Global Pulse

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  • Two new California wildfires seen from space

    Two new California wildfires seen from space

    Two massive, entirely uncontained wildfires are tearing across Southern California, with satellite imagery from NASA laying bare the alarming scope of the blazes that have forced tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes. The first, named the Sandy Fire, sparked early Monday morning near Simi Valley, a city located just northwest of Los Angeles, according to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

    Local satellite captures taken shortly after noon on Monday show a thick, towering plume of dark smoke billowing thousands of feet into the atmosphere just south of the city limits. As of Tuesday morning, firefighting operations are in full swing: 750 frontline firefighters are backed by specialized night-flying water-dropping helicopters, which allow crews to target dangerous hotspots even after the sun sets, a critical capability that slows the fire’s spread when ground crews can no longer operate.

    Initial investigation into the cause of the Sandy Fire points to a mechanical accident, local law enforcement confirmed. The Simi Valley Police Department received reports that a person operating a tractor struck a rock, creating a spark that ignited dry vegetation and quickly grew into the raging inferno now sprawling across 1,364 acres (550 hectares) of land. As of Tuesday, no portion of the fire has been brought under containment, and data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) shows active burn hotspots shifted steadily southward overnight into Tuesday.

    The mass evacuation order issued for the region covers more than 10,000 homes across Simi Valley and its adjacent communities, with an additional 3,500 homes placed under mandatory evacuation warning that extends into neighboring Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stressed that city officials do not currently forecast the blaze will reach Los Angeles proper, but warnings were issued as a proactive precaution “out of an abundance of caution.” A spokesperson for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection noted that unseasonably strong high winds on Monday morning fanned the fire’s rapid spread, though wind speeds dropped significantly later in the day, giving crews a small window of opportunity to gain ground.

    In response to the ongoing emergency, the Simi Valley Unified School District canceled all classes across every campus in the district for Tuesday, as multiple schools were being used as emergency evacuation shelters for displaced residents. This outbreak of wildfire comes just 16 months after a devastating series of fast-moving blazes ripped through the Los Angeles area in January 2025, killing roughly 30 people and destroying more than 10,000 structures, a disaster that left a lasting mark on the region’s emergency preparedness frameworks.

    A second, far larger wildfire is also burning uncontained dozens of miles off the Southern California coast on Santa Rosa Island, part of the protected Channel Islands National Park. US National Park Service officials confirmed the fire has already charred 14,600 acres (6,000 hectares) of the island, with satellite imagery confirming the blaze has pushed northeast over the weekend and is now spreading deeper into the island’s interior.

    First reported to authorities on Friday, the Santa Rosa Island fire remained 0% contained as of Monday evening. At least 70 firefighters alongside trained park rangers have been deployed to battle the remote blaze, working under challenging conditions with limited access to the island’s rugged terrain. In a separate operation linked to the fire, the US Coast Guard confirmed it successfully rescued a 67-year-old man who was stranded along the island’s shoreline, though details on the man’s condition have not yet been released.

    Santa Rosa Island is the second-largest of the five Channel Islands located off Southern California’s coast. It is almost entirely uninhabited by permanent human residents, but it hosts one of the most unique and biodiverse ecosystems in the continental United States, home to dozens of rare and endemic plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. Conservation experts are already sounding alarms about the potential long-term impact of the massive burn on the island’s fragile native habitats.

  • Kyiv holds a funeral for 2 young sisters killed by a Russian missile strike

    Kyiv holds a funeral for 2 young sisters killed by a Russian missile strike

    In the shadow of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, a sacred space long used by Kyiv residents to honor fallen soldiers and prominent lives lost to Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, an unusual and devastating scene unfolded Tuesday. Where coffins of grown military personnel usually lie, two small white caskets stood side by side, holding the bodies of 12-year-old Liubava Yakovlieva and 17-year-old Vira Yakovlieva. The sisters were among 24 civilians killed when a Russian missile slammed into their Kyiv apartment building on May 14, trapping them under collapsed concrete. Their mother Tetiana is now the only surviving member of her family: her husband Yevhen, a Ukrainian soldier, died in combat on the front line three years prior.

