I am in Europe, and the question is: Why is our president, Donald Trump, in Scotland?

The mainstream media would have you believe it’s a golfing trip. A New York Times headline reads, “Trump is greeted by protesters in Scotland.” NPR wrote that “protesters troll Trump on his golfing trip.” CNN said that “Trump flees Washington controversies for a golf-heavy trip to Scotland.” The Associated Press wrote, “Trump plays golf in Scotland while protesters take to the streets and decry his visit.”

But what’s the real purpose of his visit?

Scotland, of course, has some of the most beautiful golf courses in the world. But Trump is also in the midst of negotiating major international conflicts and pushing his audacious agenda in Washington. Could there be more to this trip?

What does Trump have up his sleeve? That’s the thing with him, you never really know what his true motivations are. Could he simply be golfing? Could he also be negotiating?

In the business world, golf is the game of business deals and negotiation. So maybe it’s a mix of both.

And maybe we should ask ourselves: Does the president simply deserve a vacation? Some time away to relax, to refresh, to renew himself?

You be the judge.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

While in the United Kingdom, I found myself right in the middle of a transgender rights protest. What I noticed in the difference between protests that occur in the United Kingdom and in the United States was shocking.

During the protest, counter-protesters who opposed transgenderism were seen being recorded by police up close and at different camera angles. After speaking to a U.K. citizen, I learned that not only is it used as evidence in court if criminal charges are brought against a person, but it’s also used to identify them via facial recognition to determine if they should be arrested on the spot for any outstanding criminal charges.

The surveillance of protesters and counter-protesters is undoubtedly a sore spot. Yet the protests themselves, as I was told, are generally peaceful. In the United States, protests often devolve into riots, where looting, burning buildings, assault and more are the norm rather than the exception. The U.K. is different (except for the George Floyd protests, as I was told).

It seems that the U.K., which has notoriously draconian speech laws, has traded free speech rights for safer protests.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

President Thomas Jefferson underscored in his first inaugural address, “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater stumbled in thundering, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” The storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution began the Reign of Terror and Napoleon’s self-coronation. The moderate American alternative gave birth to the United States Constitution and the Statue of Liberty. Extremism in the defense of liberty prompted Senator Goldwater to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act, emancipating Black people from a century of Jim Crow earmarked by lynchings and the dastardly murder of Emmett Till.

Yet extremism on both the left and right flourishes, tending to shipwreck moderation. Poet William Butler Yeats versified, “The best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity.” The media fuels extremism by courting guests eager for gladiatorial combat that makes for wonderful ratings. Balanced commentary is shunned as lacking verbal pyrotechnics. President Donald Trump was right in stating regarding his White House jousting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “This is going to be great television.”

The extreme right conceives any criticism of American history as treason — even acknowledging the horrors of slavery, the extermination of Native American Indians, or female disenfranchisement until the 19th Amendment. Extreme rightists have defended slavery by arguing it cultivated skills that could be turned to personal benefit. But if slavery were so advantageous, why did whites fiercely resist slavery for themselves to enjoy its putative advantages? The extreme right embraces the “Great Replacement Theory,” which postulates white supremacy indistinguishable from Adolf Hitler’s master race. The Jan. 6 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power in accord with the Twelfth Amendment and the Electoral Count Act was an attempted reprise of South Carolina’s firing on Fort Sumter, triggering the Civil War.

The extreme left preaches that because the United States is imperfect, it is entirely evil — that the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater. Their cures are vastly worse than the disease: defunding the police; disparaging merit-based enrollments or employment; sclerotic government substitutions for private enterprise; and lighting a match to the United States Constitution, a masterful blueprint for limited, balanced government which William Gladstone praised as “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” The extreme left salutes sacrificing the good on the altar of the perfect.

