CNN
–

Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky says he is pushing forward the ceasefire talks in pursuit of a meeting with Russia next week.

Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Defense Council, has already proposed a next meeting with the Russian side next week, Zelensky said in his daily speech on Saturday.

“The negotiation dynamics must be improved. We need to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire. The Russians must avoid decisions regarding prisoner interaction, child return and halt killing,” Zelensky said.

“Conferences at the leadership level are truly essential to ensure peace. Ukraine is ready for such a meeting,” he added.

Meanwhile, Russian state media outlet Tass reported that sources close to the Russian negotiation team have confirmed that they have received Kiev’s proposal for the meeting.

The final round of the ceasefire talks in Istanbul ended swiftly in early June. Representatives from Russia and Ukraine barely met for over an hour before it stopped. According to Russian state media, Russia has submitted its largest territorial request as part of the prerequisite for a ceasefire. Ukraine previously refused to consider territorial concessions in exchange for peace.

Zelensky’s call for consultation has been received after President Donald Trump provided a 50-day window to provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with a 50-day window to achieve a “secondary tariff” on goods from countries purchasing Russian oil before the US implemented high tariffs on Russian goods.

“If there’s no transaction in 50 days, we’re going to put in very strict tariffs,” Trump said during a meeting with NATO executive director Mark Latte earlier this week in an oval office.

“I use trades on a lot of things,” Trump added. “But it’s perfect for solving wars.”

Trump has expressed an increase in complaints with Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, even complaining that Putin’s assurances about progress in the ceasefire are “bulk.”

However, Western analysts and Ukrainian officials say the president’s 50-day window is unlikely to stop Putin from promoting Russian summer attacks in the coming weeks. Furthermore, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed Trump’s threatened tariffs as merely a dull one.

“50 days – it used to be 24 hours,” Lavrov said. “It used to be 100 days. We’ve been through all of this.”

CNN
–

Divers are still searching for passengers and crew who are still missing after a tourist boat that was encapsulated in Squall, a popular tourist destination in Vietnam on Saturday. At least 34 bodies were recovered and an additional 11 people were rescued.

According to VN Express, the still-missing person reported having 53 people, including 48 tourists and five crew members. The nationality of the people on board has not been stated yet.

In an interview with State Media Outlet Vietnamnet, the 64-year-old diver on the scene said much of the ship’s passenger area had been searched. However, the cockpit and engine compartment are clogged with mud, making it difficult to reach.

“At this point, I’m sure there are no more bodies in the passenger seat,” said diver Vie Kion. “I’m worried that some bodies may be floating outside.”

VN Express reported that the ship, known as the Wonder Sea, was caught in a storm around 1:30 PM local time (2:30 AM ET). They then lost their GPS signal, according to an outlet cited the Quang Ninh Provincial People’s Committee.

VN Express was mobilized to the scene, along with navy, border guards, police, port authorities and 27 boats and two rescue vessels, adding that heavy rains from dusk and limited visibility have made rescue operations difficult.

According to VN Express, most passengers traveled as a family from the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.

More than 20 children were on board, according to VN Express. Citing the local hospital’s director, the outlet reported that the 10-year-old was in stable condition after suffering multiple injuries.

He also reported that the 14-year-old boy survived after being trapped in the ship’s sunk cabin for four hours, citing the witness and deputy chief of the HA Long Cruise Ship Association.

The state broadcaster VTV has recovered at a local hospital and interviewed survivor Dang Thuy Linh.

“I have lost contact with my son, husband and friends’ whole family,” Dan told VTV.

“What I’m looking for now is for everyone to speed up their rescue missions and save all of them,” Dan added. “Don’t let anyone get on that boat. There’s very little air left. There’s very little chance of survival.”

The Capsys reportedly took place near the Dow Go Cave.

Halong Bay is a popular tourist hotspot and a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of around 1,600 limestone islands and islands.

AP
–

Congo and Rwandan-backed rebels signed a declaration of principles in Qatar on Saturday, ending decades of fighting in eastern Congo and committed to a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive peace agreement a month later.

The final peace agreement is to be signed by August 18th, and according to a copy of the declaration seen by the Associated Press, it “conforms to the peace agreement between the Congo and Rwanda” promoted by the United States in June.

The Principles Agreement touches on most of the highlights of Rwanda, signed on June 27th. This is the first direct commitment by both sides since the rebels seized two major cities in eastern Congo with major advances.

Backed by neighbouring Rwanda, the M23 is the most prominent of over 100 armed groups fighting for domination in the Congolese mineral-rich East. With seven million people displaced in the Congo, the UN calls the conflict in eastern Congo “one of the most prolonged, complex and serious humanitarian crises on the planet.”

