• Many tennis players partner with luxury brands like Rolex, Tiffany, or Off-White.
• Stars like Serena Williams and Roger Federer wear outfits worth thousands of dollars on the court.
• These are some of the most expensive outfits seen at tennis matches around the world.

Tennis is one of the few sports where the players are allowed to express their individual style — and many do that by partnering with luxury brands such as Rolex, Tiffany, and Off-White.

It means players like Serena Williams, Emma Raducanu, and Roger Federer have taken to the court wearing thousands of dollars — and in one case, over $1 million — worth of clothes, sneakers, or accessories.

And these are only the items with disclosed values — many tennis stars wear custom creations that it's impossible to put a price tag on.

Here are some of the most expensive outfits worn on the court, from the US Open to Wimbledon.

Emma Raducanu played her opening match of Wimbledon in 2022 wearing tens of thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry.

The British tennis star played her first match wearing £30,000 (around $38,000) worth of Tiffany jewelry, The Daily Mail reported.

Raducanu, who became an ambassador of the iconic brand in September 2021, reportedly wore a pair of pearl earrings worth £7,575, a matching necklace worth £3,875, and a white-gold bangle encrusted with diamonds worth £18,900.

Rafael Nadal sported a $1.1 million watch at the French Open in 2024.

WWD reported that Nadal's Richard Mille watch, called the Carbon TPT B.4 RM27-05M Manual Winding Flying Tourbillon, is worth a staggering $1.1 million. It weighs just 11.5 grams, which means it doesn't interfere with a tennis player's swing.

Serena Williams' 2022 US Open outfit was covered in diamonds.

Williams wore a custom Nike outfit for her final US Open look. She helped design the black outfit, which had a six-layer skirt referencing her six prior US Open wins, according to a Nike press release.

The bodice, which was covered in real diamonds, "alludes to the night sky" at the event, according to the press release. Her sneakers, also custom, had a diamond-encrusted Swoosh and solid-gold shoelace tags accented with "400 hand-set diamonds in black ceramic." The shoes were designed in collaboration with Serena Williams Jewelry.

The shoelace tags alone were worth $1,795 each, Snobette reported, citing Serena Williams Jewelry's website. They are no longer available.

Her 2018 outfit at the same tournament was designed by Virgil Abloh in collaboration with Nike.

Abloh, who died in 2021, worked with Williams multiple times throughout her career.

During the 2018 US Open, she wore a one-shouldered dress with a tulle skirt designed by Abloh for Nike and Off-White. Williams was involved throughout the process, Abloh told Vogue in 2018.

"This is very far from a design-by-numbers project. As you can tell by her personality in her play, she's very much involved in her aesthetic," he said.

A limited-edition dress inspired by Williams' look was available at select Nike stores for $500. A matching jacket like the one she wore off-court was also sold, for $900, according to Vogue.

Roger Federer wore a Rolex at a 2022 Wimbledon celebration.

Federer, a longtime Rolex ambassador, chose a Cosmograph Daytona Rolex covered in orange sapphires for Wimbledon's centenary celebration, according to GQ.

Chrono24, a luxury watch marketplace, currently lists the watch for as much as $382,000.

Maria Sharapova played the 2017 US Open wearing a Swarovski-encrusted outfit.

Sharapova wore a Swarovski-covered black Nike dress designed by Riccardo Tisci for her appearance at the tournament, Vogue reported.

"A lot of it had to do with design and how I wanted to feel and what elements he wanted to bring to this from a completely different background than just sports, from couture, from fashion," Sharapova said of the look.

The dress retailed for $500, and a matching bomber jacket was priced at $700, according to Vogue.

Anna Kournikova played Wimbledon in 2002 wearing an Omega watch.

Kournikova's preferred watch, an Omega Constellation, ranges anywhere from $3,000 to $25,000. According to W Magazine, Kournikova is in good company, as stars like Daniel Craig, Cindy Crawford, and Elvis Presley have all worn Constellations in the past.

Donna Vekic is frequently seen wearing an FP Journe watch.

