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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with U.S President Trump in the Hague during the NATO Summit on Wednesday June 25, 2025.
Now Zelensky has a reason to say ‘thank you’
In a major White House U-turn, US President Donald Trump declared that his government would resume sending key defensive weapons – including Patriot missiles – to Ukraine. The move, which undoes a Pentagon order from last week to pause the shipments, is a big win for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Ukraine has recently been suffering Russia’s worst aerial attacks of the entire war. The decision also reflects Trump’s growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has rebuffed White House calls for meaningful talks on a ceasefire.
Trump’s latest tariff extravaganza
The Trump administration has announced a new schedule of tariffs on 14 countries, which appears to replace some of the “reciprocal tariffs” that he announced on April 2. While the rates are similar to those earlier ones – standouts include 25% rates on close US allies Japan and South Korea – Trump has also extended the deadline for negotiations from July 9 until Aug. 1. A preliminary deal with the EU, a major trading partner which has played a bit of hardball with Trump, is reportedly close, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said further announcements are due in the next 48 hours.Afghan refugees face triple deportation threat
Iran plans to deport at least one million more people back to their home country of Afghanistan, adding to the 1.2 million already deported from both Iran and Pakistan this year. The move is part of a larger crackdown on the millions of migrants from Afghanistan, many of them undocumented, who have fled war to settle in both countries over the past two decades. Meanwhile, Germany has also pledged to increase deportations to Afghanistan amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Aid groups warn that Afghanistan is ill-prepared to cope with the arrivals.Russian Minister of Transport Roman Starovoit attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, Russia January 30, 2025.
$246 million: Ousted Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit was found dead in his car with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Monday, just hours after being fired by President Vladimir Putin. Starovoit, a former governor of the Kursk region – which was invaded by Ukraine last summer – was potentially implicated in an embezzlement probe focused on $246 million which was earmarked for border defenses. The Kremlin says that it was “shocked” to learn about his death.
2,355: X said the Indian government ordered it to take down 2,355 accounts last week, including two belonging to Reuters. The Indian government, which has come under fire from press freedom watchdogs in recent years, said it had “no intention” of blocking international news orgs. X warned that it was “deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India.”
4,000: Clashes between armed groups in Myanmar have driven around 4,000 refugees across the border into India’s Mizoram state in recent days. While both of the warring groups oppose Myanmar’s military junta, they are also competing for territorial control among themselves.
200,000: Liberian President Joseph Bokai issued a formal state apology to victims of the country’s brutal 14-year civil war, as part of the country’s ongoing reconciliation campaign. The war, which raged from 1989 until 2003, claimed the lives of around 200,000 people and saw widespread abuses including mass killings, rape, and the use of child soldiers.
Demonstration of AI innovation at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 7, 2025.
Since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, it’s been nearly impossible to attend a global conference — from Davos to Delhi — without encountering a slew of panels and keynote speeches on artificial intelligence. Will AI make our lives easier, or will it destroy humanity? Can it be a force for good? Can AI be regulated without stifling innovation?
At the ripe old age of eight, the AI for Good Summit is now a veteran voice in this rapidly-evolving dialogue. It kicks off today in Geneva, Switzerland, for what promises to be its most ambitious edition yet.
Launched in 2017 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the gathering typically features conversations on AI safety, access, and governance, but also serves as a “show and tell” moment for innovators spotlighting the latest in robotics, autonomous vehicles, and AI-based tools to combat climate change.
This year, AI for Good is being held at the massive Palexpo, Geneva’s largest convention center, with thousands expected to attend over four days. GZERO is there all week for our Global Stage series, produced in partnership with Microsoft, to help you understand what this summit is and why it’s such a hot ticket (as far as international conferences go).
What is ITU, and why does it host AI for Good? The ITU, founded in 1865, is the UN’s agency for communication technologies. In fact, it was formed 160 years ago as the International Telegraph Union, just as that electronic correspondence method was changing how messages spread across the world. ITU is perhaps best known for establishing global telecom standards, but it’s been playing a growing role in helping more people access the Internet and all the benefits that can bring.
ITU launched “AI for Good” as a platform to connect technology developers and innovators with organizations working on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which seek to bring more people into health and socioeconomic stability by eradicating key challenges like extreme poverty, hunger, and gender inequality.
“We’ve been very consistent and true to our original mission,” the ITU’s Frederic Werner, a summit co-founder, told GZERO. “It was identifying practical applications of AI to solve global challenges and to foster partnerships to make that happen for global impact.”
What happens this week? Expect lots of discussion about the future of jobs and how agentic AI – meaning AI that is autonomously self-improving – could impact companies and the workforce. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff will address participants on that theme, and Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, now an ITU ambassador, will speak about the importance of training and educating people to work effectively with AI.
Throughout the Palexpo, startup founders and established companies alike will be sharing their creations — like interactive robots and flying cars (more like drones that can carry people, but cool nonetheless). The summit also highlights AI youth initiatives and inventions from around the world.