    Dozens of children, the two girls’ classmates from local schools, filed through the monastery dressed in all black, leaning on one another for support as they said their final goodbyes. Buckets placed at the foot of the coffins quickly overflowed with bouquets, with more floral tributes spread across the stone floor. Photos propped on the caskets showed the blond sisters, Liubava full of childlike energy and Vira wearing her signature glasses. Grown mourners and children alike wept openly through the service; standing among the crowd were several of Yevhen’s former brothers-in-arms, who came to pay their respects to the entire fallen family.

    Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Yevhen was known across his community as a gifted home cook, an enthusiastic fisherman, and a handyman who could fix almost anything for neighbors and friends. When Russian forces crossed Ukraine’s border, he immediately enlisted in the Ukrainian military, and was killed in action near the village of Dibrova in the Luhansk region in April 2023. Now, the war that took his life has reached the rest of his family, leaving his wife with no surviving kin.

    Footage captured by Current Time, a project operated by Radio Liberty, shows Tetiana speaking to rescuers in the immediate aftermath of the May 14 strike, as workers sifted through the rubble of her home searching for any sign of her daughters. “I already lost their father, my husband, a defender of Ukraine,” she told reporters at the scene. “I don’t know if they are alive or if they have already gone to be with their father. To say this is very painful tells you nothing. You cannot understand the weight unless you have felt it yourself.”

    Dmytro Koval, who taught Vira painting and drawing at a Kyiv art college, remembered the teen as an exceptional student: strong-willed, unafraid to share her unique perspective, and deeply kind to her peers. When news of her death reached the campus, the entire community was left reeling from shock. “When death comes for people you saw and talked to just yesterday, it is always very hard, unspeakably hard,” Koval said at the funeral. “We must not live on illusions, on empty dreams, on hopes for some negotiations that will fix everything, because our neighbors are not oriented toward peace.”

    Family friend Tetiana Osipova, who served alongside Yevhen in the military and accompanied his body home after his death, said 12-year-old Liubava defied expectations: she appeared small and delicate on the outside, but carried an inner strength that matched her older sister’s. Osipova added that the two girls struggled for years to process the loss of their father, and that on the day of the strike, she stood by Tetiana’s side as rescuers searched the rubble.

    Today, Osipova said, Tetiana carries a grief no parent should ever know: she is no longer a wife, and no longer a mother. But despite the unthinkable loss, her friend remains determined to find the strength to honor the memories of her husband and daughters, and to carry on their legacy. “This is an unnatural order of things, when parents bury their children,” Efrem Khomiak, the priest leading the funeral service, told the gathered crowd of mourners. “This funeral, this grief, this tragedy, it is not only your family’s. It belongs to all of Ukraine. Because we are all bound together in this war.”

  • Police say dozens of people and organizations could be charged over deadly 2017 London fire

    Police say dozens of people and organizations could be charged over deadly 2017 London fire

    LONDON – Nearly 10 years after the deadliest residential fire in modern British history claimed 72 lives at London’s Grenfell Tower, Metropolitan Police announced Tuesday that investigators will submit cases against 57 individuals and 20 organizations to public prosecutors, to review potential criminal charges over the disaster.

    According to police, all compiled evidence files will be delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service by the end of September this year, with a final charging decision scheduled for June 14, 2027 – exactly 10 years after the 2017 blaze that ripped through the 24-storey west London public housing block. For bereaved families and survivors who have waited years for accountability, any additional delay to justice would be impossible to accept.

    The 2017 disaster began when a small fourth-floor apartment kitchen fire broke out in the early hours of June 14. Instead of being contained, the fire spread rapidly up the building’s exterior, fueled by highly combustible cladding panels that had been installed during a recent renovation. The blaze tore through the entire tower in just minutes, trapping residents inside and killing 72 people – among them 18 children and multiple elderly retirees. It remains the worst fire disaster the United Kingdom has experienced since World War II.

