstrikes at the outset of a four-month war. The elaborate ceremonies are being presented as a demonstration of public loyalty to Iran’s Islamic Republic and its revolutionary principles.

Khamenei’s body is expected to travel to Qom, Najaf, and Kerbala — major Shi’ite holy centers in Iran and Iraq — before his final burial next Thursday in Mashhad, the site of Iran’s most sacred pilgrimage shrine.

His coffin was first unveiled late Thursday to a crowd of weeping supporters who swayed and beat their heads in rhythm with a sung lament while flowers were tossed from the funeral bier into the gathering. By Friday, the coffin — along with those of family members who perished alongside him — had been moved into the grand prayer hall constructed in honor of his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The funeral is unfolding at a pivotal time for Iran. The country’s clerical leadership, backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has emerged emboldened after what it viewed as a battle for survival against its most powerful enemies. Yet nearly five decades after the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic finds itself deeply divided internally, even as officials publicly proclaim national unity.

Analysts say support for the clerical leadership is extremely thin. The new Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, has not appeared publicly since being wounded in the same strike that killed his father.

Years of heavy economic sanctions have crippled the country’s economy, and waves of nationwide protests have been suppressed by security forces with growing brutality — reaching a peak with the killing of thousands of demonstrators in January.

Those underlying tensions have been set aside this week as authorities mount a display of state power, hoping to mobilize millions of mourners for the funeral events. Tehran’s streets were heavily secured, with military and police vehicles positioned along major roads and members of the black-shirted Basij paramilitary force patrolling on motorcycles. Iran also issued a warning to the United States and Israel against conducting any attacks during the funeral period.

When the coffins arrived Friday, carried above the outstretched hands of a waiting crowd, they were placed on a white, tiered platform inside the prayer hall, framed by intricately tiled arched walls and flanked by national and black mourning flags. A black turban — worn by clerics who claim descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed — rested on the coffin alongside a folded checkered scarf, a symbol in Iran of revolutionary ideals and solidarity with Palestinians.

Delegations from Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen — home to some of the strongest groups within Iran’s regional network — filed through the hall to pay their respects. Representatives from Russia and China were also expected to attend. Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Pakistani Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Naqvi all traveled to Tehran for the occasion.

Family members of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and senior commander Imad Mughniyeh, both Lebanese allies of Iran who were killed in Israeli strikes, also attended the ceremony.

Within Iran’s theocratic system, Khamenei held a unique position — not only as head of state and leader of a revolutionary movement, but as the earthly representative of Shi’ite Islam’s 12th imam, who vanished in the ninth century. His death at the hands of an enemy feeds into a deep Shi’ite tradition of martyrdom and mourning, in which processions of the faithful beat their chests or backs in grief.

That powerful symbolism has been on display throughout Tehran and beyond, with black funeral flags referencing the seventh-century martyrdom of Shi’ism’s third imam, Hossein, hanging over city streets since Khamenei’s death.

Overnight in central Tehran, crowds gathered sobbing and chanting, led by a Basij member, while others distributed posters of the late leader.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — For more than three decades, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei steered Iran with an iron grip, reshaping the nation into a formidable regional force while putting it on a collision course with Israel and the United States. Now, months after he was killed at the outset of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, his funeral is underway — a multi-day ceremony beginning Saturday.

Khamenei rose to power in 1989 following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary cleric who had toppled the shah and established clerical rule in Iran. Where Khomeini was a firebrand ideologue, Khamenei was seen as a more rigid figure with less religious authority — yet it was his task to transform that revolutionary spirit into a functioning government.

Throughout his time in power, Khamenei threw his support behind numerous armed groups across the Middle East, pressed forward with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and responded to multiple waves of domestic unrest with brutal crackdowns. His confrontations with the U.S. and Israel earned him support within Iran, but those same conflicts ultimately contributed to his death.

Following the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Khamenei elevated the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard into the central pillar of his regime. The Guard evolved into both a military powerhouse and a massive business enterprise, becoming Iran’s most elite fighting force with deep roots in the country’s economy.

During his rule, Iran moved away from conventional military strategy, instead cultivating a network of proxy forces known as the “Axis of Resistance.” This included support for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which forced Israel out of southern Lebanon in 2000 and has continued clashing with Israeli forces ever since.

Iran also backed Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who seized the country’s capital in 2014 and held it for over a decade in a grinding, unresolved conflict. The Palestinian militant group Hamas also received Iranian support in its fight against Israel in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Iranian-backed militias carried out an insurgency against American forces in Iraq.

However, the chain of Middle East conflicts sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel began to unravel the “Axis of Resistance,” leaving both Hamas and Hezbollah significantly weakened.

For years, Khamenei brushed aside United Nations sanctions and continued pushing Iran’s nuclear program forward. The U.S. and its allies have long maintained that Iran secretly pursued nuclear weapons development until 2003. Khamenei issued a verbal religious ruling — known as a fatwa — declaring nuclear weapons to be against Islamic principles, while insisting Iran would never abandon what he described as a peaceful nuclear energy program.

Under a 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran committed to sharply scaling back its uranium stockpile and enrichment activities in return for relief from sanctions. But after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of that deal in 2018 — a move welcomed by Israel — Iran began amassing uranium enriched to levels close to weapons-grade. Both Israeli and some American officials have warned that Tehran could use that stockpile to pursue nuclear weapons if it decided to do so. The U.S.-Israeli military campaign in 2025 and the ongoing war have both included strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Political repression and a struggling economy repeatedly ignited waves of public protest throughout Khamenei’s rule. In 2009, demonstrators took to the streets after the reformist opposition alleged that hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection was fraudulent. The government’s response left dozens dead and hundreds imprisoned.

Economic frustrations drove more protests in 2017, and in 2019, demonstrations escalated after the government raised gasoline prices. Activists say the crackdown that followed killed more than 300 people.

In 2022, the death of Mahsa Amini — a young woman who had been detained for allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly — ignited another round of nationwide protests. Security forces crushed the movement, killing more than 500 people and arresting tens of thousands.

Then in late 2025, economic grievances once again brought Iranians into the streets in what appeared to be the largest protest movement in the country’s history. Hundreds of thousands of people across Iran demanded an end to the Islamic Republic. Activists report that at least 7,000 people were killed in the crackdown that followed — a level of violence that shocked many Iranians.

Khamenei’s death has raised serious questions about Iran’s future. His son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has been selected as the next supreme leader, but reports suggest he was wounded in the strikes that killed his father and he has not appeared in public since.

As he launched the current war, President Trump urged Iranians to “take over your government.” So far, no such uprising has materialized — hard-liners have instead been gathering nightly in the streets of Tehran.

What comes next for Iran after the burial of its longtime supreme leader may hinge largely on institutions like the Revolutionary Guard, which has demonstrated time and again its willingness to use overwhelming force to hold onto power.

CHISINAU, Moldova — In a surprise announcement Friday, Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu declared he is leaving office, a move that under Moldovan law immediately triggers the resignation of the entire government.

Munteanu offered no specific explanation for his decision, which comes less than a year after he was sworn in to lead the pro-Western government of the EU candidate nation — a country whose recent elections have been seen as a pivotal choice between aligning with Europe or Russia.

In a statement shared on social media, Munteanu wrote: “Today I end my term as prime minister. The moment I understand that I can no longer exercise my mandate in accordance with my principles and beliefs, I choose to walk away.”

He also noted: “I accepted the proposal to be prime minister with a lot of responsibility and strong conviction that I can contribute to changing things for the better.”

Under Moldovan law, a prime minister’s resignation takes effect immediately upon announcement. However, the government remains in place in a caretaker role until a new cabinet is assembled.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu responded to the news with a statement that both acknowledged Munteanu’s service and offered some criticism. She thanked him for guiding the country through what she called a “complex period,” but said she had hoped for “more involvement in complicated decisions, more openness to listening to people.”

Sandu outlined her next steps, saying: “Next week, I will listen to the parliamentary groups to appoint a new prime minister. We must have a united, strong team in the Government that will fulfill our country’s objective. We are obliged to succeed in taking Moldova into the EU and helping the country.”

She acknowledged the challenge ahead, adding: “From my experience, at least in recent years, it is never easy to identify candidates for the position of prime minister. I cannot know how long it will take, but we must still manage to have a government fairly quickly.”

Moldova is a landlocked nation bordered by Ukraine to the east and EU and NATO member Romania to the west. The country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and in recent years has charted a clear course toward Western integration, making it a focal point in the ongoing geopolitical competition between Russia and Europe.

The United Nations’ top human rights official is calling on the world to take action as a new crisis deepens in Sudan, this time centered on the city of al-Obeid in the state of North Kordofan.

Speaking to delegates in Geneva during an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk delivered a stark warning. “The signs from al-Obeid are clear and unmistakable: Another human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan, this time in the capital of the strategic state of North Kordofan,” he said.

The emergency session was requested by Britain, whose representative had already raised concerns about the possibility of large-scale atrocities. Those fears stem from reports that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allies have been gathering troops around al-Obeid, raising the risk that the conflict could intensify further.

Turk informed delegates that residents of al-Obeid have been living under siege-like conditions for the past 18 months. Access to clean water has reached a critical shortage, and the city has endured relentless drone strikes as Sudan’s Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces fight for control of the surrounding territory.

Between June 6 and June 28, the U.N. human rights office documented 15 drone strikes in and around al-Obeid. Those strikes killed at least 45 civilians and left 41 others injured.

JALUD, West Bank — Mohammad Salameh had a straightforward dream: finish building a home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where his recently engaged son could begin married life. That dream was shattered when a group of Israeli settlers moved in and took over the property before construction could be completed.

Video captured earlier this week and confirmed as authentic by Reuters showed a minimum of six settlers moving about on the roof of the two-story structure, which sits beneath a nearby hill.

Salameh said he reached out to both the Israeli military and police for help, but received none. He now fears the home — surrounded, like many properties in the Palestinian territory, by Israeli settlements and smaller outposts — may be gone for good. He warned that neighboring homes could face the same outcome.

“Only God knows, if there is law and order then they will leave,” Salameh said. “If they succeeded with taking one, then the rest will follow.”

Reuters was not able to reach the settlers for comment. One settler was observed walking on the roof of the house on Thursday. The Israeli military said it was looking into Reuters’ request for comment but had not replied by Friday. Israeli police also did not respond to a request for comment.

