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  • Zelenskyy says G7 leaders pledge more vital help for Ukraine against Russia

    Zelenskyy says G7 leaders pledge more vital help for Ukraine against Russia

    As Ukraine’s full-scale defensive war against Russia’s invasion enters its third year with no diplomatic or military resolution in sight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Wednesday that the country has secured new, binding commitments of additional backing from G7 leaders gathered for the group’s annual summit in France.

    The leaders of the Group of Seven — the world’s seven largest advanced industrial economies — have pledged to reinforce Ukraine’s critical air defense systems, shore up the country’s energy infrastructure ahead of future Russian attacks targeting power grids, and ramp up coordinated international economic sanctions to increase pressure on Moscow, Zelenskyy confirmed in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The Ukrainian president attended the summit in person to push for renewed global backing for his country’s war effort.

    “The G7 Summit in France delivered important results for Ukraine. Most importantly, we agreed on additional strengthening of Ukraine’s air defense,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Our partners will ensure support for our defense and energy resilience,” he added, noting that new restrictive measures targeting Russia would also be implemented.

    Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Zelenskyy has made global diplomatic outreach a core priority, working steadily to secure military and humanitarian aid from Western allies while isolating Putin and his regime on the international stage. Fresh off the G7 gathering, Zelenskyy was scheduled to travel to Brussels Thursday for a European Union summit, coming just days after Ukraine formally launched accession negotiations with the bloc Monday. The membership process is expected to take years of political and economic reforms, even as the country continues to defend its territory against Russian occupation.

    In a joint official statement released after the summit, all G7 members — Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the United States — formally endorsed Ukraine’s resistance, praising Kyiv’s recent advances on the front lines. “We commend Ukraine for its resilience and progress on the battlefield in recent months and emphasize there is now a new momentum” in Kyiv’s resistance, the statement read.

    Western political and military analysts have confirmed that Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities have improved notably in recent months, driven in large part by the effective use of advanced domestic drone technology. Ukrainian drones have successfully pinned Russian frontline troops in occupied territories, choked off critical Russian supply lines, and carried out strikes disrupting oil production deep inside Russian territory — a key source of revenue for the Kremlin’s war machine. These strikes have also brought the reality of the conflict, which Putin labels a “special military operation”, directly to Russian civilians, growing domestic pressure on the Russian president, according to analysts.

    Despite these gains, Ukraine still faces critical gaps in its defensive capabilities: the country is currently facing a shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles, a shortfall partially driven by depleted U.S. stockpiles that have been drawn down to support U.S. efforts in the ongoing Iran conflict. The shortage leaves Ukraine vulnerable to Russia’s regular strategic ballistic missile bombardment campaign targeting civilian and energy infrastructure. The G7 joint statement committed to delivering additional air defense assets to Ukraine but did not specify what types of weapons or what volume of supplies would be provided. Leaders also added that they are considering approving license agreements to allow Ukraine to manufacture Western-designed weapons domestically, a longstanding request from Kyiv that includes domestic production of Patriot missiles.

    The G7 summit meeting also came as ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have shifted Washington’s focus away from Ukraine, after more than a year of diplomatic efforts to end the war have failed to produce a breakthrough. On the sidelines of the G7, Zelenskyy held talks with U.S. President Donald Trump alongside key European leaders, as part of his push to sustain U.S. backing for Kyiv. Putin has for his part attempted to bypass both Europe and Kyiv to negotiate directly with Washington over the future of Ukraine.

    On Wednesday, separate reports of cross-border attacks continued: a Ukrainian regional official confirmed that a Russian drone strike hit a children’s equestrian school in the northeastern Sumy region, striking the facility’s stable and killing multiple horses. Preliminary reports indicate no civilian staff were injured in the overnight attack, according to Sumy regional military administration head Oleh Hryhorov. On the Russian side, the country’s Defense Ministry claimed that its air defense systems intercepted and downed 157 Ukrainian drones between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

    This reporting featured contributions from AP correspondents Illia Novikov based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Barry Hatton based in Lisbon, Portugal.