    A damning multi-year public inquiry released its final findings in 2024, concluding that all 72 deaths were entirely preventable. The report laid out a devastating chain of failure: private manufacturing and construction companies cut corners to use cheap, non-fire-resistant cladding materials and engaged in widespread, systematic dishonesty to hide safety risks. These corporate failures were compounded by incompetent industry regulators and systemic government negligence that failed to enforce basic building safety rules, allowing the lethal cladding to be wrapped around the 25-story building full of working-class residents.

    Grenfell United, the advocacy group representing many bereaved families and survivors, said frustration has mounted after years of waiting. “We have waited almost a decade for accountability,” the group said. “No family should have to wait over 10 years for justice for their loved ones, if it comes at all.”

    Investigators confirmed that potential criminal charges under consideration include corporate gross negligence manslaughter, fraud, and breaches of UK health and safety legislation. The probe into the disaster stands as the largest and most complex criminal investigation in the Metropolitan Police’s history: officers have collected more than 165 million electronic documents, and reviewed the potential roles of 15,000 individuals and 700 different organizations connected to the tower’s design, construction and renovation.

  • Ukraine war widow buries her daughters killed by Russia

    Ukraine war widow buries her daughters killed by Russia

    Five days after a devastating Russian missile strike reduced her Kyiv apartment block to rubble, Tetiana Yakovlieva laid her two daughters to rest on Tuesday, adding another devastating chapter to the human cost of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.

    Yakovlieva already knew the pain of war: her husband had volunteered to fight for Ukraine shortly after the 2022 invasion and died in combat three years prior. When the Kh-101 cruise missile struck her family’s nine-story building in a leafy Kyiv neighborhood last week, she waited for hours alongside rescue teams, clinging to the faint hope that her 12-year-old daughter Vira and 17-year-old daughter Liubava would be pulled alive from the debris. When the dust settled, that hope faded, and the grim work of recovering the girls’ bodies began.

    “It’s so painful — these words won’t mean anything to you until you feel it yourself,” Yakovlieva told local reporters at the strike site, still reeling from shock amid the rubble of her home.

    By Tuesday, the mother, ashen-faced and hunched in grief, stood before two closed coffins inside Kyiv’s gold-domed Saint Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral, where a priest led a funeral mass for the girls. Surrounded by mourners dressed in black, many weeping, clutching flowers, and leaning on one another for support, the priest acknowledged that no words could ease the weight of losing children so young.

    “No words of compassion can ease this pain of loss, this burden of great suffering, when one must bury young people,” he told the gathered crowd. “This is a tragedy not only for your family, it is a tragedy for our entire Ukrainian state today.”

    As the service unfolded, air raid sirens warning of new Russian attacks echoed across Kyiv, a constant reminder of the ongoing violence that claimed the sisters’ lives. The girls are among 24 civilians killed in the early Thursday strike, which marked the deadliest Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital so far this year, part of a massive barrage that included 56 missiles and 675 combat drones launched at targets across Ukraine.

    Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko confirmed the strike that killed the sisters was almost certainly carried out by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile, which detonated on the building’s ground floor. The blast buckled the apartment block’s foundations, causing a progressive collapse that crushed multiple floors above. Ukrainian defense analysts estimate each of these missiles costs the Russian government approximately $1.2 million.

    Reporters from Agence France-Presse who visited the strike site in the immediate aftermath saw emergency workers pulling dead and wounded survivors from the rubble on stretchers, while bystanders — including classmates of the two sisters — waited anxiously for word of missing loved ones.

    At the funeral, mourners who knew the girls spoke of the senseless cruelty of their deaths. “It’s hard to say anything when children are killed. Especially children when they were sleeping. It’s barbarity,” Natalia, a woman whose own son was killed alongside Yakovlieva’s husband, told AFP. Olga, an art teacher who taught 12-year-old Vira to draw, remembered both sisters as talented, outgoing young women, describing their deaths as “an inexpressible pain.”

    In the hours after the mass strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to social media to condemn the attack, saying Russia “deliberately destroys lives” and calling on Kyiv’s international allies to increase pressure on Moscow to bring an end to the full-scale invasion. “It is Ukraine that is defending Europe and the world so that such strikes, in which children are killed, do not spread further,” he added.