The takeover of Palestinian land by settlers is nothing new in the West Bank, where approximately 500,000 Israelis live alongside roughly 3 million Palestinians. Palestinians have long reported destruction of farmland, acts of vandalism, and violent incidents tied to settlement growth. A United Nations inquiry released last month found that settler attacks on Palestinian villages and agricultural land had surged by 130% since 2023.

For residents of Jalud, this week’s events represent a disturbing new chapter because the settlers targeted a house that had not yet been finished.

“They have now moved down to within no more than 100 meters from the last house in Jalud, which is also a house under construction belonging to a resident,” said Raed al-Haj Mohammad, who leads the village council.

He noted that Jalud has endured five major settler attacks, including homes being burned, vehicles damaged, and trees uprooted.

The vast majority of countries and the United Nations consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law, based on the Fourth Geneva Convention’s ban on moving a civilian population into occupied territory. Israel disputes this view, arguing the West Bank is contested land with a Jewish historical presence spanning thousands of years. Palestinians regard the West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, as part of a future Palestinian state.

Settlement construction and settler violence have long stood as major barriers to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Even Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, have spoken out against settler conduct. Still, settlement expansion has picked up pace under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which depends on hardline pro-settlement parties to hold its parliamentary majority.

For Salameh, the situation cuts deeply on a personal level. Work on the house had already slowed after the Gaza war broke out in 2023, when his son struggled to find employment and the family faced financial hardship.

“The neighbour close by has built a two-story house, which they will probably take too, if we lose this house (his) they will lose theirs,” he said.

PARIS — A deadly heatwave that gripped parts of Europe in late June has resulted in at least 3,700 excess deaths across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, according to health officials in each country. Authorities stress these figures are early estimates and the final toll is likely to be higher.

Experts have described the heatwave, which ran from roughly June 20 through June 28, as the most severe on record for Europe. The extreme temperatures caused widespread disruption, straining power systems, damaging infrastructure, and pushing healthcare systems to their limits. Scientists say climate change almost certainly played a role in fueling the dangerous heat.

In France, health officials recorded 2,025 excess deaths during the heatwave period. French Health Minister Stephanie Rist told local television on Friday that people over the age of 45 saw a particularly sharp rise in fatalities. The country’s public health authority reported that deaths at home surged 91% between June 22 and June 28 compared to the week prior, with nursing homes and medical facilities also seeing increased mortality. The authority cautioned that “mortality will … be higher than these initial figures suggest.”

Belgium’s Health Ministry announced Thursday that it had logged approximately 1,200 excess deaths between June 18 and June 29. Of those, 530 were among individuals aged 85 or older, while 180 of the excess deaths involved people under the age of 65. The ministry called the situation alarming, stating in an official release: “Such excess mortality during a heatwave is unprecedented in our country.”

In the Netherlands, authorities reported around 480 excess deaths tied to the heatwave, with the majority occurring among those over 80 years old.

A Bangkok-based flight attendant received an unusual message through TikTok early on the morning of June 18 — a series of questions from an account she didn’t recognize: “Are you flying to Australia? Do you do carry-for-hire? What is your rate?”

The 30-year-old attendant, who works for a regional budget airline, dismissed the message and moved on — until news broke that a Thai Airways flight attendant had been charged with smuggling more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of heroin into Australia, hidden inside several tote bags.

“I don’t reply to strangers like this,” the attendant told Reuters, referring to the unknown account that had contacted her. She requested anonymity given the sensitive nature of the situation. “We’ve been constantly warned about this, no carry-for-hire. It’s a well-known rule.”

The account that sent the message — named “Powder is Powder” in Thai — was connected to drug trafficking operations that set up fake social media profiles to find individuals willing to move illegal substances across international borders, according to Areepak Ngernbamroong, a spokesperson for Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB).

“The account has now been shut down,” Areepak said. “The ONCB is investigating, and preliminary findings indicate that the account used many different names.”

Following the flight attendant’s detention, Thai Airways issued a statement saying the airline maintains strict rules of conduct for all staff and would work fully with relevant authorities.

Thai authorities say trafficking networks bring drugs in from neighboring countries that have large production operations, then conceal them in everyday items like clothing, coffee packets, and vases before moving them through Thailand.

According to a December report from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, the cultivation of opium poppies for heroin production in neighboring Myanmar reached its highest point in a decade in 2025. Myanmar, which is experiencing ongoing conflict and economic hardship, has become the world’s leading known source of illicit opium as production has declined in Afghanistan.

Police Major Suriya Singhakamol, Secretary-General of the ONCB, said trafficking rings in Thailand specifically target certain groups of travelers — including flight attendants — to carry drugs out of the country.

In the case of the arrested Thai Airways attendant, Suriya said she had initially posted in a social media group where people advertise their willingness to transport items overseas for payment. She then began communicating with a Facebook user going by the name “Rose Rose.”

“They later agreed on a fee of 8,800 baht ($265.46),” Suriya told reporters.

The heroin that was sewn into the lining of the bags she carried had an estimated street value of A$500,000 (approximately $347,150), according to the Australian Federal Police.

Suriya also revealed that similar trafficking operations had planned to ship five additional drug packages from Bangkok to Australia and Taiwan between June 30 and July 1. Those efforts were intercepted.

“But authorities seized 24.38 kilograms of heroin, concealed in traditional goods, silk clothing, coffee sachets, and winter jackets,” he said, noting that Thai agencies are working in coordination with their counterparts in Australia and Taiwan.

To date, Thai authorities have arrested two individuals — a Thai man and his Laotian wife — suspected of dispatching drug shipments from a border province to Bangkok.

Rescue crews worked through the rubble in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv on Friday, hoping to find survivors from a Russian missile and drone assault that claimed at least 30 lives the day before. Flags across the city were lowered to half-staff as officials declared an official day of mourning.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed Friday that the attack — the most lethal Russian strike on the capital in 2025 — left 92 people injured. He also noted that the parents of a 10-year-old boy who was hospitalized following the attack, along with a 15-year-old girl, remained unaccounted for.

In a separate incident, a Russian drone strike on a home in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region killed four people overnight, among them a woman and her young toddler daughter, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Forensic specialists continued working alongside rescue teams as they attempted to identify human remains from the wreckage. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the scale of destruction as extraordinary, saying more than 100 residential buildings had been damaged — an extent of devastation rarely seen even in a conflict now entering its fifth year.

In his Thursday evening address to the nation, Zelenskiy placed blame squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Russia has no argument left for its war other than its ballistic missiles,” he said. “Putin still intends to ‘vanquish’ residential buildings rather than end this war.”

Moscow characterized the strikes as retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks launched against Russian territory.

Ukraine has in recent months managed to slow Russian advances along the roughly 1,200-kilometer front line, even recapturing ground in certain areas. At the same time, Ukraine has stepped up its own long-range strikes deep inside Russia, targeting energy infrastructure in particular. Those attacks have contributed to a fuel shortage in Russia, forcing the country — one of the world’s top oil producers — to import gasoline.

Russia has responded by escalating its air campaign against Ukrainian cities. Last month, a Russian strike damaged a Kyiv cathedral with roots stretching back 1,000 years, a site considered sacred to the Orthodox faith in both countries.

GoDaddy, the world’s largest seller of internet domain names, is sounding the alarm over a series of directives handed down by an Indian court, arguing that rules meant to combat fraudulent websites could actually make the internet more dangerous for law-abiding businesses and have consequences that stretch well beyond India’s borders.

Online fraud has become a mounting crisis in India, the world’s most populous country, as smartphone and internet usage has surged. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government received 2.4 million complaints of alleged cyber fraud last year alone, with losses totaling $2.4 billion.

The legal battle traces back to 2019, when more than 20 major Indian and international companies — including Amazon, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Xiaomi, and Colgate-Palmolive — filed lawsuits seeking court action against websites fraudulently using their names. Amazon targeted fake shopping sites, while McDonald’s went after bogus pages selling phony franchise opportunities. In December, a New Delhi judge ordered more than 1,100 such sites to be shut down.

But that same judge went further, issuing a set of sweeping additional measures that tech experts say have fundamentally altered how internet governance works. Among the directives: domain registrars must stop offering privacy protection to buyers at no cost by default, the personal details of website registrants must be handed over to anyone with a “legitimate interest” within 72 hours, and domain names that resemble protected brand names must be blocked from registration.

GoDaddy, which is based in the United States, has filed a challenge against those directives before a larger panel of judges at the Delhi High Court, according to a Reuters review of non-public court documents. The company argues that removing default privacy protections would expose the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of legitimate website owners to the public, creating what it described as “foreseeable privacy and security risks” including stalking and harassment.

Because domain names function on a global scale rather than within any single country, GoDaddy also warned that the court’s order could effectively require the company to regulate website addresses around the world. On the 72-hour disclosure requirement, GoDaddy contends it has no reliable way to determine who qualifies as having a “legitimate interest” in obtaining someone’s registration information.

One of GoDaddy’s appeal documents — spanning 5,121 pages — cautioned that the “commercially destabilising” nature of the directives could push domain name companies to “exit India” altogether. Neither the Indian government nor GoDaddy responded to requests for comment from Reuters.

GoDaddy is a major player in the industry, generating $5 billion in annual revenue, managing 80 million domain names, and serving more than 20 million users. Company executives stated in 2024 that India represented its largest market in the emerging market category. Two of GoDaddy’s competitors — Arizona-based Namecheap and Netherlands-based Hosting Concepts — have also challenged the New Delhi ruling, though the specifics of their appeals could not be confirmed. Neither company responded to Reuters’ questions.

The December ruling characterized the fraudulent websites as “engines for large scale deception.” Among the 14 measures outlined by the court, one specified that hiding a domain buyer’s registration details should only be available as a paid service, since the feature acts “as a cloak” that shields the identities of bad actors.

Despite the court order still being in effect, GoDaddy’s website continues to advertise “free privacy protection forever,” stating that it conceals users’ names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses from public directories. GoDaddy argues that stripping away default privacy protections would conflict with India’s own data protection law as well as the European Union’s GDPR regulation, both of which require a “privacy by default” approach.

Farzaneh Badii, a New York-based researcher who studies internet governance, was critical of the New Delhi ruling. She pointed out that European regulators moved to hide such personal details precisely because making them public had been exploited for harassment and targeted phishing attacks. “The people exposed will be journalists, activists, small business owners, and private individuals. The brand impersonators will not,” she said.

