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July 22 (UPI) — Ukrainian drones hit logistics plants of Russian online retailer Wildberries for the third night in four days, injuring 15 workers at two facilities in the southwest of the country, the company’s CEO and regional heads said Wednesday.

Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said in an online post that warehousing in Krasnodar and the city of Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region further to the east came under attack, causing injuries and forcing an emergency evacuation of employees.

“Our people are our priority. I want to thank our team — our heroes — who carried out a swift evacuation. Unfortunately, preliminary reports indicate there are injuries.

“There are no words to describe the emotions stirred by attacks on ordinary people — on our employees, on all of us — who are simply doing their jobs. Yet, these situations highlight the most important thing: we must continue doing what we do for the benefit of the people,” wrote Kim.

Krasnodar Krai regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said 10 people were injured in a strike on a warehousing complex, three of them seriously, as part of what he called “a massive attack” on the region that killed at least one worker in a separate strike on a commercial enterprise in Armavir, 120 miles east of Krasnodar city.

Armavir authorities said an oil depot was also targeted in the attack, setting it on fire.

Two apartment blocks in Krasnodar and two houses in Dinskaya village were damaged by debris from downed drones, according to Kondratyev.

Stavropol Krai Gov. Vladimir Vladimirov said five people were hurt at a logistics facility on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, but only required treatment as outpatients.

Footage circulating online of the two Wildberries facilities that the BBC said it had verified shows explosions at the complex in Nevinnomyssk and major blazes raging at both sites.

Saying a tanker and four cargo ships from Russia’s shadow fleet were also hit in the Black and Asov seas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the strikes on warehouse complexes, saying they were part of the Russian military’s supply chain.

“Ukraine‘s long-range sanctions successfully struck important targets in Russia’s Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and other gear,” he wrote on X.

“We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home — to Russia,” said Zelensky.

The attacks overnight follow attacks on Wildberries south of Moscow in the early hours of Monday in which drones struck a fulfilment center in Kolyedino and warehouses in Belye Stolby were destroyed and strikes early Saturday that killed at least eight people and injured more than 60 at a Wildberries distribution facility at Kotovsk in Tambov region and a second facility in Elektrostal in the Moscow region.

Austrian politicians hope the change will prevent neo-Nazis from visiting the building as a place of pilgrimage.

The building in which Adolf Hitler was born near the Austrian border with Germany has been converted into a police station.

The Austrian government opened the new police station in the town of Braunau am Inn on Wednesday in the hope that the change will prevent neo-Nazis from visiting the building as a place of pilgrimage.

The government bought the terraced house in 2017, and the plans to remodel it were announced in 2019. The renovation cost about 20 million euros ($22.8m).

Officers from the district and local police will be based in the building.

In a ceremony to mark the opening, Johannes Waidbacher, mayor of the town, said he hoped the transformation would show that the local community is “confronting its history, that it is assuming responsibility”.

“I believe that the opening of the police station today brings clarity to the discussion, perhaps also a bit of calm for the people of Braunau,” Waidbacher said in a ceremony also attended by Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.

About 100 people watched an orchestra play in the house’s courtyard, including some 30 officers in uniform, though few locals made the trip, the AFP news agency reported.

The head of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior’s ‌history department, Stephan Mlczoch, told reporters on a tour of the building: “The aim was to prevent any association with Adolf Hitler, so as to strip it of that mystique.”

That mystique was encouraged by the Nazis’ cult of personality around Hitler, under whose rule the “Fuehrer birth house” was an art museum.

Hitler was born there on April 20, 1889; his family moved out a few weeks later. Passers-by often stop to take pictures, but their views on Hitler are usually not known. Local officials said there are now only “isolated incidents” involving visitors, fewer than before.

However, critics have said changing the building’s function will not erase its history and association with the Nazi leader.

“The world won’t forget where the worst mass murderer in history was born. Wikipedia won’t change its entries,” said Robert Eiter of the Mauthausen Committee and the Network Against Racism and Right-Wing Extremism. He added that there will be no reduction in the number of neo-Nazis making “the pilgrimage to Braunau”.

When asked about the public response to the project, Mayor Waidbacher told the Reuters news agency, “I think on the whole ⁠the people of Braunau have accepted it and can live with it.”

