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Europe
Hungary
Friday 11 July 2025 10:23 BST Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accused Ukrainian authorities of beating a Hungarian-Ukrainian dual citizen to death during his mobilization in the military by his recruiters. Hungary's - a member of NATO and the European Union - foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over the report. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
France
12.07.2025 French president voices 'strong disapproval' of 30% US tariffs for EU. Macron signals mobilizing all instruments at disposal, including anti-coercion if no agreement reached by Aug. 1 He called for accelerating the preparation of "credible countermeasures." (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
12.07.2025 New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the South Pacific, has been under French rule since the 19th century. Calls for independence have persisted for decades, especially among the Indigenous Kanak population, many of whom have sought greater autonomy or full sovereignty. Ahead of a referendum planned for February 2026, political leaders in New Caledonia have signed a deal with the French government to establish a new political entity known as the “State of New Caledonia.” The deal outlines the creation of a Caledonian nationality, allowing individuals to hold both Caledonian and French citizenship. A new provincial electoral body will be formed for those born in New Caledonia or who have resided there continuously for at least 15 years. Paris has a particular focus on New Caledonia’s nickel industry. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
11/07/2025 The head of the French army, General Burkhard, today said France was Russia’s main enemy in Europe, largely due to French support for Ukraine. It was Putin who said this, the general added. In space, Russian satellite manoeuvres set out to 'hinder our satellite trajectories, get close and jam them, get close and spy on them', Burkhard said. At sea, he said Russian nuclear attack submarines regularly enter the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean 'obviously seeking to monitor areas that are important to us but also to the British'. In the air there are frequent frictions and interactions with Russian aircraft over the Black Sea, Syria, the Mediterranean, and sometimes the North Atlantic, he added. (Source: France 24 with AFP = France)
Russia
11.07.2026 Russia to shut down Polish Consulate in Kaliningrad in tit-for-tat move. Moscow cites unjustified and hostile actions by Warsaw after Polish order to close Russian mission in Krakow. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Ukraine
12/07/2025 - 12:19 Russia fired 597 drones and decoys, along with 26 cruise missiles, into Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 319 Shahed drones and 25 missiles. One missile and about 20 drones hit ’five locations’. Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most. Across the Chernivetskyi city, which is located about 40 kilometres from Ukraine's border with Romania, several fires broke out. Residential houses and administrative buildings were damaged. In the city of Lviv, on Ukraine's border with Poland, 46 residential houses, a university building, the city's courts, and about 20 buildings housing small and medium-sized businesses were damaged in the attack. (Source: France 24 „with AP - U.S. and AFP” - France)
(July 11, 2025) 9:30 a.m. UTC+3 In the early hours of July 10, a large-scale aerial attack involving drones and missiles targeted Kyiv, resulting in confirmed strikes on multiple industrial facilities. Satellite images from NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) showed fire hotspots on the territory of the Artem plant, the Kuznya on Rybalsky shipyard, Kyivmetrobud, the Kyiv Central Design Bureau of Valves, the Merydian radio plant, and a garage complex. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - since 2022 headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgia)
(July 11, 2025) 'Zelenskiy, today on Telegram said he had met Republican Senator Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut in Rome' in conjunction with international meetings on Ukraine. He said he had discussed the legislation on tougher sanctions against Russia and those who support it in the war. The bill calls for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
United Kingdom
(July 11, 2025) 9:30 a.m. UTC+3 The United Kingdom has signed a long-term agreement to supply Ukraine with more than 5,000 short-range Lightweight Multirole Missiles, a 70mm surface-to-air missile system produced by the defense company Thales which will deliver launchers, command centers, and missile systems to Ukraine over a 19-year period. The total value of the deal is £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion). In addition, the UK has pledged up to £283 million ($360 million) in bilateral aid to Ukraine through 2026. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - headquarters in Tbilisi, Georgia since 2022)
Vatican
07/12/2025, 13.47 The pontiff received the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) gathered for its General Assembly at Castel Gandolfo. In a specific message to PIME, Leo XIV calls PIME missionaries to be "a light in the darkness of evil’. „In the times we are living in, marked by numerous conflicts and many forms of material and spiritual poverty, your charism offers itself as a light in the darkness of evil that obscures the beauty of eternal truth, to which every man and woman must aspire. Therefore, in the name of Christ, be instruments of peace in contexts troubled by suffering; continue to evangelise through fraternal dialogue with other religions, promoting a culture of solidarity and welcome. Take especially to heart the “little ones” and the marginalised; may your witness be rooted above all in active charity, in the search for justice and in the defence of the dignity of every person." (Source: AsiaNews - an official press agency of the PIME)
North America
United States
July 12, 2025 1:19 PM GMT+2 The Pentagon is urging Japan and Australia to clarify what role they would play if the U.S. and China went to war over Taiwan, the Financial Times reported today. Colby, the U.S. under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pushing the matter during recent talks with defense officials of both countries, the report said. Colby is known for arguing that the U.S. military should prioritize competition with China and shift its focus from the Middle East and Europe. As the U.S. itself does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan, the reported request caught both Tokyo and Canberra off guard. The U.S is Taiwan's most important arms supplier, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties. Taiwan rejects China's assertion of sovereignty. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
