strikes

Israel claims it has struck Hezbollah targets, although the Lebanese group has not commented.

At least five people have been killed and five others wounded after Israeli warplanes struck eastern Lebanon in the latest violation of the ceasefire agreement signed last November, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The attacks on Monday hit the Bekaa and Hermel districts, with state media saying at least eight air raids were carried out. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, seven bombs fell on the outskirts of Hermel, while another strike targeted the nearby town of Labweh.

Israel’s military claimed the raids hit weapons depots and military facilities used by Hezbollah, though the claims could not be independently confirmed. Hezbollah has not yet commented.

Israel has continued launching near-daily assaults on Lebanese territory, particularly in the south, while maintaining an occupation at five border outposts despite the truce requiring a full withdrawal earlier this year.

The conflict erupted on October 8, 2023, when Israel opened a military offensive in Lebanon. By the time the ceasefire was reached in November the following year, more than 4,000 people had been killed and almost 17,000 wounded.

The fragile truce is under further strain as Lebanon grapples with a contentious plan pushed by the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah.

Earlier this month, Lebanon’s army presented a proposal to the cabinet outlining steps to begin dismantling the group’s arsenal. Information Minister Paul Morcos said the government welcomed the move, but stopped short of confirming cabinet approval.

The plan prompted a walkout by five Shia ministers, including representatives of Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement, who insist the group will not disarm while Israel continues air strikes and occupation in the south.

The US and Hezbollah’s political rivals in Lebanon have increased pressure on the group to surrender its weapons. Hezbollah has resisted, warning that even raising the issue while Israeli attacks persist would be a “serious misstep”.

Last week, Israeli strikes killed four people in Lebanon, underlining the escalating tension despite the ceasefire. Israel was also slammed for dropping grenades close to peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last week.

RMT, the UK’s largest transport union, is demanding better pay and shorter working hours.

Members of the United Kingdom’s largest transport union have gone on strike in London, bringing the city’s underground train system to a halt as tube services are suspended.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said about 10,000 members walked off their jobs on Sunday night for the first of five days of strikes over working hours and pay.

The London Underground, which carries an estimated 5 million people daily, showed on its website that all of the capital city’s underground tube lines were either suspended or partially suspended with the exception of the newly built Elizabeth Line, which took the strain of commuters seeking alternative paths into the city. The Transport for London (TfL) website crashed due to increased web traffic.

Queues formed outside Elizabeth Line stations, and platforms in the city were crowded. The rest of London’s transport system and national rail services were unaffected by the strike.

The BBC showed an image from the Neasden train depot in northwest London showing dozens of stationary tube carriages.

RMT members took positions on picket lines across tube stations in London as part of the industrial action, which began on Sunday at 6pm (17:00 GMT) and will continue until Thursday.

The transport union decided to take strike action after it rejected an annual pay increase of 3.4 percent from TfL, which is the public body responsible for operating London’s buses, underground and other transport services. RMT is also pushing for reduced working hours from 35 to 32 hours a week.

An RMT spokesperson said: “We are not going on strike to disrupt small businesses or the public. This strike is going ahead because of the intransigent approach of TfL management and their refusal to even consider a small reduction in the working week in order to help reduce fatigue and the ill-health effects of long-term shift work on our members.”

In a post on X, RMT said the tube was operating with 2,000 fewer staff than before the pandemic, which was resulting in “extreme shifts (4 am starts, 1 am finishes) to keep London moving.” The post added: “Fatigue and understaffing are a dangerous mix.”

Kim Johnson, a left-wing MP for Liverpool, showed support for the RMT members and said on social media: “No worker should be put at risk by fatigue & extreme shift rotations”.

TfL says any reduction in hours is “unaffordable and impractical”.

In a post on X, London Mayor Sadiq Khan called on TfL and RMT “to get around the table and resolve their dispute”. He added: “Nobody wants to see strike action – it causes serious disruption for Londoners, businesses and visitors alike.”

No talks are currently scheduled between RMT and TfL. Their last round of talks collapsed on Wednesday.

Sept. 7 (UPI) — A drone launched by Houthi rebels from Yemen struck the arrivals area of the Ramon Airport in southern Israel Sunday, the Israeli military and airport officials said.

It is the latest in a series of ongoing attacks as the Iran-supported group began targeting Israel as what it is says is a sign of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The Houthi-controlled Yemeni Armed Forces issued a warning after the attack that “the airports inside occupied Palestine are not safe and will be continuously targeted,” a statement from the group said. The Houthis said in the statement that the strike caused significant damage to the airport and took responsibility for the closure.

In a social media post, a spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, which is controlled by by the Houthis, said “the airports inside occupied Palestine are not safe and will be continuously targeted.”

The airport reopened after a 90 minute closure.

“There is no indication of a technical malfunction in the existing detention systems,” the military said in a statement on Sunday, adding that an “extensive investigation” is expected, CNN reported. Several other drones on Sunday were intercepted, the military said.

Most of the Houthi-backed drones fired on Israel have been intercepted before striking the country. In this case, the drone was originally not deemed a threat which is why there was no alarm, officials said.

Israel’s emergency response service said it received a report at about 2:35 p.m. that a drone had landed in the Ramon Airport area. Two people received minor injuries, the emergency service, known as Magen David Adom said.

