- PM expresses sorrow over wildfires in Türkiye’s Izmir province RADIO PAKISTAN
- Thousands flee wildfires in Turkey as Europe is hit by early heatwave Reuters
- Over 50,000 people evacuated as Türkiye battles widespread forest fires Ptv.com.pk
- Turkiye battles wildfires in Izmir for second day, 50,000 people evacuated Al Jazeera
- Turkey evacuates over 50,000 as wildfires rage in Izmir province The Express Tribune
Category: 2. World
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PM expresses sorrow over wildfires in Türkiye's Izmir province – RADIO PAKISTAN
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Western Half Measures Have Prolonged the War, but Decisive Action Now Could End It
When U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, many in Washington expected a rapid settlement to the war in Ukraine. On the campaign trail, Trump had boasted he could end the conflict in 24 hours. Although few analysts believed that specific promise, many speculated about the possible terms and timeline of an impending deal. The investment bank JPMorgan Chase, for example, claimed an agreement could be reached by June.
Yet as the weeks pass and diplomacy stagnates, it is becoming clear that no such resolution is imminent. As Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted in Foreign Affairs in late May, neither Russia nor Ukraine “has much of an incentive to stop the fighting.” Ukraine refuses to surrender its sovereignty; Russia will not accept anything less than Ukrainian capitulation.
This conclusion, however, does not mean all is lost. Russia is much weaker economically than many analysts realize, and hard-hitting sanctions and export controls can still cripple its war economy. Ukraine is fighting smartly and could turn the tide on the battlefield with more high-end drones, air defense systems, long-range missiles, and munitions. With a change of strategy, Ukraine can still win the war in the near term—if both Europe and the United States decide to give it the assistance it needs.
THE DOSE MAKES THE POISON
Much of the premature optimism about a settlement earlier this year sprang from the prevailing belief that Ukraine was losing and would soon be forced to negotiate out of desperation. Trump stoked this narrative by asserting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had “no cards” left to play. U.S. Vice President JD Vance took it a step further, declaring that Ukraine—and its foreign backers—never had any “pathway to victory.” Citing Russia’s superiority in manpower and weapons, Vance argued that if the United States kept up its security assistance, it would only postpone Ukraine’s inevitable defeat.
This defeatism has been supported by a second, equally pernicious assumption: that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s commitment to subjugating Ukraine cannot be deterred. The former CIA analyst Peter Schroeder’s assessment in Foreign Affairs last September exemplifies this view, describing Putin as “all in”—personally invested in keeping Ukraine from becoming a European democracy, no matter the cost. Such a narrative holds a kernel of truth, but it also dovetails too neatly with Russian propaganda. By assigning no agency to Ukraine or its foreign partners, it presumes that Ukrainian victory is a fantasy born of Western delusion, and it is a view that risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Both assumptions, meanwhile, rest on an excessively narrow reading of battlefield dynamics and a limited understanding of the policy options available to Ukraine’s backers. Despite significant constraints on the aid that Europe and the United States have offered over the past three and a half years, Ukraine has achieved impressive victories. It repelled Russia’s initial push toward Kyiv in March 2022 with little more than shoulder-fired antitank missiles and grit, defying the predictions of many military analysts. Later that year, in a stunning rout for Russian forces, Ukraine reclaimed nearly a thousand square miles in the Kharkiv region without the benefit of modern armor or air cover. And just weeks ago, Ukraine shocked the world by pulling off Operation Spiderweb, a surprise attack that used cheap, remote-controlled drones to inflict substantial damage on Russia’s long-range aviation.
Indeed, what most consistently hindered Ukraine’s war effort was not Kyiv’s lack of manpower or weak resolve compared with Putin, but rather an insufficient supply of advanced military capabilities. Long after Russia had deployed its most modern tanks, fifth-generation fighter aircraft, long-range air defense systems, and cutting-edge ballistic and cruise missiles, Ukraine was still waiting for deliveries of similar capabilities from its Western partners. When some of these systems finally did arrive, Ukraine was prohibited from using them on targets inside Russia until the United States relaxed its rules of engagement in mid-2024. The truth is precisely the opposite of what the current administration has claimed. Instead of prolonging the war by giving Ukraine too much military assistance, Kyiv’s foreign allies have prolonged it by giving too little, and often with significant delays.
