With anti-war party Yabloko's exclusion, the Kremlin ensures there's no chance of dissent in next month's Russian parliamentary elections, writes Eastern Europe Reporter Liam Nolan

In a hearing frequently disrupted by anti-war protesters, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed President Trump's plan to send out $5,000 checks if Republicans win in midterms and said he'll meet his Chinese counterpart before President Xi's state visit

🇯🇵 | Japanese police violently remove anti-war protesters during the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Anti-government protests in Japan are growing against the Takaichi administration's remilitarization agenda.

🇮🇷 Iran’s FM gave the most reusable anti-war line of the week. He said decades of outside force in the Middle East proved one thing: you do not get security by hitting people, and you do not get peace by squeezing them. He folds Gaza, Israel, and the fight with U.S. into the same story, then argues the region should stop taking security orders from outside. The interesting bit is the timing. After a year of actual war talk and real strikes, the argument has shifted from "we will resist" to: look, your method already failed; now leave the room. He is using the language of peace to say the other side already lost. Writer: Lucas