👀 This Week So Far
Quick Catch-Up
🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran-US: US Vice President Vance says Switzerland talks produced a 60-day roadmap and IAEA inspector access, while Iran denies new commitments.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom: UK PM Starmer says he will resign as Labour leader.
🇮🇷 Iran: Iran's Bank Melli, Bank Saderat and Bank Tejarat suspend card services after a 2nd cyberattack in 2 weeks.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Russia-Ukraine: Ukraine strikes the Tyumen oil refinery more than 2,000 km (1,200 miles) from Ukraine; it also warns Russian forces are burying anthrax-infected livestock in occupied Kherson.
🛢️ Oil: US emergency oil reserves fall to their lowest level since June 1983.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 RUSSIA & UKRAINE
Crimea Goes Dark
Ukraine's Crimea strikes are continuing to hit infrastructure Russia needs every day: power, fuel, rail links, and bridge routes that keep the occupied peninsula connected.
Blackout. Sevastopol, Crimea's largest city, lost power after strikes on energy facilities, while Russian-installed officials said parts of nearby occupied Kherson also had outages.
Grid. A Russian-installed Crimea official said roughly half the peninsula had lost electricity after earlier attacks, with rolling blackouts introduced to manage the load.
Targets. Ukraine said this week it hit a railway bridge, a power plant, and other infrastructure in Crimea. Russia said it destroyed more than 300 Ukrainian drones overnight.
🇩🇰 DENMARK
Prayer Call Fight
The Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir holding its Friday prayer at the Parliament Square in commemoration of the victims of the Christchurch massacre on March 22, 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Denmark's immigration minister is reviving a review of whether the adhan (public Islamic call to prayer) can be banned or restricted in public space.
📌 Context. Adhan is the Islamic call to prayer, sometimes broadcast from mosque minarets through outdoor loudspeakers to mark prayer times. The loudspeaker use is the main point of contention here.
Push. Morten Bødskov, a Social Democrat, said that the adhan should not be heard "over Danish rooftops" and said people should not feel they have ended up in "a suburb of Islamabad."
Loop. This is the 3rd Social Democratic minister to pick up the idea after earlier work stalled around elections.
Limit. Denmark has not passed a national ban. However, Copenhagen already blocks loudspeaker calls from minarets under local noise rules.
Risk. Any law would have to survive religious-freedom objections, which is why the government is starting with the legal basis.
Opinions
For. A restriction can be framed as a defense of shared public space, not a ban on private worship.
Supporters argue that when mosques are available nearby, choosing highly visible outdoor prayer or amplified calls can feel less like necessity and more like a public assertion of religious presence.
Critics see that as testing the limits of a tolerant Western culture rather than simply exercising freedom of religion.
Against. Critics say this is unfair when church bells and other Christian traditions are left alone. Critics argue that Muslim prayer is getting singled out as a threat.
🇦🇺🇮🇷 AUSTRALIA & IRAN
Iran's Australia Link
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess says an Australian citizen in Iran orchestrated the 2024 Bondi firebombing while working as a senior agent in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
The real question is: can this regime actually change in the way the US keeps hoping it will?
Targets. Burgess tied the October 2024 Bondi attack on Lewis' Continental Kitchen (a kosher restaurant) and the December 2024 Adass Israel Synagogue arson in Melbourne to Iran-linked networks targeting Jewish Australians.
Offshore. He said a former Australian resident in Iraq directed the synagogue attack after being recruited through Iraqi militia groups, and is now imprisoned there.
Backdrop. The speech came 6 months after 15 people were killed in an antisemitic Bondi Beach shooting.
Limit. Burgess withheld both names to protect investigations and prosecutions. Iran has previously denied Australia's claims.
📌 Context. Australian PM Albanese tied the attacks to the IRGC back in August 2025. What’s new is ASIO’s more specific claim that an Australian citizen living in Iran helped direct one of them.
🌐🇺🇸 NATO & US
Rutte the Firefighter
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with his charts titled “THE TRUMP 47 EFFECT.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte went to the White House to cool things down with President Trump, as the Iran-US war and Trump’s threats to pull US troops from Europe started shaking the alliance.
Iran. Rutte tried to downplay the split, saying the holdouts were isolated and that European bases still helped US operations. Trump wasn’t buying it though, saying America had been “let down.”
Money. Rutte came ready to flatter Trump, using charts to show him that European and Canadian defense spending had gone up on his watch, including last year’s 5% GDP pledge (which trump had been pushing for).
Summit. NATO's July 7-8 Ankara summit now has 2 jobs: keep Trump inside the alliance and make Europe’s big defense-spending promises look like more than paper commitments.
