The US and Iran have exchanged strikes for the first time since agreeing an interim peace deal on June 17, with both sides accusing each other of violating its terms.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on June 17 paved the way for the gradual resumption of commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after months of disruption following the US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February.

The new escalation between Washington and Tehran followed a strike on Thursday against a Singapore-flagged container ship, Ever Lovely, which was traversing the key waterway outside of the route approved by Iran.

US President Donald Trump blamed the attack on Iran, saying on Friday that it fired four drones at the vessel, and that three were intercepted by American forces.

Tehran did not comment, but several hours before it happened, Iran’s newly-formed Persian Gulf Strait Authority warned that it could not guarantee the safety of ships that departed from a specified course close to the Iranian coastline.

What targets did Washington and Tehran strike?

On Friday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that American warplanes struck missile sites, drone storage facilities, and radar installations in Iran in response to the attack on the Singaporean-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz on the previous day.

Iranian media reported that explosions were heard on Sirik Island, in the southern province of Hormozgan.

https://t.co/CckXLJSpah pic.twitter.com/NoMQ7cNtN5

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 27, 2026

Several hours later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it hit “deployment sites of the US terrorist military in the region” in retaliation for strikes on the country’s coastal areas.

What does the US say?

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the attack on the Singaporean-flagged ship a “foolish violation” of the ceasefire by Tehran, but did not say if it would in any way affect further talks between the US and Iran. Under the MOU, the two sides have 60 days to reach a final settlement on their remaining disputes, including Iran’s nuclear program, relief from US sanctions, and the unfreezing of Iranian assets.

What does Iran say?

The IRGC said in a statement on Friday that the US follows a “pattern of breaching its commitments” and used “various pretexts, including the passage of a non-compliant vessel through an unauthorized route in the Strait of Hormuz” to launch its latest attack against Iran.

The Americans have “received the necessary response,” the statement read. The IRGC also stressed that “should this aggression be repeated, our response will be broader than this.” 

Mohsen Rezaei, a senior military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader and a former IRGC commander, told NewsNation on Friday that “the Strait of Hormuz has nothing to do with the US” and should be managed by Iran and Oman, which are located on the opposite shores of the waterway.

“If the US makes even the slightest threat against Iran, the next war will not resemble the previous one... Trump should know that this time they would suffer extensive human losses,” he warned.

How has shipping in the Strait of Hormuz been affected?

During the conflict, Tehran barred vessels linked to the United States and its allies from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington imposed a blockade on Iranian shipping.

After the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed and the restrictions were lifted, tanker traffic through the waterway resumed. A total of 125 ships transited the strait over the following week, according to maritime tracking data.

The attack on the Ever Lovely did not halt traffic through the strait, with several dozen vessels transiting the waterway afterward.

Dispute over the waterway

Iran insists that all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz must get its permission and only use a designated route closer to its coast, while the US is promoting another passage close to Oman’s shores.

Tehran also said that it is considering introducing tolls for ships traversing the waterway after the MOU’s 60-day deadline ends. The US and the Gulf states vigorously oppose the idea, calling it unacceptable and a breach of international law.

OpenAI has restricted the initial rollout of its latest frontier AI models at the request of the US government, marking the first time the company has staggered a flagship release at Washington’s request. Previous generations of ChatGPT were released according to the company’s own schedule and directly to the public.

The decision follows a similar move by Anthropic, which earlier this month disabled access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models three days after launch, after receiving a US government export control directive citing national security concerns.

In a statement on Friday, OpenAI said that it had begun “a limited preview of the GPT 5.6 series… for a small group of trusted partners whose participation has been shared with the government.” The company said the “short-term” arrangement is intended to bridge the gap while the administration develops a framework for reviewing frontier AI models under US President Donald Trump’s June 2 executive order.

The firm has insisted that it believes in “broad access” and said it plans to make the new models – Sol, Terra and Luna – generally available in the coming weeks.

Some mainstream media and policy commentators have argued that the US government is expanding its influence over the rollout of cutting-edge AI systems without a clear legal framework. Some have warned that ad hoc oversight could reduce predictability for developers and ultimately weaken the competitiveness of US AI firms.

The tighter scrutiny marks a shift in the administration’s approach to artificial intelligence. After returning to office in 2025, Trump championed minimal regulation, calling AI “a beautiful newborn baby” that is key to competing with China and warning against “politics or stupid rules” that could hinder its growth.

Britain has lost yet another prime minister, its fourth since 2022, after Keir Starmer, the latest occupant of 10 Downing Street, announced his resignation after less than two years in office.

The drama has unfolded almost exactly as it did with Boris Johnson. Four years ago, Johnson’s own party colleagues removed him from office in the hope that his departure might save the Conservatives from electoral disaster. It didn’t but it merely hastened the collapse.

Now Labour, with its own ratings falling sharply, is attempting the same trick. Unlike the Conservatives, however, it does at least have a plausible saviour waiting in the wings, the still relatively popular mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham. Whether he can succeed where his predecessors failed is another matter because Britain isn’t suffering from a passing bout of political bad luck, it’s in the grip of a deep systemic crisis.

Starmer and Johnson, for all their differences, shared one fatal instinct. Both tried to legitimize themselves through the conflict in Ukraine and both reached for the mantle of war leader. In the end, it crushed them.

Starmer copied the tactic, but without Johnson’s theatrical instincts or timing and his foreign policy soon became a kind of running joke as Euro-Atlantic commentators praised his supposedly powerful performances on the international stage. British voters, however, had a more basic question wondering why was their prime minister spending so much time away from the country he was supposed to govern?

By some estimates, Starmer spent more than two months abroad during his short premiership, roughly one-sixth of his time in office. Even Johnson, not exactly a model of administrative seriousness, spent only 18 days abroad over a comparable period. When voters start looking back on Boris Johnson as a more domestically attentive prime minister, something has gone badly wrong.

Throughout this period, Starmer’s approval ratings kept hitting new lows, buy he appeared not to notice. He continued his tours of summits and photo opportunities. Here lies the central lesson, that Ukraine no longer works as a magic wand for Western politicians.

For a time, it did. Johnson used Ukraine as a shield against domestic failure, and for a while it worked.

Starmer is not alone in discovering this, given Germany’s Friedrich Merz fell into the same trap. He came to office styling himself as a foreign policy chancellor, only to see his standing decline as his obsession with Ukraine became more obvious. In less than a year, his ratings have fallen sharply, while Alternative for Germany has surged to the point where it is approaching the combined support of the ruling coalition parties meaning Merz, too, is already looking politically vulnerable.

Western Europeans haven’t suddenly fallen out of love with Ukraine and nor have they become admirers of Russia overnight. The point is simpler in that Ukraine is no longer the central issue in their political lives.

In 2026, Western voters want their leaders to deal with the problems directly in front of them. They want functioning public services, affordable energy, secure borders, decent housing and some sign that their governments are not merely branch offices of a wider Euro-Atlantic project. They are tired of castles in the air, however noble the slogans attached to them may be.

The next British prime minister now faces a similar choice. One path is easy and familiar, double down on Ukraine, pose as the next Churchill, and hope the gamble works better this time. The other is harder but more rational, step back and concentrate on Britain’s internal decay.

That doesn’t mean Britain will formally abandon Kiev. No future government in London is likely to announce such a reversal openly, so the more likely scenario is more discreet, less enthusiasm, fewer grand gestures, more symbolic support, and a gradual scaling back of Britain’s involvement in pro-Ukrainian projects.

From a pragmatic point of view, such a pause would be in London’s interest. Britain has spent years trying to posture as one of the leaders of the anti-Russian coalition while its own domestic foundations have continued to crack and the voters have noticed. 

Does Burnham understand this? It’s too early to say, but if he doesn’t, someone else eventually will. The age in which Ukraine could rescue failing Western politicians is over and Starmer is merely the latest to discover it.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

A California appeals court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for former US film producer Harvey Weinstein while upholding his convictions for raping and sexually assaulting Russian-born model-actress Evgeniya Chernyshova. The original 16-year term was based “solely on an aggravating factor that no longer exists,” the court stated in a ruling on Friday.

The disgraced Hollywood movie mogul, who was accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women, was sentenced in 2023 for “forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by a foreign object and forcible rape” of the actress during a film festival in Los Angeles in 2013.

During that sentencing hearing, Weinstein maintained his innocence, calling the Siberian-born actress’ testimony a “made-up story,” and claiming that she “turned the tears on” when she wept in the courtroom.

The aggravating factor was Weinstein’s 2020 New York conviction, for which he was sentenced to 23 years in prison after being found guilty of raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann and committing a criminal sexual act against former production assistant Miriam Haley. The trial judge relied on that conviction in imposing the maximum sentence in the Los Angeles case in 2023.

However, New York’s highest court overturned the 2020 judgment in 2024, ruling that testimony from women whose allegations were not part of the criminal charges had unfairly prejudiced the jury. Prosecutors retried Weinstein, but two subsequent retrials ended with hung juries on the rape charge involving Mann.

Notably, on Thursday, New York prosecutors abandoned plans to try him a fourth time after Mann said she could not endure testifying again. Weinstein is still awaiting sentencing on his conviction for the sexual assault of Haley, with prosecutors seeking a 20-year prison term.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has once again been named Africa’s highest-ranked university, improving its position in the latest US News Best Global Universities Rankings.

The 2026-2027 rankings, released on June 17, place UCT 122nd in the world, up from 124th in the previous edition. The result places the institution among the top 5% of the 2,250 universities assessed globally.

The latest ranking further cements UCT’s status as one of Africa’s foremost research institutions and underscores South Africa’s contribution to international scientific and academic research.

The US News rankings differ from university league tables that place greater emphasis on factors such as student experience, employability and sustainability. Instead, they focus primarily on research output, academic reputation, publications, citations and international collaboration.

“UCT’s influence goes beyond ranking positions. Our mission is to deliver outstanding teaching and learning, while advancing both curiosity-driven research and work that addresses the evolving challenges of our time,” said Professor Thokozani Majozi, UCT’s deputy vice-chancellor for research and internationalisation.

“Together, these efforts contribute towards shaping a sustainable future, and this result reflects the breadth of that impact.”

[ICYMI] The University of Cape Town remains the highest-ranked university in Africa in the 2027 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings released on 18 June 2026.

The university is placed within the top 2% of more than 8 808 institutions evaluated worldwide.… pic.twitter.com/YiODTJo1DL

— UCT (@UCT_news) June 19, 2026

One of UCT’s strongest performances came in the field of infectious diseases, where the university ranked 14th globally. The ranking is particularly significant given South Africa’s continued fight against diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV.

Professor Digby Warner, director of UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, said the recognition reflected years of research undertaken in communities most affected by these health challenges. “This recognition is especially meaningful because much of this work is conducted in settings where infectious diseases remain among the most urgent health challenges,” Warner said.

The rankings are based on research data collected between 2020 and 2024, as well as academic reputation surveys conducted from 2021 to 2025. Strong performances in international rankings can enhance the global recognition of South African qualifications, while also helping universities attract research funding, international partnerships and academic talent.

First published by IOL

The European Commission has proposed excluding military-age Ukrainian men from temporary refugee protections granted by the EU, while maintaining the scheme for others who fled the conflict with Russia for another year.

Kiev announced a general mobilization shortly after the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, barring almost all men considered eligible for service from leaving Ukraine. However, many of them still managed to escape the country; adult males currently account for around 27% of all Ukrainians benefiting from EU protections, with the rest being women and minors, according to the bloc’s data.

In a statement on Friday, the European Commission said that it is asking member states to back the prolongation of the scheme, providing Ukrainian refugees with residence permits, the right to work and access to medical assistance, social welfare and education, until March 2028.

The EU executive body stressed that by making the proposal it “reinforces its unwavering commitment to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

“To ensure this, temporary protection is not to be granted as a rule to newly arriving persons who are not authorized by the Ukrainian authorities to leave Ukraine in view of their military obligations,” the statement read.

The measure put forward by the commission would only affect the new arrivals, while military-age Ukrainian men who are already in the EU will remain part of the scheme.

“This is something the Ukrainians asked us to do,” the bloc’s internal affairs chief, Magnus Brunner, said of the decision by Brussels to refuse protections for males aged 22 to 60.

The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said they want their men returned from abroad amid troop shortages and steady advances by the Russian forces along the front line. Vladimir Zelensky stressed in April that “our armed forces would certainly like them to come back because it is a matter of justice.”

Ukraine has had to rely on mandatory – and often forced – conscription to replenish its military ranks, with a practice dubbed ‘bussification’, in which draft officers ambush military-age men on the streets, often leading to violent altercations and public outrage.

Record numbers of victims are waiting more than a year for their cases to be heard in the UK, and clearing the backlog “could take nearly 300 years,” Courts minister Sarah Sackman has said.

According to Ministry of Justice figures, there is currently a backlog of 80,061 cases in Britain’s crown courts, and 370,722 cases in lower magistrates’ courts, an increase of 5% and 11% on last year, respectively. Some 6,000 crown court cases have been waiting for more than two years, with 2,000 rape cases held up for more than a year.

The closure of courts and government institutions during the Covid-19 lockdowns is directly responsible for soaring wait times, with the crown court’s caseload doubling since 2020.

Speaking to Sky News on Friday, Sackman claimed that the ruling Labour Party is “starting to stabilize the backlog,” but “at this pace, it could take nearly 300 years to clear the backlog to pre-pandemic levels.”

In the meantime, Starmer has freed thousands of hardened criminals from British prisons to make way for those convicted of speech crimes. More than 1,000 convicts were released early in 2024, as British police rounded up people who participated in or encouraged anti-immigration riots. Up to 7,000 more will be released early this September, with the Conservative Party warning that “killers and rapists, including the evil rape gang perpetrators” will be among them.

Starmer’s government has argued that the court backlog can be tackled with increased investment, and by handling more cases at magistrates’ courts, where they are typically resolved faster.

However, the prime minister has also utilized the crisis to reshape the UK’s justice system. A bill put forward by the government earlier this year would abolish jury trials for all but the most serious offenses, such as murder and rape. The bill has been condemned by lawyers and civil rights groups, with the Bar Council calling it “an unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced change to the jury system,” and the Society of Asian Lawyers defending juries as a “crucial check against state overreach.”

Burkina Faso has severed diplomatic relations with France, becoming the latest West African nation to distance itself from its former colonial ruler after years of deteriorating ties.

The decision was announced in a statement released on Friday by Burkinabe Communications Minister Gilbert Ouedraogo and posted by the country’s official information service. It said the move took effect on June 26.

Ouagadougou accused France of pursuing neocolonial ambitions, interfering in Burkina Faso’s internal affairs, and backing “subversive networks” and “terrorists.”

“Faced with these imperialist aims of domination over our country and the enslavement of our people, we have chosen responsibility and sovereignty,” the statement said. France has previously denied accusations that it supports terrorism in the Sahel.

COMMUNIQUE RELATIF A LA RUPTURE DES RELATIONS DIPLOMATIQUES ENTRE LE BURKINA FASO ET LA REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE

Le Gouvernement du Burkina Faso porte à la connaissance de l’opinion nationale et internationale qu’il a pris la décision de rompre ses relations diplomatiques avec la… pic.twitter.com/n444Q3K82a

— SIG Burkina Faso (@sigbf) June 26, 2026

The statement said the decision applies only to diplomatic relations and does not affect the historical, cultural, and social ties between the Burkinabe and French peoples.

Diplomatic relations between Burkina Faso and France have steadily deteriorated since the military seized power in Ouagadougou in 2022. The new authorities ended military cooperation with Paris, forcing French troops to leave the country the following year.

Paris has lost its foothold in several former colonies amid a wave of anti-French sentiment fueled by allegations of military failures and interference. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have expelled French troops and accused their former metropole of supporting armed groups fueling the deadly jihadist insurgency in the region.

France has previously denied the accusations and said it does not recognize the legitimacy of the military governments in the three West African countries, and is backing efforts to restore civilian rule.

A German court has sentenced Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a Saudi immigrant, to life in prison for driving a car into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg in December 2024, killing six people, including a nine-year-old boy, and injuring more than 200.

The Magdeburg Regional Court handed down the sentence on Friday, convicting al-Abdulmohsen of six counts of murder and more than 200 counts of attempted murder. Judges ruled that he acted out of personal grievances rather than religious or ideological motives.

The court said the attack stemmed from a dispute with a refugee aid organization that had led to a 2023 ruling ordering al-Abdulmohsen to pay €1,300 ($1,484) in damages.

During the trial, prosecutors presented an email in which he warned that the German people would pay an “enormous price” for the country's treatment of Saudi opposition figures. Before carrying out the attack, he had also considered targeting a street cafe or the local public prosecutor’s office, the court heard.

A psychiatric expert diagnosed al-Abdulmohsen with narcissistic personality disorder but found him fit to stand trial. Ironically, the Saudi national, who had lived in Germany since 2006 and was granted asylum in 2016, had himself worked as a psychiatrist for years.

Saudi Arabia had also repeatedly warned German authorities about him and reportedly sought his extradition on terrorism and human trafficking charges, but the requests were allegedly ignored. Al-Abdulmohsen was known as a long-time critic of both the Saudi government and Islam.

Germany has experienced several vehicle-ramming attacks over the past decade, some of them carried out by foreign nationals living in the country. Politicians on the right, including the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, have argued that the attacks expose the consequences of lax immigration controls and the open-door migration policies pursued by successive German governments.

A light aircraft has crashed into the 109-storey CITIC Tower in Beijing, forcing the evacuation of the city's tallest skyscraper, according to media reports.

The 528-meter (1,732-foot) tower, also known as China Zun, dominates the skyline of the Chinese capital’s central business district.

Videos circulating on social media appear to show debris from a light sport aircraft falling to the ground after it struck the upper section of the building at around 5:40 PM local time on Friday.

Reuters reported that two glass panels on one of the tower’s upper floors were shattered in the impact. Chinese authorities have not yet confirmed the number of casualties or disclosed the cause of the crash.

A SMALL PLANE HAS CRASHED INTO THE CITIC TOWER IN BEIJING, CHINA

🇨🇳🇨🇳‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/zTXTBWuzE0

— WW3 Monitor (@WW3_Monitor) June 26, 2026

Emergency crews quickly responded to the scene, with several ambulances seen near the skyscraper as police sealed off the surrounding area and moved onlookers away.

A woman who said she works in the tower described the hurried evacuation to the South China Morning Post.

“I ran out without my ID card or bag,” she told the outlet.

Authorities have not announced whether anyone aboard the aircraft survived.

The commander of one of Ukraine’s largest assault units has been suspended after a media investigation reported torture, abuse, and multiple non-combat deaths among recruits.

Lt. Col. Yury Harkaviy, who heads the 425th Separate Assault Regiment “Skelia” (formerly “Skala”), was removed from duty pending inspections and investigations, the army’s communications service announced on Thursday.

“If the facts of criminal offenses mentioned in the publications are confirmed, the guilty will definitely be held accountable in accordance with the law,” the Ukrainian army said in a statement.

The move follows an investigation by the Ukrainian outlet Babel published on Tuesday, which alleged severe mistreatment of mobilized soldiers at the regiment’s training sites. Citing relatives, former service men, and current soldiers, the outlet said at least 25 recruits had died in or after passing through the unit’s training camps over the past six months.

One former recruit, Aleksandr Semyonov, reportedly arrived at a hospital in January with head wounds, lacerated arms, broken fingers, and abrasions, claiming that he had been beaten and dragged along the ground after being tied to a quad bike. He died days later, with pneumonia listed as the official cause of death.

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation responded to the report by opening a pre-trial probe into possible abuse of authority by military officials under martial law.

“Skelia” has denied systematic abuse, declaring that the allegations require verification. The regiment said that many of the reported deaths occurred in hospitals or on the way to medical facilities, and attributed some fatalities to illnesses or poor health among mobilized soldiers.

The scandal comes as Ukraine faces deepening manpower shortages after more than four years of conflict. Kiev has tightened mobilization rules and expanded compulsory recruitment, while Ukrainian media have repeatedly reported violent draft raids, deaths in conscription centers, and cases of seriously ill men being declared fit for service.

Moscow has repeatedly said Kiev is running out of willing soldiers and is relying on coercive mobilization to replenish battlefield losses. Russian officials have accused the Ukrainian authorities of sacrificing their own population to keep fighting on behalf of Western backers.

The US and Iran have exchanged strikes for the first time since signing an interim peace framework on June 17.

On Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that American forces had struck missile, drone and radar sites in Iran in response to a drone attack on the Singaporean-flagged cargo ship Ever Lovely the previous day. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had retaliated by firing at American bases in the region.

Both sides accused each other of violating the memorandum of understanding signed last week. The hostilities come as Iran and the US clash over differing interpretations of the agreement regarding the administration of the Strait of Hormuz, Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, and Iran’s frozen assets.

Protests also broke out in Beirut after the Lebanese government signed an agreement with Israel and the US in Washington. Hezbollah rejected the deal, demanding that Israel completely withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah officials warned that attempts to enforce the agreement could lead to civil war.

This live feed has ended.

Protests have broken out in Beirut in response to the Lebanese government signing a peace agreement with Israel and the US despite it being rejected by Hezbollah.

People gathered in the streets waving Hezbollah and Iranian flags. Armed Hezbollah supporters rode in motorcades, while government troops were deployed across the capital and set up checkpoints.

Under the agreement signed on Friday, Israel and Lebanon affirmed “the right of each state to exist in peace” and expressed their intention to conclude a lasting peace.

Hezbollah, however, has demanded that Israel completely withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon.

Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah member of parliament, warned that the Lebanese government would be “unable to enforce the agreement signed in Washington unless they go, with American support, to civil war.”

RT’s Ali Rida Sbeity reports from Beirut that Hezbollah and its allies view the agreement as humiliating and believe it gives Israel greater freedom to operate in the parts of Lebanon which it continues to occupy.

So let me get this straight. Top Iran critic, former Trump National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has successfully cut a deal on spying-related charges with the US government for $2.25 million and to have any prison time capped at five years max – after Iran got ahold of a treasure trove of top secret intelligence thanks to him? And is confident that a judge would just go along with it?

On Friday, a federal grand jury’s initial 18 charges against Bolton for unlawful transmission and retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act were whittled down to a guilty plea on a single count of illegal retention – which the feds have apparently agreed to blow off in exchange for a couple of million dollars from Bolton and maybe a little bit of prison time... or not. Don’t try this at home, kids. Unless you’re sufficiently connected to the permanent neocon Washington establishment.

It’s now up to a judge, sometime later this Fall, to decide whether Bolton will even have to do any hard time that normally accompanies such a conviction. But the plea deal is an attempt to largely put that judge in front of a fait accompli.

Look, I hate to kick a guy when he’s down. Because it’s clear that Bolton’s career has really suffered. He’s still all over every major news network despite – or maybe because of – this plea having been announced earlier this month and now finalized. Or maybe it’s his predictable willingness to slam his former boss, Trump, although Trump’s screwups since getting into war with Iran alongside Israel have largely eliminated Iran as a wedge issue between neocon critics and many of his supporters.

Bolton has been front and center, proclaiming Trump’s dealings with Iran have been disastrous, how he’s given them the upper hand, and how handing them control over the Strait of Hormuz would be a big screwup. Because in Bolton’s neocon world, the US controls the planet and dictates outcomes. Every other country is just a non-playable character.