Israel has a complex security system in place to warn of incoming projectiles, but in this case, no alarm was sounded, officials said.

Houthi-backed groups have also targeted shipping traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, among the world’s most important waterways, in the ongoing battle.

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (UPI) — Just one day after President Lee Jae Myung’s cabinet approved the so-called “Yellow Envelope Law” on Tuesday, Hyundai Motors’ union launched its first partial strike in seven years, demanding the company notify labor in advance of new business ventures and overseas plant expansions, The Korea Economic Daily reported.

The law, passed by the National Assembly on Aug. 24 and set to take effect in early 2026, expands the scope of legal strikes to include management decisions such as mergers, restructuring and plant relocations.

It also limits corporate damage claims against unions. Analysts say the Hyundai union’s push reflects the law’s immediate influence on labor tactics.

Hyundai shut down assembly lines Wednesday in Ulsan, Jeonju and Asan for four hours, affecting an estimated 1,500 vehicles, Maeil Daily reported. GM Korea and HD Hyundai shipbuilding unions also staged partial walkouts to protest restructuring moves.

Observers warn the law, intended to protect workers from excessive corporate lawsuits, could embolden unions to intervene in management strategy, heightening labor unrest across Korea’s key industries, Maeil Business Newspaper reported.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that military attacks on alleged drug traffickers will “happen again”, brushing aside concerns over the legality of such attacks and the sovereignty of Latin American nations.

Speaking during a news conference in Mexico City on Wednesday, Rubio pledged continued security coordination with countries like Mexico, but suggested the US would not hesitate to take extreme measures on its own.

His remarks, in part, were a response to President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US had blown up a vessel in the Caribbean Sea a day earlier.

Trump and Rubio identified the small boat as a drug-smuggling vessel coming from Venezuela, though no details were provided. All 11 people on board reportedly died.

Rubio framed the air strike as part of a shifting strategy in the US’s ongoing “war on drugs”.

“The United States has long — for many, many years — established intelligence that allowed us to interdict and stop drug boats. And we did that. And it doesn’t work. Interdiction doesn’t work,” Rubio said.

“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.”

Rubio then explained that the attack was authorised personally by Trump. It had been in the south Caribbean Sea at the time of the attack, and Rubio said it was headed for the US.

“Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it will happen again,” Rubio said. “Maybe it’s happening right now. I don’t know.”

Rubio’s visit to Mexico City comes as the Trump administration seeks close cooperation with Mexico, but its aggressive foreign policy has spurred concerns abroad.

Latin American nations have struggled to balance the need for working relations with the US and Trump’s increasingly brazen threats.

Experts say that attacks like Tuesday’s boat bombing are likely illegal under international law, which limits military actions on vessels sailing through international waters.

Still, Rubio defended the action as necessary for protecting the wellbeing of the US.

“If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl, whatever, headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States,” said Rubio.

US military strikes against armed groups around the world have often depended on the idea that such groups, often tied to armed or fighting groups that represent an immediate risk to US national security. That argument has not previously been used as a pretext for military strikes on drug trafficking, deemed a criminal issue.

But Trump’s second inauguration has marked a shift in that approach.

Since taking office in January, Trump has pushed for emergency powers on the premise that Latin American gangs and other criminal groups constitute an “invasion” on US soil.

He has also designated many such groups as “foreign terrorist organisations”.

In August, reports emerged that Trump had signed an order authorising military strikes against cartels and other drug-smuggling operations, fuelling fears that the US would carry out military strikes in Latin America despite concerns about sovereignty.

Such concerns have been particularly prominent in Mexico, the US’s immediate neighbour to the south.

To mark Rubio’s visit, Mexico and the US issued a joint statement emphasising “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has also repeatedly sought to dispel worries that the Trump administration may take unilateral action on Mexican soil. Trump, meanwhile, has not ruled out such a possibility.

Al Jazeera correspondent John Holman explained that Rubio’s visit was aimed at “smoothing the feathers” and lowering tensions in Mexico.

“There was a lot of fulsome praise. But the elephant in the room here really is that President Trump has been saying repeatedly that, if Mexico wants it, then the US is very happy to send its military down into the country to fight drug cartels,” Holman explained.

“That really wasn’t touched on in this meeting apart from the Mexican foreign minister repeatedly saying that, ‘Yes, we’re going to work with the United States’ — in a very diplomatic way, saying everyone in their own jurisdiction.”

Nevertheless, Rubio and other US officials have emphasised that the US would continue to collaborate on security and drug enforcement with Mexico, which the US has pushed to take a more aggressive stance.

“We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t stop with just this strike,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on the TV show Fox and Friends.

Not all countries in the region are apprehensive as the US takes on an increasingly militarised approach to criminal groups.

“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently.”

The U.S. military has conducted a “lethal strike” in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X. His comments came moments after U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that “over the last few minutes [the military] literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat.” The incident took place as Trump has dispatched at least eight warships to the region to fight drug trafficking.

No details were immediately available about how the strike was carried out, or against what type of vessel or which organization was targeted.

This appears to be the first lethal attack on a cartel drug vessel since Trump deployed warships to the area, signaling a change to kinetic interdiction operations. However, even U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the region, did not have details.