India’s Home Minister, Amit Shah, stated this year that a person falls victim to cybercrime every 37 seconds in the country, warning that inaction could allow the problem to become a “national crisis.” Although the sweeping December directives came from a court, documents show they were shaped by submissions from the government. An unreported 59-page document from India’s IT ministry, dated 2023 and included in GoDaddy’s appeal filings, revealed that the government told the judge it was troubled by “domain name abuse” and “lack of stringent verification.” The home ministry separately urged the court to make registration details “readily available” for use in criminal investigations.

That position is consistent with Modi’s government’s track record of confrontations with global technology companies. New Delhi has repeatedly criticized firms such as Meta, X, Google, and Telegram for allegedly failing to adequately police content it views as contrary to national interests, and has taken some of those companies to court.

In the McDonald’s case, the company sought action against 110 websites — such as mcdonaldsfranchiseindia.com — some of which displayed the chain’s Golden Arches logo and sold counterfeit franchise opportunities for “huge sums of money.” After those sites were blocked, GoDaddy raised objections to the court’s additional requirement that alphanumeric variations of a protected trademark be prohibited from registration. GoDaddy called such bans “blanket injunctions” that would be nearly impossible to enforce.

The company noted that the name “McDonald” has Scottish origins, derived from a phrase meaning “son of the world ruler,” and argued that blocking all variations of it would effectively “confer a monopoly” over a common name with deep linguistic and historical roots. Reuters found that domains such as mcdonalds-india-franchise.com were still available for purchase on GoDaddy’s India platform for approximately $10.

GoDaddy also submitted research drawn from the Merriam-Webster website to illustrate how protecting variations of a trademark like “HUL” — the Indian subsidiary of Unilever — could interfere with 118 English words that contain those letters, including “hulk” and “moghul.” The company concluded that it is “virtually impossible to register a domain name containing an English word that does not overlap with a registered trademark.”

The appeals are scheduled to be heard by the judges on July 16.

Moldova’s Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu publicly announced his resignation on Friday, ending his time leading the country’s government.

In a post shared on the social media platform X, Munteanu explained that he felt he could no longer fulfill his responsibilities while staying true to his own values. “The moment I realized that I could no longer carry out my mandate in accordance with my principles and convictions, I chose to step down,” he wrote.

The prime minister did not elaborate on the specific circumstances that led him to make this decision.

NATO leaders are preparing to convene next week in Ankara, Turkey, as European members of the alliance look to put recent conflicts with U.S. President Donald Trump behind them and demonstrate their commitment to defending the continent amid reduced American involvement.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says the Tuesday and Wednesday gathering will serve as proof that European nations are following through on pledges to boost defense spending as a deterrent against any Russian aggression. Tens of billions of dollars in arms agreements are expected to be signed at the summit.

Leaders are also anticipated to reaffirm their commitment to financing weapons for Ukraine as it continues to fight off Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is scheduled to attend a dinner hosted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who will also hold one-on-one talks with Trump.

European officials say they are counting on Trump’s close relationships with both Erdogan and Rutte to help the summit go smoothly — though they acknowledge there are no guarantees, given ongoing transatlantic friction over the Iran conflict and Trump’s repeated criticism of the alliance.

Just this past Thursday, Trump took to Truth Social to complain that the United States was spending money to protect NATO members “without getting any benefit from so doing.”

Rutte and other NATO leaders have pushed back on that claim, arguing the alliance serves American security interests as well, and that European nations have been answering Trump’s longstanding calls to invest more in their own defense.

Speaking in Berlin on Wednesday, Rutte outlined the summit’s priorities: “The summit next week will focus on turning extra spending into combat-ready capabilities, and significantly scaling up our defence industries.”

He went on to say, “NATO is, and will always be, a transatlantic alliance but we need to rebalance it for the better. Working closely with the United States, European allies and Canada are taking greater responsibility for conventional defence in Europe.”

Rutte revealed last month that NATO’s European members and Canada collectively spent $90 billion more on defense in 2025 compared to the previous year, bringing the total to more than $570 billion.

At last year’s summit in The Hague, NATO leaders agreed to raise defense spending to 3.5% of GDP on core military items — such as weapons and troops — by 2035, up from a previous target of 2%. They also committed to investing an additional 1.5% of GDP on broader defense-related areas, including cybersecurity.

European officials are hoping this year’s Ankara summit mirrors the success of The Hague gathering, where Trump reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the 32-member alliance and its Article 5 mutual defense clause, while also offering praise for fellow leaders.

However, the past year has put significant strain on the alliance. Trump threatened to seize Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, launched a war against Iran without consulting European allies — a conflict that rattled global markets — and the U.S. has since announced troop withdrawals from Europe and reduced the forces it contributes to NATO’s defense plans, including an aircraft carrier, refueling planes, fighter jets, and drones. Washington has also begun a six-month review of its overall military presence on the continent.

“The alliance is alive and kicking but a bit bruised,” one European diplomat said, speaking anonymously.

European officials are also concerned the Iran conflict could cast a shadow over the summit — particularly if fighting flares up again during what is currently a fragile ceasefire, or if Trump publicly criticizes European nations for not doing more to support U.S. military efforts.

Trump has suggested that European reluctance to assist in the Iran war could affect the U.S. obligation to come to the aid of a NATO ally under attack. NATO officials, however, note that the vast majority of member nations did allow the U.S. to use their airspace and military bases, even though the war was broadly unpopular across Europe and many European leaders opposed it.

The conflict also damaged personal relationships between Trump and European leaders including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — raising the possibility that those tensions could re-emerge at the summit.

One senior NATO diplomat expressed cautious optimism: “I’m optimistic (that won’t happen) because I think the leaders know what is at stake. And if something like that does occur, then we always have the ultimate marriage counsellor, Mark Rutte, to smooth things over.”

In the southern Indian state of Kerala, mechanical elephants are beginning to take the place of their living counterparts at traditional temple celebrations in the city of Chalakudy and beyond.

The move toward robotic alternatives follows mounting concerns about the welfare of elephants used in these festivals, as well as a number of alarming incidents that raised serious safety questions.

A photo gallery assembled by AP photo editors captures this unusual and evolving tradition, documenting the transition from live animals to lifelike robotic replicas at these culturally significant events.

QUETTA, Pakistan — Forty people lost their lives and eight others were hurt early Friday when a speeding, overcrowded bus veered off a highway and plummeted into a rocky ravine in southwestern Pakistan, officials reported, describing it as one of the most deadly road accidents the country has seen in recent memory.

The crash took place in Dana Sar, a remote area situated near the boundary between Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, said the bus lost control before falling into the ravine below.

Rind explained that the vehicle was not only carrying its own passengers but had also taken on riders from a second bus that had broken down along the route, leaving it dangerously overcrowded. He added that rescue teams were working to identify the victims of the crash.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep sorrow over the tragedy, offering his condolences to the families of those who died and wishing a full and swift recovery to those who were injured. He also instructed the appropriate authorities to make sure the injured receive the highest quality of medical care available.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti also released a statement conveying his grief over the lives lost and ordered officials to ensure survivors are given the best possible medical treatment.

Deadly road accidents are a recurring problem across Pakistan, driven by deteriorating road conditions, weak enforcement of traffic regulations, and reckless driving habits — issues that are especially pronounced in mountainous regions.

This latest disaster follows a similar tragedy in May, when a minibus collided with a parked bus along a motorway in northwestern Pakistan, leaving 17 people dead and five others injured.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is sharply criticizing senators who voted to stall updates to a groundbreaking law that bans children from using social media, warning that tech companies will take advantage of the holdup to wipe out records that could be used as evidence against them.

Earlier this week, the government brought forward proposed changes to Parliament that were designed to strengthen the authority of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant — the country’s top online safety official — to enforce the existing ban. That ban, which has been in effect since December, prohibits Australian children under the age of 16 from holding accounts on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Under the proposed updates, Inman Grant would gain the ability to require platforms to hand over actual documents — not just general information — about how they are working to keep young children off their sites. Currently, she can only request information.

However, the conservative Liberal Party opposition and the minor Australian Greens party joined forces Thursday to send the proposed legislation to an eight-week Senate inquiry. The center-left Labor Party, which leads the government, does not control a Senate majority.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., Albanese made clear his frustration with the delay. “It is outrageous the delay because what the eSafety Commissioner has said very clearly is that that will allow the platforms to go and just delete a whole lot of material,” he said.

He continued: “Whereas if it was passed yesterday, that would have been the date from which these demands could be made by the commissioner. So then fines can be issued.”

The proposed amendments would also extend the commissioner’s reach to third parties, such as companies that provide age verification technology, so she could test whether platforms are being truthful about how children are still managing to get around the ban.

Additionally, the bill would double the maximum penalty for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to keep children out — raising the ceiling to 99 million Australian dollars, or roughly $68 million.

Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who has consistently opposed the social media ban, questioned the value of raising fines that have never actually been handed out. “Doubling penalties that they’ve never used doesn’t seem to me to be a meaningful measure,” he told Sky News Australia. “Is that really going to be the thing that keeps kids safe online?”

From the opposition side, communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Henderson argued the amendments don’t go far enough. “This is a social media ban which is failing; a half-baked law which is poorly designed, which was rushed, which is badly implemented and which is not working,” she said. “We will interrogate this bill properly and, frankly, I think the amendments before the Parliament need to be tougher,” she added.

The original legislation passed Parliament in 2024 with broad, bipartisan support. The 10 platforms targeted by the law were given more than a year to put the ban into practice.

Several other countries that have enacted or are considering similar restrictions have been closely monitoring how Australia’s approach plays out.

Initially, the government reported that more than 5 million children had their accounts removed, deactivated, or restricted after the law took effect. However, eSafety reported in March that seven out of 10 children who had accounts on the restricted platforms when the ban went into effect on December 10 were still active on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

In April, Inman Grant announced she was weighing legal action against those platforms — along with YouTube — over allegations they were not doing enough to keep children off their services. She said she was more satisfied with the steps taken by the other restricted platforms: X, Kick, Reddit, Threads, and Twitch.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said this week that she has been receiving monthly reports from eSafety since March and that “we are not seeing improvements.”

A bus carrying 48 passengers plunged into a deep roadside ditch in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan on Friday, killing 40 people and leaving eight others injured, according to a rescue agency and a government official.

The bus was traveling from the provincial capital of Quetta to the national capital of Islamabad when the deadly accident occurred, the rescue agency reported.