    The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that its forces only target military infrastructure in Ukraine and denies intentionally striking civilian targets. But the deaths of Vira and Liubava bring the official confirmed number of Ukrainian children killed since the 2022 invasion to at least 704, according to Ukrainian police data. Thousands more children have been wounded or remain missing in the three years of war.

    Before the procession carried the girls’ coffins to the cemetery for burial, the priest reminded mourners that the sisters’ names, Vira and Liubava, translate to “faith” and “love” in Ukrainian. He told the gathered crowd the girls were now in a place beyond the reach of conflict. “In a place where there is no war, no pain, no grief, no suffering, no sighing, but eternal blessed life,” he said.

  • Slovenia set for a right-wing government and a comeback for former Prime Minister Jansa

    Slovenia set for a right-wing government and a comeback for former Prime Minister Jansa

    Nearly two months after Slovenia held its closely contested parliamentary election, a path to a new government has finally emerged, with veteran right-wing politician Janez Jansa on track to retake the post of prime minister following his official nomination to the national parliament on Tuesday.

    A 67-year-old political figure who has already held the prime minister’s office three times previously, Jansa received his formal nomination from legislators of his own Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS). If confirmed by parliament, he will helm a new right-leaning coalition government that brings together multiple conservative-aligned groups, with extra backing provided by a first-term anti-establishment party that entered the legislature in the latest vote.

    As of Tuesday, parliamentary authorities had not yet announced a firm date for the final confirmation vote on Jansa’s premiership and his proposed cabinet. Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV Slovenia has confirmed that Jansa already commands the support of 48 of the 90 total lawmakers in the country’s national assembly, putting him within reach of the backing needed to form a government.

    A successful confirmation would shift the small European Union member state sharply to the right politically, ending four years of liberal governance under outgoing Prime Minister Robert Golob. Jansa, a known admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump and a long-time close ally of populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, most recently held the prime ministership from 2020 to 2022. It was in that year’s election that Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement party unseated Jansa’s government.

    Jansa has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Golob’s outgoing administration, taking particular aim at the liberal government’s 2024 decision to formally recognize Palestinian statehood.

    The April 22 parliamentary election left Slovenia’s two major political blocs deadlocked: Jansa’s SDS and Golob’s Freedom Movement finished with nearly identical seat shares in the assembly. After weeks of negotiations, Golob ultimately failed to cobble together a viable liberal-led coalition, clearing the way for Jansa to step in and build his own right-wing government.

    The latest electoral process has been mired in controversy from the start, with widespread allegations of foreign interference and corrupt campaign practices. The Alpine nation, which has a total voting population of just 1.7 million, remains deeply politically split between liberal and conservative factions, a divide that is expected to shape the new government’s term in office.

  • Son of Mango boss arrested over father’s fatal fall from cliff

    Son of Mango boss arrested over father’s fatal fall from cliff

    Catalan law enforcement officials have taken 43-year-old Jonathan Andic, son of deceased Mango founder Isak Andic, into custody as part of a reinvestigation into the 2024 death of the global fashion industry icon. The detainment, which took place at Andic’s residence shortly after 11 a.m. local time on Tuesday, marks a major new development in a case that was originally ruled an accidental death before being reopened amid inconsistencies in testimony.

    Isak Andic, a 71-year-old Turkish-born business magnate who built Mango into one of the world’s largest fast fashion chains, lost his life in December 2024 after falling into a ravine during a hiking trip in the Montserrat mountain range outside Barcelona. Conflicting public reports have emerged over the years about who was present during the outing, with initial accounts placing only Isak and Jonathan together on the trail, while other claims note additional family members were in the area.

    Shortly after the incident, Catalan investigators closed the case in early 2025, concluding their initial review found no evidence of criminal conduct connected to Isak’s death. But per reporting from Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia, authorities made the decision to reopen the probe later that year after identifying unresolved discrepancies in statements Jonathan Andic provided to investigators.

    Jonathan Andic, who joined the Mango executive team in 2005, went on to lead the brand’s popular Mango Men menswear line before ascending to the position of vice-chairman of the company’s board of directors following his father’s death. He has repeatedly maintained that he bears no responsibility for the tycoon’s death. A representative for the Andic family confirmed to Reuters that Jonathan was undergoing formal police questioning following his detainment, and emphasized the family holds unwavering confidence that he will be cleared of any wrongdoing. Following his questioning, local reports indicate Andic was scheduled to appear before a judge in a Catalan court later the same day.

