More than 1,000 have been displaced after wildfires forced people to evacuate the Greek island of Rhodes.

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At least 35 people were killed and over 200 others injured in a blast at a convention of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

The explosion occurred at around 4:00 p.m. local time (11:00 GMT) in the Khar Bajaur Tehsil area of the province, the newspaper reported. JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah reportedly condemned the blast, noting that he missed the convention due to some personal commitments. Hamdullah also called the incident an act of "terrorism," adding that the blast was a deliberate attack on humanity.

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The launch of an Electron rocket carrying an Earth remote sensing satellite from a spaceport in New Zealand has been canceled right before the start, California-based aerospace company Rocket Lab said on Sunday.

"Today's launch was aborted on ignition, so we're standing down," the company wrote on Twitter. Rocket Lab specified that the launch had been canceled by an automatic system.

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A Ukrainian battalion, trained in the West and equipped for the counteroffensive, has lost nine out of 10 available US-made MaxxPro armored vehicles and lost most of its troops, with only 10 servicepeople of the unit remaining at the forefront, a American daily reported on Sunday, citing a Ukrainian soldier.

Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after repeatedly delaying the campaign over a lack of military supplies from its Western donors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that progress was "slower than desired."

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Scientist: meteorite 'returning to Earth' is not implausible

A meteorite recently identified as probably the first known piece of terrestrial rock that returned home after being flung into space millennia ago may be a unique occurrence, but it does not contradict the laws of physics, a Russian scientist said.

Meteorite NWA 13188, originally discovered in Africa a few years ago, made headlines earlier this month when a team of scientists voiced their suspicions about this rock originating from our planet.

If an artificial object could return to Earth after spending years in space, then a piece of rock can probably make the same journey as well, the researcher argued.

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The devastating aftermath of Ukraine's bombardment of Donetsk's Kuibyshevsky district: a shell struck an apartment building

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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is uneasy over the fact of the Russian air defenses successfully downing advanced missiles that the US delivers to Kiev, foreign policy expert and former Pentagon adviser Douglas Macgregor has told a YouTube channel.

According to him, Russia downing HIMARS missiles prompted “the frustration that we saw in Mr. Zelensky,” who was “furious, angry, and distraught.”

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NSA reportedly opposes Congress' attempts to curb its spying on US citizens

The amendment in question, brought forth by House Representatives Warren Davidson and Sara Jacobs, would essentially bar US agencies such as the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency from “purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant, court order, or subpoena” to procure, according to a US media outlet that first reported on this matter.

Now, NSA officials have been reportedly approaching lawmakers and trying to convince them to oppose the aforementioned amendment.

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Even as Washington and its allies seem willing to pull all the stops in its economic war against Russia, it seems that the West's sanctions failed to harm Russia’s naval projects, says Earl Rasmussen, a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and an international consultant.

He pointed out that Alexei Rakhmanov, who heads the United Shipbuilding Corporation, earlier revealed that the West's sanctions against Russia’s shipbuilding industry were feeble and had next to no effect whatsoever, brading them “practically unnoticeable,” since only 5 percent of the components for military shipbuilding are “dependent on foreign imports.”

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🇩🇰 Denmark will consider imposing restrictions on Quran-burning actions and other similar events that offend religion, culture and other countries, as well as threaten the country’s security, the government said on Sunday.

"The Danish government will explore the possibility of intervening in special situations where, for instance, other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted, and where this could have significant negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security," the government said in a statement.

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The potential threat of nuclear war is no more dangerous than the existential problem of climate change and there is no hierarchy in this regard, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.

"Well, you can't, I think, have a hierarchy. There are some things that are front and center – the wolf at the door – including potential conflict, but there's no doubt that climate represents an existential challenge to all of us," Blinken told Australian show, when asked what he considered to be a greater challenge for humanity — nuclear war or global climate change.

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A man harassed and groped a 16-year-old girl and her mother during a flight. They are suing for $2 million in damages, claiming flight attendants ignored their pleas for help and continued to overserve the man despite his aggressive behavior.

Delta attendants allegedly provided the man with at least 10 vodka drinks and a glass of wine during the flight from JFK Airport to Athens, Greece.

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US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says the Twitter headquarters will stay in San Francisco despite the fact that many companies have left the city.

"Many have offered rich incentives for X (fka Twitter) to move its HQ out of San Francisco. Moreover, the city is in a doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving. Therefore, they expect X will move too. We will not. You only know who your real friends are when the chips are down. San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend," Musk tweeted on Saturday.

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🇮🇷 Iran Equips Helicopter Fleet With Advanced Weapons for 'Deterrent Power'

The latest additions to the helicopters include night-vision capability, precision munition, and a host of other features said Iranian Army's aviation fleet Brigadier General Yousef Ghorbani.

🚁 The brigadier noted that Iran has already started producing spare parts for its helicopters, making it less dependent on imports in this segment.

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Estonian law enforcement officers detained a man who threw eggs at the Russian embassy in Tallinn, the Police and Border Guard Board said on Sunday.

"Today, after midnight, a man born in 1977 threw eggs at the wall of the Russian embassy in Tallinn. A police patrol detained the man on the spot, and criminal proceedings were instituted against him," the police said in a statement.

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🇷🇺 Russian state-owned arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey, thanks to import substitution, will start testing and supplying the first domestic equipment for gas production on the Russian continental shelf this year, Artem Shatrakov, Director of Civil Products Development Department at Almaz-Antey, told Sputnik.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit, Shatrakov said that such import substitution work has been ongoing for several years and will continue.

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🇬🇧🇳🇪 The United Kingdom has once again condemned the military coup in Niger, saying that it is suspending long-term assistance to the country, with the exception of critical humanitarian aid.

On Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suspended all financial aid to Niger and froze Niger's assets in the community's central and commercial banks.

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Russian forces thwart attempts by Ukrainian troops to conduct reconnaissance-in-force

In the past 24 hours, units of the Russian "Vostok" group of forces destroyed a Leopard tank, several infantry fighting vehicles, an M777 howitzer and an electronic warfare station of Ukrainian troops in the Zaporozhye direction, the defense ministry spokesperson told Sputnik.

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📹 Russian Su-25 aircraft crews' work in special military op zone

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Ukraine rejects all ideas of mediation since it is fixed on ultimatums to Russia "packed" in Zelensky's peace formula, Aleksey Polishchuk, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's second department for the Commonwealth of Independent States' countries, told Sputnik.

Moscow will continue dialogue on prospects for peace settlement in the Ukraine conflict with partners from China, Brazil, Africa that have "constructive and substantive proposals," the diplomat also said.

Earlier, the head of Zelensky's office Yermak has confirmed a meeting of advisers of state leaders in Saudi Arabia to discuss the Ukrainian "peace formula". The key points are said to be discussed with representatives of more than 50 countries.

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🇷🇺🇧🇾 Russian nuclear weapons to stay in Belarus unless US, NATO quit hostile policy, diplomat says

💬 The hypothetical withdrawal can be possible "only if the US and NATO abandon their destructive course of purposefully undermining the security of Russia and Belarus. This stipulates the complete withdrawal of all American nuclear weapons to the territory of the US with the elimination of the corresponding infrastructure in Europe," Aleksey Polishchuk, a senior Russian diplomat, told Sputnik.

The deployment of the tactical nuclear weapons is a forced containment measure, designed to ensure the security of Belarus, which has a common defense space with Russia, Polishchuk said.

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