The leaders of China, Russia and India are among the heads of state gathering in Kyrgyzstan this week for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a group billed as a counterweight to U.S. global influence.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are scheduled to attend the events in Bishkek, the capital of the Central Asian nation.
Multiple one-on-one meetings are scheduled on its sidelines, including one between Putin and Xi on Monday, as well as talks between the Russian leader and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday, the day of the official SCO sessions.
Russia, now 4½ years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Iran, six months into a war with the United States and Israel, see the summit as an important platform to strengthen their relations with non-Western partners.
The SCO was founded in 2001 by China, Russia and four Central Asian states as a security forum. Over the past quarter-century, it has grown in size and influence, although its goals and programs remain vague and its brand recognition low.

#Russia #putin #central #summit

PHOENIX (AP) — The Trump administration has ordered construction crews on a border wall to stop drilling wells in drought-stricken New Mexico after ranchers said pumping groundwater needed to make concrete could threaten their livestock.
The order comes as crews across the southern border race to complete one of President Donald Trump's highest domestic priorities — barriers that span four states and received over $46 billion in federal funding. Controversies have sprouted up in Texas and California, with border-town residents and environmentalists reporting a wide variety of issues with construction.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border wall construction, has said water is needed to make concrete for roads, wall construction and dust suppression. Cattle ranchers in the area say the drought has already forced them to reduce their herd size.
"It would put us in an immediate catastrophe and having to do something with our livestock. I mean, it could potentially put some people out of business, us included," said Russell Johnson, a cattle rancher whose property runs along the border.
Johnson raised the issue at a public meeting in July after noticing an industrial well, which drilling crews told him would pump 300 gallons a minute, on land he leases for grazing. Johnson has roughly 12 wells across his ranch, which pump between three and seven gallons a minute.

#wall #cattle

Sumit Rai said he received a phone call no parent wants to receive after his 10-year-old son was swept into the ocean at California's Seabright State Beach.
"My son [called and] told me, 'Dad, I drowned. I went unconscious.' I'm listening to him, and he thinks he is going to die," Rai shared on Fox News Live.
Nathaniel was standing on the wet sand near the shoreline when a wave knocked him down and pulled him roughly 15 yards into deep water.
Trump Says Heroic Teen Lifeguard Who Saved Boy From Towering Waves Deserves White House Honor
Seabright State Beach was under a high surf advisory at the time. According to California State Parks, swell conditions generated 4- to 6-foot waves, with sets occasionally reaching 10 feet.

#waves #nathaniel

LONDON (AP) — Icelandic coast guards and special forces seized a ship operated by a group founded by anti-whaling activist Paul Watson and detained its crew, officials in the Arctic island nation said Saturday.
The Icelandic Coast Guard said the crew of whaling ship Hvalur 9 requested **** istance on Thursday evening because they believed their safety was under threat from the protest vessel Bandero. It said the Bandero ignored coast guards' instructions to leave Icelandic waters, and later an order to stop its engines.
Coast guards and the police special forces Viking Squad boarded the vessel around midnight on Thursday and detained its crew. Watson was not aboard.
The Captain Paul Watson Foundation confirmed in a statement that the vessel had been seized. It said the 21 crew members were being detained aboard the ship without their phones.
The ship arrived Friday in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital, and police have taken over the investigation, the coast guard agency said. Icelandic national broadcaster RUV reported that police will seek to deport the crew and ban them from returning to Iceland.

#ship #guards #police

The Pima County Sheriff's office has released the two ransom notes they believe may be from the person or people who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie earlier this year. One of them describes her as 'safe but scared'...but days later they say she "perished shortly after she was taken." NBC News' Liz Kreutz has the contents of the notes and why they were just made public.

#office

Retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., has abandoned his neutrality in Michigan's high-stakes Democratic Senate primary, backing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens as party leaders rally to stop progressive rival Abdul El-Sayed from winning the nomination.
Peters, who is retiring after two terms in the Senate, announced the endorsement Monday, saying Stevens "will be ready on day one to fight for Michigan." The move reverses his position from late May, when he told The ****** ociated Press he planned to stay neutral in the Aug. 4 primary.
Democrats are eager to keep the Michigan seat as they try to win back the Senate majority, and many party leaders have lined up behind Stevens, a four-term congresswoman they see as a stronger general election candidate.
Democrats' Civil War Heads To Michigan Where Progressives Face Biggest Test Yet In High-stakes Senate Showdown
Stevens has centered her campaign on manufacturing, jobs and Michigan's auto industry. El-Sayed, a former Michigan health director who has never held elected office, has run on a more progressive platform that includes "Medicare-for-all" and campaign finance reform. He has also made the war in Gaza a central issue in his campaign, highlighting a divide that has surfaced within the Democratic Party.

By Yuliia Dysa
KYIV, July 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine is setting up a "long-range impact" command within its armed forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as Kyiv's campaign against Russian energy and logistics has forced Moscow to ban diesel exports and restrict shipping near the ‌Sea of Azov, which abuts the Black Sea.
For months, Ukrainian attack drones have been targeting key energy infrastructure thousands of kilometres ‌across Russia in what Kyiv casts as long-range sanctions against the primary contributor to Russia's state budget, backing its war effort.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has reported strikes almost daily, with officials saying it is only fair to bring the war to Russia more than four years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.
"Today, I signed a decree establishing a special command within the Armed Forces – a command aimed at a long-range and, in effect, global impact on Russia in response to this war," Zelenskiy said in his evening address to the nation.

(NewsNation) — For the first time, the iconic Times Square ball will descend on a date other than New Year's Eve as part of the July 4 celebrations for America's 250th birthday.
There will be eight ball drops to mark midnight across every U.S. time zone and inhabited territory, starting with Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands and ending in American Samoa.
Organizer America250 said the rolling countdown is designed to unite Americans across the country.
America250 is a bipartisan organization set up by Congress to honor America's 250th birthday. It is distinct from Freedom 250, the Trump-backed organization hosting events in Washington, D.C., including the Great American State Fair.
Trump returns to Mt. Rushmore to mark America's 250th