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Ukraine Dismisses Reports on Bolstering Troops Near Belarus

A serviceman of 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces loads a shell inside a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer during fire towards Russian troops on a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 30, 2024. Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS
A serviceman of 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces loads a shell inside a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer during fire towards Russian troops on a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 30, 2024. Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS
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Ukraine Dismisses Reports on Bolstering Troops Near Belarus

A serviceman of 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces loads a shell inside a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer during fire towards Russian troops on a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 30, 2024. Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS
A serviceman of 24th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces loads a shell inside a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer during fire towards Russian troops on a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 30, 2024. Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Ukraine's border guards dismissed claims from Belarus that it was reinforcing troops on their mutual border, describing the reports as an information operation from Minsk with Moscow's support.
Belarus, a close Russian ally that has provided support for Moscow's 28-month full-scale war in Ukraine, said last week that Kyiv was bolstering its forces along the frontier. According to Reuters, the Kremlin said on Monday the report was a cause of concern.
"It is not the first time Belarus offers information about Ukraine presenting a threat and strengthening itself," border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko told Ukrainian TV. "This is another part of the information operation conducted by Belarus with support by Russia."
He said the border remained a concern, and Ukraine was strengthening it with engineering while maintaining the necessary number of troops to prevent any provocations.
He also said that Belarus had been conducting military exercises since June 21, and that blaming Ukraine for friction at the border could be aligned with those drills.
On Sunday, the Belarus Defense Ministry claimed it had information showing Ukraine had been moving troops, weapons, and military equipment to the border, in particular in Zhytomyr region.
Minsk also said its own forces had deployed additional air defenses to protect the border area from drones, after claiming to have shot down a Ukrainian quadcopter earlier last week.

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World

Judge Deals Blow to Trump Moves to Deport Pro-Palestinian Activists

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil attends a pro-Palestinian protest outside Columbia University, on the two-year anniversary of the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, in Manhattan in New York City, US, October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ryan Murphy
Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil attends a pro-Palestinian protest outside Columbia University, on the two-year anniversary of the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, in Manhattan in New York City, US, October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ryan Murphy
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Judge Deals Blow to Trump Moves to Deport Pro-Palestinian Activists

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil attends a pro-Palestinian protest outside Columbia University, on the two-year anniversary of the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, in Manhattan in New York City, US, October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ryan Murphy
Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil attends a pro-Palestinian protest outside Columbia University, on the two-year anniversary of the deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, in Manhattan in New York City, US, October 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ryan Murphy

A federal judge on Friday ruled that laws that President Donald Trump's administration used to cancel visas and initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizen college students based on their pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel are unconstitutional.

US District Judge Noel Wise in San Jose, California in a blistering ruling chastised the US State Department and US Department of Homeland Security for how they had deployed provisions of federal immigration law to target non-citizens for deportation for expressing views they wanted to suppress.

The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, said that in the United States, free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, ‌was evidence of the ‌strength of the country's democracy.

"That strength is diminished when members ‌of ⁠our society – citizens and ⁠noncitizens alike – must self-censor and 'behave' or suffer the government’s retaliation," she said.

The State Department and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wise's ruling focused on how the Trump administration, from March 2025, began revoking visas and detaining non-citizens who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus, starting with the arrest of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who is fighting separately to avoid being deported.

Those arrests formed the basis of a lawsuit that was filed in August 2025 by Stanford University’s student newspaper, ⁠The Stanford Daily, which alleged that some of its writers with student ‌visas had refrained from covering pro-Palestinian student protests and topics ‌related to the Middle East conflict as a result of the administration's policies.

The newspaper's lawyers argued that ‌two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that the administration relied upon to cancel student ‌visas and initiate deportation proceedings violated the US Constitution's First and Fifth Amendments as applied to constitutionally protected speech.

Those laws allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to render noncitizens deportable if he personally determined someone's action “compromises a compelling foreign policy interest" and allowed him to revoke someone's visa at his discretion.

Wise agreed with ‌the newspaper, saying that when a noncitizen's speech is the reason behind a visa revocation and deportation determination, "the government is singling out that speech ⁠for disfavored treatment ⁠based on its viewpoint or content."

Conor Fitzpatrick, whose group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression represented the student newspaper, in a statement said the ruling "proves that free speech isn’t a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child."

The ruling was similar to a decision last year by Boston-based US District Judge William Young, who similarly found the administration had acted unconstitutionally by adopting a policy of revoking visas, arresting, detaining and deporting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Wise in her ruling expressed concern the administration had moved on to target people for expressing other types of views it disfavored, saying eventually the "targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like."

"This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely," she wrote. "Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it."

World

War Weighs on Iran's Economy as US Intensifies Sanctions

An Iranian man walks past a poster of Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a street in Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian man walks past a poster of Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a street in Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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War Weighs on Iran's Economy as US Intensifies Sanctions

An Iranian man walks past a poster of Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a street in Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian man walks past a poster of Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei in a street in Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2026. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Iranian leaders are acknowledging the economic toll of war with the United States, with the supreme leader calling on the government to address the hardship while the president reported foreign trade has shrunk 35% due to the American sanctions and blockade.

