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Kyiv came under repeated Russian attacks in the early hours of Thursday,  as ballistic missile threats were followed by a new wave of strike drones, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s Air Force initially warned of a “ballistic threat from the north,” prompting air alerts in Kyiv and several other regions. Authorities urged residents to move to shelters and remain there until the all-clear.

The first missile threat was briefly lifted at 12:58 a.m., but at 1:22 a.m. the military again declared a missile danger. Shortly afterward, the Air Force reported several ballistic missiles heading toward the capital and Poltava region.

A series of powerful explosions was heard in Kyiv at around 1:24 a.m. Explosions were also reported in Poltava. a city in central Ukraine.

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Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African jazz pianist deemed his country's equivalent to Mozart by Nelson Mandela, died Monday in his adopted home of Germany after a short illness. He was 91 years old.

"Abdullah passed away peacefully with South Africa and its people in his heart," his partner, Marina Umari, said in a statement. "His love for his country never wavered, no matter where in the world he found himself."

In an extraordinarily accomplished career that spanned eight decades, Ibrahim helped bring bebop stylings to South Africa, and he bonded with Duke Ellington, who produced one of his early, influential recordings. In his later years, he became an idol and an inspiration to new generations of jazz pianists.

Abdullah Ibrahim was born Adolph Johannes Brand in 1934. His mother was a pianist at their church, and he began taking piano lessons at the age of 7. By the time he was 15, he was playing professionally — billed as Dollar Brand — and in the late '50s formed a group, the Jazz Epistles, that featured trumpeter Hugh Masekela. In January 1960, the group recorded Jazz Epistle Verse One, the first jazz album by an all-Black South African jazz ensemble.

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Ukraine has come under a massive Russian missile and drone attack with waves of explosions echoing through the capital, Kyiv, in the early hours of Monday morning as air raids killed at least five people across the country.

Among targets hit in the sustained wave of strikes were the city’s historic Dormition Cathedral within the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s most significant religiMore...ous sites, as well as residential buildings across the city.

Footage from the Perchersk Lavra, a Unesco world heritage site, showed towering flames licking up towards its domes. Six people were reported injured.

“[T]he roof of one of the holiest places in the Christian world – the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra – is burning,” Metropoliton Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, wrote on X.

Yulia Svyrydenko, the prime minister, posted a picture of the monastery building in flames and wrote: “A brutal assault on our people ‌and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values.

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President Donald Trump and Iranian officials announced that a deal to end the Iran war has been reached, with an official signing ceremony planned for later in the week.

Trump indicated that the deal will reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the United States blockade of Iranian ports, but additional details were not  immediately disclosed.

"The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete," Trump said in a Truth Social post on June 14. "Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade."

The White House pointed USA TODAY to Trump's social media statement when asked for more information about the agreement.

The president later announced on social media that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen on June 19, when the deal between the United States and Iran is expected to be signed.

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The Iranian ambassador to Mexico signaled on Friday that his country and the U.S. could have a good relationship in the future, so long as President Trump does not take foreign policy cues from Israel.

“If the U.S. closes its eyes to Israel’s interest, Iran and the U.S. can be very good friends,” Abolfazl Pasandjdeh told Politico via a Spanish translator at a World Cup fan expo in Mexico City, urging Trump to prioritize U.S. interests.

“I also believe that if he puts the interests of the U.S. first, it will yield good results,” he said. “The most important thing is that the Israeli regime does not seek what is good for the U.S.”

Israel has emerged as somewhat of a wildcard as Trump pushes for a peace deal with Tehran. Its military campaign against Iranian proxy group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon has risked upending the negotiations several times, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have a different end goal than his U.S. counterpart.

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro described a rift between the U.S. and Israeli perspectives during a recent interview with NPR, wherein he said Israel’s main objective is eliminating Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat while the U.S. is largely focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

“So that’s a divergence between U.S. and Israeli interests, which you can see playing out now in the way the prime minister talks about what he wants to achieve – tried to do some additional strikes just over the weekend – and President Trump’s desire to wind this down,” Shapiro said, suggesting Israel’s preference would be to continue the war.

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A British judge has sentenced four Palestine Action protesters as terrorists, handing them custodial sentences ranging from four to eight years.

The unprecedented ruling came despite jurors convicting them of criminal charges not connected to terrorism during the prosecution.

Last month, jurors convicted Leona Kamio, Samuel Corner, Fatema Rajwani, and Charlotte Head of criminal damage in connection with a raid on an Elbit Systems UK plant near Bristol on 6 August 2024.

Two other activists, Jordan Devlin and Zoe Rogers, were cleared of the charges.

Elbit Systems is an Israeli arms manufacturer whose UK headquarters are based in Bristol.

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