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  • Marlon James, Douglas Stuart and Elizabeth Strout are among Booker Prize semifinalists

    Marlon James, Douglas Stuart and Elizabeth Strout are among Booker Prize semifinalists

    LONDON — One of the English-speaking world’s most prestigious literary awards, the Booker Prize, has unveiled its 13-book longlist of semifinal contenders for 2024, a selection that mixes former Booker champions, a Pulitzer Prize winner, first-time authors, and boundary-pushing genre work that breaks with the award’s traditional mold.

    Leading the pack of recognizable names are two previous Booker recipients: Marlon James, who took home the prize in 2015 for *A Brief History of Seven Killings*, and Douglas Stuart, the 2020 winner for *Shuggie Bain*. They are joined by Elizabeth Strout, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner who was a Booker finalist in 2022. James’ 2024 contender *The Disappearers* centers on a community of gay men navigating widespread hostility in 1980s Jamaica, while Stuart’s *John of John* unpacks long-buried father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island. Strout’s entry, *The Things We Never Say*, is a tender, intimate portrait of small-town New England life.

    The longlist balances established literary careers with exciting emerging voices, bringing three debut authors into the running. Twenty-eight-year-old Irish author Djamel White, the youngest contender on the list, earned a spot for *All Them Dogs*, a gritty thriller set in Dublin’s criminal underworld. Turkish-American writer Kenan Orhan was selected for *The Renovation*, an intergenerational family history story, while British author Rebecca Perry’s *May We Feed the King* spans centuries from the Medieval era to the modern day.

    The oldest candidate is 81-year-old M. John Harrison, whose post-apocalyptic dystopian work *The End of Everything* marks a rare inclusion of science fiction on the Booker longlist. The full roster of contenders also includes Chloe Aridjis’ *The Shadow of the Object*, Luke Kennard’s *Black Bag*, Missouri Williams’ *The Vivisectors*, Emma Cline’s *Switzy*, Makenna Goodman’s *Helen of Nowhere* and Gwendoline Riley’s *The Palm House*. Collectively, the 13 authors represent diverse geographic roots spanning Britain, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey and the United States.

    Leading the 2024 judging panel is acclaimed classicist and historian Mary Beard, who described the full list of selections as literary “dynamite” in comments to reporters. Beard, who serves alongside fellow jurors including Pulp frontman and cultural icon Jarvis Cocker and award-winning American novelist Patricia Lockwood, explained that the panel intentionally set out to move past the stereotype of a “typical Booker winner” — often framed as a slightly stuffy, preordained classic.

    Instead, the jury prioritized works that challenge readers and expand literary perspectives. “Sometimes they’re using humor, sometimes it’s pathos, sometimes there’s shock value,” Beard said of the selections. “They’re risk-takers. They are dynamite. They say ‘Come on, try seeing it a different way.’”

    First launched in 1969, the Booker Prize carries a 50,000 pound ($66,000) cash award for the winning author, and has a decades-long reputation for catapulting writers to international acclaim and transforming their careers. The award is open to any novel published in the United Kingdom and Ireland, regardless of the author’s country of origin. Last year’s honor went to Hungarian-British author David Szalay for his work *Flesh*.

    In the coming months, the judging panel will narrow the 13-book longlist down to six finalists, with the shortlist set to be announced on September 22. The overall winner of the 2024 Booker Prize will be revealed at a formal ceremony in London on November 9.

  • Investigators find apparent claim of responsibility after Berlin Pride attack

    Investigators find apparent claim of responsibility after Berlin Pride attack

    BERLIN — German law enforcement officials announced Tuesday that investigators have discovered what investigators assess to be a claim of responsibility from the perpetrator of a fatal violent assault near Berlin’s annual Pride festival, an incident that left one person dead and more than two dozen others injured. The 21-year-old suspect, Abdul Ballout, was shot and killed during a confrontation with responding police officers on Sunday, just one day after investigators say he carried out the coordinated attack: ramming a rented van into a crowd of festival attendees gathered near the event’s closing celebration, then charging at bystanders with a machete to inflict additional harm. A Polish national was killed in the attack, and 31 additional people suffered injuries of varying severity, authorities confirmed.

