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The police said gunmen opened fire in the River North neighbourhood. At least three victims are in critical condition.

Four people in the United States have been killed and at least 14 others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a crowd outside a lounge in downtown Chicago, according to police.

According to authorities, the mass shooting took place around 11:00pm (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday, when shots were fired from a vehicle travelling along Chicago Avenue in the city’s River North neighbourhood.

Chicago police reported that 13 women and five men, all between the ages of 21 and 32, were struck by the gunfire. Among the dead were two men and two women.

As of Thursday, at least three victims remained in critical condition. The injured were transported to local hospitals.

Police said the driver fled the scene immediately, and no arrests have been made. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling urged the public to submit anonymous tips to help detectives identify the suspects.

Local media reported that rapper Mello Buckzz, also known as Melanie Doyle, was hosting a private event at the lounge Wednesday evening to celebrate the release of her new album.

Snelling said police were trying to determine a motive and that the venue, Artis Lounge, is closed “until we get to the bottom of this”. He did not identify the number of attackers involved in the incident but said police found two different calibres of casings and were still reviewing footage.

“Clearly, there was some target in some way,” Snelling said. “This wasn’t some random shooting.”

Artis Lounge confirmed they were working with authorities as the investigation continued.

‘I can only describe it as a warzone’

In the hours after the shooting, Buckzz asked for prayers and expressed her anger and sadness on social media.

“My heart broke into so many pieces,” the artist wrote on Instagram Stories.

In her posts, the rapper revealed that many of those injured were her friends, and that she had been in a relationship with one of the men who was killed.

“Prayers up for all my sisters god please wrap yo arms around every last one of them,” Buckzz wrote across several Instagram Story slides. “Feel like everything just weighing down on me … all I can do is talk to god and pray.”

Chicago pastor Donovan Price, who works with communities affected by violence, described the scene as a “warzone”.

“Just mayhem and blood and screaming and confusion as people tried to find their friends and phones. It was a horrendous, tragic, dramatic scene,” he told The Associated Press.

The shooting took place days before the Fourth of July weekend, when Chicago and other major cities often see a surge in gun crimes. In recent years, however, Chicago has seen an overall decrease in gun violence.

During the last Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, more than 100 people were shot, resulting in at least 19 deaths. Mayor Brandon Johnson said at the time that the violence “has left our city in a state of grief”.

Supreme Court lifted group’s ‘terrorist’ designation in April, as Moscow seeks normalisation in bid for regional clout.

Russia has accepted the credentials of a new ambassador of Afghanistan as part of an ongoing drive to build friendly relations with the country’s Taliban authorities, which seized power as United States troops withdrew from the country four years ago.

“We believe that the act of official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” said the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Thursday.

The move makes Russia the first country in the world to recognise the country’s Taliban government.

“This brave decision will be an example for others,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a video of a meeting on Thursday with Dmitry Zhirnov, the Russian ambassador to Kabul, posted on X.

“Now that the process of recognition has started, Russia was ahead of everyone.”

The move is likely to be closely watched by Washington, which has frozen billions in Afghanistan’s central bank assets and enforced sanctions on some senior leaders in the Taliban, which has contributed to Afghanistan’s banking sector being largely cut off from the international financial system.

The group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when US forces supporting the country’s internationally recognised government pulled out.

Moscow, which called the US withdrawal a “failure”, has taken steps to normalise relations with the Taliban authorities since then, seeing them as a potential economic partner and ally in fighting terrorism.

A Taliban delegation attended Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg in 2022 and 2024, and the group’s top diplomat met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last October.

In July 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Taliban “allies in the fight against terrorism” – notably against Islamic State Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), a group responsible for deadly attacks in both Afghanistan and Russia.

In April, Russia’s Supreme Court lifted the “terrorist” designation for the group.

Lavrov said that month that “the new authorities in Kabul are a reality”, urging Moscow to adopt a “pragmatic, not ideologised policy” towards the Taliban.

Competing for influence

Moscow’s attitude towards the Taliban has shifted drastically over the last two decades.

The group was formed in 1994 during the Afghan Civil War, largely by former US-supported Mujahideen fighters who battled the Soviet Union during the 1980s.

The Soviet-Afghan war resulted in a stinging defeat for Moscow that may have hastened the demise of the USSR.

Russia put the Taliban on its “terrorist” blacklist in 2003 over its support for separatists in the North Caucasus.

But the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has forced Russia and other countries in the region to change tack as they compete for influence.

Russia was the first country to open a business representative office in Kabul after the Taliban takeover, and has announced plans to use Afghanistan as a transit hub for gas heading to Southeast Asia.

The Afghan government is not officially recognised by any world body, and the United Nations refers to the administration as the “Taliban de facto authorities”.

Who: Chelsea vs Palmeiras
What: FIFA Club World Cup quarterfinals
Where: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
When: Friday, July 4 at 9pm (01:00 GMT, July 5)

How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 6pm local (22:00 GMT) in advance of our live text commentary stream.

The second quarterfinal of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup pits English Premier League club Chelsea against Brazil’s Palmeiras.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at whether the match-up is a repeat of the 2021 final, which the Blues won 2-1 in the United Arab Emirates.

How did Chelsea reach the quarterfinals?

Chelsea picked up wins against Los Angeles and ES Tunis in the group stage to seal their qualification for the knockout rounds, although they did slip to a 3-1 defeat to another Brazilian club, Flamengo, to concede the top spot.

