Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,225

On Thursday, July 3, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

  • 69 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight by Russian air defense systems, according to a report from RIA Novosti, a state-owned Russian newspaper.

Weapons

  • Following the Pentagon’s decision to stop some shipments of crucial weapons due to concerns that stockpiles are running low, the Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had called in Keith Kellogg, the acting US envoy to Kyiv.
  • The Foreign Ministry stated that “the Ukrainian side stressed that any delay or putting off supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities will only make the aggressor more likely to wage hostilities and repress the peace process.”
  • Following a Department of Defense review of military support around the world, deputy White House press secretary Anna Kelly claimed that the decision to stop some shipments was “to put America’s interests first.”
  • Following a meeting between Kallas and Wang Yi, the top diplomat of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, issued a warning that Chinese businesses’ support for Russia’s war was a threat to European security.
  • According to the statement, Kallas urged China to “avoid all material support that sustains Russia’s military industrial complex” and to support “a full and unconditional ceasefire” and “just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

Trump says Powell should resign ‘immediately’ in latest attack on Fed chair

The most recent attack in a string of attacks that have raised questions about the US central bank’s independence has been repeated by President Trump.

After his administration’s top housing regulator urged the US Congress to launch an investigation into the central banker, Trump called on Powell to “resign immediately.”

In a post on X, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte claimed Powell should be investigated for giving “deceptive testimony” regarding renovations at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, DC.

Trump said “Too Late,” a nickname used to criticize Powell for slowing down rates, should resign in a Truth Social post in response to Pulte’s comments.

Trump’s most recent broadside comes days after he wrote Powell a letter urging him to “a lot” lower the benchmark interest rate, which is currently set at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent.

The US president has repeatedly criticized Powell for not backing faster rate increases, arguing that the central banker’s cautious approach is halting economic growth and overblown inflation concerns.

Lower interest rates help businesses and consumers pay less for borrowing, boosting economic growth.

However, rate cuts also have the opposite effect, raising inflation, which central banks typically prefer to keep low, and Trump’s broad-based tariffs are generally expected to cause prices to rise.

In a panel discussion on Tuesday at the European Central Bank Forum in Portugal, Powell claimed that the central bank had waited to see the effects of Trump’s tariffs, many of which are still pending in preparation for a July 9 deadline.

We put the size of the tariffs on hold, according to Powell, and essentially all of the US’s inflation forecasts increased significantly as a result of the tariffs.

“We didn’t react too strongly,” he said. We simply take a little time; in fact, we didn’t react at all.

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Powell step down or be removed. His term won’t expire until May 2026.

Trump stated to reporters last week that he would “love” for Powell to step down “if he wanted to.”

After stocks and the US dollar drastically dropped, Trump said in April that Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”

The US president is only permitted to fire the Fed chair “for cause,” which is widely accepted to mean specific misconduct, not policy making.

In a ruling that highlighted the Federal Reserve as having a distinct status in comparison to other independent organizations, the US Supreme Court reaffirmed precedent that had limited the president’s authority to remove the president’s top central banker in May.

Judge blocks Trump’s ban on asylum at the southern US border

In line with his wider immigration crackdown, a federal court has determined that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority by excluding asylum applications from the country’s southern border.

US District Judge Randolph Moss issued a warning on Wednesday that Trump’s actions would lead to the “presidentially decreed, alternative immigration system” being created in opposition to the laws that were passed by Congress.

Prior to now, the nation’s laws had ascribed the right to asylum. However, President Trump invoked the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) on January 20 when he took office for a second term.

According to Trump, “this authority” includes the right to impose restrictions on access to certain areas of the immigration system and to prevent foreign nationals from entering the country physically.

However, Judge Moss, a former president of the United States, refrained from making that claim in his 128-page decision (PDF).

According to Moss, “Nothing in the INA or the Constitution grants the President or his delegatees the sweeping authority that the Proclamation asserts.”

He emphasized that the president was not authorized to “replace the comprehensive rules and procedures” in US immigration law with an “extra-statutory, extraregulatory regime.”

When people are feared for their safety or safety, they go through the asylum process known as asylum. Successful applicants are permitted to remain in the country despite the high acceptance bar for asylum applications.

Trump, however, refers to immigration from the US to Mexico as an “invasion” led by foreign powers.

