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France’s Macron Doesn’t Rule out Sending Western Troops to Ukraine in Future 

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the end of the international conference aimed at strengthening Western support for Ukraine, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, on February 26, 2024. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the end of the international conference aimed at strengthening Western support for Ukraine, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, on February 26, 2024. (AFP)
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France’s Macron Doesn’t Rule out Sending Western Troops to Ukraine in Future 

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the end of the international conference aimed at strengthening Western support for Ukraine, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, on February 26, 2024. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the end of the international conference aimed at strengthening Western support for Ukraine, at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris, on February 26, 2024. (AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not "ruled out" in the future after the issue was debated at a gathering of European leaders in Paris, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into a third year.

The French leader said that "we will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war" after the meeting of over 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials.

"There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out," Macron said in a news conference at the Elysee presidential palace.

Macron declined to provide details about which nations were considering sending troops, saying he prefers to maintain some "strategic ambiguity."

The meeting included German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Poland's President Andrzej Duda as well as leaders from the Baltic nations. The United States was represented by its top diplomat for Europe, James O’Brien, and the UK by Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

Duda said the most heated discussion was about whether to send troops to Ukraine and "there was no agreement on the matter. Opinions differ here, but there are no such decisions."

Poland's president said he hopes that "in the nearest future, we will jointly be able to prepare substantial shipments of ammunition to Ukraine. This is most important now. This is something that Ukraine really needs."

Macron earlier called on European leaders to ensure the continent's "collective security" by providing unwavering support to Ukraine in the face of tougher Russian offensives on the battlefield in recent months.

"In recent months particularly, we have seen Russia getting tougher," Macron said.

Macron cited the need to solidify security to head off any Russian attacks on additional countries in the future. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia as well as much larger Poland have been considered among possible targets of future Russian expansionism. All four countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine.

Estonia’s foreign minister said earlier this month that NATO has about three or four years to strengthen its defenses.

In video speech, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the leaders gathered in Paris to "ensure that Putin cannot destroy our achievements and cannot expand his aggression to other nations."

Several European countries, including France, expressed their support for an initiative launched by the Czech Republic to buy ammunition and shells outside the EU, participants to the meeting said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country decided to provide over 100 million euros for that purpose.

In addition, a new coalition is to be launched to further "mobilize" nations with capabilities to deliver medium and long-range missiles, Macron said, as France announced last month the delivery of 40 additional long-range Scalp cruise missiles.

European nations are worried that the US will dial back support as aid for Kyiv is teetering in Congress. They also have concerns that former US President Donald Trump might return to the White House and change the course of US policy on the continent.

The Paris conference comes after France, Germany and the UK recently signed 10-year bilateral agreements with Ukraine to send a strong signal of long-term backing as Kyiv works to shore up Western support.

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World

Report: Rate of People Dying in ICE Custody Highest in Over Decade

Federal agents detain an individual after exiting immigration court at the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in New York City on July 23, 2025 (AFP)
Federal agents detain an individual after exiting immigration court at the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in New York City on July 23, 2025 (AFP)
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Report: Rate of People Dying in ICE Custody Highest in Over Decade

Federal agents detain an individual after exiting immigration court at the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in New York City on July 23, 2025 (AFP)
Federal agents detain an individual after exiting immigration court at the Jacob K Javits Federal Building in New York City on July 23, 2025 (AFP)

The rate of people dying in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody has reached its highest level in over a decade, two rights groups said on Thursday.

According to a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, at least 52 deaths have been reported in ICE holding facilities since US President Donald Trump's second term began in January 2025.

Trump has made combating illegal immigration a top priority of his second term.

“We have seen the death rate in ICE custody skyrocket,” Reagan Williams, a HRW researcher who co-authored the report, told AFP.

“Instead of taking action to address this crisis and protect the lives and health of those in custody, we’ve seen the administration pour its resources into subjecting more and more people to prolonged detention,” she said.

