Karoline Leavitt calls apparent bets on Kalshi prediction platform ‘deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace’
Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator has been placed on administrative leave, the White House said on Thursday, after reports that he used his position to win $100,000 by placing bets on the president’s speeches using the online prediction market Kalshi.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president had been informed about the situation, which she described as “deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Türkiye has reaffirmed its readiness to help facilitate a meeting at the leaders' level aimed at ending the war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the new government led by Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi will focus primarily on preparing Ukraine for the coming winter and accelerating the implementation of agreements with international partners.
Liz Oyer, a former pardon attorney, condemned Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, over his Wednesday testimony to the Senate judiciary committee. Blanche fired Oyer after she refused to recommend restoring firearms rights to the actor and Trump ally Mel Gibson, who was previously convicted of domestic violence.
“I declined to rubber-stamp a political favor for a friend of the president, and it cost me my job,” the former US pardon attorney told the committee on the second day of Blanche’s confirmation hearing.
Senator John Fetterman said he would consider leaving the Democratic party it ever became “the anti-Israel party”, as more than 100 House lawmakers backed halting military aid to the Middle Eastern ally over its incursions into Gaza and Lebanon.
The Pennsylvania senator has emerged as one of Israel’s most prominent advocates among Senate Democrats, even as others in the party back away from their traditional support for the country amid accusations that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government committed genocide in Gaza.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte does not expect the appointment of a new Ukrainian defense minister to bring major changes to Kiev's strategy in its fight against Russia.
More than 100 Democrats voted to cut military aid to Israel as US public opinion shifts – Republicans are noticing too
Somewhere in the days before Wednesday’s vote, Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, sat down and wrote his caucus a letter urging Democrats to reject an amendment that would strip security assistance to Israel. For most of his tenure as Democratic leader, that kind of internal whipping operation would have been unnecessary, because the outcome would have been assumed.
His own second-in-command voted the other way anyway.
The Republican Senate nominee in Georgia, Mike Collins, who has been plagued by a string of controversies in his time in public office, has close ties with a white nationalist influencer – his son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II – it has transpired.
A trucking executive and one-time “Freedom caucus” conservative endorsed by Donald Trump, Collins has been the GOP representative for Georgia’s 10th congressional district since 2023. In that time, the anti-abortion hardliner has drawn scrutiny over his associations with far-right and extremist figures, incendiary social media activity and accusations of antisemitism, which he has denied. He has also denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election and defended January 6 rioters, who he has said deserved pardons.
There was a sense of deja vu as Argentina came from behind to win an intense semi-final. But the players also gave the nation some memorable highs
Historically, English football-supporting culture has had a well-known darker side. But in recent decades, as the England men’s team’s trophy drought has continued, some of its unofficial anthems have acquired an endearingly melancholy quality. “It was nearly complete, it was nearly so sweet”, as the Three Lions song had it in the 1990s, when England exited a World Cup and a European Championship at the semi-final stage.
This summer, Oasis’s Wonderwall has been the soundtrack as Harry Kane and co progressed to Wednesday’s climactic semi-final showdown with Argentina. This is a song which, very wisely in an England context, puts a heavy emphasis on the idea of “maybe”. In the end it turned out to be maybe not.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Yevhen Khmara as acting minister of defense of Ukraine and, once the necessary legal procedures are completed, will ask the Verkhovna Rada to endorse his nomination.
Replacement of panels with version that’s sympathetic to enslavers comes amid effort by Trump to dismantle diversity initiatives
Critics say the Trump administration acted under the “cover of darkness” to replace an exhibit exploring the lives of nine enslaved people who lived at George Washington’s Philadelphia home with a version that is overly sympathetic to enslavers and that whitewashes the country’s origins.
The installation of new information panels followed a six-month fight between the city of Philadelphia and the Trump administration over an enslavement memorial at the President’s House, the former home of both Washington and his presidential successor John Adams.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that reform initiatives proposed by the Ministry of Defense had begun to be blocked and that Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi was not prepared to discuss existing problems openly.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has removed the defense minister who built Ukraine’s drone war and pushed Elon Musk to cut Russia off from Starlink—Mykhailo Fedorov, a minister whom Ukrainians, in the last national poll, trust more than the president himself. Analysts and anti-corruption campaigners say the entire government was dissolved to make his removal possible without a scandalous vote.