The announcement came hours after overnight Russian strikes on energy sites left 60,000 Ukrainians without electricity.

Ukraine intends to strike deep into Russia following a large Russian drone attack that left 60,000 Ukrainians without electricity, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Speaking on Sunday after a meeting with his top general, Oleksandr Syrskii, the Ukrainian president confirmed the new planned strikes on X.

Both sides have intensified their air strikes in recent weeks, with Moscow attacking Ukraine’s energy and transport systems as well as launching deadly strikes in recent days on civilian areas in Kyiv and Zaporizhia, and Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries and pipelines.

Overnight, Russian drones hit four energy facilities in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to the private energy company DTEK. The strikes left 29,000 people without electricity, local authorities reported.

The port city of Chornomorsk near Odesa, where one person was injured, was the worst-affected place, regional Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram. “Critical infrastructure is operating on generators,” he said.

DTEK said emergency repair work would start following the all-clear from the Ukrainian military, which reported that in total, Russia had attacked Ukraine with 142 drones, all but 10 of which it claimed to have downed.

The Russian military suggested on Sunday that it had shot down 112 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov blamed Europe for the continuation of the war and for hampering United States President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.

“The European warring party is maintaining its fundamental course; it is not giving in,” he said from the sidelines of a summit in China, in a reference to the European Union’s arms deliveries to Ukraine.

His words came just days after a Russian air strike killed at least 23 people and damaged EU diplomatic offices in central Kyiv.

Speaking just hours before Trump’s deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he thought the war, which began more than three and a half years ago, would not finish soon.

“I am preparing myself inwardly for this war to last a long time,” he told the public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, noting that diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to an end could not come “at the price of Ukraine’s capitulation”.

Elsewhere, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, travelled to Poland on Sunday as part of her tour of EU states that border Russia and its ally Belarus.

Speaking alongside the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, von der Leyen called Putin a “predator” who could only be kept in check through “strong deterrence”.

The EU Commission president also said that member states bordering Russia and Belarus would receive additional funding from the bloc, calling the defence of its borders a “shared responsibility”.

While the EU continues to highlight Russia’s security risk for the wider continent, the Kremlin has sought to embellish its military achievements in a bid to make its victory in Ukraine seem inevitable, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank.

In its latest assessment of the conflict, ISW said that Russian army chief General Valery Gerasimov’s claims on Saturday about Russian gains were exaggerated.

The Russian general had suggested that the Kremlin’s forces had captured 3,500sq km [1,351sq miles] of territory and 149 settlements since the start of March.

“Gerasimov’s claims notably inflate Russian gains by roughly 1,200 square kilometres [463sq miles] and 19 settlements,” the ISW said.

It didn’t turn out to be a “Cruel Summer” for singer Taylor Swift: she and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, in a continuation of their ongoing “Love Story,” have officially told each other, “You Belong With Me.”

The pop icon, self-made billionaire, and self-described “Anti-Hero” announced her engagement to Kelce in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Sure enough, where there used to be a “Blank Space” on Swift’s ring finger, she was now “Bejeweled” with a large engagement ring (and we hope she doesn’t accidentally “Shake It Off”).

Swift surely knew “All Too Well” that the announcement would make “Sparks Fly” among her legion of fans (to them I say, “You Need to Calm Down”), but even in her “Wildest Dreams,” she probably never expected the news to affect the stock market.

But it did. Here’s how.

Image source: Getty Images.

Look what you made me do…to the market

In the immediate wake of the announcement, as fans were still trying to identify the exact cut of the diamond in Swift’s ring (it was a “cushion cut,” for those who are interested), there was a brief, otherwise-unexplained 1% pop in the stock price of Signet Jewelers Limited (SIG -2.54%), one of the few publicly traded jewelry companies.

As the afternoon wore on, Signet’s shares climbed higher in a rally continued through Wednesday and into Thursday’s premarket trading, when Signet’s stock briefly hit $95/share, up nearly 10% over the pre-“pop star pop” price. The Swift Effect was even more pronounced for Brilliant Earth Group (BRLT 8.55%), which soared from $2.17/share at 12:50 PM on Tuesday to close at $2.82/share, a 30% gain.

Even luxury brands only partially exposed to the jewelry market rose in the wake of the announcement: Movado Group (MOV 2.47%), which is primarily a watchmaker but does sell other jewelry items, and LVMH (LVMHF -1.43%), which owns Tiffany & Co., were both up more than 4% over their pre-engagement price at Thursday’s close.

Today was a fairytale

It’s not the first time that Taylor Swift’s legions of fans — known as “Swifties” — have collectively influenced the financial world. In July 2023, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book credited Swift’s “Eras” tour as being responsible for the strongest month of hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the pandemic. This mirrored reports from Cincinnati and Chicago, among many other cities, that credited the “Eras” tour for record hotel revenues.

So how did this happen? There was likely a noticeable spike in internet searches for various types of wedding rings in the wake of Swift’s announcement as eager fans tried to identify the exact ring in question (and possibly score one for themselves). That activity may have triggered certain traders’ algorithms to buy jewelry stocks…or perhaps there are just plenty of Swifties among the ranks of hedge fund managers.

The money question is, could this one-time pop in interest translate into a meaningful increase in jewelry sales, or lasting gains for these jewelry stocks?