From January 2025 to January 2026, the annual mortality rate in ICE custody was up 140% compared with a year earlier – an increase disproportionate to the higher detainee population, the report said.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied the reported spike in deaths.

“Consistent with data over the last decade, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population,” he said.

But June 25’s report found that, as immigration detention centers have grown, medical care has been lagging, partly due to crowding and people spending longer in custody.

“As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained a higher standard of care than most prisons that hold US citizens – including providing access to proper medical care,” the spokesperson said. "For many illegal aliens, this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives,” he added.

World

Japan Cancels 120 Flights as Twin Storms Approach

This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on June 26, 2026, shows firefighters using an inflatable rescue boat to evacuate residents through floodwaters after heavy overnight rain caused severe flooding from approaching typhoon Mekkhala in Tainan, Taiwan. (Photo by YANG SIH-RUEI / CNA / AFP)
This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on June 26, 2026, shows firefighters using an inflatable rescue boat to evacuate residents through floodwaters after heavy overnight rain caused severe flooding from approaching typhoon Mekkhala in Tainan, Taiwan. (Photo by YANG SIH-RUEI / CNA / AFP)
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Japan Cancels 120 Flights as Twin Storms Approach

This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on June 26, 2026, shows firefighters using an inflatable rescue boat to evacuate residents through floodwaters after heavy overnight rain caused severe flooding from approaching typhoon Mekkhala in Tainan, Taiwan. (Photo by YANG SIH-RUEI / CNA / AFP)
This picture taken and released by Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on June 26, 2026, shows firefighters using an inflatable rescue boat to evacuate residents through floodwaters after heavy overnight rain caused severe flooding from approaching typhoon Mekkhala in Tainan, Taiwan. (Photo by YANG SIH-RUEI / CNA / AFP)

Japanese airlines cancelled more than 100 flights on Friday as two tropical storms barreled towards the archipelago, with authorities advising evacuations in some areas because of possible flooding and landslides.

Severe tropical storm Mekkhala was downgraded from a typhoon but still carried gusts of up to 144 kilometers (89 miles) per hour, according to forecasters, with heavy rain already pounding parts of southern and western Japan.

The weather system was expected to skirt the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku over the weekend and potentially converge with tropical storm Higos, which was also swirling further out in the Pacific.

That could result in the atmospheric phenomenon known as the Fujiwhara effect when two storms interact, making forecasting their movements and strengths more difficult.

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways cancelled a total of 120 flights to and from the southern regions of Okinawa and Kagoshima, AFP reported.

The Kyoto region advised several thousand residents to evacuate, warning of potential landslides, as footage from public broadcaster NHK showed a raging brown river running through the area.

Officials in Kyoto and Osaka said water levels in rivers were rising and warned that vigilance was required because of the threat of flooding.

Automaker Toyota suspended operations at a plant in Kyushu because of road closures caused by heavy rain, while Nissan also said it planned to halt some production lines, Kyodo News reported.

The Japanese military also cancelled the planned maiden flight of a V-22 Osprey transport aircraft to Miyako Island that was part of joint exercises with the United States, Kyodo said.

A motorist maneuvers during a downpour of rain in Taipei, Taiwan, 25 June 2026. EPA/RITCHIE B. TONGO

In Taiwan, more than 1,600 people were evacuated from their homes, and schools and offices were shut in several areas, as Mekkhala triggered torrential rain, floods and landslides across the island.

No casualties were recorded, but authorities warned on Friday of potentially dangerous debris flows in mountainous areas of Hualien county in the east as well as in Kaohsiung and Pingtung in the south, where the weather forecasting agency said as much as 88cm (34.6 inches) of rain had fallen since Thursday.

Scores of people living downstream from a recently detected barrier lake in a rugged area of Hualien have left their homes, a local official said. Some train lines were suspended.

World

After Trump’s Outburst, Senate Republicans Reverse Course on Iran

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (EPA)
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (EPA)
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After Trump’s Outburst, Senate Republicans Reverse Course on Iran

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (EPA)
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (EPA)

Washington: Robert Jimison and Michael Gold

The confrontation came over lunch. The cleanup began after dinner.