That handed the Blues a tricky all-European round of 16 tie against Benfica, which required extra time for the London-based club to progress with a 4-1 win.

A two-hour delay, with Chelsea leading 1-0 with four minutes of normal time to play, for nearby lightning was far from ideal in what has already proved a draining summer tournament.

How did Palmeiras reach the quarterfinals?

Two draws, against Corinthians and Porto, and a final match win against Al Ahly were enough for Palmeiras to progress to the last 16 of the tournament.

The cost of finishing second in the group, behind Porto, meant an all-Brazilian tie with Botafogo in the first knockout round.

Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Paulinho came off the bench to score the only goal of the game in extra time to send Palmeiras through.

Who could Chelsea and Palmeiras face in the semifinals?

The winners of the first quarterfinal between Brazil’s Fluminense and Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, played earlier in the day, await the winners of the second last-eight tie.

Who completes the Club World Cup quarterfinal lineup?

Paris Saint-Germain against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid against Borussia Dortmund complete the quarterfinal lineup, with the winners of those ties facing each other in the semifinals.

Can Joao Pedro play for Chelsea at the CWC?

Yes. Chelsea signed forward Joao Pedro from Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday and could make his debut for the London-based club in the quarterfinals.

Financial details were not disclosed, but British media reported that the deal was worth 60 million pounds ($81.54m).

“Everyone knows this is a big club with a great history,” the Brazilian, who has signed an eight-year contract, said in a statement.

“They had brilliant players in the past and have brilliant players now. So I am excited to join, and you know when you are a Chelsea player you must think one thing – win.”

The 23-year-old joined Brighton from Watford in 2023 and has scored 30 goals and provided 10 assists in 70 appearances for the south-coast club.

He has also made three appearances for Brazil’s senior team.

Chelsea captain Reece James’s pre-match thoughts

“We’ve come a long way. It was difficult to be so close to the end of the match and then have a kick in the teeth like that when we lost a late goal. We had to pick ourselves up and brush ourselves down – and to then score a few goals in extra time after the delay probably shows how far we’ve come, and everyone has played a part.”

Palmeiras coach Abel Ferreira’s pre-match thoughts

“Never give up, never give in. All the time, we work for this. I would like to say thank you to my players for all their efforts. We had an amazing game against Botafogo. When we needed to suffer, we suffered together with one player less. We deserved it because we work a lot.”

Next up: #FIFACWC Quarter-Finals. 🔜 pic.twitter.com/T49Cj3bOOy

— FIFA Club World Cup (@FIFACWC) July 2, 2025

Chelsea team news

Chelsea welcome back striker Nicolas Jackson after a two-game ban for his sending off in the defeat by Flamengo.

Moises Caicedo, however, sits out the tie after picking up a yellow card in the win against Benfica.

Palmeiras team news

Paulinho is set to have surgery on his leg after the tournament, so, despite his winning goal in the last round, the midfielder is set to remain among the substitutes.

Palmeiras will also be without the services of the suspended Uruguayan Joaquin Piquerez.

Estevao, who is set to join Chelsea following the finals, will, however, be able to play.

Head-to-head

This is only the second meeting between the sides following Chelsea’s 2-1 win in the 2021 Club World Cup final.

Romelu Lukaku and Kai Havertz scored for the Blues, either side of Raphael Veiga’s 64th-minute penalty, to settle the match that went to extra time. Luan was sent off for Palmeiras for a second yellow card in the final minute of the match.

Form guide – Chelsea’s last five games:

W-W-L-W-W

Form guide – Palmeira’s last five games:

D-D-W-D-W

Chelsea possible starting lineup:

Sanchez; James (c), Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Essugo, Lavia; Palmer, Fernandez, Pedro Neto; Jackson

Palmeiras possible starting lineup:

Weverton (c); Giay, Micael, Bruno Fuchs; Mayke, Rios, Martinez, Vanderlan; Allan, Vitor Roque, Estevao

United States President Donald Trump has toured Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility in the Everglades before it gets its first detainees.

“It’s known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is very appropriate because I looked outside and that’s not a place I want to go hiking,” Trump told the media during a livestreamed event on Tuesday. “But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.”

Trump campaigned for the presidency on promises to tackle immigration but faces a shortage of detention beds. The One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump’s tax and spending plan, passed the Senate during his Florida stop and includes $150bn for his deportation agenda over four years.

State officials quickly built the expected 5,000-bed facility to detain immigrants on top of a decades-old landing strip. The Department of Homeland Security pegged the one-year cost of running the facility at $450m, which it plans to pay for with money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program.

Florida officials, including former Trump rival Governor Ron DeSantis, joined the president and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for the tour. DeSantis said Noem’s team told him the facility would be opened to receive detainees after Trump’s departure.

Trump talked for more than an hour as he deflected questions about who could lose Medicaid healthcare coverage under the tax and spending legislation, warmly responded to a suggestion to arrest former President Joe Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and repeated a frequent complaint about shower heads lacking sufficient water pressure. Noem, meanwhile, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained a “cannibal” who “started to eat himself” on an airplane.

Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s remarks:

Trump’s ‘illegal alien’ cost estimate comes from group that advocates for low immigration levels

While talking about the goal of cutting the federal budget, Trump said: “The average illegal alien costs American taxpayers an estimated $70,000.”

That is a lifetime estimate by an organisation that supports low levels of immigration. Critics have taken issue with it.