Is it over now?

Unfortunately, it looks like the rally may already be fizzling. Although Signet Jewelers closed on Thursday at $89.86/share, which is 3.6% above its pre-engagement price, it had fallen significantly from its post-engagement high of $95. Brilliant Earth Group also closed lower on Thursday at $2.69/share, though that was also well above its pre-engagement price.

Getting engaged is a much bigger commitment than buying an album or attending a concert (although the cost of some resold “Eras” tour tickets could have funded an entire wedding and then some). Sure, it might be fun to dream about getting a ring like Taylor Swift, or to shop for one online, but even if you idolize Swift, will her engagement really prompt legions of uncommitted Swifties to propose? (Don’t get me wrong: I know the intensity of Swift’s fandom is strong…but that strong?)

Meanwhile, all of the aforementioned jewelry and jewelry-adjacent companies have significantly lagged the S&P 500 over the past five years: some by a little (Signet is trailing on a total return basis by about 35 percentage points) to a lot (Brilliant Earth is “Down Bad,” by a jaw-dropping 130 percentage points).

I’d classify those returns as not just in the “Red,” but redder than “Bad Blood,” and it’ll take more than a one-time surge of interest from Swifties to make me say anything besides “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Together.”

That said, whichever jeweler can be the first to mass-produce a Taylor Swift-inspired cushion-cut engagement ring will almost certainly have a hit on their hands.

All of Portugal’s main airports are set to be affected, including popular destinations among Brits such as Faro, Lisbon, Porto and Madeira

UK holidaymakers planning to jet off to Portugal could face airport chaos as ground handling staff threaten strike action from September until the start of 2026.

The Metallurgical and Related Industries Union (SIMA) at ground handling company Menzies has issued a strike notice, which covers the period from September 3, 2025 until January 2, 2026, affecting all national airports, according to Portuguese news site Publico.

All of Portugal’s main airports are set to be hit by the industrial action, including popular British tourist hotspots such as Faro, Lisbon, Porto and Madeira.

READ MORE: UK airport could ‘shutdown’ next month with all flights groundedREAD MORE: EasyJet flight to Alicante suddenly diverts after ‘extraordinary’ emergency

The notice reveals that strikes will occur in alternating periods between September 3 and January 2 2026, encompassing busy travel times like long weekends, bank holidays, Christmas and New Year.

Publico reports that the first strike in September will kick off at midnight on September 3, lasting until midnight on September 9. This will be followed by further strikes on: September 12 – 15, 19-22, and 26 -28.

Then in October, strikes are planned from Fridays to Mondays each weekend. Walkouts are set to follow a similar pattern in November and December. Over the festive period, another strike is planned from December 19 until January 2.

The strike action could wreak havoc at airports, potentially leading to flight cancellations and delays, reports the Manchester Evening News.

The union is demanding an end to base salaries below the national minimum wage, payment for night shifts, and access to parking for its workers, amongst other requests. Previous industrial action occurred in July but was suspended for the remainder of the summer.

The union declared that during the strikes “workers will ensure the services necessary for the safety and maintenance of equipment and facilities.”

The news come just after more than 10,000 flight attendants for the major Canadian airline, Air Canada, walked out earlier this month after the airlines and union representing the workers failed to reach a deal. The airlines 700 flights per day were immediately cancelled after the industrial action started – including some flights to and from the UK.

Most recently, Jet2 had to issue a warning to travellers to Greece due to a planned industrial action which “may impact Greek Air Traffic Control”. The industrial action was scheduled to run from 9.30am until 1.30pm local time on August, 28, 2025 and forms part of a broader 24-hour strike organised by public sector union ADEDY.

The Hellenic Air Traffic Controllers’ Association called on controllers to walk out in support of a 24-hour strike over disciplinary rules set to be introduced for civil employees which are set for a parliamentary vote this week.

UKRAINIAN forces claim to have killed three perpetrators of the Bucha massacre in a slew of revenge bombings.

It comes as Kyiv marked its Independence Day by unleashing a wave of drone strikes crippling key energy infrastructure in Russia.

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Ukraine‘s military intelligence unit GUR said three Russian soldiers dubbed “Butchers of Bucha” were wiped out in surgical bombings in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.

They were targeted in the Luhansk region while operating as a mobile air defence group to cover a Russian military-repair base.

Bucha is a town close to Kyiv where Russian troops were accused of perpetrating appalling war crimes as they sought to storm Kyiv in 2022.

Hundreds of Ukrainian people were subjected to executions, torture, mutilation, and sexual violence including rape used by as weapon of war.

After the Russian retreat, mass graves were found where dozens of bodies were hastily buried by Putin’s occupying force.

There were numerous accounts of indiscriminate killings of civilians, including those seeking to flee the violence.

The revenge attack came in Kalynove village, where the Russian soldiers were linked to the Bucha atrocities.

Ukrainian military officials said: “In 2022, [these dead] Russian occupiers directly took part in committing war crimes in the city of Bucha.

“The detonation was in the yard of an apartment building where six Russian invaders were staying with their military transport.

“As a result of the explosion, two enemy pickups with machine guns were destroyed, one landed with ammunition.”

“There will be just retribution for every war crime committed against the Ukrainian people.”

