U.S. Secretary of State Rubio meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang at ASEAN
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that he had 'positive and constructive' talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, amid tensions over tariffs and trade.
Rubio was in Malaysia on his first Asia trip since taking office, looking to stress U.S. commitment to the region at the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum, as countries received notices of U.S. tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump this week.
At a Thursday photo-op before the start of the U.S, Japan, Philippines trilateral meeting, Rubio learned the summit's signature 'ASEAN-way' handshake.
'How do we do that?' Rubio asked.
'The ASEAN-way' replied Philippines' Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro.
Japan's Prime Minister Takeshi Iwaya then grabbed Rubio's hands and crossed them, with the three standing and smiling with the traditional cross-armed handshake for cameras.
Rubio also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov where they discussed the Russia-Ukraine war.
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Associated Press
9 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Russian attacks in Ukraine kill a child and wound 24 before planned direct peace talks
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces struck three Ukrainian cities in overnight attacks, killing a child and wounding at least 24 people, officials said Tuesday, a day before a planned third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's announcement late Monday that the negotiations would take place generated little hope they would deliver any progress on ending the three-year war. That is despite the Trump administration's efforts to push forward peace efforts, which have stalled as Russian President Vladimir Putin is reluctant to budge from his demands. The previous two rounds were held in Istanbul, and Russian media reports said the Turkish city likely would also host the meeting this time. The talks in May and June led to a series of exchanges of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers but produced no other agreements. The war has continued unabated, meanwhile. Russia is driving hard to break through at eastern and northeastern points on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. It is also firing upwards of 700 drones a night at Ukrainian cities. From dusk on Monday evening, Russia struck the Ukrainian regions of Sumy in the northeast, Odesa in the south and eastern Kramatorsk. In Kramatorsk, a glide bomb hit an apartment building, starting a fire, according to the head of the city's military administration, Oleksandr Honcharenko. A boy born in 2015 was killed, local officials said, without giving his exact age. Five other people were reported wounded. The Sumy region came under multiple waves of attacks, the regional military administration reported. A drone hit a gas station in the town of Putyvl, wounding four people, including a 5-year-old boy, it said. A second drone strike hit the same location less than two hours later, wounding seven more. After dark, two powerful Russian glide bombs were dropped on Sumy city, wounding 13 people, including a 6-year-old boy. According to regional authorities, five apartment buildings, two private homes and a shopping mall were damaged in the attack. Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said the blasts shattered windows and destroyed balconies in residential buildings. Also Tuesday, Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 35 Ukrainian long-range drones over several regions overnight, including three over the Moscow region. ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at
New York Post
38 minutes ago
- New York Post
Swarms of Russian drones attack Ukraine nightly as Moscow puts new emphasis on the deadly weapon
The long-range Russian drones come in swarms each night, buzzing for hours over Ukraine by the hundreds, terrorizing the population and attacking targets from the industrial east to areas near its western border with Poland. Russia now often batters Ukraine with more drones in a single night than it did during some entire months in 2024, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate. On July 8, Russia unleashed more than 700 drones — a record. Some experts say that number could soon top 1,000 a day. Advertisement 6 In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Tuesday, July 22, 2025. AP The spike comes as US President Donald Trump has given Russia until early September to reach a ceasefire or face new sanctions -– a timeframe Moscow is likely to use to inflict as much damage as possible on Ukraine. Russia has sharply increased its drone output and appears to keep ramping it up. Initially importing Shahed drones from Iran early in the 3 1/2-year-old war, Russia has boosted its domestic production and upgraded the original design. Advertisement The Russian Defense Ministry says it's turning its drone force into a separate military branch. It also has established a dedicated center for improving drone tactics and better training for those flying them. Fighting 'a war of drones' Russian engineers have changed the original Iranian Shahed to increase its altitude and make it harder to intercept, according to Russian military bloggers and Western analysts. Other modifications include making it more jamming-resistant and able to carry powerful thermobaric warheads. Some use artificial intelligence to operate autonomously. The original Shahed and its Russian replica — called 'Geran,' or 'geranium' — have an engine to propel it at just over 110 mph. A faster jet version is reportedly in the works. 