At least two people lost their lives in Russian border regions overnight as Ukrainian drones struck multiple targets, damaging several industrial facilities, according to local officials and media reports released Friday.

Ukraine has been relentlessly targeting Russia’s energy infrastructure for months in a sustained effort to weaken Moscow’s military capabilities. Those strikes have contributed to fuel shortages across Russia, the world’s largest nation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly claimed the attacks are designed to stir up unrest among the Russian population.

On the other side of the conflict, Ukrainian officials announced via Telegram that Russian overnight strikes on Ukraine resulted in four deaths and left ten others wounded.

Valentin Demidov, the mayor of the western Russian city of Belgorod, confirmed that a woman died inside a vehicle after sustaining shrapnel wounds. He also reported that both water and electricity services in the city — located roughly 40 kilometers, or about 25 miles, north of the Ukrainian border — had been knocked out.

Earlier Friday, the Vesti news channel, citing regional officials, reported that an industrial facility had caught fire after Belgorod and the surrounding area were hit by Ukrainian missiles.

In the neighboring border region of Bryansk, acting governor Egor Kovalchuk reported that a man was killed in a village following a kamikaze drone strike.

A fire also ignited at an industrial site in the western Smolensk region after a drone attack there, though local governor Vasily Anokhin noted on Telegram that no injuries were reported in that incident.

MADRID (AP) — Every year during Pride week, the streets of Spain’s capital transform into a runway of a different kind. On Thursday, July 2, competitors strapped on their tallest footwear and dashed through the city in the iconic annual high heel race.

To qualify for the event, participants must wear shoes with heels no shorter than 10 centimeters — that’s roughly 3.9 inches — making the race as much a test of balance as it is of speed.

Images from the lively competition were curated into a photo gallery by AP photo editors, showcasing the energy and excitement of one of Madrid’s most beloved Pride week traditions.

BERLIN — Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party is gathering this weekend in an upbeat mood, capitalizing on widespread frustration with the national government’s efforts to revive a sluggish economy while setting its sights on a historic breakthrough in regional elections this fall.

The anti-immigration nationalist party, known as AfD, is holding a convention in the eastern city of Erfurt to re-elect its leadership — something German parties do every two years. The gathering is expected to draw tens of thousands of demonstrators to the streets outside.

The convention will focus on extending the terms of co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who have jointly led the party for four years, with the goal of presenting a united front.

In last year’s national election, the AfD posted the strongest showing by a far-right party in Germany since World War II. Its second-place finish made it the largest opposition party in the country and the dominant political force in Germany’s formerly communist eastern regions. Its support has continued to grow beyond the 20.8% it earned in that election, with recent polling placing it in first place nationally.

Weidel recently declared that “2026 is a year of destiny for AfD.” Mainstream political parties have maintained a so-called “firewall” policy, pledging they will not partner with the AfD in government.

Despite that stance, the AfD is aiming to capture 40% or more of the vote in a state election scheduled for September 6 in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt. Such a result could put the party on a path toward an outright majority or place it in a position to attract defectors from other parties — potentially paving the way for the AfD to install its first-ever state governor.

A second eastern state election follows two weeks later in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the AfD also sees favorable prospects.

“AfD is standing before the gates of power, to some extent,” said Albrecht von Lucke, a political analyst and editor of the magazine Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik.

The party did achieve a milestone in 2023 when it elected its first county administrator in Thuringia — the state where Erfurt is located — but no additional wins of that kind have followed, as enough voters coalesced around mainstream candidates to block further gains.

Taking control of a state government, however, would represent a far more significant achievement. Germany’s 16 states wield considerable authority, including oversight of education systems and security agencies.

Critics have raised alarms about what an AfD-led state government could mean in practice, including concerns about the replacement of career civil servants and the potential for sensitive government information to reach far-right networks or even Russia. “An AfD interior minister would be a security risk,” said Gregor Maier, Thuringia’s center-left interior minister, in comments to ARD television.

The AfD has pushed back on those concerns. “We will prove that we can do it better, and that is exactly what the old parties are afraid of,” Chrupalla said at a rally in Berlin this week.

Von Lucke, however, cautioned that governing Saxony-Anhalt would be “a huge challenge” for the party, predicting internal tensions. “A lot speaks for this not succeeding,” he said.

The AfD has been boosted by deep public dissatisfaction with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s national coalition government, which came to power 14 months ago promising to reform and reinvigorate Germany’s economy — the largest in Europe. The government is now undertaking what could be painful economic changes after a prolonged period of stagnation, but has yet to convince voters it can deliver results.

Merz has urged the public to be patient. “It is unrealistic always just to lament decline, mope and wait for a big bang,” he said at a recent industry event. “There isn’t going to be one. We are in a reform process … and we are moving forward in this process.”

He added: “We want to show that solutions are possible from the political center of this country, that we also recognize the problems correctly.”

The AfD has long since expanded its appeal beyond its original focus on limiting immigration, which fueled its initial rise in the mid-2010s. The party has expressed support for the Trump administration’s general direction while criticizing the war in Iran. It has also consistently called for lifting sanctions against Russia and opposes sending weapons to Ukraine. Chrupalla accused Merz of wanting to “escalate against Russia, like in the Cold War,” saying instead, “He should be building bridges.”

The party is also locked in an ongoing legal dispute with Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution announced last year that it was formally classifying the AfD as a proven right-wing extremist organization, but suspended that designation after the party filed a legal challenge. In February, a court in Cologne ruled the agency cannot apply the label while it reviews the party’s lawsuit in greater detail.

Some voices in Germany have called for the party to be banned outright, a sentiment that protesters gathering this weekend are expected to amplify. However, Germany’s supreme court has historically set a very high legal bar for banning political parties.

Some opponents of a ban worry that a failed attempt could actually benefit the AfD politically. Merz and his conservative allies have argued the better approach is for the government to demonstrate it can improve everyday life for German citizens.

In a report released Tuesday, the intelligence agency said it found no evidence the AfD had moved away from its controversial positions. “Many statements by the AfD and its representatives reflect an understanding of the nation that is based on ethnicity and ancestry and contradicts the understanding of the nation enshrined in Germany’s constitution,” the agency stated. The report also cited the party’s calls for the “remigration” of millions of people and repeated references to an alleged “great replacement” of the population.

The AfD has strongly rejected accusations of extremism, arguing that the intelligence agency is being used as a political tool by mainstream parties.

Months after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the outset of its war with the United States and Israel, the country is preparing to hold a dayslong funeral and burial for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei’s body will be carried through cities across Iran and neighboring Iraq during the mourning period. Iran’s theocratic government is expected to encourage ordinary citizens, government workers, and paramilitary forces to line the streets in tribute.

Khamenei, who held power in Iran for nearly four decades, was killed on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched a joint military campaign. The funeral was postponed while the war continued.

The ceremonies will serve as a significant test for Iran’s weakened theocracy and its capacity to draw a massive show of public support — especially since the funeral comes just six months after security forces violently cracked down on nationwide protests against Khamenei’s government.

A massive crowd could also increase the danger of deadly stampedes. A similar tragedy occurred at the funeral of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

An uneasy ceasefire, followed by an interim agreement with the United States, likely gave Iranian authorities enough confidence to proceed with the public ceremony and allow top officials to appear. Throughout the war, Israel had targeted and killed senior Iranian leaders, in at least one instance using public appearances to locate them.

It remains uncertain whether Khamenei’s son — Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — will make his first public appearance during the funeral proceedings. The younger Khamenei is believed to have been injured in the same attack that killed his father and has remained out of public view.

Here is a breakdown of what to expect from the ceremonies, which are set to begin Saturday in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

Khamenei’s body will lie in state at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, a procession will carry it through the streets of Tehran before it heads to Qom, a Shiite seminary city located roughly 120 kilometers — about 75 miles — to the south. Tuesday’s events will honor Khamenei in Qom.

On Wednesday, the body will be transported to Karbala, Iraq, the location of the shrine of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad who has long represented resistance and sacrifice in Shiite tradition. Wednesday also marks the anniversary of the crackdown on protests against Khamenei’s rule, during which thousands of demonstrators were killed by security forces.

From Iraq, Khamenei’s remains will be brought to Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, where he will be laid to rest at the Imam Reza shrine.

Imam Reza was the eighth imam in Shiite Islam. The shrine draws millions of pilgrims annually. A hadith — a traditional Islamic saying — holds that those burdened by sorrow or sin will find relief by visiting the site. Many prominent Shiite clerics have been interred there, including Iran’s late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in 2024.

The risk of crowd-related tragedy looms large over the proceedings. On June 6, 1989, millions of Iranians flooded the streets to mourn Ayatollah Khomeini, who had led the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The scene quickly spiraled out of control as mourners beat their chests in the summer heat and wailing filled the air. The crowd surged toward the casket, causing the 86-year-old cleric’s white-wrapped body to fall into the mass of people. At least eight people were reported killed and roughly 11,000 were injured in the chaos.

Authorities are concerned that a comparable disaster could occur at Khamenei’s funeral if turnout reaches into the millions. A stampede at the 2020 burial of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani left at least 56 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continue in the background. An interim deal reached in June opened a 60-day window to negotiate the terms of a final agreement to end the Iran war, covering issues such as Iran’s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz. Technical talks launched this week in Qatar, but deep disagreements — along with several days of military exchanges between the U.S. and Iran over the strait’s future — have complicated the negotiations.

A former European Parliament member who helped investigate abusive surveillance practices was himself a target of Israeli-made spyware, according to a Canadian technology watchdog group.

Citizen Lab released a report Friday stating that the phone of Stelios Kouloglou — a Greek television journalist who went on to serve as a lawmaker — was compromised at least three times between October 2022 and March 2023. The tool used was Pegasus spyware, a product distributed by the Israeli company NSO Group.

During the period when he was being targeted, Kouloglou was an active member of the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee, a body created in 2022 specifically to examine unlawful phone hacking across the European Union. The committee’s work centered largely on Pegasus and similar surveillance tools, ultimately concluding that EU governments had likely used spyware “in one way or another, some legitimate, some illegitimate.”

Kouloglou said he was stunned by the brazenness of whoever carried out the attacks.

“I was not expecting that a PEGA member would be spied on by Pegasus,” he told Reuters. “I was not expecting that they would be as reckless as that.”

NSO Group did not respond to requests for comment.

