Israel and Turkey are in a bit of a tug-of-war with President Trump and potential major arms deals hanging in the balance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vehemently complained to Trump in a Friday call about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's escalating anti-Israel rhetoric, officials cited in Axios said.
Netanyahu specifically pressed Trump block sales of weapons systems to Turkey, especially those that would help Turkey modernize its air force. Of central issue remains potential F-35 transfer, which if carried through would outrage Israeli leaders. Turkey was blocked from the program in 2019 after the NATO member state went through with acquiring Russia's S-400 air defense system on fears that the US advanced fighter jets classified systems could be compromised.
via Associated PressAlso central to current negotiations with Washington is a $700 million deal for new engines for Turkey's fighter jets. Turkey's welcome ceremony for Trump and his entourage was expectedly lavish, complete with honor guards and military bands, and even cannons firing.
Erdogan has said that Trump is adding "might and strength" to the summit. Trump has in turn said of the Turkish president, "We are great friends" - and extolled the beauty of Turkey's modernized infrastructure. Turkey is a country to be "reckoned" with, Trump said soon after touching down, "and the nice part is that because of the relationship that we have, it’s all gone very well."
Most importantly, Trump, signaled his intent to sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets, per CNN:
US President Donald Trump said he would soon decide whether to sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets despite a Congressional ban as he praised the country as more loyal than other recipients of the plane.
"We have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal," Trump said, arguing many believe the country should be able to purchase the F-35s, despite its purchase of a Russian air defense system.
Trump said the sales are "something certainly we consider."
"It’s a great plane, it’s the best, currently the best plane by far, and certainly something we will consider," he said.
This is after prior reporting indicated that "US officials told CNN earlier that Trump is expected to signal this week that he is willing to sell the country F-35s, reversing a ban he put in place during his first term that has since been ratified into law." Erdogan has newly stated that Turkey has been promised five F-35 jets.
Reporter: Mr. President, are you going to sell F-35s to Türkiye, and what about the legal restrictions?
Trump: We're going to make a decision. I would think that many people — I can tell, many people sitting right here — would say, why wouldn't we do that?
We have a better… pic.twitter.com/VkFnKWorxk
However, getting around the congressional ban remains to be seen. But Trump said enough in Ankara on Tuesday to put the Israelis on edge.
Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday that "Turkey is a great country, but it's governed by a man who calls openly for the annihilation of Israel" - in reference to Erdogan. "He occupies half of Cyprus, a NATO country. He's threatening Greece, another NATO country, and he talks openly about conquering Jerusalem."
The Israeli leader also said that giving Ankara F-35s or fighter jet engines would "upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also by, I think, by America's posture in the Middle East."
“This is a battle of freedom versus fanaticism… the ones that have been fighting it is Israel and the United States.”@netanyahu speaks ahead of the NATO summit: pic.twitter.com/ncnqCaMoDo
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) July 6, 2026Turkey is also seen as supportive of the new Sharaa government in Damascus, at a moment Israeli forces are occupying portions of southern Syria. The two rival powers have nearly directly clashed at times over their competing Syria policies.
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
In a decisive move highlighting the growing crisis of migrant violence across Europe, Sweden Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers has successfully pushed the European Parliament to debate recent fatal attacks on native Europeans, and their direct implications for public security on the streets.
Weimers' intervention comes in the immediate wake of the savage beating death of 32-year-old Swedish father Christian Zedig, ensuring the tragedy cannot be swept aside as just another "isolated incident" by those invested in open borders policies.
Weimers delivered a stark address to the chamber, laying bare the human cost:
SD begärde idag en debatt i EU-parlamentet om mordet på Christian Zedig.
Förslaget bifölls. Debatten äger rum 19.45 ikväll.
Jag kan inte begripa varför de SVENSKA socialdemokraterna röstade nej.
Jag ser fram emot kritiska frågor från media.