It was not immediately clear what specific terms and conditions of the final peace agreement would be or what concessions would be made. The M23 had sought the release of members held by the Congolese army, many of whom faced death sentences. The Congo had called for the rebels to withdraw from the territory that had been seized.

The key question is whether Rwanda will draw support for rebels, including thousands of troops that UN experts say are in eastern Congo.

When Rwanda and the Congo signed a peace agreement in Washington, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Ndungayre said Rwanda agreed to lift “defensive measures.”

Analysts say it will be difficult for the M23 rebels to withdraw from the eastern cities of Congo and Bukabu, which were seized earlier this year.

CNN
–

Israeli forces fired fire on Gazas in search of food aid on the territory, killing at least 32 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and witnesses said.

The ministry said the bodies were brought to the Nasser Medical Complex, along with dozens of injured people.

CNN videos from the hospital showed the body lines. One man holding his dead son said, “He just wanted to eat, what can I do?”

It is not clear exactly where the filming took place. Witness Hisham Dalgam said about four kilometers (2.5 miles) have emerged from the aid distribution point run by the controversial Israeli-US aid organization, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“The gunshots erupted from the soldiers and tanks, as if they were in a fight with us,” he said.

The Israeli military said the forces “identified suspects who approached them during operational activities in the Rafa area.”

The Israeli Defense Force said the troops fired warning shots and were investigating reports of the victims.

The GHF denied that there was an incident on Saturday that was “or near” the distribution site.

“The reported IDF activity died several hours before the site opened, resulting in casualties a few kilometers away from the GHF site, which is most of our understanding.” The GHF added that people seeking assistance have repeatedly warned people not to travel to the site overnight or early in the morning.

However, many Gazans tell CNN that they must move to distribution points a few hours before opening to get the chance to receive assistance. According to multiple UN assessments, food in the strip is scarce and people are hungry.

Most Gazans do not have the means of transport to travel to the GHF centre, so you will need to walk long distances to reach the site.

Travis Mellin, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, said Saturday that many of the victims suffered “serious” gunshot wounds to the torso and head.

Hundreds of people have been killed while trying to access aid in Gaza, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said since the GHF (private group) began operating on the strip in May. He said nearly 800 people died this way between late May and July 7th. Of these, 615 people were killed near the GHF site.

“The food here is a privileged luxury,” Dr. Mellin told CNN. “If you’re lucky enough to leave some money behind, you’re the only people who can afford real food. Everyone else will go to these massacre sites.

The communications director for UNRWA, a UN agency that provides relief to Palestinian refugees, told CNN that Gaza’s current aid distribution system is “a death trap to starve Palestinians,” and that the organization is asking for once again to lead aid efforts.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has put on an optimistic note about the ongoing ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.

“In Gaza, we’ve regained most of the hostages,” he said Friday evening. “We will soon be reaching another 10, and we hope that it will end pretty quickly.

Despite Trump’s positive outlook, the two parties in the conflict once again denounced another round of ceasefire speech, releasing a statement on Friday, accusing others of limping in negotiations.

Hamas warned that if Israel does not agree to work fully towards war in its current lecture, it cannot “guaranteed” that it will agree to a suspension of future conflict.

In the past, Israel has not been keen to agree to a permanent ceasefire and has said it would like to continue fighting in the Gaza Strip until Hamas is eradicated.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida said if Israel fails to comply with its demands, the extremist groups can’t guarantee that 10 living hostages will be released as part of a ceasefire deal.

“It has become clear that (Israel Prime Minister Benjamin) the Netanyahu government is not really worried about prisoners just because they are soldiers,” he continued.

Israeli officials told reporters that one of the key obsessions in negotiations was that the negotiators called “release keys,” the criteria and ratios identified for release in swaps — the Israeli government refused to discuss until there was a final agreement on where Israel would place Israel.

Israel accused Hamas of “drinking his legs” and said it was willing to respond flexibly to consultations.

Berlin
AP
–

German authorities say at least 19 people have been injured and four have been seriously injured after a failed fair in a western city in Dusseldorf.

Firefighters and emergency services unfolded after the incident at the Rainkilms event along the Rhine River late Friday. There, images of the site show fireworks approaching at the ground level along the bank.

The child was among the injured, DPA news agency reported.

The Dusseldorf Fire Forces said police were investigating the cause of the accident.

“Our idea is with the affected people and their families. We hope that all people will have an impact on a rapid recovery from the outcome of the accident. We deeply regret the accident.”

Organizers had concluded the fair early in the day and had decided whether to continue with traditional fireworks at next year’s event, he said.

The 10-day fair features amusement park rides, drones, firework shows, and other entertainment with hundreds of staff along the left bank of the Rhine, opposite the city’s historic district. The fair is held by the St. Sebaschanas Rifle Club, which traces its history up to 1316.

