Kharkiv Hit Hard as Starlink Rift Splits Trump and Musk

Russia pressed its assault on Ukraine through the day, capped by a mass evening strike on Kharkiv that injured at least ten people in two districts. The wider wave of attacks near the Ukrainian-Polish border set off air raid alerts and left travelers waiting up to 40 hours at crossings in Poland's Lublin region, while crews in Dnipropetrovsk region defused a drone warhead lodged 60 meters up in power lines. Against that backdrop, Pope Leo XIV called Vladimir Putin to personally request a temporary ceasefire so humanitarian aid could reach Oleshky, an occupied city near Kherson. The other flashpoint of the day concerned Ukraine's satellite lifeline. The Telegraph reported that Elon Musk proposed slowing Starlink in Ukraine and that Trump agreed, opening the way for Pentagon speed restrictions. Trump pushed back hours later, telling reporters he never ordered Starshield restrictions for Ukraine and doubts Musk was behind them either. Meanwhile in Washington, the New York Times reported Trump's new press secretary, Kacie Huffman, was fired after just five days on the job. On the diplomatic side, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced in Brussels a joint Ukraine-EU working group on justice reform and anti-corruption. By evening, attention was turning to Saturday, when French unions and left-wing groups plan roughly 500 protest actions and more than 90 marches nationwide.