Debattens titel: "Parliament... pic.twitter.com/GTlXiz98fI
"In recent days, Europe has once again been reminded of the very real threats to public security on our streets. In Copenhagen, Swedish police officer Christian Zedig, a 32-year-old father of two, was brutally beaten to death at a world cup fan zone," Weimers urged.
He continued, "He was off duty, simply watching a match with friends, when he tried to calm a situation, he was attacked and stomped to death. In Milan Italy, a Gambian migrant stabbed an innocent man 20 times. He said it was for fun, and that he would do it again when he gets out. These are not isolated incidents, they are part of a broader pattern that is undermining the safety of ordinary Europeans."
His words cut through the usual parliamentary fog, naming the pattern that too many officials prefer to obscure. The debate, later today will addresses the urgent need to confront how unchecked migration is eroding safety in European cities and public spaces.
Weimers expressed astonishment that Swedish Social Democrats voted against even holding the discussion, posting the voting record as evidence. This reluctance speaks volumes about priorities: shielding failed migration policies over acknowledging the suffering of ordinary citizens and their families.
The Zedig family's nightmare began at a seemingly ordinary World Cup fan zone in Copenhagen's Islands Brygge area. Christian had traveled with friends to watch Norway face Ivory Coast before Sweden's own match. Wearing his national team shirt, he was enjoying the atmosphere when violence erupted.
A group of seven or eight young African men, according to eyewitnesses speaking to Danish media, arrived not to watch football but to provoke. They taunted supporters, threw beer and objects after Norway's late winning goal by Erling Haaland, then rushed a table of Scandinavian fans.
Zedig was punched in the head, collapsed immediately, and was then repeatedly stomped by multiple attackers while lying defenseless on the ground. The assailants fled the scene. Despite medical efforts, Zedig succumbed to his catastrophic injuries, leaving behind a devastated wife and two young daughters who will grow up without their father. Swedish police confirmed the death of their colleague, with local officers holding a memorial gathering.
His sister's emotional tribute captured the family's anguish: "My beautiful and thoroughly good-hearted brother. How will we make it without you with us? Who gave them the right to take you away from us? The grief is never-ending." Friends and colleagues described him as a dedicated officer and family man, making the senseless loss even more painful.
The main suspect, identified as an African migrant with a history of prior assaults and criminal convictions, eventually turned himself in to Danish police after authorities publicly released his photograph. He was arrested and remanded in custody for up to 26 days. While the formal charge had not yet been upgraded to murder at the time of initial proceedings, the facts of the mob attack speak for themselves.
This horror is the latest in a string of incidents that Weimers and like-minded MEPs have been warning about for years.
Media handling of the tragedy has only added fuel to public anger. Danish broadcaster TV2 aired live footage of a minute of silence held for Zedig before the later Norway-Brazil match at the same fan zone. The clip reportedly captured migrants ignoring the tribute or even laughing.
When the segment re-aired in a news broadcast, those seconds were conveniently edited out, shielding viewers from the disrespect.
Danish state TV channel has shortened yesterday's viral video of migrants ignoring the minute of silence for the Swedish football supporter Christian.
The minute of silence was held before the Norway-Brazil match at the fan zone in Copenhagen where Christian was beaten to death...
Weimers has consistently exposed the consequences of mass immigration and demographic shifts. In March, alongside other lawmakers, he helped spotlight the spread of no-go zones tied to rapid Islamization and uncontrolled inflows.
A New Direction report analyzed high-crime neighborhoods across Europe, ranking areas like Franc Moisin in France and Rosengård in Malmö by metrics of violence, parallel societies, unemployment, school failure, and emergency service breakdowns. These zones show strong correlations with high shares of foreign-born and Muslim populations, where state authority recedes and other rules prevail.
French MEP Marion Maréchal emphasized the data: France alone has hundreds of sensitive urban areas disproportionately linked to these dynamics. The report serves as a documented indictment of policies that have allowed parallel societies to flourish.
At a Warsaw conference around the same time, experts warned bluntly that Europeans are committing demographic suicide. Low native birth rates combined with high migration from younger, culturally distant populations create unsustainable pressures.