  • Spain’s former PM Zapatero faces questioning by judge in corruption probe

    Spain’s former PM Zapatero faces questioning by judge in corruption probe

    MADRID – Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has appeared before a National Court judge in Madrid this Wednesday, marking his first in-person court appearance since formal investigations were launched against him last month over a series of alleged financial crimes. The 65-year-old Socialist leader, who held the premiership between 2004 and 2011, faces accusations of influence peddling, money laundering, and other financial misconduct connected to a 53 million euro ($61.5 million) public bailout granted to defunct carrier Plus Ultra Airlines in 2021.

    The bailout funds, which were drawn from the European Union’s COVID-19 economic recovery program, were approved a full decade after Zapatero left public office. Plus Ultra, which specialized in routes connecting Spain to South America, counted Venezuelan investors among its major stakeholders, a detail that carries added context given Zapatero’s well-documented post-premiership work facilitating diplomatic dialogue with the government of Venezuela, which has faced widespread diplomatic isolation from Western nations following a crackdown on opposition political movements.

    Beyond the airline bailout probe, presiding judge José Luis Calama is also examining separate allegations of tax fraud and contraband trafficking tied to 1.3 million euros worth of jewelry uncovered by police during a May search of Zapatero’s Madrid office. The unreported jewelry was found locked in a secure safe during the law enforcement raid.

    Zapatero has issued public statements vigorously rejecting all wrongdoing tied to the airline bailout case. Regarding the seized jewelry, he has stated that the pieces were either inherited from family or received as formal gifts over the course of his political career.

    The former prime minister remains a prominent influential figure within Spain’s Socialist Party, which is currently led by incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Over the past two years, Sánchez’s administration has been repeatedly shaken by a string of public corruption scandals that have eroded public trust in the party.

    Under Spanish judicial procedure, the investigative judge assigned to the case is tasked with reviewing evidence to confirm whether criminal suspicion warrants advancing the matter to a formal trial. If sufficient evidence is uncovered, a separate judge will oversee the full trial proceedings. Judicial observers note that the full investigative and trial process can extend for months, or even multiple years, depending on the complexity of the case.

  • AI executives gather at G7 as Europeans seek checks on American dominance

    AI executives gather at G7 as Europeans seek checks on American dominance

    On Wednesday, some of the world’s most influential artificial intelligence executives convened in France, capping off the Group of Seven major industrialized nations summit with a urgent conversation centered on balancing AI innovation with growing global demands for technological independence from U.S. industry dominance.

    While this year’s G7 summit was dominated by discussions of ongoing armed conflicts in Iran and Ukraine, the final day of the gathering carved out dedicated space for one of the most pressing technological issues of our time: the future of global AI governance and development. In a rare high-profile gathering of cross-border AI leadership, the chief executives of three of the world’s most powerful AI companies – OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei – gathered for a working lunch focused on the goal of “Ensuring a safe, rapid and effective deployment of artificial intelligence.”

    The meeting was not limited to the sector’s largest players: it also included the heads of emerging AI labs from across the globe, including Canada’s Cohere AI, French developer Mistral AI, Germany’s Black Forest Labs, Italy’s Domyn, Japan’s Sakana AI, and U.K.-based generative AI firm Synthesia.

    This summit comes amid a sharp rise in calls for tech sovereignty across Europe and other non-U.S. regions, driven by mounting concerns about the outsized control U.S. companies hold over the global AI ecosystem. Just weeks before the G7 gathering, the European Commission rolled out a sweeping tech sovereignty strategy aimed at accelerating the growth of homegrown European AI development. Even the Pope added his voice to the debate last month, calling for strict, globally coordinated regulation of artificial intelligence to prevent unchecked domination by a small number of major powers.

    Tensions around this issue flared just one week before the summit, when Anthropic was forced to take its two most advanced AI models, Claude 5 2 (wait correction original it’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5, right) – Fable 5 and Mythos 5 – offline globally to comply with an executive order from the Trump administration that cited unspecified U.S. national security priorities. The order barred all non-U.S. persons, regardless of their location, from accessing the models, forcing the company to cut off access for every international customer overnight.

