Kremlin Calls Putin's Talks With US Envoys Useful but Offers No Sign of Breakthrough

Kremlin described Putin’s three-hour meeting with Witkoff and Kushner as “highly useful,” but offered no evidence that they had narrowed the gap over ending the war.

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Germany’s Isar Aerospace successfully launched its Spectrum rocket into orbit from Norway, marking the first commercial orbital launch from continental Europe.

The launch was Isar’s second attempt after its first rocket exploded in 2025, marking a major step toward Europe developing its own launch capabilities and reducing reliance on U.S. providers.

Russian Deputy FM Sergei Ryabkov says a three-way meeting between Trump, Putin, and Xi Jinping is not ruled out.

Germany's Chancellor Merz on AfD:

We will not let these people — who trash the Federal Republic of Germany and everything we have achieved in recent years and decades, despite all the mistakes that exist, despite all the problems we have...

We will not let these people talk our country into ruin!

The Trump administration is considering letting married families with one stay-at-home parent receive federal child-care subsidies.

The benefit would be about $9,000 per child per year and would come from a $12 billion federal fund currently used mainly to help low-income parents work or attend school.

Source: NYT

A gas station in Kharkiv hangs plastic strip curtains from the pump canopy as anti-drone protection.

Cars drive through them like a warehouse entrance.

The idea is to detangle or prematurely detonate low-flying FPV drones before they hit the pumps.

Russian FPVs have been systematically destroying Ukrainian petrol stations through summer 2026.

German AfD Leader Alice Weidel:

Extremist politics is when you keep our borders open and turn us into foreigners in our own country.

Extremist is when you deliberately destroy our energy infrastructure, blow up nuclear power plants.

Extremist is when you pay social benefits to people who are clan members, have 32 children, and are welfare fraudsters.

We will put an end to this extremist politics, because our goal is to pursue sensible, conservative-libertarian politics for Saxony-Anhalt and for Germany.

Macklemore opened for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium wearing a keffiyeh, performed "Hind's Hall" with Gaza footage on the screens, and told 80,000 people he wanted those in Gaza and the West Bank to know "they have not been forgotten."

He said every human being deserves "the exact same freedom, to know safety and peace before knowing the sounds of violence."

He called ICE a "terrorist organization" and shouted "Free Palestine, free Cuba, Congo, Sudan and Iran."

The Israeli-American Council petitioned to drop him from remaining tour dates.

Germany’s Chancellor Merz admits:

At the moment, we are losing industrial jobs on a large scale, and we must stop this trend.

Germany must remain an industrial country.

If we do not remain an industrial country, then large parts of our prosperity are at risk.

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Germany has “left nationalism behind” and that he will “never again allow ethnic nationalism in Germany.”

Iran's Ghalibaf:

The Americans must have understood that the era of 'proportional responses' is over.

Our strikes on aggressor bases were only a beginning.

The rules of the game have changed.

From now on, any aggression against Iran's interests will receive a faster, heavier, and more painful response.

Germany’s Chancellor Merz:

We are building data centers like never before in the history of our country.

Yes, that is associated with considerable electricity consumption.

And yes, that naturally places a burden on some locations, especially when it comes to energy generation.

But I can only urge all of us to use every possibility and every opportunity to enable and build this digital infrastructure.

Pardoned January 6 defendant Jake Lang tore up a Quran at a Harlem church, calling it "a book that a demon translated through a warlord" and telling Muslims to "get out of our city."

Germany’s Chancellor Merz:

We are seeing people come to Germany from many countries around the world, including many Americans who now say that Germany is, for us, at least as interesting a location for science and research as the United States of America.

And above all, there is now a different climate here than at universities in the United States.

Open universities, freedom of science, research and development.

Germany’s Chancellor Merz:

Thank God our universities have largely abandoned their so-called civil clauses.

They are now conducting research and development on technology together with the Bundeswehr.

Germany’s Chancellor Merz:

We came within a hair’s breadth of a catastrophe at Leipzig Airport.

Ladies and gentlemen, you were all able to read about it. We were unbelievably lucky that day.

This drone carrying explosives failed to detonate during the final part of its approach only because of a small coincidence.

Had it detonated, there would have been a major inferno at Leipzig Airport.

Germany’s Chancellor Merz:

Some people say: "Then finally stop supporting Ukraine, and perhaps we’ll be better protected against threats like the one at Leipzig Airport."

What naivety! What naivety!

Germany’s Chancellor Merz:

Today we look back on an almost 80-year success story of the Federal Republic of Germany.

We are still one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

We are still one of the safest countries in the world, and we are still a stable and firmly established democracy.

Germany’s Chancellor Merz admits his government has "not done enough" — then shifts part of the blame onto his coalition partner, the SPD:

I admit that, given the polling numbers and the election results we have to fear, what we have done so far has not been enough.

Some things should be better, but we are not alone in government.

Some things run up against limits that we cannot really overcome with the SPD.

Pure CDU policy is only possible with an absolute majority—and we narrowly missed that in the last federal election.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry image confirms Sweden's Saab 340 airborne early warning aircraft has been flying combat missions over Ukraine since March 2026.

Footage from March showed it reportedly over western Ukraine but couldn't be verified at the time.

This is the first official confirmation of the aircraft operating with Ukrainian forces.

Trump’s approval rating has hit a record-low 33%, with voters increasingly blaming him for the worsening economy and cost-of-living crisis.

46% say his involvement is making it harder for Republican candidates to win, suggesting his political brand could become a liability for the GOP.

Democrats now lead Republicans by 7.5 points ahead of the November midterms.

Source: FT