The Justice Department’s indictment from October 2025 confirmed that Iran-linked hackers likely accessed classified US national defense information on Bolton’s AOL account. It alleged that he had sent emails to his wife and daughter through that account from intelligence briefings and internal discussions. Such things can reveal what the US thinks about Iran and its allies and foes, and indirectly expose sources and methods.

Meetings with foreign leaders and senior government officials included in the material kept and transmitted by Bolton can provide insight into diplomatic strategy and possibly allied positions and negotiating tactics.

Prosecutors said that Bolton had kept a diary, about 1,000 pages worth of national security gossip. He teased his family with previews of the juicy info that he was going to write up and send, like a teenager. And, boy, were they thirsty. “Diary arrived,” said one Bolton family member. “But no commentary on [Foreign Country 1] judicial system article I sent or administration sentiment on [arrest in Foreign Country 1]?” To which Bolton replied, “I’m working on it!” Meetup with the girls in the bathroom between classes!

Later, he wrote, “Stuff coming!!! Hard copy at home…” It’s not hard to imagine Iranian hackers being thrilled to hear it, at least as much as Bolton’s family members, who despite lacking the clearances necessary to handle top secret sensitive and compartmentalized information, were the recipients of several such documents, including a 24-page report on January 13, 2019, a 47-page document on September 8, 2019, and a 6-page document on September 15, 2019 after he had been fired. That last one was received by a Bolton family member who replied, “Dramatic ending.” She wasn’t talking about Bolton being dropkicked from the Oval Office, but rather how Bolton left her hanging after telling her: “Stuff coming!!!”

Seems like a small price to pay for tipping off Iran. Particularly when unlawful transmission and retention under the Espionage Act only requires a willfulness to communicate or retain and knowledge of the information’s nature – not a specific intent to harm the US.

One can only be thrilled that Bolton could end up escaping any real punishment, since it sets a precedent for any whistleblower who does far less damage with classified information than ends up tipping off Iran while publicly ranting against it. Just be sure to ask the US government for the John Bolton neocon discount.

Former Russian Defense Minister and longtime confidant of President Vladimir Putin, Sergey Ivanov, has died at the age of 73, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced on Friday.

Ivanov began his career in the late 1970s as a KGB officer in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, where he first met Putin. He later recalled that they shared an office during their time in the Soviet security service.

Fluent in English, he spent a decade in the KGB’s foreign intelligence branch, undertaking assignments in the UK, Finland, and Kenya, according to Russian media. Years later, Ivanov told reporters that he had also learned Swedish during his stint as a KGB operative.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ivanov joined the newly created Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) before moving to the Federal Security Service (FSB). There, he rose to become deputy director under Putin, who headed the agency in the late 1990s.

During that period, Russia was hit by a series of major terrorist attacks carried out by Chechen Islamist militants – events that preceded the Second Chechen War. Amid the conflict, Ivanov was appointed secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

He served as defense minister from 2001 to 2007, overseeing the early stages of a sweeping military reform aimed at building a more professional armed force by expanding contract service and reducing reliance on conscription.

After Putin endorsed Medvedev’s candidacy, Ivanov backed the nomination. Following Medvedev’s election victory, Putin became prime minister, with Ivanov serving as deputy prime minister.

When Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, Ivanov was appointed head of the presidential administration, a position he held until 2016.

For the last decade, Ivanov served as Putin’s special representative for environmental protection and ecology before stepping down in February.

Outside politics, Ivanov was an avid basketball fan with a passion for ballet and classic rock, particularly The Beatles and Pink Floyd, as he said in interviews with Russian media.

No details of Ivanov’s funeral have been announced, although Russian media have suggested he may be laid to rest in his native St. Petersburg.

This weekend the National Hockey League (NHL) Draft takes place in Buffalo, New York, and the business of sport will outplay geopolitics. Since the 1970s Summit Series, the Transatlantic and Transpacific dialogue between North America and Russia hinged on ice hockey. Then, pro teams in the US and Canada looked covetously upon the Soviet Union’s Big Red Machine and dreamed of ‘freeing’ goalie Vladislav Tretyak and winger Valeri Kharlamov from communism. However, the capitalism then of using up and disposing of men is very different now, where teens become millionaires in a matter of minutes.

The youngsters from Russia about to be drafted into the biggest hockey league in the world expect to earn millions and never have to work a day in their lives once they retire. After 21 Russians were selected in the 2025 draft, the fourth-highest total by nation, what names should you be looking out for in the biggest sports event this Friday and Saturday in North America?

Top of the Pile

With the top pick, the Toronto Maple Leafs will grab top rated Canadian left winger – his position not his politics – Gavin McKenna. The volatile Yukon teen plays college hockey with Penn State and shot the lights out last year. Despite criminal misdemeanor charges pending against him for a brutal street fight, he is NHL box office. While the top-10 will be filled out with North American and Nordic players, a Latvian defenseman, Alberts Smits, going early will push our first Russian way up in the picking order. 

Nikita Shcherbakov (18), a big, bruising left-sided defender might be the first Russian name called out. Boston’s Bruins desperately need a ‘killer’ in the back line and the 6’5” boy from Salavat Yulaev Ufa fits their bill. The Bruins, with the 23rd pick, know he is close to being ‘NHL Ready’ having already played in the Continental Hockey League (KHL).

In any case, the Chelyabinsk native’s name will be called in the 1st or 2nd rounds, with the Pittsburgh Penguins waiting to catch him with the 7th pick of the 2nd round.

High up on the draft board will be Ilya Morozov (17), who made history last year when he became the youngest college hockey player in US history when he took to the ice for Miami University (Ohio). Ilia left Moscow for Chicago aged 14 to play for the Tri City Storm of the US Hockey League. After starring for their affiliate team, the Windy City Storm, he bagged 11 goals and 11 assists for the main team, before his talent shone brighter in the NCAA.

Eight goals and 12 assists in 36 games doesn’t sound like Ovechkin or Gretzky numbers, but when you factor in his age, the 6’3” monster two-way Center with sensitive hands, is only going to get better.

He’s not NHL ready yet, but the team that gets him now will have a playmaking, goal machine in 2028-29. He’s a 1st round pick with the Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames, and New York Rangers all looking at him.

Stars in the making

Gleb Pugachyov (18), a right winger from Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, is like one of those horses who wake up late in a race and start a hard gallop a mile out from home. He’s strong, skillful, can pass, and score. NHL insiders didn’t see him as more than a late round (rounds 6 or 7) pick, until he was thrown into KHL action this January.

A European scout from the Detroit Red Wings told me that “he’s got tremendous upside and is almost NHL ready. A year of seasoning here [North America] in AHL and he’ll be a starter in two years.” If that valuation holds, Gleb will go by the end of the 2nd round. The Seattle Kraken, Red Wings, and San Jose Sharks like the look of him.

Alexei Vlasov (18) was talked about as a surefire in the first two rounds only a few months ago. He’s played in the brutal Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and has committed to the University of Connecticut, but the tough left winger from Yekaterinburg is underestimated due to his height. NHL clubs who still believe that size matters.

Fast, clever, durable, aggressive, he’s a typical Russian skater with a bit of Canadian cruelty [towards opponents]. A former colleague who works with the Charlottetown Islanders, a QMJHL club called him “one of the purest scorers for his age.” He noted that a couple of years of NCAA hockey would help him mature and that “whoever picks him is getting a 50 point per season player.” Alexei might well sneak up into the 3rd or even 2nd rounds.

Lavrenti Gashilov (18) is an undersized center who loves to score goals. The Automobilist Yekaterinburg star knows where the goal is and has a maturity well beyond his years. The Urals region is a hotbed for talent, with factory towns and industrial cities relying on hockey for escaping reality one season at a time.

Despite dozens of ‘better’ players in his position up for grabs, NHL clubs recognize his puck handling, intelligence, grit, and vision. The Utah Mammoth want him as a development project, which means dropping to the 3rd or even 4th rounds.

Net Gains

Russian shotstoppers have a superb reputation that began with Vladislav Tretyak. The exposure to football, the kickball kind, gives Russian and, indeed, European netminders a bigger set of tools to work with. Over a decade ago, Tretyak told me that North American keepers are as good technically as their European counterparts, but that the best European was better than the best North American.

Now that the scene has been set, who are the two Russian goalies who might encourage NHL clubs to take a chance on them between their pipes?

Dmitri Borichev and Yegor Rybkin, both 18, are the consensus best non-North American stoppers, but there’s a but. Two of the top ‘North Americans’ are Czechs plying their trade in junior hockey there. The Russians are better, in principle, than them or even highly touted American Brady Knowling, but NHL clubs are risk adverse and will go local.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s Borichev, from Vologda – the home of Russia’s Santa Claus, is a fine player and will be let ripen in Russia for a couple of years, regardless of being picked. The no longer ‘mighty’ Anaheim Ducks could grab him in the 3rd round if the Edmonton Oilers don’t draft him in the 2nd. He will be the 2nd goalie taken, this is a certainty.

Rybkin is a 6’7” giant who fills the net, but NHL clubs worry that his relative inexperience outweighs his gymnastic ability. The Tampa Bay Lightning are considering using their 3rd round pick on him, though the St. Louis Blues are waiting in the 4th if he’s still available.

There is a wild card in the pack of Russian goalkeepers, though. At 6’3”, Samara’s Stepan Shurygin (18) bears an interesting similarity to Tretyak’s style of play and has put himself back on the draft boards of at least 8 clubs, one of whom just won the Stanley Cup. The Carolina Hurricanes received “positive reports” about him and feel he’s worth a 4th round (105th overall) selection. If Rybkin, currently with the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League, goes to the Raleigh-based outfit, he could be getting game time in a couple of seasons.

Best of the rest

Alan ShaikhlIslamov (18), who can play on either wing, and Matvei Kotkov (17), who’s capable of playing anywhere in the front 3, are top class prospects whose versatility goes against them.

Alan, currently contracted to Salavat Yulaev Ufa, is a natural born scorer with a verve that excites crowds. But that’s not important for NHL clubs, who don’t seem to appreciate what he can offer and leave it until the 3rd of 4th rounds to take him, with the Winnipeg Jets most likely to be that team.

Matvei has a double disadvantage: versatility and size. This youngster, who is with KHL champs Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, would be a 2nd round steal for a General Manager with a set of pucks and backbone, though sadly the NHL has few long-term thinkers, or even thinkers, running clubs. Matvei could go in rounds 6 or 7, but like 6-7, he will grow and grow, and end up being the standout of Russia’s 2026 class.

Boston, New Jersey, and Las Vegas are looking to take Yaroslav Fedoseyev (18), a defenseman, later on in the draft. His Belye Medvedi (White Bears) team coaches say that he’s dedicated to his craft, butt here’s a chance he might not get drafted at all. Personally, he’s a 5th rounder.

Another right-sided defender, Vsevolod Matveyev (18), is quality but NHL clubs worry about his lack of offensive production. Currently with Spartak Moscow juniors, the Detroit Red Wings like him and plan on letting him marinate for a year in the KHL after taking him in the 5-7 rounds.

In with a chance

A pair of Egors, forwards Shilov and Barabanov, have interested NHL scouts enough to have them picked in rounds 3-5. At 20, Barabanov is one of the oldest Russians in this year’s draft and was overlooked the last two years. Having put up 91 points for the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit this season, he decided to go to college and play for the University of Massachusetts. The speedy sharpshooter from St. Petersburg has interest from the L.A. Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Shilov (18), from the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres, is a proper wildcard. He could be the first Russian picked this year, or he could fall to the 4th round. He can score, assist, and play with great grace, but he’s described as “too intelligent” for the NHL. He’s committed to play college hockey with Penn State next year, though the Chicago Blackhawks might make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Russian rookies will arrive into an NHL where the overall salary cap is set to rise this year and next. While most of those drafted will stay with their junior, college, or KHL clubs for another year or two, they could be earning close to a million dollars a year when they begin NHL play.

By Sunday morning, we’ll know just how accurate these predictions have been and just who is on the road to being the next Ovechkin or Tretyak.

Newly released police footage shows the man convicted of murdering British student Henry Nowak repeatedly telling officers he had been the victim of a racist attack – claims a judge later ruled were entirely false. The recording comes weeks after bodycam video showing police handcuffing the dying 18-year-old sparked nationwide outrage over the officers’ response. 

Nowak was stabbed to death in Southampton last December after being confronted by Vickrum Singh Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh from the city. Digwa was convicted of murder last month and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years after the court rejected his account of the attack. 

Published by the Crown Prosecution Service for the first time on Friday, the recording captures Digwa giving officers the account he maintained after the stabbing. He is heard repeatedly claiming that he had been “racially attacked,” alleging the student had pulled off his turban while never telling officers he had stabbed him. He continued making those claims as officers arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder. Unlike Nowak, Digwa was not restrained. 

The killer of student Henry Nowak was never handcuffed by police, newly released video shows

🔗: https://t.co/KqEVYvz3kS pic.twitter.com/LOfCavXBkZ

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 26, 2026

Elsewhere in the recording, Digwa claimed he had been “literally just walking” when Nowak barged into him. He told officers he could smell alcohol on the student, continuing to portray himself as the victim. 

Bodycam footage showed officers handcuffing Nowak, who was lying on the ground and repeatedly telling them he had been stabbed and could not breathe. He was dragged across gravel, placed under arrest for assault, and left in handcuffs as he lost consciousness and drowned in his own blood. 

The court heard Digwa stabbed Nowak five times, including a fatal wound to the heart, before hiding the student’s mobile phone in his pocket. Although practicing Sikhs are legally permitted to carry a small ceremonial blade known as a kirpan, prosecutors said the murder weapon was a much larger knife that Digwa carried alongside his kirpan.  

Nowak’s father said his son “did not die with dignity” and described the police treatment as “inhumane and degrading.”  

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the case was “proof, if ever there was any,” that Britain was “living in a two-tier culture” where “the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.” 

The killing has reignited debate in Britain over policing, immigration, and violent crime, with critics arguing that police and politicians prioritize policing speech, protests, and “hate incidents” while failing to get dangerous blades and violent offenders off the streets. It has also renewed scrutiny of the country’s long-running knife crime crisis. 

Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised Nowak’s family at the time for showing “extraordinary dignity” after their son’s life was “stolen in appalling circumstances” and acknowledged there were “serious questions to answer.” However, he condemned the unrest as “disgraceful and completely unacceptable.”

The US has conducted airstrikes in Iran for the first time since a preliminary peace agreement was signed on June 17.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said American aircraft struck missile sites, drone storage facilities and radar installations on Friday in response to a drone attack on the Singaporean-flagged commercial vessel M/V Ever Lovely in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier.

“The unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces clearly violated the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said in a statement on X.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump blamed Iran for attacking the vessel, calling it a “foolish violation.”

Iranian media reported that explosions were heard on Sirik Island, in the southern province of Hormozgan. IRIB, citing a source, said that two projectiles struck a telecommunications tower near Sirik.

Although Iran has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the Ever Lovely, the country has said that only Iran and Oman can “define the future administration and maritime services” in the strategic waterway.

“Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz cannot be guaranteed under ambiguous arrangements, parallel routes or decision-making that does not take Iran’s role as a coastal state into account,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote on X.

The resumption of hostilities comes at a delicate time, as the US and Iran are discussing the implementation of the memorandum of understanding signed last week. The sides have put forward conflicting interpretations of the agreement, clashing over the administration of the Strait of Hormuz, the fate of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, and Israel’s military operation in Lebanon.

As a former international athlete, seeing your flag raised or hearing your anthem play is a nice bonus. Ultimately you compete for yourself, and win or lose you do it for yourself too. Yes, family, club, coach, friends, pets, nation etc., are important, but so long as you’re treated the same as those you’re up against, you can go and give it your best shot. However, after interviewing Russians since 2019 who saw their flag and anthem banned, I asked myself – what if when I competed, the Irish flag and anthem was banned?

It’s Groundhog Day and the sports world is marching to the beat of the anti-sport drum yet again. Despite ruling that Russian and Belarusian athletes be treated as equals, a Romanian city hosting a sports event for females decided the best way to empower young women was to humiliate them.

Acting against the spirit of sport and committing a major rule violation, the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca told the Russian Gymnastics Federation (RGF) that their national flag and anthem would not be allowed at the World Challenge Cup this weekend. The move, made verbally so as to circumvent sanction, according to one Russian official, goes against a ruling last month by the global governing body World Gymnastics (WG).

In an effort to use sports to increase dialogue and normalize international contact, WG are one of 12 Olympic governing bodies who ruled Russia’s and Belarus’ flags and anthems can return to the arena. The move on Friday by the Romanians was greeted by shock and anger within the Russian rhythmic gymnastics community – a move that pushed Russia to take a stand.

The Russian team refused to take part due to a “gross violation of the competition regulations by the organizers of the competition,” according to federation press attaché Linar Ginatullin. The decision was “appreciated” by WG, according to reports.

An RGF official from a regional committee told of the “betrayal” felt by the Russian rhythmic gymnastics community. “These girls train so hard to represent their country and then are told, right as they are going to compete, the rules don’t apply to you, you’re not worthy of this,” she said, pointing out that the way the information was given showed “extreme cowardice” and designed to “cover” the organizers from WG sanction.

“They make it look [like] capricious Russians don’t take part,” she asserted.

It wasn’t only Russia that was feeling confused and annoyed. A number of national federation officials were disappointed that Russia pulled out, but equally disappointed by the organizers. And they pointed out that Kiev has pushed western nations into acting against the interests of the sport and sportswomen.

A Spanish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “It is no longer about sports. The Russians, Belarusians too, are strong and in this [Challenge Cup] series are winning a lot. The Ukrainians have lobbied many [other nation’s] officials to refuse even these girls to compete.”

Following WG’s ruling in May, Russian and Belarusian athletes competed under their own flags and anthems in the World Challenge Cup series second round (of three) in Beijing. With just the Romanian stop of the series left, Russia had four golds, and three silvers and bronzes. Belarus nabbed a silver and bronze. 15-year-old Russian starlet, Sofia Ilteriakova, in her debut senior season, was tipped to keep ahead of Chinese rival Wang Qi and add to her two golds, two silvers, and bronze won in Challenge Cup events in 2026.

Watching the video of the child looking more than a little lost as the Ukrainian anthem is played, anyone with a brain can see that she was poorly advised or directed by officials on what to do.

Ukraine’s gymnastics federation demanded that the youngster be stripped of her medal and banned for disrespecting the “state symbol” of Ukraine. WG, in giving her a warning to be careful in future, pointed out that they themselves needed to “clarify the protocol” of awards ceremonies.

This moment, according to the Spanish official, has been used as a stick to beat Russia’s back, but it has repercussions for the young girls in competition.

“It’s disappointing for our girls,” the Spanish official noted, “they want to compete [against] the best. They [the gymnasts] are all young girls, highly competitive, but young girls. They said ‘It could be our flag next’.”

Ukraine, with the support of some EU nations, has used every means to ‘other’ Russia, Russians, and even those of Russian-origin. The stink raised by Ukrainian media and some western outlets when Russia-born German gymnast Darja Varfolomeev dared to post pictures on her Instagram of her competing in Crimea in 2021, when she was just 14, forcing her to delete the ‘offending’ material, was instructive. Nobody cared when she was just another competitor, but when she won Olympic individual all-around gold and Ukraine’s medal hope Taisiia Onofriichuk severely under-performed to finish 9th, Darja was subjected to an onslaught of hate.

Politics should have no place in sports, but they have. Using politics, social media, and threats to defeat opponents, rather than in the arena, is not sport. It’s what sports are meant to get rid of. Sadly, too many European nations seem hell-bent on preventing a normalization of communication between people, while claiming that Israel, the US, and other favored nations must be allowed to compete to… normalize communication between people.

The final round of the rhythmic gymnastics World Cup is scheduled for Milan next month. On Friday, WG officials would not be drawn as to whether the Italian organizers would ensure Russian athletes would be treated like their fellow competitors, or what sanctions the organizers in Romania would face for their violation of WG rules.

Chances are, those who took the decision to break the rules are sitting in Brussels, and have confirmed that funding for the event will be released and nobody will face proscription for not allowing young Russian girls take part in a sports event.

A string of powerful earthquakes struck different parts of the world on Wednesday, prompting speculation over whether the events could be connected. While seismologists say they were not, the unusual cluster has raised questions about how earthquakes are linked, why some occur in pairs, and what terms such as “seismic doublet” and “earthquake swarm” actually mean.

What happened?

The week’s most devastating seismic event struck Venezuela, where two powerful earthquakes measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 hit just 39 seconds apart near the country’s northern coast, killing hundreds of people and causing widespread destruction.

Hours later, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off northern Japan, followed by a magnitude 5.6 tremor in northern California. Several smaller earthquakes were also recorded near the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

Most of the earthquakes shown on the map occurred along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped belt around the Pacific Ocean that accounts for about 90% of the world’s earthquakes. Venezuela, however, lies outside the Ring of Fire, with its earthquakes occurring on the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates.

The language of earthquakes

The rare back-to-back shocks that hit Venezuela are considered a “seismic doublet,” one of the terms seismologists use to describe how earthquakes occur and how they may relate to one another.

A seismic doublet refers to two earthquakes of similar strength occurring close together in time and location.

An aftershock is a smaller quake that follows a larger one as the crust adjusts after the initial rupture. Aftershocks can continue for days, weeks or even longer.

An earthquake swarm is a series of quakes in one area without one clearly dominant mainshock. Swarms are different from a mainshock-aftershock sequence because there may be no single obvious “main” event.

Another important concept is stress transfer. The term refers to changes in stress caused by one earthquake that can increase the likelihood of another occurring on a nearby fault. But this phenomenon usually applies over much shorter distances, not across continents or oceans.

Were Wednesday’s tremors linked?

The timing prompted speculation on social media that the earthquakes on different sides of the world could be related. However, experts say there is no evidence of a global seismic chain reaction.

Russian geophysicist Pyotr Shebalin, director of the Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Ren TV that the Venezuelan and Japanese earthquakes were “pure coincidence” and that there was “no pattern” connecting the two events.

According to Shebalin, the Venezuela earthquake was not unexpected because the country lies on the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, a well-known seismic zone. Japan is also located on active plate boundaries, but the two countries belong to different tectonic systems and involve different fault mechanisms, making a direct connection between the earthquakes unlikely.

Why did they happen on the same day?

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that several million earthquakes occur worldwide each year, although the vast majority are too small to be felt. On average, about 15 reach magnitude 7.0-7.9 – classified as major earthquakes – while roughly one exceeds magnitude 8.0, a category known as a great earthquake. Such figures illustrate why clusters of powerful earthquakes can occasionally occur by chance, even if they are not physically related. 

“Earthquakes happen every day all over the world. Most of them happen far from people,” William Barnhart, assistant coordinator for the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, told The Guardian. He described this week’s sequence as “a very peculiar day,” rather than evidence of a global seismic chain reaction.

No. Scientists can identify high-risk zones, monitor fault lines, estimate long-term probabilities, and track aftershocks after a major event. But they cannot predict the exact time, place, and magnitude of the next major earthquake.

The best they can do is assess risk and issue warnings after a quake has already happened, such as tsunami alerts or aftershock forecasts.

The inability to predict earthquakes has real-world consequences. The twin earthquakes in Venezuela struck on Battle of Carabobo Day, one of the country’s most important national holidays, when official ceremonies, parades, and commemorative events were taking place across the country. Had scientists been able to forecast the exact time and location of the quakes, many of those gatherings could have been postponed or people evacuated.