    In a public briefing this week, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt outlined that investigators have been conducting a forensic analysis of a cellphone recovered from the suspect’s van, where a pre-recorded video containing a possible claim of responsibility was located. Dobrindt noted the individual appearing in the video is heavily disguised, but forensic profiling and voice analysis have led investigators to conclude the speaker is almost certainly Ballout. The German federal prosecutor’s office later formally confirmed the video’s contents: it explicitly states the suspect’s intent to carry out a deadly attack and includes a formal pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group. The existence of the video was first reported by Germany’s mass-circulation daily *Bild*, before official confirmation.

    Additional evidence tying the attack to extremist ideology was recovered during a search of Ballout’s private apartment, Dobrindt added, with clear links to the Islamic State network, though he declined to provide further specific details about the nature of that evidence to avoid compromising the ongoing investigation. Berlin-based prosecutors have previously outlined that Ballout, a German-born citizen of Lebanese descent, attempted to travel to Syria in 2025 via Lebanon to join IS ranks, and successfully established contact with multiple individuals believed to be active members of the extremist network.

    The attack has sparked growing public and political scrutiny of Germany’s counterterrorism oversight systems, as Ballout had already been convicted on previous charges linked to his efforts to connect with IS, yet remained free to plan and carry out the large-scale assault. Addressing these questions Tuesday, Dobrindt argued that individuals formally classified as terror threats should not be released with suspended sentences, and questioned the decision to apply juvenile justice procedures to Ballout’s case, which was the legal framework used in his earlier prosecution. Dobrindt also stated that mandated electronic monitoring via ankle bracelets should be standard practice for high-risk terror suspects to restrict their movement, though he acknowledged that even the most robust monitoring systems cannot deliver “absolute security” against the threat of lone-actor extremist violence.

  • Why is Ukraine rolling out the red carpet for a US far-right influencer?

    Why is Ukraine rolling out the red carpet for a US far-right influencer?

    In a surprising move that has sparked widespread discussion across political circles, Ukraine has opened its doors and extended rare, extensive on-the-ground access to Laura Loomer, a polarizing far-right American influencer closely aligned with former US President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. What makes the decision particularly striking is Loomer’s public history as an open critic of Ukraine in the past, a background that makes the red carpet treatment extended to her stand out even more sharply against the country’s usual outreach to international visitors. As a prominent voice in the MAGA ecosystem, Loomer has built a large following by leaning into hardline conservative rhetoric and aligning closely with the core priorities of Trump’s political base, which has increasingly shifted toward a more skeptical stance on US military and financial aid to Kyiv amid the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion. Political analysts have noted that Ukraine’s decision to court Loomer reflects a growing, pragmatic push by Kyiv to build support across the entire spectrum of American politics, not just among traditional liberal and establishment conservative backers of aid. With Republicans in the US Congress holding up new multi-billion dollar aid packages for Ukraine, Kyiv’s leadership has made it a priority to engage with high-profile right-wing voices that can help shift public opinion among Trump’s base, a key voting bloc that will play a critical role in the 2024 US presidential election and future congressional decisions on aid. While some critics have questioned the wisdom of engaging with a figure as controversial as Loomer, Ukrainian officials have signaled that outreach to unconventional allies is a necessary step in their ongoing global campaign to maintain international support for their war effort against Russia.

  • Law student charged after bomb discovery in car will be bailed

    Law student charged after bomb discovery in car will be bailed

    A 25-year-old Irish law student charged in relation to the discovery of an explosive device in a County Monaghan vehicle has been approved for release on bail, after a weeks-long verification process for her proposed surety was completed.

