About 20,000 demonstrators gathered in Erfurt on Saturday to protest a major convention of the German far-right party AfD. They attempted to block roads and prevent delegates from attending the convention.
China has announced that it will hold joint naval exercises with Russia in July off the coast of Qingdao, in Shandong Province in eastern China. These exercises will be followed by joint patrols in an unspecified area of the Pacific Ocean.
For some time now, Russia has been conducting a large-scale campaign to recruit university and college students for its drone units. The role is presented as a short-term, well-paid, and relatively safe high-tech alternative to combat operations on the front lines.
Donald Trump kicked off the U.S. Independence Day celebrations with a fiery speech at Mount Rushmore. Standing beneath the carved faces of four former presidents, he warned of what he described as a resurgence of the “communist threat” in the United States.
Monaco is still reeling from Monday evening’s explosion on Rue Révérend-Père-Louis-Frolla, near the French border. Three people were injured in the blast, including Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev and his partner. According to authorities, both are in critical condition.
The United States is warning Poland that Russia may be preparing an armed provocation on Polish territory to test NATO’s resolve. According to sources close to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, cited by the Polish news site Onet and reported by The Telegraph, this could involve a missile or drone attack on critical infrastructure, or a limited border incursion by Russian or Belarusian military personnel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly opting for a brutal air war against Kyiv, targeting residential buildings, emergency services, and other civilian targets. The heaviest attack since the 2022 invasion demonstrates both military pressure and an attempt to increase fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty in the Ukrainian capital.
President Donald Trump returns to Mount Rushmore on Friday to celebrate the U.S. national holiday, with events including a flyover, speeches, and fireworks. He returns to the site amid a political climate that is vastly different from that of his controversial visit there in 2020 (see photo).
Pope Leo XIV has excommunicated the ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius X after the group consecrated four new bishops in Switzerland without papal permission. According to the Vatican’s ruling, the bishops in question have been excommunicated, as have the movement’s priests and the laypeople who formally affiliate with it.
China has publicly demonstrated a mobile electromagnetic catapult that launches a drone for the first time. Footage on Chinese social media shows how a system of three linked trucks propels an unmanned aircraft into the air using electromagnetic acceleration.