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US Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Codify Sanctions on Iran’s Missile Program

US President Joe Biden (C), alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (C-L) and Biden's wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (C-R), hosts members of Congress for a Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 19 July 2023. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO
US President Joe Biden (C), alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (C-L) and Biden's wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (C-R), hosts members of Congress for a Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 19 July 2023. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO
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US Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Codify Sanctions on Iran’s Missile Program

US President Joe Biden (C), alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (C-L) and Biden's wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (C-R), hosts members of Congress for a Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 19 July 2023. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO
US President Joe Biden (C), alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (C-L) and Biden's wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (C-R), hosts members of Congress for a Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 19 July 2023. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

US Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Bill Hagerty have introduced the MISSILES Act, a bipartisan bill to impose US sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone program.

This move came as Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in his address to Congress that Iran “spreads hatred, danger, and terror in the Middle East and publicly calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.”

The looming October 2023 sunset of key UN Security Council restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones – including potential transfers to Russia for use against Ukraine – “underscores the need for this urgent legislation,” Menendez and Hagerty said Wednesday.

This bill codifies sanctions on Iran’s missile and drone program under Annex B of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. It ensures that Iran’s destabilizing development and proliferation of ballistic missile technology remains subject to appropriate US sanctions in the likely event that Russia and China block an extension of UN restrictions in the Security Council.

“Iran will not stop developing its missile and drone programs, nor will they stop providing this dangerous technology to its proxies and to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine,” said Menendez.

“It is absolutely vital that our sanctions policy reflect that reality in the event UN restrictions come to an end in October. The United States must continue to disrupt Iran’s proliferation of missiles and UAVs, as well as its supply to proxies and to Russia.”

Menendez called on US allies and partners “to join us in addressing the threats posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program.”

As for Hagerty, he said: “Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime continues to violate with impunity the UN Security Council’s international prohibitions on the export of missiles, drones, and other destabilizing weapons to foreign actors.”

“This bipartisan legislation imposes far-reaching sanctions against any foreign individual, entity, or government that is engaged in activities related to Iran’s missiles, drones, and other destabilizing weapons—even if the UN Security Council’s international prohibitions are irresponsibly allowed to sunset in October 2023,” he added.

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World

At Least 1 Million Women Have Lost Access to Aid after Funding Cuts, UN Says

FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
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At Least 1 Million Women Have Lost Access to Aid after Funding Cuts, UN Says

FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)

At least 1 million women have lost access to humanitarian and other critical support as a result of budget cuts over the last 18 months, the UN agency focusing on women said Friday.

UN Women says 84% of women's organizations surveyed had reported increased needs since January 2025, when the Trump administration in the United States — the biggest UN donor — took office and began cutbacks in foreign aid.

"Every dollar withdrawn from women’s organizations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school and communities struggling to survive,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s chief of humanitarian action.

Nearly 90% of the women's groups surveyed said they can't meet current levels of need anymore, and one in five said they expect to shut down temporarily or permanently within the next year.

“UN Women has spoken to 855 women’s organizations working in 52 countries, who have told us that these women and girls have been turned away due to funding cuts that are dismantling their organizations," Calltorp told reporters in Geneva.

"We know that this number, at least 1 million women and girls, is just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.

Conflict-related sexual violence had doubled last year, UN Women said. It noted a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 38 mostly developed countries, that found that development assistance fell by nearly a quarter last year to $174 billion — the largest yearly contraction on record.

“Without immediate action, the organizations that have kept women and girls alive through the world’s worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war,” Calltorp said.

Many UN organizations have cut thousands of jobs and reduced aid programs around the world over the last 18 months in the wake of funding cuts by the United States and other top donors.

The world body, as part of a reform process known as UN80, has been considering the prospect of merging UN Women with UNFPA, the sexual and reproductive health agency.

World

Greek Anti-terror Police Arrest 3 After Blast Kills Woman

FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past damaged cars and a building after attackers firebombed three residential buildings linked to Greece's governing party in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past damaged cars and a building after attackers firebombed three residential buildings linked to Greece's governing party in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
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Greek Anti-terror Police Arrest 3 After Blast Kills Woman

FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past damaged cars and a building after attackers firebombed three residential buildings linked to Greece's governing party in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past damaged cars and a building after attackers firebombed three residential buildings linked to Greece's governing party in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis/File Photo

Police in Greece on Friday said they had arrested three people in connection to attacks this month that targeted ruling party politicians, killing a woman in a car explosion.

Hours later, two more people were held over a 2010 deadly firebomb attack that left three dead.

In the recent case, "three individuals have been arrested" by anti-terror police in Thessaloniki and the island of Crete, the police said in a statement.

The July 1 attacks at dawn in the northern city of Thessaloniki targeted the homes and vehicles of three politicians from Greece's ruling New Democracy party with homemade gas canister explosives.

The mother of former party candidate Afroditi Nestora died from injuries caused by an explosion, apparently while trying to put out the fire.

The attack also injured Nestora, her father and two other people.

Four vehicles in the garage of Nestora's home were burnt, police said.

Greek media identified the other two targets as the party's local executive committee chairman Zisis Ioakimovic and former MP Savvas Anastasiades.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the New Democracy leader, expressed "outrage and anger" at what he termed a "cowardly, terrorist and murderous attack".

Leftist and anarchist groups often use improvised explosives to target political figures, banks and companies in Greece -- causing damage but rarely any casualties.

The improvised explosives were made from small butane canisters, police said, and the attacks appear to have been carried out by the same people.

Greek media on Friday identified the detainees as young anti-establishment figures known to police.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis has said that the attacks took place within 15 minutes.

Also Friday, police in Athens said they had arrested two people and were seeking a third over the 2010 bank attack.

On May 5, 2010 an anti-austerity protest saw a firebomb lobbed at the Marfin bank in central Athens, leading to the death of three bank workers, including a pregnant woman.

Three bank officials received manslaughter sentences for negligence but the culprits were never caught.

The attack came just three days after the socialist government of George Papandreou signed the first of three eventual bailouts with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF that would total 350 billion euros.

World

Türkiye Not Joining Canada's Global Defense Bank Initiative at This Stage, Source Says

A Turkish flag is pictured on a boat in Istanbul, Türkiye, June 25, 2018. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag is pictured on a boat in Istanbul, Türkiye, June 25, 2018. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Not Joining Canada's Global Defense Bank Initiative at This Stage, Source Says

A Turkish flag is pictured on a boat in Istanbul, Türkiye, June 25, 2018. (Reuters)
A Turkish flag is pictured on a boat in Istanbul, Türkiye, June 25, 2018. (Reuters)

Türkiye has decided not to join a new global defense bank initiative launched by Canada ‌at this stage, ‌a Turkish ‌source ⁠said on Friday, ⁠days after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the ⁠move at the ‌NATO ‌summit in Ankara.

The ‌source said ‌that after consultations between Türkiye's defense industry authority ‌and the defense, foreign, and ⁠finance ministries, ⁠ Türkiye has "decided not to commit to joining at this stage", Reuters reported.