Ukraine

• Ukraine accused Russia of conscripting Ukrainian men in occupied regions to fight against their own country. In at least Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, men aged 18 to 35 were reportedly barred from leaving and ordered to report for military duty.
• Pres. Zelensky appealed to his countrymen to resist being mobilized into the Russian army "by any means," and to sabotage Russian operations if they found themselves forced to join them. Then: "at the first opportunity, switch to our positions."
• Zelensky also cleverly appealed to would-be conscripts in Russia to evade the draft, noting that the potential punishment for draft-dodging would be a far better option than being killed or maimed in an unjust war.

• "Putin's chef" Yevgeny Prigozhin issued a statement explicitly confirming that he founded the Wagner Group in 2014 and boasting of Wagner's operations in Syria, Latin America, and the Sahel, It's first time he's admitted any links to Wagner.
• Prigozhin previously denied having any connection to the mercenary group and even sued journalists for suggesting a link. Lately, though, he stopped denying the affiliation. Analysts think he's become more comfortable stepping out of the shadows now that Wagner has strengthened its ties to the Kremlin and has Putin's guarantee of protection.

• Protests intensified across 80 cities in Iran, and demonstrators reportedly took over a small Kurdish town called Oshnavieh. The violent crackdown on protests is escalating too.

• North Korea carried out its first ballistic missile test in four months, launching a short-range missile into the water. This test was timed as a response to the arrival of the USS Ronald Reagan carrier group at Busan, South Korea (the North often times its missile tests to coincide with South Korean and / or American military events).
• Freight traffic between North Korea and China resumed after a five-month suspension due to a COVID outbreak. North Korea gets 90% of its goods from China, so the suspension deprived North Koreans of much-needed supplies.

• Today the border between Colombia and Venezuela reopened to all traffic for the first time in almost seven years. Commercial flights between the two neighbors will resume soon.

• NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is scheduled to crash into an asteroid called Dimorphos tonight to test a technique for deflecting space objects hurtling towards Earth (Dimorphos isn't on a path to strike earth; this is purely a test).
• You can watch the impact at 7:14 ET here - but it probably won't be as thrilling as Armageddon.