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Ukraine’s reformist defense Minister is out after six months. Earlier, his audit exposed $7.2 billion in defense overspending
The move has set off a sharp public backlash, which commentators are comparing to last summer’s anti-corruption protests. A senior air force commander resigned, and cardboard-sign crowds returned to the streets of Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and other cities on the morning of 16 July, hours after Russian ballistic missiles killed two people in Kyiv overnight. Parliament is expected to vote on Zelenskyy’s nominee, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, later in the day.
By mid-morning, the protests had spread to Ivano-Frankivsk, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Mykolaiv, with crowds in Kyiv chanting “Shame.”
The crowds gathered at the same Kyiv square, beside the Ivan Franko Theatre and in sight of the Office of the President, where they massed a year ago to defend the country’s anti-corruption agencies. This standoff forced Zelenskyy to reverse course within nine days. By mid-morning, the protests had spread to more cities—Ivano-Frankivsk, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Mykolaiv—with crowds in Kyiv chanting “Shame.”
Protesters on Rishelievska Street in Odesa on the morning of 16 July rally against the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one holding a sign reading “The army needs innovation, Ukraine needs Fedorov.” Photo: Телебачення Торонто / @torontotv
A resignation from inside the air force
Pavlo Yelizarov, a deputy commander of the air force, announced his resignation in protest, saying he had joined the armed forces in 2022 to win the war, not to imitate activity, and warning that stalling Fedorov’s air-defense reforms would let more Russian missiles and drones through. He called the dismissal grave harm to the country’s defense but said he would stay in uniform.
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Ukraine’s deputy Air Force commander resigns the moment Fedorov loses the ministry
Serhii Sternenko, who advised the ministry on drones, also stepped down.
By the figures Fedorov published in his farewell message, the air force’s interception rate for attack drones rose from 83% to 91% during his six months, and for cruise missiles from 47% to 87%—gains he tied to after-action reviews of each mass Russian strike. His team also ran the Logistics Lockdown program, which is choking Russian resupply to occupied Crimea.
Olexiy Haran, professor of comparative politics at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and research director at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. Photo: Olexiy Haran / Facebook
The minister who outpolled the president
Zelenskyy has cast the decision as a management problem. At a Servant of the People faction meeting on 15 July, he pointed to a running conflict between Fedorov and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. He said Fedorov had failed to deliver mobilization reform, according to lawmakers who were there.
The stated reason for dismissing Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko—the need for an energy specialist before winter—was unpersuasive.
Olexiy Haran, professor of comparative politics at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and research director at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, offered Euromaidan Press a different read.
The stated reason for dismissing Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko—the need for an energy specialist before winter—was unpersuasive, he said, since outgoing first deputy prime minister and energy minister Denys Shmyhal was already a high-level specialist in the field.
The more convincing explanation lay in Fedorov: dissolving the whole cabinet let Zelenskyy drop him without a targeted dismissal vote that would have drawn a scandal. Anti-corruption campaigner Daria Kaleniuk reached the same conclusion, telling the Kyiv Independent the entire government resignation was conceived to remove Fedorov.
In a recent poll, more Ukrainians trusted Fedorov than distrusted him by a margin of 29 points—wider than Zelenskyy’s 27.
The trigger, Haran said, may be Fedorov’s popularity. In a recent KIIS poll from May and early June, more Ukrainians trusted Fedorov than distrusted him by a margin of 29 points—wider than Zelenskyy’s 27, and beaten only by the Kharkiv mayor and the war’s most-trusted commanders, among them former army chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Zelenskyy, Haran said, may have come to see his defense minister as a rival, and he predicted the removal would only lift Fedorov’s standing.
Volodymyr Omelyan, former minister of infrastructure of Ukraine. Photo: Volodymyr Omelyan / Facebook
A former minister’s harsher read
Former infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelyan told Euromaidan Press that the reshuffle could be an attempt to strengthen the government before a hard winter—but only if real professionals are appointed and left to work free of the Office of the President, which he doubted would happen.
He dismissed a theory foreign analysts had raised with Euromaidan Press—that the change is meant to reset relations with Poland—as nonsense.
Zelenskyy’s overriding aim, Omelyan argued, is to consolidate the security services and sideline the opposition to hold power indefinitely, with the war effort, arming the military, and EU integration all ranked behind the private interests of a few people around him.
He dismissed a theory foreign analysts had raised with Euromaidan Press—that the change is meant to reset relations with Poland—as nonsense, saying it would take new presidents in both countries.
Liudmyla Buimister, non-affiliated member of Ukraine's parliament. Photo: Liudmyla Buimister / Facebook
Doubts about the successor
Klymenko, tapped to replace him, brings his own controversy. Non-affiliated MP Liudmyla Buimister warned that handing him defense would endanger a key wartime ministry, saying he had failed outright as interior minister.