    Isobella Perrie Sullivan, a resident of Abbeylands Park in Clane, County Kildare, saw her initial bail application put on hold last week while authorities carried out thorough background and financial checks on a €15,000 independent surety put forward for her release. The surety, an individual based in County Mayo, submitted all required banking documentation to the court to verify the assets, clearing the final hurdle for bail approval.

    Sullivan did not attend Tuesday’s session at Cavan District Court, either in person or via remote video link, for the final ruling on her application. During the short hearing, representatives of An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police service, requested that an additional condition be added to Sullivan’s bail terms: a complete ban on any direct or indirect contact with her co-accused in the case, as well as any associates of that co-accused.

    Judge Brian Sheridan ruled that the request put forward by gardaí was already explicitly covered by the standard bail conditions that were laid out during Sullivan’s first court appearance on the previous Friday. As a result, no changes to the initial bail terms were required ahead of her release.

    Sullivan is next scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing at Monaghan District Court in August, where the case against her will proceed through the Irish legal system. No additional details about the nature of the explosive device, or the identity of the co-accused, have been released to the public as the investigation remains ongoing.

  • ‘It’s a hell of a situation’: Spain grapples with devastating wildfires

    ‘It’s a hell of a situation’: Spain grapples with devastating wildfires

    For seven consecutive days, hundreds of firefighters across Spain have battled an unprecedented outbreak of destructive wildfires that have swept through rural landscapes, put dozens of populated communities at severe risk, and displaced more than 90,000 residents from their homes. As emergency crews work to contain the spreading blazes, forecasters warn a new, prolonged heatwave will descend on the country starting Wednesday, creating dangerous conditions that threaten to undermine weeks of hard-won progress.

    Three large, fast-moving fires burning in the Madrid region have emerged as the primary focus of national concern. On Monday, regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso visited the scorched affected areas alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, where she described the unfolding crisis as a hellish landscape that has turned affected regions into what resembles a war zone. Ayuso has previously characterized the outbreak as the single largest natural catastrophe in Spain’s modern history.

    As of Tuesday, the national scale of displacement remains staggering: more than 56,500 residents have been evacuated from the Madrid region alone, with an additional 27,800 ordered to shelter in place under lockdown. Four Madrid municipalities remain under full lockdown, while 12 others have been fully evacuated. Evacuation orders have also been issued for communities across Ávila, Toledo, and Valencia, bringing the national total of displaced people to over 90,000.

    Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Prime Minister Sánchez acknowledged that the coming hours and days would bring extraordinary challenges for emergency crews, but noted that there is now a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. The prime minister officially designated all wildfire-affected regions as disaster zones, and used the briefing to issue a sharp call for national unity in addressing climate change, saying “the climate emergency is worsening year after year, and we are required to be united to fight against fire, as well as in prevention and reconstruction. Climate denial is the worst fuel for the fight against the climate emergency.”

    Spain’s national meteorological agency Aemet forecasts that temperatures will climb as high as 40C across many regions in the coming days, with the heatwave expected to persist at least through Sunday. The agency has warned that rising temperatures will push fire danger to extreme levels, creating dangerous working conditions that will slow containment efforts. The Madrid region is already under a red-level weather alert, with forecasts calling for highs of 35C in mountain areas and 38C across lower-elevation parts of the region.

    Despite the looming threat of extreme heat, emergency officials have reported incremental progress in containing the blazes. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told state broadcaster La 1 that overnight firefighting operations on Monday delivered relatively positive results. “This morning, we are very satisfied with the work done. We are going to consolidate the work that has been done,” he said, adding “we must be positive; we have the emergency under control” while conceding that “weather conditions are not helping us at all.” Ayuso also noted on social media platform X that the situation is improving little by little, and that some displaced residents could be allowed to return to their homes in the near future.

    Local leaders in evacuated Madrid communities have echoed the call for continued vigilance ahead of the heatwave. Mayors of two affected towns described the unpredictable blazes as “a kitten by night and a lion by day”, noting that fire activity dies down overnight but surges dramatically with daytime heat. Robledo de Chavela mayor Fernando Casado said his community would continue fighting “with their knives out”, while Valdemaqueda mayor Ricardo Meneses added that “we can’t let our guard down and we’re on high alert because now is the time to stop the fire.”

