UN welcomes Cambodia-Thailand ceasefire
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, calling it a step toward easing tensions and ending violence. He urged both sides to fully uphold the agreement and work towards lasting peace, according to Xinhua.
Guterres also praised Malaysia, the US, and China for helping mediate the deal. The UN said it stands ready to support efforts for regional stability.
Iran rules out resuming nuclear talks, citing US actions
Iran has no current plans to resume nuclear talks with the United States, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.
He criticized the US for backing recent Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites, calling such actions incompatible with diplomacy. Baghaei stressed that any future negotiations would require a fundamental change in Washington’s approach, warning that talks should not be used as a tool for pressure or intimidation, according to Xinhua.
The comments follow a brief but intense flare-up between Iran and Israel in June, which ended with a ceasefire on the 24th after 12 days of conflict.
Russian bombs kill 17 in Ukrainian penal colony
A Russian bomb attack on a penal colony in southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people overnight, officials said, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would shorten a deadline for Vladimir Putin to make peace, Reuters reported.
Dozens more were wounded in the attack on the front-line Zaporizhzhia region, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who described the bombing as "deliberate".
"And this was done after a completely clear position was voiced by the United States."
Zelenskiy added that a total of 22 people were killed in overnight strikes by Russia, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman who died in a missile strike on a hospital in another southeastern region, according to Reuters.
Trump administration slashed federal funding for gun violence prevention
The Trump administration has terminated more than half of all federal funding for gun violence prevention programs in the U.S., cutting $158 million in grants that had been directed to groups in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Reuters reported.
Of the 145 community violence intervention (CVI) grants totaling more than $300 million awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice, 69 grants were abruptly terminated, opens new tab in April, according to government data analyzed by Reuters.
The elimination of CVI programs is part of a broader rollback at the department's grant-issuing Office of Justice Programs, which terminated 365 grants valued at $811 million in April, impacting a range of public safety and victim services programs.
A DOJ official told Reuters the gun violence grants were eliminated because they "no longer effectuate the program's goals or agency's priorities." Thousands of Office of Justice Programs grants are under review, the official said, and are being evaluated, among other things, on how well they support law enforcement and combat violent crime.