The European Parliament issued a statement that did not directly address Kouloglou’s situation, but noted that its IT security teams “constantly monitor cybersecurity threats as well as potential cyberattacks against its working environment.” The Parliament also said spyware screening tools have been offered to all lawmakers since 2022, and that a report adopted last month called for expanding those tools to cover all devices used for parliamentary work.

The European Commission, which serves as the EU’s executive arm, did not respond to requests for comment.

NSO has long maintained that its surveillance tools are deployed to combat serious crime and safeguard national security. However, the company has faced repeated accusations of enabling intrusive monitoring of journalists, political figures, civil rights advocates, and religious individuals around the globe. The U.S. government placed NSO on a blacklist in 2021 over concerns about human rights and national security. Last year, Meta Platforms — the parent company of WhatsApp — won a $168 million damages award against NSO for illegally hacking its platform, though that award was later significantly reduced. More recently, Meta accused NSO of violating the court’s injunction against targeting its services and sought a contempt order.

Citizen Lab said it believes the hacking was carried out through a previously unknown vulnerability in Apple software. The group noted that Kouloglou received multiple warnings from Apple in 2023 and 2024 about suspected state-sponsored hacking attempts targeting his device.

While Citizen Lab did not identify the specific party responsible for deploying Pegasus against the former lawmaker, it connected some of the hacking activity to earlier findings that Pegasus had been used to monitor Russian- and Belarusian-speaking journalists and activists living in exile.

Apple did not directly respond to questions about Kouloglou’s case, but confirmed that the vulnerability cited in the Citizen Lab report has since been patched and that the company routinely notifies individuals it believes may have been targeted.

Sophie in ‘t Veld, a former EU lawmaker who was instrumental in establishing the PEGA Committee, said the hacking of Kouloglou’s phone illustrated how the proliferation of for-hire spyware has created a surveillance environment with virtually no boundaries.

“We’re in a situation where anybody could spy on anyone and they’re spying on citizens, they’re spying on journalists, they’re spying on NGOs, on lawyers, on politicians, and nobody knows who’s behind it,” she said.

REALP, Switzerland — Train lovers are gathering this weekend to mark the 100th anniversary of a legendary Swiss mountain railway, with vintage steam-powered locomotives carrying passengers through breathtaking Alpine landscapes as part of the centennial festivities.

The Furka Pass, sitting at an elevation of 2,431 meters — roughly 7,976 feet above sea level — ranks among the highest mountain passes in Switzerland. The route is also well-known to movie fans as the location of a thrilling car chase scene in the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger,” featuring actor Sean Connery. Long before Hollywood came calling, however, a steam locomotive completed its first full journey along the steep, winding route on July 3, 1926, establishing an essential rail connection between the Swiss regions of Uri and Valais that would serve the area for decades.

The line’s story took a difficult turn in the early 1980s when a newly constructed tunnel at the foot of the Alps redirected rail traffic, leading to the closure of the beloved mountain route. The railway’s survival came down to volunteers — hundreds of them, affectionately known as the railway’s “pioneers” — who poured countless hours into restoring, maintaining, and operating the historic tracks and equipment to keep the experience as authentic as it was a century ago.

The first portion of the revived heritage line reopened in 1992, and by 2010, the full 18-kilometer, or 11-mile, stretch was once again ready for passengers. Today, the steam trains operate as a warm-weather tourist attraction, running between the stations of Realp and Oberwald during summer months. Riders board old-fashioned carriages and take in sweeping views of rivers, Alpine meadows, and green pastures still dusted with patches of snow.

Last month, passengers traveling through the German-speaking region enjoyed rides aboard what locals call the “dampflokomotive.” Traveler Stephan Willareth described his experience as “wonderful,” while Kurt Guldemann, who previously worked for the Swiss national railway system, praised the historical significance of the locomotives.

Bernhard Lang, one of many volunteers who operate the steam engines, noted that learning to drive one is no quick task.

“It’s something like a living machine, so you have to get kind of the feeling for it,” he said. “To feel how it behaves, how it moves, how it smells, how it sounds.”

Jacob Kallert, a 21-year-old German student studying transport engineering and the youngest train manager on the line, emphasized the importance of truly listening to the locomotives.

“You hear every sound, you hear if everything is right,” he said. “You can pretty much feel how it was then and how it is now.”

Fellow volunteer Sergio Rovelli said that everyone who gives their time to the project ends up completely devoted to it.

“We say, in German, that everyone who works here has the ‘Furka Virus, the Furka disease,’” he joked. “Once you come here, you like it, and you stay.”

A single one-way ticket begins at 46 Swiss francs — approximately $56.82 — for a ride that lasts just under two and a half hours. The centennial celebration kicked off Friday and runs through the weekend.

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Rosa López kept her voice low as she described walking past rows of bodies baking under the hot sun while helping her daughter search for her missing son-in-law. Despite her years of experience as a nurse, nothing could have readied her for the sight of dozens of victims wrapped in sheets and blankets.

“We saw a lot of bodies that had not yet been identified,” López said.

Across La Guaira — the Venezuelan coastal state that bore the brunt of the two powerful earthquakes on June 24 — families are in a desperate race to locate and identify their loved ones before time runs out. With a death toll of at least 2,295, Venezuelan authorities are struggling to collect, identify, and preserve the growing number of victims. Thousands of people remain missing.

López’s 25-year-old son-in-law, José Antonio Toledo, was found beneath the building where he had been working as a security guard when the quakes hit. Emergency crews brought his body to a nearby hospital, but staff turned them away due to a lack of space. His remains were then transported to another facility and eventually moved to an open parking lot.

A forensic doctor helped the family locate him several days later, on Saturday. After identifying his body, the family faced another obstacle — they could not afford the $450 fee a funeral home was charging.

Late Saturday night, López received word that the mayor’s office was offering a free burial plot at a local cemetery, but the family had to act fast to secure the spot. Within an hour, López and her daughter made their way up a hillside to the cemetery and laid Toledo to rest.

“He was an exemplary person, a boy who liked helping people,” López said.

Their swift action spared him from a mass grave — a fate that many grieving families fear as the search for victims continues.

Forensic technician Joel Mirabal has been working without a day off since the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck seven days ago.

The 45-year-old estimates that in roughly 60% to 70% of cases, a family member or neighbor is present to help identify a body when he arrives. Even then, the process is difficult, with many identifications relying on tattoos, scars, or recognizable clothing.

“They don’t look even 10% like what they were in real life,” he said of the victims.

Bodies that cannot be identified are taken to forensic specialists working out of La Guaira’s seaport. Private companies have donated large refrigerated containers to help preserve the remains, but the number of dead continues to climb.

“Obviously, mass graves will have to be created,” Mirabal said. “The collapse is massive, and the bodies are buried under many layers of debris.”

Mirabal and his fellow forensic technicians expect the body recovery effort to stretch as long as three months. Each day, they travel through the affected areas guided by rescue workers and civilians who have found or spotted remains.

“Many of the rescues are carried out by the people,” he said, referring to the thousands of everyday Venezuelans who have joined the recovery effort.

A professional dog trainer who once worked with the government to locate drugs and missing persons, Mirabal finds comfort in the 12 dogs waiting for him at home — not counting the puppies. One of his favorites is Mila, a young black Dutch Shepherd who rested beside him on Thursday.

“It’s not easy at all to witness the suffering and tragedy of your fellow human beings,” he said.

Over the weekend, crews transported dozens of bodies recovered from collapsed buildings to a government-operated health facility in the city of La Guaira. The remains were held in a scorching parking lot until families could claim them, with funeral home workers estimating that more than 200 bodies were stored there at one point.

By Thursday, grieving families were lined up outside the La Guaira seaport, waiting to identify bodies that authorities were continuing to recover throughout the coastal state. A long line of vehicles — including trucks and vans from funeral homes — formed outside a makeshift morgue at the facility.

Among those waiting was Robert Rodríguez, who sat slumped on a concrete block, his legs hanging, as his daughter went inside to identify the body of her husband. Rafael Alvarado had been killed while trapped inside a grocery store where he worked at the deli counter.

“He was her best friend,” Rodríguez said, tears soaking his blue face mask.

Rodríguez said the family found Alvarado in the rubble on Wednesday, and his body was transported to the seaport on Thursday.

“I saw his shoes and knew it was him,” Rodríguez said, adding that he had tried to prepare his daughter for what she would see. “I told her, ‘Prepare yourself.’”

The family plans to cremate Alvarado and scatter his ashes on Isla de Margarita, the Venezuelan island where he had called home.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A group of Indonesians is working to halt a massive German cement company’s plans to build a mine and factory, using a first-of-its-kind legal approach that experts say could have far-reaching consequences for European companies doing business across Asia.

Heidelberg Materials, among the largest cement producers on the planet, is accused by critics of failing to thoroughly evaluate and address the potential damage its proposed limestone mine and cement factory could cause in Central Java’s Kendeng Mountains. Opponents of the project warn it could devastate a rare karst ecosystem and strip away the livelihoods of Indigenous communities living in the area.

“If the project is implemented, we face an ecological catastrophe, impoverishment, and violations of our human rights,” said Bambang Sutikyo, one of the people who filed the complaint.

A senior sustainability communication manager for Heidelberg Materials, Katharina Plonsker, said local residents had opportunities to raise concerns with the company’s Indonesian subsidiary, PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, during the permitting process, and that their input shaped the project’s planning. She added that so far, “no decision on the implementation of the project has been taken.”

The complaint, lodged with Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control against both Heidelberg Materials and Indocement, is the first time Indonesia has invoked Germany’s supply chain law — a regulation designed to hold large corporations accountable for human rights conditions throughout their supply chains.

Annabell Brüggemann of the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights noted that other European Union countries are preparing to introduce similar rules, drawing on Germany’s experience as a model. She said that makes the current complaints especially meaningful, adding, “complaints filed at this moment are quite significant.”

This case is part of a broader global trend. Plaintiffs in Cambodia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and other parts of Indonesia are pursuing legal action against major European firms — including apparel company Adidas and energy giant Shell — in comparable disputes.

According to Jameela Joy Reyes of the London-based Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, these cases create mounting financial risk for European companies that may have set up operations in Asia to benefit from less strict regulations. “The transboundary harm element of these cases is quite interesting, and we might be seeing that more in the future,” she said.

The current complaint was brought by 10 individuals, backed by local and international nonprofits including Inclusive Development and Watch Indonesia. They allege that Heidelberg Materials did not fully examine the potential harm to the Kendeng Mountains — a significant natural carbon sink and underground water reservoir.