Meanwhile, the Russia‘s defence ministry said at least 95 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted across more than a dozen Russian regions.

The attaclc come on August 24, the day that Ukraine celebrates its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

One of the drones was shot down over the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia, one of the country’s biggest energy nuclear facility.

It detonated upon impact and sparked a fire, forcing a sharp fall in the capacity of a reactor at according to the facility.

The plant said the fire had been extinguished, adding there were no casualties or increased radiation levels.

There was damage to a transformer which supplies the plant, and the power of reactor number three was reduced by 50 per cent.

Russian authorities said Ukrainian drones had also been shot down over areas sometimes far from the front, including Saint Petersburg in the northwest.

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The attacks caused tourist mayhem at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport as more than 99 flights were diverted or delayed at the busy hub.

Ten drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland, sparking a fire at a fuel terminal owned by Russian energy group Novatek, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said: “This is how Ukraine strikes when its calls for peace are ignored.

“Today, both the US and Europe agree: Ukraine has not yet fully won, but it will certainly not lose. Ukraine has secured its independence. Ukraine is not a victim; it is a fighter.”

Ukraine meanwhile said Russia had attacked it overnight with a ballistic missile and 72 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones, 48 of which the air force said had been shot down.

A Russian drone strike killed a 47-year-old woman in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, the governor said.

It came amid Donald Trump’s rising frustration with Putin for dragging out the war.

Washington is now trying to get Moscow to agree to a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky.

Pressure has been mounting on Putin to sit down with Zelensky since the White House summit – but the latest language from Russia looks suspiciously like well-worn stalling tactics.

Trump hoped he would be able to convince Putin to stop the bloodshed when he met the dictator in Anchorage.

But since then, little tangible progress has been made towards a peace deal.

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In a social media post, Trump appeared to hint that he is open to Ukraine launching more attacks on Russia.

He suggested that it would be “impossible” for Ukraine to win the war without attacking Russia.

He said: “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country.

“It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defence, but is not allowed to play offence.

“There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia.”

Trump sets deadline

He set a two-week time frame for assessing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Don told Todd Starnes on Newsmax: “I would say within two weeks we’re going to know one way or the other.

“After that, we’ll have to maybe take a different tack.”

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Putin is ready to meet Zelensky only after working through a list of vague “issues”.

Lavrov said: “Our president has repeatedly said that he is ready to meet, including with Mr Zelensky.”

But he insisted the meeting would only happen “with the understanding that all issues that require consideration at the highest level will be well worked out”.

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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of U.S. damage to Iranian nuclear sites angered President Trump, according to two people familiar with the decision and a White House official.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the people, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Hegseth also fired Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, chief of the Navy Reserve, and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversees Naval Special Warfare Command, another U.S. official said.

No reasons were given for their firings, the latest in a series of steps targeting military leaders, intelligence officials and other perceived critics of Trump, who has demanded loyalty across the government. The administration also stripped security clearances this week from additional current and former national security officials.

Taken together, the moves could chill dissent and send a signal against reaching conclusions at odds with Trump’s interests.

Agency’s assessment contradicted Trump

Kruse’s firing comes two months after details of a preliminary assessment of U.S. airstrikes against Iran leaked to the media. It found that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back only a few months by the military bombardment, contradicting assertions from Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The president, who had pronounced the Iranian program “completely and fully obliterated,” rejected the report. His oft-repeated criticism of the DIA analysis built on his long-running distrust of intelligence assessments, including one published in 2017 that said Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence — which is responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA — has been declassifying years-old documents meant to cast doubt on those previous findings, which have been endorsed by bipartisan congressional committees.

After the June strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, Hegseth lambasted the press for focusing on the preliminary assessment but did not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of the facilities.

“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was a historically successful attack,” Hegseth said at a news conference at the time.

Democrats raise concerns

While the Pentagon has offered no details on the firings, Democrats in Congress have raised alarm over the precedent that Kruse’s ouster sets for the intelligence community.

“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called on the administration to show why Kruse was fired, or “otherwise, we can only assume that this is another politically motivated decision intended to create an atmosphere of fear” within the intelligence community.

Trump has a history of removing government officials whose data and analysis he disagrees with. Earlier this month, after a lousy jobs report, he fired the official in charge of the data. His administration also has stopped posting reports on climate change, canceled studies on vaccine access and removed data on gender identity from government sites.

Other military and intelligence changes

The new firings culminate a week of broad Trump administration changes to the intelligence community and new shake-ups to military leadership.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced this week that it would slash its staff and budget and revoked more security clearances, a tactic the administration uses against those it sees as foes. The Pentagon also said the Air Force’s top uniformed officer, Gen. David Allvin, planned to retire two years early.

Hegseth and Trump have been aggressive in dismissing top military officials, often without formal explanation.

The administration has fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Navy’s top officer, the Air Force’s second-highest-ranking officer and the top lawyers for three military service branches.

In April, Hegseth dismissed Gen. Tim Haugh as head of the National Security Agency and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, who was a senior official at NATO.

No public explanations have been offered by the Pentagon for any of the firings, though some of the officers were believed by the administration to endorse diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Trump has demanded government agencies purge DEI efforts.

The ousters of Kruse, Lacore and Sands were reported earlier by the Washington Post.

Toropin, Jalonick and Price write for the Associated Press.