He has cited that justification to support the suspension of asylum rights.

However, Judge Moss ruled that if asylum was suspended, sufferers of persecution could suffer significant harm.

There is a good chance that tens of thousands of people will be defrauded of the legal processes they are entitled to if the Proclamation is continued in effect while an appeal is pending, according to Moss.

He gave the Trump administration, however, a 14-day appeals window. The administration must follow their instructions.

In response to the ruling on Wednesday, White House spokesman Abigail Jackson said, “A local district court judge has no authority to prevent President Trump and the United States from securing our border from the flood of aliens trying to enter illegally.” We anticipate being proven right on appeal.

The administration also asserted in court documents that it had the authority to determine whether or not the US was facing invasion.

Government lawyers wrote that the determination that the United States is facing an invasion is a question that cannot be answered politically.

Judge Moss sympathized with another administration’s claim that applications had simply been flooded with applications.

The Court acknowledged that the Executive Branch had to deal with significant difficulties in deciding whether to grant asylum to those who entered the country and preventing and deterring unlawful entry, he wrote.

However, he came to the conclusion that US laws did not grant President Trump “the unilateral authority to enact laws that restrict the rights of foreigners seeking asylum.”

Immigrant rights organizations, including the Florence Project, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and RAICES, filed a class-action complaint as a result of the decision.

The decision was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a significant step in upholding both the rights of immigrants and the authority to pass laws.

Dozens missing after ferry carrying 65 people sinks off Indonesia’s Bali

Developing a Story

Authorities claim that a ferry carrying 65 people sank off Bali, Indonesia’s resort island, killing at least four people and leaving dozens more without.

According to Indonesia’s search and rescue organization, Badan Nasional Pencarian dan Pertolongan, &nbsp, on Thursday, the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank shortly after leaving East Java’s Banyuwangi port.

According to officials, the rescue operations, which include nine vessels, have resulted in the rescue of 23 survivors.

Many of the survivors, according to Rama Samtama Putra, the police chief in Banyuwangi, were initially unconscious after hours of drifting in the ocean.

According to Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate immediate emergency response, adding that the accident was caused by “bad weather.”

In Indonesia, an archipel of about 17, 000 islands, where lax safety standards frequently cause vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment, maritime disasters are a common occurrence.

An Australian woman was killed and at least one other person was hurt when a boat carrying 16 people sank in rough waters off Bali in March.

Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty to Idaho murders to avoid death penalty

In a college town in Idaho in 2022, a former doctoral student who studied criminology admitted guilt.

In a plea deal that removes the death penalty, Bryan Kohberger, 30, admitted to the killings. In a country where murders are not uncommon, the case attracted national attention for its brutality and shock.

Judge Steven Hippler posed a number of questions to Kohberger at the hearing on Wednesday.

Did you enter the residence at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13th, 2022 with the intention to murder? the judge inquired.

Kohberger responded, “Yes.”

“You’re pleading guilty because you’re guilty,” you ask? The judge then made an inquiry.

Kohberger responded, “Yes.”

Kohberger had previously entered a not-guilty plea to burglary and first-degree murder. He later confirmed to the court that he had entered a rental home where four University of Idaho students were staying on Wednesday.

The four friends, who appear to have no prior contact with him, were then killed by sliding through a sliding door in the kitchen. The slayings were not motivated by a prosecution’s investigation.

According to Hippler, the plea agreement stipulated that Kohberger would be required to serve four consecutive life sentences and waive his right to contest or have the sentence reconsidered.

On July 23rd, a tentative sentence will be set for formal sentencing.

Moscow, a rural college town that hadn’t had a murder in five years, was initially uneasy by the killings and had no idea what to do with them.

Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen were the victims.

Kernodle was from Arizona, while Mogen and Goncalves were both from Idaho. Chapin, her boyfriend, was a native of Washington. At the time of their deaths, all four of the victims had ages of 20 or 21.

Each was repeatedly stabbed, with some instances of defensive harm, according to autopsies.

Kaylee Goncalves, one of four University of Idaho students who died on November 13, 2022, is memorialized on a sign.

Families react as Kohberger receives a life sentence

The three women’s residence was off-campus and the three women lived in the early morning hours.

