National and international media news & headlines compiled by CLG

Lavrov and Rubio discuss Ukrainian attacks on Russia | 1 June 2025 | Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the phone on Sunday. The two sides have discussed the upcoming Moscow-Kiev talks in Istanbul and recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. Just a day before the talks scheduled in Turkey, two bridges collapsed in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk border regions, leading to at least seven deaths and dozens of injuries. The incidents were caused by sabotage, according to Russia’s Investigative Committee. Later that same day, drones targeted military airfields in Murmansk Region in the country’s north, in Ivanovo and Ryazan regions in western Russia, and in Irkutsk Region in Siberia and Amur Region in the Far East. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rubio “expressed sincere condolences on the civilian casualties resulting from the bombings of railway infrastructure in the Bryansk and Kursk regions on June 1.”

Ukrainian drones damage hospital, homes in Russia’s Kursk, official says | 30 May 2025 | Ukrainian drones launched a night-time attack on Russia’s western Kursk region, damaging a hospital and apartment buildings and injuring at least one person, the regional governor said early on Friday… Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he wants to create a buffer zone in Sumy, which was used to help launch Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk last year. In the Kursk region, where Russia’s military says Ukrainian forces who staged the incursion last August have been ejected, Governor Alexander Khinshtein said Ukrainian drones swarmed the main town, also called Kursk.

Russian military strikes Ukrainian drone launch site | 1 June 2025 | Moscow has successfully hit a Ukrainian long-range drone launch site in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkov Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The strike destroyed all of the launch pads, along with some 30 long-range kamikaze drones and eight military vehicles, it added. A short video shows a powerful blast rocking an area near the airfield where some installations were located. According to the ministry, a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile system was used in the strike. The news came amid reports of drone strikes across Russia.

Russian Arctic region under drone attack – governor | 1 June 2025 | Russia’s Murmansk Region, located mostly north of the Arctic Circle, is being targeted by drones, local governor Andrey Chibis has said. Air defenses have been intercepting incoming UAVs in the region, Chibis wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “Enemy drones have attacked the territory of Murmansk Region,” he wrote. The governor urged the population to remain calm and report all incidents to the authorities. Also on Sunday, several drones targeted a military installation in Irkutsk Region, central Russia. Local Governor Igor Kobzev said it is the first UAV raid in Siberia.

7 dead after saboteurs bring down Russian bridge in front of train | 31 May 2025 | A bridge collapsed in front of an oncoming passenger train in Russia’s Bryansk Region on Sunday, killing seven people and injuring at least 69 others, the region’s governor Alexander Bogomaz has said. While the exact cause of the incident remains unknown, Russian Railways said the bridge pillar collapsed due to “illegal interference with transport operations.” The newspaper Izvestia cited a source who said the bridge may have been brought down by an explosion. However, emergency services and prosecutors have not confirmed that a blast occurred. Multiple Telegram news channels have suggested that the collapse was likely caused by sabotage.

UK must prepare for direct conflict with Russia – defense secretary | 1 June 2025 | The UK plans to mobilize billions of pounds to bolster its military-industrial base in preparation for a potential conflict with Russia, Defense Secretary John Healey has said. The statement comes ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defense Review on Monday. According to the BBC, the report is expected to portray Russia and China as major threats to the UK. The review is expected to allocate 1.5 billion pounds (2 billion) toward building six new munitions factories. Over the next five years, London will dedicate around 6 billion pounds (8.08 billion) to manufacturing long-range weapons, including Storm Shadow missiles, Healey told the BBC on Sunday. The missile, developed jointly with France, has reportedly been used by Ukraine to strike civilian targets in Russian territory, according to Moscow.

Suspect in Boulder terror attack determined to be Egyptian man in U.S. illegally – FBI | 1 June 2025 | An Egyptian national who came into the country two years ago and overstayed his visa has been charged in the gruesome terror attack that left six people injured in Boulder, Colo., Saturday, authorities said. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was arrested at the scene, after he allegedly set his victims on fire as they peacefully rallied on behalf of Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Soliman was heard yelling “Free Palestine” and anti-Israel slogans during the attack on victims ranging in age from 67 to 88. The shocking violence unfolded at 1:26 p.m. local time, when Boulder police were called to the county courthouse on Pearl Street for reports of a man, who had a weapon and was setting people on fire, according to Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn.