6 A man looks out of a broken window of a damaged building following a drone attack in Odesa on July 22, 2025, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War noted that cooperation with China has allowed Russia to bypass Western sanctions on imports of electronics for drone production. Ukraine's military intelligence estimates that Russia receives up to 65% of components for its Geran drones from China. Beijing rejects the claims. Russia initially launched its production of the Iranian drones at factory in Alabuga, located in Tatarstan. An Associated Press investigation found employees at the Alabuga plant included young African women who said they were duped into taking jobs there. Geran production later began at a plant in Udmurtia, west of the Ural Mountains. Ukraine has launched drone attacks on both factories but failed to derail production. A report Sunday by state-run Zvezda TV described the Alabuga factory as the world's biggest attack drone plant. Advertisement 'It's a war of drones. We are ready for it,' said plant director Timur Shagivaleyev, adding it produces all components, including engines and electronics, and has its own training school. 6 A Russian drone attacks a building during Russia's massive missile and drone air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 17, 2025. AP The report showed hundreds of black Geran drones stacked in an assembly shop decorated with Soviet-style posters. One featured images of the father of the Soviet nuclear bomb, Igor Kurchatov, legendary Soviet space program chief, Sergei Korolyov, and dictator Josef Stalin, with the words: 'Kurchatov, Korolyov and Stalin live in your DNA.' Shifting tactics and defenses The Russian military has improved its tactics, increasingly using decoy drones named 'Gerbera' for a type of daisy. They closely resemble the attack drones and are intended to confuse Ukrainian defenses and distract attention from their more deadly twins. By using large numbers of drones in one attack, Russia seeks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses and keep them from targeting more expensive cruise and ballistic missiles that Moscow often uses alongside the drones to hit targets like key infrastructure facilities, air defense batteries and air bases. Former Russian Defense Ministry press officer Mikhail Zvinchuk, who runs a popular war blog, noted the Russian military has learned to focus on a few targets to maximize the impact. The drones can roam Ukraine's skies for hours, zigzagging past defenses, he wrote. 6 In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, July 18, 2025, Russian soldiers prepare a strike FPV drone aircraft to fly towards Ukrainian position in an undisclosed location. AP 'Our defense industries' output allows massive strikes on practically a daily basis without the need for breaks to accumulate the necessary resources,' said another military blogger, Alexander Kots. 'We no longer spread our fingers but hit with a punching fist in one spot to make sure we hit the targets.' Advertisement Ukraine relies on mobile teams armed with machine guns as a low-cost response to the drones to spare the use of expensive Western-supplied air defense missiles. It also has developed interceptor drones and is working to scale up production, but the steady rise in Russian attacks is straining its defenses. How Russia affords all those drones Despite international sanctions and a growing load on its economy, Russia's military spending this year has risen 3.4% over 2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which estimated it at the equivalent of about $200 billion. While budgetary pressures could increase, it said, the current spending level is manageable for the Kremlin. Over 1.5 million drones of various types were delivered to the military last year, said President Vladimir Putin. 6 A Ukrainian officer shows a thermobaric charge from a downed Russian drone in a research laboratory in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on, Nov. 14, 2024. AP Advertisement Frontelligence Insight, a Ukraine-based open-source intelligence organization, reported this month that Russia launched more than 28,000 Shahed and Geran drones since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, with 10% of the total fired last month alone. While ballistic and cruise missiles are faster and pack a bigger punch, they cost millions and are available only in limited quantities. A Geran drone costs only tens of thousands of dollars — a fraction of a ballistic missile. The drones' range of about 1,240 miles allows them to bypass some defenses, and a relatively big load of 88 pounds of explosives makes them a highly effective instrument of what the Center for Strategic and International Studies calls 'a cruel attritional logic.' CSIS called them 'the most cost-effective munition in Russia's firepower strike arsenal.' Advertisement 'Russia's plan is to intimidate our society,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, adding that Moscow seeks to launch 700 to 1,000 drones a day. Over the weekend, German Maj. Gen. Christian Freuding said in an interview that Russia aims for a capability of launching 2,000 drones in one attack. 6 In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, July 17, 2025, a Russian serviceman operates a 'Supercam' drone in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Russia could make drone force its own military branch Along the more than 600-mile front line, short-range attack drones have become prolific and transformed the fighting, quickly spotting and targeting troops and weapons within a 10-kilometer (6-mile) kill zone. Russian drone units initially were set on the initiative of midlevel commanders and often relied on equipment purchased with private donations. Once drones became available in big numbers, the military moved last fall to put those units under a single command. Advertisement Putin has endorsed the Defense Ministry's proposal to make drones a separate branch of the armed forces, dubbed the Unmanned Systems Troops. Russia has increasingly focused on battlefield drones that use thin fiber optic cables, making them immune to jamming and have an extended range of over 15 miles. It also has set up Rubicon, a center to train drone operators and develop the best tactics. Such fiber optic drones used by both sides can venture deeper into rear areas, targeting supply, support and command structures that until recently were deemed safe. Michael Kofman, a military expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Russian advancements have raised new defensive challenges for Ukraine. 'The Ukrainian military has to evolve ways of protecting the rear, entrenching at a much greater depth,' Kofman said in a recent podcast.