When it comes to punitive economic measures against Russia, the international response has been similarly half-baked. In the early days of the war, the United States and its G-7 allies crafted sanctions and export controls that were thought to pack a powerful punch but in fact had so many mitigations built in that they were robbed of their full impact. In April 2022, just after Russia’s invasion, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union removed seven Russian banks from SWIFT, the dominant international payments system. Many analysts had previously touted the move as a “nuclear option” that would decimate the Russian economy.
But the delisting was so selective in its application—targeting only seven banks out of hundreds in Russia—that the Russian economy actually grew in 2023 and 2024. The gradual implementation of export controls also gave Russia time to adapt, as did numerous carve-outs for certain types of Russian banks or transactions: civil nuclear energy, aviation servicing and maintenance, and fertilizer sales, for example, could still be processed. As the saying goes, the dose makes the poison—and the insufficient dosing of punitive economic measures produced an underwhelming campaign with limited strategic effect.
TIPPING THE SCALE
Despite these missteps, victory for Ukraine—minimally defined as preserving its sovereignty and continuing to chart a course toward NATO and EU membership—is still squarely within reach. Achieving it, however, requires a fundamental shift in Western strategy, one that combines a large boost in military assistance with more robust economic measures to constrain Russia’s war economy.
The linchpin for this new strategy is the West’s mobilization of the approximately $300 billion in frozen Russian assets held in their jurisdictions—mostly in the EU—to support Ukraine’s current fight. Thus far, the Trump administration has shown no inclination to use congressionally authorized funds to support Ukraine. So, as Wally Adeyemo and David Shimer have written in Foreign Affairs, it makes sense to seize these assets and, in effect, “make Russia pay” for Ukraine’s defense. Some EU leaders have argued that these assets should be saved for reconstruction efforts after the war ends. Others worry about setting a dangerous precedent for the rule of law by seizing a country’s funds—even if that country has violated international laws and is engaged in the mass murder of civilians. If Europe is to help bring this war to an end, it must set these concerns aside and act now.
These funds could serve multiple purposes. A portion could be invested in Ukraine’s burgeoning defense industrial base: its drone sector, for instance, has become highly innovative but needs additional investments for industrial-scale production, sensor development, and counter-electronic warfare measures. Another portion could help Ukraine purchase long-range missiles and other weapons systems from Europe, assisting the continent in building up production lines that support both Ukraine’s defense and, once the war is over, NATO deterrence. A third chunk could fund the production of U.S.-made capabilities—such as air defense systems and long-range precision fires—that Ukraine needs but Europe currently lacks in sufficient quantities. And finally, the remainder could go to distributed energy generation, the protection of critical infrastructure such as switchyards and electrical substations, and humanitarian needs.
Yet helping Ukraine win requires more than just transferring arms. Western governments must prioritize co-production agreements, intellectual property sharing, and defense manufacturing partnerships—especially in missile and ammunition manufacturing, armored vehicles, and drone and counterdrone technologies, as well as cyber, command and coordination systems, and electronic warfare systems. Such arrangements would reduce Ukraine’s dependence on foreign supply chains, fortify its domestic capacity, and foster long-term interoperability with NATO forces. Equally important is for these governments to give Ukraine access to maintenance and life-cycle support technologies and software so that Western platforms can be adapted to the evolving battlefield.
Despite being outnumbered, Ukraine has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to offset its disadvantages with asymmetric tactics, such as sinking parts of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet with maritime drones and missiles and denying Russia air superiority by using its limited air defenses creatively. With more sustained military, technological, and economic support, Ukraine could develop new advantages, such as better integrating drones, land mines, and long-range fires to pin down Russian forces and take out their logistics nodes.
EVERY TOOL IN THE TOOLKIT
To buttress Ukraine’s military capabilities, the West must also target the economic foundations of Russia’s war effort. Fortunately for Ukraine, Russia’s economy remains fragile. Although the country’s GDP has increased over the last two years, structural weaknesses abound in its economy: a 20 percent interest rate, a 68 percent decline in Russia’s sovereign wealth fund since February 2022, and persistent inflation of around nine percent. These vulnerabilities present opportunities.