Meanwhile, some residents are unhappy about the building’s new purpose. “I would have preferred ‌if ‌they had done something else, but it is what it is,” said Irene, 74, adding that she would have wanted the charity to stay there.

Waidbacher was on a commission ⁠that recommended the building be used for either a charitable or official administrative purpose. In the end, having a charity based there would have made it too accessible to the public, he said. Waidbacher had said an argument against the charity was that it would have been too accessible to the public.

There is a rock on the building’s pavement from the Mauthausen concentration camp with the inscription “Never again fascism”. The rock remains in place, and a sign that reads “Police” has recently been added.

South Korea’s per capita household net assets rose more than 9 percent from a year earlier in 2025 on higher housing and securities prices, the central bank data showed Wednesday.

The average value of net assets held by households per capita stood at 274.7 million won (US$185,600) last year, up 9.1 percent from the previous year, according to the national balance sheet from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The figure was calculated by dividing the total assets of households and nonprofit organizations — 14,200 trillion won — by the country’s population of 51.6 million, according to the BOK.

It marked a sharp acceleration from the 3 percent growth tallied in 2024.

“Last year, South Korea’s main bourse and overseas stock markets were bullish, contributing to the gains,” a BOK official said. “Housing prices also rose, leading to an asset increase.”

The BOK said the latest figure translates into $193,000 when applying the average exchange rate for 2025.

At the end of 2024, the figure for the United States stood at $514,000, followed by Australia, Canada and Germany at $422,000, $297,000 and $267,000, respectively. Japan’s figure came to $172,000.

The average household net assets came to 634.3 million won, up 7.9 percent over the cited period.

South Korea’s total national net worth, meanwhile, reached 24,561 trillion won at the end of 2025, up 2.2 percent from a year earlier. The growth slowed from a 5 percent rise posted in 2024.

Non-financial assets, such as land and housing, came to 23,291 trillion won, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier, on the back of higher property prices.

The combined value of property assets in the country came to 17,836 trillion won, up 4.1 percent from the previous year.

Net financial assets, on the other hand, fell 20.4 percent to 1,271 trillion won.

The BOK said that while financial assets rose 11.4 percent to 2,794 trillion won, debt increased at a faster pace, rising 13.6 percent to 3,120 trillion won.

By sector, households and nonprofit organizations held the largest amount of net assets, worth 14,200 trillion won, followed by the government with 6,194 trillion won, non-financial corporations with 3,657 trillion won and financial corporations with 510 trillion won.

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The 41-year-old, who played in six FIFA World Cups, announces he will retire from both club and country.

Guillermo Ochoa, widely considered among the greatest Mexican goalkeepers in history, has announced his retirement from professional football, bringing an end to a distinguished 22-year professional career.

Ochoa, who turned 41 last week, had previously stated that the 2026 FIFA World Cup would be his last tournament although speculation had swirled about whether he might sign with a new club to extend his playing days.

He put those rumours to rest on Tuesday.

“I gave it my all; I left everything on the field for my clubs and the national team, and today I hang up my gloves,” Ochoa posted on social media. “Being a goalkeeper means knowing you might wait 90 minutes for a single moment when everything depends on you. And when that moment arrives, you cannot hesitate.”

Ochoa was on Mexico’s roster for six World Cups – a number shared only by icons Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. He served as Mexico’s starting goalkeeper in three of them: Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022.

Ochoa made his top-flight debut with Mexico City’s Club America in February 2004. He spent his first seven seasons there before transferring to French club Ajaccio in 2011, becoming the first Mexico-born goalkeeper to play in Europe. His European career also included stints with Malaga, Granada, Standard Liege, Salernitana, AVS Futebol and AEL Limassol, punctuated by a three-year return to Club America from 2019 to 2022.

“I never imagined how far a dream could take me. Today, I can only look back with pride and say: Thank you,” Ochoa wrote. “I take with me the affection of millions and the peace of mind that comes with knowing I gave everything for Mexico.”

