Tazza Khabar

The United States is warning that Russia could use its own sea mines in a false flag operation to justify the ongoing targeting of civilian grain vessels in the northern Black Sea. White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on July 20 that the Biden administration felt it was necessary to issue a “warning” about Russian disinformation on the topic. Moscow, he said, released a video late Wednesday alleging to demonstrate the seizure and detonation of a Ukrainian sea mine. Despite the claim, Mr. Kirby said, Russia itself is currently placing sea mines at the entrances to Ukrainian ports and targeting civilian ships carrying food to and from the region....

By mid-August, a series of Zellers retail pop-up shops are anticipated to appear across Hudson’s Bay stores in five provinces and will serve as test spots for permanent Zellers locations. Hudson’s Bay Co.(HBC ) says the 21 new pop-ups will be much smaller than the last batch of retail locations. Pop-up shops are typically used to introduce new products, test a new market, or raise awareness for a cause. In Zeller’s case, the temporary retail spaces will be rolled out to gauge consumer interest. “Pop-ups are a key ingredient in our expansion strategy, allowing us to explore and test in new markets, gather valuable customer insights, and fine-tune our offering before establishing larger-format store locations,” HBC president Sophia Hwang-Judiesch said in a July 18 news release....

The United States will continue to supply Ukraine with billions of dollars in munitions and equipment as the eastern European nation’s counteroffensive against Russia stalls. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that Ukraine was making progress in its operations against Russia in eastern Ukraine. Still, he acknowledged that Ukraine’s advances were slow going during a July 18 meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group, a 54-nation alliance providing Ukraine with weapons for its self-defense. “As I’ve said, Ukraine’s fight for freedom is a marathon, not a sprint,” Mr. Austin said in an address to the group. “We have supplied Ukraine with critical capabilities such as air defense and ammunition. And we’re not going to let up....

As of mid-afternoon July 17, at least 666 prospective amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) have been filed by senators as the chamber prepares over the next two weeks to deliberate and adopt its version of the proposed $886.3 billion Fiscal Year 2024 United States’ defense budget. How many will be debated on the floor, however, is uncertain. “I think you’re going to see a lot of amendments filed, and as usual, we’ll have to figure out which amendments get offered,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told The Epoch Times. “That’s always a negotiation process. But our hope is to wrap it up before we leave in August.”...

The death toll among Russian soldiers as a result of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine has exceeded that of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, according to a new study. Roughly 47,000 Russian troops are estimated to have died since Russia launched its “special military operation” in neighboring Ukraine in February 2022, according to the joint study conducted by journalists at the Russian independent news sites Meduza and Mediazona and statistician Dmitry Kobak from the University of Tübingen in Germany. Researchers arrived at that figure using reports on published obituaries, mortality data from the Federal State Statistics Service, and extensive records from the National Probate Registry, according to Meduza....

HELSINKI—The Russian war against Ukraine is all but over President Joe Biden asserted on July 13, saying: “Putin has already lost the war.” The remark came during a press conference welcoming Finland into the NATO alliance. Standing alongside Finland President Sauli Niinisto, Mr. Biden responded to questions about the possibility of Ukraine entering NATO after the war and whether the president’s comments to that effect would discourage Russian President Vladimir Putin from entering peace talks.  In response, Mr. Biden reasserted that no nation could join the mutual defense organization while engaged in a war because that would immediately escalate the conflict. ...

A day after he called NATO leaders “absurd” for failing to clarify a timeline for Ukraine’s long-deliberated entry into the 32-nation alliance, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was far more upbeat on July 12 as NATO’s two-day summit in Lithuania neared its conclusion. He may not have secured the big win—advancing Ukraine’s stalled 2008 request to join NATO—but Mr. Zelenskyy will be returning to Kyiv with many stocking stuffers, including security guarantees from Group of Seven (G7) nations and a seat at the newly formed NATO-Ukraine Council. “The Ukrainian delegation is bringing home a significant security victory for … Ukraine, for our country, for our people, for our children,” Mr. Zelenskyy said during a press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to introduce a Joint Declaration on Support for Ukraine signed by all G7 leaders....

OSLO—A volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, near the capital Reykjavik, following intense earthquake activity in the area, the country’s Meteorological Office (IMO) said on Monday. “At the moment, it’s a very small eruption,” said Matthew Roberts of the service and research division at the IMO. He added there was no direct imminent hazard to people in the region. Traffic at Reykjavik’s international Keflavik airport was not disrupted, the airport said on its website. Experts from the IMO will assess where exactly the lava is emerging and how the eruption evolves over the coming hours....

Sweden is set to join NATO as the military alliance’s 32nd member following its acceptance by Turkey. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on July 10 that a meeting between Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson resulted in an understanding being reached between the two powers. Sweden initially requested membership in NATO alongside Finland in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Any NATO member is allowed to veto the entry of any potential member, however, and for the last year Turkey has refused Sweden’s admission into the alliance. Turkey previously vetoed the Nordic nation’s membership bid, saying that Sweden provided safe haven to members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it considers to be a terrorist organization....

AMSTERDAM—The Dutch government collapsed on Friday after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, which will trigger new elections in the fall. The crisis was triggered by a push by Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party to limit the flow of illegal immigrants to the Netherlands, which two of his four-party government coalition refused to support. “It’s no secret that the coalition partners have differing opinions about immigration policy. Today we unfortunately have to conclude that those differences have become insurmountable. Therefore I will tender the resignation of the entire cabinet to the king,” Mr. Rutte said in a televised news conference....