Benjamin Franklin displayed the ideal of moderation and anti-zealotry at the constitutional convention. The grand statesman is worth quoting at length to teach a standard of self-doubting which should be inculcated in every home or classroom:

“I confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many Instances of being obliged, by better Information or fuller Consideration, to change Opinions even on important Subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own Judgment and to pay more Respect to the Judgment of others. Most Men indeed as well as most Sects in Religion, think themselves in Possession of all Truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far Error. [Sir Richard] Steele, a Protestant, in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only Difference between our two Churches in their Opinions of the Certainty of their Doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the Wrong.”

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

But what about the Epstein files? Much ado about nothing. President Joe Biden had control over them. Who believes he would have refrained from leaking incriminating evidence against Trump if there were any? Mr. Biden openly despised his political rival. What we are witnessing is confirmation bias of the type that insisted WMDs in Iraq was a “slam dunk.”

As regards Russian interference in the 2016 election, credible evidence points to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as the intended beneficiary, based on declassified intelligence released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard indicating the Russians sat on damaging information about Clinton in 2016. The Russians likely believed she would be subject to blackmail because of multiple skeletons in her closet, for example, channeling handsome foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for United States assistance, or compromising national security by reckless use of an unsecured private email.

The Russians understood that Hillary Clinton as president would pursue self-ruinous wars like Vietnam. As secretary of state, Ms. Clinton was a super-hawk over fool’s errands in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Taiwan. Remember her infamous, Caesar-like chortle over the overthrow and death of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi: “We came, we saw, he died.” Clinton made Libya a wilderness and called it peace.

Democrats have concocted the theory that Russia favored Trump in 2016 to deflect attention from Ms. Clinton’s dreadful performance against a then-political neophyte. The facts are not in dispute: Trump defeated Clinton fair and square in 2016 with no vote tampering and with no assistance from Russia.

Democrats are singing their own political death warrants by running down rabbit holes like the Epstein files.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

Let us not pretend this charge is light. A “treasonous conspiracy” suggests not merely malfeasance but a betrayal of the public trust at the highest levels of government. If these allegations are true — and the declassified documents and testimonies increasingly suggest they are — then we are dealing with one of the most corrosive abuses of power in American history. And yet, predictably, the usual suspects in the Democratic Party and their allies in corporate media have denounced these revelations not with evidence, but with noise.

Men like Sen. Adam Schiff, the architect and chief propagandist of the Russia hoax, have long enjoyed the luxury of consequence-free deception. Schiff assured the nation, repeatedly and confidently, that he had “direct evidence” of collusion between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s government. No such evidence ever materialized. None. Instead, what we received was a years-long investigation — one that disrupted a presidency, undermined international credibility and cost the American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars — only to conclude there was no collusion.

The Mueller report confirmed it. The Durham investigation exposed the rot. And yet, the architects of the lie remain untouched, their reputations defended by a press that long ago abandoned its role as watchdog in favor of partisan priesthood.

What Gabbard alleges, however, takes this abuse of power a step further. According to her review of intelligence findings — now echoed by former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe — the original assessments from our intelligence community clearly stated that Russia’s efforts had no material effect on the outcome of the 2016 election. In other words, while Russia may have engaged in cyber-meddling and online influence operations (as every major power does), it had no decisive impact on voting outcomes. That should have been the headline. Instead, it was buried.

Why? Because truth was inconvenient to power. Because the narrative of Russian interference served a political end: to delegitimize Trump’s presidency before it even began. What followed was not a sober investigation into foreign threats, but a coordinated disinformation campaign by our own intelligence apparatus at the urging of political elites. It was, as the late Justice Antonin Scalia might argue, an affront not merely to legal process but to the very idea of republican government.

In Morrison v. Olson, Scalia famously dissented alone, warning against the creation of a fourth branch of government — unaccountable bureaucracies with the power to influence political outcomes. “A government of laws, and not of men,” he wrote, “means that our rulers are bound by the law, just as the governed are.” Yet here we are, in 2024, looking back at a moment when our rulers were the law — when intelligence agencies were pressured into revising their own conclusions to align with political imperatives.