The White House quoted 2024 testimony to a committee in the House of Representatives by Steven A Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Camarota said in written testimony: “The lifetime fiscal drain (taxes paid minus costs) for each illegal immigrant is about $68,000.” He based his estimate on immigrants’ net fiscal impact by education level.

Camarota said the estimate came with caveats, including what percentage of immigrants in the US illegally were using welfare programmes and the amount of benefits they received and their use of public schools and emergency services.

Other analyses show positive economic effects from undocumented immigrants in the US.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan research arm of Congress, in a 2024 report found both costs and benefits from the Biden-era immigration increase. On net, CBO found, the impact was positive in several areas.

The CBO estimated an $8.9 trillion boost to the gross domestic product – a measurement of overall economic activity – over 10 years because of the immigration surge, which would improve wages, salaries and corporate profits. The CBO also estimated that federal deficits would decline by almost $1 trillion over 10 years because of increased tax revenues from immigrants, which the agency estimated would outweigh the costs they imposed in the form of additional federal outlays.

Separately, the libertarian Cato Institute in 2023 found “immigrants generate nearly $1 trillion (in 2024 dollars) in state, local and federal taxes, which is almost $300 billion more than they receive in government benefits, including cash assistance, entitlements, and public education.”

Michael A Clemens, a George Mason University economist, told PolitiFact that although the Center for Immigration Studies counted the use of public schools by immigrants in the US illegally as a cost, he and other economists see public school funding as having net positive benefits.

Trump repeats ‘autopen’ conspiracy theory about Biden

Trump said: “We have a lot of bad criminals that came into the country. … It was an unforced error. It was an incompetent president that allowed it to happen. It was an autopen, maybe, that allowed it to happen.”

He was referring to a conspiracy theory in pro-Trump circles that Biden was so out of the loop during his own presidency that aides were able to repeatedly forge his signature with a mechanical autopen to pursue their own policy goals.

No evidence has surfaced to indicate that a document Biden signed – whether by autopen or not – was done without his knowledge or consent. Anything Biden signed using an autopen would have been valid, legal experts say.

In March, we rated Trump’s claim that Biden’s pardons weren’t valid because they were signed with an autopen false. US presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, routinely have had subordinates sign pardons on their behalf.

Trump falsely says policy bill targets only Medicaid ‘waste, fraud and abuse’

During his visit, reporters asked Trump about the One Big Beautiful Bill – which the Senate approved mid-visit – and its effect on Medicaid. “Are you saying that the estimated 11.8 million people who could lose their health coverage, that is all waste, fraud and abuse?” a reporter asked.

Trump said: “No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s going to be a very much smaller number than that, and that number will be waste, fraud and abuse.”

We rated a similar version of Trump’s statement false, finding that the Medicaid changes go beyond just waste, fraud and abuse.

The 11.8 million figure comes from a CBO analysis of the Senate-passed bill.

Although some provisions could improve the detection of beneficiaries who aren’t eligible for coverage, other provisions of the House and the Senate bills would change the healthcare programme for low-income Americans to align with Trump’s ideology and Republican priorities.

The bill incentivises states to stop using their own funds to cover people in the US illegally; it requires people to work or do another approved activity to secure benefits; and it bans Medicaid payments for gender-affirming care and to nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood that provide abortions among other services.

Other changes would impose copays and a shorter window for retroactive coverage. These would change the programme’s fiscal outlook but would not target waste, fraud or abuse.

Trump doubles estimate of immigrant arrivals under Biden

Trump said: “In the four years before I took office, Joe Biden allowed 21 million people, … illegal aliens, to invade our country.”

This campaign talking point remains false. During Biden’s tenure, immigration officials encountered immigrants illegally crossing the US border about 10 million times. When accounting for “got-aways” – people who evade border officials – the number rises to about 11.6 million.

Encounters aren’t the same as admissions. Encounters represent events, so one person who tries to cross the border twice counts as two encounters. Also, not everyone encountered is let into the country. The Homeland Security Department estimated about 4 million encounters under Biden led to expulsions or removals.

During Biden’s administration, about 3.8 million people were released into the US to await immigration court hearings, Department of Homeland Security data show.

PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird and staff writer Ella Moore contributed to this article.

New court filings detail man’s ordeal after his mistaken deportation became a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man legally residing in the US state of Maryland, whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported in a high-profile case in March, was severely beaten and subjected to psychological torture in prison there, his lawyers say.

The alleged abuse was detailed in court documents filed in Abrego Garcia’s civil lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, providing an account of his experiences following his deportation for the first time.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flashpoint in the US government’s controversial immigration crackdown since he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March, despite an earlier order by an immigration judge barring such a move.

According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager to avoid gang violence, arriving in the United States around 2011. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland, where he and his American wife are raising three children.

He was returned to the US last month and is currently locked in a legal battle with the US government, which has indicted him on charges of migrant smuggling and says it plans to deport him to a third country.

“Plaintiff Abrego Garcia reports that he was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture,” his lawyers said in the filing, referring to the Salvadoran mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or CECOT.

Severe beatings, threats

The filings, made in a civil suit in federal court against the US government brought by Abrego Garcia’s wife in Maryland, said her husband was hit and kicked so frequently upon his arrival at the prison that the next day his body was covered in lumps and bruises.

The filings also said he and other inmates were forced to kneel for nine hours straight throughout the night, or were hit by guards, in a cruel exercise of sleep deprivation.

