The United States and several Gulf countries have imposed sanctions on financial institutions and individuals linked to Hezbollah. According to the US Treasury Department, the sanctions target 16 individuals and five entities, including Al-Qard al-Hassan, Bayt al-Mal, and their top leaders. Al-Qard al-Hassan is described as a nonprofit financial organization that provides interest-free loans and operates under Hezbollah’s network of charitable entities, which also includes schools, hospitals, and low-cost grocery stores.

The sanctions were issued through the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center, a coalition formed in May 2017 during former President Donald Trump’s first term. The center includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The move reflects continued coordination between the United States and its Gulf partners to disrupt financial networks associated with Hezbollah.

The announcement underscores ongoing efforts to curb Hezbollah’s financial operations across the region, though the immediate impact of the sanctions was not detailed in the report.

Five expatriates from Sylhet’s Kanaighat upazila, who died in a road accident in Qatar’s Shahaniya area, were buried in their family graveyards after a collective funeral on Tuesday afternoon. The funeral took place at Akuni Madrasa field, attended by thousands of locals. Their bodies had arrived earlier that morning at Sylhet MAG Osmani International Airport, where officials from the district administration and the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment formally handed them over to relatives.

The bodies were flown from Qatar’s Hamad International Airport on Monday night with financial support from the Bangladesh Wage Earners’ Welfare Board. The deceased were identified as Abdul Kadir, Mustak Ahmed Afnan, Zubair Ahmed, Jasim Uddin, and Jibal Ahmed. Local lawmaker Mufti Maulana Abul Hasan and community representatives attended the funeral. The Welfare Board provided each family with an initial grant of Tk 35,000 for burial expenses and promised an additional Tk 300,000 in compensation.

The ministry confirmed that necessary steps were taken to ensure the families received the bodies and their entitled government assistance following the June 21 accident that killed six people, including the five Bangladeshis.

The Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 73,066 Palestinians have been killed and 173,514 injured since Israel began its military operations in October 2023. Despite a ceasefire that took effect last October, 1,053 Palestinians have been killed and 3,406 injured since then. In the past 24 hours alone, eight people were reported dead and 26 injured in Gaza.

The ministry stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate as the conflict between Israel and Hamas persists. The casualty figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry could not be independently verified. Israel has described its military actions as operations directed against Hamas.

The report underscores the severe human cost of the ongoing conflict and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with no indication of a lasting resolution.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry announced that US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner are currently in Doha but will not hold any direct meetings with Iranian officials. A ministry spokesperson said the American representatives will meet with mediators to review ongoing discussions and diplomatic progress, but no direct talks with Iran are scheduled.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump had claimed that a meeting between the two countries would take place in Doha at Iran’s request. However, Iran has consistently denied plans for direct negotiations with the United States. Qatar’s statement aligns with Tehran’s position, reaffirming that no such meeting is planned.

Qatar also confirmed that Iran’s $6 billion in frozen assets held in South Korea have not yet been transferred to Tehran. As Qatar continues to play a key mediating role in easing tensions between Washington and Tehran, the absence of direct talks leaves uncertainty over the future of diplomatic progress.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Venezuela has climbed to 1,943, according to National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who announced the updated figures on Tuesday. The number of injured has also increased to 10,571. The earthquake struck various parts of the country last week, causing extensive loss of life and severe damage to infrastructure.

Rescue teams are continuing search and recovery operations in the affected regions, working to locate survivors and provide assistance to those impacted. The scale of destruction has left many communities struggling to recover as emergency efforts remain underway.

Authorities have not yet provided further details on the extent of the damage or the timeline for relief and reconstruction efforts.

Israeli police have arrested a 20-year-old American citizen on charges of spying for Iran. According to reports from the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post, the suspect allegedly took photos and videos of Israel’s sensitive locations and facilities. Police claim he sent the materials to a person linked to Tehran and received hundreds of dollars for each task. The arrest took place on June 9 in the Jerusalem district.

Authorities have already filed a prosecutor’s declaration against the suspect, paving the way for formal charges to be brought within days. The reports cited Israeli police as the source of the allegations. The U.S. Embassy in Israel has not issued any immediate comment on the matter.

The case highlights ongoing security tensions between Israel and Iran, as well as the scrutiny of foreign nationals suspected of espionage activities in the region.

At least eight people were killed and 22 others injured when a bus collided with a truck on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway near Dausa in Rajasthan early Tuesday morning. The accident occurred around 2:30 a.m. local time when the bus, traveling from Rishikesh to Indore, caught fire along with the truck after the collision. Most of the injured were women and children. Fire service personnel arrived shortly after the crash to extinguish the flames and carry out rescue operations.

Officials said five passengers died from burns and two from head injuries, while eyewitnesses reported that many victims were asleep at the time of the crash. Video footage showed passengers screaming for help as both vehicles burned intensely. The cause of the accident has not yet been confirmed, though police suspect the bus driver may have fallen asleep or that excessive speed contributed to the collision.

Authorities are investigating the incident to determine the exact cause and assess safety measures on the expressway.

A majority of commercial vessels heading to India are switching off their tracking systems while crossing the Strait of Hormuz to avoid potential Iranian attacks, according to maritime data. Intelligence firm Kpler reported that about 62 percent of tankers and cargo ships traveling from the Persian Gulf to India between May 1 and June 25 went dark by disabling their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders. Ships flying flags of Western-allied or Iran-adversarial nations face higher risks and are mainly using the Oman-controlled corridor, which is supported by the United States and Oman but not recognized by Iran.