    That sudden blackout served as a stark wake-up call for governments and industry leaders around the world, highlighting the extreme strategic vulnerability that comes from relying on foreign-controlled AI infrastructure. Zach Meyers, research director at Brussels-based think tank CERRE, noted that the incident laid bare just how exposed non-U.S. nations are to unilateral policy shifts from Washington. “There is a general anxiety about the state of Europe, the fact that we’re relying on other countries for quite important strategic infrastructure and a desire to do something about it, whatever that is,” Meyers explained.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney echoed that concern on his way to the G7 summit, speaking to reporters during a stop in Dublin. The Anthropic incident, he said, makes clear the urgent need for the global community to “build out and diversify” AI development capacity. True national sovereignty, Carney emphasized, depends on “unhindered access to AI” that cannot be cut off by the policy decisions of another country. Earlier this month, Canada unveiled its own plan to help middle powers and like-minded nations develop alternative AI ecosystems independent of the largest U.S. players. The move came just days after the Trump administration released an executive order outlining a new framework for oversight of cutting-edge AI systems.

    For host nation France, the conversation around digital AI sovereignty is far from new: French President Emmanuel Macron has made the issue a core policy priority for years, even mandating that French civil servants replace U.S.-owned video conferencing tools Zoom and Microsoft Teams with a domestic French alternative.

    Aidan Gomez, CEO of Canadian AI firm Cohere – which acquired leading German AI startup Aleph Alpha earlier this year – outlined his company’s goals for the summit, saying the firm aims to expand sovereign AI ecosystem partnerships beyond its existing bases in Canada and Germany to include all G7 nations and private sector stakeholders. The end goal, Gomez explained, is to establish a global standard that guarantees national and local ownership of AI models, training data, and computational infrastructure.

    In addition to the seven core G7 members – France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom – the summit invited guest nations including Brazil, India, Kenya, and South Korea to participate in select discussions, broadening the global perspective on AI development and sovereignty.

  • A chilling Romanian exhibition replays videotaped secret police interrogations from 1989

    A chilling Romanian exhibition replays videotaped secret police interrogations from 1989

    Thirty-four years after the collapse of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s brutal communist regime in Romania, a groundbreaking new exhibition in the capital Bucharest has pulled back the curtain on the systematic repression and psychological violence carried out by the country’s feared secret police force, the Securitate.

    Titled “A.REST 1989,” the exhibition is hosted at the National History Museum of Romania and runs through mid-September. A collaborative project between the museum, Romania’s National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), and the Ministry of Culture, the exhibit leverages rare, never-before-displayed video footage to reconstruct the grim reality of detentions and interrogations that defined the Securitate’s sprawling network of surveillance and control.

    At the heart of the exhibition are 26 original 1989 videotapes, held by CNSAS, that capture the live interrogations of four detainees. These recordings, preserved accidentally amid the chaotic, violent collapse of the socialist regime at the end of that year, are displayed on grainy, wall-mounted screens in the museum’s central hall. A full-scale reconstruction of a sparse detention cell, fitted with only a narrow bed, an empty metal bowl and a chipped cup, anchors the space, offering visitors a visceral sense of the isolation and dehumanization endured by detainees.

    Many of the recordings lay bare the coercive, intimidating tactics Securitate interrogators used to break suspects. Intense psychological pressure, repeated threats of violence, and intimidation targeting detainees’ family members feature heavily in the footage, with questioning often veering into absurdity that leaves detainees exhausted and disoriented. In one exchange, a woman whose husband was accused of defection tells her interrogator, “I no longer have the strength to fight. I need logical arguments, not this nonsense.”

    Alongside the raw video recordings, the exhibition also displays rare artifacts connected to dissident activity and repression. These include a clandestine printing press owned by journalist Petre Mihai Băcanu, which the Securitate seized in early 1989 after Băcanu and his associates used it to publish an anti-Ceaușescu, anti-government newspaper. Băcanu’s own question to interrogators — “How could we, after 45 years of socialism, still be afraid of people’s opinions, even of their thoughts?” — is featured prominently as a testament to the regime’s fear of dissent. Another chilling artifact on display is a pair of modified glasses designed to blindfold detainees during transport, preventing them from identifying locations or other political prisoners.