    On-the-ground reporting from the affected region paints a grim picture of the destruction. Spanish journalist Juan Navarro, reporting from Cebreros, a town 40 miles west of Madrid, told the BBC that local residents are gripped by fear as they wait for the incoming heatwave. Driving through nearby burned villages, Navarro said “everything is black”, leaving little intact after the passing of the flames.

    As of the latest government update, the massive fire burning in the Madrid region remains active and uncontrolled, with Tuesday’s firefighting operations focused on increased surveillance and cooling hot spots in preparation for the forecast heat surge. Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen confirmed that the wildfires have already burned roughly 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres) of land across Spain, with the Ávila-area blaze ranking as the largest wildfire in Spain’s recent history. More than 50,000 hectares have burned in Ávila alone, though officials reported “quite favourable” progress overnight, with only small new flare-ups that are now being closely monitored by emergency crews.

    In eastern Spain, the Valencian regional government has lifted lockdown orders for the town of Vall D’Uixo, where a fire that broke out on July 25 forced 16,000 residents from 20 nearby municipalities to evacuate. The crisis has also spread beyond Spain’s borders: neighboring Portugal is currently battling a large wildfire with three active fronts in the eastern Guarda region, where local firefighters are working around the clock to contain the spread.

  • UN chief makes rare Cyprus visit to help ease decades-old ethnic division

    UN chief makes rare Cyprus visit to help ease decades-old ethnic division

    In a landmark diplomatic trip that marks the first visit by a sitting United Nations Secretary-General to Cyprus in 16 years, António Guterres arrived on the divided island nation this Tuesday to reignite efforts to resolve a 50-year ethnic split that has shaped regional geopolitics since the mid-1970s. Though long-held political rifts have kept expectations of an immediate breakthrough to a lasting peace accord low, Guterres emphasized his unwavering personal and institutional commitment to facilitating a deal between the island’s two competing communities.

    Following an initial closed-door meeting with Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, Guterres told reporters he would spare no effort to support both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leadership at this critical juncture for the peace process. The UN chief later held separate talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, with scheduled joint negotiating sessions planned for the remainder of Tuesday and all of Wednesday.

    This new diplomatic push comes after nearly a decade of stalled formal peace talks. The last high-stakes negotiation effort, which Guterres himself mediated back in 2017, fell apart amid bitter mutual recriminations over which side bore responsibility for the resulting impasse. Now, just months before Guterres’ second UN term comes to an end, the Secretary-General is working to convene a broader high-level meeting that will include top diplomatic representatives from Cyprus’ three international guarantor powers: Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The goal of this gathering is to formally announce the resumption of full peace talks, building momentum that Guterres’ successor can carry forward to a final resolution.

    A successful reunification deal for Cyprus carries far-reaching strategic and economic benefits beyond the island itself. Analysts and diplomats widely agree that a peaceful settlement would unlock massive untapped natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, opening a new critical energy supply route for Europe and global markets at a time of widespread energy security uncertainty. A deal would also ease long-simmering regional tensions that stem from competing overlapping claims to energy resources, territorial waters, and regional influence among global and local powers.

    Cyprus’ division dates back to 1974, when a Greek Athens-backed coup aimed at unifying the entire island with Greece prompted a Turkish military invasion. The intervention split the island along ethnic lines, with Turkish Cypriot communities consolidating control over the northern third of Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots declared formal independence in 1983, a move that has only received diplomatic recognition from Turkey, which currently stations more than 35,000 troops in the northern territory. The internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government of the south brought the entire island into the European Union in 2004, though only the southern region enjoys the full benefits of EU membership.