Vekic, a Croatian tennis player, has repped the Swiss watch brand FP Journe since at least 2019, according to one of her Facebook posts.

In recent years, she's been spotted on the court wearing an FP Journe Elegante watch. Tennis.com reported that the orange watch features two rows of brilliant-cut diamonds. She also wore it at Wimbledon this year.

According to Chrono24, this watch can go for as high as $41,000 on the open market.

Naomi Osaka designed her own Tag Heuer watch that she’s worn all over the world.

Osaka teamed up with Tag Heuer in 2022 to design a limited-edition Aquaracer watch.

"Green is just a color that I like to wear and it flashes and clashes; and it's a nod to my day job," Osaka told Complex. Indeed, the watch is the same shade of green as a tennis court.

There were just 250 of these watches made, according to Complex. Each was priced at $4,050.

Novak Djokovic has worn an impossible-to-miss bright-yellow Hublot watch.

Djokovic signed a deal with Hublot in 2021, GQ reported. Since then, he has worn its signature timepieces across his career. But most notable is this Big Bang Unico Yellow Magic watch, which he wore at the Rookwood Cup in August 2023.

According to Hublot, this watch was first launched in 2021 to pair with one of Pantone's Color of the Year: Illuminating, a bright shade of yellow.

It retails at $29,600.

• Rumors that Prince William had an affair with Sarah Rose Hanbury have circulated since 2019. 
• A new Vulture investigation suggests British outlets have quietly removed mentions of the affair. 
• Lawyers for Hanbury told Business Insider in March that the affair rumors are "completely false."

Reports speculating that Prince William had an affair with British noblewoman Sarah Rose Hanbury have been quietly deleted by UK media outlets, a Vulture investigation suggests.

A royal correspondent for Vulture, Ellie Hall, pieced together a timeline of the erasure or modifications of news stories that stretches from 2019, when the affair rumors first emerged, to March 2024.

The timeline lays out how several British publications published articles about any relationship between William, 42, and Hanbury, 40, that have since been taken down or substantially updated.

The stories amended after publication came from outlets including tabloids like The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, and The Mirror as well as Tatler, a high-society magazine.

The news stories Vulture said were amended after publication range from opinion pieces to aggregated articles, covering everything from rumors that Hanbury was at one point a potential romantic "contender" for William to an apparent falling out between Hanbury and Kate Middleton, 42, over the Princess of Wales seeing her as "rival."

Some of the deleted or updated articles are still accessible in their original form via resources like the Internet's WayBack Machine, Vulture reported.

Hanbury, through her lawyers, said in a March email to Business Insider that the affair rumors were "completely false."

Vulture also said it is unclear if the outlets that erased or edited stories did so at the request of representatives for William or Hanbury, who is the Marchioness of Cholmondeley.

The only publication to issue a statement to Vulture was The Guardian. That newspaper removed a reference to a joke talk-show host Stephen Colbert made on air about the affair rumors in March. The Guardian told Vulture it had adjusted its story "after internal editorial consideration and not following external outreach."

The publications, Kensington Palace, and representatives for Hanbury did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rose Hanbury has close ties to the royal family

As BI previously reported, Hanbury has been linked to William, Kate, and the royal family for years.

Her maternal grandmother was one of Queen Elizabeth II's bridesmaids. In 2019, she officially became a noblewoman, after marrying David Cholmondeley (pronounced "Chumley"), the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley.

Affair rumors have been bolstered by the fact that William and Kate were briefly neighbors with the Cholmondeleys.

Before making Windsor Castle their primary home, the couple was living at Amner Hall in Norfolk, about a 10-minute car ride from the Cholmondeley residence at Houghton Hall.

After rumors first sprung up online in 2019, the Daily Beast reported that lawyers representing William issued a warning to "at least one British publication" that covering the gossip was not only "false and highly damaging" but would infringe upon his privacy in line with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the law protects an individual's "private and family life," and can only be interfered with in certain instances, such as if the information concerns "public safety" or "the rights and freedoms of other people."