The warnings came even as other leaders threaten the US with military retaliation and declarations that the Iranian navy maintains control of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway giving Iran leverage through its ability to disrupt global energy markets, said Reuters.

With the war now at the six-month mark, and negotiations at an impasse, President Donald Trump's administration has stepped up efforts to punish Iran financially with what it has billed as an "economic D-Day."

Washington has warned countries to cut their business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions, ‌though the Treasury ‌Department stopped short of imposing penalties against major Iranian trade partners such as China ‌and ⁠India, which could ⁠have repercussions for the US and global economies.

US Treasury officials separately issued sanctions targeting one entity based in Hong Kong and one person linked to Iran's Bank Melli, according to a notice ⁠posted on the department's website.

The sanctions drive compounds the toll of the war ‌on Iran's economy, where annual inflation hit 66% last month.

Supreme Leader ‌Mojtaba Khamenei, who was injured and has not been seen publicly since the February 28 attack that killed his father, ‌former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, called on the government to tackle the economic hardship.

"There is the need ‌to seriously address the chain of economic and livelihood challenges, such as inflation, unemployment, management of prices and the market for goods and services," said a written statement attributed to Khamenei.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media that Iranian exports and imports slumped nearly 35% because of US sanctions and a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

But he said Iran was able to ‌sell about 90 million barrels of oil during the short-lived memorandum of understanding that the US and Iran signed in June, when Washington permitted Iranian oil sales.

With ⁠the US focused on its ⁠economic pressure campaign, others have sought to revive diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday. He said he had stressed during the meeting the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday described the talks with Al Thani as "creative." Qatar and Pakistan helped broker the June memorandum of understanding that led to a brief ceasefire before disagreements over the strait caused it to unravel.

US military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Trump has repeatedly said the strait is open, but the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' navy said in a statement that such claims "are an obvious lie," reiterating that the waterway remained closed to ships without Iranian permission.

Preliminary shipping data released on Friday showed that only seven commodity vessels had transited the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, down from 17 a day earlier and below the 10-day average of 15.

World

Netanyahu Party in Uproar as Far-Right Refuses Pleas to Unite

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir whispers into the ear of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the last Knesset session in Jerusalem before its dissolution, on July 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir whispers into the ear of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the last Knesset session in Jerusalem before its dissolution, on July 16, 2026. (Reuters)
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Netanyahu Party in Uproar as Far-Right Refuses Pleas to Unite

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir whispers into the ear of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the last Knesset session in Jerusalem before its dissolution, on July 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir whispers into the ear of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the last Knesset session in Jerusalem before its dissolution, on July 16, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party on Friday upbraided a far-right cabinet member for refusing to run on a joint slate with another ultranationalist, warning a split vote risked tanking their coalition in upcoming elections.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who recently drew international condemnation for saying Israel should kill "30 to 40" Palestinians nightly in Gaza, has rejected Netanyahu's pleas to join forces with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

"What does Ben-Gvir want? A broad national government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu... or because of personal considerations, to burn right-wing votes in order to put a left-wing government in power?" the Likud's official account wrote on X.

Netanyahu's calls for unity among his hard-right allies ahead of the October 27 vote come amid a surge in the polls for a new far-right party outside his coalition, founded by former general Ofer Winter.

Analysts say Winter's rising star could siphon votes from Smotrich's base, potentially preventing his Religious Zionism party from clearing the electoral threshold of 3.25 percent unless it joins a list with another party.

Winter, himself from the religious right, has been a vocal critic of the governing coalition, which relies on ultra-Orthodox parties, for allowing men of that community to avoid military service.

In a video posted on X on Thursday night, Netanyahu said Smotrich and Ben-Gvir "must unite. Every time we ran united, we won. When we ran separately, we lost."

"In 1992, the Right had more votes than the Left, like today, but because we were running separately, we got the disaster of Oslo, Arafat, Hamas and recurring catastrophes," he said, referring to the peace process launched with the 1993 Oslo Accords between slain center-left Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Smotrich appeared receptive to the proposal. "It's time for unity and responsibility in the national camp," he wrote on X Thursday evening.

On Friday morning, Netanyahu invited Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to a meeting on Sunday. "We must not waste a single vote; we must unite to save the right-wing bloc!" he wrote on X.

But Ben-Gvir accused Netanyahu of seeking to weaken his right-wing populist Jewish Power party, which consistently polls at around seven to eight parliamentary seats -- comfortably above the threshold.

"According to all polls, a joint run between me and Smotrich would set Jewish Power back by three to four parliament seats," Ben-Gvir wrote on X.

Both ultranationalist parties, once shunned by mainstream politicians, have been keen to maintain independence, allowing them to be kingmakers and to promote uncompromising positions rather than follow the lead of the historically secular Likud.

Ben-Gvir suggested Netanyahu instead push for a joint slate between Winter and Smotrich.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have run together twice before. Their joint list won six seats in 2021, then doubled its tally to 14 in the 2022 election that produced the current parliament, before splitting into Smotrich's Religious Zionism and Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power, with seven seats each.