As diplomatic efforts to end the grinding war in Ukraine accelerate in Washington, there has been no let-up in the fighting as Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on the country, the Ukrainian air force said.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Russia had targeted energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine’s only oil refinery, causing big fires on Tuesday.

The attack was the largest this month, and came a day after United States President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House for talks on his peace efforts.

Russia and Ukraine also said they swapped more bodies of their fallen soldiers on Tuesday as part of deals reached during peace talks in Istanbul earlier this year.

“Today, we handed over 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the Ukrainian side. They gave us 19,” Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led Russia’s delegation during the three rounds of talks facilitated by Türkiye, said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed receiving the bodies of 1,000 of its servicemen, expressing gratitude to the International Committee of the Red Cross for assisting in the swap.

Moscow and Kyiv conducted three rounds of renewed peace talks in Istanbul – on May 16, June 2, and July 23 – which produced major prisoner swaps, but little else besides draft memorandums outlining positions of both sides, that the other wouldn’t accept, for a potential peace deal

Peace efforts reached an advanced stage after last week’s summit between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and then a follow-up between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington on Monday.

Major sticking points of the peace talks are said to be potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine.

Ukraine and its European supporters have repeatedly called for a ceasefire while peace talks are held.

Putin has balked at that prospect. With his forces inching forward in Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement.

Ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader last week, Trump threatened Russia with “severe consequences” if it didn’t accept a ceasefire. Afterward, he dropped that demand and said it was best to focus on a comprehensive peace deal – as Putin has pushed for.

Security guarantees?

To agree to a peace deal with Russia, Ukraine wants assurances that it can deter any future attacks by the Kremlin’s forces. That means, Zelenskyy says, a strong Ukrainian army that is provided with weapons and training by Western partners.

It could potentially also mean offering Ukraine a guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defence mandate Article 5, which stipuilates an attack on one member of the alliance as an attack on all. How that would work is not clear.

Additionally, Kyiv’s European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement in Ukraine. A  “Coalition of the Willing”,  30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative, although the role that the US might play in such a force is still to be determined.

European leaders, fearing Moscow’s territorial ambitions won’t stop in Ukraine, are keen to lock America’s military might into the plan.

Trump said he’ll help provide protection but stopped short of committing American boots on the ground to the effort, instead promising US “coordination”.

Russia has repeatedly rejected the idea of such a force, saying that it will not accept NATO troops in Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired an online meeting Tuesday of the coalition countries. Once officials have discussed proposals in more detail, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said, a virtual meeting will take place with Trump and European leaders.

Zelenskyy and European leaders said that Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up the Donbas, an industrial region in eastern Ukraine comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, that has seen some of the most intense fighting but that Russian forces have failed to capture completely.

Moscow’s forces also occupy Crimea as well as parts of six other regions it annexed– all adding up to about one-fifth of Ukraine. The international community broadly rejects Russian presence in these areas.

Anna Mateveya, a visiting research fellow at Kings College London, says a breakthrough in offering security guarantees to Ukraine is essential to pave the way for territorial swaps.

“Security guarantees was a way to give something to the Europeans … so that they have some kind of meat to chew while Trump is making some real progress with Zelenskyy and Putin on a separate track,” Mateveya told Al Jazeera.

“Putin, apparently, has agreed on some Western security guarantees, and I think that is a breakthrough,” she added.

Meanwhile, Trump said on Tuesday he hoped Putin would move forward on ending the war in Ukraine but conceded that the Kremlin leader may not want to make a deal at all, adding this would create a “rough situation” for Putin.

In an interview with the Fox News “Fox & Friends” programme, Trump said of Putin’s course of action: “We’re going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks … It’s possible that he doesn’t want to make a deal,” said Trump.

Russia has made no explicit commitment to a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, something Trump projected at the talks on Monday. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow did not reject any formats for discussing the peace process in Ukraine but any meeting of national leaders “must be prepared with utmost thoroughness”.

Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javid, reporting from Moscow, also said that Russia has not ruled out the possibility of a “bilateral or trilateral meeting”, something that was discussed with European leaders and Zelenskyy.

Moscow said the White House is “sincere in its efforts”, Bin Javid said. “It appears … everybody does not want to anger the Trump White House, they all want to play along,” he added.

The strikes on Lebanon’s east came as its government endorsed a US-backed proposal for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

At least six people have been killed and 10 others wounded in two separate Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon, according to media and government reports, in its latest near-daily violation of a US-brokered November ceasefire in a war with Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA), citing a Health Ministry statement, said a strike hit a vehicle on Thursday on the al-Masnaa international road in the Bekaa Valley, killing five people and injuring 10 others.

Another drone strike killed a Lebanese civilian in the town of Kfar Dan, west of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.

According to the agency, the man was standing outside his home when he was targeted by the drone. No further details were immediately available.

The Israeli military has not commented on the attacks.

The reported strikes came as Lebanon’s government endorsed a US-backed proposal for Hezbollah to be disarmed by the end of the year.

A Syrian national was killed earlier and two others were injured in an overnight Israeli strike on the town of Deir Siryan in the Marjayoun district of southern Lebanon, the Ministry of Public Health reported.

The Israeli army also targeted the northern outskirts of Deir Siryan near the Litani River, as well as a garage and bulldozers near residential areas, according to NNA.