Outdated tools like the Geneva Convention were called "sacred cows" in need of reform, with calls to renationalize asylum and migration policy to restore national control. Speakers contrasted thriving, cohesive Polish cities with decaying Western European examples overwhelmed by crime and social breakdown.
Despite institutional resistance, conservative and sovereignist forces have scored tangible victories. The European Parliament backed major updates to the Returns Regulation, a breakthrough expanding deportation powers, mutual recognition of orders across member states, longer detention periods, extended entry bans, and possibilities for return hubs outside EU territory.
Weimers described stricter return rules as one of the Sweden Democrats' biggest negotiating successes, declaring "the era of deportations has begun."
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni welcomed the changes as validation of her government's approach. Other leaders from the right celebrated the shift toward enforcement and national sovereignty over Brussels dictates.
Leftist reactions included chants of "shame" met with counter-chants of "send them back," followed by complaints about conservatives celebrating the win with a rooftop gathering - moments of dark comedy amid the stakes.
These advances prove that persistent advocacy can shift policy, even if implementation lags and globalist pushback - from the UN and others - continues. Yet incidents like Zedig's murder demonstrate why speed matters. Return rates remain abysmal under old rules, allowing repeat offenders and unintegrated migrants to remain threats.
Zedig's death is tragically familiar. From stabbings to grooming scandals, rioting, and everyday street violence, the data on overrepresentation in crime statistics across Western Europe is inescapable for those willing to examine it. Fan zones, once symbols of shared celebration, now risk becoming flashpoints due to imported rivalries and lack of respect for host societies.
Weimers' Rule 164 initiative forces the Parliament to address implications head-on: rising insecurity, strained police resources, cultural fragmentation, and the demographic trajectory that amplifies risks. Ignoring it invites more tragedy and deeper societal division.
Europe stands at a crossroads. Decades of elite-driven mass immigration without regard for compatibility, numbers, or enforcement have produced predictable results: overburdened welfare systems, no-go areas, terror threats, and innocent victims. Families torn apart, communities on edge, and taxpayers funding the consequences.
The successes on remigration tools offer hope, but only if national governments wield them aggressively. Weimers and allies are dragging the conversation toward reality - prioritizing citizens' safety, cultural cohesion, and sovereignty. The votes against even debating the matter reveals who still clings to denial.
As the Parliament convenes, the message is clear: enough is enough. Europeans deserve leaders who secure borders, enforce returns, and put their own people first. The era of looking the other way must end.
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Tyler Durden Wed, 07/08/2026 - 03:30NATO leadership has this week made clear where it plans to invest a bulk of defense and tech-related funds in the coming years, while making express reference to lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine battlefield.
The alliance's Secretary General Mark Rutte said Tuesday that drone warfare is the next great expanse in NATO capabilities. He touted that member states are unveiling "major new projects" worth "literally billions of dollars" at the Ankara summit. "These are billions that are invested in our security, boosting our economies and supporting hundreds of thousands of new jobs," Rutte stated. "It’s money well spent."
Anadolu AgencyHe unveiled that among the projects include the NATO future procurement of five "high-end, high-altitude and long-endurance uncrewed aircraft" from Northrop Grumman.
Defense News reviews:
Built by Northrop Grumman, the MQ-4C Triton is a high-altitude, long-endurance UAV specifically designed for maritime surveillance over vast stretches of sea.
According to Rutte, the aircraft will help NATO detect threats early, protect sea lines of communication, and support operations in demanding regions, such as the High North. "These aircraft can fly for long periods at high altitude and cover large areas, including over open water, more efficiently than most other aircraft can," he said at the event, organized to coincide with the NATO summit this week.
Rutte stressed that intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is a vital capability for the alliance, as it provides the situational awareness needed to make the right decisions and stay ahead of threats. "Today, allies are taking a concrete step to strengthen this capability," he added.
An additional project area outlined by Rutte involves 40 billion dollars' worth of investment in "counter-drone capabilities over the next five years," the alliance additionally said in a statement.
