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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Thursday’s meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels was defined by a “window of opportunity” for Ukraine, pointing to a new wave of concrete pledges of military assistance from allied countries.

According to Ukrinform, several allies – including Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Norway, Lithuania, Denmark, Luxembourg, Croatia, Sweden and Iceland – have now committed hundreds of millions of dollars into the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program, which finances purchases of US-made military equipment for Ukraine.

“Window of opportunity – I think this is the main topic today,” Rutte said, adding that additional “assistance focused on Ukraine’s priorities will help increase pressure on Russia and force them to sit down at the negotiating table and eventually join serious negotiations to stop this terrible war.”

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Iran has announced plans to introduce a system of maritime fees in the strait of Hormuz in two months, after the 60-day period of negotiation that has been triggered by the signing of the memorandum of understanding.

Tehran, claiming a historic victory over the US, said the strait was under its control and a European plan for a naval mission to escort ships though the strait would not be welcome. The US on Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran, and oil tankers began freely moving through the critical channel.

Ahronoth reported that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had said Israel “will maintain the security zone in south Lebanon as long as our security needs require it”, referring to the more than 600 sq km of Lebanese territory occupied by Israeli troops along the border.

On Iran, Netanyahu stated that Israel would continue to “adhere to the supreme objective” of not allowing Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.

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On Thursday, New York City fans came out in droves to celebrate the New York Knicks' first NBA championship win since 1973. The ticker tape parade started in Battery Park, traveled down Manhattan's famed "Canyon of Heroes," and ended at City Hall, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave a speech praising the Knicks team.

Rick Brunson and Jalen Brunson of The New York Knicks celebrate winning the 2026 NBA Championship with a ticker tape parade at City Hall.
Elias Wlliams for NPR

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrates the New York Knicks winning the 2026 NBA Championship during a ticker tape parade at City Hall

Jose Alvarado of The New York Knicks celebrates winning the 2026 NBA Championship during a ticker tape parade at City Hall.

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Sometime on Oct. 21 of last year, high above the Arctic Circle, a lone missile shot skyward from a Russian island.

The missile flew northeast and then banked and began flying in loops for hours over the barren, frozen landscape.

According to Russian and Western sources, the new weapon, known in Russian as Burevestnik and by NATO as Skyfall, was powered by a small nuclear reactor. Few other details were forthcoming.

Now, two MIT researchers have published an analysis that sheds fresh light on how the nuclear-powered missile actually worked. If they are correct, the October flight test marks the first time a nuclear-powered aircraft has ever flown. It would also suggest the opening of an extraordinarily dangerous new chapter in the 21st century's simmering arms race.

"This is something that is possible, but wildly expensive and very dangerous," said Jake Hecla, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a dual appointment in both aerospace and nuclear science and engineering, who led the new analysis along with co-author R. Scott Kemp.

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The Justice Department is seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging a Chicago suburb’s housing reparations program for Black residents, arguing it is “racially discriminatory” and unconstitutional.

The city council in Evanston, Ill., earmarked $10 million in revenue generated from cannabis sales taxes in 2019 for a first-of-its-kind local reparations program for Black residents and their direct descendants who suffered housing discrihttps://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5927763-justice-department-evanston-reparations-housing-discrimination/mination due to the city’s policies and practices between 1919 and 1969.

The Restorative Housing Program, implemented in 2021, offers those families grants of up to $25,000 that can be used to make a down payment on a home, repair property or pay interest and late penalties on property within the city.

Those who can prove they were harmed by the city’s policies and practices after 1969, when the city banned housing discrimination, may also qualify.

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Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione are now withdrawing plans to argue at his state murder trial that he was suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance" in the alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, according to reports.

The development came just a day after Mangione’s lawyers told Acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that they planned to argue that Mangione had lost control of his actions due to an extreme mental health crisis. In a letter to Carro on June 18, the lawyers said they were "at this time" withdrawing his psychiatric defense, Reuters and The Associated Press reported.

Under New York law, murder defendants can seek to convince a jury that their actions can be explained by an "extreme emotional disturbance" that reduces their criminal culpability. Carro would ultimately decide at trial whether there was enough evidence for the murder charge to be reduced.

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Portions of the sealant that was recently applied at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as part of a series of renovations to the landmark appears to have begun peeling off the pool basin on June 18.

Images published by Getty Images show a tear in the sealant and portions of the "American Flag Blue" paint floating to the surface. The images show the latest in a series of problems that have arisen in the wake of the repainting of the reflecting pool as a part of renovations commissioned by President Donald Trump.

Trump announced the plan to refurbish the pool in April, saying the landmark had been the subject of complaints due to its cleanliness levels and leaking foundation. The National Park Service told USA TODAY the pool had leaked 16 million gallons a year.

He told reporters that contractors would sandblast, caulk and resurface the pool basin. The pool is part of a citywide initiative to spruce up landmarks ahead of the Fourth of July and celebrations of the country's 250th birthday.

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Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow in Kyiv’s biggest air raid on the city since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, setting a major ⁠oil refinery on fire and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a response to Russia’s strike on a historic Kyiv monastery complex earlier this week.

“We do not want this war and never did,” the Ukrainian president said in a voice message to journalists. “But if Ukraine is going to burn, your Moscow will burn too … it is time to end the aggression, time to end this war.”

Russia’s foreign minister in turn announced it would launch huge “group strikes” on Ukraine “on a regular basis” in response to the Moscow raid.

The scale of Ukraine’s long-range attack, apparently designed to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in the Kapotnya area, caught most people by surprise in a city that does not typically warn residents with air raid alarms, and prompted panicked messages on social media.

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