This is not a conspiracy theory. This is the documented history of the modern American state. It is what happens when ideology becomes the lens through which evidence is interpreted, and when political expedience outweighs constitutional restraint.

And now, with Trump’s return to the White House, the fear among Democrats is palpable. Not because of what Trump might do in the future, but because of what he might uncover from the past. This is the nightmare scenario for the left — not a second Trump term, but a reckoning with the truth. The emails, the memos, the redacted reports — they may not remain buried for much longer.

Gabbard is right to call it treasonous. Whether that charge meets the legal standard or not is almost beside the point. What matters is that Americans were lied to by their own government — systematically, persistently and with great sophistication. As Thomas Sowell has often warned, “It is hard to imagine a more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

Trump winning the 2024 election is turning out to be the worst nightmare for Democrats, and it hasn’t even been a year yet. Who knows what explosive revelations and corruption Trump and his administration will uncover.

The question now is whether anyone will be held accountable. Or whether, once again, we will look the other way while the powerful write a different version of history — one where the truth is not merely inconvenient, but disposable.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

A thrilling start to the DC Open

International news

Ukraine

• President Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine and Russia will meet for peace talks in Istanbul tomorrow. READ MORE

• Zelenskyy seems more open to an immediate ceasefire than President Putin does. The Kremlin is already managing expectations for the summit: a spokesman told reporters not “to expect any breakthroughs in the category of miracles — it is hardly possible in the current situation.” READ MORE

• Separately, the NYT reported that Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed drones have become better at hitting their targets — despite parallel improvements in Ukraine’s air defenses. Last year, 7% of Shahed fire breached air defenses to reach its target. This year to date, that rate has reached 11%. READ MORE

Iran

• Iran responded to the EU’s threat to reimpose UN nuclear sanctions in the absence of a new nuclear deal by convening talks with the UK, France, and Germany starting this Friday. READ MORE

• If those go well, they could open the door to new nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran — although Iranian officials note that there are currently “no plans to hold talks with the United States,” suggesting that Iran is still smarting from U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities last month. READ MORE

 China

• Chinese Premier Li Qiang inaugurated the construction of a massive dam on Tibet’s Yarlung Zangbo River that will become the world’s largest green energy plant. The 1.2 trillion yuan ($167 billion) project will take 10 years or more to complete. READ MORE

• Unlike DRC’s Grand Inga Dam — which, at ~40-70 gigawatts, would have a capacity somewhere between Three Gorges (23 gigawatts) and the new dam in Tibet (70 gigawatts) *IF* it’s ever completed — investors have high confidence in the ambitious new stimulus-supported project. Chinese stock and bond prices rose after Premier Li’s announcement yesterday. READ MORE

• Separately, Chinese authorities accused local governments and hospitals in western Gansu Province of tampering with blood tests to cover up evidence of lead poisoning affecting over 250 kindergartners. READ MORE

• The cover-up might have worked if the initial offense had been less egregious: school staff jazzed up kids’ lunches with powdered pigments — which were clearly marked as inedible and contained 20% lead — to make the food look better in marketing photos. READ MORE

• The resulting symptoms of lead poisoning were so obvious that parents doubted local blood test results showing their kids were fine, and took their kids to other provinces for untampered testing that confirmed dangerously elevated blood lead levels. READ MORE

Venezuela

• Venezuela’s sanctioned Attorney General, Tarek Saab, opened an investigation into allegations that 252 Venezuelan migrants — purportedly gang members — who were deported from the U.S. were tortured in El Salvador’s CECOT detention center before their repatriation to Venezuela as part of a trilateral prisoner swap last week. READ MORE

• Saab didn’t mention how the nearly 1,000 political prisoners still languishing in Venezuelan jails are being treated. READ MORE

Israel

• Yesterday, foreign ministers from 25 countries — including the UK and a majority of EU member states — signed a statement declaring that Israel’s “denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population [of Gaza] is unacceptable,” and concluding that “the war in Gaza must end now.” READ MORE

