Dabartinis Rusijos diktatoriaus Vladimiro Putino režimas gali neišgyventi, jei laikinai okupuotas Krymas bus izoliuotas ugnies kontrole ir praras logistinį aprūpinimą. Tokią nuomonę straipsnyje leidiniui „The Hill“ išsakė JAV nacionalinio saugumo ir karinės žvalgybos ekspertai Markas Tothas ir atsargos pulkininkas Jonathanas Sweetas.

Kauno arkivyskupijos kurija praneša apie naujus skyrimus kunigams. Arkivyskupo Kęstučio Kėvalo pasirašyti skyrimų dekretai buvo įteikti birželio 24-ąją Kauno arkikatedroje bazilikoje.

Temperatures in Germany could hit 40C in some areas while French officials say deaths linked to the heat are being seen among young people.

More than 50 women are calling for the abolition of the statute of limitations which they say has prevented them seeking justice.

The airline had typically charged adults a fee of £8 each way to sit with their young children.

Signs that traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz shipping route is gradually resuming has helped to push the oil price down.

ANTIBES, France — Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday accused NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte of giving a muddled account when he described her country as offering “massive” support to U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran. Responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s frustrations over whether NATO’s European members are pulling their weight, Rutte told Fox News on Wednesday that Rome played a key role in the Iran war by allowing 500 U.S. military aircraft to use Italian air bases. The interview triggered an immediate political storm for Meloni, with her opponents accusing her of having misled the public when she insisted Italy was staying out of the war and that Rome was allowing only logistical and technical operations at the U.S. bases in Italy. Meloni pushed back on Thursday, saying Rutte was incorrectly implying that flights from Italy were used in direct attacks on Iran in his eagerness to convince Washington that NATO was playing a significant role. “In his — let’s call it enthusiastic — account, the secretary-general has lumped together things that are actually quite different from one another, confusing the types of authorized flights,” Meloni told reporters during a Franco-Italian summit in southern France. “We did not participate in the conflict with Iran. By the way, if we had participated in the Iran conflict, there would be no explanation for this disappointment that the U.S. president keeps reiterating very often,” Meloni added. The Italian prime minister has clashed with Trump over recent days, with the American president pointedly slamming her for refusing access to Italian bases for U.S. bombers. She reiterated that Italy only allowed bases to be used for logistical and technical operations. Meloni said she had no clue why Rutte gave this “oversimplified account.” “Probably it was an attempt to prepare in the best way the next NATO summit, but, in any case, I think one needs to be cautious when talking about these matters.” NATO spokesperson Allison Hart confirmed Rutte’s comments were in fact about “logistics or technical support” and that he had “highlighted how allies, including Italy, carried out their existing bilateral agreements in the context of basing and overflights.” On Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani discussed the matter with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Meloni said the Iranian authorities “understood that there has been a misunderstanding.” Victor Jack contributed to this report from Brussels.

Just over a year after Romania’s moderate President Nicușor Dan won power in a tense showdown with the far right, he is facing his most serious test yet — trying to broker a deal between rival parties to form a stable government.  Romania’s last coalition fell apart in April, and Dan’s first two nominations for prime minister failed to secure enough party support to lead a new administration. He now has one more chance to nominate a new prime minister and get the candidate approved in a parliamentary vote before the option of a snap election comes into play.  Dan will be reluctant to trigger a new general election, as his arch rivals on the far right — the Alliance for the Union of Romanians party — have a strong lead in the polls.  But there’s a risk in refusing to call an election, with the president’s opponents in AUR and other parties already threatening to try to impeach him — an option some believe will gain broader support the longer the crisis drags on.  Meanwhile, for the country of 19 million on the EU’s eastern border, time is running out. Bucharest is under pressure to reduce its high budget deficit and meet key targets for economic reforms by the end of August to secure around €11 billion in EU funding.  Credit rating agencies are also watching, amid fears that the political uncertainty could trigger a deeply damaging downgrade to the country’s status.  Adding to the pressure is parliament’s scheduled summer recess. If there’s no deal by the end of June, analysts say, the current caretaker government of outgoing Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan will likely continue governing until the fall.  “We are now at the beginning of a constitutional crisis,” said Cristian Pîrvulescu of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. Under the constitution, some ministers currently in post “do not have the right to be ministers” because the interim government’s term is not supposed to last beyond 45 days, a deadline that has already expired.  Talks among Romania’s political parties to agree on a minority government continued on Thursday but ended after two hours, local media reported, without a deal being announced.  Dan is due to meet party leaders again on Friday, but won’t propose a new prime minister unless they’ve agreed a deal to form a minority government.  Radu Magdin, a political analyst, said he believed a snap election is not a “credible” scenario because Romania has never held one since the fall of Communism in 1989.  “We are speed-dating in terms of presidential consultations with the parties,” Magdin said. The choice, he explained, was between two options — either a minority government formed by the social-democrat PSD, whose members this week proposed their leader, Sorin Grindeanu, for prime minister; or a minority government made up of the outgoing prime minister’s Liberals, along with other center-right and liberal parties.  A third option is also now being discussed, which would involve a “rotation” between a single-party PSD minority government and the proposed center-right-liberal minority coalition until the next election, due in 2028. The PSD had pulled out of Bolojan’s coalition in April and teamed up with the far-right AUR — which is led by Dan’s former rival for the presidency, George Simion — to back a no-confidence motion. The party didn’t like Bolojan’s severe deficit-reduction policies, which impacted the areas it represents. 

Demonstrators mark the second anniversary of a 2024 protest where 60 people were killed by security forces.

Bedouins protest Israel’s home demolition policy in the Negev desert

Likely next PM sees move as best way to grant local communities greater power over their economies, workforces and infrastructure

‘London is cooking’, says UN secretary-general, as temperatures reach a new record for June

François Picard is pleased to welcome Eric Klinenberg, Professor of Sociology at NYU and Author of "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago". He challenges one of the dominant assumptions surrounding extreme heat: that technological adaptation alone can protect societies from climate change. Drawing on his landmark study of Chicago's deadly 1995 heatwave, he argues that mortality during extreme heat is shaped as much by the strength of social ties as by meteorological conditions.

The deadly heatwave sweeping France has once again exposed the structural problems of the country’s chronically overcrowded prisons, with groups of three or four detainees crammed into airless cells built to hold a lone prisoner. Analysts and prison staff alike have criticised a penal system that continues to see mass incarceration as the main means of cracking down on crime.

At a correctional facility in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, visitors are greeted by something unexpected: an art gallery.
The exhibition of inmates' artwork is part of the country’s effort to reduce repeat offending through rehabilitation programs behind bars.

More than 300 people were arrested during protests in Nairobi on Thursday, police say, as Kenya marked two years since a landmark Gen Z uprising.