Although he served primarily as a backup to Raul Rangel in the recent World Cup in North America, manager Javier Aguirre brought Ochoa on for the final 13 minutes against Czechia in Mexico’s last group-stage match. After the final whistle, an emotional Ochoa kissed the goalposts at Azteca Stadium – the venue where his career began – before kneeling to accept an embrace from his teammates. Long after the stands had cleared, Ochoa walked out to the centre circle one last time to take in his final farewell.

At the club level, Ochoa captured a league title with Club America during the 2005 Clausura tournament and won the Belgian Cup with Standard Liege. On the international stage, he led Mexico to six CONCACAF Gold Cup titles and earned a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

US Secretary of State says Iranian control over Strait of Hormuz sets ‘dangerous precedent’, as attacks continue.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his country is willing to negotiate an end to the war on Iran but accuses Tehran of not being “serious” about talks.

“The United States remains open and willing to engage in positive and constructive negotiations and discussions, provided that the commitments made are honoured,” Rubio said about Iran at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Manila on Wednesday.

“The problem we’re having right now is that they’re not serious about talks. If they’re serious, we’re serious. If they’re not, then we will do what’s necessary to protect our interests and also the interests of our allies,” he added in the Philippine capital.

This comes as the US launched attacks against Iran for an eleventh consecutive night, with explosions heard in several parts of the country.

As the war continues to disrupt two of the world’s most important routes for the transport of energy, Rubio stressed that he was against Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz.

“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll, and if you don’t pay them blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent, which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” he said.

“At its core, it’s very simple. Iran demands the right, which they do not have under any existing legal mechanism, to control the transit of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

“There is a fundamental principle about freedom of navigation that is threatened,” he added. “That cannot be allowed to happen.”

Rubio also discussed the US’s relationship with ASEAN member states, saying it is a matter of national interest for Washington and that the security and prosperity of the US and Southeast Asia are closely interconnected.

“I believe very much that the future and the story of the 21st century will be written in this region and by how events unfold here,” he said.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump renewed his threats to, again, attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz “pretty soon”. Iran promised it would retaliate.

Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya military command said in a statement on Tuesday that it would “consider it as an expansion of war in the region” if such an attack were carried out. The statement said it could lead to strikes on “all the interests of America, its allies and supporters”.

Fifty people have been killed and 500 wounded in the recent US attacks on Iran, a health ministry official said.

The US military’s 11th consecutive night of strikes extended to Iranian provinces not previously hit, marking a broadening of the campaign. As Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi reports from Tehran, rising civilian casualties and mounting economic pressures are fueling questions about whether diplomacy is possible.

July 21 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the commander of Ukraine‘s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on Tuesday following days of protests.

The protests, which involved thousands of people in Kyiv and other cities, were in response to the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov, a popular defense minister, last week.

Fedorov, who has a reputation for innovation and whose policies — including an effective drone program — are seen as reasons for Ukraine’s recent success against Russia, was not popular with senior defense leaders, CNN reported.

Zelensky dismissed Fedorov, leading to protestors demanding Syrskyi’s removal and for the defense minister to be reinstated by Friday. In his address announcing the commander’s dismissal Tuesday, the president said he is appointing Mykhailo Drapati, a well-liked general, to Syrskyi’s role to oversee a reorganization of the army’s command structure.

Drapati is considered an ally of Fedorov, whose attempts to modernize and reform Ukraine’s military led to the clashes with old-school military leaders, such as Syrskyi, The Guardian reported.

Zelensky also said Tuesday that he has offered Fedorov a “prominent position” in the government, as the defense minister role has been filled by Yevhen Khmara. There was no word on if Fedorov accepted.

Zelensky thanked Syrskyi for his service and praised his role in Ukraine’s military operations against Russia.

“Oleksandr Syrskyi ensured Ukraine’s results in the defense of Kyiv, the Kharkiv counteroffensive and the Kursk operation,” he said, The Kyiv Independent reported. “A significant path has been traveled. The defense of Ukraine continues, and every warrior deserves dignified treatment. I am grateful to Oleksandr Syrskyi and to every one of our soldiers for Ukraine’s strong frontline positions.”

Fedorov said Tuesday that he welcomed Drapati’s appointment.

“This brings a breath of fresh air and new hope to the struggle of free people for freedom and justice,” he said. “It is a voice for change that could not be ignored.”