She blamed him for the chaotic “busification” mobilization drives—in which men are seized off the street into vans—that police, she said, first stood back from and then made worse, in remarks on Telegram.
A reversal would mean Zelenskyy openly readmitting Fedorov, and the president, he said, is stubborn.
Incoming prime minister Serhii Koretskyi defended the nominee, calling him a results-driven minister. The objection lands on the exact ground Zelenskyy used to justify the swap: he faulted Fedorov for failing on mobilization, and mobilization is the brief on which Buimister says Klymenko has already failed.
Whether the protests move Zelenskyy is the open question. Last summer, mass protests and a freeze on EU aid reversed a similar move in nine days. Haran expects it to be harder this time: a reversal would mean Zelenskyy openly readmitting Fedorov, and the president, he said, is stubborn in such moments.
The average price of diesel fuel in the US has increased again to more than $5 a gallon, according to the AAA, and the average price of gas is almost $4, returning to their highs before the June memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran.
It’s a reminder to consumers and truckers of the costs of the Iran war and the unpredictable rhetoric from both Washington and Tehran. A year ago today, the AAA says, the average price for a gallon of diesel was $3.72, almost a dollar and a quarter less than it is now.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha drew the attention of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of the Holy See to the humanitarian situation in the Russian-occupied communities of Oleshky and Hola Prystan, where thousands of civilians urgently need a humanitarian corridor.
Ukraine supports Turkey serving as one of the main venues for a potential meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Marco Rubio has offered nonsensical rationale in attacking the court. The Trump administration’s real goal is impunity
With the pointless war of choice in Iran going poorly, the Trump administration has declared a virtual war on the international criminal court (ICC). Secretary of state, Marco Rubio, vowed on Monday to “dismantle” the court as a supposed threat to US sovereignty. His rationale is laced with sophistry. The administration’s real goal is to secure impunity for war crimes, even those committed on the territory of ICC member states.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a video posted on X, Rubio conjures up a dystopia in which local American officials such as police officers or border patrol agents “could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles from America”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Moscow continues to rely on ballistic missile terror, launching another large-scale overnight attack that included 13 missiles, eight of them ballistic, and 151 drones.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is scheduled to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on July 16 during his final week in office, reaffirming that the United Kingdom's "cast-iron support for Ukraine will always endure."
President Lula’s office says US move is result of pressure on White House by family of predecessor Jair Bolsonaro
Brazil has vowed to retaliate against Washington’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on imports of some Brazilian products.
The office of the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, described the tariffs as “a regrettable milestone” in the history of relations between the two countries and said they were the result of pressure exerted on the White House by the family of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Russia could soon stage a false-flag attack on Poland's critical infrastructure and attempt to shift the blame onto Ukraine, former Polish Minister of National Defense Janusz Onyszkiewicz has said.
Dena Karari, dual US-Iranian citizen, ‘now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition’, president posts on Truth Social
Donald Trump said Wednesday Iran had agreed to release an American citizen who was “wrongfully detained” since December 2024.
“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote on social media, without naming the woman. “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!”
Trump’s effort to revamp the landmark stretched well past the goal of having it ready by the Fourth of July
The newly drained Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool’s bottom surface has noticeably faded since it was lined with a protective coating in a color Donald Trump called “American flag blue” this spring.
An Associated Press reporter and photographer viewed the fenced-off reflecting pool on Wednesday from the top of the Washington Monument. The new liner appears grayer than when the pool was repainted and refilled with water in early June. Debris that had been visible earlier this week after the pool was drained is now largely gone, after work crews removed it.
Vice-president tells Joe Rogan administration botched handling and should have released all documents from start
JD Vance agreed with criticism that the Trump administration botched the handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, telling podcast host Joe Rogan that “we absolutely screwed up the comms”.
The Department of Justice’s repeated moves to delay the release of documents related to the convicted sex offender drew bipartisan disapproval last year. The files have been one of the most significant political liabilities to Donald Trump since his second term began.
Japan has acknowledged the need to strengthen its counterintelligence efforts following a media report claiming that Russia has turned the country into a "spy hub" and a key source of components for weapons production.
During confirmation hearing Wednesday, Trump’s pick tells Senate health committee she would ‘never betray the science’
Erica Schwartz, the Trump administration’s latest nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), faced sharp questioning from senators who pressed her to say whether she would stand up to her boss, the health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
During her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Schwartz, a deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration, told the Senate health committee she “will never betray the science” and pledged to use “radical transparency” to rebuild public trust. But she repeatedly deflected questions about how she would handle pressure from Kennedy, a leader in the anti-vaccine movement who has overseen months of turmoil at the agency and made controversial changes to US vaccine policies.