• Pope Leo joined in the criticism, expressing his “deep sorrow” and calling for an end to the “barbarity of war” after Israeli shelling damaged Gaza’s only Catholic church, killing three and wounding nine (including a priest). READ MORE

• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that President Trump was also “caught off guard” by Israel’s go-it-alone airstrikes on Syria and shelling of Gaza’s Holy Family Church, and “quickly called the [Israeli] prime minister to rectify these situations.” READ MORE

• Israel promptly released an unusually contrite statement saying it “deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza’s Holy Family Church.” READ MORE

The World Daily Brief is composed daily by former CIA and Intelligence officers.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

As I found myself right in the heart of the action, the dressy, elegant affair was a rare scene in Washington, D.C. The wall-to-wall crowd at Ned’s, creating electrifying energy on the Penthouse and floor 10, made this year’s tournament in our nation’s capital another great tennis spectacle.

The inaugural reception on Sunday night was attended by Washington, D.C, Mayor Muriel Bowser, members of the D.C. Council, Maryland legislators and dignitaries in business, sports and government. It was an opportunity to brush shoulders with tennis stars Jessica Pegula, the number-three-ranked WTA American player, and Australian superstar and tennis channel commentator Nick Kyrgios, whose signature humor and confidence was on full display while he was surrounded by a mob of fans during the event. I also exchanged kind words with the U.S. all-star Frances Tiafoe and his girlfriend/business partner Ayan Broomfield.

Venus Williams, the seven-time Grand Champion of Tennis, returns to tour after a 16-month hiatus. Contesting her first event in 16 months, former World No.1 Williams will face fellow American Peyton Stearns in the opening round of the Mubadala City Open in Washington, D.C., this week. Jessica Pegula tops the draw, and Britain’s Emma Raducanu will take on Marta Kostyuk in the first round. This is one of many thrilling narratives being discussed as the global world of tennis descends on Washington.

I also engaged with Mark Ein, the visionary behind the tournament’s success and minority owner of the Washington Commanders; Canadian up-and-comer Gabriel Diallo, who attended with his parents Moubassirou and Iryna Diallo, a Guianese father and Ukrainian mother; Russian Andrey Rublev; Frenchman Hugo Gaston; and D.C. serial entrepreneur Jan Adams.

The Mubadala Citi DC Open entertains and inspires. It shows us that tennis is driven not only by athleticism, but by the incredible people who bring the game to life.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

Adopted in 1868, Section 1 of the 14th Amendment provides, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

The Trump administration contends that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” would exclude children born to parents who are not lawful permanent residents or citizens. The contention seems alarming. Does that mean the children are not subject to the laws of the United States and can commit murder, rape, robbery or arson with impunity? The administration further argues that historical context and legislative intent militate against birthright citizenship and supersede the plain language of Section 1.

If President Trump can end citizenship by executive order, a successor could restore citizenship by revoking Mr. Trump’s handiwork. Indeed, if executive orders determine citizenship, wouldn’t presidents offer the benefit to any alien who promised political support?

Unbroken precedents for 157 years contradict the Trump administration’s constitutional argument. But the United States Supreme Court can overrule its own decisions, as it did with Dobbs overruling Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion.

The Statue of Liberty sports a poem which reads in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The statue, accepted as a gift from France in 1886, is a contextual clue of the attitude toward immigrants held by the Fourteenth Amendment’s authors.

Annually, approximately 255,000 babies are born in the United States to parents who are not citizens of the United States. An indeterminate number are “birth tourists” who travel to the United States to obtain the benefit of birthright citizenship for their children. The latter may become public burdens. They may require foster care. But isn’t that also true of children born to irresponsible citizen parents? Should children be responsible for the actions of their parents? As the Bible instructs: “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; a person shall be put to death for his own sin.”  Moreover, birthright citizenship does not shield alien parents from deportation.