    Exhibition curator Oana Demetriade, a historian at CNSAS, explained that the project evolved from an initial plan to create a student documentary. After reviewing the unedited tapes, she partnered with architects and designers to build the immersive exhibition, noting that the archive offers an unprecedented unfiltered look at Securitate operations. “That’s what this whole archive brings new,” she said. “How it gets here and how people, those who are arrested, in the end, are repeatedly threatened, yelled at, threatened with beatings, threatened with the family suffering, and so on.”

    Mihai Demetriade, also a CNSAS historian and co-curator of the exhibition, outlined the two parallel systems of illegal detention the Securitate operated. “Preventative detention” was deployed for political cases alleging crimes against the state, while “operational detention” functioned as a state-sponsored kidnapping system: dissidents were locked away to silence them during sensitive political events, such as party congresses or visits from foreign leaders. Unlike post-regime victim testimonies or redacted official documents, the Demetriade noted, the live recordings are irrefutable evidence of the regime’s brutality, impossible for historical revisionists to dismiss. “This space is important because it proves how rapacious, tough, aggressive the communist dictatorship remained even in the last moments of the communist system,” he added.

    Organizers frame the exhibition as a belated memorial to victims of Securitate repression. “In the world of Securitate ‘justice,’ detainees or those under arrest were merely prisoners, captives in the operational labyrinth of manufactured guilt,” the organizing team says. With this display, “the victims, thus, gain a voice and a place.”

    The exhibition arrives at a critical moment for Romanian collective memory: as nationalism has grown in the country in recent years, so has nostalgic revisionism about the Ceaușescu era, particularly among young Romanians who have no direct personal experience of life before the 1989 revolution. Cornel Constantin Ilie, manager of the National History Museum of Romania, said the exhibition is designed to cut through this misremembering by confronting visitors with unvarnished facts. “It is an exhibition that puts you in front of facts that cannot be ignored,” he said. “It’s very important because we must not forget and we must not repeat. … What we see in this exhibition is an ugly face of history, it is a story in which human freedom, human dignity were suppressed.”

  • Germany and Poland to sign a new defense deal as balance of power in Europe shifts

    Germany and Poland to sign a new defense deal as balance of power in Europe shifts

    Against a backdrop of rising Russian aggression on Europe’s eastern frontier and growing global uncertainty over long-term United States military commitment to the continent, Germany and Poland are preparing to sign a landmark bilateral defense agreement on Wednesday, marking a new era of pragmatic security cooperation between two neighbors with a long and fraught shared history.

    Shifting regional dynamics have reshaped the relationship between Berlin and Warsaw in recent years. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Poland’s liberal-led government took office in 2023 replacing the nationalist Law and Justice administration, bilateral ties have moved beyond historical friction to focus on shared security priorities. With Washington weighing a partial drawdown of its troop presence in Europe, Poland has pushed for leading European powers to take greater responsibility for defending NATO’s eastern flank. For its part, Germany is working to revitalize the Bundeswehr, its long-neglected military, with the explicit goal of building the most powerful conventional land force on NATO’s European side, positioning Berlin as a central backbone of European defense in the coming decade.

    Poland’s strategic importance has grown exponentially since the start of the war in Ukraine: the country has emerged as a critical logistics and supply hub for Kyiv, while its rapidly expanding economy and massive increases in defense spending have made it an indispensable partner for Germany and other core European allies. “We Germans need a strong Poland as an equal partner,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated following a December meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin, adding that this partnership is a fundamental German national interest.

    The upcoming defense agreement will outline concrete cooperative frameworks across multiple key security domains, including joint protection infrastructure for the Baltic Sea region, coordinated military mobility and cross-border infrastructure projects, cyber defense collaboration, and joint development of new defense technologies. Justyna Gotkowska, deputy director of the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies think tank, noted that NATO’s collective defense plans permanently bind Germany to the security of Central and Eastern Europe, assigning Berlin a core role in defending the Baltic region alongside Poland and other neighboring states. “Germany is largely responsible for the defense of the Baltic states, and without cooperation with Poland, that will not happen,” Gotkowska explained. Military analysts widely view the Baltic states as the most probable target for a Russian attack on NATO territory in any future conflict.

