Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif says he condemns the drone attack attempt near Mecca as "dastardly and heinous," praised Saudi forces for intercepting it, and reaffirmed Pakistan stands "shoulder to shoulder" with Saudi Arabia in defending the holy sites.

Notably he didn't name the Houthis and called on all parties to exercise restraint, emphasizing dialogue and diplomacy.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi has been sentenced to 25 years by The Hague war crimes court for murder, torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The court found KLA members killed at least 96 people and detained/tortured 385+ — victims included political opponents and alleged collaborators of various ethnicities.

Three co-defendants including former parliament speaker Kadri Veseli were also convicted.

Crimes against humanity charges failed. The court couldn't establish a systematic attack on civilians.

Prosecutors had sought 45 years.

The court noted Kosovo's independence goal wasn't criminal, but the methods used to consolidate power were.

Thaçi has been detained in The Hague since 2020; appeals are expected.

The verdict is highly contentious in Kosovo where the defendants are seen as war heroes.

Iran's IRGC spokesman dismissed US media reports about rescuing a downed American pilot in Iran as "Hollywood-style storytelling."

He said the US has been fabricating victories since the war began, splicing footage from different locations to create fake narratives.

He also claimed images show wreckage of a downed US F-15 being collected in wheelbarrows, and said such propaganda "no longer works."

Germany is planning for a scenario where ~1,000 wounded NATO soldiers arrive daily if Russia attacks NATO territory (estimated possible by 2029).

With only 5 military hospitals, civilian hospitals would absorb overflow — needing ~15,000 of Germany's 440,000 beds.

A Cold War nuclear bunker under a hospital in Ulm (holds 2,000 people for 90 days) is being evaluated for reactivation.

Key problem isn't beds but people: only a few hundred German doctors have wartime injury experience.

The Bundeswehr ran its largest medical drill in decades in March 2026, and a Health Security Act is coming this fall to create real-time tracking of beds, meds, and staff.

Officials are blunt that the system isn't ready yet.

Source: Bloomberg

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett:

We will declare Qatar a terrorist state. We will kick Qatar out of Gaza and bring in Egypt instead.

Unlike Qatar, Egypt wants to dismantle Hamas because Hamas threatens Egypt’s existence.

NEW: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Iran's Araghchi in Beijing and called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened "at an early date," urging both the US and Iran to stay rational and return to the Pakistan-brokered Islamabad MoU from June.

China also warned against the conflict spilling into Yemen/Red Sea.

Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli:

I am very, very happy that people like Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been pushed to the margins, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is today outside.

And people like Tucker Carlson today are facing increasingly harsh criticism, both from the president and from the field.

A drone was spotted near Danish Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus’ home in Gladsaxe, prompting a major police operation, TV 2 reported.

The drone’s origin is unknown. Police sealed off the area, while military bomb disposal personnel were also deployed.

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett:

We have no interest in settling Gaza or managing the lives of two million Arabs in Gaza. We are not interested in that.

We want Gaza 2.0 that is not controlled by a terrorist organization and does not serve as a base for terrorism.

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett:

I’m removing Qatar and Türkiye from Gaza. Today Qatar and Türkiye are on the board that leads Gaza’s future — called the Board of Peace.

Now this is something crazy, because Türkiye and Qatar are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is also Hamas.

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett:

If Iran achieves nuclear capability, it will create a kind of domino effect where many countries in the region — Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt — will all say: if Iran has a nuclear weapon, we want one too.

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett on Iran:

There are opposition groups in Iran. Empower them, give them strength, give them tools.

Iran has enemies around it. Empower them so they fight Iran.

How do you empower them? You train them.

Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett:

My approach regarding the West Bank is this: I support settlement in the West Bank. I oppose a Palestinian state. Period.

A Palestinian state must not be established. I will not give Arabs a centimeter more of the Land of Israel.

This has always been my position, and it strengthened after October 7.

WATCH: Animated map shows the growth of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem from 1967 to present.

~750,000 settlers across 163 settlements plus 400+ outposts, roughly 10% of Israel's Jewish population.

Nearly 28,000 housing units were advanced in 2025 alone.

Source: Al Jazeera

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev:

The European Parliament is a nest of bribe-takers. I say this with full responsibility.

A POLITICO poll found limited support for Ursula von der Leyen across Germany, France and Spain.

Only around one in five Germans and Spaniards, and 12% of French respondents, said she was doing a good job.

Meanwhile, 45% of Germans, nearly one-third of French and Spanish respondents said she was doing a bad job.

More than one in five French respondents said they did not know who she was, compared with 10% in Spain and 5% in Germany.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev:

Look, the European Parliament consists of these Islamophobes, and this should always remain in the spotlight.

There is an undeclared war against our religion and against the Islamic world, and Islamophobia is only a small part of it. Ignoring the Muslim world, discrediting it, and equating it with terrorism.

The insulting acts against our values and against the Holy Quran — do you think these are happening by accident? No. This is a deliberate policy.

Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov:

Our Western colleagues — people with colonial genetics — have not lost their colonial and neocolonial instincts.

They instinctively, and perhaps consciously — probably many of them consciously — act precisely in line with their colonial habits and tendencies.

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is now Asia's richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, surpassing Gautam Adani.

Both around $105 billion but Zhang ranks higher.

His wealth jumped $12 billion this month after Bloomberg updated ByteDance's private valuation using BlackRock/Fidelity filings and cut its risk discount from 25% to 10% following TikTok's US resolution (Oracle/Silver Lake JV).

ByteDance's AI products (Doubao chatbot, Seedance video model) also boosted investor interest.

Zhang's fortune has grown 8x since 2019.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Greece:

Türkiye conveys its warnings and objections to Greece through bilateral channels when necessary, asserts its position at NATO, and takes the matter to the United Nations.

We invite our neighbor and ally Greece to fulfill the requirements of its treaty obligations in a more mature manner, in line with the spirit of alliance.

At a time when there are so many security challenges around us, Greece should not add another one.

Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov:

The International Criminal Court is a structure that probably should not even be criticized in detail.

Everyone knows that it is a quasi-judicial body and has little in common with justice.

It is completely controlled by Western sponsors — although not by all Western sponsors.

Some Western countries, including the United States, do not want this court to continue its activities because, as you can see, it irritates many in the North, the South, the West and the East.