The normalization of Armenia-Türkiye relations has become one of the central political processes in the South Caucasus. Beneath talk of reopening the border and restoring trade and transport routes lies the question of Armenia’s foreign policy path and reliances in the region’s new reality.

At first glance, this looks like a natural attempt by two neighbors to break out of a deadlock that has lasted for decades. The Armenia-Türkiye border has been closed since 1993, and diplomatic relations have never been established. Historical wounds, mistrust, and political restrictions have piled up for years.

Yet this process cannot be separated from its wider geopolitical setting. Armenia traditionally relied on Russia as its main military, political, and economic partner. Surrounded by conflict with Azerbaijan, a closed border with Türkiye, and constant vulnerability, Yerevan looked to Moscow as a pillar of security. Russia was a core element of Armenia’s security system.

Same goal, different agendas

After Nikol Pashinyan came to power, the new authorities started speaking of closer ties with the European Union. Diplomatically phrased as diversification and greater independence, in reality it means reducing ties with Russia while moving toward Western centers of influence.

Ankara is a NATO member, a major Western partner, and a key player in the South Caucasus. Armenia’s rapprochement with Türkiye therefore goes beyond the bilateral and becomes part of a broader route leading Armenia toward Western Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures.

Armenia’s desire for more economic opportunities and stable relations with its neighbor is understandable. How this process is being used, however, is a problem. If normalization serves peace and trade, it could benefit the whole region. But if it becomes a mechanism for sharply pulling Armenia away from Russia, the South Caucasus may gain not stability but another line of confrontation.

At the same time, Ankara is acting carefully. It has no interest in turning normalization into a new source of friction with Russia. Turkish policymakers understand that every move in the South Caucasus has consequences well beyond the bilateral agenda. Türkiye and Russia have built a pragmatic relationship over many years. They do not agree on everything, but they have learned to manage differences through diplomacy, trade and energy ties.

That is why Türkiye is handling Armenia with caution. Ankara does not want dialogue with Yerevan to damage its practical relationship with Moscow. For Türkiye, the value of normalization lies not in building another anti-Russian platform, but in opening space for trade, transport, and diplomacy. A stable South Caucasus serves Turkish interests far better than one split into new blocs and new confrontation lines.

A gradual process

After the second Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, this process accelerated. At the end of 2021, Armenia and Türkiye appointed special representatives for talks – Ruben Rubinyan for Yerevan and Serdar Kılıç for Ankara. Their first meeting took place in Moscow in January 2022. By February, direct flights between Yerevan and Istanbul had resumed. Further meetings in Vienna addressed practical issues such as border opening, people-to-people contacts, air cargo, and transport links.

In summer 2022, the two sides agreed to open the land border for third-country nationals and diplomatic passport holders. Work also began on launching direct air cargo. These looked like technical steps, but in reality such measures often prepare the ground for larger political change. Once flights resume, border infrastructure is discussed, and crossing procedures are drafted, diplomacy moves into practical spheres.

In 2023, the devastating Türkiye-Syria earthquake created another opening. Armenia sent rescuers and humanitarian aid, which crossed the long-closed border. Later, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan visited Ankara. The trip was a humanitarian effort, but it signaled that Yerevan was ready for direct engagement with Ankara even without formal diplomatic relations.

In 2025, Pashinyan visited Istanbul and met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Later, contacts continued on international platforms. Another meeting of the special representatives took place in Yerevan. They discussed restoration of the Gyumri-Kars railway, electricity links, the Ani bridge, expanded air routes, and further simplification of border crossings. By now, the dialogue has become systematic rather than episodic.

Yerevan blames Moscow for its troubles

Recent elections in Armenia may accelerate this course. The authorities can claim their foreign policy line has public backing, giving Pashinyan more room to present normalization with Türkiye as a path out of isolation and toward Europe. But alongside that, Armenia is steadily moving away from Russia, despite Russia’s long-standing role as its main regional support.

The Karabakh issue remains especially sensitive. After Armenia’s defeat in the second Karabakh war, Pashinyan’s camp increasingly framed the crisis as the result of insufficient Russian support. The idea took hold in parts of Armenian society that Moscow had failed to act decisively or provide protection. This interpretation shifted attention away from domestic mistakes, the army’s condition, weak governance, and diplomatic miscalculations, placing the blame on an outside partner.

That picture is incomplete. Russia repeatedly tried to support a political settlement, worked to secure ceasefires, acted as mediator, and after the war deployed peacekeepers. The effectiveness of certain decisions can be debated, but it is hard to deny that Russian diplomacy spent years trying to prevent the conflict from ending in total collapse.

After the defeat, however, Yerevan increasingly looked for external explanations. It was easier to blame Moscow than to confront painful questions about Armenia’s own institutions, strategy, and planning. This became politically useful for pro-Western forces long pushing for a sharper turn away from Russia. The more irritation with Moscow grew, the easier it became to justify closer ties with the EU, NATO, and Türkiye.

Gambling on Western support

But the key question remains: is Armenia receiving real security guarantees in return, or only diplomatic encouragement? Western capitals can speak at length about a European future for Yerevan. But are they ready to take responsibility for Armenia’s security in the event of another crisis? Are they prepared to defend a country located in one of the region’s most difficult environments, between Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Georgia? The answer remains uncertain. In the end, replacing difficult but tested relations with Russia by expectations of Western support is a risky gamble.

This was underlined again in June, when the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Moscow welcomes the normalization. It stressed that Russia and Türkiye share an interest in a peaceful and predictable South Caucasus and that this can be advanced through joint efforts in the regional ‘3+3’ format. For Moscow, normalization between Yerevan and Ankara is not a problem in itself.

If normalization is tied to regional stability, economic cooperation, and open communications, it can serve everyone’s interests. Armenia could reduce its isolation. Türkiye could strengthen its role as a regional hub. Russia could preserve its logistical and economic presence. Iran could benefit from a more connected South Caucasus.

Yerevan’s choice

The danger begins when normalization is used not as a path to regional balance, but as a tool of geopolitical separation. Moscow may support peace between Armenia and Türkiye, but it will naturally be concerned if the process is used to push Russia out of the South Caucasus or to turn Armenia into a platform for Western pressure. Türkiye seems to understand this risk too. That is why Ankara’s approach is careful. It wants progress with Yerevan, but not at the cost of disrupting the pragmatic balance it has built with Moscow.

This is the central challenge of Pashinyan’s current line. Under the banners of openness, normalization, and European choice, Armenia risks turning into another pressure point in the post-Soviet space. If Yerevan uses rapprochement with Türkiye not only for peace and trade, but also to distance itself from Moscow, it may become a foothold in the broader confrontation between the West and Russia. For outside actors, that may be useful, but for Armenia, it could create new dangers.

Today, Yerevan faces a difficult choice. One path involves careful normalization with Türkiye while preserving strategic balance and strong ties with Russia. The other leads toward an accelerated Western turn, political distancing from Moscow, and the hope that Europe and NATO can replace Armenia’s old security foundations. Judging by recent steps, Pashinyan increasingly favors the second option.

But the South Caucasus is too fragile for abrupt experiments. If Armenia-Türkiye normalization is used to turn Armenia into a new front in the confrontation between the West and Russia, the region may gain another zone of tension instead of long-awaited peace.

That is why the Armenia-Türkiye dialogue today needs not only diplomatic support, but also a sober assessment of its consequences. An open border could become a road to development. It must not become one to new confrontation.

India has raised concern about the repeated targeting of children during armed conflicts, demanding that those committing such crimes be held accountable.

Stressing that education is a right that should endure even in times of conflict, Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Harish Parvathaneni said “education is a right whose fulfilment is among the most powerful contributions to lasting peace.”

He pointed out that “protection of children without accountability is incomplete.”

Under international humanitarian law, a deliberate attack on a school amounts to a war crime.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday it may never be known who was at fault for a deadly strike on a girls’ school in Iran on February ‌28, the opening day of the US-Israeli strikes on the country, that killed more than 120 students aged 6-13 and 26 teachers.

The US initially tried to blame the Iranian military for the bombing of the school in Minab in southern Iran. But an internal US military investigation showed American forces were likely responsible for the fatal strike, Reuters reported.

📹 India At UNSC: Those Targeting Schools With Impunity Must Be Held Accountable

Ukraine is accused of targeting a bus carrying Belarusian school kids, while the US has been accused of carrying out the devastating strike in Minab. pic.twitter.com/BQZCmqHyWp

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 26, 2026

Ukrainian drones targeted a dormitory and school at night in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22, while students were sleeping inside. The building partially collapsed, leaving 21 people dead, mainly teenage girls.

Kiev targeted a bus carrying 44 people, 28 of them children, in Russia’s Bryansk last week. Those on board were members of a Belarusian youth sports team. 

Following the attack Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of “hunting” children.

“India remains unwavering in its commitment to protecting children in armed conflict and to upholding their right to learn, to grow, and to realize their full potential,” Parvathaneni added.

The Indian permanent representative’s remarks came after the UN Secretary General released a report on ‘Children and armed conflict.’

The report noted that violations against children in armed conflicts reached “shocking levels” in 2025, and a record number of children were affected, a PTI report said.

It said in conflict scenarios, parties “failed to uphold or proactively undermined their obligations… and continued to commit grave violations with near-total impunity.”

Beijing has proposed an economic corridor which would link China and Bangladesh as well as Myanmar.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman discussed the regional connectivity project during the latter’s first official visit to Beijing, on Friday.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry communique on Xi’s meeting with Rahman said China “stands ready to work with Bangladesh to carry out high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.”

It added that Beijing is ready to cooperate to “advance the development of the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor for greater regional connectivity.”

Reuters reported that the corridor would connect China’s Yunnan Province with the two countries.

Mahdi Amin, spokesperson for the Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s Office, said Xi and Rahman addressed the proposed connectivity project at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

“President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman discussed connectivity in detail. A proposal was made on how an economic corridor could be developed linking Bangladesh, Myanmar, and China,” he said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013 by President Xi, is an infrastructure and economic development program intended to boost connectivity across Asia, Africa, and Europe through investments in railways, ports, highways, and energy projects. It is modeled on the ancient Silk Road which connected China with the Roman Empire.

The two leaders also announced the decision to build a China-Bangladesh community, elevating bilateral relations to a higher level.

A pact on the China-Bangladesh Mongla Port Economic Zone was also signed, during an Invest Bangladesh seminar in Beijing.

A Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor was proposed by China in 2015, as part of the Belt and Road initiative. India ignored the proposal and in 2019 Beijing dropped the idea.

Volkswagen is considering closing four German factories and cutting up to 100,000 jobs, Reuters has reported. Amid soaring energy costs and competition from China, the company’s profits have plummeted in recent years.

Should the cuts go ahead, Volkswagen will close factories in Hanover, Zwickau, and Emden, as well as an Audi plant in Neckarsulm, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources within the company. These closures would result in the loss of 45,000 jobs, on top of the 50,000 layoffs agreed upon with trade unions in 2024.

Volkswagen executives will discuss the cuts at a meeting next month. According to a separate report by Germany’s Manager Magazin, the company is also weighing a 15% cut in investment over the next five years.

A spokesperson for the world’s second-largest carmaker said that they would not comment on “confidential documents,” but admitted that “the entire group, including its brands and subsidiaries, must undergo far-reaching change.”

Volkswagen already closed one automobile assembly plant, in Dresden, last December – the first time it had closed a factory in Germany in its nine-decade history. BASF, Bosch, Continental, and more than a dozen other German manufacturers have closed one or more facilities over the last four years.

With energy costs eating into Volkswagen’s profits, the company’s electric vehicles are no longer able to compete with offerings from its Chinese rivals. Once the dominant automaker in China, Volkswagen now sells fewer vehicles there than domestic brands BYD and Geely. In Europe, BYD and fellow Chinese brands Chery, SAIC, and Leapmotor have all doubled their market share over the last year.

Back in Germany, Volkswagen’s internal union and the IG Metall metalworkers’ union have vowed to resist the job cuts. “Should such plans go ahead, we would do everything in our power to prevent them,” the organizations said in a joint statement on Friday.

The West is scrambling to shore up Kiev with fresh funding and political backing as EU leaders gather in Poland for the Ukraine Recovery Conference, billed as a key forum for rebuilding the country amid the conflict with Russia.

But instead of reconstruction, the summit has been dominated by rows over Nazi collaborators and corruption.

As the conference got underway on Wednesday, RT looked at the controversies that are eroding support for Kiev.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended Pretoria’s non-aligned foreign policy during questions in Parliament. Tension with US persists over relations with China, Russia, and Iran, as well as trade.

Ramaphosa’s remarks come after US Ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III criticized South Africa’s non-aligned foreign policy stance on X, referencing its engagements with China and Iran, including Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s visit to Beijing.

Answering questions during a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) question and answer session on Thursday, Ramaphosa said South Africa’s foreign policy is grounded in the Constitution and guided by principles of human rights, peace, multilateralism and a rules-based international order.

”We don’t see ourselves as a country of enemies. We are a country that seeks to be at peace with all other countries and have good relations with all,” Ramaphosa said.

He said South Africa maintains diplomatic relations across different regions and political systems in pursuit of national interests and constructive global engagement, consistent with its non-aligned and strategically autonomous stance.

Ramaphosa said this approach allows the country to engage with both Western and Eastern powers, including the United States, China, Russia, Iran, and others, through bilateral and multilateral platforms aimed at dialogue, cooperation, and dispute resolution.

”This does not imply neutrality or disengagement, but rather an independent foreign policy that seeks to promote dialogue, cooperation and peaceful resolution of global challenges,” the president said.

”Even in areas where we disagree, even in areas where we do agree, we continue to engage, because non-engagement does not serve any of us any good,” he noted.

He said South Africa values its long-standing relationship with the United States and continues cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, health, education and security.

Ramaphosa also defended South Africa’s participation in joint military exercises with various countries, saying such engagements are routine and not inconsistent with non-alignment. He said these exercises, conducted with countries including the United States, China and India, allow for the sharing of experience, capabilities and approaches to security and peacekeeping.

The president said South Africa has not compromised its sovereignty or independence in its engagements, insisting that the country remains self-respecting and principled in its foreign relations. He said South Africa continues to play a constructive diplomatic role in global conflicts, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, where it maintains engagement with both sides.

”We are one of those very few countries that has been able to do a number of things to give assistance to the resolution of the conflict,” he noted, adding that South Africa is often able to engage with parties on both sides of international conflicts, and is sometimes asked to pass on messages between them.

He also stressed South Africa’s non-aligned stance allows it to engage widely on trade disputes, including tariff measures imposed by major economies.

”We have decided to turbocharge our economic diplomacy and reach out to many countries around the world with a view of establishing sustainable trade relations with them,” he said.

Ramaphosa said South Africa’s participation in international organisations such as BRICS, the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned Movement is voluntary and based on national interest.

”We will not be quiet. We will speak up,” the president said, adding that South Africa’s approach is deliberate, flexible and aimed at resolving disputes through engagement rather than confrontation.

First published by IOL

Danish police say they have found no evidence that flying objects which shut down Copenhagen Airport last year were drones, concluding a nine-month investigation into an incident initially treated as an alleged Russian attack.

Danish airports repeatedly suspended flights in September 2025 after reports of suspected drones near the airfields. Copenhagen Airport was forced to halt operations for several hours after objects were reported flying near the runway, disrupting commercial air traffic and triggering a major police investigation.

At the time, Danish authorities claimed Russia may have been behind the incidents, despite presenting no evidence. In May, Russian Ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin said Copenhagen had failed to produce any proof that drones had entered Danish airspace during the alleged incursions.

According to Thomassen, there was unexplained activity in the airspace that evening, but none of the evidence gathered over nine months conclusively showed the objects were drones.

Police said they had reviewed witness statements, photographs, videos, CCTV footage, radar data, and extensive records of air and maritime traffic. Despite the exhaustive inquiry, investigators were unable to establish what the objects were.

Danish officials claimed the alleged drone flights were carried out by a “skilled operator.” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen later escalated the rhetoric, calling the incident a “hybrid attack on critical Danish infrastructure.”

Earlier this week, investigators also said the first completed police probes into other alleged drone sightings reported across Denmark in the autumn of 2025 had likewise found no evidence of hostile or unauthorized drone activity.

Africa requires about $1.4 billion to respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak, roughly three times higher than previous estimates, the continent’s autonomous health agency has said.

Earlier funding requirements for a coordinated response had been put at about $518 million, developed with the World Health Organization and other partners to support surveillance, laboratory capacity, emergency stockpiles, and rapid response teams.

Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director-General Jean Kaseya said at a virtual press briefing on Thursday that the revised estimate reflects escalating response needs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Uganda.

More than 300 people have been killed in DR Congo and Uganda since the outbreak linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the virus began on May 15. The Congolese Health Ministry said on Thursday that the country has recorded 1,155 confirmed cases and 304 deaths.

The WHO has said the risk of wider international spread remains low after the French Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday that France has reported its first Ebola case involving a doctor who returned from a humanitarian mission in the DR Congo.

Kaseya said health systems in DR Congo, particularly in Ituri province, the epicenter of the outbreak, are under strain amid worsening humanitarian conditions. Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu have been affected for years by attacks by armed groups and fighting that has triggered mass displacement of people from their homes.

The Africa CDC director-general said that so far about $910 million in funding has been pledged, but only 13% has been disbursed.

On Friday, China handed over $2 million in emergency support to the Africa CDC to help contain the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak and support affected member states, the agency announced.

As Keir Starmer prepares to leave the UK’s highest office after less than two years, the media has lined up to explain why he failed to deliver on the enormous hype he received as opposition leader and during his initial months in office. A repeated trope has been that Starmer was a “decent man,” but simply not cut out for mainstream politics. However, his record of concealing the UK establishment’s repulsive crimes – be that serial child sex abuse or spy agency torture – shows him to be anything but decent.

What was the reality of Starmer’s CPS role?

Starmer’s spell as director of public prosecutions for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been fundamental to his mythology since before he became Labour leader. It was during this time, according to The Guardian, that “Starmer transformed his reputation from that of a radical lawyer to that of a moderate and cautious administrator.” Missing from this account is any reference to how the CPS under his leadership covered up the crimes of notorious celebrity pedophile Jimmy Savile, while he was still alive.

It was an extraordinarily rare example of the UK establishment moving in unanimous lockstep, to defend a single mainstream politician accused of wrongdoing. The episode was made all the more shocking by Johnson’s statement being literally true. Starmer was CPS chief when the Service made the indefensible decision to not prosecute Savile, and many aspects of that strangely downplayed and ignored scandal implicate the failed prime minister personally.

What did an inquiry say about CPS treatment of Jimmy Savile?

An internal CPS inquiry into the Savile affair was commissioned by Starmer in 2012, after it was revealed in the wake of Savile’s death that police had failed to press charges against him despite numerous witnesses credibly accusing the UK’s “national treasure” of sexually abusing and raping them when they were young girls. The inquiry found a CPS “reviewing lawyer” told investigating officers early on he “would not be inclined to prosecute these cases because they were ‘relatively minor’.”

The CPS lawyer also didn’t ask the police basic questions about the case. The inquiry report found his attitude troubling. “I would hope that any prosecutor would regard a sexual assault as being in and of itself serious,” the author stated. They found instead that “these particular assaults were far from trivial,” and “represented a course of conduct against vulnerable women and girls” by Savile, over many years. Consequently, the investigator had “reservations about the way in which the prosecutor reached his decision.”

Instead of refusing to pursue the case, the CPS had a duty “to ‘build’ a prosecution,” which its lawyers failed to fulfil. The allegations against Savile were plainly “serious and credible.” The inquiry found that “had police and prosecutors taken a different approach, a prosecution might have been possible.” These conclusions are all the more damning when you consider that all CPS files held on Savile were shredded in October 2010. 

The service allegedly had “no record at all” of the case, which the inquiry claimed was due to CPS records on Savile being “automatically deleted” after a decision to take no action was made, in line with internal policies. However, the service’s publicly accessible guidelines on “disposal” of evidence clearly state documents on cases where “no proceedings have taken place or where the case was discontinued before trial” must be kept for five years. 

What role did Starmer play in Julian Assange’s persecution?

The Savile deletions were not the only example of suspiciously poor CPS recordkeeping under Starmer’s watch. In 2017, it was revealed the service deleted sensitive email exchanges about Julian Assange with Swedish prosecutors three years earlier – potentially illegally, as a criminal case was ongoing. The communications occurred from 2010 until the WikiLeaks founder sought refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy in June 2012, where he remained for almost seven years, under constant threat of CIA assassination. In 2019 British police forcibly removed him and sent him to Belmarsh, a high-security prison, where he was kept in almost total solitary confinement for five years. 

The emails were deleted by a CPS lawyer who had personally advised Swedish police not to visit London and interview Assange as he had requested, on the grounds that he feared extradition to the US from Sweden. “In my view it would not be prudent for the Swedish authorities to try to interview the defendant in the UK,” they wrote in January 2011. This sentence was redacted in emails released under Freedom of Information by the CPS, but not in files provided by Swedish authorities.

Sweden dropped its investigation into Assange in May 2017. Only later was it revealed that the case could have been closed much earlier, were it not for direct CPS intervention. Beyond advising Swedish police not to interview Assange in London, a service lawyer repeatedly sought to dissuade them from dropping their investigation outright. In August 2012, they wrote to their Swedish counterparts, “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!”

“All we can do is wait and see and perhaps be eternally grateful neither of us have to share a room in the embassy with him over Christmas!” the CPS lawyer responded. 

Starmer’s personal role in all this has never been adequately clarified, but he visited Washington, DC in 2011, 2012, and 2013 while he was in effective charge of the Assange case, meeting with senior US officials. True to form, all records of Starmer’s trips were quickly destroyed, contrary to CPS protocol.

How did Starmer cover for MI5/MI6 torture?

After 9/11, the CIA launched a global torture program, identifying terror suspects, abducting them and sending them to black sites all over Europe and the Middle East, before torturing bogus confessions out of them to justify the War on Terror. MI5 and MI6 were not only centrally involved in the program; the two agencies ran an autonomous joint operation using “partner” agencies in the Global South to do the torturing itself.

When these activities became public, with legal actions mounting against the state by victims of the torture program and their families, UK police launched an investigation. Vast quantities of incriminating evidence were collected. However, Starmer as CPS chief consistently vetoed bringing offenders, including senior spy agency directors, to trial despite overwhelming cases against them. First, in 2010 he ruled there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute an MI5 officer who participated in the torture in Pakistan of a UK citizen in 2002.

Police investigations into the torture scandal weren’t finished though. Documents seized from Libyan security service offices, abandoned in the wake of Muammar Gaddafi’s October 2011 fall, were a treasure trove. This included faxes sent in March 2004 by then-MI6 counter-terror chief Mark Allen to Libyan spies, regarding a terror suspect kidnapped along with his wife in an MI6 operation. The suspect spent six years being tortured in Libyan prisons at the agency’s direction, with MI6 providing his interrogators questions to ask. 

Overall, 28,000 pages of evidence on Allen’s involvement in torture were collected by police. In 2014 however, Starmer yet again decided this was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute the MI6 counter-terror chief, and the case was dropped. In return for a lifetime of serving the establishment and assisting directly in the commission of serious criminality – if only by signing off on coverups and politicized prosecutions of dissidents – Starmer was rewarded with an empty seat in the UK’s highest office, for only two years.