First, the West must go after Russia’s primary revenue stream: energy exports. Currently, Europe is still importing roughly $23.5 billion worth of Russian oil and natural gas. If Europe is to get serious about ending the war, it must decrease Moscow’s energy income and foreign currency flows. Moreover, Russia has systematically evaded the G-7’s oil price cap, significantly weakening its intended impact. Western countries should impose a full embargo or steep tariffs on Russian oil and gas and should tighten regulations, engage in more systematic maritime tracking, and take stronger legal measures to strictly enforce the G-7 price cap. And if third parties flout these restrictions, the G-7 should impose sanctions on them.
The G-7 countries, meanwhile, must further isolate Russia financially. The Kremlin has taken advantage of the sanctions regime’s carve-outs and has the power to direct Russian banks to process whatever payments are needed. To meaningfully disrupt Russia’s trade, devalue the ruble, and increase economic uncertainty, the G-7 should remove all Russian banks from SWIFT and subject them to full blocking sanctions, which prohibit all transactions with the sanctioned entity. If financial institutions in foreign countries enable sanctions evasion, they, too, should be subjected to secondary sanctions. Only by applying the full power of these sanctions tools can Ukraine’s allies succeed in weakening Russia’s war machine.
Western governments can also redouble their efforts regarding export controls on high-tech components, including semiconductors, precision machine tools, optics, aviation components, and industrial software. There have been export controls on Russia for more than a decade, but these are not one-and-done solutions; meaningfully degrading the Kremlin’s capacity to replenish and maintain its military equipment requires continuous enforcement whenever workarounds and third-party cutouts arise. The U.S. Commerce Department should further restrict Russia’s access to “dual use” goods—products valuable in both civilian and military applications—in order to constrain its production of high-tech weapons and undermine its military-industrial complex. Similarly, Western governments can do more to zero in on Russia’s defense industry by sanctioning more Russian firms that manufacture essential defense equipment such as drones, missiles, and armored vehicles.
Even after three and half years of full-scale war, Ukraine’s supporters have not come close to exhausting the sanctions toolkit. If rigorously applied and internationally enforced, the combination of these sanction enhancements would cripple Russia’s economy.
THE CHINA FACTOR
Yet it is also important to recognize that Russia is no longer waging this war alone. It has found steady backing from a coalition of autocratic states—backing that has allowed it to weather the bite of Western sanctions and replenish critical materiel. Only a few months into the war, Western intelligence agencies and military analysts had assessed that Russia had significantly depleted its stockpile of precision-guided munitions. As sanctions took hold and component shortages mounted, the Kremlin was forced to ration these weapons. This rationing had a real effect on the war, gradually turning the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine’s favor. The tempo of Russian precision strikes declined markedly by late 2022, replaced in part by the use of unguided bombs and the repurposing of systems such as the S-300 air defense missile for ground-attack roles.
By the fall of that year, however, Iran began supplying Russia with drones. Then, by 2023, China emerged as Russia’s primary supplier of dual-use technologies, including accounting for over 90 percent of imported microelectronics. North Korea, meanwhile, provided short-range ballistic missiles and, later, troops.
Confronting this axis of aggressors will require a shift in Western strategy. There is probably little Europe or the United States can do to dissuade North Korea, but Iran has been greatly weakened following its war with Israel and has less to offer now that Russia is mass-producing its own drones. That leaves China, whose inputs into the Russian defense industrial base are far more consequential than Iran’s or North Korea’s contributions. To constrain Chinese support for Moscow, a unified transatlantic approach is needed to raise the costs of Beijing’s support. That means leveraging trade and market access—areas in which Europe holds unique influence—to apply pressure. European leaders acknowledge China’s key role in enabling the Russian war effort, but they have not taken serious steps to stop it; mere expressions of disapproval are not enough. If the war in Ukraine is to be contained and ultimately resolved, Europe will have to make clear to Beijing that normal commercial relations cannot coexist with China’s support for a war against the European security order.
TURN THE TIDE
Putin’s ambition to dominate Ukraine is unlikely ever to diminish, even as Russian casualties approach a million. What can change are the battlefield and defense-industrial conditions that make Putin’s ambition feasible. Western countries have the collective resources to create a situation in which trend lines turn negative for Russia. Once the strategic risks accumulate to the extent that the Kremlin has to ask difficult questions about Russia’s ability to defend itself against other hostile actors, it will be compelled to reassess its approach.
