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The Washington Times

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Moscow Monday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin just as NATO heads of state began arriving in Washington for a major summit celebrating the alliance’s 75th anniversary.

…The question of Ukrainian membership in NATO hangs over the summit, which comes as Russia’s invasion grinds onward in Ukraine and a wave of Russian missile strikes killed at least 31 people and injured 154 on Monday.

…France’s snap election disappointed the far-right National Rally party but has left the government in Paris in limbo.

…Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated Iran’s election result over the weekend by touting “strategic mutual trust” between Beijing and Tehran.

…And Israeli forces are expanding an operation in part of Gaza City that Israel said it had seized control of months ago, but which has since seen pockets of Hamas militant resurgence.

Ukraine faces moment of truth as NATO allies gather

President Joe Biden listens as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts are meeting in Washington this week to mark the 75th anniversary of the world's biggest security organization just as Russia presses its advantage on the battlefield in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The overarching question hanging over NATO leaders as they gather in Washington to mark the alliance’s 75th anniversary this week is how and when — and perhaps, even, if — they will formalize a clear, irreversible pathway to Ukraine’s eventual membership, even while its war with Russia grinds on.

National Security Correspondent Ben Wolfgang explores the debate, examining how the offer is complicated by the fact that Russia now occupies roughly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and Mr. Putin has repeatedly made clear that Ukrainian membership in NATO is a red line for him.

White House officials say they expect this week’s summit to result in more commitments from NATO members to provide Kyiv with additional “military, political and financial support” — part of what Biden administration officials describe as Ukraine’s “bridge” to NATO membership.

But the outlines of that “bridge” aren’t entirely clear. Outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said recently that he wants to see Ukraine join the bloc by 2034, though he, along with the U.S. and other key members, have stressed that Kyiv’s NATO bid cannot move forward until the war with Russia has ended.

Xi Jinping touts 'strategic mutual trust' with Iran

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Thursday, May 30, 2024. (Tingshu Wang/Pool Photo via AP) **FILE**

The victory of reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Iran’s presidential runoff election over the weekend drew swift praise from the Chinese president, who seized the opportunity to reflect on the “long history of friendly exchanges” between Tehran and Beijing, according to one of the newspapers owned by China’s ruling Communist Party.

According to China Daily, Mr. Xi told Mr. Pezeshkian in a congratulatory message that China and Iran “have always supported each other and stuck together through thick and thin, continuously consolidating strategic mutual trust, steadily promoting exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and maintaining sound communication and coordination on regional and international affairs.”

As a candidate, Mr. Pezeshkian vowed to reach out to the West and to ease enforcement of Iran’s country’s mandatory headscarf law. However, he promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shiite theocracy and has long held Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state. In an interview with The Washington Times, Maryam Rajavi, who heads a prominent Iranian dissident organization calling for regime change in Tehran, called the election a “sham” orchestrated by the country’s “religious dictatorship.”

Risk of political paralysis rises in France

People gather on the Republique plaza following the second round of the legislative elections, Sunday, July 7, 2024 in Paris. A coalition of the French left that quickly banded together to beat a surging far right in legislative elections won the most seats in parliament but not a majority, according to polling projections Sunday, a stunning outcome that threatens to plunge the country into political and economic turmoil. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

The chaotic results of France’s snap election have left the government in Paris in limbo, although French President Emmanuel Macron has dodged a political bullet as the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen did not achieve the parliamentary takeover many analysts had predicted.

The centrist Mr. Macron announced Monday that he will keep his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in office temporarily as the head of the government after French voters split the legislature on the left, center and far right, leaving no faction even close to the majority needed to form a government.

The Associated Press reports that the results from Sunday’s vote raise the risk of paralysis for the European Union’s second-largest economy. While Ms. Le Pen’s National Rally and its anti-immigration platform did not score the victory some had anticipated, the party gained several dozen seats in the legislature. An editorial in Le Monde, France’s leading newspaper, assessed that “the far-right party continues to have strong support across large swaths of the country.”

Evidence of foreign vote meddling too sensitive to make public?

Mark R. Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaks during a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, March 8, 2023. Warner said Monday, June 3, 2024, the U.S. may be less prepared for the threat of foreign election disinformation ahead of this year's election than it was four years ago. Warner based his assessment on the development of powerful new AI programs that make it easier than ever to generate deepfake audio and video that can fool voters. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Mark R. Warner has said quasi-allies of the United States are looking to interfere in the November presidential election, but has declined to share details.

The Virginia Democrat sounded an alarm about the prospective election interference at a cybersecurity gathering in March. When asked last month by The Times to reveal who was interfering or to explain why he would not disclose details, Mr. Warner gave a disjointed answer about artificial intelligence tools and a country whose conduct remains hidden from public view.

National Security Tech Correspondent Ryan Lovelace reports that Mr. Warner then requested that The Times ask his staff the following week and said if he hears things in classified settings, he will wait to share various information unless he gets a green light to do so. Two weeks later, the Virginian senator’s staff replied to say it would not provide any detail.

How a foreign teenager fooled ICE, State Department to get visa

Lehigh University's tower rises above the trees, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, in Bethlehem, Pa. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

U.S. authorities say they are deporting a foreign student who admitted to scamming the State and Homeland Security departments and Lehigh University into helping him obtain a visa and full tuition payment for a college education. The Times’ Stephen Dinan reports that the case of Aryan Anand of India has become a social media sensation and an embarrassing black eye for the government.

In a lengthy write-up on Reddit, Mr. Anand explains how he created a bogus website and email address for his high school that would ensure he would be the one submitting the fake records and answering any questions about them. He fabricated a death certificate for his father, who is alive, to obtain a full scholarship, and he bamboozled the State Department into clearing him for the student visa.

Opinion front: Lessons from Ukraine’s National Prayer Breakfast

Ukraine peace illustration by Greg Groesch / The Washington Times

Russian-occupied Ukraine is a land of modern martyrs, writes Gary Marx, president of Defenders of Faith and Religious Freedom in Ukraine and the former executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

“In Ukraine, as we speak, the Russian military is imprisoning evangelical pastors, bombing churches, arresting people for praying in public and threatening innocent Ukrainian Christians for their faith,” writes Mr. Marx.

“Ukraine has religious freedom. Russia has a state-controlled religion. In Russia, the Kremlin controls the Russian Orthodox Church and uses it as an arm of its propaganda,” he writes, noting that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate has called Russia’s attack on Ukraine a “holy war,” which is synonymous with the Muslim concept of jihad.

“Ukrainian Christians simply want to live in a free society and worship God as they see fit, just like American evangelicals,” writes Mr. Marx. “They want to be able to sing hymns, pray in public, hold Bible study groups and preach the Gospel, all of which are illegal now in the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine.”

Events on our radar

• July 8 — Maritime Security and Next-Generation Technologies: A Platform for Cooperation between NATO and Its Asia-Pacific Partners, Hudson Institute

• July 8 — Revisiting the Legacy of Shinzo Abe, Stimson Center

• July 9 — Empowering Guatemalan Youth: A Conversation with First Lady Lucrecia Peinado, U.S. Institute of Peace

• July 9 — NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

• July 10 — China-Taiwan Competition: Why It Matters for Peace and Stability in the Pacific U.S. Institute of Peace

• July 11 — Supercharging the Development Finance Corporation: Opportunities and Pathways for Development, Infrastructure, and Investment, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

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