Fedorov continued to say, “The high expectations of the Ukrainian people must be met with a clear vision for ending the war for independence, a strong team and decisive actions aimed at saving the lives ofour soldiers, automating the front line, delivering asymmetric strikes and crippling the Russian economy.”

July 21 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee Tuesday that the financial cost of the Iran war has now reached about $37.5 billion according to Defense Department estimates.

Lawmakers questioned Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine during a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting as the Pentagon and President Donald Trump are seeking up to $70 billion in emergency military funds.

This is in addition to the $1.5 trillion the Pentagon has requested in the upcoming defense budget. Trump has also asked for about $18 billion more in emergency funds for unrelated programs, including $11 billion for agriculture. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was also present at the hearing, although the focus remained on military spending.

Some Senate lawmakers, both Democrats and some Republicans, questioned the need for the money on top of the defense request and the roughly $150 billion in additional funding the military received through Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the committee’s top Democrat, said the request for emergency funds “may be better understood as an attempt toskirt the normal appropriations process.”

“The problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning,”Murray said. “So I’ll be blunt. The truth is, your request does not make a lotof sense.”

Hegseth, in response, blamed “gross negligence and neglect”by the Biden administration.

Some asked about Iran’s military capabilities and theobjectives of the war, as Hegseth and Trump have both previously said that the war had been won. The defense secretary also said in the early days of the war that Iran’s military had already been “destroyed and made combat-ineffective.”

Hegseth said that he never meant that Iran would be unable to launch any attack. He said he meant Iran “can lob missiles, but it’s not an effective military.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., asked Hegseth if the Trump administration believes it does not need authorization from Congress to continue the war. Hegseth replied that the administration believes it already has the authority it needs.

The hearing lasted more than three hours and ended in a shouting match between Hegseth and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who questioned the war’s objectives, called Hegseth a “failure” and said the Trump administration has created another “forever war.”

Hegseth responded by telling Peters “shame on you” and saying he has “Trump derangement syndrome.”

Proposed rules would have US regulator block the entry of swarm-capable drones, mainly from China.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has moved to prohibit imports of advanced drones, mainly from China, citing mounting national security concerns over military-grade technology.

Under the proposed rules announced on Tuesday, the US regulator will block the entry of drones equipped with swarming capabilities and infrared sensors for high-resolution thermal imaging.

Meanwhile, exemptions for components produced outside China, introduced in December, have been extended until January 2028, suggesting a focus on isolating Chinese manufacturers, such as DJI and Autel Robotics.

The move comes days after US President Donald Trump accused China of interfering in the 2020 US elections. It signals a hardening of Washington’s stance against foreign-made surveillance technology, while attempting to mitigate immediate supply chain shocks for domestic users.

FCC officials said the measures were necessary to “secure the drone supply chain” and prevent sensitive data from being accessed by foreign states.

In 2022, the FCC banned telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from prominent Chinese brands, including Huawei and ZTE, citing an “unacceptable risk to national security”.

US security officials have warned that equipment from Chinese brands such as Huawei could be used to interfere with fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks and collect sensitive information.

One of the largest manufacturers of telecommunications equipment in the world, Huawei has had an embattled relationship with the US and its allies, facing some of the heaviest sanctions ever placed on a single company in the US.

In 2019, Trump signed into law the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, which established criteria to identify communications services Washington deemed could pose a risk to national security.

The FCC’s latest move reflects a bipartisan consensus in Washington to treat foreign drone technology as an “unacceptable risk” to national infrastructure.

ChatGPT maker says an autonomous agent escaped a controlled test and accessed AI firm Hugging Face’s servers.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI has said that two of its most advanced artificial intelligence models broke out of a controlled test and hacked another AI company.

OpenAI said on Tuesday that the “unprecedented cyber incident” took place during an internal exercise meant to test its models’ cyber capabilities.

Instead, an autonomous agent powered by the AI models – the newly released GPT 5.6 Sol and an unreleased “even more capable” model – escaped the test environment and reached the open internet. It then used stolen login details and found a previously unknown security flaw to access Hugging Face servers, the company said.

OpenAI claims that the hack represented the agent going to “extreme lengths” to retrieve information that would help satisfy the testing goals.