    While the agreement will reaffirm both nations’ existing mutual defense obligations under NATO and EU treaties, it differs from recent bilateral defense pacts each country has signed with France and the United Kingdom. Instead of including formal political mutual defense declarations, the German-Polish deal is an inter-ministerial agreement focused exclusively on practical military coordination. This structure was chosen to overcome lingering domestic political obstacles in Poland: when asked in June why Poland would not sign a full political treaty with Germany, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski explained that Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who was elevated to office with support from the nationalist Law and Justice party, would never approve such an agreement. Sikorski noted “hell would break loose here” if a full political treaty moved forward.

    Historical tensions remain a persistent stumbling block. During its time in government, Law and Justice demanded $1.3 trillion in World War II reparations from Germany for Nazi Germany’s occupation of Poland, a claim Berlin has repeatedly rejected. The reparations issue is expected to reemerge as a polarizing political topic ahead of Poland’s 2025 general election, forcing Tusk to walk a fine line: the prime minister has already demanded Germany speed up compensation payments for surviving occupation victims, and he cannot afford to be seen by Polish voters as soft on Germany or aligned with Berlin’s interests at Poland’s expense.

    Even as security cooperation deepens, questions remain about Poland’s place in Europe’s core security decision-making. To date, Germany has prioritized closed-door negotiations on Ukraine policy and other major security issues with its traditional Western European partners France and the United Kingdom, often excluding Warsaw from key talks. After the June 2024 London summit that brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy together with leaders from Germany, France, and the UK to discuss potential future peace negotiations with Russia, Tusk publicly confirmed he had complained to Merz about Poland’s exclusion. “Any arrangements made without our participation will not be respected or binding for us,” Tusk told reporters in Warsaw.

    Still, many foreign policy analysts agree the shifting balance of power in Europe demands a new approach to the bilateral relationship. Rolf Nikel, former German ambassador to Poland and vice president of the German Council on Foreign Relations, argued that Poland’s role and influence within Europe and NATO have grown dramatically in recent years. “So Poland must be taken more seriously today, and, above all, must be respected more than we have seen in the past,” Nikel said. Gotkowska added that Germany must acknowledge the changing economic and military landscape: while Germany’s economy has stagnated in recent years, Poland’s economy and military capacity have expanded rapidly. “The balance of power has changed in Europe in recent years,” Gotkowska said.

  • ‘Warning fire went up’: Couple on board yacht describe encounter with Russian warship

    ‘Warning fire went up’: Couple on board yacht describe encounter with Russian warship

    A routine yachting trip in the English Channel turned into a terrifying ordeal for a retired British couple, who have spoken publicly about their unexpected and dangerous run-in with a Russian warship that ended with the vessel firing warning shots close to their small leisure craft.

    The pair, who were enjoying time on board their private yacht in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, suddenly found themselves in an escalating confrontation when the Russian frigate approached their position. In their first public account of the incident, the couple described the moment the situation escalated dramatically, with warning shots being fired from the warship as the yacht remained in the nearby area.

    “We saw the warship approach, and then the warning fire went up,” the couple stated in interviews with media outlets, describing the shock and fear that gripped them as the military interaction unfolded near their civilian vessel. The incident has drawn fresh attention to military activity in the English Channel, a key strategic waterway that connects the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and sees constant civilian and military traffic from nations across the globe.

    Defense analysts note that encounters between civilian vessels and foreign military craft in international waters are not unheard of, but the firing of warning shots near an unarmed leisure yacht marks a rare and alarming escalation that has raised questions about maritime safety protocols and the current state of military navigation in the channel. As details of the encounter continue to emerge, authorities on both sides have not yet issued full formal comments on the context that led to the frigate’s decision to fire warning shots close to the civilian boat.

  • Kylian Mbappé sparks France with two goals in 3-1 win over Senegal at the World Cup

    Kylian Mbappé sparks France with two goals in 3-1 win over Senegal at the World Cup

    On a sun-drenched 25-degree Celsius afternoon at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, defending World Cup finalist France pulled off a dramatic second-half comeback to defeat Senegal 3-1 in its Group I opening match, powered by a two-goal masterclass from global superstar Kylian Mbappé that cemented his place among World Cup’s all-time greats.

