American citizen Travis Leake has been sentenced to 13 years in a penal colony in Russia, state media RIA Novosti reported Thursday, after he was detained on drug charges last year.

A Moscow court had accused the “former paratrooper and musician” of engaging in a narcotics business, according to RIA. Leake pleaded not guilty to the charges, Russian state media TASS said.

“I don’t understand why I’m here. I don’t admit guilt, I don’t believe I could have done what I’m accused of because I don’t know what I’m accused of,” Leake reportedly said in his statement to police when he was arrested in June 2023, per tabloid outlet Ren TV.

His sentencing comes as diplomatic relations between Washington and Moscow are at a historic low, with Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine raging on. Leake is one of at least a dozen US citizens and dual nationals currently being detained in Russia, including Evan Gershkovich, the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in the country since the Cold War.

From January to June 2023, Leake allegedly purchased narcotic drugs from an accomplice in another criminal case, Russian state media reported, citing Moscow’s prosecutor’s office.

Leake packaged the narcotics for sale, prosecutors said, after which he transferred the drugs to an accomplice to hide. He and the accomplice made four attempts to sell over 40 grams of mephedrone (also known as “meow-meow”), according to the court.

According to investigators, Leake also kept more than 1.6 grams of the narcotic substance at his home, as well as tablets containing MDMA, all of which were confiscated during operational activities.

A second person involved in the case was also found guilty and sentenced to time in a penal colony, Russian state media reported Thursday.

Just hours before the black SUVs carrying dozens of European leaders crunched across the gravel of Blenheim Palace on Thursday, Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance put the US’s foreign partners on notice.

“Together we will make our allies share in the burden of securing world peace,” he said at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.”

That wasn’t even the most strident rhetoric we’ve heard from the junior senator from Ohio, who voted against the US supplemental aid package for Ukraine that passed in April. In February, he told the Munich Security Conference “the American security blanket has allowed European security to atrophy,” arguing that in a world where munitions manufacturing is limited, the only option for Ukraine is a negotiated settlement.

Vance was echoing the GOP’s presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has long criticized NATO and accused partners in the security alliance of failing to pay their fair share. The former president has also hinted at paring back military aid to Ukraine and claimed that he could have the war settled through negotiation in 24 hours if reelected.

And yet the mood among European leaders arriving in the rolling Oxfordshire countryside is one of resignation, and resolve.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, the head of one of NATO’s newest members, has read Vance’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” describing it as “very good.”

“Is there a rebalancing going on? Yes. Europe needs to take care of its defense more.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, just two weeks into the job, was hoping the Thursday summit involving 42 European heads of state or government would be a strong show of unity, “a signal to Russia of our resolve.”

And yet one EU leader has signaled something quite different to Russia. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has never supported military aid to Ukraine, chose the first week of his rotating EU presidency this month to visit President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, on what he called a “peace mission.”

Speaking at the meeting at Blenheim Palace, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was blunt. Preserving European unity is critical to a long-lasting peace, he said. “But if someone in Europe tries to resolve issues behind others’ backs… if someone wants to make some trips to the capital of war… then why should we consider such a person? The EU and NATO can address all their issues without this one individual.”

Europe did manage a show of unity, but one that faces mounting tests, including the prospect of a new US administration that may pull its support for Ukraine, and an increasingly active Ukraine-skeptic in its midst.

French lawmakers reelected Yaël Braun-Pivet as president of the National Assembly Thursday, overcoming a political deadlock after the hung parliament of July’s parliamentary elections.

Braun-Pivet, a lawmaker from French President Emmanuel Macron’s own centrist party, also served as the last assembly president. But her reelection was far from assured, after her party lost seats and political dominance earlier this month.

In France’s surprising parliamentary election runoff on July 7, a leftwing coalition surged to become the largest group in the 577-seat National Assembly, putting Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance in second place and the far-right National Rally rally RN and its allies behind them.

Nevertheless, Braun-Pivet on Thursday took the top parliamentary role with 220 votes from the 577-seat body in a third round of voting, after two previous rounds had failed to elect a lawmaker with an absolute majority.