Opposition to mining projects in the Kendeng region is nothing new. Plaintiff Gunretno, a member of the Indigenous farming community known as the Samin, or Sedulur Sikep, said the stakes go beyond the environment. Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name. “It’s not just the environmental impact, the loss of land taken by the cement industry will result in our brothers and sisters having no land left,” he said.

Gunretno also framed the issue in broader terms: “When it comes to environmental destruction of any kind, we, as global citizens, have a responsibility to figure out how we can work together to protect our one and only Earth.”

A lawyer with the Semarang Legal Aid Institute, Syamsuddin Arief, which supports the Samin community, expressed hope that the complaint would “achieve the shared goal of upholding citizens’ rights to a sustainable life, a healthy and good environment, and ensuring the sustainability of the Kendeng Mountains.”

The Grantham Research Institute, which monitors nearly 3,000 climate-related lawsuits across 60 countries, counted at least 226 such cases filed in 2024 alone.

In a separate but related matter, four fishing community members from Indonesia’s Pari Island filed a legal complaint in 2023 against Swiss construction company Holcim, claiming the firm’s climate-altering emissions threaten their homes and way of life. Holcim disputes those claims and says it intends to appeal a Swiss court’s decision to hear the case — a move that could make it one of the first climate lawsuits ever brought against a Swiss corporation.

In the Philippines, nearly 70 survivors of a devastating 2021 super typhoon filed a complaint last year against Shell, arguing that the company’s historical emissions worsened the storm and seeking compensation for deaths and losses. Shell maintains it bears no legal responsibility.

Around 40 farmers in Pakistan filed a similar complaint against Heidelberg Materials and German energy company RWE last year, arguing that those corporations’ emissions intensified the catastrophic 2022 floods — the worst in Pakistan’s history at the time. That effort was inspired by a parallel case from Peru targeting RWE.

Reyes of the Grantham Institute said these cases are part of a larger conversation about accountability. “All of these factors are coming into play in this bigger conversation about reparations and what this might mean for those in the Global South, whose land and whose resources many of these corporations have been profiting off of,” she said.

Laurie Parsons of Royal Holloway, University of London and author of “Carbon Colonialism,” said Germany’s supply chain law has fundamentally shifted what communities affected by corporate activity around the world can do to push back. “It also changed the mindsets of companies and governments about what’s possible,” he said.

With regulations similar to Germany’s expected to roll out across all 27 EU member nations by 2028, Brüggemann of the ECCHR said more cases are unavoidable. The Indonesian cement case, she said, “shows how strong the movement is for corporate accountability and how big the need is for regulation of the globalized economy.”

Four people lost their lives and ten more were wounded as Russian forces launched overnight attacks on Ukraine, officials announced via Telegram in the early morning hours of Friday.

In the Sumy region, which borders Russia, a drone strike hit a residential home, claiming the lives of two women, an elderly man, and a girl not yet two years old. Three additional people were hurt in that attack, according to Oleh Hryhorov, who leads the regional military administration.

Meanwhile, in Kryvyi Rih — a city in central Ukraine and the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy — a Russian missile slammed into a densely populated urban neighborhood, leaving seven people injured. Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defence council, confirmed the details of that strike.

Friday has been designated a day of mourning in Kyiv, following a devastating Russian assault on the capital on Thursday that killed at least three dozen people — making it the deadliest attack on Kyiv so far this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is brushing aside serious fuel shortages gripping his country, even as Ukraine continues targeting oil refineries and energy infrastructure deep inside Russian territory.

Putin has called the disruptions to Russia’s energy sector “not critical” and has pushed back against ceasefire efforts, making clear he intends to keep fighting until Russia’s objectives are fulfilled.

The Russian leader has framed Ukraine’s strikes on energy facilities as a tactic to draw attention away from Ukrainian battlefield losses — though outside analysts say Russian forces have largely stalled in their advance over recent months. Putin appears confident his government can contain the fuel crisis before it weakens his grip on power or public backing for a war he started more than four years ago.

Overnight into Thursday morning, Russian forces launched a massive, 11-hour assault on the Ukrainian capital, killing at least 21 people. It stands as one of the most deadly attacks on Kyiv since Russia began its full-scale invasion.

Since March, Ukraine has carried out more than 50 reported strikes on oil refineries and other energy sites inside Russia and in occupied Crimea. Ukrainian officials have said the campaign is designed to pressure Moscow toward ending the war.

At minimum, the attacks have made the conflict feel far more real for millions of ordinary Russians, undermining Putin’s long-standing message that the war has little impact on daily life at home.

According to Chris Weafer, CEO of the consultancy Macro-Advisory, roughly one-third of Russia’s oil refining capacity has been knocked out. The damage is expected to be both lasting and expensive to fix.

Even a major refinery near Moscow — despite the capital’s heavy air defenses — has been struck twice. The second hit, on June 18, sparked a fire and damaged critical equipment that officials say may not be fully repaired until the end of this year.

Russian government figures show gasoline production has dropped by about 17%, falling to around 850,000 barrels per day. Fuel rationing has been put in place across numerous regions, and drivers have been forced to wait in long lines just to fill their tanks.

The hardest-hit area has been Crimea — the Ukrainian territory Russia illegally seized in 2014 — where gasoline sales to private individuals have been suspended entirely.

Last weekend, Putin convened a government meeting specifically to address the fuel situation. In televised remarks, he acknowledged the country was going through a “difficult period” and pledged to speed up repairs to damaged energy facilities. He also said Russia would look into importing gasoline to offset what he called “temporary” shortages, and announced that the country’s defense industry would ramp up production of air defense systems to counter future Ukrainian strikes.

Putin characterized Ukraine’s attacks as an effort to fracture Russian society, stop Moscow’s military push, and pressure the Kremlin into negotiations on terms favorable to Ukraine.

“We will not give them that chance,” he declared.

While Putin insisted Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian oil infrastructure “have absolutely no effect on the situation at the front,” Western military analysts say mid-range Ukrainian strikes have disrupted Russian supply lines and slowed the pace of their advance, creating a battlefield stalemate.

Putin maintains that Russian troops are still making progress along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. In a state television interview last weekend, he cited the names of specific small villages and even individual streets inside Ukraine as evidence of Russian gains.

Putin responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s offer to meet by suggesting Zelenskyy come to Moscow — a proposal Ukraine immediately ruled out.

Putin has also rejected a truce proposed by Kyiv and its Western allies, arguing it would simply allow Ukrainian forces to rest and rebuild their strength.

Any ceasefire, Putin has said, would require Ukraine to pull back from the portion of the Donetsk region it still holds — a demand Ukraine has flatly refused. He has also said a final peace agreement must require Ukraine to give up its pursuit of NATO membership, scale back its military, and guarantee protections for Russian language and culture.

In his Sunday interview, Putin claimed Ukraine had privately proposed limiting the fighting to the four regions Russia annexed but never fully captured: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. He said he turned it down, arguing it would allow Ukraine to shift forces from other areas and concentrate them against Russian advances in those four southeastern regions.

“Faced with a catastrophic shortage of personnel, the armed forces of Ukraine apparently believe this could be their salvation,” Putin said. “Saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans,” he added.

The Kremlin confirmed the proposal came through private diplomatic channels; Ukrainian officials have not publicly addressed it.

Putin also rejected a Ukrainian suggestion to mutually stop deep strikes into each other’s territory, saying Russian strikes reaching deep into Ukraine are “much more powerful, sensitive and, frankly speaking, destructive.”

Thursday’s deadly strike on Kyiv once again hit residential neighborhoods, even as Russia claimed it was going after military targets. Ukrainian strikes inside Russia, by contrast, have overwhelmingly focused on oil facilities, weapons factories, and other military-related infrastructure.

According to a United Nations count, more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have lost their lives since the war began.

From June 26 through July 2, 2026, dramatic images captured major events unfolding across Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Venezuela, rescue workers pressed on in their search for survivors following a pair of earthquakes that struck on June 24. The disaster claimed hundreds of lives and left a significant number of people still missing.

On the soccer field, Mexico ended a 40-year absence from the World Cup knockout rounds, defeating Ecuador by a score of 2-0 to advance to the Round of 16.

Pride Month wrapped up with vibrant festivities around the region, highlighted by the annual Pride parade held in Mexico City.

This photo collection was assembled by photojournalist Jorge Saenz, who is based in Asuncion, Paraguay.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — He came home the way many young males do — returning to the stretch of Australian coastline where he was born. But Neil is no ordinary local. He weighs as much as a small car, has more social media followers than the entire human population of his home state, and leaves a trail of bent metal and broken fences wherever he goes. Neil is a 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) elephant seal, and he is causing quite a stir.

Back in June, the boisterous, blubbery 5-year-old hauled himself ashore in southern Tasmania for his twice-yearly visit to coastal towns, a routine he follows after months of feeding out at sea. This is his 12th visit to land, and it has proven to be his most eventful yet.

Neil has already racked up an impressive list of offenses during this trip: picking fights with parked vehicles, knocking over traffic bollards, destroying a sign warning people about seals, and plowing through a fence that stood no chance against him. When he is not causing mayhem, he simply parks himself wherever he pleases — including the middle of the road — bringing entire towns to a halt.

Despite all of this, officials say their greatest worry is not the property damage. It is the fans.

Neil has built a TikTok following of 1.4 million people — more than double the human population of Tasmania — largely because of his rebellious behavior. Some online admirers have crowned him a kind of anti-establishment hero. Scientists, however, say his antics are simply what young male elephant seals do.

Sophia Volzke, an elephant seal researcher at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, explained that juvenile male elephant seals must practice for the intense dominance battles they will face as adults, where males rear up and slam their chests together to compete for breeding rights. Since there are no other young seals around for Neil to spar with, he has been rehearsing on Toyotas instead.

At a news conference in Hobart on Thursday, Kris Carlyon from Tasmania’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment asked the public to give Neil some space.

“Neil’s fame is a bit of a double-edged sword,” Carlyon said. “We have had some pretty silly behavior, instances with people carrying their small babies up close to him and simply trying to get that shot for Instagram.”

Officials have urged people to avoid publicly sharing which town Neil is currently visiting, fearing that a dangerous encounter between the seal and an overeager fan could force rangers to relocate him — a risky operation for everyone involved.

