In Kharkiv, at least one person died and 71 others were wounded following a barrage of Russian drones. Local officials said residential buildings, a kindergarten, and the regional enlistment office sustained damage in two waves of attacks.
Russia has stepped up its drone campaign across Ukraine, striking two military enlistment centres on Monday in Kharkiv and Zaporizhia, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. Kyiv says the latest attacks aim to disrupt mobilisation efforts.
A separate drone strike hit a draft office in Kremenchuk on Sunday, signalling what Ukrainian officials describe as a targeted wave of assaults on recruitment infrastructure.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said six Shahed drones struck within a 10-minute window, describing the strikes as targeting “residential streets, cars, and people”.
Another death was reported in Odesa following a drone attack. Meanwhile, an assault on Zaporizhia on Monday left at least 20 people injured, regional authorities said.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed calls for international assistance, stressing the growing urgency in countering Russia’s aerial offensive.
Amid the escalating violence, United States President Donald Trump pledged on Monday to provide Ukraine with additional military aid, focusing on defensive weaponry. His statement came days after the US paused shipments of key arms, drawing sharp warnings from Kyiv.
The United Kingdom announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s chemical weapons programme. London imposed asset freezes and travel bans on two senior military figures – Aleksey Viktorovich Rtishchev and Andrei Marchenko – as well as one Russian entity, for their alleged involvement in chemical weapon transfers and use in Ukraine.
Former Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead from a gunshot wound in his car outside Moscow just hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him. Investigators suspect suicide. His removal has raised speculation of a link to a corruption inquiry over missing border defence funds in the Kursk region.
Zelenskyy reportedly told Trump he plans to replace Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington as part of a major cabinet reshuffle expected next week. Ambassador Oksana Markarova has faced criticism from Trump’s allies in Congress, who say she is too aligned with the Democrats.
At a White House dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump aired his frustration with Putin, saying: “I’m not happy with President Putin at all”. His administration continues to face pressure over its lack of progress in ending the war.
United States President Donald Trump has said his administration will send more weapons to Ukraine after an earlier decision to halt some arms shipments drew condemnation from Kyiv and its supporters.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC on Monday, Trump said the new shipments would be primarily comprised of “defensive weapons”.
“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves”, Trump said.
“They are getting hit very hard now”.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed Trump’s comments later on Monday, saying that Washington would provide “additional defensive weapons” to “ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops”.
Parnell added that Trump would continue to evaluate military shipments overseas in accordance with “our America First defence priorities”.
Trump’s pledge came after Russia announced on Monday that it had captured the Ukrainian village of Dachne, in Dnipropetrovsk, following a months-long push to seize territory in the central region.
The decision also followed the Pentagon’s announcement last week that it would halt deliveries of some weapons, including air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, out of concern that stockpiles were running too low.
After a phone call with Trump on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had agreed with his US counterpart to work to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
“We spoke about opportunities in air defence and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies”, Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Trump on Friday described the call as “very good” and said his administration was “looking at” selling more Patriot missiles to Kyiv.
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
Taichung City, Taiwan – Bernard keeps a low profile.
Heading to work on the streets of Taiwan, the 45-year-old Filipino migrant worker dodges glances and often checks his face mask to make sure his appearance is concealed.
To hide his accent, he often speaks in a near-whisper.
Often, he declines invitations to social occasions from his fellow countrymen, worried that a “Judas” among them might report him to the authorities.
Hired at one of Taiwan’s many electronics factories, Bernard came to the island legally in 2016.
But since June 2024, he has been among Taiwan’s growing population of undocumented workers. He blames his broker, a private employment agent to which migrants are usually assigned, for his current predicament.
Bernard’s broker tried to confiscate his passport, he said, then tried to convince him to resign and forgo severance payments from his employer.
He refused both times, he said, causing a rift between them.
“They [brokers] only speak to you when they come to collect payments or when they want to trick you,” Bernard, who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of repercussions, told Al Jazeera.
Brokers in Taiwan take a cut of their clients’ wages and have significant influence over their conditions and job prospects, making their relationships prone to abuse.
When Bernard’s contract expired in 2022, he said, his broker blacklisted him among other employers.
Desperate to support his daughter’s education in the Philippines, Bernard ditched his broker and decided to overstay his visa to work odd construction jobs, he said.
These days, he said, he feels “like a bird in a cage”.
In public, Bernard would not even utter the word “undocumented” in any language, only gesturing with his hands that he ran away.
Joy Tajonera celebrates Sunday Mass at Taichung Catholic Church in Taichung, Taiwan, on February 23, 2025 [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera]
Taiwan’s undocumented workforce is rising fast.
The number of unaccounted-for migrants on the island has doubled in the last four years, reaching 90,000 this January, according to the Ministry of Labor.
Despite Taiwan’s image as one of the region’s rare liberal democracies, a growing number of Southeast Asian migrant workers are living under the constant threat of deportation and without access to social services.
Taiwan institutionalised its broker system in 1992 in a bid to streamline labour recruitment.