    The match got off to a shockingly slow and lopsided start, with France looking uncharacteristically tentative. Les Bleus managed just one shot to Senegal’s five in the first 45 minutes, a performance defender William Saliba openly admitted was underwhelming. “In the first half, we weren’t good, they were better than us,” Saliba said. Mbappé, the team’s attacking linchpin, recorded only 14 touches — fewer than any other player on the pitch — and the half ended goalless, with Senegal’s Nicolas Jackson coming inches from opening the scoring when his 25th-minute effort struck the post, bounced off France goalkeeper Mike Maignan’s heel and rolled out of play.

    Whatever France coach Didier Deschamps said at halftime sparked an immediate turnaround. The 2018 and 2022 World Cup finalists took full control after the break, outshooting Senegal 10-1, and broke the deadlock in the 66th minute through Mbappé’s trademark clinical finishing. The forward burst past Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly, collected a diagonal pass from Michael Olise, and slotted the ball past goalkeeper Édouard Mendy from just outside the six-yard box to put France ahead.

    Substitute Bradley Barcola doubled the advantage just two minutes after entering the pitch in the 80th minute, latching onto a perfectly weighted through ball from Adrien Rabiot and lifting a cool finish over Mendy to net his fourth international goal. Senegal pulled one back five minutes into stoppage time when forward Ibrahim Mbaye converted an angled shot, but Mbappé answered immediately a minute later with a stunning long-range strike that sailed over Mendy’s outstretched arm and nestled just under the crossbar to seal the 3-1 result.

    The two goals pushed Mbappé’s career World Cup tally to 14, moving him past Brazilian legend Pelé, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and French icon Just Fontaine into a tie for third place with Germany’s Gerd Müller on the all-time World Cup scoring list. Only Germany’s Miroslav Klose (16) and Brazil’s Ronaldo (15) now sit ahead of the 25-year-old. He also set a new French national team record with 58 international goals, passing former striker Olivier Giroud by one.

    Off the pitch, the match faced unusual disruptions: the U.S. government denied visas for hundreds of Senegal supporters, leaving the Lions of Teranga’s fanbase restricted to just a few small sections in the stadium’s southwest corner, even as the overall crowd of 80,545 came just short of a sellout. Ticket prices dropped dramatically in the hours before kickoff, falling as low as $69 on FIFA’s official resale platform, down from the original $220 to $620 price point when tickets first went on sale in December.

    Looking ahead to Group I play, France will next face Iraq in Philadelphia on Monday, before wrapping up its first-round schedule against Norway on June 26 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Senegal will take on Norway at MetLife Stadium on Monday, before closing out group play against Iraq in Toronto. Deschamps acknowledged the team’s rocky start but celebrated the valuable opening three points. “It’s relief. We did have some apprehension,” Deschamps said through a translator. “It’s always great to start with a win. It’s not decisive, but it’s good to start in that way.” The result keeps France on track to pursue its historic bid for a third consecutive World Cup final appearance.

  • France striker Kylian Mbappé scores his 13th World Cup goal, breaking a tie with Pelé

    France striker Kylian Mbappé scores his 13th World Cup goal, breaking a tie with Pelé

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In a landmark moment for men’s World Cup soccer history, Kylian Mbappé notched his 13th career tournament goal on Tuesday, surpassing Brazilian legend Pelé to pull level for fourth place on the competition’s all-time scoring list. The strike, which came in the 66th minute of France’s 2026 World Cup opening fixture against Senegal, marked the 27-year-old’s 57th goal for the French men’s national team, tying him with veteran striker Olivier Giroud for the country’s all-time senior team scoring record.

    Playing in his third consecutive World Cup, Mbappé now matches the career World Cup goal tallies of Argentina’s Lionel Messi and French legend Just Fontaine. He sits just one goal behind Germany’s iconic forward Gerd Müller in the all-time rankings, and two goals back of Brazil’s Ronaldo, who holds third place with 15 goals. The all-time World Cup scoring record is currently held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who sits atop the list with 16 goals over his tournament career.

    Mbappé’s path to the historic goal included multiple early near-misses, after the Real Madrid star repeatedly found open space between Senegal’s defensive line in the opening 14 minutes of the match. Senegalese starting goalkeeper Édouard Mendy denied several of Mbappé’s early attempts, including a close-range chance in the opening half, where Mbappé struggled with uncharacteristically sloppy ball control for much of the period before the French attack began to click as the half drew to a close.

