WORLD BRIEFING: July 7, 2024

The United Kingdom will maintain "unshakeable" support of NATO and will continue support with allies towards Ukraine - incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer said during his first press conference in London on Saturday. “I’ve already had a number of international calls, as you will know, and as you would have expected, to establish the relations across with other countries to have really important discussions about Ukraine and other pressing issues. And Washington will be an opportunity for me to have further discussions with some of the leaders I've already spoken to and some that I'm due to speak to," said the newly elected head of government. He added that the UK will aim to meet NATO annual military budget targets of 2.5% of GDP within its fiscal rules. Speaking to reporters after his first cabinet meeting, Starmer reiterated his government should be held accountable on actions and not words and that positive change will happen, but not necessarily overnight

Polls opened in the second and final round of France's snap legislative elections on Sunday with more than 500 seats still up for grabs in the lower-house National Assembly. The vote will also determine France's next prime minister, who will likely come from the party or coalition winning the most seats. The second-round voting began Saturday off the Canadian coast in the North Atlantic territory of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, and follows in French territories in the Caribbean, South Pacific and the Indian Ocean, along with French voters living abroad. The elections wrap up Sunday in mainland France. Initial polling projections are expected when the final voting stations close at 8pm Paris time (1800 GMT), with early official results expected late Sunday and early Monday. - France 24

Other Topics of Interest

North Korean Troops Face Major Losses in Kursk: The Cost of Russia’s Desperation

N. Korea’s military involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine is intensifying, with recent offensives near Kursk resulting in heavy losses among DPRK troops and increasing calls for reinforcements.

Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a prison hospital and his lawyers have been denied access to him for two days, his wife said on Friday, raising concerns for the dissident's fate. Kara-Murza, 42, is serving a 25-year prison sentence on treason and other charges, one of the harshest punishments Moscow has meted out to opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin. - AFP

Russia's Justice Ministry has added two more independent journalists -- Olesya Gerasimenko and Sergei Yezhov -- to its "foreign agent" list. Gerasimenko works for Verstka, an independent online news publication founded in April 2022 by a group of independent Russian journalists. Yezhov is an investigative journalist with The Insider. Lawyer Grigory Vaypan, St. Petersburg deputy and LGBT activist Sergei Troshin, and former St. Petersburg municipal deputy Fyodor Utkin were also added to the "foreign agent" list. Russia has used its “foreign agent” law since 2012 to label and punish critics of government policies. - RFE/RL

The presidents of China and Russia met this week at the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana. Indian PM Modi was notably absent but will meet Putin in Moscow next week. Meanwhile, President Vladimir V. Putin seemed to relish the prospect of Mr. Trump’s return to the White House during remarks at the summit, the New York Times reported. “The fact that Mr. Trump, as a presidential candidate, says he is ready and wants to stop the war in Ukraine is something we take very seriously,” he said. “I haven’t seen his ideas on how exactly he’s going to do that, and that is the key question. But I have no doubt that he says that sincerely, and we support that.”

After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. ambassador in Budapest, David Pressman, took aim, saying that: “What was true of PM Orbán’s October meeting with Putin in China is true of his meeting today with Putin in Moscow. It's also true of his Foreign Minister’s 9 trips to Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine. This is not about “peace;” it’s about profit, and it's a huge disservice to Hungarians and Hungary’s relationship with its Allies. Until Orbán insists Putin end his brutal war on terms that respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, he is no peacemaker.” Orban has the term ‘peacemaker’ is on his Twitter profile.