    Isak Andic co-founded Mango in 1984 alongside his brother Nahman, launching the brand from its first Barcelona storefront into a global retail powerhouse. Today, the fashion chain operates nearly 3,000 retail locations across 120 countries around the world. At the time of his passing, Forbes calculated Isak Andic’s personal net worth at approximately $4.5 billion (equal to around £3.6 billion).

    Following Isak’s death in 2024, Mango Chief Executive Officer Toni Ruiz released a statement honoring the brand’s founder, noting that his passing would leave an enormous gap across the company. “All of us are, in some way, his legacy and the testimony of his achievements,” Ruiz said at the time. “It is up to us, and this is the best tribute we can make to Isak and which we will fulfil, to ensure that Mango continues to be the project that Isak aspired to and of which he would feel proud.”

  • Father-of-8 security guard hailed as hero in San Diego mosque shooting

    Father-of-8 security guard hailed as hero in San Diego mosque shooting

    A devastating shooting attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego has left three community members dead, including a long-serving security guard hailed as a hero for actions that authorities confirm saved countless lives. In the wake of the Monday violence, investigators have confirmed the attack is being probed as a hate crime, with evidence linking the assailants to harmful hate rhetoric.

    The fallen security guard has been identified as Amin Abdullah, an 88-year-old father of eight who had served the San Diego mosque community for more than a decade, according to Tazheen Nizam, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Diego (CAIR-SD). Speaking at an official press conference hours after the attack, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl called Abdullah’s actions unequivocally heroic, emphasizing that his quick, brave response prevented an even higher death toll. “Undoubtedly, he saved lives today,” Wahl stated.

    Joining Abdullah in the fatal casualties were two other mosque community members, named by CAIR-SD as Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad. The two attackers, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old who have not yet been publicly identified, died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds shortly after the shooting, located in a vehicle just a few blocks from the mosque.

    The timeline of the tragedy began earlier Monday, when the mother of one of the teenage attackers contacted local police to report her son had run away with a friend and was potentially suicidal. As law enforcement launched a citywide search for the pair, officers discovered the three gunshot victims outside the mosque grounds hours later. Within minutes of that discovery, they located the two deceased suspects nearby.

    Friends and community members who knew Abdullah have paid tribute to his lifelong commitment to serving others. Shaykh Uthman Ibn Farooq, a family friend, told the Associated Press that Abdullah intentionally took on the security guard role specifically to protect innocent community members. Sam Hamideh, who knew Abdullah through mosque activities, told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that Abdullah’s kindness extended to everyone who crossed his path. “It didn’t matter who walked up… any random person could just walk up and, [Abdullah] would greet them, make sure they are OK,” Hamideh said. “Whether they were homeless off the street looking for something, whether it was a child or elderly.”

    Tributes have poured in across social media, with dozens of community members describing Abdullah as “the nicest man you’ll ever meet.” In an official statement released after the attack, the Islamic Center of San Diego honored his sacrifice, saying: “[He was] a courageous man who put himself on the line for the safety of others, who even in his last moments did not stop protecting our community.”

    Chief Wahl confirmed that investigators have already uncovered ties to hate rhetoric tied to the attack, confirming the case will move forward as a formal hate crime investigation.

  • France says G7 finance talks ‘frank, sometimes difficult’

    France says G7 finance talks ‘frank, sometimes difficult’