Hugging Face cofounder Clement Delangue said the company had suspected that a frontier lab was behind the attack, and that he believed there was no malicious intent on OpenAI’s part.

“It’s quite mind-blowing that all of this happened autonomously!” he wrote, adding that it “might be the first incident of its kind”.

Greg Casar, a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas, called the incident “alarming”.

“AI is developing extremely fast with no real regulations to keep us safe,” he said, calling for mandatory independent safety testing, mandatory disclosure of security incidents, and international cooperation.

The disclosure comes weeks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a framework to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems before their public release.

Experts have repeatedly sounded the alarm over AI-enabled cyberattacks and models slipping beyond human control. Last month, AI developer Anthropic urged the industry to pause development of its most powerful systems.

A leopard storms into a store in Rajasthan, India, attacking an employee and causing panic. The leopard was trapped, tranquilised and returned to the wild.

July 21 (UPI) — Conditions from Tropical Storm Bertha will continue to spread into Wednesday across parts of the north Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storm conditions are possible in Louisiana by late Wednesday.

The storm, which isn’t expected to become a hurricane before fizzling out, formed Monday night.

The epicenter of the storm was located about 120 miles west-southwest of Panama City, Fla., and 105 miles south-southeast of Mobile, Ala., the NHC said in its 7 p.m. CDT update. The storm was traveling west at 6 mph and had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph.

Winds must reach at least 74 mph for a storm to be considered a hurricane.

There was a tropical storm warning in effect from the Bay/Gulf County line in Florida west to Morgan City, La., metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. A tropical storm watch was in place from Morgan City, La., west to Cameron, La., and Lake Maurepas. This marked no change from the 4 p.m. CDT update.

“Little change is strength is expected tonight, and gradual weakening is forecast Wednesday through Friday,” the NHC said.

Bertha is expected to produce total rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches with isolated higher totals through Thursday along the central Gulf Coast from western Florida into southern Louisiana. This could produce isolated flash flooding, especially in urban areas, the NHC said.

Surf conditions caused by Bertha will continue spreading west along the northern Gulf Coast, with swells likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

Replaced military chief Syrskyi clashed with former Defence Minister Fedorov, whose removal last week led to protests.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Oleksandr Syrskyi as the country’s commander-in-chief, appointing Mykhailo Drapatyi to lead the military. The move came after six days of protests in the capital, Kyiv, sparked by the removal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov – who had previously clashed with Syrskyi.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday’s decision was made to “reset” the ongoing war effort against Russia.

“I am grateful to Oleksandr Syrskyi and to every one of our warriors for Ukraine’s strong front-line positions,” Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media. “I am grateful to Mykhailo Drapatyi for holding that same view.”

“Our shared wish is one – victory over the enemy and conditions at the front and in pressure on Russia that would force Russia toward peace,” he added. He emphasised the need to address friction within the military leadership and resolve persistent issues concerning mobilisation and frontline management.

Fedorov, who was widely seen as critical to the war effort against Russia, was removed from his post last week, triggering widespread protests across the country.

Demonstrators in Kyiv and other major cities have called for accountability and a more effective military strategy, with many criticising Syrskyi’s handling of the war effort, amid rising Ukrainian casualties.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the unit documented 1,396 civilians killed and 7,978 wounded in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026.

That was a 37 percent increase from the same period in the previous year and “almost doubled what we documented in 2024,” she said.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified air strikes in recent months, targeting each other’s vital infrastructure, as United States-led talks on ending Russia’s invasion remain stalled, with the US’s focus largely turned towards its war on Iran.

Russia has frequently used ballistic missiles while Kyiv is currently short of Patriot interceptor munitions, which are crucial to defend against the attacks.

In retaliation, Ukraine is intensifying its strikes on Russian territory, mainly targeting oil depots. A series of Ukrainian drone ⁠attacks killed at least eight warehouse workers on ⁠Saturday and injured dozens more, while another attack caused a fire at an oil depot outside Moscow.

Latest cost comes as Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Caine ask for $1.5 trillion budget, including $70bn for Iran war.

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has put the latest official price tag on the US-Israel war on Iran at $37.5bn.