It said prison staff repeatedly threatened to transfer Abrego Garcia to cells with gang members who would “tear” him apart, and claimed that he lost 31 pounds (14kg) in his first two weeks in jail as a result of the abuse.

‘Administrative error’

Abrego Garcia was detained by immigration officials and deported to El Salvador on March 15. Trump and US officials have accused him of belonging to the notorious MS-13 gang, which he denies.

The deportation took place despite an order from a US immigration judge in 2019, which barred Abrego Garcia from being sent back to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there from gangs.

Abrego Garcia’s treatment gained worldwide attention, with critics of Trump’s aggressive immigration policy saying it demonstrated how officials were ignoring due process in their zeal to deport migrants. The Trump administration later described the deportation as an “administrative error”.

Last month, the US government complied with a directive from the court to return Abrego Garcia to the US, but only after having secured an indictment charging him with working with coconspirators as part of a smuggling ring to bring immigrants to the US illegally.

He is currently being detained in Nashville, Tennessee, while his criminal case is pending, having pleaded not guilty to illegally transporting undocumented immigrants.

The US government is arguing that the new civil suit is now moot, as Abrego Garcia has been returned from El Salvador. It has said it plans to deport him to a third country after he is released from custody.

Abrego Garcia a ‘criminal’ for DHS

In the wake of the latest court filings, the Trump administration doubled down on its attacks on Abrego Garcia as a dangerous illegal immigrant.

In a post on the social media platform X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the “media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart”.

“Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” it said.

“This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser,” DHS claimed, without providing any evidence.

The Russian occupation governor of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region claimed it had been entirely conquered on Tuesday, making it the first of the four eastern Ukrainian regions Russia has annexed that it fully controls.

“Just a couple of days ago, I received a report that the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic has been 100 percent liberated,” Leonid Pasechnik told Russia’s TV Channel One.

Not everyone agreed.

Russian military reporters said two villages remained free, and pointed out that Luhansk had been declared conquered once before, in 2022, before being partially reclaimed in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September of that year.

Undoubtedly, though, Russian forces have inched towards reconquering the entire territory in the intervening 33 months, and that constitutes a second milestone within the past month on Ukraine’s eastern front.

Russia’s advance dealt another blow to Ukraine, more than three years after the full-scale invasion began. On the same day as Pasechnik’s announcement, the United States said it would not be sending Kyiv some weapons that had been promised by the administration of Joe Biden, the former US president.

“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” said the White House.

Russian troops reached the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region over the weekend of June 7-8, marking the first time in the war they had conquered the entire breadth of the Donetsk region at any point, even though about a third of it remains in Kyiv’s hands.

These milestones may be strategically meaningless, as they do not mark a breakthrough or a pace change in the Russian forces’ crawling advance, but they demonstrate that Ukrainian forces are also unable to turn the tide.

The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed its forces had taken the villages of Zaporizhzhia, Perebudova, Shevchenko and Yalta in Donetsk on June 27, proceeding to Chervona Zirka the following day and Novoukrainka on Sunday.

Through such small but constant conquests, Russia has given its offensive in Ukraine an inexorable feeling.

The buffer bluff

“Naturally, the Russian armed forces are now tasked to continue operations to establish a buffer zone. According to experts, it should stretch at least 70 to 120 kilometres (40 to 75 miles) deep inside Ukraine,” Igor Korotchenko, the editor of National Defense magazine, told TASS.

Such statements have come before from Russian officials and pro-Moscow pundits.

Last March, when Russian forces recaptured Kursk, a Russian region Ukraine had counter-invaded, battalion deputy commander Oleg Ivanov told TASS it was now necessary to create a buffer zone “no less than 20km [12 miles] wide, and preferably 30km [19 miles], extending deep into Ukrainian territory,” so that residents of Kursk would be safe from Ukrainian counterattack.

In May, deputy chairman of Russia’s National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that “if military aid to the regime of bandits continues”, referring to Kyiv, “the buffer zone could look like this” – and he posted a map on his Telegram channel, showing almost all of Ukraine shaded.

When Russian troops reached the Dnipropetrovsk border last month, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said they had begun new offensive operations in that region “within the framework of the creation of a buffer zone”.

Officially, the Kremlin has annexed only Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, but given that Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 20 revealed he still regarded all of Ukraine as Russian territory, many experts believe these buffer zones are little more than an excuse to continue capturing as much Ukrainian territory as possible.

On June 27, Putin referred to his goals more cryptically, telling journalists at the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Minsk that “we want to conclude the special military operation with the result that we need”.

In May, he called for a buffer zone between Russia and Ukraine on Ukrainian territory, leaving it to his lieutenants to define it. One general thought it should comprise six Ukrainian territories, and legislators in the Russian Duma backed him.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

The move would allow Ukraine to manufacture, stockpile and use such mines to defend itself.

“Antipersonnel mines … very often have no alternative as a tool for defence,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine strikes back

Ukraine continued to score tactical successes of its own inside Russia, using long-range weapons.

On Friday and Saturday, June 27-28, Ukrainian drones struck the Kirovske airfield. The Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) said it was behind the attack and claimed to have destroyed at least three attack helicopters.

Also last week, Ukraine’s General Staff said an aerial attack had destroyed at least four Sukhoi-34 fighters at Russia’s Marinovka airbase. Russia uses the fighters to drop glide bombs on the Ukrainian front lines.