With a position akin to Speaker of the House of Representatives, the assembly president plays an important role in setting legislative timetables and priorities, as well as overseeing the appointment of key commission posts.

On Tuesday, Macron accepted the resignation of his prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who will stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is appointed.

As Ukraine grows bolder in striking targets deep inside Russia, Moscow has quietly upped the security measures around President Vladmir Putin’s country residence north of Moscow.

Satellite images have revealed that several Pantsir-S1 air defense systems have been installed in the vicinity of the presidential residence on Lake Valdai in Novgorod region.

The Valdai residence could be a high-profile target, as Putin is known to be spending time there during the summer. The palatial property sits inside a large government vacation resort in the Valdai national park, on a peninsula wedged between two lakes. Access to the whole complex is severely restricted – the 40 hectares of grounds are surrounded by water on three sides and fenced off from the rest of the park.

First reported by Radio Liberty, satellite images show the Russian-made Pantsir-S1s have been moved into the area at some point between last September and this May, just as Ukraine became better at developing and using drones capable of striking deeper inside Russia.

Satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies show air defenses strategically positioned in the area, including on a tower located deep in a forest just a few kilometers away from the compound.

The Pantsir-S1 systems are designed to combat short-range cruise missiles and drones, suggesting the move to station them near the residence may be a response to Ukraine’s increasingly audacious drone attacks.

Kyiv has recently been given permission to use Western weapons to strike across the border into Russia, but this is limited to military targets that are near the border with the Ukrainian Kharkiv region and are supporting Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

For any strikes deeper into Russia than that, Ukraine must rely on its own weapons. Drones are a big part of the strategy.

Ukraine’s drone program has grown significantly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. What began with efforts to modify cheap, off-the-shelf drones that could be used for surveillance has turned into the development of long-range attack drones that are capable of striking hundreds of miles beyond Ukraine’s borders.

So far this year, Kyiv has claimed that Ukrainian drones sank or severely damaged several Russian warships in the Black Sea and caused damage to the Kerch Strait bridge between Russia and Ukraine’s Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Ukrainian military has also managed to destroy fuel depots, military targets and energy infrastructure much further afield. In April, it said its drones hit the Niznekamsk oil refinery – one of the five largest in Russia – in Tatarstan region, more than 1,100 km (700 miles) from the border. And last month, the Ukrainian military said it had destroyed one of Russia’s newest and most advanced fighter jets, the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter, with a drone strike almost 600 kilometers (372 miles) behind the front lines.

“Ukrainian drone strikes deep within Russia continue to pressure Russia’s air defense umbrella and force the Russian military command to prioritize allocating limited air defense assets to cover what it deems to be high-value targets,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based group, said in a battlefield update on Wednesday, pointing to the decision by Russia to move the Pantsir-S1 systems there.

The presidential residence is well protected from would-be invaders. Access to the complex is severely restricted – the 40 hectares of grounds are surrounded by water on three sides and fenced off from the rest of the park.

A special permit is required to access the wider park and the resort is completely off-limits – according to its official website, it has been closed indefinitely since last November.

The retreat’s history as a vacation destination for Russia’s top officials dates back to the time of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who had a dacha – or summer house – built in the area, according to the Russian Presidential Property Management Department, the body that manages the holiday complex. Nikita Khrushchev and Boris Yeltsin both enjoyed time at the residence, according to Russian state news agency Ria Novosti.

Huge protests across Bangladesh escalated into deadly violence this week with clashes between students, pro-government supporters and armed police fueling widespread anger over civil service job quotas opponents say are discriminatory.

Dozens of people have reportedly been killed and hundreds injured in the violence, which has seen riot police use tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters and crowds of demonstrators armed with sticks filling the streets and university campuses in the capital Dhaka and other cities.

State broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV) was off air on Friday after student demonstrators allegedly set fire to its headquarters, according to local media, and protesters have called for a nationwide shutdown in a major challenge to the government of longstanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Mobile and internet services have been cut, schools and universities ordered to close, and security forces deployed to quell the unrest, with human rights groups accusing authorities of using unlawful force against protesters.

Here’s what you need to know.

Why are students protesting?