    Guterres underscored the far-reaching implications of a peace deal in his remarks after meeting Christodoulides, noting that a resolution would not only transform the lives of Cypriots on both sides of the divide but also bring much-needed stability to a region facing unprecedented geopolitical turmoil.

    Cyprus government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis framed Guterres’ in-person visit, a rare display of personal commitment from a top UN official, as a positive signal that incremental progress is within reach. Still, significant political hurdles remain that threaten to derail the revived peace process. A UN-endorsed framework for a reunified federal Cyprus, made up of two ethnically based self-governing zones, has existed for decades, but the passage of time has hardened negotiating positions on both sides and widened the political gap between the two communities.

    Turkish Cypriot leaders argue that Greek Cypriots, who make up the island’s overall majority, have consistently refused to agree to equal power-sharing arrangements even under the proposed federal model. Earlier this month, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz reaffirmed Ankara’s longstanding call for a two-state solution that would grant full international recognition to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state. Yilmaz also issued a thinly veiled warning to the Greek Cypriot government against using its EU membership and deepening strategic ties with Israel to gain greater diplomatic leverage over Ankara in upcoming talks.

    For their part, Greek Cypriot leaders have repeatedly ruled out accepting any two-state agreement, saying such a deal would formalize the island’s permanent partition and entrench the Turkish military presence that Greek Cypriots view as an existential threat to their sovereignty.

  • Firefighters say they’ve never seen anything like Spain’s record blaze

    Firefighters say they’ve never seen anything like Spain’s record blaze

    BARCELONA, Spain — For veteran Spanish wildland firefighter Javier García, 20 years of defending rural communities and wooded landscapes have prepared him for nothing that matches the scale of the historic megablaze burning through central Spain, west of the capital Madrid.

    In an interview ahead of another grueling 12-hour shift on the fire line, García described the unprecedented inferno as an event without any parallel in his decades of service. Currently, the out-of-control blaze has already scorched 500 square kilometers of terrain — an area five times larger than the entire city of Barcelona — and forced 25,000 residents to evacuate their villages across the smoldering hills of Ávila.

    The unprecedented ferocity of this wildfire, the largest ever recorded in Spain, has upended longstanding firefighting strategies. Fire commanders have been forced to completely shift operational priorities: evacuating at-risk communities and protecting populated property now take precedence over direct fire suppression, as fast-moving flame walls and extreme heat create deadly conditions that make frontal attacks on the blaze far too dangerous.

    García called the fire’s rapid spread alarming, noting a profound shift in how his brigade operates. Where once his team would advance to battle wildfires deep in wilderness areas, they now serve as a last line of defense focused exclusively on saving human lives. To date, no fatalities have been reported across the three active major blazes burning across Spain: the Ávila fire, a second blaze in the Madrid region, and a third in eastern Castellón. Combined, the three fires have forced nearly 79,000 people to leave their homes. “That gives us more work and more stress,” García explained. “Now it is lives first, then homes, and after, the forest.”

    García is part of Spain’s national emergency wildfire brigade, a mobile unit that deploys to support regional fire crews when blazes outgrow local capacity. Based in Ávila, his 40-person team has already spent three consecutive days battling the current inferno, after wrapping up assignments at two other recent major blazes in Guadalajara and near Zaragoza in recent weeks. The Guadalajara fire alone burned 320 square kilometers, making it the third largest wildfire recorded in Spanish history.

    “Until last year, I had never experienced fighting one big fire after another,” the 43-year-old firefighter said.

    Spain’s hot, dry summers have long made large swathes of the country naturally prone to wildfires. But climate experts and Spanish government officials confirm human-caused climate change has dramatically amplified risk: it has increased the frequency and intensity of heat waves and extended multi-year drought periods, stretching the annual high wildfire risk window far beyond historic norms. Once ignited, today’s wildfires grow at speeds and intensities that were rarely seen even a decade ago.

    García notes that where his team once faced roughly 15 days of extreme fire risk annually, that number has jumped to between 30 and 40 days a year. So far in 2025, wildfires across Spain have burned 1,530 square kilometers of land — six times the total area scorched by blazes in the first half of last year, according to Spanish Ecology Minister Sara Aagesen.