    Against a backdrop of escalating geopolitical tension and mounting economic instability, finance leaders from the Group of Seven major global economies wrapped up two days of talks in Paris on Tuesday, leaving French officials acknowledging that negotiations were marked by candid, at times strained, exchanges before the bloc agreed to a unified statement reaffirming commitment to multilateral collaboration.\n\nRoland Lescure, France’s finance minister, told reporters following the closed-door meetings that delegates engaged in open, unvarnished discussions to craft both immediate and long-term policy responses to pressing global economic challenges, with the core goal of safeguarding broad-based economic stability. The gathering included top finance officials from all G7 members, among them United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.\n\nDespite the friction in talks, the G7’s final official communique reaffirmed the bloc’s core pledge to work together through multilateral frameworks to counter growing risks threatening the interconnected global economy. The document framed current global conditions as a series of overlapping, complex challenges that demand coordinated policy action, pointing specifically to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East as a key driver of heightened economic uncertainty.\n\nIn the communique, G7 leaders noted that the Middle Eastern conflict has amplified existing risks to both global growth and persistent inflation, with cascading disruptions hitting critical global supply chains. The statement specifically called out acute pressures on energy, food, and fertilizer supply networks — disruptions that disproportionately harm low-income and vulnerable developing economies that rely heavily on global imports.\n\nOne of the most pressing geopolitical economic issues addressed was the persistent disruption to global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical strategic waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s daily oil trade. Since the escalation of regional conflict, Iran has implemented an effective blockade that has severely restricted shipping traffic through the strait. The G7 statement called for an immediate end to the disruption, urging a “swift return to free and safe transit” for all commercial vessels.\n\nThis week’s meeting in the French capital was held as France holds the rotating G7 presidency, and it served as a key preparatory step for the group’s full head-of-state summit scheduled for June 2025. That higher-level gathering will be hosted at the Alpine lakeside resort of Evian, with French President Emmanuel Macron set to chair the proceedings, and U.S. President Donald Trump expected to attend in person.

  • Ronaldo, 41, leads Portugal into his sixth World Cup

    Ronaldo, 41, leads Portugal into his sixth World Cup

    At 41 years old, global football icon Cristiano Ronaldo has cemented another legendary milestone in his decades-long career, earning a selection to Portugal’s 27-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer. The announcement, made by Portuguese head coach Roberto Martinez on Tuesday, paves the way for Ronaldo to compete at a record-breaking sixth World Cup — a feat few players in the history of the sport have ever come close to achieving.\n\nCurrently plying his trade with Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr following stints at European giants Real Madrid and Manchester United, Ronaldo brings unmatched experience and goal-scoring pedigree to the Portuguese squad. As the all-time leading men’s international goalscorer with 143 goals to his name, the veteran striker has one major trophy missing from his extensive collection: a World Cup title. Ronaldo and Portugal have never advanced past the semi-final stage of the competition, leaving the five-time Ballon d’Or winner hungry to claim the sport’s biggest prize in what will likely be his final World Cup appearance.\n\nA storyline that has already captured global football fans’ attention is the potential reunion on the world’s biggest stage with Ronaldo’s long-time rival Lionel Messi. The Argentine great, who led his country to World Cup glory in Qatar 2022, is also set to compete at his sixth World Cup this summer, setting up the possibility of one more head-to-head clash between the two greatest players of their generation.\n\nRonaldo’s inclusion in the squad came as a mild surprise to some, after he was sent off for an elbowing incident in Portugal’s final qualifying match against the Republic of Ireland. The forward avoided a three-match suspension that would have ruled him out of the opening stage of the tournament, clearing his path to make history.\n\nCoach Martinez’s final 27-man selection held few major shocks outside of Ronaldo’s cleared suspension, with most of the nation’s top talent included in the roster. Joao Felix, Ronaldo’s teammate at Al-Nassr, earned a call-up, as did four Paris Saint-Germain stars: Vitinha, Joao Neves, Nuno Mendes and Goncalo Ramos. Manchester United’s creative playmaker Bruno Fernandes also made the cut, alongside Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias, who form a solid core of Premier League-based talent.\n\nIn terms of pre-tournament preparation, Portugal will warm up for the World Cup with friendly fixtures against Chile and Nigeria before kicking off their official campaign against DR Congo on June 17. After the opening match, Portugal will face Uzbekistan in Group K on June 23, before wrapping up their group stage play against Colombia four days later on June 27.\n\nThe full 27-man squad includes four goalkeepers: Diogo Costa of Porto, Jose Sa of England’s Wolverhampton Wanderers, Rui Silva of Sporting Lisbon, and Ricardo Velho of Turkey’s Genclerbirligi. The defensive line-up features Diogo Dalot and Jonny Evans of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Matheus Nunes of Manchester City, Nelson Semedo of Turkey’s Fenerbahce, Joao Cancelo of Spain’s Barcelona, Nuno Mendes of France’s PSG, Goncalo Inacio of Sporting Lisbon, Renato Veiga of Spain’s Villarreal, and Tomas Araujo of Benfica. Midfielders include Ruben Neves of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal, Samu Costa of Spain’s Mallorca, Joao Neves and Vitinha of PSG, Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United, and Bernardo Silva of Manchester City. The attacking corps is headlined by Ronaldo and Joao Felix of Al-Nassr, with additional options including Francisco Trincao of Sporting Lisbon, Francisco Conceicao of Italy’s Juventus, Pedro Neto of England’s Chelsea, Rafael Leao of Italy’s AC Milan, Goncalo Guedes of Spain’s Real Sociedad, and Goncalo Ramos of PSG.