CNN
–

Iran’s armed proxies are putting pressure on key points in the Middle East as Tehran is trying to restructure its regional impact.

Yemen’s Tehran’s Hooti allies last week ended a few months of calm in the Red Sea, and took a strike on two commercial vessels driving through key waterways. Iraqi proxies are suspected of disruptions in oil production in the Kurdish region, and the shipments of hundreds of rockets bound by Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been intercepted by Syrian forces over the past few months.

The increased activity by proxy reflects Iran’s determination to continue supporting a network of destructive armed groups, despite not stopping the recent US attack on Israeli soil. But so far, neither the US nor Iran appears to be trying to make a big compromise.

“Iran never tried to stop the group supply,” said Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, specializing in military and security issues in Iraq, Iran and the Gulf countries.

“They may not be able to send this on a large or regular basis — more may be intercepted, but if you are now a QUDS force of revolutionary security (Iranian) then what you are trying to show is, “We are still there, we are unharmed, nothing has changed.”

Last month, Israel launched an unprecedented attack on Iran, targeting and killing key military figures, including head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami, who is important to maintain and expand the Islamic Republic’s regional proxy network.

But even if Iran is upset by the loss of key military figures, it shows that it is still keen to arm those proxies, which still sees it as strategic assets to expand regional leverage.

Just three days after a ceasefire was declared between Iran and Israel, the ship carrying 750 tons of Iran missiles and military equipment, including missiles, drone engines and radar systems, was intercepted in the Red Sea by forces loyal to Yemen’s exiled government, the US Central Command said Wednesday. He added that “large Iranian weapons shipping” is doomed to the Houtis.

The intercept marked the “largest weapon attack” in the history of the Yemeni National Resistance Force (NRF), according to the US military.

Iran’s foreign ministry denied that it sent weapons and called it a “deceived attempt” by the US to “distract public opinion.”

Yemeni Houtis used Iranian weapons to launch attacks on both Israel and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Last week, attacks on a Greek-owned ship killed four crews, wounded others, and 11 people disappeared, European Union Naval Operations told CNN. The six on board were captured by Houthis, who told CNN by Vanguard Tech, a UK-based maritime risk management company.

A few days ago, Houthis used unmanned boats, missiles and drones to target the magical sea, a bulk carrier in the Liberian Formation.

The attack that sunk two ships appeared to indicate an escalation of force, first recorded this year after months of calm in busy waterways.

Over the past few months, suspected groups of Iranian support groups have increased attacks on Iraq’s western allies, destabilizing oil production in the country’s Kurdish-controlled regions.

The two oil fields run by US companies said on Wednesday that Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) official Aziz Ahmad was attacked after a “satch of drone attacks” by “criminal militias.”

“KRG welcomed US investments and businesses. Now, the same investors are pushed out in a calculated campaign to strangle us financially,” Ahmad said in X.

A spokesman for KRG Peshawa Hawramani told CNN that the drone attack was “intentionally to destroy energy infrastructure,” and that KRG “cannot use this as a leverage for contracts or rely on it as a source of revenue, as it ensures that it is not capable of producing oil and gas.”

The KRG’s Home Ministry condemned the attack earlier this month on a popular mobilising unit, a paramilitary force based in Iraq, supported by mainly Shia Iran.

“These attacks are being carried out with the aim of creating chaos,” the Interior Ministry said earlier this month after a bomb-bearing drone landed near KRG Capital Erbil.

Regional impacts in Iran have been significantly weakened since the attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israeli campaign from the region.

Iran’s key allies in Lebanon, Hezbollah, have tried to support Hamas by launching rockets across the border since October 7th and opening a second front against Israel. Since then, the group has been heavily weakened, losing its once dominant influence in Lebanon, and its fighter planes have been targeted by an almost day Israeli strike, facing internal and western demands for disarming.

Hassan Nasrara, the group’s respected leader, was killed in an Israeli strike last year, and the key supply route in Syria was lost in the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s important ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

“Hezbollah has lost its shaking and they have lost credibility at their base. Of course, Iranians are trying to strengthen some of their proxies to strengthen their negotiation hands, but they have not made much progress,” a local official told CNN.

Still, sources from another region told CNN that Hezbollah could “reorganize over the next few weeks” for fear of escalation from Israel. Hezbollah feels that he is in a “existential situation” due to the loss of Syria and the increasing pressures inside Lebanon.

Attempts to drive away Iran’s Hezbollah have been ongoing for the past year. According to the Syrian Ministry of Interior, the new Syrian government, stubbornly opposed to Iran, seized some cargo of Lebanon-bound weapons.

Last month, Syrian Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement that it had attempted to smuggle anti-tank cornet missiles, the same type that Hezbollah used to target Israeli tanks in southern Lebanon. Syrian police said the weapons were hidden in trucks carrying vegetables to the countryside of Homs, adjacent to Lebanon.