    Spain’s wildfire crisis is part of a broader regional emergency across southwestern Europe. A separate megablaze in neighboring France has already forced more than 200,000 people to evacuate their homes, prompting France to order an additional 4,000 evacuations as ongoing heat waves hamper fire suppression efforts.

    For Raúl Guerrero, a 29-year-old firefighter with 10 years of experience in Castilla y León, the autonomous region that includes Ávila, the current blaze is unlike any he has ever fought. Multiple times over the course of the response, his 40-person unit has been forced to retreat to safer ground when the fast-moving fire put them at risk of being trapped.

    He described the blaze as repeatedly exceeding Spain’s wildfire extinguishing capacity. “The fire is so virulent and has such power that no matter what you do, you can’t put it out,” he said. When asked about the emotional weight of that reality, Guerrero responded simply: “above all, impotent.”

    While wildfires are most often ignited by lightning or accidental sparks from agricultural equipment, firefighters and experts point to a second human-caused factor that has made modern blazes far more dangerous: the gradual abandonment of rural land use. For generations, small farms, orchards and local forestry industries created natural buffer zones of cleared land around villages and populated areas that slowed fire spread. As those industries have disappeared and rural populations have declined, unmanaged vegetation now grows right up to the edge of residential areas.

    Guerrero called this unmaintained overgrowth “pure gunpowder” waiting to ignite, and urged local authorities and private property owners to implement year-round brush clearing and forest management to reduce future risk.

    Across the Atlantic, the wildfire crisis is not limited to Europe: a major wildfire in the U.S. state of Oregon has forced the closure of 70 miles of a major interstate highway, demonstrating how extreme wildfire has become a global challenge driven by shifting climate patterns.

  • Drone footage shows burnt trees and scorched earth

    Drone footage shows burnt trees and scorched earth

    Newly released aerial drone footage has laid bare the devastating aftermath of ongoing wildfires tearing through French landscapes, offering a stark visual record of charred tree trunks stretching across thousands of acres and blackened, ash-covered earth where vibrant vegetation once grew. As a second record-breaking heatwave settles over southern Europe, pushing temperatures well above seasonal averages and drying out already parched vegetation, French fire service officials have described the ongoing battle to contain the blazes as a modern-day “David against Goliath.”

    Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed from neighboring regions and across the country to reinforce frontline teams, working around the clock to build containment lines and protect residential communities and protected natural habitats. Unseasonably high temperatures, combined with erratic gusty winds, have turned small spot fires into large, fast-moving infernos that are extremely difficult to predict or control. Fire service spokespersons note that under current climate conditions, the deck is stacked heavily against containment efforts, with dry underbrush and overheated air acting as constant fuel for new outbreaks.

    The ongoing heatwave has exacerbated already strained wildfire response resources, with emergency teams facing extended shift hours and limited downtime between outbreaks. Ecologists warn that this event is the latest in a growing pattern of more intense and frequent wildfire seasons across southern Europe, linked directly to long-term global climate change trends. Local authorities have urged residents to follow evacuation orders immediately and avoid unnecessary travel through high-risk fire zones, as response teams continue their uphill battle against the spreading blazes.

  • Zelensky to press Trump on air defences while in Washington

    Zelensky to press Trump on air defences while in Washington

    As Volodymyr Zelenskyy touches down in Washington for high-stakes talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, the Ukrainian leader is prioritizing one urgent, long-sought goal: locking in firm commitments to strengthen Kyiv’s air and ballistic missile defense capabilities amid a sharp escalation of Russian long-range attacks.