Brokers influence almost every aspect of a migrant worker’s life, from where they live, to their meals, to the terms of their employment contracts, and even how they access public services.
Migrant rights advocates say it is precisely this level of control that is prompting large numbers of workers to flee their workplaces.
Over a third of all complaints made by migrants to the Ministry of Labor are broker-related, according to official data.
As of January 2025, Vietnamese made up the biggest share of the undocumented at 57,611, followed by Indonesians at 28,363, and Filipinos at 2,750.
Joy Tajonera, a Catholic priest who runs the Ugnayan Center, a migrant shelter in Taichung City, said the Taiwanese government has taken a lax approach to the issue.
“The system allows the brokers a power to be used to the disadvantage of migrants,” Tajonera told Al Jazeera.
“Meanwhile, employers play innocent.”
Brokers typically charge migrants a monthly service fee of $50 to $60, and also collect fees for job transfers, hospital insurance, leave, and most of the necessary documentation to work in Taiwan.
In some cases, they impose age limits for certain jobs.
Tajonera said many undocumented workers can actually earn more without a broker, “but then you lose all social protections and health insurance. It’s not that they want to run away. It’s their situation, they can’t take it any more.”
‘Shameless and stupid’
Taiwan’s Labor Ministry said in a statement that the increase in undocumented migrants was driven by pandemic-related disruption to deportations.
It said it has taken various steps to improve conditions for migrant works, including raising the minimum wage, conducting regular inspections of recruitment agencies, introducing a new suspension mechanism for agencies with high rates of absconding workers, and encouraging labour-sending countries to reduce agency fees.
“Through pre-employment orientation for industrial migrant workers and one-stop orientation sessions for household caregivers, the ministry aims to enhance workers’ awareness of legal requirements, inform them of the risks and consequences of going missing, and ensure employers fulfill their management responsibilities,” the ministry said.
However, since last year, the Taiwanese government has also increased the maximum fines for migrants caught overstaying their visas from $330 to $1,657.
Lennon Ying-Da Wang, director of the public migrant shelter Serve the People Association, called the government’s move to increase penalties “shameless and stupid”.
“Instead of addressing the reasons for running away, this will just prevent people from surrendering,” he told Al Jazeera.
Wang said a lack of protections, particularly for those working in childcare and fisheries, is the key reason why many migrants abscond from their workplaces.
Neither industry is subject to Taiwan’s monthly minimum wage of $944, according to Taiwan’s Labor Standards Act.
Wang said migrants in practice often receive half that amount minus deductions by brokers.
“Migrants just want a decent salary,” Wang said. “But there’s an unspoken rule among some brokers not to hire migrant workers who ask for help from shelters. That forces them to run away.”
Despite his sympathies, Wang, as the director of a state-funded facility, is not allowed to take in migrants who have absconded from their employers as they are subject to deportation.
Nicole Yang checks on infants at Harmony Home in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 7, 2025 [Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera]
On a quiet, nondescript road at the edge of Taipei lies Harmony Home, an NGO catering to undocumented young mothers and children.
While the women and children who stay at Harmony Home cannot be deported for humanitarian reasons, the state is not obligated to shoulder the costs of their care or medical needs.
Harmony Home, which has taken in more than 1,600 children over the past two decades, has recently seen a sharp uptick in minors coming through its doors, founder Nicole Yang said.
“Last year, we had about 110 new kids. By April this year, we’ve already got 140,” Yang told Al Jazeera.
“We also care for 300 others who live at home while their mother works.”
Li-Chuan Liuhuang, a labour expert at National Chung Cheng University, said that while the broker system will be difficult to “uproot immediately”, the government could improve oversight by “making the recruitment procedure and cost structure more transparent”.
In Lishan, a mountainous area of Taichung, hundreds of undocumented Southeast Asians pick peaches, pears and cabbages for local landowners. The presence of runaway migrants, many of whom fled fishing trawlers, is not only tolerated but relied upon for the harvest.
Liuhuang said she would like to see such migrants being allowed to work on farms with proper labour protections, but she believes this would not be easy for the public to accept.
“The government will have to commit more efforts for this kind of dialogue,” she told Al Jazeera.
Mary, who asked to use a pseudonym, said she absconded from her job as a childcare worker to work illegally at various mountain farms after becoming frustrated at earning less than half the minimum wage and having her grievances ignored by her broker.
Migrant worker Mary checks on crops in Lishan, Taichung City, on April 8, 2025 [ Michael Beltran/Al Jazeera]
Sitting beside a cabbage patch, Mary, 46, said she always felt anxious around the police in the city.
But in Lishan the rules are different, she said, as landowners have an unwritten agreement with the authorities about the runaways.
“There’s no way the boss doesn’t have connections with the police. He always knows when they come and tells us not to go out,” she told Al Jazeera.
Even so, there is no guarantee of avoiding mistreatment in the mountains.
After the harvest, employers sometimes withhold payments, threatening anyone who complains with deportation, Mary said.
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to hike tariffs against the BRICS economic bloc after the group offered indirect criticism of trade wars and the recent military attacks in Iran.
