TOP NEWS

The fighting
Ukraine loses French plane for the first time

Ukraine has lost a French Mirage 2000 fighter jet for the first time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said in a speech, according to TT.

The plane reportedly suffered a technical failure on Tuesday evening and crashed. The pilot managed to eject and is said to have escaped without serious injuries.

According to Zelenskyj, Russian forces were not involved.

France began delivering fighter jets to Ukraine earlier this year. 

Russian invasion  Negotiations
Sources: Ukrainian delegation arrives in Istanbul

The Ukrainian delegation has arrived in Turkey ahead of today's planned peace talks with Russia, a Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters.

The source said Ukraine is "ready to take decisive steps towards peace and a complete ceasefire".

The latest negotiations between Russia and Ukraine did not end in a ceasefire agreement, but in the largest prisoner exchange since the war began. Donald Trump has threatened renewed sanctions on Russia if a ceasefire is not reached soon.

The political situation in Poland
Polish government reshuffled after weak opinion polls

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is reshuffling his government after recent setbacks, Reuters reports. Support for the government has declined in the past year and in June, Tusk's ally Rafal Trzaskowski lost the presidential election to Karol Nawrocki.

The government is now down from 26 ministers to 21. The changes mean, among other things, that Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski will also become Deputy Prime Minister. The government is also merging the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“After the political earthquake that the presidential election brought, we must now look forward,” Tusk said, according to Politico.

The opposition Law and Justice party criticized the changes, saying that it is simply a matter of “replacing incompetent people with others.” 

Hong Kong Politics
Hong Kong Overturns Transgender Toilet Ban

A Hong Kong court has overturned two rulings that made it illegal for transgender people to use toilets that matched their gender identity. Reuters reports.

According to the South China Morning Post, the judge ruled that the ban was incompatible with citizens' constitutional rights to privacy and equality.

However, the court's ruling will not take effect for 12 months, to give Hong Kong lawmakers a chance to decide who counts as male and female.

"This is a question of boundaries, which to me seems to be a matter for the government," Judge Russell Coleman wrote in a statement.

In April last year, Hong Kong's government voted in favor of a proposal to allow transgender people to change their gender on their national ID cards, even if they have not undergone gender-affirming surgery. That proposal was also preceded by a court ruling.