Russian air defenses stopped 660 Ukrainian kamikaze drones overnight, the military said on Friday. The figure was the largest ever reported for the metric, reflecting an escalation of Western-funded strikes inside Russia.

The Russian Defense Ministry normally reports the total number of drone interceptions conducted between 10 PM and 7 AM Moscow time every day. The previous record was 556 in mid-May, while earlier this month the Russian military downed 555 Ukrainian aircraft overnight. Other standout figures since 2025 were in the 300s.

Kiev is ramping up long-range strikes against energy infrastructure as Ukrainian frontline troops suffer setbacks caused by manpower shortages and Russian weapons superiority. Ukrainian officials claim the economic damage will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire along the current front line, and have threatened to withdraw the offer unless it is accepted soon.

Both sides are developing more affordable ways to intercept long-range drones, such as cheap interceptor aircraft, and are trying to protect their weapons from countermeasures. Ukrainian operations are supported by Western funding, intelligence gathering, and an industrial base that supplies drone components.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted another prisoner of war exchange, with 160 servicemen returned to each side, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has announced.

In a statement on Friday, the ministry said “160 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by the Kiev regime.” In exchange, 160 Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war were released.

The returned Russian servicemen are currently in Belarus, where they are receiving psychological and medical assistance, the ministry said. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova is working with the freed soldiers.

The servicemen will later be transported to Russia for further treatment and rehabilitation.

The exchange was carried out with mediation from the United Arab Emirates, the Defense Ministry said.

The May swap had been described as the first stage of a wider 1,000-for-1,000 exchange, which was announced following US-mediated contacts around Russia’s Victory Day commemorations.

Russia and Ukraine have continued to exchange prisoners and the bodies of fallen soldiers despite the ongoing conflict. The UAE has repeatedly acted as a mediator in humanitarian efforts between the two sides.

The United States and Iran have entered a new phase of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program, but the most difficult questions have only been postponed.

High-level delegations from the two countries have been meeting in Switzerland, with Pakistan and Qatar acting as mediators, after the signing of the US-Iranian Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding. The framework document has created a fragile diplomatic opening, but leaves the central nuclear issues to be settled within 60 days.

At the heart of the dispute is whether Iran will retain any right to enrich uranium, how its stockpile of highly enriched material will be handled, and whether Washington can offer enough guarantees to keep Tehran inside the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Elena Chernenko: US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the 2015 ‘Iran nuclear deal’ (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA), concluded under Barack Obama, as ‘very bad’ from the US perspective. Judging by the memorandum of understanding signed recently by the US and Iran, is Washington on the verge of securing a more favorable deal on Iran’s nuclear program?

Anton Khlopkov: In the Islamabad memorandum you mentioned, only two of the 14 points touch on nuclear issues, and these, like the document as a whole, are of a framework nature. According to the document, detailed nuclear arrangements are yet to be worked out within 60 days of the memorandum’s signing, that is, by August 16. Consequently, at this stage it is too early to compare the JCPOA with the nuclear dimension of the new agreement, as there is currently nothing to compare it with.

What can be assumed with a high degree of certainty at this stage is that, in terms of its length and level of technical detail, the new document will be considerably more concise than the original JCPOA, which, together with its annexes, ran to over 100 pages. The Trump administration is not inclined (some might say incapable) of concluding lengthy agreements packed with technical details; moreover, such a large-scale document cannot be drawn up within the allotted time. We may be looking at something more concise.

That said, on the whole, the negotiating parties took the sensible decision to postpone the resolution of the complex nuclear issue for the time being, focusing in the first phase on matters on which agreement could be reached ‘here and now’. As a result, a fragile peace has been achieved, which creates better opportunities for the start of substantive nuclear negotiations.

Chernenko: Previously, Donald Trump and his negotiators had insisted adamantly that Iran should not engage in uranium enrichment at all, even though the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) allows countries to do so for peaceful purposes. Can we conclude from the memorandum that the US has changed its position? What does this mean for Iran?

In my reading of the Islamabad Memorandum, Iran undertook not to build new uranium enrichment facilities until a final agreement with the US was concluded, while Washington, for its part, recognizes Tehran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, even though the latter is not explicitly stated in the document. However, whether the US will be prepared to recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium as part of this right will be the subject of future negotiations.

At present, on the one hand, US Vice President J.D. Vance states that, unlike the JCPOA, the new agreement will not allow Iran to enrich uranium. On the other hand, according to the Islamabad Memorandum, the enrichment level of uranium stockpiled in Iran, including highly enriched uranium, will be reduced through dilution. Dilution itself doesn’t require enrichment technology. However, producing the diluent may involve such technology if the resulting material is intended for effective later use in the nuclear energy sector.

Provided there’s the political will, Tehran and Washington could consider compromise options, For example, Iran could temporarily limit the volume and level of uranium enrichment for a specified period, as was the case under the JCPOA, or even, as a gesture of goodwill, suspend uranium enrichment for a specified period, provided there is sufficient uranium enriched to the required level to operate the Tehran Research Reactor and Iran’s other research nuclear facilities.

Chernenko: As far as I understand, the issue of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched (up to 60%) uranium (around 400 kg) is to be resolved within the country by diluting it under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Does Iran have the necessary conditions for this? Does the Agency have experience in supervising such work? How quickly can the work be completed? To what level will the uranium be diluted, and what will it be suitable for afterwards?

Khlopkov: In theory, the technology for diluting highly enriched uranium (HEU) is well-known worldwide. However, only a handful of countries have practical experience with this. Iran has previously carried out HEU dilution on an ad hoc basis. But not on the scale that is now required.

Russia has the most extensive experience of cost-effective dilution of HEU, followed by the use of the resulting product in the nuclear power sector. There, 500 metric tons of HEU, deemed surplus to national defense requirements in our country, have been downblended to low-enriched levels.

The same applies to the IAEA, which draws on the experience of its member states in its work and employs Russian inspectors; these could include specialists with the necessary experience and expertise. Russia participates in the IAEA’s Safeguards Support Program, providing the Agency with the necessary assistance on a regular basis.

The level to which the uranium is downblended will largely be determined by its intended use. In Iran, for example, there is the Tehran Research Reactor, supplied by the US back in the 1960s, which currently uses fuel enriched to 20%. Fuel production has been established in Iran itself and this is one option. However, one must take into account the quantities of fuel required by the Tehran Research Reactor, which has a modest capacity of just 5 MW, that is, half a percent of the capacity of the first unit at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Station. The Iranian side may choose other research projects and facilities for the use of this material. Incidentally, this material is not required for the Bushehr NPP, both because of its technical characteristics (isotopic composition) and because the state corporation Rosatom supplies the plant with complete shipments of nuclear fuel.

The timeline for the dilution work will depend on how the resulting product is to be used, on Iran’s technical capabilities, and on political factors. Put simply, it will depend on Washington’s willingness and ability to fulfill its part of the agreement. Observing the first few days of the implementation of the Islamabad Memorandum suggests that Iran will be keen to carry out the process of diluting highly enriched uranium in stages, without rushing, depending on Washington’s fulfillment of its part of the deal. The US approach of ‘chairs in the morning, money in the evening [concessions first, payment later – editor]’ is unlikely to work in this case.

Chernenko: How realistic is it to reach an agreement on the nuclear part of the deal within 60 days? Given how long the JCPOA negotiations took…

Khlopkov: Experience from previous negotiations on nuclear issues, including the Iranian nuclear issue, suggests that this will be extremely difficult to achieve. It is highly likely that the negotiations will be extended.

The absence of technical experts and specialists in uranium enrichment from the US negotiating team won’t facilitate a swift agreement. Furthermore, the countries currently acting as mediators lack the necessary expertise and experience participating in such projects. Among the active mediators mentioned, only Pakistan possesses uranium enrichment technology. At the same time, Pakistan, which facilitated the emergence and development of uranium enrichment technology in Iran more than 20 years ago, isn’t a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and would be politically and legally problematic as a participant in any US-Iranian uranium dilution arrangement.

Khlopkov: Iran and the IAEA have a current safeguards agreement under which the agency’s inspectors continue to visit nuclear facilities that were not affected by the US and Israeli strikes. This agreement will fully cover uranium dilution work as well. There’s no need to create a new legal framework.

The Agency’s tools and programs could also be used to draw on technical expertise from member states and make it available to Iran to organize a cost-effective uranium dilution process, should such assistance be required. For example, if, for political reasons, the parties to the agreement, Iran and the US, aren’t prepared to accept such assistance directly from a third country or group of countries.

Chernenko: What’s known about Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which was bombed by the US and Israel? Is it possible to assess the damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear program?

Khlopkov: We can only speculate here. There’s no detailed information on this matter in open sources, as Iran fears it could be used to plan further strikes on the country’s nuclear infrastructure. I am inclined to believe that serious damage has been inflicted, but the use of the term ‘nuclear dust’ is nothing more than a PR stunt on the part of President Trump, and Iran has managed to preserve, to a large extent, its stockpile of nuclear materials and its expertise in uranium enrichment. The strikes on Iran didn’t come as a surprise to the country. Consequently, Iran retains the potential to fully restore its infrastructure, and perhaps even expand it.

Chernenko: Is there any reason to believe that, despite any memoranda or agreements, Iran might now decide to attempt to build a nuclear explosive device, given that it has already been attacked twice by the US and Israel, while Donald Trump didn’t dare to bomb North Korea’s nuclear program?

Khlopkov: Article X of the NPT allows a state, in the exercise of its sovereign right, to withdraw from the treaty by giving three months’ notice to the UN Security Council and all parties to the treaty. North Korea announced its intention to invoke this article and withdraw from the NPT in 2003. Since then, Pyongyang has conducted six nuclear tests and enshrined its status as a nuclear-weapon state in its Constitution. The main motivation behind the DPRK’s decision to withdraw from the NPT was concern for its security, primarily due to threats from the US.

The aggression by the US and Israel, which began in late February, has brought the question to the fore in Tehran, how can another round of strikes be avoided, and how can the country’s sovereignty be safeguarded. And in this context, I don’t think I’m mistaken in saying that, as a result of recent events, the number of those in favor of acquiring nuclear weapons has increased significantly.

Thus, it’s necessary to reduce the incentives so that Tehran gives serious consideration to its continued participation in the NPT and its nuclear policy as a whole. New agreements with the US, if and when they are reached on the basis of reciprocity, could make an important contribution to this process. An agreement between the US and Iran on the nuclear issue would also facilitate the resumption of full-scale work on the second phase of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Russian specialists were evacuated after the outbreak of hostilities, including attacks on the plant’s infrastructure.

This interview was first published by Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team.

Florida has shut down a controversial immigration detention center dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ after it processed around 21,000 deportations, Governor Ron DeSantis has announced. The makeshift facility was hailed by the administration of US President Donald Trump but condemned by civil rights groups.

The detention center of tents and trailers was built in a matter of days on a remote Everglades airstrip and opened in July 2025. Nicknamed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ because of its isolated, swamp-surrounded location, it was designed to hold thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees awaiting removal. DeSantis and Trump said the facility was critical to their effort to expand detention capacity and accelerate deportations.

The site became one of the most controversial symbols of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Immigration advocates called the facility unsafe and inhumane and accused authorities of bypassing environmental reviews before construction. Former detainees described cramped tents lined with rows of bunk beds behind chain-link fencing, alongside poor sanitation, worms in food, malfunctioning toilets, flooded floors with fecal waste, swarms of insects, unreliable air conditioning, and days without showers or prescription medicine.

Florida officials, however, rejected claims that the facility was unsafe or improperly operated.

The closure comes after months of controversy over ICE raids that fueled nationwide protests. The White House has defended the deportation campaign – billed as the largest in US history – as a way to remove “the worst of the worst” criminals. Raids in Los Angeles and across Southern California drew widespread demonstrations, with protesters calling for an end to aggressive immigration enforcement and greater oversight of federal authorities.

India’s trade minister has set a condition to finalize a trade deal agreed with the United States earlier this year.

After the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s tariffs as illegal in February – soon after the two countries reached an agreement – the administration imposed a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act.

Trade Minister Piyush Goel said at the India Global Forum in London on Wednesday that New Delhi’s negotiated deal with Washington offered a then-competitive 18% tariff, which offered an edge over competing economies like ASEAN, other than Singapore, and neighboring countries.

“That is why the deal was attractive,” Goyal said.

“With the US Supreme Court striking down the tariffs, and now with the 10% expiring on July 24, we obviously need to have some reason to be able to enter into force that agreement,” he said.

Piyush Goyal: India Won't Activate US Trade Deal Until Competitive Edge Is Secured

The Indian Commerce Minister alluded that New Delhi is seeking clarity on how it will retain an edge over competing manufacturing economies before moving ahead with the deal.

He noted that the… https://t.co/labdIoYmfM pic.twitter.com/l7QU6qeEqk

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 25, 2026

Goyal said New Delhi needs to ensure a competitive advantage over what is being paid by countries in the same stage of development, naming some ASEAN nations and neighboring countries, including Bangladesh.

“Until the framework for getting a competitive advantage is finalized, we cannot enter into force a US deal,” Goyal said.

The remark came just a day after India held trade talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The New Delhi talks were the third round on the issue since the trade deal was announced in February.

New Delhi and Washington failed to reach an agreement on trade after several rounds of talks last year. The US then slapped a 50% tariff on India, half of which was cited as a penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil.

Also on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said tariff rates could return to previous levels after Greer “concludes studies on Section 301 investigations.”

Section 301 allows the US to levy tariffs without additional congressional approval. The move shows the Trump administration’s resolve to circumvent the legal setbacks it suffered. 

The investigations under Section 301 were launched in March against several countries including China and India, and the European Union.

Germany’s new military registration program has fallen disastrously short of the numbers expected by the Bundeswehr, Die Zeit has reported, citing data from the Defense Ministry.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in April that the size of the German military should increase from the current 184,000 to 460,000 by 2035, including 260,000 active-duty troops and 200,000 reservists.

In order to achieve the goal, the Bundeswehr launched a military registration program at the start of the year, asking all 18-year-old citizens – male and female – to respond to an online questionnaire to assess their readiness to serve.

According to a Die Zeit article on Thursday, the Defense Ministry has reached out to 298,200 potential recruits over the past five months, but only 530 of them eventually volunteered to join the armed forces.

All of the men contacted were obligated to respond to the questionnaire, and 96% out of over 153,000 males did so, the article read. The other 4% who declined to answer could face administrative cases against them, it added.

Overall, one in five young people expressed interest in military service, but many said they would be ready to join in a year or two, Die Zeit said.

The Bundeswehr also continues to use traditional recruitment methods, with the number of applications through the army reaching 38,500 since the start of the year, which is 24% more than during the same period in 2025, the paper noted.

The chairman of the German parliament’s defense committee, Thomas Rowekamp, told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) earlier this week that the authorities in Berlin still have a year to evaluate the effectiveness of the military registration program.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Berlin announced a major militarization drive, citing the alleged threat posed by Russia. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed claims that it is planning to attack NATO as “nonsense,” arguing they are only intended to scare the public and distract from numerous problems in Western countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that Western nations are now “openly saying that they are preparing for war with us, increasing military offensive budgets.”

“At first, they create threats for our country, force us to take actions necessary for self-defense, and then immediately accuse us of all mortal sins to justify the continuation of their aggressive policy,” Putin said.

France and Italy have pushed back against an EU proposal to ban Russian servicemen and veterans from entering the bloc, warning that the measure is legally unclear and difficult to enforce, Bloomberg has reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Moscow has denounced the proposal as “paranoid,” while critics inside the EU reportedly fear it could morph into a broader entry ban on Russian citizens and affect more than 1.3 million people, including conscripts that did not participate in the conflict.

The restriction is being discussed as part of the EU’s proposed 21st sanctions package over the Ukraine conflict. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the bloc should bar Russians who have served in the military since February 2022, framing it as a security issue.

Paris and Rome, however, have argued that the current wording is too broad and that the measure should be handled through visa policy rather than sanctions, according to Bloomberg’s anonymous sources.

The two countries have questioned how the ban would work in practice, since national authorities would have to somehow determine whether individual Russian applicants had served in the military or taken part in the fighting in Ukraine.

France and Italy process some of the highest numbers of Russian arrivals in the EU. Euronews reported that France recorded just under 180,000 arrivals from Russia in 2025, while Italy had around 160,000.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has claimed that Brussels has intelligence on all Russians who have participated in the conflict and could blacklist them by name. Asked earlier this month how the ban would be implemented, she said: “I am not an expert, but experts say it is possible.”

Several EU governments have increasingly questioned whether more sanctions are practical or risk hurting member states more than Russia. Bulgaria recently warned Brussels against measures that are mostly symbolic or damaging to EU economies, while Slovakia and Hungary have repeatedly called for restoring dialogue with Moscow.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the proposed travel ban shows that EU officials “do not know what else to invent.” She described the measure as “openly paranoid” and said the bloc’s sanctions policy is increasingly harming third countries as well as Europeans themselves.

Ukrainian conscription officers have reportedly targeted a dog in a disturbing act of revenge after failing to seize a man in Odessa.

Kiev is using press gangs to enforce mandatory conscription on a resistant population, with violent confrontations involving draft patrols reported on a daily basis. The incident that allegedly took place in the port city on Wednesday stands out because a helpless animal was apparently targeted.

A viral video on social media shows a large group of uniformed men hastily getting into an unmarked van, one of them dragging a small dog by its leash. A man chases them, demanding that they return the pet and smashing the vehicle’s window with a baton as it drives away.

According to the local newspaper Dumskaya, the dog is a Jack Russell terrier named Tito. It was reportedly found about 500 meters from the site of the clash, with the owners telling the outlet that their pet requires knee surgery after the kidnapping.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the incident, which sparked anger among animal rights activists.

Kiev’s so-called ‘busification’ mobilization campaign, named after the nickname for the vans used by draft patrols, has emerged as a major source of tension in Ukrainian society. While officials call it unavoidable in the conflict with Russia, many citizens see it as rife with state-sanctioned corruption and as disproportionately targeting poor people.

The sentiment is fueled by incidents in which conscripts are allegedly treated as cannon fodder by military commanders. Just this week, the leaders of the ‘Skelya’ (Rock) frontline regiment, where at least 26 recruits died outside combat this year, were accused of condoning torture and murder to maintain discipline. The authorities have launched an investigation following the expose.

A separate ‘busification’ case reported in Odessa this week involved a draft patrol allegedly ramming a man’s car into a street lamp. Witnesses filmed the officials dragging their targets out of the blocked vehicle.

Two volunteers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) Red Cross have been killed by unidentified armed men while on a humanitarian mission in South Kivu province, the organization said on Tuesday. 

Byamungu Mugisho Kabuha and Mugisho MParanya Romain were attacked on June 16 in Kakumba village, while working on a project to improve access to clean drinking water for vulnerable communities.  

“They were wearing the emblem of the Red Cross, a universal symbol of neutrality, impartiality, and humanitarian assistance,” explains Gregoire Mateso Mbuta Way, National President of the Red Cross of the DR Congo. 

The DR Congo Red Cross said attacks on humanitarian workers threaten life-saving assistance for civilians. The organization urged all parties to respect and protect aid personnel, stressing that humanitarian workers serve as a vital lifeline for communities affected by the country’s ongoing crisis. 

Alongside continuing violence in the country, the authorities are battling the nation’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak, which was declared on May 15. It involves the Bundibugyo strain of the virus and has raised concerns across the region because there are currently no approved vaccines or targeted treatments available. 

As of June 24, the outbreak has resulted in 1,155 confirmed cases and 304 deaths, with 326 patients currently in isolation or hospitalized and 138 people reported to have recovered.

The Israeli Embassy in Ukraine has criticized a Ukrainian far-right group for allegedly using Nazi symbols during a march in Kiev, held as a counterprotest to the annual pride march in the country’s capital.

Police used barricades to keep the two rival events – organized by pro-LGBT groups and far-right ultranationalists – separated last Sunday. The event has been marked by street violence and angry clashes in previous years.

The Israeli Embassy said on Wednesday that members of the Brotherhood movement, led by radical nationalist Dmitry Korchinsky, “chanted Nazi slogans and performed Nazi salutes,” and called for a “prompt response by the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities.” The brief statement did not give examples or further details of the alleged violations.

Heute erlebt Kiew zwei Märsche

LGBTQ+Pride-Marsch - rechtsextreme Marsch

Mit Parolen wie „Nation, Rasse, Familie“ und „Tradition, Ordnung“ marschieren die militärischen Einheiten wie Revenge, Raid, Bratstvo, der 67. Brigade, der 3. Sturmbrigade und Asow pic.twitter.com/9Lpr8Fafrp

— Liane (@liane3974) June 21, 2026

On Sunday, members of Brotherhood and other far-right groups gathered for a counterprotest, with many dressed in black and wearing face masks. They marched through central Kiev chanting slogans such as “idea, nation, down with degradation” and “family, tradition, order.” Videos from the rally showed several heated verbal confrontations, while some participants trampled LGBT flags on the ground.

WATCH: Anti-Pride protesters and LGBT march participants faced off in Kyiv despite an air raid alert.

Tensions flared with insults and taunts, including the shout:

“Putin is also a f*ggot, he's proud of you!” pic.twitter.com/Du21ygDkMh

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 21, 2026

While Nazi symbols are banned under Ukrainian law, the restrictions have rarely been enforced against far-right groups and military units that openly use them as insignia. Troops wearing patches featuring the ‘totenkopf’ variant of the death’s head symbol and the Nazi eagle have repeatedly appeared in official photos and videos published by Vladimir Zelensky’s office and other Ukrainian government institutions.

Some Ukrainian far-right activists claim the Nazi-style salutes they use in public are not controversial. “Raising the right hand in Ukrainian tradition is a symbol of honor, strength and readiness for action,” the leader of the Carpathian Sich group, Taras Deyak, said in an interview last year. “This gesture is dedicated to the fight for the Ukrainian state.”

Hundreds of people were arrested across Kenya on Thursday during demonstrations in remembrance of dozens of protesters killed in the 2024 Gen Z anti-government rallies against tax hikes, according to police and rights groups in the East African nation.

Protests were reported in at least 14 counties, including the capital Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Nakuru. Police reportedly fired tear gas in Nairobi as families of victims and activists attempted to march toward parliament to demand accountability and compensation for those killed in last year’s unrest.

Security forces mounted roadblocks on major highways leading into the capital ahead of the demonstrations as part of heightened security measures.

“A few criminal elements attempted to commit diverse crimes in the guise of staging peaceful demonstrations. Consequently, a total of 355 arrests were made in connection with the demonstrations,” the minister said in a statement. He said Anthony Gathungu, a local Interior Ministry official in Murang’a County, was injured after being attacked by a group attempting to erect a barricade in Kandara.

However, the Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG), which includes Amnesty International Kenya and other civil society organizations, said more than 361 people had been detained, accusing law enforcement of violating the right to peaceful assembly.

The group said families of victims killed in the previous protests were blocked from laying flowers in Nairobi in remembrance, and also accused the authorities of targeting journalists.

The June 25 demonstrations mark the second anniversary of the 2024 Gen Z-led protests against an International Monetary Fund-backed finance bill, later withdrawn by the government. The legislation had been introduced to address a $2.7 billion gap in the country’s budget.

