‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining

• Russia launched a deadly attack near Odesa, Ukraine, contributing to ongoing conflict and regional instability. • In legal news, Mexican drug kingpin Ismael Zambada has been sentenced in the United States, marking a significant blow to organized crime networks.

• The United States and Iran are locked in a persistent "grey zone" conflict characterized by a cycle of military pressure and diplomatic overtures. • Despite Donald Trump's previous promises to avoid "forever wars," the current strategy suggests that diplomacy is being used to manage the conflict rather than resolve it.

• Former top officials from the Biden Administration are expressing regret over their failure to effectively restrain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. • The officials claim that the administration's policies emboldened Israel's military aggression within the Gaza Strip and toward Iran.

• A London-based research group has proposed a shared control pact among Gulf states for the Strait of Hormuz, modeled after a defunct European coal and steel agreement. • The proposal aims to resolve an acrimonious dispute over the waterway, which serves as a critical chokehold for one-fifth of the global oil supply.

• The Iranian regime is facing a critical survival crisis driven by a convergence of internal fractures, including severe economic deterioration and persistent nationwide protests. • Key drivers of this instability include declining public legitimacy, leadership disputes, and significant uncertainty regarding the future of political succession.

• Oil prices have climbed above $90 a barrel following Iranian military attacks on two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. • Tehran has criticized the U.S. by comparing Donald Trump's attacks on bridges to the tactics used by ISIS.

• Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested that critical decisions regarding negotiations were reached without the input of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. • This admission indicates potential internal friction or a breakdown in the decision-making hierarchy within the Iranian leadership.

New report denounces Havana and claims ‘campaign of subversion’ has infiltrated highest levels of US governmentAs part of the Trump administration’s continuing attack on left-leaning groups, the US state department has listed several activists and organizations as “front groups and fellow travelers” for Cuba, including Hasan Piker and Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls.In a 100-page report released on Monday, the state department denounces Cuba as the “capital of 21st-century communism”, accusing the Cuban government of carrying out a “campaign of subversion” that has “infiltrated the highest reaches of the US government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists [and] backed an unprecedented wave of leftwing terrorism on American soil”. Continue reading...

United staffer told customer ‘you don’t act like at a citizen’ during incident over wait time at San Francisco airportUnited Airlines is “looking into” a viral video showing a United Airlines employee threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Mexican American man at San Francisco international Airport last week.The scene erupted after Julio Varela of San Ramon grew upset at United Airlines staff for taking a long time to correct an error his family made when entering his daughter’s name to buy a ticket for flight to Canada, according to NBC News. Continue reading...

Rescue crews find two women, pronounced dead at hospital, and the bodies of three men after motorist calls 911Five people have died in a river in Ohio after several of them went into the water to help another person who was struggling to swim, authorities said Monday.A motorist called 911 after spotting a frightened child who had been with the group and was running on a nearby road, Delaware county sheriff Jeffrey Balzer said at a news conference on Monday. Continue reading...

President accused of having ‘lost control of this war’ as deaths of trio in Iranian military strikes fuel rising concernDemocrats have seized on the deaths of three US troops killed in Iranian strikes to urge Donald Trump to urgently reverse his resumption of the war with Iran amid widespread anxiety over climbing casualties.Even as US forces launched a 10th consecutive wave of attacks against Iranian targets, concern over the deaths of American service personnel threatened to complicate moves to escalate the conflict, which has reignited after he last week walked away from a memorandum of understanding agreed with Iran in June. Continue reading...

Daniel Ortega, the 80-year-old authoritarian leader, says move will ‘build a wall’ against the oppositionNicaragua’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has said the country will hold no further elections to prevent the opposition from coming to power.The 80-year-old authoritarian leader, who has been in office since 2007, also said he would work with the congress he controls to pass new laws that would “build a wall” against the opposition. Continue reading...