Carlyon also raised a more sobering possibility, pointing to a 2023 incident in Norway where a walrus named Freya, who had attracted massive crowds, was euthanized after authorities determined she posed a growing risk to public safety.

“There is a risk here of essentially loving Neil to death,” Carlyon warned.

It is completely normal for seals to return twice a year to the beaches where they were born to rest, shed fur, and fast. Many species wander into coastal towns during these visits. What makes Neil exceptional is that he is the only male elephant seal currently coming ashore in Tasmania.

Volzke explained that elephant seal breeding populations live on sub-Antarctic islands south of Tasmania, and Neil’s mother would have traveled from one of those islands to give birth. Female elephant seals have been spotted in Tasmania before, but they are much smaller — reaching only the size Neil was at one or two years old — and do not create nearly the same level of disruption.

“Humans got rid of those animals and now maybe they are coming back and repopulating areas that they were previously seen in,” Volzke said. “We do need to find a way to coexist.”

That coexistence may become increasingly challenging. If Neil survives to adulthood, he could grow to 5 meters (16 feet) in length and weigh three times what he does now. However, Volzke noted that roughly 90% of male elephant seals do not live long enough to reach breeding age, which is around 10 years old.

For the moment, Neil has claimed a particular stretch of sidewalk as his own, lying there contentedly and unbothered. He has shown a peculiar fondness for an orange traffic cone, which delights his online followers to no end. Rangers have tried to move him along, but he keeps coming back to the same spot.

“He’s obviously decided this puddle surrounded by bollards, which are horizontal at the moment, is his spot,” Carlyon said Thursday.

Residents of the town currently hosting Neil have mixed feelings about their famous guest. Dale Creamer, a local who says he has not been personally inconvenienced by the seal, offered a philosophical take on the situation.

“He’s one of our biggest exports at the moment,” Creamer said. “It’s Neil’s world and we’re just living in it.”

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Lam Wing-kee, a former Hong Kong bookseller who rose to international prominence as a symbol of defiance against Beijing’s suppression of free expression, has passed away in Taiwan at the age of 70, according to the island’s official Central News Agency, which cited an unnamed source.

The news agency did not disclose a cause of death, but reported that Lam had experienced a cancer relapse last year. He was admitted to MacKay Memorial Hospital in Taipei on Tuesday, slipped into a coma on Wednesday, and died Thursday evening.

Lam had previously worked at Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong before relocating to Taipei in 2019, driven by concerns over potential legal jeopardy. He reopened the bookstore under its original name in the Taiwanese capital in 2020.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te shared his condolences on Facebook following the news of Lam’s death.

“The passing of Mr Lam Wing-kee is deeply saddening, but the courage he left behind would not fade,” Lai wrote. “Taiwan will remember that a Hong Kong bookstore worker once told us in the most ordinary yet most steadfast way how precious freedom is and reminded us that democracy requires the efforts of generation after generation to defend it.”

Lam was among five individuals connected to Causeway Bay Books who vanished in late 2015. The shop had been known for selling books and magazines that claimed to expose private details about Chinese leaders and the controversies surrounding them.

Among the five, publisher Gui Minhai disappeared from his vacation home in Thailand and was subsequently sentenced to ten years in a Chinese prison on charges of illegally providing intelligence to foreign entities.

In a bold act of defiance, Lam held a press conference in 2016 where he publicly contradicted the Chinese government’s version of events surrounding the disappearances of the five booksellers.

Lam described being taken by Chinese authorities in October 2015 after he crossed from Hong Kong into the mainland city of Shenzhen. He said he was blindfolded and placed on a 13-hour train journey to the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was held under around-the-clock surveillance in a room for five months, monitored by rotating two-person teams.

At a packed news conference in Hong Kong, he recounted being compelled to appear on Chinese state television to deliver a confession to alleged crimes.

As recently as June, Lam told the Central News Agency that he had temporarily shuttered his Taipei bookstore due to health concerns and could not predict when it would reopen.

Since the large-scale anti-government demonstrations that swept Hong Kong in 2019, Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have imposed increasingly strict controls over the territory. In June, Hong Kong police arrested two individuals on suspicion of distributing seditious publications and receiving funding from foreign political organizations, acting under a recently enacted national security law.

WASHINGTON (AP) — While President Donald Trump has publicly criticized and clashed with many of his European counterparts set to attend next week’s NATO summit, Turkey’s leader has used his personal friendship with the U.S. president to guarantee Trump’s attendance at the Ankara gathering — and the visit could come with a major defense bonus for Turkey.

Trump has repeatedly praised the Turkish president, referring to him as a “hell of a leader” and a close friend. “I would not have gone for most people,” Trump said last week. “But he called me up. He said: ‘Please, I have it in Turkey. You got to be there. The United States has to be in there.’ And so I’m going out of respect to President Erdogan.”

That personal rapport has helped Erdogan prevent the turmoil that Trump’s absence would have created for the alliance — especially at a moment when Trump has been threatening to withdraw U.S. troops from Europe and reduce America’s involvement in NATO, causing anxiety among allies. Trump has long pressured NATO members to increase their defense budgets and has recently criticized them for not supporting his confrontation with Iran.

Adding to the appeal, Trump has hinted he may announce something during his visit connected to jet engines and the possible sale of F-35 fighter jets — a deal that has been blocked for years due to Turkey’s close relationship with Russia.

Trump’s well-documented admiration for strongman-style leaders has made him a longtime fan of Erdogan, who first consolidated power as prime minister and is now in his 13th year as Turkey’s president.

“His relationship with Erdogan, which is pretty strong, is consistent with what seems to be a pattern of his preference,” said Philip Gordon, who previously served as national security adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris. “It has often been pointed out he seems to have better relationships with adversaries and autocrats, and he certainly says nicer things about them than with allies.”

Gordon, now affiliated with the Brookings Institution, added, “Erdogan is taking full advantage of it.”

Trump is expected to hold a one-on-one meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit, making him the first U.S. president to visit Turkey since Barack Obama did so in 2015. The previous administration kept Erdogan at a distance throughout its four years in office, citing concerns about Turkey’s democratic regression and its ties to Russia.

Opposition groups and human rights organizations have accused Erdogan of weakening democratic institutions and restricting free speech, pointing to what they describe as ongoing, unfounded legal actions against journalists, activists, opposition politicians, and others.

Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute noted that Erdogan and Trump developed a personal chemistry during Trump’s first term. When the previous administration invited Erdogan to visit the U.S. in 2024 following Turkey’s endorsement of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, Erdogan chose not to attend.

“That was Erdogan’s way of signaling to Trump, ‘Hey, you are going to probably win the elections,’” Cagaptay said. “I think Trump saw that as a giant gesture.”

During a recent meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, a reporter asked Trump whether he was bringing “a big gift bag for Erdogan,” referencing Turkey’s desire for F-110 jet engines and F-35 fighter jets.

“Yeah, I think so,” Trump answered. “Yeah, I’m going to probably do something that’s going to make him very happy.” Trump had also floated the idea last September that the U.S. might begin selling F-35s to Turkey.

Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 after it acquired Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. American officials have long worried that Turkey operating the Russian system could allow Moscow to collect data on the F-35’s performance and capabilities.

At a White House meeting, Vice President JD Vance said the administration was looking into ways to move forward with the jet sale, stressing that any transaction would require Turkey to be in compliance with U.S. law. There is notable bipartisan resistance in Congress to selling F-35s to Turkey while Ankara still holds the Russian missile defense systems, including from prominent Republicans like Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch of Idaho.

Separately, Turkey is seeking to buy F-110 jet engines to power its domestically built KAAN fighter aircraft. The State Department recently moved toward enabling those sales, sending key lawmakers a notification that it intended to bypass congressional objections to more than $700 million worth of jet-engine sales to Ankara, according to two individuals granted anonymity to describe details of a non-public notification.

“In this case, the State Department did not even attempt to justify its decision,” said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement last week. “It did not invoke any emergency authority, did not present a written rationale, and for months refused to make a good-faith effort to brief me on implications of the sale for the U.S.-Turkey relationship, Turkey’s continued possession of the Russian S-400 system, and other regional security concerns.”

The broader relationship between Washington and Ankara is thawing in other areas as well. Earlier this year, the Justice Department dismissed a significant case against Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, which had faced accusations of helping Iran avoid U.S. sanctions.

When Trump returned to the White House for his second term, he named a longtime personal friend as ambassador to Turkey: Tom Barrack, a close ally who also chaired his inaugural committee. “Barrack is playing a crucial role as a facilitator in the relationship,” said Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at TED University in Ankara.

Erdogan and Trump have spoken by phone frequently about Syria, Gaza, and the broader Middle East, and Turkey joined Trump’s Board of Peace established to oversee the Gaza ceasefire. Trump claimed this month that he asked Erdogan to stay out of the conflict with Iran and that the Turkish leader agreed, though there is no evidence Turkey had any plans to become involved.

Trump made his admiration for Erdogan clear even while standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint press conference last year. Netanyahu, whose government is in conflict with Ankara, had hoped to gain Trump’s backing in countering Turkish influence in Syria — but instead watched as Trump heaped praise on Erdogan and urged Netanyahu to be “reasonable.”

Following his meeting with Trump at last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, Erdogan told reporters that the U.S. president responds to his calls quickly — an illustration of just how close their relationship has become.

“With my friend Trump, we are opening the door to a new era in Turkish-American relations,” Erdogan said. “The process of telephone diplomacy between us has never exceeded 24 hours so far. When we call, the other side responds within 24 hours.”

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch military has announced a major financial commitment to drone technology, pledging tens of millions of euros over three years to work alongside Dutch defense tech company Intelic on building advanced drone software.

Both the Dutch Defence Ministry and Intelic stated their shared goal is to develop a common software platform capable of allowing unmanned systems built by different manufacturers to function together seamlessly on the battlefield.

Junior defence minister Derk Boswijk pointed to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as a key lesson in modern warfare. “Ukraine teaches us that not only the hardware, but also the software is of great importance,” he said. “Making different drone systems work together makes the fight easier.”

The new partnership will be built on top of Intelic’s existing NEXUS command-and-control software, which the company says has already seen real-world use on the battlefield in Ukraine since last year.

Intelic CEO Maurits Korthals Altes highlighted the rapidly expanding drone industry across Europe as a driving force behind the need for interoperability. “Europe now has more than 700 drone manufacturers, and that number continues to grow,” he said. “For defence organisations, the challenge is no longer access to technology, but ensuring those technologies can operate together.”