The data showed that 73 India-bound ships crossed the strait during the period, with 45 concealing their identity. Only four carried the Indian flag, two of which hid their route information. Vessels registered in Panama, Liberia, the UAE, and the Marshall Islands also turned off their transponders. The security situation has worsened since late February, with Iran frequently changing navigation rules and incidents of attacks near Iranian-controlled waters.

Despite temporary U.S.- and IMO-backed escort operations, ships continue to travel with transponders off, reflecting persistent insecurity in the region.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russia’s air defense forces shot down dozens of Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital overnight. He stated that six enemy drones were destroyed by the Defense Ministry’s air defense units, bringing the total number of downed drones to 46. Emergency services were deployed to areas where drone debris fell.

Sobyanin noted that Ukraine has intensified long-range drone attacks on Russia in recent months, particularly targeting energy infrastructure, which serves as a key revenue source for the Kremlin. The conflict has now entered its fifth year, according to AFP reports from Moscow.

Earlier, Russia claimed to have downed 660 Ukrainian drones between Thursday and Friday, marking one of the largest such incidents since the war began. Last week, a Ukrainian strike caused a fire at an oil refinery in southeastern Moscow.

Five people were killed and around fifteen others went missing after a waste heap collapsed at an abandoned jade mine in Myanmar, according to state media reports on Tuesday. The incident occurred following heavy rainfall that loosened piles of mining waste, burying people who were collecting leftover jade fragments.

The collapse took place in Kachin State, a region known as the world’s largest source of jadeite. Myanmar’s jade industry operates largely without regulation, and many mines are controlled by various armed groups involved in the country’s ongoing civil conflict. Poor local residents often scavenge discarded mining areas to find small jade pieces for survival.

State newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar reported that search operations were underway to locate the missing individuals. The report added that continuous heavy rain in recent days had triggered the landslide, highlighting the dangerous conditions faced by informal workers in the lucrative but hazardous jade sector.

An opinion piece published on June 30, 2026, analyzes the recent US-Iran war and highlights how Iran, despite facing severe military and economic pressure, avoided collapse and maintained bargaining power in negotiations. The article notes that Iran’s military infrastructure suffered heavy damage and its economy came under strain, yet the country did not surrender or lose political control. Instead, Iran leveraged geography, low-cost defense tactics, and regional networks to impose strategic and economic costs on stronger adversaries.

The analysis argues that the United States demonstrated overwhelming air and intelligence superiority but at a high financial cost, with billions spent in the early stages of the conflict. It suggests that while the US military-industrial complex benefited, ordinary citizens bore the economic burden through inflation and taxes. The author recalls President Eisenhower’s warning about the influence of this complex on democratic decision-making.

Drawing lessons for Bangladesh, the article concludes that military parity with stronger neighbors is unrealistic, but developing affordable domestic defense technologies, coastal and cyber capabilities, and internal unity can strengthen national sovereignty and deterrence.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced that its citizens are now permitted to travel to Lebanon again. The travel ban, imposed two months earlier due to security concerns arising from the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, has been officially lifted. According to the announcement, Emirati citizens must register with the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs before traveling to Lebanon.

On April 30, the UAE had restricted travel to Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq, urging all Emiratis in those countries to return home immediately. While the Lebanon ban has now been removed, restrictions on travel to Iran and Iraq remain in place. The decision marks a partial easing of the UAE’s regional travel limitations.

The report also notes that, for the first time since the conflict began, air travel between Tehran and Dubai resumed on Monday, signaling a cautious normalization of regional connectivity.

Iran and Oman have reached a general understanding on toll collection in the Strait of Hormuz following the first meeting of their joint committee. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed the agreement, stating that Oman, as a sovereign coastal state, supports the arrangement and believes fees should be charged for services provided. A technical committee will be formed, and experts are expected to prepare a draft within seven to eight days and hold a special meeting to discuss navigation routes.

The future of the strait has been a major point of contention between Iran and the United States. Tehran, in coordination with Oman, seeks to impose a new service fee, while Washington opposes any form of toll collection. Oman’s position had been unclear, as the two countries recently announced they were reviewing management costs of the strait.

Oman later clarified that it had no plan to impose a transit fee and instead launched a temporary UN-coordinated maritime corridor near its coast. In response, Iran attacked ships using that route and reiterated that only routes along its own coastline are authorized.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung announced that 24 of the 26 South Korea-linked vessels previously trapped in the Hormuz Strait have successfully exited the area. The ships had been stranded since February 28, following a joint U.S.-Israel strike on Iran that escalated tensions in the region. Only two vessels remain in the strait, according to the president’s statement.

The conflict had initially left around 11,000 sailors stranded aboard 600 ships. Under an operation led by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), approximately 115 ships carrying 2,500 crew members managed to leave the strait last week. However, renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran forced the UN-affiliated organization to temporarily suspend the rescue mission.

The situation underscores the continuing volatility in the Hormuz Strait, a critical global shipping route, as international efforts to ensure maritime safety remain disrupted by regional tensions.

The bodies of five Bangladeshi expatriates who died in a road accident in Qatar’s Shahaniya area arrived at Sylhet Osmani International Airport on Tuesday morning. The accident occurred on June 21, resulting in the deaths of five workers from different villages in Sylhet’s Kanaighat upazila.

According to the Labour Welfare Wing, the bodies were sent from Hamad International Airport on Monday night at 10:15 p.m. local time via Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight BG-226. The flight landed in Sylhet at 6:50 a.m. on Tuesday. The deceased were identified as Abdul Kadir of Gachbari village, Mustak Ahmed Afnan and Jubayer Ahmed of Majhtaluk village, Jasim Uddin of Agataluk village, and Jibal Ahmed of Amorpur village.

The Bangladesh embassy confirmed that the repatriation process was arranged with financial support from the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board.