🇺🇸⚡️- "Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel delivered a series of provocative warnings and predictions about the future of artificial intelligence and the West on Tuesday, accusing Pope Leo XIV of inadvertently serving as a “Chinese communist agent” by calling for AI regulation. In his remarks at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, he also warned of a “democratic-socialist takeover” of the United States’ Democratic Party." - CNN.

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️- Ezra Jin, pastor of the Beijing Zion Protestant Church, has been released from Chinese detention and arrived in the United States after Trump raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Beijing Zion Church was one of the largest illegal and unregistered churches in China, where religious communities are required to register with the government.

Ezra Jin, along with 18 other members of the Zion church, was arrested in October of last year during an anti-religious crackdown by the Chinese government on unregistered religious groups. Despite Jin's release, at least eight members of the Zion church are still detained in China.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- "We also take care of our friends, especially the Christians in the Middle East. The Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we protect them from Hezbollah, who want to kill them. We do the same things to Christians everywhere. We protect Christians in the Middle East”. - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

🇻🇪⚡️- The death toll from the earthquakes in Venezuela has been updated to 3,342. A mass burial of 150 unidentified bodies were laid to rest in a cemetery.

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️- "US President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of both Ukraine and Russia on Saturday amid the US's Fourth of July celebrations, Kyiv and Moscow said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a "very good phone call" with Trump, in which he congratulated the US on its 250th birthday and discussed the current situation on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy added that there was a "real prospect" of ending the conflict and that he and Trump had agreed to continue their talks during the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, which is set to take place from 7 to 8 July." - Euro News.

🛢⚡️- "Oil prices fell by more than 1% ‌on Monday after OPEC+ agreed to further increase its output targets from August while exports from key producers via the Strait of Hormuz are recovering, potentially adding to global supplies.

Brent crude futures fell $1.02, or 1.41%, to $71.10 a barrel at 0756 GMT after settling 0.45% ​higher on Friday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $67.89 a barrel, down 80 cents, or 1.16%. ​There was no settlement for WTI on Friday as U.S. markets were closed ahead of ⁠the Independence Day holiday on Saturday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies including Russia agreed on Sunday to further increase output targets by 188,000 barrels per day from August, on top of similar ​increases for June and July." - Reuters.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡- An Israeli drone strike targets a car in Nabatieh's al-Fawqa district, southern Lebanon, indicating a possible assassination attempt.

🇫🇷🇸🇾⚡️- French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Syria, along with an economic delegation of investors to meet with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

⚽️⚡️- The UEFA has denounced the FIFA's decision to revoke Balogun's suspension, saying a "red line" had been crossed.

⚽️⚡️- Numerous organisations, personalities, players, selectors and sports journalists have issued statements condemning the FIFA's decision. The consensus is that politics nor preferential treatments have a place in any footbalistic tournaments, let alone the World Cup.

🇬🇷🇮🇱⚡️- The Greek and Israeli Air Forces conducted a joint aerial exercise over the island of Crete in southern Greece on Monday, involving Greek F-16 fighter jets and Israeli aerial refuelling aircraft.

🇵🇸⚡️- BREAKING: Hamas dissolves its Gaza governing institutions.