In a military statement, the Israeli army claimed to have struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the attacks.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023, as the Lebanese group launched strikes in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, which was coming under Israeli attack. This escalated into a full-scale war by September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people and injuring approximately 17,000.

Although a ceasefire was reached last November, Israel has conducted near-daily attacks in southern Lebanon, claiming to target Hezbollah’s activities. It has threatened that it will continue to do so until the Lebanese group is disarmed.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border. Israel, meanwhile, was meant to pull all of its troops out of Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.

The ceasefire was based on a previous United Nations Security Council resolution that said only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should possess weapons in the country’s south, and that all non-state groups should be disarmed.

However, that resolution went unfulfilled for years, with the Iran-backed political party and armed group’s arsenal before the latest war seen as far superior to the army’s, and the group wielding extensive political influence.

Human Rights Watch says US arms were used in ‘unlawful indiscriminate’ Israeli attacks that killed Palestinian civilians.

Israel has used US-made bombs in “unlawful attacks” on schools sheltering displaced civilians in Gaza, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

In a report released Thursday, HRW said Israel had carried out hundreds of strikes on schools since the start of its war on Gaza in October 2023, including “unlawfully indiscriminate attacks” using US munitions, which violated international law.

In its report, HRW investigated two incidents in 2024 in which it found that GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs supplied by the United States were used. One attack on the Khadija girls’ school in Deir el-Balah on July 27, 2024, killed at least 15 people, and another attack on the Zeitoun C school in Gaza City on September 21, 2024, left at least 34 dead.

Israeli authorities have not publicly shared information relating to the attacks. Israel has often said that its attacks on schools were targeting Hamas fighters. It has provided no evidence to indicate the presence of military targets at the sites of the attacks documented by the rights group.

In both attacks, HRW and that there was no evidence of a military presence at the schools on the days of the attacks.

The rights group also warned that recent Israeli attacks on schools sheltering displaced people were worsening the dire humanitarian situation in the territory.

HRW said that from July 1-10, 2025, Israeli forces struck at least 10 schools where displaced people were sheltering, killing 59 people and displacing dozens of families, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The group emphasised that schools used to house civilians remain protected under international law unless used for military purposes.

The rights group called for an immediate halt to arms transfers to Israel, warning of potential complicity by governments providing military support.

“These strikes on schools sheltering displaced families are just one window into the carnage in Gaza,” said Gerry Simpson, associate director at HRW. “Other governments should not tolerate this horrendous slaughter of Palestinian civilians merely seeking safety.”

It also urged states to uphold their obligations under international law, including the Genocide Convention.

“Governments supporting Israel militarily can’t say they didn’t know what their weapons are being used for,” said Simpson.

According to the United Nations, nearly 1 million displaced Palestinians have taken shelter in Gaza’s schools since October 2023.

HRW said the repeated targeting of civilian infrastructure, including shelters, hospitals and schools, showed a pattern of attacks that may amount to war crimes.

HRW noted that nearly all of Gaza’s 564 schools have sustained damage, with 92 percent requiring full reconstruction or major repairs.

The UN has reported that at least 836 people sheltering in schools have been killed.

Valencia, Alicante, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma, Girona, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Santiago airports are due to be impacted by workers downing tools over the coming weeks

Brits heading for Spain are facing more travel chaos as 3,000 striking workers target 12 airports.

Valencia, Alicante, Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma, Girona, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Santiago airports are due to be impacted by workers downing tools over the coming weeks, which are among the busiest travel weeks of the year.

The strikes involve more than 3,000 Azul Handling baggage handlers and are due to kick off on August 15, 16, and 17, and then every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until the end of the year. By law, the workers have to provide a “minimum service” yet to be determined, but the action could still have a major impact on travellers.

Azul Handling provides baggage handling services to Ryanair at its Spanish bases. The strikes have been announced after hospitality workers on 12 Spanish islands revealed their own walk-out plans.

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The industry action will coincide with the long bank holiday weekend at the end of August and the days before most children return to school, potentially spelling major headaches for UK holidaymakers. Around 18 million Brits head to Spain each year, with the bulk of those trips coming during the school holidays.

The strike will affect all bases and work centres in Spain and will take place between 5am and 9am, noon and 3pm and 9pm to 11.59pm. The union has said its decision to strike is based on what it sees as a lack of stable job creation and consolidation of working hours for permanent part-time staff, as well as a disagreement with bosses over bonuses.

It has also claimed there are issues with how workers are sanctioned and what it sees as an “abuse of overtime”. The strike is motivated by sanctions imposed on workers who refuse to work non-mandatory hours, with penalties of up to 36 days without employment or pay.

“UGT regrets having to go to these extremes and all the damages that may occur, for which the direct responsibility will be solely and exclusively the company and its reckless action with the workforce,” the unions said in a statement.

Jose Manuel Perez Grande, federal secretary of the FeSMC-UGT Air Union, claimed Azul Handling maintains “a strategy of precariousness and pressure on the workforce that violates basic labour rights and systematically ignores union demands.”

The FeSMC-UGT Air Sector demands that the company withdraw the sanctions, comply with the opinions of the Joint Commission and immediately open a real negotiation process, which will improve the working conditions of the more than 3,000 workers affected throughout the national territory.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “Ryanair does not expect any disruption to our operation as a result of these third-party handling strikes in Spain.”