While the William-Rose rumors have ebbed and flowed over the years, they hit a boiling point when Colbert dedicated part of his opening monologue on the March 12 episode of "The Late Show" to speculation that the alleged affair was connected to Kate taking months off from public appearances.

She said later the absence was due to her cancer diagnosis and treatment.

• Democratic members of Congress are still calling on Biden to drop out of the race.
• Eight of them have done so as of Wednesday, July 10.
• Other lawmakers are flatly predicting that Biden will lose to Trump.

President Joe Biden is facing calls to drop out of the presidential race from House Democrats following his disastrous debate performance in June.

It began on Tuesday, July 2, when Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first member of Congress to call for Biden's withdrawal. In a statement, he praised the president's record of accomplishments but said an "authoritarian takeover" would come if former President Donald Trump won.

"Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory — too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what was not turned around in the debate, can be turned around now," Doggett said. He later said on NBC that some of his House colleagues privately agreed with him.

That next day, Doggett was joined by Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, who told the New York Times that the debate represented an "opportunity to look elsewhere."

"What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race," said Grijalva. Both men are in their mid-to-late 70s and represent solidly Democratic seats.

Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts later joined them, telling a local radio affiliate that Biden should "step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump."

On Friday, July 5, shortly before Biden's interview with ABC News was set to air, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois said on MSBNC that Biden should "let someone else do this."

And the following Saturday morning, Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota became the first swing-district Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw, saying in a statement that she does "not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump."

Separately, two members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition — Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington — said that they believe Biden will lose to Trump, but did not explicitly call on him to withdraw. Sen. Michael Bennett of Colorado went on CNN to say the same thing.

Golden went as far as to say that he is "OK" with Trump winning, saying he rejects the idea that Trump is a "unique threat to our democracy."

Democratic politicians who don't hold elected office have also called on Biden to step aside.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, one of Biden's competitors in 2020, said that Biden needed to "allow a stronger Democratic candidate to prevent a disastrous second Trump term.

Another 2020 Biden competitor, former Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, published an op-ed calling for Biden to be replaced with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris is one of several Democratic contenders who could replace Biden if he stepped aside.

Here's a full list of the 8 House Democrats who have publicly called on Biden to drop out:

• Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas
• Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona
• Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
• Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois
• Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota
• Rep. Adam Smith of Washington
• Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey
• Rep. Pat Ryan of New York

• I have camped with my five kids for years, and it was difficult to turn them into campers at first.
• Once I let the children get in on the planning of the trips, they loved it. 
• To help your kids love camping too, you should choose the right campsites and focus on nature.

My husband and I were campers before we had five kids. When we became parents, we didn't want to stop our travels.

We wanted to show our kids the beauty of national and state parks across the US without spending our life savings. We decided to drive to our destinations and stay at campgrounds. We learned to save money along the way. It took us a lot of time and patience to turn our kids into campers. But it was all worth it because we've had the opportunity to share this country with our whole family.

If you're interested in taking your children camping, it may be difficult, but these quick tips might help.

Start when the kids are young — and start small

To get our kids — ages 3 to 9 — interested in exploring nature, we took them on short day hikes, giving them some control over where we went and what we did. We took our time and allowed for questions, resting often and enjoying salty snacks and water.

We also made it a game. The kids watched us set up a tent in our backyard. We all squeezed into it for the night. Luckily, a neighbor was selling an old 1967 canvas tent trailer that slept six adults. We bought it. The only thing that needs to be new in camping equipment is your bedding.

We started by taking the kids camping locally. We also took weekend trips to family campgrounds. Eventually, we lengthened our stays and expanded on the activities we did: pools, fishing, hay rides, camp activities, and farm visits.

Let the kids be a part of the planning

Eventually, the kids helped plan weeklong adventures in different states — with activities the whole family would enjoy. In addition to hiking national and state parks, we allowed the kids to choose which activities they wanted to try: tubing down streams, whitewater rafting, horseback riding, and visiting town festivals. We even headed to amusement parks.