Indeed, from a strategic vantage point, Russia has already lost this war. Regardless of how much additional territory changes hands, the Ukrainian nation is lost to Russia forever. No matter how many billions of dollars Moscow spends on propaganda and “reeducation,” filtration camps and torture chambers, it will never convince Ukrainians to accept its rule as legitimate. What Ukraine needs now is the time, tools, and space to prove to the Kremlin that an occupation is not just immoral but incompatible with Russia’s long-term security needs.
Ukraine’s allies have a choice. They can continue the current approach of transatlantic division and stillborn diplomacy, risking an expanded, longer, and far costlier war. Or they can act decisively to help Ukraine turn the tide, throttle the tempo of Russian weapons manufacturing, and empower the leadership in Kyiv to negotiate from a position of strength. A peace agreement may forever remain elusive, but once the cost of continued fighting becomes untenable, Russia can eventually be forced to settle for an armistice similar to the one that effectively ended the Korean War. Once that point is reached and the fighting diminishes, the space will emerge for Ukraine to renew its democratic mandate, resettle refugees, reconstruct infrastructure, and—perhaps most critically—finish its accession process with the EU and NATO. The return of all occupied territories may take longer, but Ukraine will have established the foundations of strategic victory.
Victory may not come quickly, cheaply, or easily. But it is still possible and will likely cost fewer lives and resources than a perpetuation of the status quo. What remains to be seen is whether the West—especially Europe—is willing to summon the political will to secure this brighter future.
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Lethal heat is Europe’s new climate reality – POLITICO
“It’s no longer a question of if we will have a heatwave, but how many are we going to experience this year and how long will they last,” said Marisol Yglesias Gonzalez, technical officer for climate change and health at the WHO in Bonn.
As for how many people could be at risk, Pierre Masselot, a statistician at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told POLITICO this heatwave could cause more than 4,500 excess deaths between June 30 and July 3. The countries likely to experience the highest excess death rates are Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Luxembourg, he said. “The worst days will likely be [Tuesday] and Wednesday.”
Heat claims more than 175,000 lives across the WHO’s Europe region — spanning from Iceland to Russia — each year. A major study co-authored by Masselot and published in January, which covered 854 European cities, warned that deaths from heat would rise sharply if significant climate adaptation is not prioritized.
The WHO on Monday echoed that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, means heatwaves will become more frequent, dangerous and intense, leading to more serious illness and death.
Almost two-thirds of Spanish towns have been slapped with health risk warnings, including 804 at the highest alert level, according to data from the Aemet national weather agency. A spokesperson stated that intense heat is expected across the country until July 3. Meanwhile, heat alerts are also in place in France, Italy, Portugal and Greece.
Southern Europe is in the midst of a soaring heatwave with temperatures reaching up to 46 degrees Celsius in Spain’s Huelva region — a new national record for June. | Toni Albir/EPA The Greek government has also issued warnings about air pollution from wildfires that have ripped through coastal towns near Athens. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 people have been evacuated in Turkey, primarily due to a fire near Izmir.
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India's Sigachi factory fire death toll rises to at least 36, official says – Reuters
- India’s Sigachi factory fire death toll rises to at least 36, official says Reuters
- India chemical factory blast kills at least 12 Geo.tv
- Telangana pharma plant explosion: Toll rises to 34, says official The Indian Express
- India’s Sigachi factory fire kills at least 36 Al Arabiya English
- Telangana factory blast: CM Revanth Reddy appoints panel to probe accident Times of India
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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,223 | Russia-Ukraine war News
Here is how things stand on Tuesday, July 1:
Fighting
- The Russian-installed governor of the occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, Leonid Pasechnik, said that Russian troops are now in full control of the entire region.
- If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region fully occupied by Russia after more than three years of war. Luhansk is one of four regions that Russia now claims as its own.
- Russia’s state media and war bloggers also said that Russian forces have taken control of the first village in the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.
- This came as Moscow-appointed officials said Ukrainian forces attacked the city of Donetsk in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, killing at least one person, damaging several buildings and setting a market on fire.
- Also in Donetsk, Russian forces have occupied one of Ukraine’s most valuable lithium deposits near the village of Shevchenko, The Kyiv Independent reported, citing Roman Pohorilyi, the founder of the open-source mapping project Deep State Map.