President William Ruto later withdrew the bill, dismissed his cabinet, and formed a new government in an effort to ease public anger over the country’s economic woes. Kenya’s then-deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, was later impeached on charges including incitement to ethnic division and support for the anti-tax protests. Gachagua dismissed the allegations as false and “extremely outrageous,” claiming that his removal was politically motivated.

Russian law enforcement agencies have detained an underage suspect whom they allege is behind a major international online terrorist community funded by Ukraine, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.

The suspect was apprehended in the Republic of Dagestan in southern Russia during a joint operation involving the FSB, the Interior Ministry, and the Investigative Committee, the agency said.

The criminal community was responsible for attacks not only inside Russia but also had “global outreach,” operating in the US and Europe, the FSB said.

According to the agency, acting under the guidance of handlers in Kiev, the suspect recruited radicalized teenagers to carry out school shootings, bomb attacks on transport infrastructure, and false bomb threats targeting social facilities.

The FSB said the suspect’s involvement in organizing at least 15 terrorist crimes across ten Russian regions has been confirmed. All of the perpetrators have been arrested, it added.

“Extra financial bonuses were promised for carrying out attacks with the highest number of casualties,” with the money being provided by Ukraine, the agency said.

In 2025 and 2026, members of the terrorist community orchestrated arson attacks and acts of vandalism targeting more than 20 civilian vehicles and a Christian church in several cities across the US and Europe, according to the FSB. They also made false bomb threats against educational institutions and other social facilities.

The video and text materials used to indoctrinate American and European youths through social media platforms were produced in Kiev, the agency said.

Watch a report on the detention of the terrorist community admin by RT’s Roman Kosarev:

Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has denied that the country’s unfrozen assets would be used to buy agricultural products from the US. His remarks add to conflicting interpretations of the interim US-Iran peace deal signed on June 17.

“America falsely claims our unfrozen assets will buy their agriculture. Interesting. The only crop we’re harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust. It’s organic, abundant, and homegrown,” Ghalibaf wrote on X on Thursday.

“But apparently the US only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks,” he added.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) cited by the media, the US agreed that an unspecified amount of assets frozen under sanctions would be “made fully available for use” by Iran upon implementation of the deal.

Earlier this week, Iran said Israel’s continuing military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon violated the MoU, which states that the sides declare the “immediate and permanent termination” of fighting in the Levantine country.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed “Iranian proxies” in the region for sabotaging the deal, while Iran condemned “American militarism and interventionism” and accused the US of backing Israel.

The sides have also clashed over the status of the Strait of Hormuz, with the US insisting that Iran has no right to charge tolls on ships transiting the waterway, which handles around a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and LNG trade. Iran, in turn, said it has the right to collect service fees.

The Danish government has proposed stripping military-age Ukrainians of refugee protections in an effort to help Kiev combat draft dodging.

Ukrainian men aged 25 to 60 are subject to mobilization, while nearly all men aged 22 to 60 are barred from leaving the country.

The Danish authorities want to amend a special law passed in 2022 to make Ukrainian men aged 23 to 60 ineligible for temporary residence permits unless they have been granted an exemption from military service. Ukrainian men under 23 would only be granted residence permits until they reach draft age.

“Denmark stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in its fight for freedom. That is why we are now changing the Ukraine Special Act, because it was never intended for our residence rules to be used to avoid mobilization into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Doing so undermines Ukraine’s war effort and weakens the country’s ability to defend itself against Russian attacks,” Danish Immigration Minister Morten Bodskov said on Thursday.

Ukraine has struggled to replenish losses as Russian troops continue to advance steadily along the front line. The so-called “busification” campaign, in which draft officers ambush men on the streets and outside their homes and use violence against those who resist, has regularly sparked protests and outrage on social media. Some recruits and their families have accused officials of ignoring medical conditions and using torture in enlistment offices.

The conscription crisis has prompted several of Ukraine’s European backers to review their asylum laws. Earlier this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed to restrict protections for Ukrainians, arguing that young men were needed in their home country.

Several news outlets reported last week that the European Commission had urged EU member states to introduce restrictions on accepting Ukrainian refugees.

Public support for Ukrainians living in Poland has been declining, as the two neighbors are currently feuding over Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to honor World War II-era nationalist militias responsible for massacring Polish civilians.

The US has warned the EU that American liquefied natural gas (LNG) could be diverted elsewhere unless Brussels eases planned methane emissions regulations. The move signals a growing willingness by Washington to leverage its dominant position in Europe’s energy market.

The EU replaced much of its Russian pipeline gas with American LNG following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and the imposition of sanctions on Moscow. The shift made the US the bloc’s largest external gas supplier and was hailed by its leaders as a step toward greater energy security.

Europe’s energy crisis has worsened since then, with gas and electricity prices soaring to record highs.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said American exports would “flow somewhere else” if the EU refused to change the rules, which are due to take effect in 2027.

“Without a meaningful reform of that rule, it is going to cause serious pain into Europe and that’s unnecessary,” Wright said.

The US has joined Qatar, Algeria and Nigeria in urging the EU to amend or delay the legislation. Exporters argue there is no practical way to comply because America’s sprawling network of gas fields, pipelines and processing facilities makes it difficult to measure methane emissions for individual LNG cargoes. They also say uncertainty over potential penalties is already discouraging long-term contracts with European buyers.

EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen rejected calls to weaken the legislation, insisting the bloc would not compromise its environmental standards despite pressure from suppliers. The bloc’s energy ministers were due to discuss the issue at a meeting in Luxembourg on Friday.

The standoff highlights a striking reversal in the EU’s energy relationship with its main supplier. Before abandoning most Russian gas imports, Western governments frequently accused Moscow of using energy exports as a geopolitical tool, a charge the Kremlin consistently denied. Now, with the bloc heavily dependent on American LNG, Washington is openly linking future gas supplies to changes in policy.

A scorching heatwave has killed hundreds of people across Europe this week, with Spain reporting the highest death toll as temperatures surged past 40C (104F) and records were shattered across the continent.

Spanish authorities have linked more than 200 deaths to the extreme heat, according to the country’s mortality monitoring system. Germany has reported more than 20 deaths, many of them drownings as people sought relief in rivers, lakes, and pools. France has confirmed several heat-related fatalities, including children, while Italy has also reported multiple deaths as hospitals treated growing numbers of patients suffering from heatstroke and dehydration.

The heatwave has engulfed much of Western and Southern Europe, with Paris recording its hottest June day on record at 40.9C and Britain registering its highest June temperature ever at 36.4C. Switzerland also set a new June record, while authorities across the region issued red alerts, closed schools, canceled train services and urged residents to stay indoors during the hottest parts of the day.

Meteorologists have attributed the extreme temperatures to a persistent “heat dome” that has trapped hot air over Europe and prevented cooler weather systems from moving in. The conditions have been particularly dangerous in densely populated cities, where concrete and asphalt retain heat overnight, offering little relief after sunset.

Experts say Europe remains especially vulnerable because much of its housing stock was designed to retain heat during cold winters rather than keep homes cool in summer. Unlike in North America and many parts of Asia, residential air conditioning is still relatively uncommon across much of the continent, leaving millions exposed during prolonged periods of extreme heat.

Governments have warned that the death toll is likely to rise further as the heatwave persists, and are urging people to stay hydrated, avoid outdoor activity during peak temperatures, and check on elderly relatives and other vulnerable people.

The children of an RT correspondent and cameraman were injured in the deadly earthquake in Caracas, but their lives are not in danger, Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has said in a post on X.

Simonyan also shared footage showing damage caused by the quake, saying the family’s home was left partly destroyed. The home of an RT contributor was also badly damaged, she added, and staffers and their families are being relocated to a hotel.

“During the earthquake in Caracas, the children of an RT correspondent and cameraman were affected,” Simonyan wrote. “Their home is in a semi-destroyed condition, but thank God, their health is not in danger.”

RT correspondent Jessica Sosa, who was personally affected by the quake, reported from Caracas that part of a ceiling had fallen on the head of her youngest child. She said the injuries were not serious.

Sosa also reported a sharp rise in the number of people searching for missing relatives after the disaster.

Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela’s northern Caribbean coast on Wednesday, causing widespread destruction in Caracas and several other regions. The first tremor had a magnitude of 7.2 and was followed less than a minute later by a stronger 7.5 quake, triggering building collapses, infrastructure damage, and a large-scale emergency response. 

The death toll has risen to at least 188, with 1,520 people injured, Venezuela’s top lawmaker, Jorge Rodriguez, said according to media reports. Around 200 people remain trapped under the rubble, he added. 

Rescue teams are searching for survivors as aftershocks continue to shake the region. According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter was located off Venezuela’s northern coast near the city of Morón.

The earthquakes were felt across much of Venezuela, as well as in neighboring Colombia and several Caribbean islands. More than 20 aftershocks have been recorded, prompting the authorities to urge residents to remain vigilant.

The Venezuelan government has declared a nationwide state of emergency and deployed the armed forces, civil defense units, and emergency services. Schools, public transport, and some airports have been temporarily closed, while power, water, and communications have been disrupted in several areas.

Simon Bolivar International Airport remains closed due to damage, while metro and rail services in Caracas have been suspended.

An earthquake in 1967 was the deadliest in Venezuela’s recent history, killing around 300 people and injuring some 1,600 in Caracas. Another quake in the country’s northeast in 1997 killed at least 81 people.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chair of Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, has announced that he will relinquish a Ukrainian state award. Relations between Warsaw and Kiev have been on the rocks since Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree last month granting a special operations unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.”

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, has been lionized in Ukraine since the 2014 Western-backed coup. During World War II, UPA militants collaborated with Nazi Germany and perpetrated mass killings of Poles, Jews, and Russians in what is now western Ukraine.

The extermination of at least 100,000 Polish civilians by Ukrainian nationalists is known as the Volhynian massacre in Poland and recognized as genocide by Warsaw.

“This will be an expression of my attitude not so much towards Ukrainians, but towards the Ukrainian elite,” the veteran Polish politician explained. He also accused the leadership in Kiev of escalating the situation in a “very harmful and very dangerous” manner.

“In Germany, [Adolf] Hitler, [Heinrich] Himmler, [Joseph] Goebbels, or any of these criminals were not put on a pedestal. And yet [the Ukrainians] are doing something like that,” Kaczynski stated.

The PiS leader said that “Poland should start blocking clusters of subsequent… negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union” if Kiev refuses to acknowledge the UPA’s wartime crimes against Poles. He noted that this was, however, his personal opinion and not the PiS party’s official position.

“Ukraine must know that if it wants to join Europe… it must be a normal, European country and cannot have genocidal perpetrators… on its banners,” Kaczynski argued.

Last Friday, Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle. The Polish president subsequently stated that his nation’s “pain threshold” had been broken by Ukraine’s latest act of lionizing the UPA.

Commenting on these developments, Leszek Miller, who served as Polish prime minister from 2001 to 2004, suggested that Ukrainian officials should likewise return the military equipment supplied by Warsaw since 2022.

Reacting to the diplomatic rift between Warsaw and Kiev, Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev wrote ironically on X last Friday that “Poland finally discovers Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine.”

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and a former president, has similarly praised the Polish president for stripping the “Nazi-worshipping Kiev degenerate of the Order of the White Eagle.” 

Russian Senator Andrey Klishas, in turn, quipped on Telegram that “there is only one step left before Poland demands the denazification of Ukraine.”

Nearly six in ten Poles now oppose Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, up from four in ten a year ago, according to two IBRiS opinion polls cited by Polish media.

The latest survey, conducted for Radio ZET, found that 59.7% of respondents oppose Ukrainian membership. Last year, an IBRiS poll for Defence24 and the Stand With Ukraine initiative put that figure at 42%.

The comparison suggests that public opinion has hardened. While support for Ukraine’s EU membership has remained broadly stable at around 35%, the share of undecided respondents has fallen from roughly one-quarter to just 5%, with most appearing to have shifted into the opposition camp.

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest political and military backers since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, supplying weapons, hosting millions of refugees, and consistently supporting Kiev’s integration into the EU and NATO.

Relations have further deteriorated since last month over the ‘Heroes of the UPA’ controversy, with Warsaw accusing Kiev of glorifying a nationalist movement implicated in wartime massacres of Poles.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki said that for “the vast majority of Polish society,” the UPA remains synonymous with atrocities committed against Poles during World War II. Poland officially recognizes the Volhynia massacres carried out by the UPA and affiliated Ukrainian formations as genocide, and several senior Polish politicians have argued that Kiev cannot expect Warsaw’s support for EU membership until the dispute is resolved.

Are Slavs just meme people?

According to a popular theory, there is a direct link between the ethnonym ‘Slav’ and the Greek word σκλάβος (sklabos), meaning ‘slave’. This has nothing to do with the Slavic character or will for independence but is rather a grim historical reminder: in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, the Slavs often fell prey to slave raids.

The markets were full of slaves from Eastern Europe, and the term supposedly became associated with an entire group of peoples.

Many criticize this theory and see the root of the word in Proto-Slavic [derived from ‘slovo’ (word)] or even Indo-European languages. However, some find it poetic that the victimized peoples who had faced oppression eventually established themselves as independent and (for the most part) respected nations.

To some extent, this story aligns with the memetic perception of the Slavs as proud, strange, sometimes uncivilized and gloomy peoples, always ready to fight each other and anyone who comes near them. 

We may ignore the part about ‘uncivilized’ Slavs – just look at any Slavic city or the achievements of Slavic scientists and cultural figures. The idea that the Slavs are perpetually gloomy is also far-fetched – some may find it hard to believe, but most of us are not characters out of Dostoevsky’s novels.

However, memes about the Slavs’ weird behavior and their habit of getting into fights with each other aren’t that far from truth.

West Slavs chose the Latin script, but they can understand their eastern and southern neighbors quite well, even without learning their languages. All Slavic dialects are more similar to each other than to other European language groups.

Religion played an equally important role in defining the Slavs. The choice of Orthodox Christianity brought them close to the rest of Europe but, on the other hand, created a certain cultural barrier.

In the Middle Ages, faith and religion weren’t just part of culture – they defined culture, politics, the understanding of the world, and the place of humans in this world. As fellow Christians, the Slavs shared many similarities with Catholics, and could understand them well; but on the other hand, they considered Catholics alien and potentially hostile. The Crusades had a lot to do with instilling such fears. 

Even the Slavs who chose Catholicism (i.e., the Czechs, Poles, Croats, and Slovaks) were often forced to defend themselves from both Western Europeans and the ‘others’ who lived nearby. 

No one in Europe – with the exception of the Spaniards and the Portuguese – lived in such close proximity with non-European cultures, as the Slavs did. The average Frenchman or Englishman encountered only Jews, and perhaps a few Moorish traders. But for hundreds of years, the Slavs lived side by side first with the Cumans, Tatars, and Baltic pagans, then with the Turks and the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia. Even the Byzantine Empire, which imparted much of its culture to the Slavs, was largely non-European.

To the dissatisfaction of globalists, such neighbors weren’t particularly friendly. Southern Slavs lost their independence for a long time when they were conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Western Slavs had to fend off aggression from the West and from the Turks as well. Eastern Slavs had to live under the Mongol yoke, and then for centuries were forced to fend off raids that escalated into full-blown wars.

Permanent relations between the Slavs started forming in the 17th century. Stable hostility developed between the Poles and Russians, the Czechs became part of the Habsburg Empire and gradually distanced themselves from the other Slavs, and the Southern Slavs – as well as the Greeks – turned with hope towards Moscow as the new center of Orthodoxy. 

Great expectations and great experiments

Having survived the bloody wars of Ivan the Terrible and the devastating Time of Troubles, the Russian Tsardom remained the largest of the independent Orthodox states. Moreover, the tsars emphasized their continuity with the Byzantine emperors, willingly accepting refugees from countries conquered by the Turks and Poles, and built a powerful new army.

Therefore, the other Slavs began to look to Moscow for assistance in their struggle for independence and the defense of Orthodox Christianity. However, the wait for the arrival of Russian liberators was quite long – the tsars had long intended to reach the Balkans, but the Russo-Turkish wars were difficult and bloody, and in the first half of the 19th century, Russian foreign policy was focused on conflicts with Europe. 

The Czechs were the first to discuss the idea of ​​unifying the Slavs into a single state. In 1848, the Prague Slavic Congress was held, where intellectuals representing various countries were tasked with planning the unification. By that time, Slavic romanticism was flourishing – poets wrote about a single people divided into different branches, and scholars proved the commonality of the Slavic peoples. 

But the congress was not very productive. The delegates quickly got into a dispute: it turned out that they had different views on the future of the Slavs. The Czechs advocated Slavic autonomy within the Austrian Empire, the Poles demanded assistance in an uprising against the Russian Empire, and the Southern Slavs hoped for Russia’s assistance in their struggle for independence.

In any case, the war was dramatic. ‘White’ General Mikhail Skobelev, so nicknamed for his love of white uniforms and white horses, bravely marched into the thick of battle; soldiers fraternized with Slavic peasants, fought heroic battles, and reached Constantinople.

It seemed that the Balkan Slavs would soon be free and the cross would again be raised over Hagia Sophia. But European diplomacy intervened. At the Congress of Berlin, Western countries, concerned about Russia’s success, restricted the Slavs’ independence from the Turks and prevented Alexander II from fully capitalizing on his victory.

In Russia, Pan-Slavic intellectuals were indignant. This was best expressed in sociologist Nikolai Danilevsky’s article ‘Woe to the Victors!’ in which he openly accused Europe of opposing Slavic independence and emphasized Russia’s role as the defender of its “Slavic brothers.”

At this time, Pan-Slavism became very fashionable in Russia. Afanasy Fet’s poem ‘To the Slavs’ was recited and discussed in drawing rooms, Aleksey Tolstoy’s tragedy ‘Tsar Feodor Ioannovich’ was performed in theaters, and Tchaikovsky’s ‘Slavic March’ was popular in concert halls.

The new Pan-Slavists believed that the Slavs possessed unique characteristics: collectivism and emotionality (in contrast to Western individualism and rationality), spirituality and a strong religious sentiment, a love of freedom, and a keen sense of justice. According to the Pan-Slavists, Russia and other Slavic nations should not follow the European or Asian path; instead, they need a unique path of development that is distinct from standard political thought.

These ideas are still alive today, and have been developed by Alexander Dugin, among others. 

In part, this neglect of national issues by the communist governments created growing tensions between different Slavic cultures and paved the way for military conflicts.

When Yugoslavia, the USSR, and the entire Eastern Bloc fell apart, the frustration spilled over into military conflicts. First came the Yugoslav Wars – a long, chaotic division of the former republic of the Southern Slavs. These wars were horrible and bloody. But due to the peculiarities of the region’s cultural response to these events – primarily the war music that emerged in Yugoslavia – which ‘amused’ outside observers, the conflict gave rise to memes. 

Now, another war between the Slavs has erupted. And judging by the reactions to Prigozhin’s speech and Zelensky’s diplomatic trips, it too is being turned into a meme.

The undying Slavic way of life

Are the Slavs different from other peoples? It’s difficult to say for sure, since there’s no way we can evaluate each person. The Slavs certainly share similar traditions, and traveling from Moscow to Warsaw, one might not immediately realize that the people on the streets grew up in different countries. But the same can be said about Berlin and Copenhagen, or Beijing and Seoul.

Today, the 500-year-old dreams of Slavic unity are going through tough times. Moreover, as the recent conflict between Poland and Ukraine over the glorification of the Nazi Ukrainian Insurgent Army demonstrates, it’s impossible to simply divide the sides into ‘pro-Moscow’ and ‘pro-Kiev’ camps. Slavic disputes are heated and multi-faceted. 

But this doesn’t mean that it’s time to give up on old dreams. A colleague of mine visited a small town in northern Greece in 2014. When the locals found out that Crimea had rejoined Russia, the Greeks and Slavs suddenly became excited. As it later turned out, they were preparing to move: they thought that if the Russians had started moving south, they should soon capture Constantinople and hand it back to the Greeks – for such is the generous nature of the Russian soul.

For the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the German name for the attack on the Soviet Union of 22 June 1941, Germany’s declining yet still dominant mainstream news magazine Der Spiegel has dedicated a long title story and a sensationalist cover to Berlin’s last open war in, as the Germans used to say back then, the East. So far, so expected. There is no doubt, after all, that this was a historic as well as horrific event.

Launching their surprise attack with millions of troops and the explicit intention to wage a war of extermination, those Germans of yore, sought to build a ‘lebensraum’ empire from hell, based on multiple deliberate genocides (including one of Soviet POWs), warfare with all legal or moral restraints systematically removed, and a supremacist ideology that would have designated anyone surviving among the conquered as a slave of inferior, if any, humanity.

Moreover, if those Germans, who attacked 85 years ago, had won in ‘the East’, their form of genocidal fascism – officially termed National Socialism – would have had a realistic chance to survive and even maintain domination in large parts of Eurasia (at least). For the preponderant majority of German forces were destroyed by the Soviet military. If that had not happened,  we might all have ended up living in a very different, even worse world now.

The stakes were as high as they could possibly be not just for Europe but humanity as a whole. That is why the defeat of Germany’s Operation Barbarossa belongs to the most important facts of global history. The Germans were not stopped by a combination of vile weather, muddy roads, and silly mistakes of their own, as some may still want to believe in blissful ignorance and with more than a hint of racist arrogance. What killed the fascist German bid for world power was the Soviet Union, the leadership of its generals, who after initial setbacks, rapidly learned to out-think and out-plan the Germans, the supreme valor of its soldiers, and the unimaginable grit as well as organization of its home front.

This – in a nutshell – is the historical backdrop to Spiegel’s current title story, its cover, and the ruckus both have triggered. In essence, a monotonous chorus of critics – things are generally done in intellectually dull lockstep again in Germany – have charged Spiegel with obscuring the suffering of those in the Soviet Union who were not ethnically Russian, such as, for instance, Belarusians or, of course, Ukrainians. By splashing ‘Our War against Russia’ – and not ‘the Soviet Union’ – on its cover (background: Nazi soldiers), these critics argue, Spiegel has in effect privileged Russia and Russians. The question some of them ask is if Spiegel has used this cover title out of ignorance or, probably even worse, to provoke precisely the pearl-clutching and hyperventilating it is receiving now. Scandal sells.

Like many rapidly shared herd opinions, the above is a remarkably superficial and misleading take. For starters, the cover title and that of the actual article inside the magazine are not identical. The latter reads ‘The German War of Extermination’. And as you may suspect, the article is commendably clear about at least some of the enormous crimes Germany committed, including, for instance, the mass use of slave labor and the de facto genocidal (a word Spiegel, however, fails to use) blockade of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg again). The fact that many victims were not ethnically Russian is mentioned, too.

Even if the cover title is imperfect, clearly, the substance of the article doesn’t correspond to that flaw, a fact which the critics of Spiegel mention conspicuously little, presumably because it would interfere with enjoying their somewhat self-important consternation.

Yet it is all too likely that many German readers will understand this phrase very differently. Against the backdrop of the new German militarism, when the public is systematically prepped for a direct war – as opposed to the proxy war Berlin is already waging via Ukraine – with Russia within the next five years or so, another, dark meaning will prevail: war with Russia is a thing we do; it is within the realm of the possible.

War with Russia should be unthinkable for Germans, for moral, practical, and survival reasons. That is precisely why the idea is systematically being normalized. In that perspective, even the Spiegel article’s insistence on the criminal nature of the last attempt appears in a new light. What if – the question is implicit but obvious – we try again but this time make sure we don’t openly seek genocide? Or lose?