The kids loved making checklists before we departed. They made lists for the kitchen, bedding, clothing, food, and toiletry. We loaded the vehicle and our camper before the day of departure, except for perishables. We brought bug spray, sunscreen, hats, raincoats, and maps.

Choose the right type of campgrounds for your family

Through the years, we have used a mix of camping experiences, primarily staying at commercial campgrounds. These have all the amenities: playgrounds, pools, game rooms, showers, and laundromats right on-site. Commercial campgrounds also have full hookups available: electric, water, and sewer. Most commercial campgrounds now have cabins for rent, with barbecues available. All you need are sleeping bags, towels, and kitchen utensils.

As we headed across the country, we interspersed commercial campgrounds with cheaper primitive campsites found in state forests and national parks without hookups, electricity, or showers. Most have flush toilets, and all have drinking water available. At these campgrounds, we used Coleman lanterns to light our camp and flashlights to walk to the toilets and sinks. Campfires or our propane stove provided meals.

Primitive campsites have less light pollution, allowing for star-filled nights. We lay on blankets in a field or on the beach of a lake, gazing up as the stars explode at night.

Focus on nature and each other

The key to making kids campers is to let them be a part of the journey and have interesting things for them to look forward to. Point out the ragged mountaintops in the Rocky Mountains above the tree line dressed with snow in July. Show them the towering trees, as thick and tall as skyscrapers in the California Redwoods — trees all seven of us could not surround.

Our camping experiences were free from television, social media, computers, the internet, and extended family obligations. All we had was each other and nature to enjoy. We experienced the country from the ground. We allowed time for campfires, making s'mores, and sharing stories. We discovered what our children were thinking and feeling.

Yes, making kids campers is tough initially, but it gets better with age — the kids' ages, not the parents'. And the memories can fill a lifetime.

• Buckingham Palace's East Wing is opening to the public for the first time.
• The East Wing, refurbished over many years, includes the famous royal balcony and Centre Room.
• Visitors can see over 3,500 objects, but won't be able to go on the balcony itself.

At seemingly every major state event in the UK, key figures from the British royal family line up on a balcony at Buckingham Palace to wave to the public.

It's where then-Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana shared their first public post-wedding kiss, and where — years later — the "fab four" waved to crowds before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's rift with his family emerged.

But until now this part of the building has never been open to the public.

Starting from July 11, and running until September 29, visitors to the palace will be able to pay around $95 for a guided tour of Buckingham Palace's East Wing, which has just emerged from a lengthy refurbishment.

Tickets sold out within hours of being announced in April, Sky News reported. The palace is considering whether to repeat it next year.

The East Wing covers the building's main facade and includes the Centre Room, which offers a glimpse out onto the balcony.

Built in 1847, it was commissioned by Queen Victoria to accommodate her growing family, closing off what had been a horseshoe-shaped courtyard.

The balcony itself was the idea of Prince Albert, the queen's consort, in order to "connect with the people," Caroline de Guitaut, a palace surveyor, told The Guardian.

But you won't be able to give a royal wave from it yourself, according to the BBC.

This may be due to safety reasons, it suggested — the balcony barrier is below waist height.

The space is also surprisingly cramped, the outlet reported.

Even King Charles seems to have worried about toppling over at his coronation, The Mirror reported in 2023, citing a lip-reader who said he had spoken about not standing too close to the edge.

But even Harry and Meghan can't make appearances there now after the late Queen decided that it was for working royals only.

You might not be able to access the ultimate selfie location, but you can still see a great deal.

Those touring the East Wing can take in more than 3,500 objects, with the Centre Room's crowning feature a giant, lotus-shaped glass chandelier that has hung over the heads of many royals.

Many objects on view are Chinese-themed, reflecting King George IV's love of the country's art and design.

These include recently restored hand-painted wallpaper dating to the 18th century in the room where Queen Elizabeth II sat for many of her portraits, per The Guardian.

The refurbishment of the East Wing cost $475 million, leading to questions in the UK parliament when it was first announced in 2016.