Effort is latest attempt to pass bill that seeks to ban mail-in ballots and imposes voter identification requirements
House Republicans on Wednesday made another attempt to answer Donald Trump’s demand for new restrictions on voting nationwide by linking the measure to an unrelated spending bill and passing both largely along party lines.
The effort was the latest attempt by congressional Republicans to pass the Save America Act, which would ban mail-in ballots and impose new identification requirements on voters when they register and cast ballots. While the Trump administration has cast the bill as necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting and combat election fraud, voting rights advocates say there’s no evidence of widespread election tampering and warn the bill could disenfranchise swaths of eligible voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Backing by 103 Democrats underscores how sentiment in party towards Israel and Netanyahu government has soured
The House on Wednesday defeated a measure toslash military aid to Israel, but more than 100 House Democrats voted for it in a significant rebuke of the longtime US ally as accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government green-lit genocide in Gaza continue to convulse the party ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The amendment proposed by Republican congressman Thomas Massie to a spending measure would have halted $3.3bn in planned aid – much of which would have gone to Israel’s military. But it was rejected by a 104-314 vote, with 10 lawmakers voting present. Massie was the sole member of the GOP to vote yes.
Since start of Trump’s second term, 14 Mexican immigrants have died in ICE custody and three in agency operations
Mexico formally requested that US state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of immigrants who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody or during raids, the Mexican government said Tuesday.
The request follows the death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican immigrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations.
Ukraine hopes to begin the first search operations as early as August in the village of Lasków in Poland's Subcarpathian (Podkarpackie) Voivodeship in the country's southeast, where Ukrainians who died during World War II may be buried.
Friedrich Merz responds to US project offering grants of up to $3m in Europe to address ‘sovereignty, migration and censorship’
Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe.
The German chancellor was responding to a US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals.
US defense secretary unveils plan that will work to ensure service members have the ‘right testosterone levels’
Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that the Department of Defense will offer testosterone deficiency screening for soldiers 30 and older.
The US defense secretary unveiled plans for a new screening program for testosterone deficiency among troops that will work to ensure service members have the “right testosterone levels” to perform at their optimal condition in a video posted to X.
Normal procedure in the immediate aftermath of an unexpected death is to shower the deceased with praise, irrespective of whether it is deserved.
Donald Trump, commemorating Lindsey Graham in recent days, has taken a different tack, sometimes extolling the South Carolina senator’s virtues but at other times rather diminishing the newly deceased 71-year-old.
Musk distributed money to three people before the 2025 election, which he claimed was critical to Trump’s agenda
Billionaire Elon Musk likely violated Wisconsin law when he gave out $1m checks to voters in the 2025 state supreme court election, a bipartisan elections panel has found.
Musk distributed the money before the vote, which he claimed was critical to Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he does not rule out that Russian President Vladimir Putin could announce a mobilization campaign after the parliamentary elections in Russia.
Marc Beckman ridiculed for gushing praise of Melania Trump, whom he hailed for helping rescue Ukrainian children from Russia, despite others doing much more on the issue
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen believes that the next negotiation cluster that could be opened for Ukraine is Cluster 2 (Internal Market).
Republican Trump ally has spent years promoting discredited claims about 2020 election
Donald Trump has endorsed Mike Lindell’s bid for Minnesota governor, calling the MyPillow founder “one of America’s greatest and most hard working Patriots” in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
Trump described Lindell as someone who had “sacrificed” more than almost anyone else “in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity”, invoking Lindell’s years spent promoting discredited claims about the 2020 election. Trump said Lindell “will MAKE MINNESOTA GREAT AGAIN” and gave him full-throated support ahead of the state’s 11 August Republican primary, where early voting is already under way.
Exclusive: bill from Democratic lawmaker comes two days after Marco Rubio vowed to dismantle war crimes tribunal
The Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar introduced a resolution on Wednesday urging the United States to join the international criminal court (ICC), marking the first congressional pushback against the Trump administration’s pledge to “systematically disable” the war crimes tribunal through sanctions and diplomatic pressure.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen signed a Letter of Intent on Strategic Industrial Partnership.
Russia is preparing for further aggression that could target the Baltic states, Moldova, and other parts of Europe, while NATO continues to maintain a sufficient level of deterrence.
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