China launches Tianzhou-9 cargo craft to send space station supplies

China launched the cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-9 in the early morning on Tuesday to deliver supplies for its orbiting Tiangong space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The Long March-7 Y10 rocket, carrying Tianzhou-9, blasted off at 5:34 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern island province of Hainan, the agency said.

After about 10 minutes, Tianzhou-9 separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit. Its solar panels soon unfolded. The agency declared the launch a complete success.

The cargo craft will later conduct the rendezvous and docking with the space station combination.

China, India should adhere to good-neighborliness, friendship: Chinese FM

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday that China and India should adhere to the direction of good-neighborliness and friendship, and find a way for mutual respect and trust, peaceful coexistence, common development and win-win cooperation.

Wang made the remarks when holding talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Beijing.

As two major Eastern civilizations and major emerging economies living adjacent to each other, the essence of China-India relations lies in how to live in harmony and achieve mutual success, said Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Trump says U.S. to send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, threatens "severe tariffs" targeting Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States will send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, and threatened "severe tariffs" targeting Russia if a ceasefire deal is not reached in 50 days.

Trump announced an agreement with NATO regarding weapons to assist Ukraine while meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office.

"We are going to be sending them weapons and they're going to be paying for them," said Trump, adding that the United States will manufacture those weapons.

"We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days," Trump said of Russia.

Over 20 U.S. states sue Trump administration over frozen funds for schools

More than 20 U.S. states filed a lawsuit on Monday in a federal court in Rhode Island, demanding that the Trump administration release approximately 6.8 billion U.S. dollars in federal funding for education.

According to the lawsuit, the federal funds were originally intended to support the education of migrant farm workers and their children, teacher recruitment and training, English proficiency learning, academic enrichment, after-school and summer programs, as well as adult literacy and job-readiness training.

The lawsuit said the government was required to distribute the funds to the states by July 1. Instead, the Education Department notified states on June 30 that it would not be issuing grant awards under those programs by that deadline, citing the change in administration as the reason.

Brazilian president announces formation of committee to coordinate trade countermeasures

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced Monday the formation of an interministerial committee to coordinate economic and trade countermeasures to protect the country's economy.

The move was taken after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on all imports from Brazil starting Aug. 1.

The interministerial committee is created through a decree regulating the economic reciprocity law and will be chaired by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who is also minister of development, industry, trade and services.

The first meeting of the committee will be held on Tuesday, with representatives from the industrial sector in attendance.

At least 47 killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza

At least 47 Palestinians were killed in Israeli shelling and gunfire across Gaza on Monday, according to Palestinian sources.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that in central Gaza, five people were killed and four others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian gathering in the Bureij refugee camp, and one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a water distribution tanker in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp,

Three were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the al-Nasr neighborhood, west of Gaza City, and five others were killed in an airstrike on a gathering in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of the city, Basal said.