India has formally notified two major messaging platforms — Telegram and Signal — over worries that their username features could be exploited for impersonation and other harmful activities, according to a government source who spoke on Friday.

The source, who requested anonymity, said both platforms have been asked to detail what protections they have in place to keep users safe. The notices are part of a wider government effort to hold digital platforms more accountable for how their features are used.

The action follows a similar move against Meta’s WhatsApp, which was directed by Indian authorities to halt the gradual rollout of its own username feature in the country. That feature, once fully implemented, would allow users to contact each other without needing to share their phone numbers.

The latest notices represent a further escalation in India’s oversight of online platforms. The government had already blocked Telegram in recent weeks, and has clashed repeatedly over the years with Elon Musk’s X over demands to remove certain content.

NANTOU, Taiwan — Taiwan put more than 370 government and military officials through one of its most intense war preparedness exercises yet this week, simulating a terrifying cascade of crises: a Chinese naval blockade, a devastating earthquake exploited by Beijing, hijacked TV broadcasts, sabotaged power and infrastructure, a run on banks, civil unrest, and ultimately a full-scale military invasion.

The two-day drill took place in central Taiwan’s Nantou County, and Reuters was given rare, exclusive access to the closed-door exercise — the first of its kind testing whether local officials in that mountainous county, working alongside central government and military agencies, could keep the region functioning under wartime conditions.

The exercise is part of a broader effort by President Lai Ching-te to strengthen Taiwan’s readiness for conflict as Beijing’s military activity around the island continues to escalate.

Chi Lien-cheng, the minister without portfolio who oversaw the drill, spoke directly about the stakes involved. “Our adversary is right on our doorstep, just across the Taiwan Strait. That is very close,” he told Reuters.

“If you don’t defend your own country, who else will defend you? I think people are beginning to understand that,” Chi said, while also acknowledging that shortcomings remain and that real-world resources could fall short in an actual emergency. “But that’s all right. We are here to see how they carry out the exercise — whether they have the will to absorb these concepts and put them into practice.”

China has never ruled out using military force to bring Taiwan under its authority. Taiwan’s government maintains that only the island’s own people have the right to determine their future.

As the drill was wrapping up on Thursday, Taiwan’s military reported that China had conducted yet another “joint combat readiness patrol” around the island, deploying warships and at least 22 military aircraft, among them nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office accused President Lai of deliberately stoking tensions. Spokesperson Zhu Fenglian stated Thursday: “This will only push Taiwan into the dangerous situation of war and conflict. He is, through and through, a destroyer of cross-strait peace, a creator of crises in the Taiwan Strait, and an instigator of war.”

The drill opened with a seven-hour tabletop planning session before shifting the following day to hands-on field exercises, which included simulating the shooting down of a Chinese drone near a power plant and setting up food distribution stations for civilians.

A simulated magnitude 6.8 earthquake — in which 12 people were killed in the scenario — added significant pressure, forcing officials to simultaneously manage disaster relief, damaged infrastructure, growing public unrest, and wartime operational planning.

Large screens in the drill’s command center displayed a U.S. military-developed tactical mapping and communications system showing real-time positions of simulated enemy targets. Two Taiwanese government platforms using interactive maps and icons helped visualize the unfolding crises, including the movement of ambulances and other emergency resources.

A key focus of this year’s exercise was deeper coordination between civilian and military operations. Lin Fei-fan, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council and the official overseeing the resilience-building program, said military reserve commands worked directly alongside local governments throughout the drill.

“The message to our adversary is clear: when they know Taiwan’s society is prepared, they will have to think very carefully about whether to launch such a costly war against Taiwan — one that may not succeed,” Lin said.

Drawing on lessons learned from the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, officials said they have worked to make these exercises more realistic. That has included moving hospital operations underground and bringing in professional hackers to attack and stress-test government computer networks and websites.

One scenario involved a Chinese drone strike on the command center itself, leaving the status of 75 officials uncertain and requiring authorities to activate a backup operations facility.

A military official who took part in the drill, speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the exercise, reflected on its purpose: “We can’t actually put them through a real war, so we can only use scenarios to help them understand that war is extremely cruel — all situations will be severe and urgent. If you have not made these preparations in peacetime, you will not be able to respond.”

Nantou officials were assigned a specific strategic role: transforming Taiwan’s only landlocked county into a so-called “rear area” — a refuge for civilians evacuating other parts of the island and a fallback zone for military operations while frontline troops engaged Chinese forces.

Dozens of grassroots government units from across the country also joined the exercises via livestream, responding to unfolding scenarios and rapid questions from commanders in the response center.

Officials were questioned in precise detail about their readiness — from how many draft-age men a local government could mobilize overnight to how many cans of baby formula the county had in stock.

The exercise also tested how local authorities would handle information warfare. At one point in the simulation, local television broadcasts were hijacked and replaced with Beijing propaganda, while fake flyers spreading misinformation appeared on the streets — a scenario reminiscent of the 2025 Taiwanese television drama “Zero Day Attack.”

Officials practiced holding mock press conferences and were trained to identify and counter false information.

Lee I-yuan, a 75-year-old borough chief who led a community response team during the drill, said the exercise helped him learn how to tell fact from fiction in a crisis. “If the other side attacks, they will definitely use AI to spread false information,” he said.

New York City police confirmed Thursday that a man died from severe burns sustained near the United Nations headquarters, and activists along with a media outlet representing exiled Tibetans have identified him as a Tibetan man who set himself on fire in a call for independence.

Officers responded to an emergency call at approximately 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday and found the man with extensive burns. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Police said an investigation remains underway and did not release his name.

Voice of Tibet, a media organization run by exiled Tibetans, identified the man as activist Logba Rangzen, stating he had “self-immolated outside the UN headquarters in New York after a live appeal for Tibetan independence and unity.”

According to local news site amNewYork, Rangzen worked as an Uber driver and arrived at the scene carrying a Tibetan flag. The outlet spoke with fellow Uber driver Lobsang Paljor, who said he recognized Rangzen from events within the Tibetan community. Paljor told the publication that Rangzen “was enraged by the restrictions the Chinese government had placed on his countrymen.”

The incident took place against the backdrop of China’s new ethnic unity law, which took effect this week. Both the United States and the European Union have voiced concern about the legislation, which gives Beijing a legal framework to take action against people even outside its own borders.

The law establishes a “shared” national identity among China’s 55 ethnic minority groups, including Tibetans and Uyghurs — groups that have historically resisted aspects of Chinese governance. Tibetans worldwide have spoken out against the new law.

Acts of self-immolation by Tibetans protesting Beijing’s policies in Tibet and surrounding regions with large Tibetan populations have occurred before.

China took control of Tibet in 1950, characterizing the takeover as a “peaceful liberation” from feudalistic serfdom. International human rights organizations and exiled Tibetans have long condemned what they describe as oppressive Chinese rule in Tibetan areas — accusations Beijing consistently denies.

Ethnic minority issues remain a deeply sensitive matter within China. Tibetans and other minority groups face heavy surveillance for any perceived signs of “separatism.” Since Xi Jinping assumed the presidency in 2012, Beijing has tightened its institutional grip on Tibet.

Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, remembered Rangzen as “a tireless advocate for Tibet” and said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss.

TOKYO — Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama reiterated on Friday that the government stands prepared to act on currency fluctuations, as traders kept a close eye on the possibility of official intervention in the foreign exchange market.

Speaking at a regularly scheduled press conference, Katayama addressed concerns about the yen’s ongoing slide. “Our stance has not changed. We will respond appropriately at any time as needed,” she said.

The minister also noted that Japanese officials have maintained close communication with their counterparts in the United States regarding currency matters — and that those conversations have continued “even when the U.S. is on holiday.”

On Thursday, the yen moved sharply higher against the dollar, prompting speculation among traders that authorities may have stepped in. However, many in the market felt the move was too modest to confirm an intervention. The yen then received an additional lift after U.S. employment data came in weaker than anticipated, pushing the dollar down.

By Friday, the yen was trading at 161.2 per dollar. Earlier in the week, the currency had sunk to 162.84 per dollar — its weakest level in 40 years.

Katayama also turned attention to rising Japanese government bond yields, pledging that the government remains committed to keeping confidence in the bond market intact and ensuring the long-term health of public finances.

Benchmark government bond yields in Japan surged to a level not seen in nearly 30 years on Friday, reflecting growing investor anxiety over the country’s fiscal outlook.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A high-ranking general who commands Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has come out of hiding as the country gears up for an elaborate, multi-day funeral honoring the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian state media published photographs of Gen. Ahmad Vahidi attending a planning meeting related to the funeral of Khamenei, who was 86 years old, and later sitting beside his casket during a smaller ceremony held Thursday night near the supreme leader’s former residence in downtown Tehran.

According to experts, Vahidi has become a key figure in shaping Iran’s hardline position during negotiations aimed at potentially ending its war with the United States. He is believed to belong to a small inner circle in direct communication with Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has reportedly remained out of public view after being wounded in Israeli strikes on February 28 — the same attack that killed his father, the elder Khamenei.

Vahidi himself had not made any public appearances since February 8, several weeks before the Iran war broke out.

Video footage released by Iranian state media captured the mourning ceremony near the husseiniyah at Khamenei’s compound in Tehran. An Israeli airstrike during the opening moments of the war took the life of Khamenei along with several of his family members. According to state media, his body lay inside a coffin placed on a stage, with red tulips arranged in front of it and what appeared to be paper butterflies suspended from the ceiling above.

Mourners dressed in black — identified by state media as families who lost loved ones in both the 12-day war in 2025 and the more recent Iran conflict — tossed scarves and other personal items toward attendants who brushed them against the coffin, a traditional practice in Iran.

State media later showed images of Khamenei’s casket covered by a red flag bearing white calligraphy reading “Ya Hussein,” a Shiite phrase commemorating the 7th-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson. The flag had previously flown over the Imam Hussein golden-domed shrine in Karbala, Iraq. Traditionally, such a flag carries dual meaning — representing the blood of someone unjustly killed and serving as a call for vengeance.

Starting Saturday, Iran will conduct a dayslong funeral for Khamenei, with his remains transported to cities throughout Iran and into neighboring Iraq. The proceedings will kick off at the Grand Mosalla in Tehran, where officials plan to close streets and suspend normal daily activities as the nation mourns the leader who governed Iran for decades with a firm grip while repeatedly clashing with Western nations.