World
NATO to bolster Baltic military presence after power cables cut

NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte pledged to send drones, frigates and aircraft to the region as he highlighted a concerted campaign of ‘cyber-attacks, assassination attempts and sabotage.’
NATO will increase its military presence and technological innovation in the Baltic Sea to protect critical infrastructure from sabotage, the head of the transatlantic alliance said at a Helsinki Summit on Tuesday.
Safeguarding infrastructure “is of utmost importance,” Mark Rutte told reporters, citing energy from pipelines and the 95% of internet traffic that is secured through undersea cables.
In the last two months alone, there’s been damage to one cable between Lithuania and Sweden, another between Germany and Finland, and others between Estonia and Finland.
Investigations are underway, but NATO’s Secretary General believes there is cause for grave concern.
“We have seen elements of a campaign to destabilise our societies through cyber-attacks, assassination attempts and sabotage,” Rutte said, with Russia the presumed culprit.
In response, NATO is increasing surveillance via a small fleet of maritime drones, while an enhanced surveillance operation called “Baltic Sentry” involves frigates and maritime patrol aircraft.
“We will respond decisively when critical infrastructure in our neighbourhood is at risk. Protecting it requires both national and international action,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.
Leaders of NATO countries in the Baltic region also pledged to push for robust enforcement, especially when it comes to the Russian shadow fleet of tankers used by Moscow to evade Western sanctions on oil sales.
“We need to make full use of the possibilities allowed by international law to take action against suspicious vessels,” Stubb stressed.
Last month, Finnish police seized a tanker carrying Russian oil, citing suspicions the ship had damaged the Estlink-2 power cable which connects Finland and Estonia by dragging its anchor along the seabed on Christmas Day.
“Ship captains must understand that potential threats to our infrastructure will have consequences, including possible boarding, impounding and arrest,” Rutte said.
Ahead of the meeting, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said monitoring was difficult in practice, as around 2,000 ships pass through the Baltic every day.
“Let’s face it, we can’t ensure 100% protection, but if we send a bold signal, I think such incidents will decrease or even stop,” Rinkēvičs told journalists in Helsinki.
Germany will also participate in the Baltic Sentry mission, Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed in separate remarks to reporters.
“We will participate with everything we have in the way of naval capabilities; that will vary, as far as the concrete possibilities of deployment are concerned,” Scholz said, when asked if Germany had made a specific promise on the contribution of ships or planes.
Additional sources • AP

World
Trump says he's considering 'taking away' Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is considering “taking away” the U.S. citizenship of a longtime rival, actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government.
“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. He added that O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland in January, should stay in Ireland “if they want her.”
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on birthright citizenship in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Rosie O’Donnell speaks at a rally calling for resistance to President Donald Trump, in Lafayette Park in front of the White House in Washington, Feb. 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
The two have criticized each other publicly for years, an often bitter back-and-forth that predates Trump’s involvement in politics. In recent days, O’Donnell on social media denounced Trump and recent moves by his administration, including the signing of a massive GOP-backed tax breaks and spending cuts plan.
It’s just the latest threat by Trump to revoke the citizenship of people with whom he has publicly disagreed, most recently his former adviser and one-time ally, Elon Musk.
But O’Donnell’s situation is notably different from Musk, who was born in South Africa. O’Donnell was born in the United States and has a constitutional right to U.S. citizenship. The U.S. State Department notes on its website that U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization may relinquish U.S. nationality by taking certain steps – but only if the act is performed voluntary and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship.
President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, May 30, 2025,. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, noted the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the Fourteen Amendment of the Constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born U.S. citizen,” Frost said in an email Saturday. “In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to win his second term. She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage.
Responding to Trump Saturday, O’Donnell wrote on social media that she had upset the president and “add me to the list of people who oppose him at every turn.”
World
Russia's Lavrov warns US against 'exploiting' alliances as he meets with Kim Jong Un in North Korea

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed Russia and North Korea’s “invincible fighting brotherhood” and warned the U.S., Japan and South Korea against forming an antagonistic alliance during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Wonsan, North Korea, Saturday, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
“We warn against exploiting these ties to build alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia,” Lavrov said, according to Russia’s state Tass news agency.
Russia and North Korea have bolstered their ties over the last few years, with North Korea providing troops and munitions to Russia in support of the war in Ukraine and Russia providing military and economic assistance to the closed-off dictatorship.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also visited North Korea last year.
RUSSIA GIVES RUBIO A ‘NEW AND DIFFERENT APPROACH’ AS TRUMP PUSHES FOR PEACE WITH UKRAINE
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Wonsan, North Korea, Saturday. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
The U.S., South Korea and Japan have been expanding or restoring their trilateral military exercises in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear program. On Friday, the three countries held a joint air drill involving U.S. nuclear-capable bombers near the Korean Peninsula, and their top military officers met in Seoul and urged North Korea to cease all unlawful activities that threaten regional security.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui attend a meeting in Wonsan, North Korea, Saturday. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
North Korea may deploy more troops this summer, according to South Korean intelligence.
Lavrov called the meeting a continuation of the countries’ “strategic dialogue” and said he hoped for more direct meetings in the future.
“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis. … Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support for all the objectives of the special military operation, as well as for the actions of the Russian leadership and armed forces,” TASS quoted Lavrov as saying.

Lavrov called the meeting a continuation of the countries’ “strategic dialogue” and said he hoped for more direct meetings in the future. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said more Russian delegations would visit North Korea later in the year, TASS reported.
Lavrov is next scheduled to travel to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting early next week.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
World
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,235

Here are the key events on day 1,235 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is how things stand on Sunday, July 13:
Fighting
- Ukrainian officials said Russian air attacks overnight on Saturday killed at least two people in the western city of Chernivtsi and wounded 38 others across Ukraine.
- The raids also damaged civilian infrastructure from Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast to Lviv, Lutsk and Chernivtsi in the west.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said it attacked companies in Ukraine’s military-industrial complex in Lviv, Kharkiv and Lutsk, as well as a military aerodrome.
- The United Nations Human Rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said that June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured.
- In Russia, a man was killed in the Belgorod region after a shell struck a private house, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Politics and diplomacy
- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told visiting Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov that his country was ready to “unconditionally support” all actions taken by Moscow in Ukraine.
- Earlier, Lavrov held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, in Wonsan, and they issued a joint statement pledging support to safeguard the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other’s countries, according to North Korean state media.
- Lavrov also warned the United States, South Korea and Japan against forming “alliances directed against anyone, including North Korea and, of course, Russia”.
- Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, said his government hoped to reach an agreement with the European Union and its partners on guarantees that Slovakia would not suffer from the end of Russian gas supplies by Tuesday. Slovakia has been blocking the EU’s 18th sanctions package on Russia over its disagreement with a proposal to end all imports of Russian gas from 2028. Slovakia, which gets the majority of its gas from Russian supplier Gazprom under a long-term deal valid until 2034, argues the move could cause shortages, a rise in prices and transit fees, and lead to damage claims.
- Russia blamed Western sanctions for the collapse of its agreement with the UN to facilitate exports of Russian food and fertilisers. The three-year agreement was signed in 2022 in a bid to rein in global food prices.
Weapons
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was “close to reaching a multilevel agreement” with the US “on new Patriot systems and missiles for them”. Ukraine was stepping up production of its own interceptor systems, he added.
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