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AP News: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday released a letter he addressed to the heads of European Union countries where he presented his impressions from a recent series of visits with some of the bloc’s biggest adversaries that angered many of his allies.

Reuters: A Polish state-owned engineering company said on Thursday it was being investigated over the export of its parts to Iran, after a report that its pumps were adapted and used in Iranian combat drones.

Meduza: Last month, footage of a soldier shooting his fellow serviceman was shared by Russian state media, which claimed the men were Ukrainian and that the clip shows their “animalistic nature.” But according to a new investigation, the men were actually Russian.

Reuters: Britain added 11 new shipping sanctions under its Russia sanctions regime related to the war in Ukraine, an official notice showed on Thursday. The government said the sanctions relate to the carrying of oil or oil products from Russia to a third country.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine signed 10-year bilateral security agreements with the Czech Republic and Slovenia at the Fourth European Political Community summit in the U.K. on July 18.

Reuters: Ukraine's government proposed its first wartime hike in taxes on Thursday to raise billions of dollars in new funds for weapons and military salaries as the war with Russia nears the 29-month mark.

The Guardian: The Ukrainian president kicked off the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace on Thursday with an emotional speech in which he made veiled but repeated references to Orbán’s recent attempts to get close to Moscow.

Reuters: Russian attacks on Ukraine's frontline Donetsk region killed five civilians and injured three others on Thursday, damaging private houses and a residential building, prosecutors said.

The Moscow Times: Timur Kamaev, a prominent Imam from Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, found himself at the center of a nationwide scandal this week after releasing a video in which he appears to instruct believers on the proper ways to beat one’s wife.

Reuters: Slovakia and Hungary said they have stopped receiving oil from key supplier Lukoil, after Ukraine imposed a ban last month on the transit of resources from the Russian energy company via its territory.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from the village of Urozhaine in Donetsk Oblast, Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson of the Khortytsia group of forces, told Interfax Ukraine on July 18.

Reuters: Russia does not rule out new deployments of nuclear missiles in response to the planned U.S. stationing of long-range conventional weapons in Germany, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Global Rights Compliance: Over two-thirds of Russian athletes set to participate in the upcoming Olympics have violated neutrality rules by displaying public support for the invasion of Ukraine.

Reuters: Denmark's foreign minister said on Thursday the country would not send ministers to informal government meetings linked to Hungary's EU presidency this month, in protest at Orban's talks with the presidents of Russia and China.

LRT: Lithuania will exit the international treaty banning cluster munitions, citing worsening security in the region and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Reuters: Ukraine's parliament passed a law on Thursday allowing the government to suspend foreign debt payments, just as it resumed formal talks with bondholders to restructure some $20 billion in debt.

POLITICO: Ursula von der Leyen used her speech to MEPs on Thursday to slam Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over his recent trip to Russia.

Reuters: In Ukraine, a handful of startups are developing Artificial Intelligence systems to help fly a vast fleet of drones, taking warfare into uncharted territory as combatants race to gain a technological edge in battle.

The Kyiv Independent: The Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Armed Forces were responsible for a drone attack that successfully targeted a Russian coastal defense base in Crimea overnight.

worth mentioning

Russian oil is still paying for Putin’s war - Foreign Policy Analysis

Russia sentences U.S. national Leake to 13 years in jail for drug smuggling

Ursula von der Leyen elected to second term as European Commission president

Canada wants 12 new submarines to bolster Arctic defense as NATO watches Russia and China move in

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