Reuters: World

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia The United States scrambled F-16 fighter jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace around Washington D.C. and later crashed into the mountains of Virginia, officials said. No survivors were found at the crash site, Virginia state police said. The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the U.S. capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, causing consternation among people in the Washington area. Four people were onboard the Cessna, a source familiar with the matter said. A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers. read more

China seeks dialogue, says clash with US would be 'unbearable disaster' Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu told Asia's top security summit on Sunday that conflict with the United States would be an "unbearable disaster" but that his country sought dialogue over confrontation. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Li said the world was big enough for China and the U.S. to grow together - remarks made days after he refused to meet his U.S. counterpart for direct talks. Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu told Asia's top security summit on Sunday that conflict with the United States would be an "unbearable disaster" but that his country sought dialogue over confrontation. Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Li said the world was big enough for China and the U.S. to grow together - remarks made days after he refused to meet his U.S. counterpart for direct talks. read more

Three Israeli soldiers, Egyptian officer killed in border gunfire incident Three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian security officer were killed near the countries' border on Saturday, Israel and Egypt said, in a rare incident that the countries said they are investigating jointly. The Israeli military said an Egyptian policeman shot and killed two soldiers while they secured a military post at the Egyptian border early on Saturday. It said the officer and a third Israeli soldier were killed in a confrontation inside Israeli territory hours later. Egypt's military said that the three Israeli and one Egyptian security personnel had been killed in an exchange of fire as the Egyptian security officer chased smugglers across the frontier. read more

Indian train crash death toll jumps to 233, another 900 injured At least 233 people were killed and 900 were injured when two passenger trains collided in India's Odisha state, a government official said on Saturday, making the rail accident the country's deadliest in more than a decade. The death toll from Friday's crash is expected to rise, the state's Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said on Twitter. He added that over 200 ambulances had been called to the scene of the accident in Odisha's Balasore district and 100 additional doctors, on top of 80 already there, had been mobilised. read more

Exclusive: US seeking explosives in Japan for Ukraine artillery shells The United States is seeking to secure supplies of TNT in Japan for 155mm artillery shells, as Washington rushes weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for a counteroffensive against Russian forces, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. For war-renouncing Japan, any procurement would test its willingness to court controversy to help Kyiv because export rules ban Japanese companies from selling lethal items overseas, such as the howitzer shells that Ukraine fires daily at Russian units occupying its southeastern regions. Nonetheless, the allies appear to have found a workaround to enable the TNT sale amid global shortages of munitions. "There is a way for the United States to buy explosives from Japan," one of the people with knowledge of discussions on the matter in Japan told Reuters on the condition of anonymity, citing the issue's sensitivity. read more

BRICS ministers put on show of strength as Putin arrest warrant looms large BRICS foreign ministers on Thursday asserted their bloc's ambition to rival Western powers but their talks in South Africa were overshadowed by questions over whether Russia's president would be arrested if he attended a summit in August. South Africa's foreign minister Naledi Pandor said her country was mulling options if Vladimir Putin, the subject of a war crimes arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), came to the planned BRICS summit in Johannesburg. As a member of the ICC, South Africa would theoretically be required to arrest Putin, and Pandor was bombarded with questions about that as she arrived for a first round of talks with representatives from Brazil, Russia, India and China. read more

NATO squabbles over speedy accession of Ukraine as decisive summit looms Moscow cannot stop Ukraine from becoming a NATO member, the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, as divisions among allies about the speed of Kyiv's accession became apparent only weeks before a decisive mid-July summit in Vilnius. "All allies agree that Moscow does not have a veto against NATO enlargement," Stoltenberg told reporters as NATO foreign ministers gathered in Oslo, seeking to dispel any signs of discord ahead of the summit. "We are moving, allies agree that Ukraine will become a member." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking at a meeting of more than 40 European leaders in Moldova, said Kyiv wanted to receive a "clear" decision on its future in NATO at the summit. read more

Macron tells Eastern Europe - we should have listened to you over Russia President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged on Wednesday that France should have paid more attention to Eastern European nations, which warned about a belligerent Russia before Moscow's forces invaded Ukraine. Macron told a security forum there should be no division between "Old Europe" and "New Europe", referring to enduring divergences between eastern and western European Union members over matters such as Russia. "Some said you had missed an opportunity to shut up. I think we also lost an opportunity to listen to you. This time is over," Macron said to applause during a speech at the GLOBSEC think tank in the Slovak capital, Bratislava. read more

US House poised to vote on urgently needed debt ceiling suspension Legislation brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to lift the $31.4 trillion U.S. debt ceiling and achieve new federal spending cuts passed an important hurdle late on Tuesday, advancing to the full House of Representatives for debate and an expected vote on passage on Wednesday. The House Rules Committee voted 7-6 to approve the rules allowing debate by the full chamber. Two committee Republicans, Representatives Chip Roy and Ralph Norman, bucked their leadership by opposing the bill. That vote underscored the need for Democrats to help pass the measure in the House, which is controlled by Republicans with a narrow 222-213 majority. read more

Biden says he and Erdogan talked about F-16s, Sweden's NATO bid U.S. President Joe Biden said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a call on Monday repeated Ankara's desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while Biden told him Washington wanted Ankara to drop its objection to Sweden's joining NATO. The exchange took place when Biden called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Turkey's presidential election on Sunday. "I spoke to Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden, so let's get that done. And so we'll be back in touch with one another," Biden told reporters before departing the White House for Delaware. read more

Uganda enacts harsh anti-LGBTQ law including death penalty Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has signed one of the world's toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", in defiance of Western condemnations and potential sanctions from aid donors. Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes much further. It stipulates capital punishment for "serial offenders" against the law and transmission of a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through gay sex. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for "promoting" homosexuality. read more

Belarus official: West left us no choice but to deploy nuclear arms Western countries left Belarus no choice but to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons and had better take heed not to "cross red lines" on key strategic issues, a senior Belarusian official was quoted as saying on Sunday. Alexander Volfovich, state secretary of Belarus' Security Council, said it was logical that the weapons were withdrawn after the 1991 Soviet collapse as the United States had provided security guarantees and imposed no sanctions. "Today, everything has been torn down. All the promises made are gone forever," the Belta news agency quoted Volfovich as telling an interviewer on state television. Belarus, led by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, is Russia's staunchest ally among ex-Soviet states and allowed its territory to be used to launch the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. read more