“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday signed an accord with pan-European rights body the Council of Europe for establishing a special tribunal to try top officials responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The court would prosecute the ‘crime of aggression’ in the invasion, which Russia launched in February 2022, and could, in theory, try senior figures up to President Vladimir Putin. … The 46-member Council of Europe is not part of the EU and members include key non-EU European states such as Turkey, the UK and Ukraine. … European foreign ministers endorsed the creation of the tribunal in a meeting in Lviv in western Ukraine on May 9.” (06/25/25)
“U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center during a congressional oversight visit at the facility. … A nearly two-minute video clip released by the Department of Homeland Security shows McIver at the facility inside a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on other side of the barrier, where other people were protesting. McIver and uniformed officials go through the gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor. The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word ‘Police.'” (06/25/25)
“U.S. President Donald Trump plans to make a full state visit to Britain later this year, bypassing a suggestion put forward by King Charles III that the two men first meet informally over the summer when both are expected to be in Scotland. Complexities in both the monarch’s and the president’s schedules put the kibosh on the idea, Britain’s Press Association reported. The hand-signed formal invitation for the state visit, known as the Manu Regia, was hand-delivered to the White House last week by representatives of the British Embassy in Washington. The invitation formalizes Trump’s unprecedented second state visit to Britain, which was first suggested in a letter from the king that Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered to the president in February during a meeting at the White House. A date for the state visit has not yet been announced.” (06/25/25)
“Gunmen killed 10 people including children in an attack on a house in a central Mexican city plagued by cartel-related violence, authorities said Wednesday. Several others were wounded in the shooting on Tuesday night in Irapuato in Guanajuato state, the municipal government said in a statement. … Local media reported the shooting happened during a religious celebration, according to the Reuters news agency.” (06/25/25)
“India, Poland and Hungary launched their first astronauts in more than 40 years Wednesday, sending them on a private flight to the International Space Station. The three countries shared the tab for the two-week mission. Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the deal, put the ticket price at more than $65 million per customer. SpaceX’s Falcon rocket blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center two weeks late because of space station leak concerns. The capsule on top carried not only the three newcomers to space (none of whom were alive when their countries’ first astronauts launched) but America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson. Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts sometimes pressed into temporary duty.” (06/25/25)
“Grocery giant Kroger revealed during its first-quarter earnings call this month that it will shut down about 60 underperforming stores over the next 18 months. At the same time, the company intends to open new locations throughout this year and the next. ‘We’re simplifying our business and reviewing areas that will not be meaningful to our future growth. Unfortunately, today, not all of our stores are delivering the sustainable results we need,’ said Kroger Chairman and Interim CEO Ronald Sargent in the June 20 earnings call. … The specific stores targeted for closure have not been officially confirmed.” (06/25/25)
“Thousands of protesters against police brutality and government corruption clashed Wednesday with Kenyan police who hurled tear gas canisters and wielded batons, leaving several people injured as demonstrations spread around the country. The protests were timed to mark the one-year anniversary of anti-tax demonstrations in which 60 people were killed and 20 others remain missing. Parliament and the president’s office in the Kenya’s capital were barricaded with razor wire, with all access roads blockaded by police. The protests, which have spread to major cities including Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Nyahururu, have morphed into calls for the president to resign over poor governance. During last year’s protests, demonstrators stormed Parliament where legislation to increase taxes was passed, burning part of the building as lawmakers fled. Bodies lay in the streets, and medical workers and watchdogs said police had opened fire. The military was deployed.” (06/25/25)
“Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez intends to run for re-election in 2027 at the end of his current term, he said on Wednesday, despite the corruption investigations his government is facing. Sanchez, a Socialist, heads a minority leftist coalition government embroiled in a series of scandals, which have led the opposition to demand his resignation. ‘Yes, I am determined to run in the next general election in 2027,’ Sanchez told reporters after a question on whether he thought his government had the support of a majority of the population. Sanchez said on June 12 he would not call new elections before his current term is due to end despite the scandals ensnaring his party.” (06/25/25)
“One afternoon, as Isabella left school for the day, someone thrust a leaflet into her hand. ‘Do you want to make money with your beauty?’ it asked. She says a studio looking for models seemed to be targeting teenage pupils in her area in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. At 17, with a two-year-old son to support, she desperately needed money, so went along to find out more. She says when she got there, it was a sexcam studio …. Models perform sexual acts which are streamed to viewers around the world, who message them and make requests via intermediaries, also known as monitors. The next day Isabella, whose real name we are not using, says she started work — even though it is illegal in Colombia for studios to employ webcam models under 18.” (06/25/25)
“Armenia’s security services arrested one of the country’s top religious leaders on terrorism charges Wednesday and accused him of plotting to overthrow the government, the second arrest in a week of a prominent political opponent. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a major figure in the influential Apostolic Church, was arrested by Armenia’s Investigative Committee, which accused him of planning to carry out bombings and arson attacks to disrupt power supplies and stage accidents on major roads to paralyze traffic. His lawyer described the charges as ‘fiction.’ Galstanyan leads the Sacred Struggle opposition movement and has demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was the focus of protests last year by tens of thousands of demonstrators after Armenia agreed to hand over control of several border villages to bitter rival Azerbaijan and to normalize relations between the neighbors.” (06/25/25)