It was ultimately paid for through a massive uptick in the Sovereign Grant, the money that working royals are given to fulfill their public duties.

• "Perfect Match" star Jessica Vestal said Harry Jowsey lied to her for months about kissing Melinda Berry.
• In season 2 of the dating show, Harry kissed Melinda while dating Jessica, but hid it.
• Jessica told the "Viall Files" podcast that she found out the truth when the series finale aired.

Jessica Vestal has opened up about the kissing scandal in "Perfect Match" season two, claiming that Harry Jowsey lied to her about it until the show aired.

Jessica and Harry were initially a popular couple in "Perfect Match" season two, one of Netflix's most-watched shows in June.

But they were at the center of the series' biggest controversy after Melinda Berry, another contestant on the show, claimed Harry kisse her behind Jessica's back.

The kiss scandal started in episode eight, but Harry fiercely denied the rumor. Jessica broke up at the beginning of episode 10.

Netflix never showed the kiss onscreen. But in the final moments of the finale episode, Harry and Melinda were shown trying to sneak off camera, and Harry asked the camera crew if they caught the kiss — suggesting they kissed by he lied.

A few days after the episode aired, Harry admitted to the kiss on his podcast, "Boyfriend Material with Harry Jowsey."

While fans had to wait a few weeks to find out the truth about the kiss, Jessica said she had to wait almost a year.

Jessica told Wednesday's episode of the "Viall Files" podcast that Harry never told her the truth about the kiss.

"They didn't show us that footage at the finale," Jessica said, referring to the clips of Harry and Melinda shown in the finale. "I watched it in real time with everybody else."

Multiple contestants said the series was filmed in the summer of 2023.

Jessica said she and Harry dated for over a month after the series finished filming, but he still didn't tell her the truth.

"He had nothing but time, space, and opportunity to say, 'Hey, this is actually what really happened. I'm telling you so that you don't have to see it when everyone else does, and he didn't give that to me,'" Jessica said.

Jessica went on that she is no longer in contact with Harry.

"After seeing the footage and what actually happened that changed everything. We will probably never speak again," Jessica said.

Jessica added she was "hurt" and "humiliated" when Harry posted about the kissing scandal while she was processing the season two finale.

Jessica didn't specify which post it was but said it was the last post he made. It could be the post below, whihc he made to the sound of Sabrina Carpenter's single "Please, Please Please."

Jessica said she had asked him to stop posting about their relationship on social media on multiple occasions, but he refused.

"His response was, 'I hate that you're experiencing that. Unfortunately, I know how that feels to be beaten up on the internet and I just want you to know that I'm here if you ever need anything," Jessica said, adding that he never deleted the post.

Representatives of Harry Jowsey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• New York's viral new trash bins were part of a multimillion-dollar project involving McKinsey.
• Mayor Eric Adams revealed the new bins as part of his "Trash Revolution," launched Monday.
• New York is embracing containerization — putting your garbage bag in a bin, not just on the street.

New York's much-discussed new trash cans were recommended to the city as part of a $4 million project involving consulting giant McKinsey

On Monday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams revealed the wheeled bin alongside NYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who symbolically put a black bag from his official residence, Gracie Mansion, into the container.

Video of the launch, which saw Adams wheeling a bin onto the street while Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" played, quickly went viral, drawing memes and ridicule from citizens of cities that have had similar bins for decades.

Under the new rules, which come into force on November 12, 2024, all properties with one to nine residential units will be required by law to use one of the latch-lidded waste collectors, now available to purchase online from $46.

The newly introduced requirement seeks to minimize the number of sidewalk rats. It isn't known exactly how many rats are in NYC, but a 2014 study suggested there were around two million, and a pest control firm in 2023 estimated there were close to three million rats in NYC.

Adams said the program was part of his administration's "Trash Revolution," which aims to clean up the city's streets. Officials estimate New Yorkers produce around 14 billion pounds of trash each year. But with the new rule directed at removing about 70% of this, curbside garbage piles are hoped to become a problem of the past.