Another drone-focused initiative is a goal for allies to "train five times as many drone operators by the end of 2027." This is where the Ukraine experience seems to have deeply informed NATO doctrine and direction.
"Drones have fundamentally altered the character of modern warfare and become a decisive factor on the battlefield," the alliance said in its statement. "These initiatives will be essential to increase both Alliance readiness and resilience."
Western backers of the Zelensky government have of late been hailing the effectiveness of Ukraine forces' long-range drone strikes, which have often devastated major Russian refineries and energy infrastructure.
NATO's Rutte in Ankara:
We will launch a counter-drone marketplace.
The aim is to help procure counter-drone capabilities at scale and speed. pic.twitter.com/F6hfHkox6L
At the same time NATO officials are seeking to make a positive impression on President Trump, after he's long demanded the alliance collectively raise the bar much higher on defense investment and spending. All of this could kick the can further in terms of needless escalation with Russia - especially the ongoing support to Ukraine's long-range drones and missiles, which are being sent deeper and deeper into Russian territory.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/08/2026 - 02:45Recent moves at the European and national levels bode ill for them...
The European Commission proposed to exclude new military-aged Ukrainian men from the bloc’s special refugee protection scheme per Ukraine’s request to help replenish its lost forces. For background, new Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov shockingly revealed in January that 200,000 men have already deserted thus far and ten times more (2 million) are actively dodging the draft. Moreover, adult men comprise 26% of the 4.3 million Ukrainians in the EU for another one million potential conscripts.
The forcible conscription policy known as “busification”, which refers to capturing military-aged men off the street and throwing them into minibuses that then take them straight to local training centers and finally the frontlines, is wildly unpopular and increasingly being resisted by the population. It’s therefore much easier for the EU to deport ineligible military-aged men that flee to the bloc going forward, but the ideal solution from Ukraine’s perspective is for all those that are already there to be deported as well.
Denmark is planning to do precisely that. According to RT, “The Danish authorities want to amend a special law passed in 2022 to make Ukrainian men aged 23 to 60 ineligible for temporary residence permits unless they have been granted an exemption from military service. Ukrainian men under 23 would only be granted residence permits until they reach draft age.” Less than 50,000 Ukrainians have residence permits under this law, and maybe one-quarter are adult males, but it would still be symbolic.
Other countries could potentially follow Denmark’s lead on the basis that they too, as explained by the Danish Immigration Minister, “never intended for our residence rules to be used to avoid mobilization into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Doing so undermines Ukraine’s war effort and weakens the country’s ability to defend itself against Russian attacks.” Amidst the spiraling Polish-Ukrainian dispute over Zelensky’s state glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits, all eyes are on Warsaw.
The ruling liberal coalition, like the conservative government that it replaced in late 2023, appears to be in favor of retaining special privileges for adult Ukrainian males for alleged economic reasons. Be that as it may, the conservatives have recently soured on Ukraine and its refugees, nowadays signaling that they might be open to deporting some of them. While that would help Ukraine against Russia like Poland has always sought to do, it would also be doing Zelensky’s bidding, so they might reconsider their support.
Likewise, the Ukrainophilic liberal coalition might sacrifice the alleged economic benefits that Poland receives from adult Ukrainian male refugees by deporting them, albeit with the purpose of pleasing Zelensky and perhaps as an “olive branch” amidst the conservative president’s feud with him. It’s too early to tell what this group’s future in Poland might be, but the scenario of at least some of them being deported can’t be ruled out, which could help the liberals ahead of fall 2027’s next Sejm elections.
As Ukraine continues to lose ground along the front, which the dramatic visuals from its recent spree of strikes against Russia is aimed in part at distracting the global public from, Kiev is expected to ramp up its pressure campaign against the EU – and particularly Poland – to obtain more meat for the grinder.
Trump’s plans of “escalating to de-escalate” with Russia through an intense “war of attrition” require the replenishment of Ukraine’s forces, so if “busification” doesn’t suffice, then this is the only fallback plan.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden Wed, 07/08/2026 - 02:00