    A proven winner on the global stage, Mbappé helped lead France to World Cup glory in 2018, and guided the side to the 2022 tournament final, where he earned the Silver Ball award as the competition’s second-best player after a memorable individual performance. Entering the 2026 World Cup, France enters as co-tournament favorites alongside Spain, with Mbappé leading a dynamic attacking unit that also includes young talent Désiré Doué and reigning Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé. Off the club front, Mbappé carried a red-hot scoring form into the international break, having netted 25 times for Real Madrid in the 2024-2025 domestic season.

  • German broadcaster removes TV intro after Elon Musk takes legal action

    German broadcaster removes TV intro after Elon Musk takes legal action

    A major controversy has erupted after Germany’s leading public broadcaster ZDF was forced to retract and remove a misleading segment from a primetime news program that falsely claimed tech billionaire Elon Musk directly called for anti-migrant hunts amid post-attack unrest in Northern Ireland. The incident comes against a backdrop of rising international tension over social media’s role in amplifying divisive discourse around migration, an issue that has become increasingly politically charged across both Europe and North America.

    The unrest that sparked the report began in Belfast last week, shortly after a brutal street knife attack left a victim seriously wounded — court documents confirm the victim lost their left eye in the assault. Police quickly took a Sudanese man into custody at the scene, and he has since been remanded in custody on charges of attempted murder. The attack triggered widespread violent disorder in the city, with rioters setting fire to residential properties and vehicles, drawing global media attention to the escalating tensions in Northern Ireland.

    Migration has emerged as one of the most polarizing political issues in Germany in recent years, making the Belfast unrest a natural topic for national news coverage. On June 12, ZDF’s flagship live news magazine *ZDFheute Live* aired a segment framed around the question “How Musk is fuelling the protests.” In the opening introduction of the segment, which has since been deleted, the program’s presenter made the unsubstantiated claim: “A brutal attempted murder on a public street in Belfast. Someone takes a video which goes viral. Following that, a racist mob is hunting migrants. The call for that came from a British right-wing extremist and tech billionaire Elon Musk.”

    This claim misrepresents the actual sequence of events. British far-right activist Tommy Robinson shared posts about planned protests on Musk’s social media platform X on June 9, writing that “the whole of the United Kingdom is hitting the streets tonight at 7pm following yet another invader attack on our people.” Robinson has himself denied ever explicitly calling for rioting. Musk did quote Robinson’s post and add his own comment: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!” He never issued a personal call to hunt migrants, contrary to ZDF’s original wording.

    The false claim was brought to widespread public attention by Julian Reichelt, a prominent German journalist who heads the newer media outlet NiUS, which is often compared to conservative-leaning outlets like UK’s GB News and US’s Fox News. After Reichelt highlighted ZDF’s inaccurate reporting, Musk responded publicly, confirming he was moving forward with legal action against the public broadcaster over what he called “outrageous lies.”

    Through his German legal team, Musk issued a formal cease and desist demand to ZDF. In a public statement to the BBC on Tuesday, a ZDF spokesperson confirmed the network had complied with the demand, removing the contested passage from the segment’s introduction. The spokesperson added that ZDF had already added a corrective transparency notice to the broadcast as early as Saturday, before fully removing the inaccurate wording, and acknowledged the original language had been “imprecise and therefore misleading.” In its formal clarification, ZDF confirmed the correct facts of the incident: it was Tommy Robinson who called for protests following the Belfast knife attack, and the post was only shared and amplified by Musk.

    This incident is far from an isolated controversy for Musk, who owns not just X but also leading tech firms Tesla and SpaceX, and counts more than 240 million followers on his social media platform. He has faced repeated accusations from political leaders and digital watchdog groups of using his massive online platform to inflame social tensions and spread disinformation around migration. Most recently, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Musk of attempting to “whip up division” surrounding the death of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, who died in Southampton after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, who falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack.

    Musk has forcefully pushed back against these accusations. In a post on X dated June 10, shortly after the Belfast attack, he wrote that it was “murderous migrants targeting innocent people in their home town that is making people angry, not ‘social media!’”