Plans for the new bins are partly down to consulting giant McKinsey & Company, which was drafted in to help the city assess how to contain its waste. A Sanitation Department official told New York Streetsblog at the time that the project was worth around $4 million.

According to a 2022 New York Times article, McKinsey spent 20 weeks working with the Sanitation Department to determine what sort of bins would suit different streetscapes, what they should look like, and which vendors to use.

The goal was to design a program capable of combating New York's decades-long garbage problem, looking at waste collection methods used in urban areas around the world and focusing on containerization — or, in simple terms, putting trash bags in bins rather than on the street.

The solution decided upon is similar to systems already used in cities like Barcelona, where fleets of colored, uniform bins are often found on residential blocks.

The bin project is far from the firm's first consultation in New York. The Office of the New York State Comptroller shows that McKinsey has worked on at least 10 other projects with the state.

McKinsey declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

• Rep. Ritchie Torres once chided Biden doubters, but now says  Dems must assess "cold hard numbers."
• Sen. Richard Blumenthal supports Biden, but said that he is "deeply concerned" about the election.
• The statements come after new polling numbers indicate Dems are losing ground in key swing states.

On Monday, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York chided his fellow Democrats for the "drip, drip, drip of public statements of no confidence" about President Biden. On Wednesday, Rep. Torres added to that drip himself, though did not explicitly call on the president to bow out of the race.

Even those who publicly support the president are sounding the alarm: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who has affirmed that he is behind Biden since the debate, said on Wednesday that he is "deeply concerned about Joe Biden winning this November."

As Democrats remain divided on how to deal with Biden — and vibes on Capitol Hill remain terrible — recent poll numbers are pouring gasoline on an already blazing fire. The Cook Political Report showed Democrats losing ground in six key battleground states, which evidently worried Rep. Torres. Prior to sharing his updated statement, he posted a picture of the new assessment on Twitter with the caption, "Alarming and sobering."

In his statement from Monday, Rep. Torres said that the ongoing debate about Biden's reelection only risked weakening his candidacy, whereas he seemed more focused on quantitative than qualitative assessments in his updated stance.

"What matters is not how we feel but what the numbers tell us," Rep. Torres said Wednesday. "An unsentimental analysis of the cold hard numbers — which have no personal feelings or political loyalties — should inform what we decide and whom we nominate."

Rep. Torres minced no words during an interview Wednesday with CNN, warning of the down-ballot effects of the election and saying that "if we are going on a political suicide mission, we should at least be honest about it."

Rep. Torres and Sen. Blumenthal's offices did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

Other Democrats are growing increasingly nervous, too. Nancy Pelosi failed to forcefully endorse the president during a talk show appearance on Wednesday, instead offering an uncharacteristically vague response.

• A huge Russian attack hit multiple sites in Ukraine, including a children's hospital. 
• The attack came just before a major NATO summit where a big topic is support for Ukraine.
• An expert said Russia's attack "backfired" by highlighting how much Ukraine needs those defenses.

Russia's deadly strikes on Ukraine just days before the NATO summit, including an attack on a children's hospital, have blown up in its face, stirring outrage in Ukraine, gaining international media attention, and fueling support from partner nations at a time when war fatigue threatens Kyiv's fight.

Monday's attack was one of the worst against Ukraine in months. It destroyed part of the Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv, the capital, where children get cancer treatment and organ transplants, and sites in other cities. Ukraine said the attack killed at least 41 people and injured 166 more.

The attack aggressively highlighted Ukraine's critical need for air defenses, something for which it has been begging Western partners.

Russia's attack was met with more attention than most recent developments in Ukraine, and viral images spread of injured and bloodied children and searches in the rubble.

"Russia's missile strikes that today killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians and caused damage and casualties at Kyiv's largest children's hospital are a horrific reminder of Russia's brutality," US President Joe Biden said afterward.

Biden said at the NATO summit Tuesday that a number of alliance members will send Ukraine dozens of air defense systems, including at least four more Patriot systems, in the coming months.