The average time to become a naturalized U.S. citizen approximates six months. It involves tests, oaths and more. Why shouldn’t such vetting be required of all U.S. citizens? At present, many would flunk the civics test required for naturalization. What about federal income taxes? A large percentage of American households pay nothing.

The United States’ birthright citizenship is the exception and not the rule internationally. But we pride ourselves as exceptional, beginning with the landmark Declaration of Independence.

A scalpel is typically preferable to a blunderbuss. Congress is empowered to make “birth tourism” a crime to deter the same. The punishment would target the parents, not the baby.

Experience is a great teacher. Birthright citizenship can be repealed by constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds majorities in the U.S. House and Senate and ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures. The Prohibition Amendment was repealed after time proved the cure was worse than the disease.

Process is more sacrosanct than the result.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

Let’s be absolutely clear: This is not equity. This is academic negligence. And worse, it is a veiled form of discrimination masquerading as compassion.

Policies like these embody what President George W. Bush once rightly condemned as “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” The idea that poor children — especially poor children of color — cannot be held to rigorous academic standards is not only patronizing, it is profoundly unjust. It suggests that these students are incapable of discipline, effort or achievement — and therefore must be coddled rather than challenged.

As someone who has spent decades working with underserved communities, I can tell you this: These kids don’t need less structure, fewer expectations or an escape hatch from hard work. What they need is a system that believes in their potential, holds them to the same high standards as everyone else and gives them the tools to meet those standards.

Removing homework and attendance from grades sends a clear and harmful message: Effort doesn’t matter, showing up is optional and mediocrity is acceptable. How exactly does that prepare any student for the real world? In what universe does an employer say, “Don’t worry about coming in, we won’t hold it against you”? Or a college professor say, “Forget the assignments, we’ll just go off your final exam”?

This kind of thinking may start in San Francisco, but if left unchallenged, it will spread like a virus through school districts across America. We are normalizing failure under the seductive language of equity, and it is precisely the students we claim to help who will suffer most.

We should ask ourselves: Who benefits from this policy? Certainly not the working-class Black or Latino student who sees school as their best shot at social mobility. Certainly not the single mother who teaches her child the value of persistence and personal responsibility. And certainly not the teachers, many of whom — quietly but firmly — pushed back against this proposal, understanding that real education requires discipline, accountability and yes, consequences.

If we truly care about closing achievement gaps, we should be investing in early literacy programs, after-school tutoring, mentorship and access to mental health resources. We should be strengthening the bridge between parents and educators. We should be making it easier, not harder, for teachers to inspire excellence and for students to strive for it.

But we should never, under any circumstances, lower the bar.

Equity does not mean equality of outcome. It means equality of opportunity — an opportunity that must be earned through merit, effort and perseverance. When we tell poor children and children of color that we will expect less from them because life is hard, we are not uplifting them — we are trapping them in permanent underachievement.

This is not compassion. It is cruelty.

Every American, regardless of political affiliation, should be outraged by policies that disguise failure as fairness. If we want a just society, we must demand an honest one — where truth is not softened for the sake of feelings, and where the path to success is paved with rigor, not resignation.

In the end, the goal of education is not just to pass students — it is to prepare citizens. And our children, all of them, deserve a system that demands the best of them and supports them every step of the way.

Anything less is not equity. It is surrender.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

A night of ‘Opportunity’ with the Princess Royal

Faith and Business Luncheon at the white house (video)

Coming up this week

• On Thursday and Friday, South Africa is hosting a summit of G20 central bank governors and finance ministers — except U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent, who is skipping.