Intelligence sources reported that Ukraine may have destroyed a Russian intelligence base in the Bryansk region on June 26.

“Russia is investing in its unmanned capabilities. Russia is planning to increase the number of drones used in strikes against our state,” Zelenskyy said on June 30.

The previous day, Russia had conducted the largest unmanned air strike of the war so far, sending 447 drones and 90 missiles into Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down or electronically suppressed all but one of the drones and 38 missiles.

The increase in scale and intensity of Russian unmanned air attacks this year, and particularly since bilateral talks between the warring sides resumed in May, have led Ukrainian military experts to conclude that Moscow is marking Ukrainian territory it intends to launch a ground war against.

“We are not talking about the front lines. We are talking actually about [rear] areas and even the residential areas of Ukraine, so not so-called red line cities or communities but actually yellow cities and communities, which means slightly farther from the red line zones,” Cambridge University Centre for Geopolitics expert Victoria Vdovychenko told Al Jazeera.

When Zelenskyy spoke on Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Kyiv for the first time.

Zelenskyy said most of the nine billion euros ($11bn) in military aid Germany has promised this year would go towards the “strategic objective” of launching “systematic production of air defence systems”.

He had elaborated on what that meant last week, when he said he was “scaling up Ukraine’s potential, particularly regarding interceptors”, the missiles used to target incoming missiles.

“The scale of our production and the pace of drone development must be fully aligned with the conditions of the war,” he said. Russian attacks have been increasing in scale, and Zelenskyy meant that Ukraine had to keep up in its defensive response.

Regarding drones, he said on Monday, “The priority is drones, interceptor drones and long-range strike drones.”

Published on
03/07/2025 – 7:20 GMT+2

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The majority of French, Spanish, and German citizens want stricter EU enforcement of Big Tech, according to a new YouGov survey.

Almost two-thirds in France (63%), 59% in Germany, and 49% in Spain said EU enforcement of laws addressing Big Tech’s influence and power is too relaxed, when asked to choose between too relaxed, too strict, or about right.

Only 7% of respondents in France, 8% in Germany, and 9% in Spain felt the enforcement was too strict.

The survey, commissioned by two NGOs—People vs Big Tech and WeMove Europe—follows the EU’s 2022 adoption of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), aimed at regulating tech giants’ impact on users and the marketplace.

Both regulations are caught up in the trade dispute between the EU and the US, in which the US has described the DSA and DMA as unjustified non-tariff barriers.

EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera told Euronews last week that the EU would not give in to US pressure on the issue.

“We are going to defend our sovereignty,” Ribera said, adding: “We will defend the way we implement our rules, we will defend a well functioning market and we will not allow anyone to tell us what to do.”

Surprisingly, the survey results also show that the survey participants believed Big Tech holds more power than the EU itself.

Half of French respondents (50%), 48% in Germany, and a majority in Spain (55%) believe that Big Tech companies are “more powerful” or “slightly more powerful” than the EU. In contrast, only 9% in France, 12% in Germany, and 15% in Spain think tech giants are “slightly less powerful” or “much less powerful.”

The survey was conducted on a sample of 2,070 respondents in France, 2,323 in Germany, and 2,077 in Spain.

Bangkok, Thailand – Even at the Nana intersection, a pulsating mecca of this megacity’s seamy nightlife scene, the Wonderland cannabis shop is hard to miss.

Its sprawling, ruby-pink signboard screams across the busy crossroads, broadcasting the wares inside with the help of neon lights twisted into luminescent marijuana leaves.

It is Saturday afternoon, and business should be good. But it is not.

Just days earlier, Thailand’s government imposed new rules sharply curbing the sale of cannabis, only three years after decriminalising the plant with much fanfare and unleashing a billion-dollar business in the process.

All sales of cannabis buds must now be accompanied by a doctor’s prescription – a stipulation aimed at choking off the recreational market, the mainstay of most of the thousands of dispensaries that now dot the country.

Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin has also announced his intention to place the plant back on the country’s controlled narcotics list within 45 days, putting it in the company of cocaine, heroin and meth.

Nanuephat Kittichaibawan, an assistant manager at Wonderland, said his shop used to serve 10 or more customers an hour most afternoons.

Now, even with an in-house doctor to write prescriptions on the spot, “it is just one or two”, he told Al Jazeera.

“It is more complicated than it used to be, and for some people it will be too much,” he added.

Like many in the business, he worries the new rules may even force him to shut down, putting him out of work.

“If we follow the rules, we could [have to] close,” he said. “I do worry about that. A lot of people have this as their main job, and they need it to survive.”

Faris Pitsuwan, who owns five dispensaries on some of Thailand’s most popular tourist islands, including Ko Phi Phi Don and Phuket, is worried, too.

“Yesterday, I could not sell anything,” he told Al Jazeera. “I hope my business will survive, but too soon to say.”

While announcing the policy U-turn last week, Somsak said the new rules would help contain Thailand’s cannabis industry to the medical market, as intended when a previous administration, and a different health minister, decriminalised the plant in 2022.

“The policy must return to its original goal of controlling cannabis for medical use only,” government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said.

Since a new administration took over in 2023, the government has blamed decriminalisation for a wave of problems, including a spike in overdoses among children and adolescents and increased smuggling to countries where cannabis is still illegal.

A survey by the government’s National Institute of Development Administration last year found that three in four Thais strongly or moderately agreed with putting cannabis back on the narcotics list.

