Indonesia’s military has recovered the body of an American pilot who was shot dead by rebels in the restive eastern region of Papua, it said on Friday after a separatist group said the attack was a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments. A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has long raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by independence fighters have grown deadlier and more frequent as they have procured better weaponry. Sebby Sambom, a spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), an armed separatist group, said on Thursday that their troops shot dead American pilot Nicholas F. Gosselin and set his plane on fire after it landed in the Yahukimo region of Highland Papua province.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/03/asia/indonesia-papua-rebels-american-pilot-intl-hnk
Four months after he was killed at the outset of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is being memorialized in a weeklong funeral spectacle stretching across five cities in two countries, with millions of mourners expected to attend. Despite a costly war against two of the world’s strongest militaries and decades of crushing economic hardship, Tehran is sparing no expense to send off Khamenei in a grand ceremony shrouded in religious symbolism that overlaps with the 250th US Independence Day celebrations. Authorities say they’ve launched one of the largest logistical efforts in the Islamic Republic’s history, mobilizing government employees, universities, labor unions, firefighters, soldiers, aid workers and even religious “mourning groups” to organize the funeral and manage the millions of “pilgrims” expected to travel to cities and holy sites across Iran and Iraq to bid the ayatollah farewell. Authorities in neighboring Iraq, where Shiite Muslims are a majority, say millions of mourners are expected to pay respects.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/03/middleeast/iran-leader-funeral-trump-intl
US officials attempted to warn Iran of fears they had that Israel would assassinate meditators during talks this spring, two US officials said. The officials said the US worried that Israel might assassinate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliamentary speaker who is leading negotiations with the US, or Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who has also been a public face of the talks. The warnings were communicated through intermediaries, the officials said. The New York Times first reported on the warnings.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/03/politics/assassination-warning-us-israel-iran
The main suspect in a bomb attack that wounded a Ukrainian tycoon on Monday in Monaco is a Ukrainian woman who disguised herself as a man, local authorities say. Named as 39-year-old Anastasiia Berezovska in an Interpol Red Notice, she last resided in Germany and has a tattoo, possibly of a snake, running down her right arm from her shoulder to elbow. After the attack, the suspect fled to neighboring France, then drove to Italy in a German-registered car that had been rented for the operation, prosecutors added.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/03/europe/monaco-bomb-woman-suspect-intl