The United States will send so-called “cluster munitions” to Ukraine in its ongoing fight to drive Russian forces out of the country. Colin H. Kahl, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, said the United States has agreed to provide the controversial munitions after determining they have a “dud rate” of 2.5 percent and getting assurances from Ukrainian leaders on how the weapons will be used. “We’ve gotten these assurances in writing,” Mr. Kahl said during a Pentagon press briefing on July 7. Mr. Kahl said the United States would send standard 105 mm artillery shells and Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM). He would not say how many of the devices would be sent....

President Joe Biden will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit next week as the military alliance faces the most pressing challenges since the end of the Cold War, including mounting security threats from Russia and China. The summit, scheduled for July 11–12 in the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, will bring together heads of state, military officials, and diplomats from the alliance’s 31 member nations. President Biden will give a “significant address” in Vilnius on the final day of the summit “about his vision of a strong, confident America flanked by strong, confident allies and partners, taking on the significant challenges of our time from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to the climate crisis,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during a press briefing on July 7....

“China has been playing hard to get for the last several months and they would not talk. Now, they sort of relented. And so, they agreed to talk with American high-level cabinet members on matters that are vital to both nations’ economies. The reason why they relented is because China’s economy is in big trouble, and they need the West much more than the West needs China.” In this episode, I speak with Miles Yu, who heads the China Center at the Hudson Institute and served as former adviser on China to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We discuss U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s trip to China, its possible outcomes, and the current state of China’s economy and standing in the international community....

Defense ministers and other officials from all 31 nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gather between July 11–12 in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a meeting that could define the 75-year-old alliance’s next century. On tap is NATO’s first updated battle plan since the fall of the Soviet Union, a discussion about membership funding levels, Sweden’s proposed entry, and clarifications on “pathways” for Ukraine to join while drawing support from individual member nations, but not the alliance itself, in its war to repel Russia’s invasion. And while no one from the Ukrainian government has been officially invited to attend, “Ukraine will be the most important item on the summit agenda next week,” said Sean Monaghan, a Visiting Fellow on Europe, Russia, and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)....

Short-lived as it was, the Wagner rebellion has brought an impact rippling far beyond Russian borders. It could be the beginning of the end for the coalition that Beijing led with Moscow against the free world, some analysts have said. In a dramatic 24 hours, the paramilitary group captured world attention as it took over the city of Rostov, a key tactical hub for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. Leading the revolt was Yevgeny Prigozhin, a once-trusted ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin who described the action as a “stab in the back.” Prigozhin is now in exile in Belarus under a deal that Russia won’t press criminal charges against him. But his flight—after posing the most serious test to Putin in the Russian president’s more than two decades in power—has far from closed the matter in the eyes of outside observers....

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said a brief military mutiny by Russia’s Wagner Group private military force put Russian President Vladimir Putin on a less stable footing in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. “You could say that [Putin is] still there, he’s still strong, but he certainly has been I would say somewhat weakened at least in the minds of a lot of people,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. The Wagner Group is an extralegal private military force that has enjoyed the sanction and financial support of the Russian government under Putin. Throughout its history, the Wagner Group has fought in conflicts alongside regular Russian forces in Syria and Ukraine....

The U.S. Embassy issued a bulletin urging American citizens in France to exercise caution amid widespread rioting and unrest following a police-involved shooting earlier this week. “Following the June 27 police shooting in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, demonstrations are taking place in the greater Paris region and other major urban centers with reports of damage to private property and public buildings,” the U.S. Embassy said in a bulletin, dated June 29. It noted that those demonstrations and “spontaneous protests,” which many have described as rioting, are “expected to continue and may turn violent.” American citizens should avoid large gatherings and areas with significant police activity, said the bulletin. Some cities are also imposing curfews amid the violence, it said....

Former Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise trip to Ukraine on June 29 to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid the country’s ongoing war with Russia. The move makes him the first Republican presidential hopeful to meet with the Ukrainian leader since the war began. Pence made the trip with the Christian humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse. In addition to his meeting with Zelenskyy, his agenda for the day included an update on local human rights violations, security briefings from Ukrainian officials, and visits to various sites to honor fallen Ukrainians. “I believe America’s the leader of the free world,” Pence told NBC News in an exclusive interview. “But coming here just as a private citizen, being able to really see firsthand the heroism of the Ukrainian soldiers holding the line in those woods, see the heroism of the people here in Irpin that held back the Russian army, to see families whose homes were literally shelled in the midst of an unconsciona...

The French government announced on June 29 that 40,000 police officers will be deployed across the country after rioters caused severe damage to public property amid widespread outrage over the deadly police shooting of a teenage boy. The unrest in the country comes after 17-year-old Nahel M. was shot dead by a police officer during a traffic stop in Nanterre, just outside Paris, on Tuesday. The deadly encounter was captured on video. After a crisis meeting early on Thursday, France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that the “professionals of disorder should go home.” He confirmed that policing will be more than quadrupled—from 9,000 officers to 40,000. In Paris alone, the number of officers deployed will be more than doubled....

The Kremlin has declined to comment on the current whereabouts of Sergey Surovikin, a top Russian general who has been absent from public view since last week’s aborted mutiny by the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin. “I recommend that you ask the Defense Ministry,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on June 29 when queried about Surovikin’s whereabouts. “That’s the ministry’s prerogative,” he added. The Defense Ministry, for its part, has not issued any statements regarding the general or his recent activities. Highly regarded in Russian military circles and reportedly popular with the troops, Surovikin served with distinction in previous conflicts, including those in Chechnya and Syria....