By Steve Holland, Gram Slattery, Simon Lewis and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump voiced irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister's planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of strain between the two leaders.
By David Lewis, Reade Levinson and Alexander Dziadosz
LONDON/CAIRO, July 29 (Reuters) - United Nations experts have found that Boeing 727s linked by Reuters to a U.S. military contractor's business network transported mercenaries, weapons and drones for Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, according to a draft U.N. report due to be published in September.
The findings provide additional important details about the role the aircraft played in supporting the RSF, the paramilitary force U.N. investigators have accused of committing genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.
ISTANBUL, July 29 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities detained an opposition Istanbul district mayor and five others on Wednesday over alleged irregularities in building and occupancy permits, broadcaster NTV reported.
• Latest step in unprecedented legal crackdown on municipalities run by the main party opposing President Tayyip Erdogan.
• Uskudar municipality Mayor Sinem Dedetas detained, as well as district deputy mayor, secretary, an architect, a business agent and a contractor, NTV said.
By Richard Cowan, Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - For generations, support for Israel united Washington. Now Israel's attacks on Gaza, the Iran war and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's close ties to U.S. Republicans are eroding Democratic backing, threatening to turn one of America's closest alliances into a partisan divide.
US-Saudi strikes on Iraq killed at least 20 militants, including several Iranians, on Wednesday, according to the Hashed al-Shaabi, an armed Iraqi alliance that includes pro-Iran groups.
The United States and Saudi Arabia said they had struck Iran-backed armed militants in Iraq in response to attacks on US forces and Saudi oil facilities.
Washington and Tehran are Iraq's main allies, but their enmity has long turned the country into a proxy battleground and left successive governments struggling to maintain a delicate balance between the foes.
US and Saudi Arabian forces said they struck Iran-backed militants in Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for recent attacks, following a short pause in Iran war hostilities.
The combined air operation came as President Donald Trump met with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for their first in-person talks since the Middle East war began in late February.
Crude oil prices leapt more than four percent as the fresh Middle East flare-up revived fears over global supplies usually shipped through the pivotal Strait of Hormuz.
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said late on Tuesday his meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were positive.
Here are details and quotes:
• Netanyahu and Zelenskiy were in Washington to attend a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who died earlier this month and was an influential advocate for Israel and Ukraine.
• In separate short posts on Truth Social, Trump said he discussed various topics with them, without giving specifics.
When Israel goes to the polls this year, voters will weigh in on conscription, the economy and how the state should investigate its inability to prevent Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.
AFP looks at the key issues shaping the campaign as Israel gears up for elections on October 27.
By Patricia Zengerle, Richard Cowan and Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate advanced sweeping Russian energy sanctions legislation on Tuesday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the Capitol, seeing the vote as a tribute to the bill's author, the late Senator Lindsey Graham, on the day of his funeral.
Graham was among Kyiv's most influential and outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-old war against Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
July 28 (Reuters) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday he called his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araqchi, following Iran's denunciation of a Ukrainian drone attack on one of its ships, warned him against escalation and told him to end all support for Russia.
"I emphasised the necessity to refrain from any escalatory steps, as well as to end any support for Russia’s war against Ukraine. This war is illegal and it must end," Sybiha wrote on X of his conversation with Araqchi.