There will also be a day devoted to policy and regulatory frameworks surrounding AI, a speech from Estonia’s President Alar Karis, and a presentation of suggested standards for AI encompassing everything from healthcare applications to the risks of AI-generated misinformation.
Why does the summit matter right now? For starters, the global “digital divide” remains vast. An estimated 2.6 billion people, a third of the world’s population, still lack Internet connectivity altogether. And nearly 150 years after Thomas Edison introduced the incandescent light bulb, 700 million people still don’t have the electricity to power one. Most are in the Global South.
As more and more industries adopt and deploy AI, the technology could contribute as much as $20 trillion to the global economy through 2030, driving as much as 3.5% of the world’s GDP by then. But the largest and most developed economies, primarily the US and China, stand to gain the most right now, while poorer countries fall further behind.
Conversations in Geneva this week are confronting that concern, calling for “cooperation” and greater global inclusion in the AI economy. In today’s deeply fragmented geopolitical reality, that may be much further in the distance than a self-flying passenger drone.
See GZERO’s complete interview with AI for Good co-founder Frederic Werner here.
Hard Numbers: UK marks London bombing anniversary, Japan suffers a thousand tremors, Paris’ main river reopens, & More
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan leave the St Paul’s Cathedral, where a service of commemoration took place to mark the 20th anniversary of the deadly July 7, 2005, London bombings in which four suicide bombers targeted London's public transport system, in London, United Kingdom, on July 7, 2025.
20: The United Kingdom today commemorates the 20th anniversary of the suicide bombings on London’s public transport services that killed 52 people and injured over 700 more. The four perpetrators were all UK citizens. Two had trained with al-Qaeda the previous year.
1,000: The Japanese government is warning of more earthquakes this July after 1,000 tremors rattled islands in the Kagoshima prefecture, including a 5.5-magnitude quake Saturday on the island of Kyushu. Authorities have stressed that none of this is related to the popular manga series, “The Future I Saw,” whose prediction of a catastrophic Japanese quake went so viral that it dented tourism – the number of visitors from Hong Kong fell 11% in May compared to the same month last year.
$4 million: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) staff reportedly did $4 million worth of work modeling the costs of relocating Palestinians from the Gaza strip, and supported the launch of the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). BCG has since disavowed its involvement and emphasized that the company “was not paid for any of this work.”
$1.5 billion: The River Seine in Paris reopened to the public this weekend, following a $1.5 billion clean-up project commissioned ahead of the Olympics last year. Swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than 100 years due to concerns over pollution and river traffic.
1: Suriname’s National Assembly elected Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, 71, as the country’s first female president on July 6. A doctor by profession, Geerlings-Simons has promised to meet the needs of young people and will oversee Suriname’s impending oil boom, which is set to start in 2028 with a major offshore project.
What We’re Watching: Bibi heads to Washington, Deadly Texas floods get political, Kenyan police shoot protesters
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2025.
Bibi’s back in Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets US President Donald Trump at the White House this evening, their third encounter there this year. Trump is pressing for a ceasefire in Gaza, after claiming Friday that a 60-day deal could be reached, in which Hamas would return 10 living and 18 dead hostages, Israeli forces would withdraw to a buffer zone along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, and aid would be distributed again by UN agencies and the Palestinian Red Crescent. As of this writing, however, indirect talks between Israel and Hamas were still ongoing.
Killer floods sweep through Texas
Even as rescuers are still searching for survivors of the Texas floods that have so far killed more than 80 people, including many children, the political finger pointing has begun. Homeland Security Kristi Noem blamed outdated National Weather Service systems, while critics say federal workforce cuts – including to weather forecasting agencies – have weakened disaster preparedness and left communities more vulnerable to catastrophic weather events.
Kenya’s police open fire on anti-government protesters
Police are cracking down on mass protests marking the 35th anniversary of Kenya’s return to democracy. Demonstrators and rioters – angry about cost of living, corruption, and police brutality – are calling for the resignation of President William Ruto, who won the 2022 election. Ruto’s alliance with the main opposition group has so far been a bulwark against anger from the streets – could that change? The next election is set for 2027.Bavaria, Germany - June 6, 2025: PHOTOMONTAGE, Red cap with VOTE FOR ELON MUSK in front of US flag.
It started, as most of Elon Musk’s moves do, with a post on X. On July 5, the Tesla CEO and former adviser to US President Donald Trump announced the formation of the America Party, a new political movement meant to upend what he called “a one-party system, not a democracy.”
Why start a party? The two men have been feuding over the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which became law July 4. Musk slammed the package – which pairs tax cuts with massive spending hikes for defense and immigration enforcement – for adding trillions to the US debt. He now plans to defeat legislators who supported it, vowing that “They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Will voters bite? Musk posted a poll on X on July 4 – American Independence Day – asking whether voters wanted “independence” from the American two-party system: 65% of 1.2 million respondents answered “Yes.” A subsequent Quantus Insights poll found that 40% of voters are open to supporting his America Party, though just 14% are “very likely” to vote for it, with skepticism highest among Democrats and older voters.
