Senate expected to take up voter ID bill opposed by Democrats – US politics live

• Ambassadors from the "E3" group—France, Germany, and the UK—met with a Russian minister to urge the commencement of direct peace negotiations to end the conflict. • The diplomatic push comes as Ukraine marks day 1,570 of the war, highlighting a continued international effort to find a diplomatic resolution.

• Ukraine has claimed a devastating strike on a bridge in Crimea, resulting in the destruction of approximately 50 Russian military vehicles. • The operation coincides with warnings from Kyiv's drone chief, who asserts that Vladimir Putin will lose access to the Crimean peninsula in the "near future."

• Veteran foreign correspondent Edward Girardet has co-founded the "Help Save The Med" initiative to protect the Mediterranean Sea. • The project leverages storytelling alongside science and diplomacy, utilizing a diverse team of scientists, writers, photographers, and videographers.

• Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar defended India's decision to continue purchasing Russian oil during a visit to Finland, rejecting Western criticism of the move. • Jaishankar challenged global double standards by highlighting European arms sales to Pakistan while the West pressures India over its energy ties with Russia.

• Analyst James Dorsey reported on June 12, 2026, that while negotiations between Iran and the U.S. may be possible, deep strategic disputes persist. • Regional actors, including Israel, Gulf states, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, continue to influence the conflict's trajectory based on their own priorities.

A woman in her 30s is being transported to hospital with arm and leg injuries after the attack at the Sydney beachA woman in her 30s is being treated for injuries after being bitten by a shark at Coogee Beach on Saturday.A spokesperson for NSW Ambulance said the woman was in a critical condition with arm and leg injuries. Continue reading...

President says Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores killed in ‘swift and lethal’ military strike with help from VenezuelaThe US military has killed a leader in the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, with the help of Venezuela, Donald Trump announced on Friday.“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Continue reading...

Officials given 21 days to comply with order after Angel Kelley condemns administration for ‘telling half-truths’A US district court judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate any history or science materials it removed from the nation’s public monuments, finding that the White House’s actions “set a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization”.In March 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “restoring truth and sanity to American history”, calling upon the secretary of interior to examine monuments, memorials and statues to see if they had been altered after January 2020 to represent a “false construction of American history”. Continue reading...

In video, The Hills actor, who did not contest the outcome of the election, said his campaign to ‘save’ LA was just startingSpencer Pratt appeared to concede the Los Angeles mayor’s race on Friday in a new video where he says “the campaign portion of my mission to save Los Angeles is coming to a close”, but declares “war” against the two candidates advancing to the city’s general election.In the video posted on social media, Pratt notably did not contest the results of the election, despite Donald Trump’s repeated, but unfounded claims the race was “rigged”. Trump, who endorsed Pratt, called California’s elections “crooked”. Continue reading...

Climate minister Chris Bowen says country must prepare for changing world and can play bigger role in reducing emissionsAustralia will find exporting fossil fuels increasingly difficult but can switch to exporting clean energy products, the president of the next UN climate negotiations has declared.Speaking at a climate conference in Bonn, Germany, Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, argued his country had led the global push to “transition away from fossil fuels” – based on the rapid growth of renewable energy and batteries in its domestic power grids – and that its economy could manage the switch. Continue reading...

Beloved movie critic and arts reporter was known for bushy hair and mustache and affection for groan-inducing punsGene Shalit, a movie critic and arts reporter for the Today show over four decades who was known for his puffy hair, oversized handlebar mustache and affection for groan-inducing puns, has died. He was 100.Shalit’s family announced the death Friday to NBC News, saying in a statement that he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life”. Continue reading...

Data analytics company loses on 22 out of 23 counts in lawsuit disputing how Swiss government rejected firm’s servicesThe US technology company Palantir has lost a legal challenge to force a Swiss independent magazine to publish its responses to articles about how the Swiss government rejected the firm’s services.The data analytics company lost on 22 out of 23 counts of the suit. In a ruling on Friday, Zurich’s commercial court dismissed the majority of counterstatement requests filed by the firm and its Swiss subsidiary finding that only a single passage in one article warranted a published response from the company. Continue reading...