    Watchdog groups have continued to criticize Musk’s role in the unrest. The US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate recently released an assessment concluding that social media played a “significant role” in fuelling the Belfast violence, and alleged that Musk had intentionally “amplified anti-migrant narratives” promoted by far-right actors, extending their reach to millions of global users.

  • Hot mics at the G7 capture world leaders’ chats between weighty topics

    Hot mics at the G7 capture world leaders’ chats between weighty topics

    EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — While the top leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies gathered this week at a scenic lakeside French resort to hash out solutions to pressing global crises, unfiltered open microphones have pulled back the curtain on the far more casual, unplanned side of high-level diplomatic summits. Between formal sessions focused on topics from the Ukraine conflict to global trade tensions, world leaders found time to swap jokes, discuss personal milestones, debate sports, and trade lighthearted quips that would never make it into official communiques.

    One of the most viral unscripted moments came Tuesday, when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni opened up about a major personal lifestyle change. After German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked if she had already snuck in a cigarette that morning, Meloni proudly revealed she had kicked the habit entirely, quitting cold turkey starting May 1. The announcement drew immediate warm congratulations from fellow leaders spanning Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union, with Meloni raising her hands in a playful victory lap. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, ever practical, quickly followed up with a question about cessation tools: “Do you have a patch?” he asked, gesturing to his own arm to clarify.

    With the 2026 FIFA World Cup already underway across North America, soccer dominated much of the off-agenda small talk among the gathered leaders. As the group assembled for a working lunch, French President Emmanuel Macron joined in the chatter, with attendees bursting into the iconic French national team cheer “Allez les bleus!” Other leaders weighed in on recent club football, discussing Paris-Saint Germain’s recent Champions League triumph.

    U.S. President Donald Trump steered the sports conversation toward mixed martial arts, highlighting the UFC cage fight event he hosted at the White House this past Sunday — an event that doubled as an informal 80th birthday celebration for the president, who sat ringside for the bouts. Trump spoke warmly of UFC CEO Dana White, praising the event organizer in his off-the-cuff comments. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also offered his take on a surprising World Cup upset, marveling at Cape Verde’s unexpected 0-0 draw against defending World Cup champion Spain. “Quite remarkable, I have to say,” Starmer commented of the underdog result.

    The most intriguing unscripted moment came when Trump’s brief chat with European Council President António Costa caught on open mics. After a pause and a steady look at Costa, Trump simply said: “You understand? … Greenland.” The full context of the exchange was cut off by the microphone placement, leaving the full meaning unclear. The offhand comment references a long-running point of tension: European politicians have repeatedly pushed back against Trump’s past public threats to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory that holds significant strategic and natural resource value.

    Another moment of levity unfolded after French President Emmanuel Macron accidentally left his watch behind at the conclusion of the working lunch. Carney first pointed out the abandoned timepiece, telling the group “He’s left his watch here. We’ve got his watch.” Trump quickly jumped in with a playful quip, drawing laughs from the room when he joked “Give me it if he left, gimme.”

    The summit also included several examples of traditional gift-giving diplomacy, another staple of high-level global gatherings. According to Union Cycliste Internationale President David Lappartient’s social media posts, Macron gifted each of his six fellow G7 counterparts a custom personalized bicycle, chosen to promote the 2027 Cycling World Championships scheduled to be held in the French Alps. There was no immediate on-the-record reaction from Trump, who is not known for cycling and has previously joked that he keeps his exercise routine limited to regular golf outings.

    Merz followed the bicycle gift with a birthday-themed present of his own for Trump: a German national soccer jersey emblazoned with Trump’s last name and the number 47, referencing Trump’s status as the 47th U.S. President. Trump held up the jersey to pose for a smiling photo before setting it aside. Merz later shared the photo of the exchange to his social media channels, adding a carefully worded message that struck a conciliatory tone after the two leaders recently sparred over policy toward the war in Iran: “After all, we’re on the same team.”

    This report featured contributions from AP correspondent Joe Binkley, reporting out of Washington, and AP writer Sam McNeil, who contributed from Brussels.