Recent events in the West Bank include the displacement of hundreds of Palestinian families from the Tulkarem refugee camp, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and property, and Israeli military raids and arrests.

Israeli forces have also seized land northeast of Ramallah. A new directive allowing accelerated demolitions has raised concerns about displacement and potential annexation. The UN has recorded hundreds of settler attacks in the first half of 2025, impacting Palestinian communities and causing casualties and damage. June saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settlers in two decades.

The humanitarian situation is marked by increased volatility and protection risks, exacerbated by settler violence and movement restrictions. Over 2,300 Palestinians have been displaced since October 2023 due to settler violence and limited access. Demolitions in areas like Area C and East Jerusalem contribute to displacement and affect access to services. Obstacles to movement, such as checkpoints, hinder access to essential locations.

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US President Donald Trump said Ukraine has "to be able to defend" itself, as his comments contradict a last week’s decision to pause key weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

President Donald Trump said that the United States will have to send more weapons to Ukraine. The decision comes just days after pausing key arms deliveries to Kyiv.

His comments marked a sudden change of course. Last week, the Pentagon announced it would delay shipments of air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons, citing concerns about falling stockpiles.

However, on Monday, Trump said, “We have to,” adding, “They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now. We’re going to send some more weapons — defensive weapons primarily.”

The pause came at a difficult time for Ukraine. Russian forces have been stepping up air strikes, launching more frequent and complex attacks. On Monday, officials said Russian strikes had killed at least 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others, including seven children.

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President Donald Trump said the United States and Iranian officials will be meeting soon, returning to diplomacy after the U.S. bombed Iran's nuclear sites and the country retaliated.

“We have scheduled Iran talks," Trump said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding, "They want to talk.”

Trump declined to say when the talks would occur, but his Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said it would happen “very quickly, in the next week or so.”

Trump announced June 21 that the U.S. military had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israel's war with Iran, which retaliated by launching missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar. Tensions have cooled since then. Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran on June 23.

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President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they would seek other countries to relocate Palestinians as part of ending Israel's war with Hamas.
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Asked about a two-state solution that includes recognition of an independent Palestinian state, Netanyahu said Palestinians had already shown through Hamas that they couldn’t be trusted with a neighboring government.2025-07-08-03-01-36

“So people aren’t likelMore...y to say, 'Let’s just give them another state and the platform to destroy Israel,'" Netanyahu said.

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Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones over the weekend, forcing shutdown of airports in Moscow and throwing Russian air travel in disarray.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and 39 more before 2pm Moscow time (1100 GMT) yesterday.

The Ukrainian drone attack caused flight disruptions at Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg's main Pulkovo airports. Other airports in western and central Russia also faced disruptions.

Russia also fired large-scale drone strikes on Ukraine yesterday, injuring three civilians in Kyiv and at least two in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast.

The continuing onslaught comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced deals with his European allies and a leading US defence company that would allow Kyiv to scale up drone production to “hundreds of thousands” more this year.

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Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life.”

Haddad, who is Palestinian American, had been raising awareness on her campus about the Palestinian fight for freedom as part of her university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The struggle is also personal for her. With roots in Gaza, she has lost more than 200 members of her extended family to Israel’s war.

She was part of a group of VCU students and supporters who attempted to set up an encampment in April 2024. The university called in the police that same night. Protestors were pepper sprayed and brutalized, and 13 were arrested. Haddad was not charged, but she was taken to the hospital “because of the head trauma that I endured”, she told me. “I was bleeding. I was bruised. Cuts everywhere. The police slammed me down on the concrete, like, six different times.”

But last year’s attempted encampment wasn’t even the reason Haddad’s degree is being withheld. This year’s peaceful memorial of it was. And how that scenario played out, with the university and campus police constantly changing the rules, illustrates something worrisome far beyond the leafy confines of an American campus.

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A fast-moving wildfire in central California became the largest in the state this year after exploding in size overnight as hot temperatures and dry conditions increased the wildfire risk ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

The Madre Fire broke out on the afternoon of July 2 in a remote area of central California near Highway 166, according to Cal Fire. The fire rapidly spread to over 35,000 acres overnight as it burned through grasslands in a section of the Los Padres National Park.

By 5 p.m. PT on July 3, the fire grew to more than 52,000 acres and was only 5% contained, according to Cal Fire data. Evacuation orders and warnings were issued for small communities near Highway 166 as the fire moved toward the Carrizo Plain National Monument, about 69 miles southeast of San Luis Obispo, California.

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The Supreme Court voted to lift temporary blocks on President Donald Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who were in the country temporarily or without legal authorization.

The court ruled 6-3 that District Court rulings temporarily blocking Trump’s order "likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts." It did not decide whether the order is constitutional - a question that is being argued in lower federal courts.

In other decisions on the last day of the court's term, the justices ruled against a challenge to an Obamacare provision that forces health insurers to cover certain medicines and services, like HIV-preventive medication and cholesterol-lowering drugs; allowed parents to remove their elementary school children from classes where the books include gay characters; and upheld a Texas law requiring age verification for users of pornographic web content.

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