Too dark? Too pessimistic? Too far-fetched? Even in Germany, they cannot be that perverse, you think? Consider then what else the Spiegel article has to say. There is the swipe at the Russian memory of Barbarossa. Spiegel reduces its resonance to state propaganda, as if the memory of what the Russians call The Great Patriotic War had no basis in the victories and sacrifices of a whole people, family by family. Indeed, the only shape in which Spiegel readers encounter that memory is as a tool of alleged disinformation and history distortion.

Add the fact that much of the Spiegel article is then dedicated to Germans ruminating over their forebears, with much tormented navel-gazing and fashionable self-realization, and the overall impression is so much worse than saying “Russia” instead of “Soviet Union” (once). The real issue here is a persistent arrogance that refuses to give the time of day to what Russians think and feel. In that sense, same old, same old on the German front. And that all critics have missed this point tells us even more than the article itself. Germany’s chattering classes have a long way to go to finally meet reality. And the humility that remembering a horrific national crime really requires.

Denmark is considering a nationwide ban on the Islamic call to prayer. Immigration Minister Morten Bodskov has said it has “no place” in the country. The move comes amid a Danish government crackdown on “Islamization.”

Speaking to local news outlet Ritzau on Wednesday, Bodskov, a senior figure in the governing Social Democrats party, stated that the Danish authorities are set to reopen an investigation into whether the ‘Adhan’, or call to prayer, can be legally prohibited across Denmark.

“The call to prayer should not be heard over Danish rooftops,” he told Ritzau. “It has no place in Denmark, and you shouldn’t be in any doubt whether you’ve ended up in a suburb of Islamabad when you walk around Denmark.”

The Adhan is traditionally recited five times a day to summon Muslims to prayer. In some countries, it is broadcast through loudspeakers attached to mosques or minarets.

The proposal comes as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen begins her third consecutive term after her Social Democrats party suffered their worst election result in more than a century in March, hit by voter anger over living costs, welfare pressure, and migration.

The right-wing Danish People’s Party, meanwhile, nearly tripled its support after campaigning for zero net migration of Muslims.

Frederiksen has responded by hardening her line on Islamic visibility in public life, including calls to extend Denmark’s face-veil ban to schools and universities and remove prayer rooms from campuses.

Previously, her governments also backed stricter asylum rules, “ghetto” laws targeting areas with large migrant populations, and measures allowing authorities to relocate residents from neighborhoods deemed insufficiently integrated.

Supporters of the proposed Adhan ban say it would defend Denmark’s secular public space and prevent Islamic practices from reshaping the country’s soundscape while critics have argued that it targets one religion and could violate constitutional protections for public worship.

Europe is experiencing a broader backlash against migration and public Islamic practices, with countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark recently adopting full or partial face-covering bans.

A left-liberal German NGO has made a case for declaring the country’s largest populist party unconstitutional. The Society for Civil Rights argues that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s platform and rhetoric regarding immigration, citizenship, and minority groups constitute sufficient grounds to ban it under the country’s strict post-war democratic laws.

The AfD, which advocates for tougher immigration laws and opposes Germany’s support for Ukraine, came in second at 20% in last year’s federal elections. An INSA opinion poll earlier this month indicated that the AfD had emerged as Germany’s most popular party with 29% support.

On Thursday, the Society for Civil Rights, an organization resembling the American Civil Liberties Union which receives funding from George Soros’ Open Societies Foundations, presented its 1,500-page “expert report” claiming that the right-wing party’s positions on multiple hot-button issues are in breach of the German Basic Law.

”The expert opinion is unequivocal: The AfD is unconstitutional,” the paper, which supposedly draws on millions of social media posts by party members as well as press releases and parliamentary documents, concludes.

In its analysis, the Society for Civil Rights claims that the party supposedly “intends to persecute its political opponents.” It cites images of prominent political figures behind bars found on AfD-related social media accounts as well as demands to bring members of other parties before court.

Moreover, the party advocates an “ethnically and culturally defined concept of the nation” and wants to strip naturalized citizens and dual nationals who have committed crimes of their citizenship, the paper says.

According to the Society for Civil Rights, the AfD’s demands for a ban on Islamic headscarves in public institutions as well as the construction of minarets in Germany are also inexcusable under the country’s constitution.

One more cause for concern for the liberal NGO is the party’s refusal to pander to transgender narratives and its belief that there are only two biological sexes. “The AfD advocates for a societal ‘model of the normal family’ consisting of a father, mother, and as many children as possible,” the paper laments.

The Society for Civil Rights has argued that the party must be outlawed as soon as possible as “it succeeds in mobilizing supporters and drawing attention to its issues.”

On its website, the Society for Civil Rights lists among its donors the Open Society Foundations and its European offshoot, which were founded by Soros, who has injected more than $32 billion into the network.

Critics have long accused the Hungarian-born billionaire of fomenting various protest movements across the world, interfering in elections, and attempting to suppress dissenting views.

Meanwhile, the AfD has for years faced significant pressure from regional and federal authorities in Germany. Last week, the Bavarian Administrative Court of Appeal gave the local office of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency the green light to continue surveilling the local chapter of the AfD.

Earlier this year, the state of Lower Saxony imposed the “confirmed right-wing extremist” status on the regional branch of the party, following in the footsteps of Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia.

The label gives the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) wider powers to surveil the AfD and its members.

At the federal level, the right-wing party is subject to a lower-level designation that also permits monitoring, though under tighter judicial controls. However, the federal authorities have been seeking an upgrade of the surveillance status for the AfD, with the final decision currently on hold pending the outcome of a legal appeal by the party.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has vowed to do “everything” possible to ensure his country does not take part in the latest NATO-backed initiative to finance arms for Ukraine.

Speaking to students on Wednesday, Fico – who survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist – said Slovakia would oppose a proposed €70 billion ($80 billion) loan package at the bloc’s upcoming summit in Türkiye.

“I am following the preparations for the NATO summit in Ankara with great concern... and I keep hearing that they want to raise money for Ukraine again. They are talking about €70 billion to support the war in Ukraine. I am saying this publicly for the first time: I will do everything to ensure that Slovakia does not participate in military loans for Ukraine,” Fico said.

NATO is considering an additional €70 billion in military aid for Ukraine over several years, with the proposal expected to be discussed at the bloc’s July 7-8 summit in Ankara, according to Italian state news agency ANSA. Reportedly backed by Germany, the plan remains under negotiation, with member states still wrangling over how to split the costs. Earlier reports by Euractiv and Politico said US participation was uncertain, while €30 billion would come from the EU’s existing Ukraine aid package.

“We must talk, talk to everyone. I am a strong supporter of dialogue,” he said, criticizing the EU’s approach to the Ukraine conflict. “We are incapable of doing anything to end the war in Ukraine, and that is very sad. Perhaps it is because some EU states support the war and want it to continue,” Fico added.

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said all hopes that the West could serve as an honest broker in resolving the Ukraine conflict had collapsed. He argued that continued military support for Kiev had undermined any claim to neutrality.

Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov has signed a pact to supply small arms to partners in India.

Maxim Karavaev, Kalashnikov’s business development director in India, said the pact envisages the supply of anti-drone cartridges.

Under the terms of the deal signed at India Homeland Security Expo, an exhibition of equipment and technologies for national and public safety, Kalashnikov is expected to produce the supplies by the end of this year.

In particular, anti-drone shotguns, anti-drone cartridges of various calibers, and pistols will be shipped, it said in a statement.

“Anti-drone protection today is among the most popular in the world. The products of the concern in this niche are effective and proven,” Karavaev said.

Unmanned aerial systems have been a standout feature of the two-day India Homeland Security Expo, which ends on Thursday.

The compact Karakurt and Goliath copter-type UAVs and the SKAT 350 M high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, known as GARUDA in India, were the highlights of the expo.

Kalashnikov already has partnerships with Indian entities. Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), formed by Rosoboronexport and the Kalashnikov Concern along with two state-owned Indian firms – Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited and Munitions India Limited – started manufacturing AK-203 assault rifles in India in 2023.

The manufacture of 600,000 AK-203 rifles spread over ten years is being done under the ‘Make in India’ initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The rifles are being made using Russian technology and certified equipment in the town of Korda in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Meta, the parent company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced earlier this week that it has made a $900 million investment in Bengaluru-based startup Cred. 

Cred is a fintech startup founded by Kunal Shah, who now will take over as the global head of Meta’s WhatsApp messaging platform.  

While the Meta-Cred deal signals the US-based tech major’s growing ambitions in India’s digital payments and financial services market, it has also sparked concerns about data crossing borders. The huge investment, combined with a leadership role, has made the deal the focus of attention.

RT examines the multiple layers of the partnership.

What is Cred?

Cred started as a platform that rewarded users for paying their credit card bills on time. Founded in 2018 by Shah, it targeted financially responsible high-value customers, enabling the platform to build a user base of affluent Indians.

The platform later widened its reach beyond credit card payments, offering a host of services, including UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and merchant payments, apart from lending products, insurance services, and wealth management tools. In effect, Cred transitioned to a broader fintech platform rather than being a one-trick pony.

Cred was valued at $6.4 billion during the peak of the startup funding boom in 2022, but later saw a significant valuation drop due to cautious investor sentiment.

The new deal with Meta gives the US tech giant a minority 20% stake in Cred at a valuation of $4.5 billion. Cred has said it will not share the startup’s customer data with Meta.

Meta’s interest

Cred’s overwhelmingly urban and higher-income customer base set it as a prime target of global majors, with Meta finding it an attractive proposition in a major market such as India.

The South Asian nation is one of the key markets for Meta, with millions of users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. India has over 850 million WhatsApp users, making it the app’s largest global base.

Meta has repeatedly tried – and thus far failed – to transform this massive user base into a dominant digital payments force. WhatsApp Pay, which was positioned to become a major force in India’s UPI ecosystem, remains a minor player in a crowded market dominated by leaders PhonePe and Google Pay, which have cornered the lion’s share of UPI transactions.

Meta sees the payments gamble as a crucial part of a larger digital commerce strategy. For example, it could have a user find a product on Instagram, discuss it with peers on WhatsApp, and make the payment through its own platform – an ecosystem of embedded loyalists within the Meta-verse, so to speak. Cred is an ideal bet to pull this off, with expertise spanning payments, lending, and financial products.

The deep understanding of Indian consumer traits and its complex and highly competitive fintech landscape that Cred offered were tantalizing add-ons.

Why Meta scooped up Shah

Shah is not a newcomer to the financial ecosystem. Before launching Cred, he founded FreeCharge, a digital payments company, which was later sold to Snapdeal. A deep knowledge of consumer behavior and financial technology propelled him to the highest echelons of India’s startup ecosystem.

Shah’s appointment as the global head of WhatsApp is a hint that Meta sees a goldmine in his leadership abilities. Meta can count on him to infuse fresh thinking in WhatsApp and to boost the app’s floundering payments strategy – not only in a huge market like India, but in other countries as well, as digital transactions gain increasing appeal among global consumers. 

Is there a catch?

The deal announcement spurred discussions over data sovereignty and the role of US-based tech giants in India’s fintech sector as well as their access to the vast financial data generated by Indian consumers.

A report by Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI) warned that Meta’s investment in Cred could deepen foreign tech influence over India’s fintech sector and consumer financial data. The think tank has urged greater transparency on data‑sharing safeguards and stronger regulatory oversight of the deal. GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava noted that the Meta-Cred transaction “comes at a time when India’s digital-payments ecosystem is increasingly dominated by platforms linked to US firms.”

Allowing global firms to hold sway over public digital infrastructure risks of foreign-controlled ecosystems gaining access to valuable financial data assets, the GTRI report argued, noting that Cred processes more than 40% of India’s credit-card bill payments.

“The central issue is not whether Meta gains access to Cred’s data today. It is whether India is gradually allowing control over the financial data of millions of economically active citizens to migrate into foreign-owned digital ecosystems,” Srivastava wrote.

Data sovereignty concerns linked to startup acquisitions and regulatory oversight have also been flagged by a Mumbai-based entrepreneur Arnab Mitra. The deal is “data arbitrage at national scale,” he said in a LinkedIn post, citing that Meta would have access to “25 million Indian credit profiles. Affluent. Verified. Creditworthy.”

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 stipulates explicit consent before personal financial data is transferred to any third party and restricts cross-border transfer of personal data to countries not on an approved whitelist. According to Mitra, the catch here is that the government “has not notified the whitelist, and the US is not on it yet.” The implications are that data crossing borders is not a possibility that is ruled out.

In 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the national antitrust regulator, penalized Meta over WhatsApp’s privacy policy and the way user data was collected and shared with other Meta companies.

It remains unclear to what extent the CCI – whose approval will be required for the deal to go through – will be willing to probe the deeper contours of the transaction and focus on data concerns, rather than limiting itself to competition issues.

A controversial move by the operator of a lakeside beach in Germany to refuse entry to swimmers who do not sufficiently speak German has sparked a fierce political row.

The dispute erupted after the privately run Heidebad nature pool in Halle in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt announced earlier this month that staff may turn away visitors who are unable to understand safety instructions in German.

Pool manager Mathias Nobel, who also works as a lifeguard, said the policy was introduced after repeated dangerous situations in which warning signs, depth markers and lifeguards’ instructions were not understood or ignored.

“The Heidebad swimming pool is convinced that an angry visitor is better than a preventable swimming accident,” reads the statement on the pool’s website. It goes on to explain that “in isolated cases, guests were refused entry if, in the operator’s opinion, sufficient communication regarding safety-related information was not possible.” 

City officials have proposed multilingual safety information, pictograms and QR codes instead of language-based admission checks, while both sides are seeking a compromise.

Nobel rejected accusations of discrimination, insisting the policy is motivated solely by safety.

“I bear responsibility for thousands of beachgoers. When it comes to the safety of children and families, I will not compromise,” he said in a statement on the pool’s website.

The dispute has also become part of Germany’s wider political debate over immigration.

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party backed Nobel, saying on Facebook on Tuesday that his “decisive action reveals the dramatic failure of uncontrolled immigration in everyday German life” and blaming the “misguided policies of the established parties.”

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD currently leads opinion polls with around 40–42% support ahead of the September 6 state election.

Bangladesh and China have signed more than a dozen pacts to deepen cooperation between the two countries during Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s state visit to Beijing.

Thirteen memoranda of understanding (MoUs), spanning various sectors, were signed following talks between Rahman and his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang, on Thursday. Separately, Chinese textile, fabric, and garment manufacturer Handa Industries agreed to invest $220 million in a new factory at the Keraniganj Economic Zone, according to reports.

A pact on the China-Bangladesh Mongla Port Economic Zone, aimed to facilitate the development of the industrial zone adjacent to Mongla Port in Bagerhat, was also signed as part of an Invest Bangladesh seminar.

The two prime ministers held bilateral talks focusing on strengthening cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure development, and other areas of mutual interest.

Media reports had said Dhaka was exploring plans to acquire 24 Chinese J-10CE multi-role fighter jets during Rahman’s visit, although there was no announcement on the matter.

China is Bangladesh’s largest overall trading partner, dominating bilateral trade primarily through imports such as industrial machinery, electronics, and textile raw materials. India is Bangladesh’s second-largest overall trading partner, while the US is its single largest export destination.

Bangladesh imported goods worth $18.56 billion from China in fiscal year 2025, while exports to the country stood at $694.49 million.

The signing of the MoUs assumes significance as a trade deal with the US was signed by Bangladesh’s then-interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus just four days ahead of national elections in February.

The provisions of the pact limit Dhaka’s sovereign interests, as it enables the US to terminate the pact and impose reciprocal tariffs if Bangladesh enters into a trade deal with a “non-market country” – a reference Washington uses for China and Russia – the Daily Star reported in February.

The deal also forces Dhaka to automatically align with US sanctions and trade wars, forfeiting its right to remain neutral in great power conflicts. The fear is that if Dhaka breaches the provisions of the deal, Washington may reinstate previously agreed-upon tariffs.

A former police operative appeared in South Africa’s Benoni Regional Court on Thursday to face charges stemming from three notorious apartheid-era operations examined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

According to The Star, the 74-year-old accused is facing 15 counts of murder, alongside charges of kidnapping, arson, unlawful possession of explosives, unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, and defeating or obstructing the administration of justice.

His court appearance follows an extensive investigation by the Hawks into apartheid-era atrocities and forms part of efforts to hold those implicated in unresolved crimes accountable, more than three decades after the alleged offences were committed.

”In its ongoing pursuit of accountability for apartheid-era atrocities, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) continues to fulfil its mandate,” Mogale said.

The investigation was conducted by the Serious Organised Crime Investigation’s Crimes Against the State section and centres on three incidents previously brought before the TRC: Operation Zero Zero, the Nietverdiend 10 and the KwaNdebele 9.

Investigators have linked the former Vlakplaas operative to the deaths of 15 young people associated with the three operations.

According to the Hawks, the incidents allegedly followed a common pattern. Young recruits were allegedly enticed with promises of military training, provided with explosives and clandestinely taken out of South Africa during the apartheid era. The recruits were allegedly led to believe they would be involved in operations against the apartheid government.

”Instead, they met their deaths at the hands of the suspect and two accomplices who allegedly operated from Vlakplaas under the command of Eugene de Kock,” Mogale said.

First published by IOL

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) football supporter Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, better known as Lumumba Vea, finally made his World Cup debut on Tuesday after missing the team’s opener against Portugal due to Ebola quarantine restrictions. 

The fan stood behind the DR Congo bench during the match against Colombia, recreating the motionless pose that turned him into a social media sensation. 

Wearing a bright red jacket and tie, a yellow shirt and blue trousers, Mboladinga stood on a pedestal with his right arm raised for almost the entire match. 

Apart from a brief delay returning after halftime, he remained frozen in character until after the final whistle. He declined interviews but acknowledged reporters with a smile and a nod, several news agencies reported. DR Congo lost 1-0 to Colombia.

FOR THE COUNTRY 🇨🇩🐆🙋🏾‍♂️#FIFAWorldCup #FifaWorldCup26 pic.twitter.com/852moEIBgp

— LUMUMBA VEA 🇨🇩🐆 (@JumbaDrc) June 24, 2026

Mboladinga’s performance is a tribute to Patrice Lumumba, who became the DR Congo’s first prime minister when the country gained independence from Belgium in 1960, but was ousted within months and executed by firing squad in January 1961 at the age of 35.

The appearance came as several African teams continue to make headlines at the expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup with a series of notable results.

South Africa defeated South Korea 1-0 on Wednesday night in their final Group A match to reach the World Cup knockout stage for the first time in the country’s history. 

UNBELIEVABLE SCENES IN MONTERREY 🇿🇦

SOUTH AFRICA TAKES THE LEAD OVER SOUTH KOREA! pic.twitter.com/YUq0uCTCqX

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 25, 2026

Morocco also advanced to the knockout stage after beating Haiti 4-2 in its final Group C match.

Cape Verde drew attention despite failing to win its opening match, holding Spain to a 0-0 draw. The result was secured largely through the performance of 40-year-old goalkeeper Josimar Dias, known as Vozinha, who made seven saves against the reigning European champions. Cape Verde followed up the result with another draw, holding Uruguay 2-2.

Other African teams have continued to collect points. Ghana held England to a goalless draw, while Egypt defeated New Zealand 3-1 and Algeria defeated Jordan 2-1.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being held from June 11 to July 19 across 16 cities in the US, Canada and Mexico. The tournament is the first in history to feature 48 national teams.

Burkina Faso has denounced a European Parliament resolution on alleged repression of civil society organizations and human rights violations in the West African country as unacceptable interference.

The official verbal note from the Burkinabe Ministry of Foreign Affairs was published on Wednesday. The ministry said it had summoned Philippe Bronchain, head of the EU delegation in Ouagadougou, two days earlier, to express the government’s “disapproval, disappointment and disgust” provoked by the resolution.

On June 18, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted three resolutions on the human rights situations in Nicaragua, Belarus, and Burkina Faso. The measure accused Burkinabe authorities of several violations, including dissolving civil society organizations and “severely” undermining press freedoms.

The MEPs criticized “intimidation, unlawful conscription, harassment, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance” in the Sahel nation, urging the government to reverse their decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.

They also expressed “serious concerns over Russia’s influence in Burkina Faso since the expulsion of European forces, contributing to human rights violations and authoritarian drift,” the European Parliament said in a statement.

The former head of French military intelligence said the country’s situation “illustrates the dramatic failure of the military junta in power since the 2022 coup.” 

In response, Burkina Faso rejected Gomart’s comments as “accusatory, rude, and untruthful.” Burkinabe Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said the longstanding insecurity faced by the country, alongside Mali and Niger, is a direct consequence of NATO’s destabilization of Libya in 2011.

Ambassador Bronchain said he would “simply relay” Ouagadougou’s concerns to his “superiors” in Brussels.

The latest exchange adds to already strained diplomatic relations between Burkina Faso and the EU since the 2022 military takeover. The authorities in Burkina Faso, along with their allies in Mali and Niger, have cut defense cooperation with EU partners and expelled French troops, accusing France of aggression.

The Italian Defense Ministry has rejected NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks praising its alleged contribution to the US war against Iran.

In an interview with Fox News, the NATO chief hailed what he described as “massive” European support for the American-Israeli attempt to topple the government in Tehran.

Rutte claimed that Italy alone accounted for 500 of the 4,000 to 5,000 US military sorties launched from European bases in support of Operation Epic Fury.

The Italian military said on Wednesday that its role was limited to “technical and logistical, non-kinetic activities,” and was therefore fully in line with the Italian Constitution and the parliament-approved conditions governing US use of military bases in the country.

“It is surprising that the NATO Secretary General, who had nothing to do with Operation Epic Fury, offers a reconstruction that conveys a completely misleading message by confusing the types of authorized flights,” the statement said.

The secretary-general argued that European reluctance to follow Washington’s lead amounted only to a few “isolated cases.” Rutte has repeatedly lavished praise on Trump, even referring to the American leader as “daddy” during a joint press conference last year.

Rome’s public correction followed a spat between Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who objected to the US president’s claim that she had “begged” him for a joint photo opportunity during a recent G7 summit in France. Meloni said that being friendly with Trump brought her no political benefit and that her approval at home depended solely on her “ability to defend Italy’s national interests.”

This week, the US Senate passed a directive by a 50-48 vote calling on Trump to withdraw American troops from the conflict with Iran. The measure had already been approved by the House earlier this month, but is widely seen as symbolic, as the president can veto the effort to restrict his authority.

The EU is engaging in “fascism” with its recent proposals to preserve visa-free travel only for select groups of Georgian citizens, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has said.

The European Parliament initiative, put forward earlier this year as part of discussions on a potential suspension mechanism for Georgia’s visa-free regime, would allow students, journalists, and civil society activists to continue entering the bloc without visas even if the waiver is suspended for the rest of the population.

Papuashvili argued that the plan effectively ranks citizens by social category, granting privileges to some while excluding others.

“These three social groups would have more rights from the EU than workers, farmers, engineers, and doctors. This is called nothing other than fascism,” Papuashvili told local media on Wednesday, stating that the proposal amounts to a “segregation” of the Georgian people.

The categories singled out by the European Parliament also seem to overlap with the forces that have driven Georgia’s recent protest movement, namely activist groups, opposition-linked NGOs, student networks, and media outlets that Georgian officials have repeatedly linked to Western-backed efforts to destabilize the country.