  • Russia holds massive drills of its nuclear forces as Ukraine steps up its drone attacks

    Russia holds massive drills of its nuclear forces as Ukraine steps up its drone attacks

    On Tuesday, Russia initiated a sweeping, three-day set of exercises for its nuclear-capable military forces, a major show of strength that comes as Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory have grown dramatically in frequency and intensity in recent weeks.

    According to statements from the Russian Defense Ministry, the maneuvers are among the largest planned nuclear drills in recent years, involving a massive deployment of military hardware and personnel: 64,000 active troops, more than 200 missile launch systems, over 140 military aircraft, 73 surface warships, and 13 submarines. Eight of the participating submarines are armed with nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), putting the full scope of Russia’s sea-based nuclear deterrent on display. The drills will include live practice launches of both nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, the ministry confirmed.

    The core focus of the exercises, Defense Ministry officials noted, is refining protocols for “the preparation and use of nuclear forces under the threat of aggression.” The drills also integrate joint training with Belarus, Russia’s closest western ally that already hosts Russian nuclear weapons on its territory, including the advanced new Oreshnik intermediate-range nuclear-capable missile system.

    The timing of the maneuvers is not accidental. They unfold against a backdrop of sharply escalating Ukrainian drone strikes deep inside Russian territory. Over the weekend, a large drone barrage targeted Moscow’s outlying suburbs, killing three civilians and damaging multiple residential and industrial buildings. These increasingly frequent and impactful strikes have created a growing challenge for the Kremlin, which has long attempted to frame the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as a distant operation that does not disrupt the daily lives of ordinary Russian citizens. The spread of attacks to major population centers close to the Russian capital has undermined that narrative.

    This nuclear saber-rattling aligns with a long-standing strategy Russian President Vladimir Putin has pursued since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: repeatedly drawing global attention to Russia’s massive nuclear arsenal to deter Western nations from expanding military support to Kyiv. Tuesday’s drills also kicked off on the same day that Putin began a high-profile two-day official visit to China, where he is set to reaffirm the deepening strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing.

    Just one week before the drills, Putin publicly celebrated the successful test launch of the new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a system designed to replace aging Soviet-era ICBMs and bolster Russia’s long-range nuclear strike capacity. In 2024, Putin enacted a revised Russian nuclear doctrine that significantly lowered the threshold for a potential Russian nuclear response: the document states that any conventional attack on Russia backed by a nuclear-armed power will be treated as a combined attack on the Russian state. Analysts widely view this revision as a direct warning to the West aimed at blocking Ukraine from gaining access to longer-range Western weapons that can strike deeper into Russian territory.

    Hardline Russian commentators and military hawks have long pressured the Kremlin to take harsher retaliatory action against Ukrainian drone attacks, arguing that Russia should target production facilities in NATO member European countries that supply Ukraine with drone components. Last month, the Russian Defense Ministry took an unprecedented step, publishing a public list of European factories it says are involved in manufacturing drones and parts for the Ukrainian military. The ministry issued a clear warning that any Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory using European-built hardware carry the risk of “unpredictable consequences” for the countries hosting those facilities, a threat that has raised tensions between Russia and the Western alliance even further.