(12 July 2025) As part of the federal government's massive reorganisation effort, 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service employees of the US State Department have been laid off as part of the Trump administration's efforts to reduce its federal workforce, by involuntary staff reductions, according to a notice sent to State Department employees yesterday. More than 1,500 other State Department employees took voluntary departures earlier this year. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
Jul 12, 2025 Today US President Trump announced a 30% tariff on goods imported from Mexico and European Union from August 1. The announcement was made via letters posted on his social media platform. The president has framed the measures as part of an effort to protect American industries and generate domestic revenue. According to Treasury data released Friday, customs duties collected by the federal government surpassed USD 100 billion in the fiscal year through June - a significant surge driven by the newly imposed tariffs. The EU had initially sought a zero-tariff trade agreement on industrial goods with the United States. Germany has pushed for an expedited agreement to protect its industrial sector. Countries like France have resisted what they see as a one-sided US proposal. Facing internal division, the 27-member bloc may now have to settle for an interim deal while hoping for more favorable terms in the future. (Source: India Today)
Jul 11, 2025 6:25am PT Podcast host and comedian Schulz is somewhat turning on Trump after voting for him over Harris in the 2024 presidential election. During a recent podcast episode (via The Daily Beast), Schulz admitted he’s been sort of duped by Trump. As the comedian put it: “Everything he campaigned on I believe he wanted to do, and now he’s doing the exact opposite thing of every single fucking thing.' “There’ll be people that they’ll DM me like, ‘You see what your boy’s doing? You voted for this.’ I’m like, ‘I voted for none of this,’” Schulz said. 'He’s doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for. I want him to stop the wars - he’s funding them. I want him to shrink spending, reduce the budget - he’s increasing it. It’s like everything that he said he’s going to do - except sending immigrants back, and now he’s even flip-flopped on that, which I kind of like.' (Source: Variety - U.S.)
11:48 PM CEST, July 11, 2025 An Iranian attack on Al Udeid air base outside of Doha, Qatar’s capital, on June 23 hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications, satellite images analyzed show. The rest of the base appears largely untouched in the images. Pentagon spokesperson Parnell acknowledged that an Iranian ballistic missile had hit the dome. Trump described the Iranian attack as a very weak response. He had said that Tehran fired 14 missiles, with 13 intercepted and one being set free as it was going in a nonthreatening direction. (Source: AP - U.S.)
July 10, 2025 9:29 PM GMT+2 Trump use presidential authority to send weapons to Ukraine. The U.S. has $3.86 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority for Ukraine remaining. The last drawdown was a $500 million award by Biden on January 9. Congress has approved nearly $175 billion of aid and military assistance 'for Ukraine and allied nations' in the nearly 3-1/2 years since Russia's full-scale invasion. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
NATO
July 11, 2025 2:01 PM GMT+2 Russia's effective use of long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine 'has convinced Western military officials of their importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and missile launchers' far behind enemy lines. Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences, U.S. Army Major General Rafferty said at a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal ’to deter Russia from attacking Europe’. Rafferty recently completed an assignment as commander of the U.S. Army's 56th Artillery Command in the German town of Mainz-Kastel, 'which is preparing for temporary deployments of long-range U.S. missiles on European soil' from 2026. Such deployments were agreed between Berlin and Washington when Biden was president. The agreement foresaw the deployment of systems including Tomahawk missiles with a range of 1,800 km and the developmental hypersonic weapon Dark Eagle with a range of around 3,000 km. Russia has criticised the planned deployment of longer-range U.S. missiles in Germany as a serious threat to its national security and cited concerns about NATO expansion as one of its reasons for invading Ukraine in 2022. Some European countries have their own long-range missiles but their number and range are limited. Europe's air-launched cruise missiles, such as the British Storm Shadow, the French Scalp and the German Taurus, have a range of several hundred km. France's sea-launched Missile de Croisiere Naval (MdCN) can travel more than 1,000 km. They are all built by European arms maker MBDA, which has branches in Britain, France, Germany and Italy. France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Sweden are now participating in a programme to acquire long-range, ground-launched conventional missiles known as the 'European' Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA). As part of the program, Britain and Germany announced in mid-May that they would start work on the development of a missile with a range of over 2,000 km. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
International Organization for Migration
July 11, 2025 1:53 PM GMT+2 International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Pope was speaking a day after a Ukraine recovery conference in Rome mobilised over 10 billion euros ($11.69 billion) for the country. 'It's three-and-a-half years into the conflict. I think it's fair to say that everybody is tired, and we hear that even from Ukrainians who've been experiencing the ongoing attacks in their cities and often have been displaced multiple times," she told. "The response to it, though, has to be peace, because ultimately, without peace, there won't be an end, not only to the funding request, but also to the support for the Ukrainian people." Russia's invasion has triggered Europe's biggest refugee crisis this century, with 5.6 million Ukrainian refugees globally and 3.8 million uprooted in their country, according to U.N. data. The IOM and other U.N. agencies are hampered by major funding shortages as U.S. President Trump slashes foreign aid and European donors like Britain shift funds from development to defence. U.S. decisions will give the IOM a $1 billion shortfall this year, Pope said. Pope, 51, is a former adviser to the Obama and Biden administrations. She is now working with Trump's White House on so-called self-deportations. She praised Italy's decision to increase migrant work permits to nearly 500,000 for 2026-2028, coming from a right-wing government otherwise pursuing tough border policies. 'What Italy is doing is taking a realistic look at what labour they need, what skills they need, what talent they need. And then they're designing a system to allow people to come in through a safe and legal channel," Pope said. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
($1 = 0.8557 euros)
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