Newsweek
39 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Iran Builds Alliance with China and Russia in Face of US Threat
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Iran, China and Russia are set to discuss the threat of sanctions and its nuclear program in a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment. Why It Matters Iran is actively seeking support from Russia and China in the aftermath of U.S. airstrikes that damaged key nuclear facilities during a 12-day conflict with Israel last month. The meeting comes during ongoing tensions over Iran's nuclear program and stalled talks with the United States. President Donald Trump said he would hit Iranian nuclear sites again "if necessary," reiterating his warning to Tehran that it should abandon its ambitions to keep enriching uranium — which Iran has said it will not agree to. This handout photo made available by the Iranian Army Office on March 12, 2025 shows navy vessels taking part in a joint Iranian-Russian-Chinese military drill in the Gulf of Oman. This handout photo made available by the Iranian Army Office on March 12, 2025 shows navy vessels taking part in a joint Iranian-Russian-Chinese military drill in the Gulf of Oman. Iranian Army Office/AFP/Getty Images What To Know "We are in constant consultation with these two countries to prevent activation of the snapback or to mitigate its consequences," Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei said at a press briefing on Monday in reference to a snapback mechanism for sanctions if there is no deal on Iran's nuclear program. "We have aligned positions and good relations," he was quoted as saying by Iran International outlet. Iran and Russia have launched joint naval drills this week in the Caspian Sea, while top Iranian officials, including Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh and senior adviser Ali Larijani, met with Russia's leadership and President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week. Iran's army announced a heightened state of readiness, warning it would deliver a "crushing and devastating response" to any future strikes on its military or nuclear installations. In 2015, Iran and several world powers including France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement aimed at limiting Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. The JCPOA is set to expire in October. The U.S. exited the accord in 2018 under Trump, reimposing sanctions. Tehran says its program is civilian, but the U.S. and ally Israel accuse it of seeking nuclear weapons. "We cannot give up enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride," Araghchi told Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday. What People Are Saying China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a press briefing Monday, as quoted by IRNA: "The Iranian nuclear issue is concerned with peace and security in the Middle East and is also concerned with the international non-proliferation regime. We always believe a diplomatic approach should be used to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, and this is the only right way. We call on all parties to walk in the same direction and contribute to the political settlement track of the Iranian nuclear issue." Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a letter to UN and EU representatives: "The E3 must heed their own advice to the US in their letter of 20 Aug 2020 and "refrain from any action that would only deepen divisions in the Security Council or that would have serious adverse consequences on its work." Russia Foreign Ministry on Sunday: "At the instruction of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ali Larijani presented the views of the Islamic Republic on the current escalation in the Middle East and, notably, surrounding Iran's nuclear programme. The Russian Side expressed support for stabilising the situation in the region and resolving any issues pertaining to Iran's nuclear programme via political means." What Happens Next Tehran will meet with France, Britain, and Germany (E3) in Istanbul on Friday for renewed nuclear talks. The continued standoff over itrs nuclear program increases the risk of further military action by Israel or the United States.