On Monday, Trump took aim at the 10-member bloc, which seeks to strengthen emerging economies, framing its interests as adversarial to the US’s.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff,” Trump wrote in a post. “There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
BRICS is named for its founding members, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But it has grown to include other countries, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Over the weekend, the group held its 17th summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The meeting culminated in a declaration angled at promoting peace and global cooperation.
But several items in the joint declaration appeared to be aimed at the US and its ally Israel, even though neither was identified by name. Under a section entitled “Strengthening Multilateralism and Reforming Global Governance”, for instance, the BRICS leaders called out the increasing use of tariffs in global trade.
This seemed directed at Trump, who has threatened US trading partners with a suite of tariffs to negotiate more favourable trade deals and exact policy concessions.
The US president has also called tariffs “the most beautiful word to me in the dictionary”, though many economists warn that the cost of such import taxes is often offset onto consumers.
Trump has also championed the use of other protectionist economic policies, under the banner of his “America First” agenda. But the BRICS leaders warned that these kinds of policies could backfire.
“We voice serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade and are inconsistent with WTO [World Trade Organization] rules,” the BRICS leaders said in their statement.
Such measures, they continued, could “reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains, and introduce uncertainty into international economic and trade activities, potentially exacerbating existing economic disparities”.
The BRICS leaders also used their declaration to denounce the recent military strikes on one of the bloc’s member nations, Iran.
“We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13 June 2025, which constitute a violation of international law,” they wrote, adding that “peaceful nuclear facilities” had been targeted.
Israel carried out the first attacks against Iran in the 12-day war on June 13, and on June 22, the US sent seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to Iran to strike three nuclear facilities. Both Israel and the US have maintained that these actions were necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, though Iran has denied seeking one.
In the wake of Trump’s tariff threat, BRICS leaders rushed to assure their US counterparts that they are not seeking confrontation. Others, however, chafed at Trump’s remarks.
“I became aware of what President Trump tweeted, and I think there needs to be greater appreciation of the emergence of various centres of power in the world,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. “And this should be seen in a positive light, rather than in a negative light.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took an even blunter approach to Trump’s threats.
“I don’t think it’s very responsible or serious for the president of a country as big as the United States to go around threatening the world through the internet,” Lula said in a question-and-answer session with reporters.
A United States government review has found no evidence that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a secret client list, and reaffirmed that he died by suicide in federal custody in 2019, undercutting years of conspiracy theories.
The acknowledgement that Epstein did not maintain a list of clients who received underage girls marks a clear retreat from a narrative once promoted by members of US President Donald Trump’s administration. Earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi even claimed in a Fox News interview that such a document was “sitting on my desk”, awaiting her review.
The memo, released on Monday by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI, stated that a “systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘ client list'”. It also found no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent figures, or grounds to pursue investigations against uncharged third parties.
“After a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019”, the memo said. “This conclusion is consistent with previous findings, including the August 19, 2019 autopsy findings of the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the November 2019 position of the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in connection with the investigation of federal correctional officers responsible for guarding Epstein, and the June 2023 conclusions of DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General”.
It concluded by saying that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.
The Justice Department also released 10 hours of surveillance footage from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. The footage revealed that no one entered Epstein’s cell on the day he died by suicide.
‘ We were all told more was coming ‘
Conservatives who have sought proof of a government cover-up of Epstein’s activities quickly expressed outrage at the announcement.
Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: “We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been. And it didn’t have to be”.
Separately, former Trump ally, billionaire Elon Musk, shared an image of a scoreboard reading, “The Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter”, which was set at zero.
On June 5, Musk claimed that Trump appeared in the Epstein files and later posted a video on X showing Trump at a party with Epstein. These posts, now deleted, were part of an ongoing feud between Musk and Trump linked to Trump’s new tax cuts and spending bill.
What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again … pic. twitter.com/CO9xJz68Tf
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote, “Next the DOJ will say ‘ Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed'”, calling the conclusion “over the top sickening”.
‘ Epstein’s crimes and death ‘
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the Justice Department’s “exhaustive investigation”.
When questioned about the client list mentioned in February’s Fox News interview, Leavitt clarified that Bondi was actually referring to the broader collection of Epstein case files.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, in a suicide that foreclosed the possibility of a trial.
The Justice Department and FBI’s disclosure that Epstein took his own life is hardly a revelation, even though conspiracy theorists have continued to challenge that conclusion.
In November 2019, for instance, then-Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press news agency that he had reviewed security footage that revealed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died, and expressed confidence that Epstein’s death was a suicide.
However, Epstein’s ties to the rich and famous have led many to believe, without evidence, that others were behind his death, in an effort to cover up their own crimes.
According to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a South Korea-based religious group, over 4,000 members of the church who recovered from COVID-19 are willing to donate plasma for developing a new treatment.
Mr. Man Hee Lee, founder of the Shincheonji Church, said that members of the church are advised to donate plasma voluntarily. “As Jesus sacrificed himself with his blood for life, we hope that the blood of people can bring positive effects on overcoming the current situation,” said Mr. Lee.