Trade

• President Trump threatened to slap 30% tariffs on imports from the European Union (EU) and Mexico starting Aug. 1. READ MORE

• The EU and Mexico collectively comprise around one-third of U.S. imports by value, and the U.S. is a critical export market for both trading partners: around 80% of Mexico’s exports – and roughly 20% of the EU’s – go to the U.S. READ MORE

• Trump has often said that the goal of his tariff threats is to push trading partners to agree to trade terms that favor the U.S. By that measure, his latest threats are already succeeding: the EU quickly responded by postponing retaliatory trade measures that were due to go into effect tomorrow and reaffirming its commitment to negotiating a better trade deal. READ MORE

• Mexico’s President Sheinbaum is also working on a better bargain than 30% tariffs for Mexico, though she tends to prefer to work quietly and directly with the White House. READ MORE

International news

Gaza

• The NYT Magazine published a damning — and long — report accusing Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu of prolonging the Gaza war for his own political gain. You can read the whole article here, or get the gist from the “three unavoidable conclusions” summarized in its lede below:

  • “In the years preceding the war, Netanyahu’s approach to Hamas helped to strengthen the group, giving it space to secretly prepare for war. In the months before that war, Netanyahu’s push to undermine Israel’s judiciary widened already-deep rifts within Israeli society and weakened its military, making Israel appear vulnerable and encouraging Hamas to ready its attack. And once the war began, Netanyahu’s decisions were at times colored predominantly by political and personal need instead of only military or national necessity.” READ MORE

• Meanwhile; American, Egyptian, and Qatari mediators are slowly advancing negotiations over their proposal for a 60-day ceasefire. READ MORE

• Netanyahu said a few days ago (Thursday) that he hoped a truce could be finalized “in a few days,” but he stood firm on his condition that Hamas must fully disarm and cede power. Hamas rejects that condition, and is standing firm on its own condition that Israel has thus far rejected: a guarantee that this temporary truce will lead to an end to the war. READ MORE

 Ukraine

• Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency said it carried out an operation yesterday that successfully “liquidated” the Russian FSB agents responsible for assassinating senior SBU member Col. Ivan Voronych in Kyiv just three days prior. READ MORE

• The SBU offered few details on its retaliatory operation yesterday, but the quick turnaround suggests the SBU may have been aware of FSB agents in Kyiv before they killed Col. Voronych. READ MORE

North Korea

• Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov visited Pyongyang this weekend to meet with Kim Jong Un in what North Korean state media called “an atmosphere full of warm comradely trust.” READ MORE

• Lavrov was likely asking Kim to send more troops and weapons to help Russia fight Ukraine. READ MORE

• Some analysts think Russia particularly needs combat engineers to help it cross the Dnieper River and seize Kherson, while others think it’s just looking for more cannon fodder for its grueling war of attrition on the slowly-shifting front lines.

• Whatever he was seeking, Lavrov probably got what he wanted: the pair were all smiles in media photos, and Kim gushingly reaffirmed his “unconditional support” for their “invincible fighting brotherhood.”

 South Africa

• President Ramaphosa suspended his police minister, Senzo Mchunu, over allegations that Mchunu protected a powerful criminal syndicate by shutting down police inquiries into its crimes. READ MORE

• Ramaphosa is under pressure from critical partners in his fragile ruling coalition – particularly the Democratic Alliance (DA) – to clean up corruption within his African National Congress party, and Mchunu’s suspension helps show the DA that Ramaphosa hears their concerns. READ MORE

 Sudan

• Having lost control of the North Kordofan state capital of El Obeid in February and the national capital of Khartoum in March, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is now focusing its efforts on retaking El Obeid. READ MORE

• Local reports suggest the RSF is receiving weapons from Khalifa Haftar via new supply routes to Libya. If true, the fight for El Obeid is likely to be fierce. READ MORE

• In the bigger picture, new Libyan support could help the RSF regain strength and re-equalize the war it’s fighting with the army, which is likely to prolong the conflict. READ MORE

 Syria

• Clashes between Bedouin tribes and Druze locals killed several people in the southern Syrian city of Sweida. READ MORE

• The two minority groups have long clashed in and around Sweida, and the latest bout of violence seems like a continuation of their longstanding feud – and unrelated to the April / May skirmishes between Druze fighters and troops loyal to the new government’s army. READ MORE

The World Daily Brief is composed daily by former CIA and Intelligence officers.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.