Smith Srisont, president of Thailand’s Association of Forensic Physicians, has been urging the government to relist cannabis from the beginning, mostly because of the health risks.

Smith notes that more than one study has found a fivefold to sixfold spike in cannabis-related health problems among children and adolescents since legalisation.

Although shops have been forbidden from selling to anyone below the age of 20, Smith says it has been too hard to enforce because the job falls mostly on health officers, rather than police, and Thailand does not have enough.

“So, they can’t … look at every shop,” he told Al Jazeera, but “if cannabis is [treated more] like methamphetamine … it will be … better because the police can [then get] involved” right away.

Many farmers and shop owners, though, say the blowback from legalising cannabis has been exaggerated, and scapegoated by the leading Pheu Thai Party to punish the Bhumjaithai Party, which abandoned the ruling coalition two weeks ago over Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s alleged bungling of a border dispute with Cambodia.

Somsak has denied the claim.

Bhumjaithai had led the push to decriminalise cannabis and was tussling with Pheu Thai for control of the powerful Ministry of the Interior in the weeks leading up to its split from the coalition.

“As soon as one party steps down from the coalition, this happens. The timing just could not be any more perfect,” Chokwan Chopaka, who opened a dispensary along Bangkok’s bustling Sukhumvit Boulevard soon after Thailand legalised cannabis, told Al Jazeera.

“I understand that cannabis does create issues,” she said, “[but] I feel that those issues could have been at least mitigated if the government were actually enforcing the rules that [did] exist in the first place.”

Chokwan said she had to shutter her shop a few months ago because she could no longer both follow those rules and compete with other dispensaries in the neighbourhood that were getting away with breaking them.

She expects that most dispensaries will end up closing if the new rules are enforced diligently, many of them before recouping the investments they made to get up and running.

“A lot of people are very stressed out. We’re talking about people that are borrowing money into this. This is their last breath, their last lot of savings, because our economy hasn’t been well,” Chokwan said.

The Thai government said in May that the national economy may grow by as little as 1.3 percent this year, dragged down in part by slumping tourist arrivals.

The government has blamed the freewheeling cannabis scene of the past three years for putting some tourists off Thailand – another reason, it argues, to tighten the reins.

Shah, on his second trip to Thailand from India in the past year, said the new rules could do more harm than good by pushing tourists like him and his friend away.

“One of the reasons that we do come here is so that we can smoke good weed,” Shah, who asked to be referred to by his last name only, told Al Jazeera.

Having landed in Bangkok only hours earlier, Shah and his friend were leaving a Nana neighbourhood dispensary with their purchase.

A self-avowed recreational user, Shah said the shop wrote him a prescription with few questions and no fuss.

But if the government does get serious about enforcing the new rules, he added, “maybe I’ll think twice next time and go somewhere else.”

Cannabis farmers are fretting about the new rules, too.

To keep selling their buds to local shops, every farm will soon need a Good Agriculture and Collection Practice (GACP) certificate from the government.

It certifies that the farm has met certain quality control standards.

Chokwan, who also leads the Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network, a cannabis advocacy group, said only about 100 cannabis farms across the country currently have GACP certification.

Getting farms ready and tested can be expensive, she said, while forcing it on all farmers will weed out thousands of “little guys”, leaving the largest farms and the corporations backing them to dominate the market.

Coming in at less than 300 square metres (360 square yards), under banks of LED lights inside an unassuming beige building on the outskirts of Bangkok, the Thai Kush cannabis farm easily qualifies as one of the little guys.

Owner Vara Thongsiri said the farm has been supplying shops across the country since 2022. His main gripe with the new rules is how suddenly they came down.

“When you announce it and your announcement is effective immediately, how does a farm adapt that quickly? It is impossible. They didn’t even give us a chance,” he told Al Jazeera.

Vara said he would apply for the certificate nonetheless and was confident the quality of his buds would help his farm survive even in a smaller, medical-cannabis-only marketplace, depending on how long the application takes.

“My farm is a working farm. We harvest every month … If the process takes three months to six months, how am I going to last if I can’t sell the product I have?” he said.

“Because a farm can’t last if it can’t sell.”

Rattapon Sanrak, a cannabis farmer and shop owner, is crunching the numbers on the new regulations as well.

His small farm in the country’s fertile northeast supplies his two Highland Cafe dispensaries in Bangkok, including one in the heart of the city’s Khao San quarter, a warren of bars, clubs and budget accommodations catering to backpackers.

“I could stay open, but as [per] my calculation, it may not [be] worth the business. It’s not feasible any more due to the regulations, the rental and other costs,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It’s not worth the money to invest.”

Rattapon and others believe the government could have avoided the latest policy whiplash by passing a comprehensive cannabis control bill either before decriminalisation or soon after.

Like others critical of the government’s approach, he blames political brinkmanship between Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai for failing to do so.

Proponents of such a bill say it could have set different rules for farms based on their size, helping smaller growers stay in business, and better regulations to help head off the problems the government is complaining about now.

Although a bill has been drafted, Somsak has said he has no intention of pushing it forward, insisting that placing the plant back on the narcotics list was the best way to control it.

The Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network plans to hold a protest in front of the Ministry of Public Health on Monday in hopes of changing the minister’s mind.

Rattapon said he and hundreds of other farmers and shop owners also plan on filing a class action lawsuit against the government over the new rules.