In March, the European Commission also suspended visa-free travel for holders of Georgian diplomatic and service passports, citing concerns over democracy and fundamental rights.

Tbilisi condemned the move, accusing the EU of weaponizing visas to pressure Georgia to adopt the EU’s anti-Russian track and impose sanctions on Moscow.

Tbilisi has also repeatedly accused Brussels and Western-funded organizations of using street pressure to overturn election results and enact regime change in the country. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has compared the unrest to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan coup and has said that foreign actors have been trying to push Georgia to open a “second front” against Russia.

The EU has rejected allegations of regime-change efforts, instead accusing Georgia of democratic backsliding and excessive force against protesters. Tbilisi says Brussels is punishing the country for pursuing an independent policy and refusing to sacrifice its national interests.

There are moments in history when the earth trembles under the weight of a truth buried for too long. Accra, from June 17 to 19, 2026, may have been one of those moments. On the coast that served for centuries as the embarkation point for millions of our ancestors into the hell of the slave trade, heads of state, jurists, activists, and representatives of the African diaspora gathered for the Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice to build on UN Resolution A/RES/80/250, which was adopted on March 25, 2026. As the first document in the UN’s 80-year history dedicated to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, they wanted to ensure it leads to real action rather than remaining a dead letter.

Let us begin with what deserves to be acknowledged. Ghana, the symbolic gateway of the slave trade, is here staking its credibility as a pan-African leader. President Mahama did not convene this summit for appearances. His formula, which became the rallying cry of Accra, rings as a warning: Reparative justice “will not be handed to us. Like political independence, it must be asserted, pursued and won through determination and unity.” These words carry the direct lineage of Kwame Nkrumah.

For the first time, monitoring mechanisms exist on paper. It is a step forward. But a step is not yet a victory.

Allow me to say what others prefer to leave unsaid in the muffled diplomacy of grand conferences. The UN March vote revealed true faces. The text received 123 votes in favor, three against – the United States, Israel, and Argentina – and 52 abstentions, including all countries of the European Union. Fifty-two European abstentions. France, which wraps itself in the discourse of human rights at every international forum, abstained. Great Britain, whose slave traders made their fortunes on the blood of our ancestors, abstained. Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal: all absent from the vote for justice.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, who was not in Accra, declared in his speech of May 21: “We must be honest enough to tell ourselves that we can never repair these crimes. We must accept the fact that there is no final point.” Translation: We acknowledge the crime, but we refuse to pay for it. This is the classic rhetoric of the torturer who asks the victim to “turn the page” while keeping the fruits of plunder in his coffers.

Then, the international committees will include not only African and Caribbean countries, but also Western nations that historically benefited from slavery, such as the United States, France, and Great Britain. Allowing the executioners to sit at the table of justice means offering them a say in the terms of their own conviction. What court in the world accepts that the accused co-presides over his own trial?

A third uncomfortable truth: Will the African states, some of whose kingdoms and trading posts were involved in the slave trade, be capable of maintaining a united position? Internal rivalries, divergent economic interests, and persistent dependence on former colonial powers all complicate any common strategy. Africa cannot demand solidarity from its diaspora while maintaining internal divisions that weaken its negotiating capacity. Unity is not a diplomatic luxury – it is the sine qua non of any real justice. Sankara knew it. Nkrumah knew it. Nyerere knew it. And it is precisely because they attempted to build this unity that the colonial powers financed their overthrow.

Accra must not be the end of a process. Participants agreed on ambitious objectives: restitution of looted cultural property, financial justice, debt relief, technology transfer, climate justice, reform of global governance, and the fight against discrimination inherited from slavery and colonialism. These demands are just and legitimate. But they will only materialize if Africa transforms moral pressure into effective political and economic pressure. Reparations will not come from the goodwill of those who profited from the crime. They will come from our capacity to make the status quo unsustainable for them.

The reparations envisioned go beyond the financial framework: restitution of cultural property, recognition of psychological trauma, rehabilitation of the dignity of victims, and institutional reform. We are not wrong to broaden the scope. But let us not scatter our forces in every direction at once. First monetary sovereignty, because without control of our currency, any financial reparation can be neutralized by economic mechanisms we do not control; then unconditional cultural restitution, because our sacred objects are not museum curiosities, they are fragments of our soul; and, finally, the reform of international institutions, because the IMF and the UN Security Council, in their current architecture, are instruments for perpetuating the colonial imbalance.

The political union between Africa and its descendants on the other side of the Atlantic marks a turning point, hailed by the organizers as the end of a historical fragmentation.

On June 19, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky issued an ultimatum to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, demanding the removal of drone relay stations allegedly located on Belarusian territory and being used to guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. 

On June 24, Zelensky stated that Lukashenko had complied with his ultimatum and the relay stations were no longer operational. Lukashenko did not comment, and no evidence of either the existence or removal of these stations was provided. We are supposed to take Zelensky at his word.

Below, we examine what the story was all about, why Kiev resorted to such rhetorical escalation, and why it ended the way it did. 

What happened and where? 

While Russia is Ukraine’s eastern and northeastern neighbor, Belarus lies directly to the north of Ukraine. From Belarus, the western regions of Ukraine and the Ukraine-Poland border are accessible via the shortest possible route. And the straight-line distance to Kiev from the Ukraine-Belarus border is less than 100 km. 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko considers himself more of a mediator between Russia and Ukraine: the first negotiations between Russia and Ukraine occurred in Gomel in 2022, and then moved to Istanbul a week later. 

However, Belarus in the north poses a constant and serious threat to Ukraine: the latter has to maintain infantry cover and air defense units along the entire 1,000 km-long Ukraine-Belarus border. Meanwhile, these tens of thousands of servicemen, though not of the best combat quality, could be useful at the front, considering the Ukrainian army’s catastrophic personnel shortage. 

Zelensky himself is quite nervous. Since January of this year, he has toughened his rhetoric towards Lukashenko, and in February even imposed sanctions against him.

The issue of the relay stations has also been raised repeatedly. For example, on February 23, Zelensky stated that the Ukrainian side had done everything possible to ensure that “three or four” of them “no longer exist” on Belarusian territory. Just like today, no data on the existence of the stations or their removal was published at the time. 

On April 18, Zelensky stated that Belarus, on orders from Russia, was preparing to attack Ukraine (allegedly, on Lukashenko’s orders, roads to the border were being built and artillery positions were being set up) and, in a rather rude manner, threatened the Belarusian president with the fate of the kidnapped Maduro.

We must note that the Belarusian army, although well-equipped, is quite small: in peacetime, its ground forces number approximately 20,000 people. This number could quickly be increased to 100,000 by calling up reservists, but despite regular mobilization exercises, there have been no signs of calling up reserve forces in Belarus. 

In any case, Zelensky’s ultimatum on Saturday was a logical continuation of his increasingly aggressive rhetoric, and it caused a stir only because of the clear deadline: within a week, Zelensky promised to “remove” Russian equipment from Belarusian territory himself. He also threatened to strike Belarusian oil refineries, which allegedly supply fuel to the Russian army.

What were the options?

Ukraine’s supporters took Zelensky’s threats seriously and even enthusiastically. This is understandable: according to Western media, Ukraine has turned the tide of the conflict since the beginning of the year and is decisively defeating Russia in the air. From this perspective, it is quite logical to expand the conflict to Moscow’s allies.

We identified four possible outcomes of Zelensky’s ultimatum: 

First (improbable) option: Lukashenko could have complied with the ultimatum, publicly admitting that the relay stations were in place but were removed at the request of the Ukrainian side. Alternatively, he could publicly refuse to supply Russia with fuel.

Third option: As in February, Zelensky could declare that the relay stations were removed. He announced the threat, he resolved it. The story would soon become irrelevant and would be forgotten in a few days.

Finally, the fourth option: Ukraine could have launched minor provocations against Belarus, pushing its red lines. First, one or two drones could strike insignificant targets, or even an isolated forest area. Then the drones would increase in number, the targets would become more serious, and in just a few weeks or months, the skies over Belarus would become as turbulent as in the European part of Russia. Moscow would have to supply its ally with missile defense systems, which would mean pulling air defense systems from its own territory and weakening its own airspace.

It might look like the latter option could be a win-win for Kiev. Since Ukraine is already under fire, it has nothing to lose, so it could complicate matters for Moscow without much risk – most likely, such ‘salami tactics’ would not provide grounds for a decisive response.

However, this option comes with significant risk. So far, Kiev has refrained from declaring that the air attacks on Ukraine are carried out from Belarusian territory. But after the first Ukrainian strike, Lukashenko would be able to ask Moscow for protection, and Moscow, in accordance with its allied obligations, would provide such protection.

However, the distance from the Belarusian border to Kiev is less than 100 kilometers by air, and the Ukrainian capital could be attacked directly with UMPK precision-guided munitions, against which air defenses are virtually ineffective. Currently, UMPK bomb kits are used only at the front; they cannot reach Ukrainian cities in the rear.

These precision-guided munitions would also be able to target the strategically important railway route from Poland to Kiev and the northern part of the Ukraine-Poland border. Therefore, a proper and decisive response would have the opposite effect to what Kiev intended: the Ukrainian capital and cities in the rear would become more vulnerable, not safer. 

Therefore, Kiev certainly understands that drawing Belarus into the conflict will dramatically worsen Ukraine’s strategic position.

***

We all know how the story with the relay stations ended. Just like in February, Zelensky chose the third option, declaring that the stations had been shut down at his request. His attempt to ‘bluff’ Lukashenko with his ultimatum failed. Meanwhile, Minsk hasn’t commented on the situation at all, ignoring both the ultimatum and its miraculous revocation.

However, in a wider sense, this is hardly the end of the story. Zelensky’s logic of verbal escalation leaves him with no other option but to resort to threats again and again. After all, the drones will continue flying and the aerial threat can’t be solved with magic spells on the internet. 

The US and Iran have clashed over Tehran’s move to levy a toll on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Washington has insisted that Tehran cannot impose transit fees, while Iran argues it can levy charges for services provided.

Iran intends to introduce a system of maritime fees in the strait, after the 60-day negotiation period triggered by the signing of the memorandum of understanding by Washington and Tehran.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that Washington would not accept any tolls or transit fees in the strategic waterway, which is wholly demarcated into the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.

“It’s an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law,” Rubio said, adding “all the countries in this region would agree with us.”

Rubio’s comments came a day after Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told Iranian state media that “everyone should know that the administration of the Strait of Hormuz will never go back to the way it was before the war.”

His remarks followed Tehran’s decision to suspend planned transit fees for 60 days while negotiations with the US continue in Switzerland, suggesting the charges could be introduced if the sides fail to reach an agreement before the grace period expires. The two sides agreed to a 60-day roadmap toward a final accord, further technical negotiations and the creation of a high-level committee to oversee the process.

A memorandum of understanding signed last week calls for Iran, Oman and other Gulf littoral states to negotiate the future management of navigation in the strait, a vital shipping route that carries about 20% of global oil supplies.

The Strait of Hormuz is split between Iranian and Omani waters, but international shipping is generally governed by the transit passage regime under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which bars coastal states from suspending navigation. The maritime boundary follows the median line. Iran has not ratified UNCLOS, however, and bases its position on domestic law, leaving the legal status of navigation through the strait contested.

The conflicting guidance has left shipowners uncertain over which route to take, despite the strait remaining open to commercial traffic.

The brutal beating to death of a 17-year-old boy in France by a group of teenagers, described online as a “migrant gang,” has sparked public outrage across the country.

The attack, which authorities have called an ambush, took place last Friday at a construction site in the southern city of Narbonne. The unconscious victim, identified in the media as Louis, was discovered by workers only 14 hours later and died of his injuries three days afterward at a hospital in Perpignan.

Police used shocking footage filmed by the alleged attackers to identify and arrest five suspects, including two 19-year-olds and three minors, the L’Independant regional newspaper has reported. The highly graphic video shows dark-skinned assailants punching, kicking, and stomping on the victim’s head. One thug is seen posing for the camera next to the badly injured teen, who can be heard struggling to breathe and choking on blood.

“The evidence gathered suggests that these extremely serious acts were premeditated and that the accused had set a trap for the victim by luring him into a construction site to beat him to death,” Prosecutor Jean-Philippe Rey said during a press conference.

The initial charges of attempted murder are expected to be upgraded following the victim’s death, Rey noted, adding that the accused could face life sentences.

According to Narbonne Deputy Police Commissioner Ludovic Vinolas, the suspects had “few or no prior criminal records,” and some were not residents of the city. Authorities said they may have known the victim through the foster-care network in the Occitanie region, where he had been placed at his family’s request.

🔴 Louis, 17 ans, lynché à mort dans la nuit du 19 au 20 juin, avait déjà été tabassé autour du 12 juin. Il avait été entendu par la police. pic.twitter.com/TI2hIpdewF

— Frontières (@Frontieresmedia) June 25, 2026

The killing and the extreme brutality of the attack have sparked outrage online, with some commentators claiming that Louis, who was white, was “lynched” by a gang of migrants from North Africa. Officials have not commented on the suspects’ citizenship or ethnicity.

Russia will support African nations seeking reparations from former colonial powers, deputy chairman of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has said, arguing that Western states should be held accountable for centuries of colonial exploitation.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Wednesday, the former Russian president said African Union members, along with Caribbean nations, are spearheading efforts to seek compensation for the legacy of colonialism.

“We [Russia] are ready to actively support their endeavors to demand reparations and compensation from their former colonial powers,” Medvedev stated. 

He said Western countries have the capacity to provide reparations for the “colossal damage” caused by centuries of colonial and neo-colonial practices.

“The former colonial powers have neither legal nor moral grounds to evade reparations justice,” Medvedev noted, adding that fundamental legal principles prevent wrongdoing from becoming a legitimate source of rights.

The issue of reparations has gained international attention in recent months. Last week, Ghana hosted a global conference on reparatory justice, bringing together leaders from Africa and more than 80 countries to discuss compensation, the return of cultural artifacts, formal apologies, and other measures addressing the legacy of slavery and colonialism.

Tehran will not be tricked by Washington’s attempts to redefine the memorandum of understanding agreed between the sides, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed on Tuesday that a complete cessation of hostilities across the Middle East, including the Israeli military operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, is “not possible,” despite it being the first clause of the MOU signed by the Americans and the Iranians on June 17.

“You can’t have the end of hostilities and conflicts in the region as long as Iranian proxies are launching missiles and drones from Iraq and are participating in terrorism like Hamas did and like Hezbollah did,” Rubio said.

Baghaei responded in a post on X on Wednesday, saying “no one will be fooled” by what the top US diplomat is allegedly trying to do.

“We can’t have a peaceful region so long as American militarism and interventionism persist, and their occupying proxy continues, with absolute impunity, to inflict endless wars across the region and perpetrate genocide, terror violence and every atrocities,” he said, in an apparent reference to Israel.

“The contradictory statements by US officials regarding the memorandum of understanding… will do nothing to reduce the accumulated distrust of Iranians,” he added.

The authorities in Tehran signed the MOU in good faith, but “they will take every step with vigilance, bearing in mind the experiences of the past five decades,” Baghaei stressed.

The MOU opened a 60-day negotiating period aimed at reaching the final settlement of the conflict, which started with a US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February.
Relief from US sanctions against Tehran, the Iranian nuclear program, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for some 20% of global crude oil trade, and other issues are expected to be discussed between the sides during the period.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Mohammad Mokhber, earlier said that Tehran will insist on the full implementation of the MOU’s clause on the complete end of hostilities in the region.

France has confirmed its first Ebola case in a doctor who recently returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), the French Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday.

The ministry said the patient was admitted to a specialized facility and is in stable condition. He has been placed in isolation as part of precautionary measures.

“A thorough epidemiological investigation is underway to identify individuals who may have been in contact with the patient,” the ministry said in a statement.

French Health Minister Stephanie Rist later confirmed that five people seated near the infected doctor on the flight to France have been identified and isolated. The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA), a non-profit organization involved in the Ebola response in DR Congo, said the patient is a physician working with its team.

The case comes amid an ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern DR Congo. Since the outbreak linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the virus began on May 15, 1,094 confirmed cases have been recorded and 277 deaths reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Last month, the US denied entry to an Air France flight carrying a passenger from the DR Congo under stricter Ebola-related restrictions, forcing the aircraft to divert to Canada. Washington tightened travel measures in response to the outbreak on May 18, requiring travelers arriving from the DR Congo, South Sudan and Uganda to enter the US only through Washington Dulles International Airport.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has similarly assessed the risk as “very low for the general European population,” according to the French Health Ministry statement.

Northern Ireland veteran politician Jeffrey Donaldson has said he will give up his knighthood and seat on the UK Privy Council after being convicted of rape and child abuse.

On Monday, a jury found the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) guilty of 18 counts of sexual abuse, including one count of rape, against two girls.

The offenses were reportedly committed between 1985 and 2008, when both victims were children of primary school age. He started to abuse the older of the two when she was around 7 or 8 years old and continued to do so until she was about 12 or 13.

While Jeffrey Donaldson has two daughters, their exact ages are not a matter of public record and the victims are only identified in court as Complainant A and Complainant B. The politician was born in 1962 and married his wife Eleanor in 1987, after the abuses reportedly began.

Presiding Judge Paul Ramsey told Donaldson that he was facing a lengthy prison sentence, according to the BBC. His wife was found guilty of aiding her husband’s abuse, but the judge ruled that she was unfit to stand trial on mental health grounds. Donaldson, who pleaded not guilty, is due to be sentenced on September 25.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the party had been “shocked” by the evidence presented during the trial. “No one, regardless of status or position, can ever be above the law and Jeffrey Donaldson is no exception,” he said.

The party’s deputy leader, Michelle McIlveen, said on Tuesday that Donaldson had “led a double and duplicitous life.”

Hofbrauhaus Wolters, one of Germany’s oldest breweries, dating back to 1627, has filed for bankruptcy, citing soaring operating costs and a sharp decline in beer consumption.

Germany’s economy has faced mounting pressure from high energy prices since Berlin began phasing out Russian oil and gas imports after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The strain has been compounded by the recent spike in crude prices triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Under self-administration insolvency proceedings, the brewery will remain under its current management while a court-appointed administrator oversees its restructuring. Employees will retain their jobs as Hofbrauhaus Wolters seeks to reinvent itself as a producer of non-alcoholic beverages rather than a traditional brewer.

Alongside a nationwide slump in beer consumption, which fell to a record low in 2025, the company cited rapidly rising operating costs as a key reason for its insolvency. According to the Braunschweiger Zeitung, skyrocketing energy prices have placed particular pressure on German breweries.

At the same time, Berlin continues to devote substantial resources to arming Ukraine as well as its own military buildup. Since 2022, Germany has committed to providing more than €96 billion ($109 billion) in military support to Kiev, while launching a €100 billion rearmament drive of its own.

Last year, Germany’s central bank warned that a record budget deficit was looming, citing increased military spending as one of the main drivers.

US President Donald Trump said he has been disappointed by most NATO members over their refusal to support the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.

The president made the remarks during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday. He singled out the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain for criticism. 

“We were disappointed with most of them,” Trump said.

“I just want loyalty. You know, we’re so loyal to them. We are always fighting for them,” Trump argued, noting that the US has troops stationed in several European countries.

“In Germany, we have 50,000 troops. And then you want a little – give us a little nudge, give us a little kiss. We don’t want much. And they say, ‘No, we can’t do it,’” he said.

REPORTER: What more do you want the allies doing?

TRUMP: "I just want the Loyalty . We don't need their money, we don't need anything. We have the most powerful military in the world by far."

"But I just want loyalty. You know, we're so loyal to them. We're always fighting for… pic.twitter.com/swXUXuAptm

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 24, 2026

Trump labeled Spain “terrible” for what he described as wanting “a free ride” and not spending enough on defense.

Rutte sought to downplay the disagreements without directly challenging Trump. “I do agree there is a reason for disappointment, absolutely. But my argument is this: These are isolated cases,” he said. He argued that, despite voicing opposition to the war with Iran, countries such as Germany and Romania had fulfilled all their “bilateral commitments” to the US.

In March, Spain refused to allow the US to use its bases for strikes on Iran, prompting outrage at the White House. Trump said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and other critics of the Iran campaign should focus on “fixing” their own countries. Merz later said he would not recommend that his children travel to the US due to what he described as its “social climate.”

In the most recent public spat between the allies, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused Trump of spreading “completely fabricated” claims after he said she had “begged” him to take a photo with her during a recent G7 summit in France.

Eight people convicted over a 2025 “terrorist attack” on a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Texas were handed prison terms of up to a century on Tuesday.

The US Justice Department said the case marked the first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa since President Donald Trump designated the movement a terrorist organization.

According to the DOJ, the defendants were convicted for their roles in “rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and the attempted murder of an Alvarado police officer at the Prairieland Detention Center on July 4, 2025.”

Benjamin Hanil Song, whom prosecutors identified as the cell’s leader and the gunman who shot and wounded the officer during the attack, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. The seven other defendants received terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.

Supporters of the defendants have also argued that the prosecution could set a precedent for future cases involving political activists.

The Department of Homeland Security has described the sentences as “a win for law and order,” warning on X on Tuesday that “anyone who attacks law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Trump signed an executive order designating Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” in September 2025, stating that the movement was “a militarist, anarchist enterprise” that “has engaged in armed standoffs with law enforcement, organized riots, violently assaulted ICE and other law enforcement officers.”

The White House pointed to several incidents, including the doxing of ICE officers in Portland, Oregon, where activists published agents’ personal information online. Several ICE facilities came under attack last year, including a sniper shooting at a Dallas field office that killed two detainees.

Antifa, short for ‘anti-fascist’, is a loosely organized movement of left-wing activists known for staging counter-protests, often while wearing masks and black clothing. The movement rose to national prominence during the 2020 unrest following George Floyd’s death and has been associated with clashes involving police, journalists, and right-wing protesters.

The death toll from two earthquakes in Venezuela has risen to 589, with thousands more injured, acting President Delcy Rodriguez has said. More than 50,000 people have been reported missing as international search, rescue, and relief efforts intensify.

Two major tremors measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 by the US Geological Survey struck off Venezuela’s northern coast on Wednesday near the city of Moron and were felt across most of the country as well as in neighboring Colombia and several Caribbean islands.

The disaster, unlike anything the country has experienced in over a century, caused significant devastation, with entire building blocks collapsing, according to harrowing aerial footage. The coastal city of La Guaira was among the hardest hit.

Caracas has announced a nationwide state of emergency, deploying the armed forces, civil defense units, and emergency services. Several nations, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, India, Mexico, El Salvador, Türkiye, and the US, have announced sending teams to support the efforts. Washington also said it would lift some unilateral sanctions it had imposed on Venezuela to facilitate the humanitarian efforts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, and said Moscow stands in solidarity with the “friendly Venezuelan people.” The Kremlin said Russia is ready to provide assistance if requested.

The US also offered assistance despite a history of tensions. President Donald Trump previously boasted that America had “taken over” the country’s oil sector after the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro during a commando raid in January.

The Venezuelan quakes came just hours before a separate magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Japan’s northern prefectures of Aomori and Iwate, injuring at least eight people, mainly due to falling objects, according to the country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

The deadliest earthquake in Venezuela’s recent history struck in 1967, killing around 300 people and injuring some 1,600 in Caracas. Another earthquake in the country’s northeast in 1997 killed at least 81 people.

