🇫🇷🇸🇾⚡- French President Macron arrives in Damascus, Syria, and visits the Umayyad Mosque with Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa.

🇺🇸🇹🇷⚡- President Trump has departed for the NATO summit in Ankara.

🇺🇸🇧🇪⚡- The hosts U.S. have been eliminated from the World Cup.

🇫🇷🇸🇾⚡️- BREAKING: Explosions near French President Macron's hotel.

🇫🇷🇸🇾⚡️- Authorities have begun closing roads within Damascus. A car bomb is suspected to be the root cause of the detonations.

🇫🇷🇸🇾⚡️- Le Figaro indicates President Macron is currently at the Damascus presidential palace and very likely out of harm's way.

🇺🇸🇹🇷⚡️- "President Trump is expected to tell President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey that he is prepared to restore the country to a program that would allow it to purchase F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that would reverse a ban Mr. Trump himself imposed seven years ago on national security grounds.

In 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term, Turkey was thrown out of the F-35 program because it bought advanced S-400 antiaircraft systems from Russia. At the time, Washington’s fear was that Turkey could train the S-400s on the newly provided F-35s, and that Russia would learn how to deal with the fighter jet’s stealth and other missile-avoidance capabilities.

But the shift by Mr. Trump, who is heading to a NATO summit in Ankara this week and has said he was preparing to bring a gift that would make Mr. Erdogan “very happy,” could face opposition in Congress, which could seek to block it." - The New York Times.

🇺🇸🇹🇷🇮🇱⚡️- "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained to President Trump on Friday about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's escalating anti-Israel rhetoric, according to Israeli and U.S. officials.

Netanyahu also asked Trump, who will meet Erdoğan during this week's NATO summit in Ankara, to refrain from selling weapons systems that would help Turkey modernize its air force, the officials said.

'Netanyahu made an ask and the president heard him. So the president might pass on [to Erdoğan] the message like, 'Hey, can you just go a little easy on this.' But it is what it is,' a U.S. official said." - Axios.

🇫🇷🇸🇾⚡- "Explosive devices blew up near a hotel in Damascus where Macron was due to stay," - A security source tells Levant24.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- "Iran's military fired at least two missiles at commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night.

The U.S. is likely to retaliate with strikes against Iranian targets." - Axios.

🇰🇵🇯🇵⚡️- "A commentary carried by North Korean state media KCNA on Tuesday criticised Japan's ​military expansion, saying its overseas aggression was 'not hypothetical ‌but reality' and citing Japanese plans to develop unmanned submarines capable of anti-ship attacks.

It accused Tokyo ​of abandoning its long-professed doctrine of exclusively defence-oriented policy and ​transforming its military into a 'thoroughly offensive and aggressive force.'" - Reuters.

🇷🇺🇦🇲⚡️- Nikol Pashinyan, Armenian Prime Minister has arrived in Russia today, and attended an Industrial manufacturing exhibition in Central Russia.

Pashinyan is also set to meet with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin during his trip and said he was “committed to further developing relations with Russia".

🇨🇫🇺🇬⚡- Reports are emerging of a possible re-emergence of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the Chinko Nature Reserve in southeastern Central African Republic.

Multiple incidents involving the disappearance and suspected abduction of young men and boys have been recorded in the area.

Kony is back.

🇷🇺🇬🇷⚡️- "Greek shipping companies have made at least $3.8bn transporting Russian oil over the past three years even as G7 nations sought to curb the Kremlin’s oil revenues.

The company that made the most from the trade — which is narrowly permitted under the west’s sanctions regime — was Dynacom Tankers, founded by Greek shipping billionaire George Prokopiou. Dynacom made at least $915mn in revenues shipping Russian crude, or almost a quarter of the total among Greek shipowners since July 2023, according to FT calculations." - Financial Times.

Notably, Dynacom's tankers were among the first oil tankers to cross the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran War, even after Iran had publicly stated that no vessels could transit.

🇧🇫⚡️- The JNIM conducted large raids in Burkina Faso this weekend, killing over 50 soldiers and VDP members.

🇲🇨🇺🇦⚡️- Anastasia Berezovskaya, the woman suspected of carrying out the assassination attempt on the Ukrainian-Jewish oligarch Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco, has been found dead with gunshot wounds near Kyiv, according to Ukrainian media. She reportedly returned to Ukraine on the First of July.

Two other suspects have also been arrested in connection with the case, one of them being a current officer of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine, and the other a former law enforcement officer.

Ermolaev was put into a coma following the blast; he and his son have suffered severe shrapnel wounds, and Ermolaev’s mistress has had both of her legs amputated.