Here's a rundown of all the news you need to start your Friday, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announcing plans to buy US Tomahawk missiles, the US striking a strategic railway bridge linking Iran to China and Russia, and the Kremlin saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “open to dialogue” with US President Donald Trump.
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Germany has sealed a deal with the US to buy American Tomahawk missiles, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced.
“We also agreed with the US government on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Ankara that we would purchase US Tomahawk missiles and station them in Germany. This will help us close an important strategic gap in our defense,” Merz said in a speech to parliament on the state of current affairs following this week's NATO summit in the Turkish capital.
“And at the same time, we will work to develop our own European systems and station them in Europe,” he added.
On the second straight day of its renewed strikes on the country, the US struck a strategic railway bridge in northern Iran connecting Iran to China and Russia, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
The cruise missile attack targeted the Aq Tekeh Khan railway bridge in northern Golestan province Thursday morning, the agency added.
The agency described the bridge as a strategic point on the railway corridor connecting China, Turkmenistan and Iran.
The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "open to dialogue" with US President Donald Trump despite the latter not having called the former.
“Mr. Trump was apparently very busy after all the contacts in Ankara, so no one called yesterday,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists during a press briefing, referring to talks held by the US president during a visit to the Turkish capital, where he took part in the 36th NATO Summit.
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ECONOMY & TECHNOLOGY
Türkiye and Iraq are expected to sign a 12-month agreement in the coming days to keep crude oil flow through the Iraq-Türkiye Crude Oil Pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan uninterrupted, said the Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry.
Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said oil flow through the pipeline to Ceyhan would continue without interruption.
Bayraktar, who was in Baghdad for talks, said he held a productive meeting with Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair, during which the two sides discussed cooperation opportunities in oil and natural gas, particularly the pipeline.
Russia's Gazprom warned that insufficient reserves in Europe's underground natural gas storage facilities could pose significant risks to consumers during the upcoming winter season.
In a statement, Gazprom said underground gas storage sites across Europe are being refilled at a slower pace, with the gap widening compared with the same period last year.
As of July 7, the volume of natural gas in European storage facilities was 10.3 billion cubic meters lower than on the same date last year, and if storage injections continue at the current pace, natural gas storage levels across Europe could remain below 75% by Oct. 1.
Pro-Palestine activists disrupted a presentation by Amazon Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels at a UN-linked artificial intelligence summit, accusing the company of providing cloud-computing and AI infrastructure used by Israel.
The protest took place during Vogels’ appearance at the “AI for Good” Global Summit in Geneva organized by the International Telecommunication Union, according to footage shared by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the US social media platform X.
Video from the event showed activists taking the stage as Vogels was speaking. One protester unfurled a banner saying: “No tech for apartheid.”
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