    The visit comes at a pivotal moment in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with both sides ramping up cross-border drone and missile strikes. In overnight operations this week, Moscow reported that more than 390 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital and surrounding regions between 8:30 p.m. Monday and 6:30 a.m. Tuesday local time. Russian air defense systems intercepted most of the unmanned aerial vehicles, but verified footage from BBC Confirm shows damage to a high-rise residential building in Chekhov, south of Moscow, and a large fire at a warehouse in the western Moscow suburb of Berezhki. Local authorities confirmed no fatalities or serious injuries from the strikes.

    Since Zelenskyy’s last conversation with Trump in early July, Ukrainian forces have increasingly targeted Russian logistics infrastructure, including four warehouses belonging to major Russian e-commerce retailer Wildberries. The strikes have worsened operational disruptions for small and medium-sized businesses across multiple regions of Russia.

    Zelenskyy’s top ask at this week’s White House meeting is moving forward on a previously floated plan to grant Ukraine a license to domestically produce Patriot air defense interceptors. Russian forces have dramatically stepped up deadly ballistic missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, and Zelenskyy has repeatedly emphasized that Kyiv faces a critical shortage of interceptors to protect civilian infrastructure. While Patriot systems have topped Ukraine’s military assistance wishlist for years, global stockpiles of the U.S.-made interceptors have been depleted by ongoing conflicts in both Ukraine and the Middle East, leaving very limited supplies available for transfer.

    Turning a license agreement into full co-production of the advanced PAC-2 and PAC-3 Patriot variants on Ukrainian territory will require navigating a complex web of political, legal and technical hurdles, a process that could take many months to complete. Still, there are early signs of movement: a delegation from Raytheon, the U.S. defense manufacturer that produces Patriot systems, traveled to Kyiv last week, and Zelenskyy said the company has expressed readiness to deepen bilateral defense cooperation.

    The Washington visit is not limited to talks between Zelenskyy and Trump. Both Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are in the U.S. capital to attend the funeral of longtime Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 71. After meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump will hold his first in-person meeting with Netanyahu since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran in late February.

    Tensions between the two conflict zones spilled over over the weekend, when Ukrainian forces struck an Iranian cargo vessel operating in the Caspian Sea. Kyiv has labeled Iran a direct accomplice to Russia’s invasion, claiming it has evidence that Russia has shared classified satellite intelligence with Tehran that has enabled Iranian attacks on U.S. military installations and Gulf Arab states. When asked about the allegation last week, Trump said he would question Russian President Vladimir Putin to verify the claim, but added that even if it proved true, it would not change U.S. policy at this time.

    On the Russian side, President Putin struck a defiant tone during remarks to the Russian State Duma on Monday, framing recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory as “terrorist methods” targeting civilians that would never break the spirit of the Russian people. “We will achieve our objectives and will together do everything for victory, for Russia,” Putin told lawmakers.

    The war took an unexpected diplomatic turn over the weekend, when Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a longstanding Russian ally, publicly questioned Moscow’s war aims. Tokayev said that the roots of the full-scale invasion remained “not understandable” to him, and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities to open the door for peace negotiations. He proposed revisiting the 2022 Istanbul negotiation framework, labeled “Istanbul formula 2.0,” as a starting point for talks. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the proposal on Monday, saying that a freeze in hostilities was impossible under current conditions “given Kyiv’s position.”

  • NATO member Romania shoots down stray drones from Ukraine war after years of incursions

    NATO member Romania shoots down stray drones from Ukraine war after years of incursions

    For nearly two and a half years, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has created a persistent, dangerous headache for one of its closest neighbors: Romania, an Eastern European member of both the European Union and NATO. Repeated incursions by stray drones originating from cross-border attacks on Ukraine have violated Romanian sovereignty, damaged property, and even injured civilians, forcing a long-controversial policy shift: Bucharest has formally approved shooting down unauthorized drones entering its airspace, and has already made good on this new strategy.

    Starting last Friday, Romanian pilots flying F-16 fighter jets intercepted and shot down three unidentified drones in three consecutive days, as Russia ramped up missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure near the shared border. After military forensics confirmed the downed aircraft were of Russian origin, Romanian officials took swift diplomatic action: on Monday, they summoned Russia’s ambassador to Bucharest to deliver a formal protest, and ordered one Russian diplomatic staff member expelled from the country, giving the individual five days to depart.

