🇦🇺AussieCossack🇷🇺

NATO to beef up Asia ‘cooperation’ The Alliance will release its very first joint document on expanding cooperation with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand next week, according to Nikkei. The document will outline cooperation frameworks that will aim to improve response to cybersecurity and disinformation and will come as the org invites the heads of the four nations to a three-day summit in Washington DC from July 9, the outlet reports. Do allegations of the formation of an ‘Asian NATO’ have more substance than claimed? #NATO #Asia - Boost

🇰🇪 Kenyan activists call for more protests as govt pledges austerity Kenyan activists called for protesters to take to the streets again on Tuesday, with many rejecting appeals from President William Ruto for dialogue following his decision to withdraw proposed tax hikes. At least 24 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police last week, when parliament was briefly stormed and set ablaze. The protests, which have been led by young people and organised largely on social media, were initially sparked by a finance bill intended to raise 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.69 billion) in taxes. But the demands of many protesters have escalated over the past two weeks to include calls to root out corruption and for Ruto to step down, presenting the most serious crisis of his two-year-old presidency. An interview Ruto gave on Sunday evening to Kenyan television networks, in which he mostly defended the actions of the police and his government, seemed to have only hardened the positions of protesters. On Monday, activists were sharing pamphlets on social media that urged people to occupy the capital Nairobi's Central Business District. Many posted under the hashtag #OccupyCBDTuesday. The protest movement has no official leadership, and it was not clear to what extent people would respond to these calls after tens of thousands came out last week in some of the country's largest protests in recent memory. In audio forums on social media, activists have been discussing how to maintain momentum now that the immediate objective of killing the finance bill has been attained. #Kenya @africaintel

#Officials 📄 Vladimir Putin: the Istanbul agreements may form the basis for Ukrainian settlement

Russia, as you know, has never refused [to negotiate] and is now ready to continue peace talks. It was Ukraine that refused to negotiate, and Ukraine did it publicly, on direct orders from London and from Washington as well, and therefore, there is no doubt about it,

the President of the Russian Federation stressed at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The President also said that Russia was grateful for the sincere and concrete proposals of the SCO member states for a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, which arose as a result of the absolutely unceremonious and adventurous policy of the United States and its satellites.

Warning graphic: Israeli soldier killed in knife attack An IDF serviceman was killed and another injured in a stabbing attack in a shopping center in northern Israel. Local reports say the fatal victim was able to “neutralize” the attacker before his death. The second soldier is in the hospital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in a post on Telegram described the attack as a “heroic operation.” #Israel #Hezbollah - Boost