Many Bangladeshi students are demanding an end to the government’s quota system, which reserves more than half of civil service posts for certain groups.

Some 30% of those highly sought-after jobs are reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, a seminal moment in the nation’s history as it successfully won freedom from a much larger ruler.

Many of the country’s contemporary political elite are related to that generation – including Prime Minister Hasina, a daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the widely regarded founder of modern Bangladesh who was assassinated in 1975.

The reserved roles are linked to job security and higher pay, and protesters say the quota system is discriminatory and favors supporters of Hasina’s ruling Awami League party. They are demanding recruitment based on merit.

“A government job is a really good opportunity,” said Maruf Khan, 29, a Bangladeshi studying in Australia, who has joined rallies supporting the protests in Sydney. “About 500,000 to 600,000 people are competing for 600 to 700 government jobs and on top of that it includes a 56% quota. It’s not easy.”

Driving the anger is high unemployment levels in the country, especially among young people. Bangladesh has seen strong economic growth under Hasina, but it has slowed in the post-pandemic era and, as the World Bank notes in its latest overview, inequality has “widened in urban areas.” In a nation of 170 million people, more than 30 million are not in work or education.

In 2018, the quota system was scrapped following similar protests but in June the High Court reinstated it, ruling its removal was unconstitutional. On July 10, the Supreme Court suspended the quotas for one month while it took up the case.

Critics and protesters say the quota system creates a two-tier Bangladesh where a politically connected elite benefit by their birth.

“The freedom fighters have sacrificed a lot for the nation … for that reason this quota was a logical thing in the past,” said student protester Tahmeed Hossain. “But there have been at least two generations after that. Nowadays, the quota … has rather become a form of discrimination. It has become a cultural propaganda to create a stronghold in the country.”

Why did the protests escalate?

The protests began at the prestigious Dhaka University on July 1 and later spread to other campuses and cities nationwide in almost daily street gatherings that included rail and road blockades.

The demonstrations became violent on July 15 when members of the Bangladesh Chatra League – the student wing of the ruling Awami League party – reportedly attacked student protesters inside the Dhaka University campus.

Since then, clashes between security forces, protesters and government supporters have escalated, with Bangladesh deploying its paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 after “widespread allegations of serious human rights abuses.”

“Someone threw a small thing at us that blew up and I heard shots. I started running and realized that I had been hurt by some splinters in my hands. The police then attacked us with tear shell in the building,” he said. “One of my friends got hit by a (rubber) bullet in the leg. Some of my friends got their heads smashed and are currently under treatment in the hospital.”

Another protester in Dhaka, Hassan Abdullah, said Thursday: “There are tear (gas) shells just 50 meters away from me as I am talking to you. The police are constantly bursting sound grenades right now.”

Reports of the number of people killed has varied widely, with the Dhaka-based newspaper Prothom Alo saying 19 people were killed on Thursday alone and the Agence France-Press news agency reporting 32 deaths, citing its own tally compiled from hospital data.

Authorities have also moved to block online communications.

Internet monitoring site Netblocks confirmed a “near-total national internet shutdown” across Bangladesh on Thursday. “The new measure follows earlier efforts to throttle social media and restrict mobile data services,” it said on X.

What has the government said?

The demonstrations are the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Hasina since she secured a fourth consecutive term in January elections, which were boycotted by the main opposition party to protest what they said was a widespread crackdown on their ranks.

Hasina has announced a judicial investigation into the killings and called on protesters to await the verdict of the Supreme Court.

“I especially urge everyone to wait patiently until the Supreme Court verdict comes. I believe our students will get justice from high court, they will not be disappointed,” Hasina said in a news conference Thursday.

But she has been accused of enflaming protester anger by reportedly calling them “razakar,”  an offensive term used for those who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 independence war.

“We expected an apology from our prime minister for comparing us to traitors of 1952 and 1972, and a solid solution to quota reform,” said protester Salman Farsi. “What did the students do to deserve this tag?”

“This is a people’s movement against the authoritarian government,” Hossain said.

