President Trump says talks with Iran will resume today, head of U.S. Pacific Command warns that U.S. won’t allow any nation to dominate Indo-Pacific, and Russian bombing spree kills one, injures dozens in Ukraine.
1. U.S. President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country. The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war. Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States. Trump, however, said on Sunday, “Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said. He did not provide further details or say who would be involved in the talks.
2. The head of U.S. Pacific Command said Monday that coercive actions by China and other actors are challenging regional stability, warning the United States will not allow any nation to dominate the Indo-Pacific. Admiral Samuel Paparo said some actors were using “false claims of legitimacy” to justify intimidation and coercion. “That’s not the rule of law. That’s the rule by law. That distinction between law as a tool of order versus law as a weapon of raw power, is the defining fault line of our time,” he said via video link at a regional security conference in Malaysia organized by the U.S. Pacific Command. Paparo’s remarks come as tensions remain high in the South China Sea, where China’s expansive maritime claims overlap with those of several Southeast Asian nations. The Philippines has been at the center of a series of confrontations with China, particularly around a disputed shoal, where Chinese and Philippine vessels have repeatedly faced off.
3. Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 13 Palestinians, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s Gaza ceasefire agreement. From dawn, Israeli warplanes hit Gaza City in the north, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern area of Khan Younis, causing the biggest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials. Trump’s assertion Thursday that Palestinian Hamas militants and other armed groups had agreed to disarm had raised hopes of a turning point in the conflict. On Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s security Cabinet — told Israel’s Army Radio the government would give Hamas the opportunity to disarm but said he was “very skeptical” that would happen.
4. Russian planes dropped eight powerful glide bombs in a span of 90 minutes on residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and wounding dozens of others, regional chief Ivan Fedorov said Monday. Russia has used glide bombs to smash Ukrainian towns and cities since it invaded its neighbor more than four years ago. The weapons are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of explosives, leaving huge craters. Ukraine has no effective countermeasures against them. The Sunday evening onslaught on Zaporizhzhia killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl, as the bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings in four districts of the city, Fedorov said. Other large-scale damage of civilian areas of Ukraine has resulted from Russian ballistic missiles, and late Sunday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made yet another urgent plea to other countries to send Ukraine more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.
The Air Force’s plan to modernize its B-52 bombers with replacement engines before completing critical portions of developmental flight testing could lead to higher costs and project delays, according to a federal watchdog. “The Air Force’s most expensive B-52 modernization effort, the Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP), will likely continue to face significant challenges as the Air Force plans to begin production with little to no developmental flight testing,” the Government Accountability Office said in a recnelty released 61-page report. That program — one of 13 separate initiatives planned for overhauling the Cold War-era fleet — will fit each bomber with military-configured commercial engines, as well as engine struts, electrical power generation systems and cockpit displays. The Air Force aims to keep the fleet operational into the 2050s with the upgrades. The service operates 76 long-range B-52 Stratofortress bombers, which can carry nuclear or conventional weapons, according to the service’s website.
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