- The Ukrainian Air Force, meanwhile, said it detected 107 Russian Shahed and decoy drones in the country’s airspace overnight, a day after the country experienced the biggest aerial attack from Russian forces since 2022.
- Russian strikes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region left two civilians dead and eight wounded, including a 6-year-old child, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
- Outside the immediate region, Bloomberg reported an explosion on an oil tanker near Libya, in the latest unexplained blast on vessels that had previously called at Russian ports.
Politics and diplomacy
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged the United States to consider whether new sanctions on Russia would help the Ukraine peace effort after a top Republican senator said he had received US President Donald Trump’s blessing to move forward on a bill introducing punitive measures against Moscow.
- US envoy Keith Kellogg responded to Peskov’s comments, describing them as “Orwellian”. “Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine,” Kellogg said in a post on X.
- German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul, speaking during a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making “pure mockery” of peace talks.
- “His apparent readiness to negotiate is only a facade so far,” Wadephul said, adding that Germany was trying to help Ukraine get to a point where it could “negotiate more strongly”.
- The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Moscow was introducing “reciprocal measures” restricting access to 15 media outlets from the European Union, in retaliation for the latest round of EU sanctions on Russia.
- In North Korea, images on state television showed leader Kim Jong Un draping coffins with the country’s national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, according to the Reuters news agency.
- Norway said it would deploy F-35 fighter jets to Poland to protect Polish airspace and a key logistical hub for aid to Ukraine, a day after Warsaw scrambled aircraft in response to Russian air attacks on western Ukraine, near the border.
Economy
- The International Monetary Fund said it would provide $500m to Ukraine, after completing a routine review of its $15.5bn four-year support programme.
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Iran-linked hackers threaten to release Trump aides' emails – Reuters
- Iran-linked hackers threaten to release Trump aides’ emails Reuters
- Iran-linked hackers threaten to release Trump aides’ emails Dawn
- Trump’s inner circle hacked: Secret emails set to be sold online Samaa TV
- Iran-linked hackers threaten to release emails stolen from Trump associates Axios
- Iran-linked hackers threaten to release more emails from Trump’s circle The Japan Times
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Despite ceasefire overtures, Gaza continues to suffer – Newspaper
GAZA: Women grieve amidst the rubble of Yaffa School, which was destroyed in Israeli strikes.—AFP • Over 60 killed, including two dozen at seafront rest area; school sheltering refugees also targeted
• IDF admits ‘harming civilians’ at aid sites; claims new orders issued after ‘lessons learned’
• Israeli minister in Washington for talks, Netanyahu due to meet Trump soon for renewed peace pushGAZA / WASHINGTON: Israeli forces killed at least 60 people on Monday — in one of the deadliest days in weeks — as Israeli officials headed to Washington for a renewed diplomatic push to secure a ceasefire and the release of prisoners.
Following the resolution of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, hopes for a halt to the fighting in Gaza have been revived, where more than 20 months of incessant bombing have created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million.
US President Donald Trump has recently urged Israel to “make the deal in Gaza”, while key mediator Qatar said Monday that “momentum” had been created by the truce with Iran last week.
But on the ground, Israel has continued to press its offensive across the Palestinian territory.
According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, 21 people were in a strike on a seafront rest area.
“The place is always crowded with people because the rest area offers drinks, family seating and internet access,” eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab, 26, told AFP, recalling a “huge explosion that shook the area”.
“I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned… It was a scene that made your skin crawl.” Another eyewitness, Bilal Awkal, 35, said “blood covered the ground and screams filled the air”.
“Women and children were everywhere, like a scene from a movie about the end of the world.”
Photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab was among those killed in the strike.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 27 others were killed by Israeli strikes or gunfire across Gaza, including “11 people killed near aid distribution points in the central and southern parts of the territory”.
Eyewitnesses and local authorities have reported repeated killings of Palestinians near distribution centres in recent weeks, after Israel began allowing in a trickle of aid at the end of May.
Samir Abu Jarbou, 28, told AFP by phone that he had gone with relatives to pick up food in an area of central Gaza around midnight.
“Suddenly, the (Israeli) army opened fire, and drones started shooting. We ran away and got nothing,” he said.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, the dead and wounded were rushed to a hospital in an open-top trailer after aid seekers said they were fired on by Israeli forces in nearby Rafah.