In the meantime, Rattapon and others warn, the government’s attempt at confining cannabis to the medical market will not simply make the recreational supply chain vanish.

Rattapon said many producers, having poured in millions of dollars and put thousands of people to work, will go underground, where they will be even harder to control.

“Imagine you have a company, you hire 10 people, you invest 2 million baht [$61,630] for that, you’re operating your business, and then one day they say that you cannot sell it any more. And in the pipeline, you have 100 kilograms coming. What would you do?” he said.

“They will go underground.”

Faris, the dispensary owner, agreed.

He said many of the shops and farms that rely on the recreational market will close under the new rules.

“But as time goes by,” he added, “people will find a way.”

Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka and the end of London’s tropical heatwave have ensured that a sense of normality has returned to the lawns of Wimbledon on day three of the tournament after two sweat-soaked days of shocks.

A stream of big names – including Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev – have crashed and burned in the oven-like temperatures of the first round.

So when Alcaraz walked onto Centre Court on Wednesday in his quest for a third successive title against British qualifier Oliver Tarvet, the thought surely lurked somewhere in his mind that he could be the fall guy in the tournament’s greatest upset.

The 21-year-old second seed was not at his best, but after saving three break points in a nervy opening service game against a college student ranked 733rd in the world, he asserted his authority to win 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Sabalenka tops Bouzkova

Earlier on Centre Court, the women’s top seed, Sabalenka, battled to a 7-6(4), 6-4 win against Czech Marie Bouzkova.

“Honestly, it is sad to see so many upsets in the tournament in both draws, women’s and men’s,” Sabalenka, who is bidding for her first Wimbledon title, said.

“Honestly, I’m just trying to focus on myself.”

Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the sixth seed, also made it safely into round three, beating Olga Danilovic 6-4, 6-2 while unseeded four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka eased past Czech doubles specialist Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-2.

Lower temperatures did not mean an end to the surprises entirely, though, as American world number 12 Frances Tiafoe became the 14th of the 32 men’s seeds to depart, going down 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 to Cameron Norrie, one of seven British players in second-round singles action on day three.

Sonay Kartal led the home charge by beating Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-2, 6-2 to book her place in the last 32 for the second year in succession.

There was disappointment, though, for Britain’s Katie Boulter, who served 14 double faults as she went down 6-7(9), 6-2, 6-1 to 101st-ranked Solana Sierra, the Argentinian who lost in qualifying but has seized her lucky loser spot with both hands.

Alcaraz congratulates Tarvet

Alcaraz, bidding to do the French Open-Wimbledon double for the second successive year, needed five sets to get past Italian veteran Fabio Fognini in the first round and set up an intriguing clash with Tarvet.

Tarvet, who plays on the United States collegiate circuit for the University of San Diego, said he believed he could beat anyone, even Alcaraz, after winning his Grand Slam debut match against fellow qualifier Leandro Riedi of Switzerland on Monday.

He was clearly not overawed at sharing a court with a five-time Grand Slam champion, and had he taken any of the eight break points he earned in the first set, it could have been closer.

Alcaraz proved to be the better player on Wednesday, though, as he moved through the gears when required to keep an eager Tarvet under control.

Just as the Spaniard did in his first round when going to the aid of a female spectator suffering in the heat, Alcaraz again endeared himself to the Centre Court crowd.

“First of all, I have to give a big congratulations to Oliver. It’s his second match on the tour. I just loved his game to be honest, the level he played,” Alcaraz said.

Play on the courts without roofs was delayed for two hours by light morning rain, but once the clouds rolled away, the place to be for those without show-court tickets was Court 12 for Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca’s second-round match against American Jenson Brooksby.

The 18-year-old is widely tipped as a future challenger to Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, and he showed exactly why during a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win that was celebrated by a large contingent of exuberant Brazilians.

Raducanu sets up Sabalenka tie

Facing a rival who has already experienced the joys of winning Wimbledon did not faze Emma Raducanu as the Briton rode out the “crazy pressure” heaped on her slender shoulders to defeat Marketa Vondrousova 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.

In a battle between two Grand Slam champions, both unseeded after years of trials and tribulations, Czech Vondrousova would have fancied her chances of knocking out Britain’s big hope.

After all, the 2023 champion had arrived at the All England Club fresh from winning the grass-court title in Berlin with victories over Australian Open champion Madison Keys and world number one Sabalenka en route.

However, it was Raducanu whose game sparkled on Centre Court as she produced the kind of carefree, yet potent shots that had carried her to the US Open title in 2021.

“Today I played really, really well. There were some points that I have no idea how I turned around,” a delighted Raducanu told the crowd.

“I knew playing Marketa was going to be an incredibly difficult match. She has won this tournament, which is a huge achievement. I’m really pleased with how I played my game the whole way through.”

An eye-popping running backhand passing shot winner handed her the break for a 4-2 lead in the first set.

Although a sloppy service game gave Vondrousova the break back in the next game, the British number one wasted little time in regaining the advantage for a 5-3 lead after a forehand error from the Czech.

Moments later, thundering roars from the Centre Court crowd could be heard around the All England Club and beyond as Vondrousova surrendered the set with yet another miscued forehand.

Clearly unsettled, the errors started piling up for Vondrousova, who had previously admitted that she did not envy the “crazy pressure” Raducanu had to deal with day in and day out after becoming the first British woman to win a major in 44 years.