The first local sources to speak to CNN questioned Tehran’s purpose in arming a proxy group that proved ineffective in protecting Iran or that they had achieved the stated mission of “liberating Jerusalem.”

“Why is Hezbollah still armed? What is their arms giving them? It doesn’t give them protection, did it not bring them nearly an inch to Jerusalem? What are these weapons doing except that it causes misery to civilians?” the source said.

The restructuring of groups across Iran’s Middle East is because US President Donald Trump demonstrates his declining interest in negotiations with Tehran.

“They want to negotiate badly. We’re not in a hurry… We’ve bombed hell from various places around them. If they want to negotiate, we’re here,” Trump said Wednesday.

Ali Larijani, senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, dismissed the idea that the story is imminent and downplayed their importance.

“Now is not time for meetings. Negotiations are tactics… We’ll wait and see if the Supreme Leader thinks it is useful,” Larijani said in a television statement Friday.

The sixth round of negotiations was scheduled for June 15th, but the Israeli surprise attack disrupted plans the day before.

Experts say restructuring of local armed groups and introducing destructive capabilities could serve as leverage for Iran, as it appears to negotiate from its strength status despite recent losses.

“In theory, they’ll strengthen their hands to show that they’re just rolling and not subordinate. They want to look rebellious, but the US isn’t just bumping into them,” Knights said.

CNN
–

Syrian security forces are beginning to move to the restful province of Sweida a few days after the joint battle, where hundreds of people were killed, the country’s interior ministry says.

The clashes between the Druze Groups and the Bedouin tribe have continued in Suwayda since last week, threatening the stability of the Damascus government, seeking to control the complex and unstable sectarian landscape of Syria.

The violence has led Israel to carry out a strike against Syrian government forces. This is said to protect the Druze, a significant minority in both countries. Israel has also expressed vigilance about Syria’s new Islamic-led government despite contact between the two to ensure security.

There were reports of sporadic violence that continued on Saturday. Both the Bedouin and Druze groups issued a statement indicating they were ready to accept a ceasefire, but one Druze fact demanded that the Bedouin leave Sweida.

“Following the bloody events caused by outlaw groups, we have begun the deployment of internal security forces as part of our national mission with the main goal of protecting civilians and restoring order,” Interior Ministry spokesman Noor Al Dean Baba said.

After some time, the Syrian presidency declares what is called an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire for the state, asking the nation to allow it to “enforce this ceasefire, ensure stability and stop bloodshed.”

In a TV statement on Saturday, Syrian President Ahmed Arshala said the events in Sweida “marked a dangerous turning point in Syria’s security and political landscape.”

Alshara also mentioned Israeli airstrikes in Sweida and Damascus last week. He said it “has rekindled tensions and pushed the country into a critical phase that threatens its current stability.”

Referring to Israel’s support for several Druze groups in Sweida, Arshala said, “Several figures encouraged by foreign support showed separatist ambitions and leading groups that committed murder and abuse.”

He once again promised to protect Druze, who had been wary of his government, and called for the unity of the people.

“Syria is not a playground for separatism or sectarian instigation. Now, more than ever, it is essential to return to the path of reason and gather in a unified national foundation,” Al Shara said.

After US mediation aimed at ending violence and halting Israeli airstrikes, Alshara thanked the Trump administration for its “commitment to country’s stability.”

Alshara’s statement said Syria and Israel agreed to a new ceasefire in Sweida late on Friday following an announcement by US envoys to Thomas Barrack in Syria.

A video of Earth Reclamation from the city of Sweeda early Saturday showed dark smoke rising pillars and sporadic gunfire sounds. However, Druze and Bedouin groups have shown that they will accept a ceasefire once government forces are deployed.

A Bedouin group, represented by a gathering of southern tribes, said it had declared a “immediate and comprehensive halt of all military actions,” calling it “ensures that channels for dialogue and coordination will not recur.”

One Druze group, deeply involved in the conflict, said it was ready to accept the ceasefire on Saturday. The spiritual leadership faction led by Hikmat Al-Hijri said it is updating its call to “return to our shared humanity.”

However, al-Hijri, who refused the previous ceasefire, later called on the Bedouins to leave the state for altogether, demanding that Syrian security forces be deployed only at the state’s borders.

The Israeli government argued that Sweida should be a non-armed zone with no boundaries for government forces.

But amid ongoing violence, Israel said Friday that a limited presence of internal security forces would allow for order to be restored in Sweida.

On Friday, the Syrian Human Rights Network said it had recorded at least 321 deaths in Sweida since last Sunday when the clashes began. It said there were “extrajudicial killings, mutual artillery fire, similar to airstrikes carried out by Israeli occupation forces.”