INTERNACIONAL
Moscow, Taliban forge military alliance in power grab after US Afghanistan exit: reports
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Russia and the Taliban government in Afghanistan have signed a military cooperation pact, cementing an alliance that further solidifies Moscow’s influence in Central Asia, according to reports.
The deal, finalized Wednesday at an international security forum in Russia, followed a meeting between Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu and Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob.
The Taliban Defense Ministry announced on X that Yaqoob had traveled to Russia to attend the conference.
Yaqoob is the Taliban’s former military chief and the son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar.
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Russia and the Taliban government in Afghanistan have signed a new military-technical cooperation pact, cementing an alliance that solidifies Moscow’s influence in Central Asia. (Photo by Elke Scholiers / Getty Images)
Omar had formed a close alliance with Osama bin Laden and provided a safe haven from which al Qaeda planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
As of Thursday, neither Russia nor the Afghan side had shared the further details of the new military agreement.
«Afghanistan and Russia have long and historical relations. In this direction, we want to move further. We have expanded bilateral relations,» Yaqoob said at the meeting.
The pact follows statements from a senior Russian security official who noted that Moscow has established a «full-fledged partnership» with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and is encouraging other countries in the region to expand cooperation with Kabul, Reuters reported.
The Taliban had regained power in August 2021, after overthrowing the U.S.-backed Afghan government run by President Ashraf Ghani.
In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the possibility of dropping Russia’s classification of the Taliban as a terrorist organization.
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In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the possibility of dropping Russia’s classification of the Taliban as a terrorist organization. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo/AP, File)
In 2024, he called the Taliban «allies in the fight against terrorism» and Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
«After several years of vacillation, Russia has become the first country in the world to officially recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan,» Nikita Smagin, an expert on Iranian foreign and domestic policies, Islamism and Russia’s policy in the Middle East, said in a report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
«It’s more of a symbolic gesture than something driven by trade or economic considerations,» Smagin added, describing how when Taliban militants entered the Afghan capital in August 2021, «Russia was already deemed eligible for special treatment.»
«Its diplomatic mission was immediately provided with security, and Russian Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov became the first foreign diplomat to meet with the new rulers of Afghanistan,» he explained.
On Wednesday, Shoigu also called for Western countries to unfreeze sanctioned Afghan assets.
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Russia has become the first country in the world to officially recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan. (Photo by Elke Scholiers / Getty Images)
«We are convinced that Western countries should unfreeze blocked Afghan assets, fully recognize their responsibility for their 20-year presence in Afghanistan, and bear the burden of the country’s post-conflict reconstruction,» Shoigu said, according to reports.
«Moscow needs to take steps that will restore its image as an influential power that holds the initiative, and recognition of the Taliban regime serves precisely that purpose,» Smagin added.
«The status of the first country to establish official diplomatic relations with the Taliban government should ensure Russia has a leading role in discussions of regional security issues.»
The recognition of the Taliban, he said, was an attempt by Russia to «prove itself as a leading global force that is not afraid to break established norms and set precedents for other countries.»
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Moscow continues to emphasize the need to work directly with Kabul as it faces severe, ongoing security threats from various rival Islamist militant groups operating throughout Central Asia and the Middle East, Reuters said.
Shoigu also said Moscow was building a «pragmatic dialogue» with the Taliban that included security, trade, culture and humanitarian support, the outlet reported May 14.
afghanistan, world, al qaeda, vladimir putin, alliances, russia
INTERNACIONAL
El despoblamiento del campo no deja «una solución sencilla» a los incendios forestales europeos
Zelenskyy: War initiative no longer in Putin’s hands
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s military has transformed dramatically, now supported by more than 500 defense companies. He says Russia is losing 30,000 troops each month and argues the initiative in the war is no longer in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands.
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Poland, the closest NATO member to the Ukraine-Russia war, scrambled fighter jets and placed its air defenses on high alert early Thursday as Russia launched more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones across Ukraine, killing at least eight and wounding dozens from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just returning from this week’s U.S. visit with President Donald Trump and the funeral of late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the barrage exposed a critical shortage of Western-supplied interceptors, particularly against ballistic missiles.
«The protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness» to provide Ukraine with air-defense missiles, Zelenskyy said of Kyiv’s allies.
Hours later Thursday morning, the European Union disbursed $4 billion to Ukraine to finance the procurement of more drones, missiles, air defense and fighter jets, according to the European Commission.
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Ukrainian firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a market following a Russian missile strike in Kyiv on overnight into Thursday morning. Russian strikes killed at least eight people and wounded more than a dozen others across Ukraine, authorities said, triggering renewed calls from Kyiv for its allies to send air defense supplies. (AFP)
The disbursement is part of a more than $100 billion loan approved by the EU earlier this year and follows the roughly $3.5 billion installment on June 25 and $4.5 billion on June 30.
Polish forces detected an unidentified object moving west through the country’s airspace shortly before 4 a.m. An F-16 was dispatched to intercept it, but the object disappeared from radar minutes later. Authorities subsequently found a crater about 33 feet wide and scattered debris in farmland near Tarnawa-Kolonia, about 1.2 miles from the closest buildings.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said initial evidence indicated the object was a Russian Kh-101 missile, although investigators were still working to confirm its type and origin.
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Emergency workers use heavy equipment to clear rubble from apartment buildings in Lviv, the westernmost city in Ukraine and the closest to NATO ally Poland, after a Russian missile attack Thursday, July 30, 2026. (Anadolu)
«All the indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101,» Tusk said, adding that Polish forces were prepared to shoot it down if it had continued flying toward a populated area.
He added the U.S. is interested in joining the investigation, which has initially determined the missile was not intended for Poland territory. The fate of the Ukraine-Russian war might be decided within the next 100 days, Tusk told reporters.