Yet another forehand slapped long by Vondrousova handed Raducanu a break for 2-1, and from then on, there was no stopping the Briton. She sealed a third-round meeting with Sabalenka after her opponent swiped a backhand wide.

Scientists say heatwaves and storms are becoming more intense due to human-driven climate change.

At least eight people have died across Europe as an early summer heatwave grips much of the continent, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant.

Authorities in Spain’s Catalonia region said about 14,000 people were ordered to stay indoors due to two wildfires that broke out almost simultaneously in the province of Lleida.

In one of the blazes near the city of Cosco, “two people were found lifeless by firefighters,” the fire and emergency service said in a statement on Wednesday.

The exact cause of the fire was unclear, but the service said the recent heat, dry conditions and strong winds increased the intensity of the flames.

Tuesday’s fire in the Catalonia region burned several farms and affected an area stretching about 40km (25 miles) before being contained, officials said.

On Wednesday, Spanish officials reported two more people died due to the heatwave in Extremadura and Cordoba.

Spain is in the midst of an intense heatwave with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places, and several heat records were set for the month of June.

France also experienced its hottest June since 2003.

Its energy minister reported two deaths linked to the heat with 300 others taken to hospital on Wednesday.

Weather forecaster Meteo France said red alerts remained for several areas of central France, and Catherine Vautrin, the health and families minister, said authorities should remain vigilant.

“In the coming days, we’ll see the consequences, particularly on the most vulnerable, and I’m thinking particularly of the elderly,” she said.

Two men over the age of 60 also died from the heat on beaches in Sardinia in Italy, the ANSA news agency reported.

In Germany, temperatures were forecast to peak at 40C (104F) in some areas, making it the hottest day of the year. Fire brigades were also tackling several forest fires in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony on Wednesday.

Storm warnings issued

Italy, France and Germany have also warned of the risk of powerful storms due to excessive warming in unstable atmospheres.

Violent storms in the French Alps late on Monday triggered mudslides, disrupting rail traffic between Paris and Milan.

The Swiss utility Axpo shut down one reactor at the Beznau Nuclear Power Plant and halved output at another on Tuesday because of the high temperature of river water.

Water is used for cooling and other purposes at nuclear power plants, and restrictions were expected to continue as temperatures are monitored.

Scientists said heatwaves have arrived earlier this year, spiking temperatures by up to 10C (50F) in some regions as warming seas encouraged the formation of a heat dome over much of Europe, trapping hot air masses.

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, they said, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet’s hottest on record.

“Extreme heat is testing our resilience and putting the health and lives of millions at risk,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told the Reuters news agency.

“Our new climate reality means we can no longer be surprised when temperatures reach record highs each year,” she added.

Bangladesh’s interim government says the conviction shows commitment to justice.

Bangladesh’s self-exiled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of court by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).

The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, handed down the verdict in Hasina’s absence on Wednesday. The sentence will take effect upon her arrest or voluntary surrender, Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam told reporters.

Hasina, who fled to India following a student-led uprising last August, faces several charges. This marks the first time she has received a formal sentence in any of the cases.

Shakil Akand Bulbul, a senior figure in the Awami League’s banned student wing, Chhatra League, was also sentenced to two months in the same case.

The contempt charges stem from an audio recording in which Hasina was allegedly heard saying, “There are 227 cases against me, so I now have a licence to kill 227 people.” A government forensic report later confirmed the tape’s authenticity.

The ICT was established in 2010 by Hasina’s own government to prosecute war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 independence war.

It has since been repurposed by the interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, to pursue allegations of rights violations and corruption under Hasina’s rule.

The tribunal has issued three arrest warrants for Hasina, including charges of crimes against humanity linked to the crackdown on the student-led protests last year, which toppled her government. Her Awami League party remains banned, with ongoing trials against former officials.

Hasina’s supporters insist the cases are politically motivated, describing them as part of a broader effort to silence opposition. However, the caretaker government argues the legal process is necessary to restore public trust in the country’s institutions and ensure accountability.

Helicopter with eight people on board crashes at Aden Adde airport, the main international airport in Mogadishu.

A helicopter used by an African Union peacekeeping mission has crashed at the international airport in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least three people, authorities said.

The incident occurred at Aden Adde airport on Wednesday as the helicopter was trying to land, according to Artan Mohamed, the head of the immigration office at the airport.

The helicopter, which belonged to the Ugandan Air Force but was being operated by the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), had taken off from Baledogle Airfield in the Lower Shabelle region with eight people on board, he said.

The fate of the remaining five people on board has yet to be determined, said a Ugandan military spokesperson.

Witnesses described the helicopter plummeting to the ground and exploding, causing a fire.

Abdirahim Ali, who lives nearby, said he saw “a huge explosion and smoke everywhere” while aviation officer Omar Farah told The Associated Press news agency that he “saw the helicopter spinning and then it fell very fast”.

Minor delays were reported at the airport, but the director-general of the country’s civil aviation authority said that flights had resumed.

“The situation is under control. The runway is clear and fully operational – flights can land and take off as usual,” Ahmed Macalin Hassan noted.

The AUSSOM mission has more than 11,000 personnel in Somalia from countries including Uganda and Kenya.

They are helping the Somali military to counter the armed group al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate that wants to topple the country’s government and establish its own rule.

This week, the Somali army killed a prominent leader from the group in the Middle Shabelle region, state media reported.

Quoting military sources, the Somali National News Agency said the leader was targeted during an operation in the Dar Nama’a area.