“This is not just about quota protests anymore, this is much bigger than that, in simple quota protests the government wouldn’t go around hurting and shooting students. This shows the current fascist and autocratic nature of the government, who has been upholding the power without any proper voting system.”

What has global reaction been?

Bangladeshi students have held smaller protests elsewhere, including in New York’s Times Square, the Australian cities Melbourne and Sydney and the Danish capital Copenhagen.

The US said it was “continuing to monitor the reports of violence from the ongoing protests in and around Dhaka,” a State Department spokesperson said in a briefing on Thursday.

“Freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are essential building blocks to any thriving democracy, and we condemn the recent acts of violence in Bangladesh.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for restraint on all sides and urged the government to investigate all acts of violence, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

“The secretary-general encourages the meaningful and constructive participation of youth to address the ongoing challenges in Bangladesh. Violence can never be the solution,” Dujarric said.

An explosion near the US Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv that killed at least one person early Friday is being investigated as a possible drone attack, according to Israeli authorities.

The blast, which occurred in a central district home to a number of diplomatic missions, killed a 50-year-old man and injured at least eight others, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said. Four people sustained shrapnel wounds, it added.

The Israel Defense Forces said it is looking into reports that it was an aerial attack, possibly from a drone. Police officers and bomb disposal experts are on the scene, according to Israeli police.

Emergency crews responded to an “an object” that had exploded on Shalom Aleichem Street, the MDA said.

“The dead man had suffered penetrating injuries,” MDA paramedic Roi Klein said.

Police urged local residents “not to touch any rocket remnants that may contain explosives.”

“Following the incident of an explosion in the Tel Aviv area, large police forces have arrived at the scene and are working to secure the area and conduct searches for suspicious objects and additional threats,” the Israeli Police spokesperson’s unit said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

United Nations agencies say that a new round of evacuation orders by the Israeli military in Gaza has prompted the largest displacements since October – making the delivery of emergency rations even more difficult than previously.

The World Food Programme said in a post on X Thursday: “Many distribution points have had to shut down. Only a few bakeries remain operational. We urgently need increased deliveries of food and greater capacity to deliver hot meals.”

A spate of evacuation orders issued  by the Israel Defense Forces in late June and earlier this month increased the number of people displaced in Gaza from 1.7 million to 1.9 million, according to a UN assessment.

The WFP says it has provided more than 600,000 people in Gaza with food assistance this month, and more than 500,000 people with food parcels and wheat flour. But the agency also reported having to further cut rations in central and southern Gaza to ensure broader coverage for people who have been newly displaced.

“WFP still needs to deliver more fuel to the bakeries and other services, so they can provide emergency support to displaced families,” it said. “Basic commodities are available in markets in southern and central Gaza – but are unaffordable for many people – the shortage of commercial goods means food is sold at astronomical prices.”

On Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the Israeli military had stopped all aid missions from going north of Wadi Gaza into central Gaza.

“This means humanitarian workers were unable to reach any of the hundreds of thousands of people in need. It also made it impossible for them to collect supplies from the northern entry point of Erez West,” it said.

Gaza’s health sector remains under great stress. According to the World Health Organization, 15 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional, and 1,500 of the usual 3,500 hospital beds in Gaza are available – 600 of them in field hospitals.

Both the International Red Cross and the Gaza Health Ministry underlined the challenges to providing health care on Thursday.

“The ambulance and emergency system is no longer able to respond to all calls and missions to transport the wounded and injured,” the Health Ministry said because of a lack of ambulances, the arrest of paramedics by the IDF and a lack of gasoline.

The Health Ministry said that primary health care was affected by shortages of about 60% of basic medications, as well as damage to many health centers, especially in Khan Younis in the south.

It said infectious diseases continued to spread and had affected some 1.7 million people, and there was a shortage of blood units.

One of the field hospitals under pressure is run by the International Committee for the Red Cross in Rafah, which is at capacity after “repeated large-scale casualties,” the ICRC Said Thursday, noting that a Saturday attack in Al-Mawasi resulted in children requiring treatment for shrapnel wounds.

“The number of patients who had to be resuscitated after the large influx of injured on Saturday is inconceivable,” said the ICRC’s Dr. Pankaj Jhaldiyal.