The threat to a NATO ally is a new frontier in the long-running war and comes after Zelenskyy pressed senators to advance Graham’s sweeping sanctions package. Also, Trump and Zelenskyy discussed U.S. licenses allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptors, along with other defense cooperation and efforts to revive stalled diplomacy with Moscow.
Six people, including two girls ages 5 and 12, were killed when a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a private home housing a large family near Kryvyi Rih, according to local officials. Seven others were reported killed in Kyiv and elsewhere in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions as the casualty count rose during rescue operations.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump at the White House during his Tuesday visit to Washington, D.C.
«A dark night,» Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rih’s defense council, wrote on Telegram. Eight people were wounded in the strike on the home.
The person killed in Kyiv was a 31-year-old man, while two others were wounded, according to Ukrainian police. Russian strikes damaged residential buildings, vehicles, storage facilities, a market and a garage complex in the capital, where air raid warnings lasted more than five hours and thousands of residents sheltered in subway stations.
In Lviv, about 40 miles from the Polish border, emergency crews searched damaged apartment buildings for people trapped beneath concrete and debris. Thirty people, including children, were reported injured. More than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, officials said.
«I was terrified watching the rescuers go beneath those concrete slabs,» one Lviv resident told Reuters as crews pulled a boy from a damaged building.
Ukraine’s air force said its defenses intercepted 55 missiles and 265 drones. But only one of nine ballistic missiles was shot down, while 11 missiles and 17 drones struck targets at 20 locations.
The U.S.-made Patriot is the only system currently in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of reliably intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound. Zelenskyy has repeatedly warned that Patriot interceptors are arriving too slowly and in insufficient numbers.
During his Tuesday meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy said the leaders discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production in Ukraine. He also met with Lockheed Martin executives and told senators that domestic production would be a long-term solution but would not address Ukraine’s immediate shortage of missiles. European countries have offered to pay for additional U.S.-made interceptors.
Zelenskyy’s Washington visit coincided with Senate consideration of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named for the longtime defense hawk and outspoken Ukraine supporter who died unexpectedly earlier this month.
The Senate voted 86-12 Tuesday to clear an initial procedural hurdle and voted 84-12 Wednesday to formally proceed with the legislation. Additional votes were still required before final passage.
The package would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs, financial institutions, energy projects and vessels accused of helping Moscow evade existing restrictions. It would also authorize tariffs of up to 100% on goods from the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas and the leading countries facilitating sanctions evasion.
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Graham negotiated the revised package with the White House shortly before his death. The legislation also includes an extension of sanctions targeting Iran’s energy and weapons sectors, a provision sought by the Trump administration.
Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of senators before the procedural votes and called the legislation an important signal to Russia, Europe and the Ukrainian people. He watched the Senate vote from the chamber’s gallery after attending Graham’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
nato, wars, ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, russia
INTERNACIONAL
Hawley moves to close federal cash prize loopholes after Fauci ‘got rich while millions of people died’
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing legislation to block federal bureaucrats from accepting cash prizes on Thursday, just a day after laying into Dr. Anthony Fauci for receiving what Hawley said was over $1 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hawley accused Fauci during a Wednesday Senate hearing of exploiting loopholes in federal laws that already prohibit government employees from soliciting rewards like cash prizes. Hawley’s bill, dubbed the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act, would close those loopholes.
«No federal bureaucrat should accept cash prizes while on the job. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to bar federal employees from accepting cash prizes or soliciting awards. Fauci got rich while millions of people died. It can never happen again,» Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks in front of a board with an image of Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and medical advisor to several U.S. presidents, as Fauci (not pictured) attends a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2026. Anthony Fauci declined to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
Hawley cited public records showing that Fauci, while director of the National Institutes of Health, used employees to solicit at least eight cash awards for himself, with one award check alone totaling $900,000.
The new legislation would block federal employees from receiving rewards for medicine and research as well as block employees from soliciting such rewards. It would also strengthen existing federal regulations that block NIH officials from using their or a subordinate’s official duty time to solicit rewards.
The bill comes after Hawley thrashed Fauci during a Wednesday hearing with the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, during which Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is sworn in during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2026. Dr. Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is testifying after Senator Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky, released more than 1000 pages of Fauci’s diary entries from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Alex Wroblewski / AFP via Getty Images)
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«But I think I know why you’re doing it,» Hawley said of Fauci’s refusal to testify. «It’s because you don’t want to answer questions. It’s because you did all kinds of terrible things. It’s because during the pandemic, you got rich … while people were dying.»
«You were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over $1 million,» Hawley said. «You did all of that during the pandemic, didn’t you?»
Rather than respond to Hawley’s questions, Fauci repeatedly said, «On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.»
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Hawley then pointed to what he described as internal emails from Fauci’s staff, including one from former chief of staff Greg Folkers discussing a nomination for the Dan David Prize. According to Hawley, the email asked federal employees to bolster the COVID-19 section of Fauci’s nomination by providing language detailing his pandemic response.
Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 2026. Fauci was expected to be questioned about his diary entries during his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Getty Images)
«We’re working on this nomination for the Dan David Award for Fauci,» Hawley read from the email. «We need to beef up the COVID part.»
Hawley said the Dan David Award carried a $900,000 cash prize and claimed Fauci used federal employees to help obtain it. He further accused Fauci of using government staff and resources to pursue at least eight additional cash awards, including honors from the Partnership for Public Service, the Adelson Prize, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Medicine and the CDC Foundation.
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«In fact, you turned your staff into a full-time application machine,» Hawley said. «You actually wrote to people and said, ‘Do you think maybe I’d qualify?’»
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
congress, anthony fauci, senate elections, fox news media, politics
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