Hours after US President Donald Trump angrily confronted Senate Republicans for joining Democrats to approve a war powers resolution rebuking his handling of the war in Iran, Republican leaders brought another, nearly identical measure to the floor.

In a 50-to-47 vote, with one senator voting “present,” they defeated the measure in a largely symbolic move that did nothing to change the resolution the Senate had narrowly approved a day earlier. Instead, it served as an unmistakable gesture to mollify a furious president who had just berated them.

Of the Republican senators who voted to adopt a resolution on Tuesday that instructed him to end the war with Iran or seek Congress’s approval to continue, two shifted their votes: Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Cassidy, who hours earlier angrily confronted Trump over a lack of transparency on the status of the war, said that he changed his vote after a meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, at the White House.

“I was going to vote yes, but I had a briefing this evening, and it was complete,” he said moments after voting against the measure, adding: “I am reassured.”

Paul, who voted “present,” said that Trump’s remarks in his lunch meeting with senators had affected his vote, though not his views on the conflict and Congress’s role in declaring war.

“I did listen to the president today, and the president feels like it reduces his leverage to find a deal, and I do think it is important that we have peace negotiations,” Paul said.

Trump celebrated Wednesday’s late-night vote, thanking Republican leaders in a social media post that falsely claimed that the Senate had “changed its vote on Iran.”

Trump said that the new vote “puts Iran on notice.”

Ultimately, the maneuver did not undo Tuesday’s vote, which was the first war powers measure approved by both chambers since the war began and remains adopted. Wednesday’s vote neither rescinded nor superseded it.

Still, Republicans sought to characterize the procedural move as a chance to “re-vote,” even though the initial action cannot simply be erased through a subsequent vote on different legislation.

“That train has left the station,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, whose resolution was called up by Republican leaders.

He noted that because of the rules surrounding the procedural tool used to call up the vote Wednesday’s vote to defeat the so-called “motion to proceed” does not prevent him from forcing another vote on the same resolution at another point, it simply prevents the chamber from taking up a final vote to consider it.

“My bill is in exactly the same position as it was before they did this vote,” he said.

The remarkable sequence underscored the lengths Republican leaders were willing to go to contain the latest clash between Senate Republicans skeptical of the war and Trump, which unfolded during a closed-door lunch earlier in the day.

The vote was the last one senators took before leaving for a planned recess that is set to last until July 13.

It capped off a turbulent day on Capitol Hill that began after Trump abruptly called off the ceremonial signing of a bipartisan housing bill that Republicans had already started championing as a major accomplishment ahead of the midterm elections.

Dismissing that legislation as “minor,” Trump instead urged Republicans to swiftly pass an elections bill that Republicans have acknowledged does not have the votes to advance.

But at his lunch meeting, Trump made clear that he was equally furious about the Senate adopting a resolution on Tuesday that instructed him to end the war with Iran or seek Congress’s approval to continue it. In that vote, four Republican senators joined Democrats, and it succeeded because two other Republican senators were absent.

According to lawmakers who attended Wednesday’s lunch, the president berated Republicans who had voted with Democrats and singled out several senators by name. The meeting then erupted into a shouting match between Trump and Cassidy, who has become an increasingly outspoken critic of the president after losing his primary race to a challenger backed by Trump.

Among Cassidy’s complaints was that senators had yet to receive a comprehensive briefing on the Iran war. Hours later, the senator went to the White House for a briefing on the Iran war with Vance and Witkoff.

In a social media post, Cassidy said that the meeting addressed “many of my concerns” on the Iran war.

Republican leaders were also helped in their effort to defeat the resolution by the presence of Senator Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, who missed Tuesday’s vote because he was traveling with Trump at the time.

Tensions with lawmakers over the war were likely to continue, however, as Trump asked Wednesday to approve $87.6 billion in extra spending this year for the war and several unrelated programs — a request that appeared all but dead on arrival in the Senate.

The New York Times