Best friends Mogen and Goncalves had visited a local bar and food truck, while Kernodle and Chapin had previously attended a party the night before. Before 2 a.m. local time (9:00 GMT), all four are alleged to have left the house. Their bodies were discovered early in the morning.

Two other women who were present at the time did not suffer any harm.

A surviving roommate allegedly told investigators that she heard a crying person in one of the victims’ bedrooms the night of the murders and that she saw a man walk past her and leave the house.

Authorities claimed to have used cellphone data, video footage, and DNA evidence to link Kohberger to the murders. He was taken into custody in Idaho after being detained in Pennsylvania for a few weeks while visiting with his family.

The family of Goncalves criticized the plea agreement as being “a hurried effort to close the case without the victims’ families,” according to a statement released by the family.

Steve Goncalves, the victim’s father, was questioned on Wednesday about his belief that the four life sentences would bring about justice for the case.

He replied, “No, of course not. Daycare is offered. Daycare is in the privacy.

US says its strikes degraded Iran’s nuclear programme by one to two years

Washington, DC – The Pentagon has announced that United States military strikes against Iran set back the country’s nuclear programme by one to two years, an assessment that follows President Donald Trump’s claims that the programme was “obliterated”.

Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Wednesday that the three Iranian nuclear facilities targeted by Washington were destroyed, echoing the president’s remarks. He praised the strikes as a “bold operation”.

“We have degraded their programme by one to two years at least,” Parnell told reporters. “Intel assessments inside the department assess that. ”

Since the US sent a group of B-2 stealth bombers to Iran on June 21,  Trump has consistently lashed out at any suggestions that the attacks did not wreck the country’s nuclear facilities.

He has maintained that Iran’s nuclear programme has been “obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before”.

An initial US intelligence assessment, leaked to several media outlets last month, said the strikes failed to destroy key components of Iran’s nuclear programme and only delayed its work by months.

For its part, Tehran has been coy about providing details about the state of its nuclear sites.

Some Iranian officials have said that the facilities sustained significant damage from US and Israeli attacks. But Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said last week that Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of the strikes.

There has been no independent assessment of the aftermath of the US attacks, which came as part of a 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Visual analyses via satellite images cannot fully capture the scope of the damage at the underground sites, especially the country’s largest enrichment facility, Fordow.

Another persistent mystery is the location and state of the stockpiles containing Iran’s highly enriched uranium.

Iran’s nuclear agency and regulators in neighbouring states have said they did not detect a spike in radioactivity after the bombings, as might be expected from such strikes.

But Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), did not rule out that the containers holding the uranium may have been damaged in the attacks.

“We don’t know where this material could be or if part of it could have been under the attack during those 12 days,” Grossi told CBS News last week.

“So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. ”

Satellite images showed trucks moving out of Fordow before the US strikes.

Grossi also said that Iran could be enriching uranium again in a “matter of months”. Enrichment is the process of enhancing the purity of radioactive uranium atoms to produce nuclear fuel.

The facilities targeted in the US strikes had been under constant IAEA surveillance. But now, Iran’s nuclear programme is in the dark, away from the scrutiny of international inspectors.

After the war, the Iranian parliament passed a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA, citing the agency’s failure to condemn the US and Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities.

The Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on “installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations”.

Before the war started on June 13, Tehran claimed to have obtained Israeli documents that show that the IAEA was passing off information to Israel about Iran’s nuclear programme – allegations that the agency denied.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US State Department called on Iran to allow the IAEA access to its nuclear programme.

“It is … unacceptable that Iran chose to suspend cooperation with the IAEA at a time when it has a window of opportunity to reverse course and choose a path of peace and prosperity,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

Israel launched a massive attack against Iran on June 13 without direct provocation, claiming that it was preemptively targeting Iran’s push towards a nuclear weapon.

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb. Israel, meanwhile, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Israeli air strikes during the conflict killed hundreds of Iranian civilians, including nuclear scientists and their family members, as well as top military officials.

Iran responded with barrages of missiles that left widespread destruction and killed 29 people in Israel.

Ten days into the war, the US joined the Israeli campaign and bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. Tehran, in turn, launched a missile strike against a US air base in Qatar, an attack that resulted in no casualties.

Hours later, Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Officials in both countries have described the outcome of the war as a “historic victory”.