While such an announcement would have been long in the works, the timing of Russia's attack one day before NATO's biggest event massively highlighted Ukraine's need at a key time when the alliance will be weighing next steps, potentially solidifying its convictions.

Air defense priorities

The annual NATO summit kicked off in Washington, DC, on Tuesday with leaders of the 75-year-old Western military alliance gathering to discuss its priorities, including Ukraine.

Ukraine's primary aim for this summit was to secure more air defenses. The missile attacks the day before underscored that need, just before NATO's biggest gathering of the year, where Ukraine and its partners can meet, negotiate, and strike deals.

The deadly Russian missile attack saw child cancer patients evacuated and moved with medical tubes still in their bodies. Rescue workers and volunteers were seen digging through the post-strike debris. Ukraine's presidential office shared an image of a child, awake in a woman's arms, with a head injury of some kind and covered in blood and dust.

Rajan Menon, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, said Russia's strikes had "backfired" by highlighting how badly Ukraine needs more air defenses.

He said that because one of the sites struck was a children's hospital, it drew far more attention to Russia's attacks and Ukraine's needs. Ukraine's cities have long been bombarded, but this particular tragedy triggered new outrage. "The nature of the site and the nature of the occupants made a very big difference," Menon said.

Ukraine has issued a challenge to its international partners in the wake of the attack, demanding more than just air defenses.

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that the Russian missile attack and its timing were meant to show that even with children being killed, the alliance will not do everything necessary to help Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say allies need to drop restrictions on hitting military targets inside Russia, where many attacks originate, and give Ukraine additional support.

Highlighting Ukraine's needs

One of Russia's more brutal tactics in its invasion has been to fire barrages of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities far from the front lines in the country's east. Those attacks have killed civilians and destroyed power infrastructure and residential and medical buildings.

Ukraine has been asking for more help from allies throughout Russia's invasion and has received many systems from the West. But Ukraine has repeatedly said it needs more, though those requests rarely make international headlines anymore.

Now, more than two years into the war, many of Russia's missile attacks no longer draw huge international reactions. But this week's attack was different. World leaders, including the EU's foreign policy chief and the head of the UN, publicly condemned the attacks.

Menon said that this attack had "without question" drawn more public attention from world leaders than other recent events in Ukraine.

He said that "when you hit not just a hospital or a children's hospital —and not just a children's hospital, but a children's hospital in which there are children were being treated for cancer — it doesn't get much worse than that in terms of brutality."

France's foreign minister called the strikes "barbaric" and "war crimes" and promptly called for Ukraine's allies to strengthen their support.

New UK prime minister Keir Starmer condemned "attacking innocent children" as the "most depraved of actions."

Biden called the strikes "horrific" and said "I will be meeting with President Zelensky to make clear our support for Ukraine is unshakeable."

The Russian missile attacks were also a notable talking point at the NATO summit. The head of Ukraine's parliament started his address by holding up photos of its aftermath and described it as Russian President Vladimir Putin laughing at the red lines the West has set. He added that it showed how the remaining restrictions need to be lifted.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also spoke at the start of the summit. Blinken acknowledged the hospital attack and said that it "underscores" how Russian aggression continues.

A devastating hit

The children's hospital appeared to have been struck by a Russian Kh-101 missile, something the UK MOD previously described as being among Russia's "most valuable weaponry," but it is unclear if the hospital was Russia's intended target.

War analysts looking at videos of the strike said there were no signs of damage or distress on the missile that would suggest it went off course. Russia has, however, long struggled with intelligence reliability and targeting for its devastating barrages.

A UN investigation found the children's hospital likely took a direct hit from a Russian missile, likely a Kh-101. Ukraine also said it found Kh-101 remnants at the site.

Moscow has denied hitting the hospital, arguing instead that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile was responsible. Russia, throughout its invasion, has repeatedly made claims that have been disproven by evidence. War analysts said available visual evidence disputes Russia's claims.

Russia has hit multiple hospitals, medical sites, and civilian sites throughout its war.