Hegseth confirmed the figure during a hearing before the Senate appropriations committee on Tuesday, in which he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine were questioned about their request for a $1.5 trillion US defence budget, including nearly $70bn for the war with Iran.

Still, the number is significantly lower than other estimates, especially those that include knock-on expenses for US consumers. For instance, Moody’s Analytics has estimated the domestic cost of the war to be up to $150bn, accounting for factors such as higher US energy prices.

“The estimate we have as of today is $37.5bn,” Hegseth said upon questioning from Democratic Senator Dick Durbin.

Hegseth added that the price includes some operations and maintenance costs extending through the end of September, but did not provide specifics.

The latest quote is about $8bn higher than the previous figure released by the administration of President Donald Trump of $29bn in May.

Hegseth appeared before the committee as fighting between the US and Iran continued to rage, after a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that had seen a halt in attacks since June 17 collapsed last week.

On Monday, ahead of the 10th consecutive night of US strikes, Trump said Iran would “pay” after two more US soldiers were killed over the weekend.

Over the last week, Trump has threatened to target energy plants and bridges in Iran; send ground forces to seize Iran’s Kharg Island; and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.

Attacks have so far targeted sites Iran uses to assert influence over the Strait of Hormuz, its key point of leverage in the conflict.

Iran, meanwhile, has pledged to continue to strike US assets in the region. The latest round of strikes saw desalination and power plants set ablaze in Kuwait, as well as other sites hit in Bahrain and Jordan. The Houthis in Yemen, close allies of Iran, have also declared a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia.

During his opening statements, Hegseth referenced strains on the US weapons stockpile from the war, which the US and Israel launched on February 28.

He said funding was needed “to expand production lines and accelerate delivery of high-demand munitions. We’re talking about solid rocket motors, JDAMs [Joint Direct Attack Munition], hypersonics, and counter-drone capabilities”.

The Pentagon chief also pointed to a pending budget crunch amid the war, saying that “training in the future would have to be curtailed if we do not get our budget needs met and met urgently, and yes, some of that has to do with the current budget cycle and how things come together”.

Democratic Senator Patty Murray questioned the sprawling budget request, which also included funding requests for the National Guard deployment in Washington, DC, US operations against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, and military patrols of the US border.

“So I’ll be blunt,” she said. “The truth is, your request does not make a lot of sense.”

At least 10 people have died and 17 remain trapped, including rescuers, after a suspected gas explosion caused a tunnel collapse at a hydropower project in northeast India.

Meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House, US President Trump said he is open to direct talks with Hezbollah if requested by Lebanon. He pledged continued US support for the country.

The consortium is led by British-Indian investor Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.

Liverpool are in talks with British-Indian investor Amit Bhatia over a potential deal for a minority stake in the Premier League football club.

Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool’s United States-based owner, confirmed the approach from Bhatia’s group on Tuesday.

“An investment consortium led, managed, and represented by Amit Bhatia has expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment in Liverpool Football Club,” an FSG spokesperson told the AFP news agency.

Bhatia, the son-in-law of Indian steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, is heading a consortium interested in buying into the 20-time English champions.

The Financial Times reported that Bhatia has hired advisers to work on the offer, which the newspaper said could value Liverpool at more than $6bn.

Just hours after Bhatia’s interest in Liverpool emerged, the London-born 46-year-old stepped down from his role as a director and co-owner of English Championship side Queens Park Rangers (QPR).

Bhatia, who spent 18 seasons with the west Londoners, will transfer his ownership of the club to majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam.

“I step back from my formal responsibilities with pride, gratitude and affection. I want to thank the players, managers, staff, the community trust, my fellow board members and, above all, the fans, who have made me and my family feel part of the QPR family for so many years,” Bhatia said.

Bhatia’s discussions with FSG – who bought Liverpool for 300 million British pounds ($400m) in 2010 – are believed to be at an early stage, with no deal struck yet.

Any investment from Bhatia would be made to further position Liverpool for success, following FSG’s move in 2023 to sell a minority stake in the club to global sports investment firm Dynasty.

Reports at the time valued that transaction between $100m and $200m.

BUENOS AIRES, July 21 (UPI) — President Javier Milei’s government is backing a bill that would eliminate most of Argentina’s restrictions that have limited foreign ownership of rural land since 2011 in an effort to attract investment and strengthen legal certainty.