Have third parties ever made a difference? Alternatives to the Republican-Democrat duopoly have periodically emerged. And while a third-party candidate has never won the White House, they’ve helped other candidates to do so. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt’s breakaway Progressive Party won 27% of the popular vote, dividing the Republican base and handing the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. In 1992, billionaire Ross Perot’s independent candidacy captured nearly 19% of the vote and helped Democrat Bill Clinton defeat incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush. In 2000, Ralph Nader’s campaign under the Green Party banner swung the election to George W. Bush by drawing Florida votes away from Democrat Al Gore. Most recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran as an independent in 2024 but dropped out to endorse Trump, later becoming his secretary of Health and Human Services. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, no significant third party has ever emerged.
President or power broker? Musk isn’t aiming for the presidency himself (as a foreign-born American he isn’t eligible anyway). Rather, he says he wants to target two or three Senate seats and eight to ten House races to act as a swing bloc in a polarized Congress. He promises to champion fiscal discipline, deregulation, and centrism, positioning him as a potential spoiler for Trump in the 2026 midterms. But Musk’s personal brand is polarizing: a Morning Consult poll from late June showed his overall net favorability at -14, and an Economist-YouGov poll found that Musk’s net favorability dropped from -9 to -23 after his feud with Trump.
Can Musk really pull this off? Despite Musk’s deep pockets, money might not be enough: in April, his $20-million political push in Wisconsin failed to sway a key judicial race. Logistical barriers might prove even tougher. Starting a nationally-competitive third party requires navigating a maze of state-level signature thresholds and party-registration deadlines, as well as building campaign infrastructure and volunteer networks – his disruptive intentions aside, does Musk really have that level of patience for politics?
And what if Trump acts against him? Last week he threatened to strip him of citizenship, and Sunday night called his third-party effort “off the rails.” With stakes this high, this next chapter in the clash between the world’s richest man and the president could have huge implications.
Demonstrators with US and Ukrainian flags rally near the U.S. Capitol ahead of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., USA, on March 4, 2025.
Earlier this week, the US cut shipments of a number of weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot interceptor missiles, a critical part of Kyiv’s air defenses. Here’s a short guide to making sense of why that happened, and how it could affect the course of the Russia-Ukraine war.
What is a Patriot interceptor? It’s one of the world’s most advanced air defenses, able to shoot ballistic missiles out of the sky. The US-made system is sold to nearly 20 countries, and was first given to Ukraine in early 2023. The Patriot’s main theaters of action are Ukraine as well as in the Middle East, where it has protected US forces and Israel from ballistic missiles launched by Iran or Iran-aligned groups.
Why did the US stop sending them to Ukraine? Low stockpiles, evidently. Nearly two years of intense use in both Ukraine and the Middle East have crushed supplies of Patriot missiles, of which only about 500 are made annually, and drawn resources away from other critical weapons systems as well.
After the Trump administration bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities ten days ago, for example, American forces fired the largest salvo of Patriots “in history” to repel Tehran’s (well-telegraphed) retaliatory airstrikes on the US base in Qatar. That may have pushed supplies below critical levels, raising concerns about broader US weapons production capacity.
Still, this is a message to Ukraine, right? Even if concern about scarcity was the primary motivation, US President Donald Trump – who won the election in part on promises to cut aid for Ukraine and force both sides into a “deal” – has clearly hit Kyiv with the short end of the stick here.
It’s worth noting that the decision to cut the shipments to Ukraine reportedly came from Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, a prominent China hawk who sees support for Ukraine as a distraction from challenging Beijing.
And that’s not the only China connection in this story. Amid a growing trade and technology war with Washington, Beijing recently banned the US-bound export of certain minerals that are essential in weapons manufacturing. Among them were gallium, antimony, and germanium, critical components of various weapons and ammunition systems, including the Patriot.
“To me, this is the most interesting untold story,” says Eurasia Group research director Marc Gustafson, a former national security intelligence chief, “mostly because the Pentagon cannot talk about it. China’s bans have been crushing for the US defense industry, particularly regarding the weapons the US has been providing to Ukraine and Israel.”
How badly will this decision hurt Ukraine? Kyiv called the announcement a “total shock.” At a moment when Russia has been launching its most ferocious – and increasingly indiscriminate – aerial assaults of the entire war, losing the Patriots will leave Ukraine’s cities and civilians vastly more exposed to the Kremlin’s missiles and drones.
But the move will have less effect on Kyiv’s primary goal of simply holding off Russia at the front lines, says Alex Brideau, Eurasia Group’s top Ukraine and Russia expert. “It’s not a back breaker,” he says. Still, if the Trump administration cuts to conventional ammunition last for any length of time, Ukraine could be in more serious trouble fast.