“The targeting was deliberate, aimed at people as they were leaving,” eyewitness Aboud al-Adwi told AFP.
“There was no one among us who was wanted or posed any threat. We were all civilians, simply trying to get food for our children,” he added.
IDF admission
In a significant development, the Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians were harmed at aid distribution centres in the Gaza Strip, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned”.
Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, allowing limited deliveries to resume, the United Nations says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking handouts of aid.
“Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned,” an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement.
The statement said incidents in which Gaza civilians were harmed were under review.
It followed a Friday report in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that Israel’s Military Advocate General had ordered an investigation into possible war crimes over allegations that Israeli forces deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians near the sites.
The spokesperson had no immediate comment on a Times of Israel report on Monday, citing the military, that artillery shelling intended to deter Palestinians from approaching certain zones near aid distribution centres had been inaccurate in at least three instances, resulting in 30-40 casualties, including several fatalities.
Ceasefire push
US President Donald Trump had said last week that he was hoping for a new ceasefire “within the next week”, and is reportedly pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the Gaza war.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told journalists on Monday that “momentum” had been created by the Iran-Israel ceasefire on June 24.
“We won’t hold our breath for this to happen today and tomorrow, but we believe that the elements are in place to push forward towards restarting the talks,” he added.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is due to hold talks at the White House this week, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House on July 7 for talks with President Donald Trump.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that Netanyahu had “expressed interest” in what would be his third meeting with Trump since the Republican returned to power in January.
“I know that Mr Dermer is in Washington this week to meet with senior officials here at the White House,” she told reporters.
The spokeswoman said Trump’s “priority” was to “end this brutal war in Gaza”.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the president wants to see it end,” Leavitt added.
Separately, Washington has announced the approval of a $510 million sale to Israel of bomb guidance kits and related support, after Israel expended significant munitions in its recent conflict with Iran.
Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2025
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FMs of G7 call for resumption of talks on Iran nuclear deal – RADIO PAKISTAN
- FMs of G7 call for resumption of talks on Iran nuclear deal RADIO PAKISTAN
- G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program Reuters
- G7 foreign ministers condemn Iranian threats against watchdog head JNS.org
- G7 FMs Urge Ceasefire Between Israel, Iran, Call on Tehran to Cooperate with IAEA Sada Elbalad english
- G7 Foreign Ministers urge Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA AnewZ
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Musk vows to unseat lawmakers who support Trump’s one big beautiful bill | Elon Musk
Elon Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he wrote on his social media platform, X.
A few hours later he added that if “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.
With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he helped prop up. Since taking leave from his so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, Musk has sharply criticized Trump’s budget bill, which he has said will undermine his work at Doge by increasing spending.
Musk had been relatively quiet about the bill after his dramatic fallout with Trump, but reentered the debate this weekend.
On Monday, he said lawmakers who had campaigned on cutting spending but backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk said.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO called again for a new political party, saying the bill’s massive spending indicated “that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.
After contributing $277m to Trump’s political campaign, Musk became a vital part of the US president’s orbit and his administration. Doge, which oversaw abrupt and chaotic cuts to various government programs, claimed it saved $190bn. But the effort may also have cost taxpayers $135bn, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service (PSP), a nonpartisan non-profit that focuses on the federal workforce.
Both Musk and Trump were aligned in cutting social safety net programs, environmental and health initiatives and global aid programs. But Musk has railed against the president’s signature proposal, which he is calling his “big, beautiful bill”.
The Senate’s version of the bill would add nearly $3.3tn to the deficit over the next decade, according to a congressional budget office estimate, whereas the House-approved bill would add $2.4tn to the deficit over the next decade.
Musk has expressed disdain for both versions.
In addition to criticizing the bill’s spending provisions, he has bemoaned its slashing of subsidies for electric vehicles, saying that the bill “gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future”.
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G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program – Reuters
- G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program Reuters
- G7 FMs call for resumption of talks on Iran nuclear deal The Times of Israel
- Secretary Rubio’s Meeting with G7 Foreign Ministers U.S. Department of State (.gov)
- G7 backs Israel-Iran ceasefire, urges fresh talks on Tehran nuclear program India Today
- G7 seeks resumption of talks for agreement on Iran’s nuclear program Hindustan Times
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