    This marks a sharp break from Romania’s previous approach to drone incursions. For years after the full invasion began in February 2022, Romanian authorities responded to intrusions by scrambling jet fighters to intercept aircraft, collecting downed debris and fragments, constructing emergency fallout shelters along the border, and issuing repeated diplomatic reprimands to Moscow. Late last year, following a wave of incursions across NATO’s eastern flank, Romania and neighboring Poland jointly acquired the MEROPS counter-drone system, a short-range defensive tool designed to disable or destroy incoming stray unmanned aircraft. Even after passing legislation authorizing the military to shoot down incursive drones last year – a move that faced fierce opposition from nationalist domestic political parties – Bucharest held off on implementing the policy until recently.

    Drones and drone fragments have crossed into the territory of multiple European Union nations since the war began, but the issue has been uniquely persistent for Romania. Official data from Romania’s Ministry of National Defense shows that at least 19 drones have violated Romanian airspace in 2024 alone, and a total of 50 confirmed incidents of drones or drone debris ending up on Romanian territory have been recorded since the war launched in February 2022. The most high-profile prior incident came in May 2024, when a stray drone crashed into an apartment block in the eastern Danube River port town of Galati, leaving a mother and her child injured.

    Military analysts say that Galati incident acted as a critical psychological turning point for Romanian authorities. Speaking to reporters, Romanian military analyst Radu Tudor explained that the civilian injuries changed the government’s long-standing approach, adding, “This was somehow a kind of psychological trigger, in order to say: ‘OK, enough is enough.’” Tudor also noted that the policy shift likely reflects a broader change across NATO, rather than just a unilateral Romanian decision. “Until now, it probably was an Allied decision in NATO not to respond with firepower, because it was somehow a danger of escalation,” he said. “I think it’s not only a change of attitude of Romania, I think it’s a change of attitude in NATO.”

    This is not the first time Romanian forces have shot down a stray drone in the region. Back in May, Romanian pilots, who rotate through deployments in Lithuania as part of NATO’s collective eastern flank defense capabilities, shot down a stray Ukrainian drone over Estonian airspace. That interception provided critical tactical experience that the Romanian military used to refine its procedures for downing incursive drones. “We recorded more than 100 attacks with drones near our border with Ukraine, and many of them resulted in debris or even drones that penetrated our airspace,” Cristian Popovici, head of public relations for the Romanian defense ministry and a former air defense officer, told the Associated Press. “Our pilots and our air force, we developed the tactics, procedures, and now we can face and we can eliminate this threat.” Popovici added that after the Estonian interception, the military applied the lessons learned, resulting in a 100 percent success rate for the three intercepts carried out last week.

    Romanian President Nicusor Dan publicly praised the pilots following the interceptions, and firmly placed blame for the incursions on Moscow. “It is unacceptable and intolerable for the Russian Federation to continue violating Romanian airspace,” Dan said. To date, Romania has become the only NATO member on the eastern flank to shoot down four incursive drones: three on its own territory and one over Estonia. The tough stance from Bucharest aligns with a recent message from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte during the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey earlier this month: “Don’t play with us.”

    Moscow has rejected all accusations of responsibility for the incursions. In a statement posted to its official Facebook page, the Russian embassy in Bucharest denied the claims, saying Russia “has never directed and does not direct combat drones” to Romanian territory, and called the allegations “completely unfounded.” The embassy also warned that the unprovoked expulsion of a Russian diplomatic staff member “will not go unanswered.”

    Despite its new hardline approach to stopping incursions, Romanian officials have emphasized that the country has no intention of being drawn directly into the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. “We are in a peacetime, we are not involved in this fight,” Popovici said. “If Russia wants to escalate with NATO, it’s up to them. I’m not sure it’s a wise move now.”