The plan also has reignited debate over sovereignty and control of a resource considered strategic.

The proposal is part of the Private Property Inviolability Act, and it would substantially amend the framework established a law enacted during the administration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that set limits on the amount of rural land that foreign individuals and companies could own.

Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier said the initiative seeks to strengthen property rights protected under Argentina’s Constitution. Speaking at a news conference, he said the country had endured decades of legal uncertainty that discouraged investment and hindered opportunities for economic growth and job creation.

“What we are seeking is to remove the general restrictions on the acquisition of rural land by foreigners,” Ravier said.

He also argued that Argentina historically grew thanks to immigrants who invested and became landowners, and that maintaining broad restrictions on foreign investors no longer makes sense. He added that the bill instead strengthens oversight of foreign governments and their state-owned companies.

The initiative also removes one of the central principles of the current law, which states that purchasing rural land by foreigners does not constitute an investment because the land is a nonrenewable natural resource that belongs to the country.

Former Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Julián Domínguez, who promoted the law during Fernández de Kirchner’s administration, had rejected proposed reform.

He told UPI that when Congress approved the legislation, it established that “the acquisition of rural land shall not be considered an investment because it is a nonrenewable natural resource contributed by the recipient country.”

Domínguez contended the proposal contradicts the objective of protecting a strategic resource.

“It is paradoxical. The grandly titled ‘Private Property Inviolability Act’ ends up being, precisely, a violation of Argentines’ rights over their land,” he said.

The former minister also rejected the government’s argument that the current law discouraged foreign investment.

“Our producers are recognized around the world for their ability to adapt and innovate. So does the government believe a foreigner will do a better job than an Argentine producer? The debate is about something else,” he said.

The issue goes beyond economics. Domínguez said.

“In Congress, what is at stake is our identity as Argentines and our relationship with our territory. Every country is very careful about who can buy its land,” he said.

Attorney Enrique Viale, president of the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers, also criticized the bill, saying it should instead be called the “foreignization of land law.”

He told UPI that the proposal repeals the provisions that establish acreage limits, ownership caps and protected areas for foreign purchases of rural land.

“It repeals the provisions establishing acreage limits, ownership percentages and protected areas. It fully liberalizes land purchases, including in border areas and without ownership caps,” he said.

Viale said foreigners already own large portions of Argentine land, adding that without restrictions, the trend could accelerate.

He said reform would benefit large international investors who seek to develop artificial intelligence-related data centers, as well as foreign landowners who already hold extensive properties in Patagonia and Argentina’s Littoral region.

“I see no benefit in this bill. What it does is consolidate permanent control of land by foreign capital and increase the risk of losing sovereignty,” he said.

From the real estate sector, José Rozados, director of consultancy Reporte Inmobiliario, said easing restrictions could encourage large-scale investment.

“Anything that removes restrictions on the inflow of capital, especially for investments that require large amounts of money and long payback periods, is important,” he said.

Rozados said greater openness would facilitate productive projects that require large tracts of land and significant investment to develop economic activities.

“Whatever legislation is enacted regarding the permissibility and protection of those investments could allow foreign investors, or even local investors partnered with foreign capital, to be willing to invest in large areas of land,” he said.

The law, known as the National Protection Regime for the Ownership, Possession and Tenure of Rural Land, mandates that foreign individuals and companies may not own more than 15% of the country’s rural land — a limit that also applies within each province and municipality.

It also provides that citizens of the same nationality may not account for more than 30% of that quota, equivalent to 4.5% of the total rural land within a given territory.

The legislation also limits to 2,471 acres the amount of land that may be acquired by a single foreign owner in the country’s core agricultural zone, or its equivalent in other regions, and prohibits the sale of land located in border security zones or containing significant permanent bodies of water, such as rivers, lakes and glaciers.

The government’s bill amends several of those provisions to relax the current framework while maintaining restrictions on foreign governments and their state-owned companies.

The ruling coalition failed to secure enough support to move the initiative forward, and the bill will return to the Senate for debate in August.

July 21 (UPI) — A father and son have been arraigned on charges for kidnapping two federal biologists at gunpoint in California.

Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, and his son Phoenix Henrichsen, 23, were in federal court in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday when they were charged with kidnapping a federal employee and aiding and abetting.

The charges stem from the Henrichsens allegedly confronting two female U.S. Forest Service staff biologists last week at Gumboot Lake Campground in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California. Joseph was armed with a rifle when he approached the biologists in a remote area of the forest. He zip-tied their hands behind their backs and ordered them to a trailer nearby where they were held.

When they arrived at the trailer, Phoenix joined them, court documents say.

At one point, Joseph took one of the biologists in the Forest Service Nissan that they were using before the kidnapping and drove her several miles away where he used her phone to call a federal forest ranger. He left a message for the ranger informing them that he had taken two hostages and was armed.

“I’ve taken two fed biologists hostage from the Forest Service,” Joseph said, the affidavit reads. “I’m driving in the ranger vehicle right now. Her hands are behind her [expletive] back, and I’ve got live rounds ready.”

Law enforcement officials responded after the message was received, beginning an hourslong standoff on Friday. The Henrichsens surrendered and were arrested that day after hostage negotiations.

The victims were released safely.

The affidavit accuses Phoenix of aiding and abetting for keeping “watch” of the trailer when his father was not around.

The Henrichsens face a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. A preliminary examination is scheduled for Aug. 3.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel has “no interest” in joining the renewed US military campaign against Iran, arguing the current US-Iran conflict and sustained economic pressure on Tehran benefits Israel.

Southeast Asian countries are highly affected by oil supply shortages caused by the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz closure.

Southeast Asian nations are “deeply concerned” about the impact of blockades of key maritime trade routes in the Middle East, their top diplomats have said.

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their key ⁠partners met in the Philippines on Tuesday against a backdrop of instability due to the global impact on trade and energy supplies caused by the US-Israel war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Southeast Asian countries have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $3.8 trillion but are highly exposed to supply limitations caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, as they are heavily dependent on Gulf countries for their oil imports.

At the ongoing ASEAN summit in Manila, heads of state and top diplomats from the region are seeking to agree on an oil-sharing mechanism to mitigate the impact of the war on Iran.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, opening a potential new front in the war and risking aggravating the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.

“We are deeply concerned that these ‌developments severely undermine the ongoing efforts of key mediators and diminish the prospects for a peaceful resolution through dialogue and diplomacy,” ASEAN ministers said in a statement.

Top diplomats from the United States, Russia and China are also attending the ASEAN summit, another reminder of how the war on Iran is reshaping international diplomacy and the global energy supply.

Reporting from Manila, Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Lo said the war has driven up oil and gas prices in Southeast Asia while also stalling manufacturing and exports, causing countries from the region to find new trade partners.

“Southeast Asia is thousands of kilometres away from the Middle East, but it has been one of the most impacted regions by the conflict because of how dependent many of its member nations are on oil from the Middle East,” Lo said.

“Take, for example, the Philippines: it’s the first country in the world to declare a state of national energy emergency, and it still is in this state, so it is fighting problems on two fronts. One on supply, the other on skyrocketing fuel prices,” Lo said. “On supply, it’s gotten oil from non-traditional partners, such as Russia and China, but on skyrocketing prices it has very little it can do because the prices here are driven by market forces.”

Other key issues to be discussed at the ASEAN summit include the civil war in Myanmar, as the bloc’s peace initiatives falter, five years after a military coup plunged the country into a conflict that has killed an estimated 100,000 people.

“Ahead of the summit, ASEAN foreign ministers held an in-person meeting – the first since 2021 – with the foreign minister of the military-backed government in Myanmar in Bangkok,” Lo reported. “This was criticised for legitimising the military junta in Myanmar.”

Top diplomats are also likely to discuss ⁠tensions in the South China Sea, with ASEAN countries and China still trying to conclude a code of conduct to ⁠prevent disputes after nearly 10 years. In advance of the summit, China and the Philippines were engaged in a feud after a confrontation between their vessels in disputed waters left a Filipino sailor injured.

The US Department of State condemned what it described as China’s “dangerous and aggressive” actions, and its “troubling pattern of provocation against lawful Philippine maritime operations”.