Yashasvi Jaiswal makes sparkling hundred with Mohammed Siraj striking with last ball of day as India look to tie series.

Yashasvi Jaiswal loves playing against England’s cricketers.

India’s 23-year-old opening batter struck his fourth test century against England, and his sixth overall, to put the visitors firmly in control on Day Three of the fifth and final Test at the Oval on Saturday.

Jaiswal had his fair share of luck, though, as he gave his side an excellent chance of tying the series 2-2.

He was dropped three times on his way to 118, his second hundred of the series, as he helped India pile up 396 in its second innings to set England a daunting victory target of 374.

England, which has developed a knack for chasing down sizeable fourth-innings totals since Brendon McCullum took over as head coach in 2022 to launch the so-called “Bazball” era, reached stumps on 50-1.

Mohammed Siraj clean bowled Zak Crawley for 14 with a searing yorker from the last ball of the day, leaving Ben Duckett on 34 not out at the other end.

Earlier, the left-handed Jaiswal turned his 127th ball of the innings to point and was celebrating his hundred before he ran the single he needed; leaping, running and shaping his fingers into a heart.

“I had to work really hard in my practice session,” Jaiswal said. “I was thinking, ‘one last push’. I think overall, wherever you play, it is difficult in England. It is not easy on this wicket. We are really confident. We will try our best and see what happens.”

There were also important contributions for India from Akash Deep, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar.

Nightwatchman Akash Deep cut loose for a career-best 66 in a 107-run stand with Jaiswal for the third wicket. Jadeja continued his excellent batting form in the series with 53 and Sundar delivered a swashbuckling 53 off 46 balls at the end of the innings that included four sixes.

India captain Shubman Gill only made 11, but he finished with a tally of 754 runs, passing Graham Gooch’s 752 in 1990 for the most by any batter in an India-England series.

England did its best to help out India in the field, dropping six catches in all, the team’s most in a home test since 2006 when it spilled six against Pakistan, also at the Oval.

The home side’s depleted pace attack toiled hard all day in the absence of the experienced Chris Woakes, who sustained a bad shoulder injury on Day One.

Josh Tongue was the pick of the England attack with 5-125, while fellow fast bowler Gus Atkinson took 3-127 to follow up his five-wicket haul from the first innings.

“It will be a great day of cricket tomorrow, and a great day for us if we get the runs.” Tongue said. “The batting line-up we have is unbelievable. If we can build partnerships, who knows where we might be? Fingers crossed, I am not required, but if it comes down to me at the end, I will give it a good crack.”

England, which leads the series 2-1, chased down 371 to beat India in the first Test at Leeds.

Italy has signed a deal with Albania, where it planned to process up to 36,000 asylum seekers per year.

The European Union’s top court has backed Italian judges who questioned a list of “safe countries” drawn up by Rome, as it prepares to deport migrants to detention centres in Albania.

The hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) ruling and said it “weakens policies to combat mass illegal immigration”.

Meloni’s plan to outsource migrant processing to a non-EU country and speed up repatriations of failed asylum seekers has been followed closely by others in the bloc.

The costly scheme has been frozen for months by legal challenges.

Italian magistrates have cited the European court’s decision that EU states cannot designate an entire country as “safe” when certain regions are not.

On Friday, in a long-awaited judgement, the Luxembourg-based ECJ said Italy is free to decide which countries are “safe”, but warned that such a designation should meet strict legal standards and allow applicants and courts to access and challenge the supporting evidence.

In its statement, the ECJ said a Rome court had turned to EU judges, citing the impossibility of accessing such information and thus preventing it from “challenging and reviewing the lawfulness of such a presumption of safety”.

The ECJ also said a country might not be classified “safe” if it does not offer adequate protection to its entire population, agreeing with Italian judges that had raised this issue last year.

Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama, had signed a migration deal in November 2023, and last year, Rome opened two centres in Albania, where it planned to process up to 36,000 asylum seekers per year.

The detention facilities have, however, been empty for months, due to the judicial obstacles. Last week, a report found that their construction cost was seven times more than that of an equivalent centre in Italy.

Government’s approach ‘dismantled’?

The European court made its judgement considering a case of two Bangladeshi nationals who were rescued at sea by Italian authorities and taken to Albania, where their asylum claims were rejected based on Italy’s classification of Bangladesh as a “safe” country.

Dario Belluccio, a lawyer who represented one of the Bangladeshi asylum seekers at the ECJ on Friday, said the Albanian migrant camps scheme had been killed off.

“It will not be possible to continue with what the Italian government had envisioned before this decision … Technically, it seems to me that the government’s approach has been completely dismantled,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Meloni’s office complained that the EU judgement allows national judges to dictate policy on migration, “further reduc(ing) the already limited” capacity of parliament and government to take decisions on the matter.

“This is a development that should concern everybody,” it said.

Meanwhile, though the Albanian scheme is stuck in legal limbo, Italy’s overall effort to curb undocumented migration by sea has been successful.

There have been 36,557 such migrant arrivals in the year to date, slightly up from the same period of 2024, but far below the 89,165 recorded over the same time span in 2023.