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The footage that began circulating on Russian social media channels last week depicted what was portrayed as a significant military setback for Ukraine at the beginning of its counteroffensive. In a flat, open area south of Zaporizhzhia – bisected by hedges and a wide muddy track – about 12 Ukrainian armoured vehicles had become pinned down, bunched too close together near a minefield. In one video, shells and rockets can be seen tearing into the ground and into vehicles, including one of Ukraine’s new German-supplied Leopard tanks and US Bradleys. Soldiers can be seen running through the smoke from one damaged vehicle to another. When the shooting was finally over, several Ukrainian soldiers were dead. Smashed vehicles had been left abandoned. Russian commentators were crowing over the failure. FULL STORY

The EU has taken a major step towards passing one of the world’s first laws governing artificial intelligence after its main legislative branch approved the text of draft legislation that includes a blanket ban on police use of live facial recognition technology in public places. The European parliament approved rules aimed at setting a global standard for the technology, which encompasses everything from automated medical diagnoses to some types of drone, AI-generated videos known as deepfakes, and bots such as ChatGPT. MEPs will now thrash out details with EU countries before the draft rules – known as the AI act - become legislation. “AI raises a lot of questions socially, ethically, economically. But now is not the time to hit any ‘pause button’. On the contrary, it is about acting fast and taking responsibility,” said Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market. A rebellion by centre-right MEPs in the EPP political grouping over an outright ban on real-time facial recognition on the streets of Europe failed to materialise, with a number of politicians attending Silvio Berlusconi’s funeral in Italy. The final vote was 499 in favour and 28 against with 93 abstentions. Full Story

When Donald Trump told the world last week that he’d been indicted by federal prosecutors, the former president appeared to be executing a carefully crafted public relations strategy. The Republican was breaking the news on his own terms, at a time of his choosing, with the precise message he wanted Americans to hear. There was, however, one glaring problem: Trump apparently couldn’t think of a credible defense. He instead told several obvious lies, mischaracterized federal law, and generally struggled to say anything that might persuade anyone who wasn’t already in his corner.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump were both implicated in major breaking news on June 8. But only the allegations against Trump received coverage by the big three news networks, according to a recent Media Research Center NewsBusters study. The analysis revealed that ABC, CBS and NBC devoted a total of 291 minutes to the Trump indictment between June 8 and June 12. In the same period of time, those same networks gave zero coverage to news that Fox News Digital broke on the Biden family. President Joe Biden was allegedly paid $5 million by an executive of the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, a confidential human source told the FBI during a June 2020 interview, sources familiar told Fox News Digital. Hunter Biden, who allegedly was paid $50,000 a month while on Burisma’s board, was also a beneficiary of the pay to play scheme, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was publicly fact-checked after he mocked a Republican congresswoman for claiming that failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign previously destroyed government devices. "Hillary Clinton used a hammer to destroy evidence of a private e-mail server and classified information on that server and was never indicted. The same standard should apply to everyone, including Donald Trump," Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. tweeted Sunday. The claim drew a sharp response from Olbermann, who suggested that the congresswoman was not in the proper mental state to understand reality.

War crimes were possibly committed during last month's fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International says. A report by the human rights group concludes that Israeli forces conducted apparently disproportionate air strikes which killed Palestinian civilians. It also says indiscriminate Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket fire killed both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. Amnesty is calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it operated in accordance with its obligations under international law and made efforts to minimize harm to civilians that were not required by law. A spokesman for PIJ said the group welcomed Amnesty's report. Thirty-four Palestinians and one Israeli were killed in the latest round of cross-border fighting, which erupted on 9 May and ended five days later with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. It began when Israeli warplanes carried out overnight air strikes that killed three senior commanders of PIJ's military wing in their homes as well as 10 civilians, including relatives and neighbours of the men.

A federal judge will allow E. Jean Carroll to amend her original defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump to include comments he made at a CNN town hall. Carroll, a former magazine columnist, asked the judge for permission to amend the initial November 2019 lawsuit so she could try to seek additional punitive damages after Trump repeated statements a federal jury found to be defamatory.

The BBC was among the first media organisations to gain access to some of the first villages liberated in Ukraine's counteroffensive. Out of this cluster of four settlements in the eastern Donetsk region, Neskuchne has seen the heaviest fighting according to the battalion which liberated it. Ukraine lost six soldiers in the process. Its name means "not boring" in Ukrainian. An obvious irony for a village that was occupied by Russia in spring last year - a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It was at the most northern point of a protruding Russian front line. As our army escort, Anatoliy, speeds along scarred roads in his camouflaged truck towards Neskuchne, it's clear this is a different kind of liberation to what we saw last year. Firstly there are no civilians here. The only remnants of civilisation come in the form of a blown out pharmacy and food store. There isn't a complex network of trenches either. A makeshift wooden bridge over a river is all it takes to take us into territory Russia has held for so long.

Summary Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges alleging he retained classified documents after he left the White House It's alleged that US government secrets were stored in a shower, bathroom, ballroom and bedroom of his Mar-a-Lago estate After leaving the court, the former president stopped at a well-known Cuban cafe in Miami to greet supporters Trump will speak later today from his golf club in New Jersey Supporters of the former president have been protesting the indictment outside the Miami court Trump, who is campaigning to win back the White House, says the indictment is "election interference" Special Counsel Jack Smith, the lead investigator, says he wants a speedy trial and that Trump is innocent until proven guilty

NATO has launched what it’s calling its "largest deployment exercise" in history, aimed at sending a message to countries like Russia that it "is ready to defend every inch of Allied territory." The two-week long "Air Defender" exercise is set to run until June 23 and will involve 25 countries, 10,000 personnel and 250 aircraft, according to NATO. "Air Defender is necessary because we live in a more dangerous world," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement. "As we face the biggest security crisis in a generation, we stand united to keep our countries and our people safe." "Air Defender sends a clear message that NATO is ready to defend every inch of Allied territory," she added.

Reported off topic post removed. This topic is NOT about TRUMP !

Former President Donald Trump has responded to his federal indictment the way he has responded to various other crises – with a blizzard of dishonesty. In posts on his social media platform and in Saturday speeches in Georgia and North Carolina, Trump made numerous false or misleading claims about his handling of classified documents, the FBI’s conduct in the related investigation, the Presidential Records Act, his dealings with the federal government prior to the search of his Mar-a-Lago club and residence, and President Joe Biden’s own handling of documents. Here is a fact check of 10 of the indictment-related claims Trump has made since the 37 federal charges against him were unsealed on Friday.

Nine people have been injured in a mass shooting in Denver, Colorado. Three of the victims are in a critical condition, police said in a Twitter post, while the others have non life-threatening injuries. They added that a suspect was also shot and was in police custody. The shooting happened on Market Street, close to Ball Arena, where the city's basketball team, the Denver Nuggets, won their first NBA championship on Monday night. Police said they believe that "multiple shots were fired during an altercation involving several individuals" and said a "complex investigation" was taking place. Full story

Sir Paul McCartney says he has employed artificial intelligence to help create what he calls "the final Beatles record". He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the technology had been used to "extricate" John Lennon's voice from an old demo so he could complete the song. "We just finished it up and it'll be released this year," he explained. Sir Paul did not name the song, but it is likely to be a 1978 Lennon composition called Now And Then. It had already been considered as a possible "reunion song" for the Beatles in 1995, as they were compiling their career-spanning Anthology series.