Russia

• Yevgeny Prigozhin lashed out at Russia's army leaders again, calling them "clowns who turn people into meat." He wants a new assignment carved out for his Wagner Group in Ukraine - and doesn't want them to fight alongside the regular army "clowns."
• The governor of Russia's Belgorod border region said fresh partisan attacks injured 12 people. It would be the second incursion into Belgorod in a week.
• Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the U.S. of hacking thousands of Apple iPhones with surveillance software, and Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab - a cybersecurity firm - corroborated the accusations with claims that some of its employees' iPhones were affected.
• The FSB said the alleged hacks proved "close cooperation" between Apple and the U.S. National Security Agency, but provided no evidence. Apple firmly denied the accusation: "We have never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any Apple product and never will."

• Several global business leaders - including the CEOs of LVMH, Starbucks, and Tesla - are visiting China this week to woo shoppers into buying their luxury goods. They're interested in winning a slice of China's fast-growing retail spending (although analysts have warned recent double-digit retail spending growth was more of a rebound from COVID than a sustainable trend).

• The presidents of Kosovo and Serbia met to defuse tensions that were stirred up by the election of ethnic Albanian mayors in majority-Serbian parts of northern Kosovo.
• France's Pres. Macron and Germany's Chancellor Scholz have both called on Kosovo to hold fresh elections so the Serbians protesting the first poll's results can exercise their opinions on a ballot instead of through violence.