Multiple people injured in ‘targeted terror attack’ in Boulder, Colorado | 1 June 2025 | Several people have been injured in a “targeted terror attack” involving Molotov cocktails in Boulder, Colorado. Police and the FBI said the horror unfolded at Pearl Street Mall on Sunday afternoon. “We are aware of and fully investigating a targeted terror attack in Boulder, Colorado,” said FBI Director Kash Patel just after 5.20pm… Witnesses told CBS Colorado a suspect attacked people with Molotov cocktails as they took part in a walk to remember the Israeli hostages who are still in Gaza. Boulder Police said they were evacuating several blocks of the typically popular pedestrian mall area, saying that there were “several victims” in the attack.

Dozens shot dead and injured near Gaza aid hub, health ministry and doctors say | 1 June 2025 | At least 31 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured near an aid distribution site run by a U.S.-backed private foundation in southern Gaza on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The health ministry, hospital officials and a half-dozen eyewitnesses said the Israeli military was responsible for the gunfire. The Israeli military said its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within” the aid site, but an Israeli military source acknowledged that IDF forces fired toward individuals about 1 kilometer (1093 yards) away, before the aid site opened. Multiple eyewitnesses told CNN they were fired upon at what is known as the “Al-Alam” roundabout as they were heading toward the aid site ahead of its opening.

2025 MIT class president banned from graduation ceremony after pro-Palestinian speech | 1 June 2025 | The 2025 class president of MIT was barred from attending her graduation ceremony on Friday after delivering a speech denouncing the war in Gaza at a commencement event the day before. Megha Vemuri told CNN that after her speech, the university’s senior leadership informed her she was not allowed to attend Friday’s commencement ceremony and was barred from campus until the event concluded. Vemuri will still receive her degree, an MIT spokesperson told CNN. The class president was a scheduled speaker at Thursday’s OneMIT Commencement ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she took to the podium, a keffiyeh — a symbol of pro-Palestinian solidarity — draped over her graduation robe.

Biden White House insisted families were safe after toxic East Palestine derailment – but behind the scenes, admin warned of ‘cancer cluster’ | 31 May 2025 | The Biden administration admitted possible cancer-causing toxins were spread in East Palestine, Ohio, following the Norfolk Southern train derailment in 2023, explosive new emails show, despite the White House insisting residents were safe. “The occurrence of a cancer-cluster in EP [East Palestine] is not zero,” FEMA recovery leader James McPherson wrote in a March 29, 2024, email to other public health officials — a little more than a year after the crash. “As you all are aware, the first 48 hours of the fire created a really toxic plume,” he said in the chain of communications, which were first reported by News Nation. “They didn’t always test for the right chemicals; they didn’t test in the right locations; they didn’t have the right detection limits,” Government Accountability Project investigator Lesley Pacey told The Post, saying the Biden admin wasn’t “worrying about public health” but rather “public reassurances.”

FDA approves new Moderna COVID vaccine as CDC wants all U.S. air travelers to be vaccinated with MMR | 31 May 2025 | Earlier this week, Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy Jr., flanked by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Marty Makary, U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner, announced on X that the CDC was no longer recommending COVID vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. Not only are all the COVID shots still available to anyone who wants them, today it was announced that the FDA just approved a new COVID vaccine by Moderna, mNEXSPIKE. Typical to other vaccines, this one also targets euthanizing seniors, whom the government sees as a burden to society… The new COVID shots can also be injected into sick children and adults as well. Also, the “flu season” has been renamed the “respiratory virus season.”

CDC tells Americans to cancel their flights after finding world’s most infectious disease is spreading on planes | 31 May 2025 | The CDC is urging Americans to cancel their upcoming flights if they are not vaccinated against measles. The agency has upgraded its health travel warning after discovering the virus, one of the most infectious in the world, is spreading on U.S. airplanes. A previous recommendation that said Americans should “consider making alternative travel plans” if they could not get vaccinated before departing now says travelers should “consider postponing their trip.” After investigating dozens of patients who were contagious while flying, the CDC confirmed at least one case where the virus was spread during air travel.

Booker slammed for alleged ‘Nazi salute’ to Cali Dems just months after Musk was dragged for same gesture | 1 June 2025 | Conservatives are mocking Sen. Cory Booker for delivering an alleged “Nazi salute” to California Democrats, while quipping the New Jersey Democrat won’t get the same scrutiny Elon Musk did when he raised his arm to MAGA supporters in January. “NEW: Democrat Senator Cory Booker appears to do a ‘Nazi’ salute in front of a large crowd of Democrats. I’m looking forward to the wall-to-wall coverage from the ‘honest’ and totally not biased media,” Trending Politics co-owner Collin Rugg posted to X, accompanied by footage of the gesture. “If Elon Musk is a Nazi for doing this gesture…Cory Booker is one too. Sorry, I don’t make the rules,” X user Angela Belcamino posted.