Menon said "it doesn't in the end matter whether Russia did it deliberately or it was an errant missile or some commander screwed up. The fact is it was done, and it's a war crime in a legal sense."

Multiple Ukrainian officials have also called the missile attack a war crime, and a UN official said that "intentionally directing attacks against a protected hospital is a war crime and perpetrators must be held to account."

Ukraine's new air defense systems will bolster the country's ability to prevent strikes like this, but they likely won't fully meet its defense needs. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in April that Ukraine needs 25 Patriot systems with between six and eight batteries each to fully protect the country.

That's a tall order as is, but Ukraine wants its international partners to go further still. It wants a clear path into NATO, as well as the lifting of the remaining restrictions on attacking legitimate targets in Russia. It remains unclear if the ongoing NATO summit will produce these results.

Senior defense reporter Jake Epstein contributed to this reporting from the NATO summit.

• Media and tech bosses hate Joe Biden's antitrust policies, which they think are holding them back from buying and selling each other.
• But they tend to be careful about how they express that stuff out loud. What with the upcoming election and all.
• Not WBD CEO David Zaslav, though.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has no opinion about who should win the US presidential election this fall. Except he doesn't want Joe Biden to win.

And no, he didn't come out and use those exact words.

But he got plenty close Tuesday at Sun Valley, the annual media and tech mogul conference:

Via Bloomberg:

Asked about the upcoming presidential election, Zaslav said it mattered less to him which party wins, as long as the next president was friendly to business.

"We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to to be even better," he said.

To be clear: What Zaslav is saying is what many business leaders — particularly in media and tech — say all the time, but relatively quietly: They don't like Joe Biden's antitrust regime, which has led the US government to question and in many cases try to block all kinds of mergers and acquisitions — from Microsoft's $69 billion deal to buy Activision (which eventually went through) to Adobe's $20 billion deal to buy Figma (which didn't go through) to Meta's $400 million deal for Within, a VR company (which eventually went through, too).

And Zaslav's primary benefactor — billionaire investor John Malone, who put Zaslav in the position to run WBD and sits on its board — has been banging the consolidation drum for years.

The two men frequently bring up the idea that WBD would like to buy something and trial-ballooned a Paramount deal last year. Though lots of people see WBD, whose stock is hovering near an all-time low, as a sale target itself. Comcast is usually floated as the potential acquirer in that scenario.

And it's conventional wisdom that if Donald Trump wins the upcoming election, he'll usher in an era where just about any M&A deal you can dream up can go through (as long as Trump doesn't have a problem with one of those companies — ask AT&T and Time Warner, whose deal was held up in court for years during Trump's first administration.)

But it's one thing to think that kind of thing, and to talk about it with other moguls and people who like them. But if you're the high-profile leader of a very high-profile media conglomerate — which includes a very high-profile news organization — you may not want to weigh in on the election while standing in front of a press gaggle. Especially when you've spent the past few years dealing with self-inflicted PR wounds. (WBD didn't respond to my request for comment.)

Which is a reminder that moguls have a few options when it comes to Sun Valley and the media, which is technically an off-the-record event (though some journalists, like CNN's Anderson Cooper, arrive to host closed-door interviews):

• You don't have to say anything at all! Just wave to the cameras, who will document your fake-dressed-down athleisure wear (a polo for Tim Cook; another guns-out t-shirt/vest combo for Jeff Bezos).
• You can say inscrutable stuff to the press gaggle, like Paramount owner (for now) Shari Redstone. Per Bloomberg, Redstone "pointed to reporters as she arrived at the Sun Valley resort and said: 'We're going to save the world together!'"
• You can hold forth for an actual interview, where you either say nothing at all or create all kinds of havoc, like Disney CEO Bob Iger did last year when he put much of the company up for sale, then had to walk that back.

Looks like Zaslav went for a 3-1 combo, and I give him credit for that. Especially his attempt to zhuzh the place up with a bandana and corduroy trucker jacket. Perhaps it's this $4,500 Brunello Cucinelli one?