An EU watchdog is investigating European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over a secret group chat involving Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and several other European leaders, according to Dutch outlet Follow the Money (FTM).

The probe follows a complaint by FTM after the European Commission refused to release messages from a private group chat that reportedly included German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The commission reportedly argued that disclosure could harm the EU’s relations with third countries.

In a letter sent to the commission last week and cited by the outlet on Wednesday, European Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho reportedly said she had opened an inquiry into the refusal to grant access to the communications.

Anjinho said the probe would examine whether the commission complied with EU transparency rules when it rejected the request. She has also asked to meet commission representatives by mid-July, FTM reported.

The reported inquiry is the latest in a series of controversies involving von der Leyen and the commission’s handling of official records.

Last year, the EU’s General Court ruled that the commission had improperly handled a request by the New York Times seeking access to text messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during negotiations over the bloc’s Covid-19 vaccine contracts. The commission later pledged to review its record-keeping practices.

Earlier this month, Anjinho criticized the deletion of a text message sent by Macron regarding the EU’s proposed trade agreement with South America’s Mercosur bloc.

The commission declined to release the message in response to a freedom of information request, saying it had been auto-deleted.

Following a complaint by FTM, the ombudsman concluded that the message had been deleted unlawfully and called on the commission to improve the preservation and archiving of official communications, including texts.

For the first time in two years, Hungary has convened a summit of the Visegrad Group – a format designed to allow four Central European nations to coordinate, debate current agendas, and work on their own dimension of European integration matters.

In recent years, the forum has not spoken with a single voice to say the least. However, new variables in domestic political dynamics, the shifting contours of the EU, and the evolving European security landscape are forcing regional elites to rethink local alliances and seek partners among former opponents.

The new Visegrad renaissance was the consequence of political transition in Hungary, where Peter Magyar succeeded Viktor Orban as prime minister, bringing a more adaptable, pro-European stance to domestic and foreign policy. This shift created a strategic window to partially mend the fractured relations between Poland and Hungary, historically the primary ideological drivers of the V4. Consequently, it allowed for the resuscitation of a format that had been buried under the weight of irreconcilable contradictions between Orban on one side, and Donald Tusk and Petr Fiala on the other.

What was agreed and what does it mean?

The primary objective of the Budapest meeting was the restoration of effective regional cooperation. Following the summit, Magyar confirmed that the Visegrad Four would return to its traditional format of holding preliminary consultations ahead of EU summits and other international forums to coordinate common stances. According to the Hungarian prime minister, all leaders reaffirmed their intention to establish a mutually beneficial partnership that would yield tangible results. Among the priority projects, Magyar highlighted the development of a high-speed rail line linking Budapest, Bratislava, and Prague, which is planned with EU financial backing, as well as the expansion of regional energy corridors. “Europe’s future success is rooted in a competitive economy. This requires many things, and affordable energy prices are absolutely indispensable,” he said.

At the same time, this is an attempt to negotiate maneuvers on the eve of the July NATO summit in Washington, driven by the deficit of trust from the US toward most Visegrad members. It is remarkable that against this backdrop, not a single word was uttered in Budapest regarding military-technical cooperation, which historically served as the primary and most tangible binder of the V4. The once ambitious projects for a joint Visegrad Battle Group (V4 BG) and synchronized defense procurement have effectively vanished from the agenda. On the one hand, Brussels’ large-scale defense frameworks have completely co-opted the regional military agenda and diverted funding streams. On the other, the group’s strategic military alignment has fractured beyond repair: Warsaw aggressively pursues massive arms contracts with the US and South Korea, Prague heavily protects its own domestic defense enterprises, and Budapest and Bratislava strictly freeze military transit through their territories. Hence, currently there is only Donald Tusk who possesses relative institutional immunity in the eyes of Washington, yet even his strategic weight is devalued by the Poland’s domestic political standoff and the unpredictability of the 2027 parliamentary elections. Indeed, the V4 is attempting to present a unified front simply to avoid being left on the periphery of major American and European decisions.

Infrastructure and transit cooperation remains a powerful binding element in a region historically locked in the status of a logistical hub between East and West. The announcement of the high-speed rail corridor linking Budapest, Bratislava, and Prague inspires cautious optimism.

The project, spanning around 750 km and designed to slash travel times between the metropolitan areas to just 3.5 to 4 hours with train speeds reaching up to 320 kph, stands a solid chance of avoiding the fate of the Baltic states’ Rail Baltica, which devolved into a multi-year stalled project for the sake of geopolitics.

Unlike its Baltic counterpart, the Visegrad Express connects highly successful, tightly integrated industrial clusters of the V4 nations backed by actual, guaranteed passenger traffic. Furthermore, for Magyar, Slovak PM Robert Fico, and Czech PM Andrej Babis, this rail line serves as a highly pragmatic tool for negotiation. Armed with Brussels’ own strict decarbonization mandates, the V4 leaders will attempt to secure up to 85% co-financing for this project directly from the EU’s Cohesion Fund and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), effectively forcing Western Europe to foot the bill for the region’s internal infrastructure.

Finally, the third and most complex knot of the Budapest meeting was the raw energy compromise. Despite intense pressure from Tusk, who attempted to bind the group to a total and accelerated rejection of Russian hydrocarbon imports, Magyar, Fico, and Babis formed a unified defensive front. The pragmatic energy sectors of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia remain critically tethered to economically viable and stable resources. Behind the leaders’ measured statements regarding the necessity to lower electricity prices across the EU lies a transparent collective refusal to bankroll Warsaw’s geopolitical ambitions. Transitioning to liquefied natural gas (LNG) sourced through Poland’s Swinoujscie terminal is viewed by the southern V4 members as a fiscal trap. Warsaw bakes an exorbitant, speculative profit margin into its regasification and transit tariffs, effectively attempting to monetize its status as an unavoidable regional gatekeeper. Neither Bratislava nor Prague is remotely prepared to purchase expensive Polish LNG at the expense of their own industrial competitiveness, no matter how bitter this response may be for Poland.

When analyzing the actual prospects for cooperation within the V4, it is crucial to understand the underlying nature of the Visegrad Group’s formation. The symbolism of historical legend of uniting three kingdoms under the aegis of the Hungarian king in the Middle Ages should, in contemporary realities, have been viewed through the pragmatic lens of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In the 1990s, she explicitly stated that the primary task of Washington and the EU heavyweights regarding Central and Eastern Europe was to prevent a Balkan scenario – the replication of latent ethno-political conflicts modeled after the Yugoslav wars.

When Donald Tusk, at the final press conference at the Godollo Royal Palace, sarcastically critiques Magyar’s initiative to expand Visegrad by absorbing the Western Balkans and Austria, drawing a biting analogy to Franz Joseph’s Austro-Hungarian Empire, it becomes clear that these 30 years of American and Polish anxieties were far from groundless. To grasp the primary barriers blocking genuine alignment within the Visegrad Four, it is necessary to deconstruct the core lines of internal friction and evaluate their actual potential for compromise.

The Warsaw-Budapest axis remains pivotal for Visegrad, and the fault lines here extend far beyond divergent stances on Russian foreign policy or ongoing economic disputes. Although Magyar is attempting to resuscitate the alliance and is taking demonstrative steps to reconcile with Tusk’s liberal camp, his policy is bound to collide with an insurmountable institutional barrier – the apparatus engineered to support Polish right-wing conservatives, established in Hungary during the Orban era. This refers to the specialized funds and legal mechanisms that have de facto provided political and financial sanctuary to functionaries of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, who fled Warsaw to escape the criminal prosecutions and sweeping personnel purges unleashed by Tusk’s government.

This reality transforms Budapest into a legitimate logistical and rear-guard hub for the Polish right-wing opposition, a factor perceived by Tusk’s chancellery as a direct and hostile intervention in Poland’s internal affairs. The liberal cabinet in Warsaw is structurally incapable of forging a genuine strategic alliance with a state that simultaneously operates as a safe haven for its primary apparatus adversaries in the bitter ‘Polish-Polish war’. Furthermore, the window of opportunity to secure a substantial breakthrough in negotiations – something Tusk desperately needs ahead of the 2027 parliamentary elections – is rapidly closing.

Finally, on the northern flank of the alliance, the former historical tensions over the Teschen Silesia dispute continue to quietly linger between Warsaw and Prague. Czech historical and political circles maintain a vivid memory of the 1919 Seven-Day War and Poland’s subsequent, aggressive annexation of the Teschen region in 1938 following the Munich Agreement and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. The fact that even amid the current security landscape, Prague and Warsaw are structurally unable to fully dissolve this historical friction and occasionally return to it, vividly demonstrates the immense power of historical memory in the region.

The only countries within the bloc that share no direct historical grievances are Poland and Slovakia. At the same time, their ongoing disputes over LNG tariffs and the NATO agenda prove yet again that the current splintering of the V4 is dictated not just by the past, but by economic selfishness.

In conclusion, the most radical element of Warsaw’s geopolitical overreach is its ambition to gain access to nuclear weapons. Given that independent domestic nuclear development is heavily constrained by non-proliferation legal frameworks, the Polish military-political establishment has launched lobbying for the permanent deployment of American tactical nuclear warheads on Polish soil under NATO’s Nuclear Sharing mechanism. By systematically modernizing its air force infrastructure to accommodate F-35 stealth fighters purchased from the US – which are capable of deploying B61 nuclear gravity bombs – Warsaw is effectively preparing the technical ground to become a nuclear-armed frontline state.

This element serves as the core pillar of Poland’s strategy to establish hard-power hegemony over Central and Eastern Europe. In Warsaw’s estimations, attaining nuclear status is meant to permanently cement its role as Washington’s primary and indispensable proxy player in the region, bypassing the geopolitical influence of Berlin and Paris. However, this atomic saber-rattling is precisely what drives a deep wedge between Poland and its Visegrad partners. Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia desperately maneuver to save their own industrial and energy security while Poland seems ready to turn the region into a launchpad for nuclear confrontation. This sparks panic and alarm among its neighbors. Instead of consolidating the eastern flank, Poland’s nuclear ambitions further splinter Visegrad, forcing its neighbors to view Warsaw not as a protective shield, but as an unpredictable actor.

Tens of millions of euros in taxpayer money may have been embezzled in Yemen by Germany’s international aid agency, with some cash likely flowing to the same Houthi rebels condemned by Berlin on the international stage.

According to a new report by Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper, “tens of millions of euros” pumped into Yemen by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) disappeared between 2015 and 2025.

At least 24 GIZ employees took part in the embezzlement schemes, the newspaper reported. These employees, and possibly others, enriched themselves by billing GIZ for non-existent training seminars and inflated contracts with partners on the ground in Yemen, as well as trips which never took place and fake grant applications that supposedly came from Yemeni contractors.

GIZ’s leadership had been aware of “systematic, organized fraud” within its own ranks since 2023, and the 24 employees were all sacked. However, Welt reports that GIZ’s board of directors, headed by spokesman Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, withheld this information from the supervisory board tasked with overseeing the agency’s actions. Publicly, GIZ has downplayed the fraud, describing it as “commercial irregularities.”

No GIZ employees have been prosecuted for their role in any graft schemes to date.

Did Germany fund the Houthis?

GIZ operated in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen from 2015 until 2025. Welt noted that any “foreign organization wishing to operate here must come to terms with the extremists,” and given that much of the fraud involved local collaborators, the possibility that some of this cash ended up in the hands of the Houthis cannot be ruled out. The report also noted that GIZ continued dealing with Yemen Kuwait Bank despite internal warnings in 2023. The bank has since been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for allegedly helping “the Houthis establish and finance front companies.”

It is impossible to know how much money was transferred to the militants, however, as GIZ destroyed many of its files as it withdrew from Houthi territory last year. The destruction was allegedly ordered by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. As such, if any money found its way to the Houthis, Berlin is directly implicated in covering up the transfers.

German money vs. German money

Germany spent more than €100 million ($114 million) on projects in Yemen from 2015 to 2025. While this money was flowing into the country – much of it to the IRG, with an indeterminate amount flowing to fraudsters and militants, according to Welt – Germany was simultaneously arming the militaries of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which have been waging war on the Houthis since 2015. 

According to a 2019 investigation by a group of German media outlets, the Saudi and Emirati militaries used “warships, weapon stations and tank technology from Germany” in their war on the region’s poorest country. This revelation caused outrage in Berlin and arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates were consequently banned. 

The Saudi-led intervention in Yemen exacerbated an already bleak humanitarian situation. On top of the tens of thousands of civilians killed in hostilities, the Saudi blockade of Yemen’s ports triggered what the Norwegian Refugee Council called in 2017 a “man-made famine of Biblical proportions.”

Bizarrely, German troops may have been fighting German-funded militants in Yemen while German money was paying for humanitarian projects in areas devastated by German weapons.

Doesn’t this sound familiar?

Although international aid is allocated by governments, it is spent by a Byzantine web of NGOs and contractors. This means that Western powers often end up funding both sides of the same conflict. For instance, while the US government hands Israel around $3.8 billion per year in military aid, “at least $122 million” in development money given to Palestinian organizations by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) ended up in the hands of “groups aligned with designated terrorists,” according to a 2025 report by the Middle East Forum.

The Middle East Forum is a pro-Israel advocacy group, and its definition of “aligned” should be taken with a grain of salt. Hamas governs Gaza, and as such, any aid money flowing into the strip invariably must pass through “groups aligned” with the organization. Still, the latest report from Germany and previous reports on USAID illustrate a common theme: Western taxpayers often have no idea where their money goes once it’s abroad.

When Elon Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’ began gutting USAID last year, the American public learned that they had spent $2 million on “supporting gender-affirming healthcare and LGBTQ+ advocacy in Guatemala,” $13.2 million on “biodiversity programs in Liberia,” and $47,000 on “an opera focused on transgender individuals” in Colombia, among countless other seemingly ideologically-driven programs. 

Germany spends €29 billion on development aid every year, making it the world’s largest foreign aid spender since US President Donald Trump slashed USAID’s budget from $63 billion in 2024 to around $16 billion this year. Most of Berlin’s foreign development programs are climate-focused, but according to a report by German magazine Focus, others “serve to implement the ideological pet projects of NGOs rather than addressing the actual needs and hardships of poor people.” Among this latter category are “gender training in China and a project on positive masculinity in Rwanda.” 

How has the German government reacted?

Despite the fraud being known to GIZ directors since 2023, multiple German governments have kept mum on the issue. However, in the wake of the Welt am Sonntag article, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party, the country’s ruling Christian Democrats, has called on the agency to fully explain its actions in Yemen.

Right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s most popular party, has gone further, proposing that GIZ be abolished entirely. The scandal “once again underscores the fundamental shortcomings of Germany’s current development aid policy: Billions are spent without Germany or partner countries benefiting in any sustainable way,” AfD spokesman Rocco Kever told Politico. 

Kever has suggested that Trump’s treatment of USAID is an example Germany could follow, calling the agency’s gutting an “interesting and courageous signal.”

Russia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should deepen cooperation and “move fast” in an increasingly multipolar world, Indonesian International Relations professor Teuku Rezasyah told RT, arguing that many of the group’s members are questioning Washington’s ability to support regional growth. 

The two sides have maintained ties for decades, so it’s “normal” for them to reassess their roles and expectations in the changing international system, Rezasyah said following the recent Russia-ASEAN Summit.

Rezasyah, an associate professor at President University in Indonesia, asserted that Southeast Asian countries are increasingly questioning Washington’s ability to support regional growth through trade, investment, and capacity building. As the world becomes more multipolar, ASEAN nations should strengthen cooperation with other major global actors, including Russia and China, he said.

Rezasyah condemned “continued US tariffs and sanctions,” as well as America’s actions against Iran and Venezuela, saying that even NATO members had declined to support Washington’s “global ambitions.”

He went on to praise the Russia-ASEAN Summit, which was held in the Russian city of Kazan last week, saying it was “very important and promising.” Rezasyah suggested that Russia’s experience in energy security, infrastructure, food sufficiency, public health and technological development could be useful for ASEAN states, particularly those facing energy shortages.

In addition, Rezasyah called for closer cooperation between Russia’s and Southeast Asia’s universities and research institutions, saying this could support broader economic and technological ties. “It is time for ASEAN and Russia to think big, start small, and move fast,” he concluded.

A long road to power

The 2026 presidential campaign in Peru could finally bring victory to Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the country’s former president (1990-2000) and leader of the Popular Force party. In Peru, opinions about Alberto Fujimori are highly divided: Some call him a hardliner who brought order to the country with an ‘iron fist’ policy, while others consider him a corrupt dictator. 

This is the fourth presidential race in Keiko Fujimori’s career. She has previously lost in the runoff three times – in 2011, 2016, and 2021– to candidates from the center (or center-right) and left parties.

This year, on counting 99.859% of the ballots, results show that Fujimori has garnered 50.118% of the vote, placing her ahead of Roberto Sanchez from the left-wing party Together for Peru. Fujimori currently leads by around 43,000 votes, but this is standard practice in the highly fragmented Peruvian society, where the outcome of the presidential race could be decided by a razor-thin margin.

The runoff was held on June 7, but due to difficult terrain and the impossibility of organizing faster ballot delivery logistics, ballots are still being counted. Voting abroad will also influence the election results.

“It’s noteworthy that Fujimori lost the election within Peru and won thanks to votes from abroad. This demonstrates the rejection of ‘Fujimorism’ as a political project within the country, but shows that it is supported abroad,” Viktor Heifets, a professor at the St. Petersburg State University (SPbU) and director of the SPbU Center for Ibero-American Studies, told RT.

Heifets also points out that so far, Fujimori has received roughly the same percentage of votes as in the previous elections, and the margin is also minimal, which may indicate the persistence of Fujimorism as a political phenomenon in Peru. Clearly, public sentiment is inclining toward harsher methods of governance and establishing order in the country.

The family curse

The Fujimori family name has become a kind of political platform for Keiko Fujimori, but in a certain sense, it is also a curse for her own political project. Keiko Fujimori’s main campaign themes were centered around the fight against crime and political instability. She also promised a tough response to organized crime. This is entirely consistent with the continuation of the Fujimorism policy in Peru.

As a politician, Keiko has spent her entire political career within this political project. However, her policies have always adhered to a strategy of balancing its legacy with the need to build her own independent image, one that is integrated into the democratic paradigm of modern Peru.

To understand this, we must take a brief look at the phenomenon of Fujimorism in Peruvian history.

By 1990, following the tenure of President Alan Garcia, Peru had entered a serious economic crisis. During his five years in office, Garcia spent significant funds on social programs, which, however, had no positive effect and only accelerated inflation to 7,000%. The social measures did not secure the loyalty of large sections of the population, and instead led to the collapse of the country’s economy. 

Moreover, a number of leftist terrorist rebel groups became active in Peru. The most prominent of these were Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement; their terrorist attacks targeted not only the regular army but also the civilian population.

Against this backdrop, a widespread mistrust of traditional state institutions and anti-elite sentiments permeated society. Alberto Fujimori came to power as an anti-elite, non-systemic politician promising to solve the country’s deep economic and political crises. 

However, Fujimori’s popularity subsequently declined, and the politician himself resorted to authoritarian methods to “maintain loyalty,” including dissolving the bicameral Congress in 1992, repealing the 1979 constitution, and giving the National Intelligence Service (an institution that he had created) the right to spy on citizens.

Fujimori’s regime was accused of many crimes against human rights and freedoms. However, the most infamous project was the National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning – a campaign to combat poverty and overpopulation. It focused on forcibly sterilizing women residing in poor areas of the country, primarily among indigenous people. This “program” affected about 270,000 women.

In 2007, Fujimori was sentenced to six years in prison for human rights crimes; subsequently, he was charged on more counts and was released only in 2023. He died in September 2024.

From non-systemic to systemic Fujimorism

This political legacy is the foundation of Fujimorism, which Keiko Fujimori both relies on and tries to distance herself from. While her father rose to power and governed as an ‘outsider’, Keiko’s political career has been built around systemic participation in Peru’s political system. From 2006 to 2011, she served as a congresswoman, leading the Popular Force party, which won a record number of votes. The party controlled a majority in parliament and actively used constitutional instruments of pressure, including impeachments, amid a deep crisis of executive power.

Keiko Fujimori also faced corruption charges. She was accused of receiving approximately $1.2 million from the Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht to finance her presidential campaigns in 2011 and 2016. In 2016, Odebrecht was accused of paying approximately $788 million in bribes and illegal donations to politicians and parties in 12 countries to secure lucrative construction contracts. The case ultimately fell apart. 

“With Keiko’s victory, we may speak of the full-fledged return of Fujimorism to power in Peru. Although the concept itself is undergoing changes, its two fundamental components remain unchanged: the establishment of order and economic pragmatism. And despite the Fujimoris’ toxicity for Peruvian society, Keiko’s proposals currently meet the needs of Peruvians,” Timur Almukov, an expert on Latin America, told RT.

Nevertheless, Almukov questions the existence of Fujimorism as an independent ideological concept separate from a specific family name. Currently, the movement rests solely on the authority and will of Keiko Fujimori.

Viktor Heifets, however, stresses that Keiko Fujimori’s policy will not resemble the Fujimorism of the ‘90s.

“It will be different. It’s more about a right-wing pragmatic politician coming to power in the country. Among other things, she’s showing a willingness to work with US President Donald Trump. However, she’s not a Trumpist. Keiko has simply identified a trend and is willing to follow it. So Peru will cooperate with Trump, though of course, this will raise questions in the future. Peru cooperates with China, and Trump’s attitude toward China is well known,” says Heifets.

A tilt to the ‘right’

Keiko Fujimori’s potential rise to power fits in well with Latin America’s general swing to the right side of the political spectrum. Right-wing politicians are either already in power or actively seeking it in Ecuador, Argentina, and Colombia. The outcome of the presidential elections in Brazil this October is also uncertain – a right-wing politician could also come to power there (as had already happened in the past).

Experts agree that this trend is only emerging and will intensify over time. But this shift can hardly be called radical, says Timur Almukov.

“Right-wing politicians are presenting a solution to the main challenge facing Latin American societies, which lies in the rise of crime and insecurity in the region. As long as the Salvadoran ‘iron fist’ model continues to be imported as a ready-made campaign slogan, politicians like Keiko Fujimori or Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia will continue to win votes,” Almukov says. 

Leftists are not able to effectively respond to these challenges, Almukov says. Their approach – fighting the economic roots of crime – is not necessarily wrong, but it has become clear that it cannot immediately respond to public demand.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) has lost access to Anthropic’s advanced Mythos 5 AI model while using it to find software weaknesses, the New York Times has reported. The development comes amid Washington’s months-long dispute with the Silicon Valley firm.

The cutoff came after the Trump administration imposed export restrictions on Anthropic earlier this month, citing national security concerns, according to the NYT.

The loss “deprived” the intelligence agency of a “tool that has impressed and alarmed its analysts with how good it is at finding software weaknesses,” the outlet added.

During the tests, the model identified vulnerabilities in highly secure government networks “within hours,” the AP reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous US official.

Anthropic’s AI technology has been increasingly deployed on classified government networks and integrated into US national-security work, with its models used for intelligence analysis, operational planning, and cyber operations.

Anthropic sued the government, arguing that the measures were unlawful retaliation for its refusal to relax safeguards on AI’s military uses.

Despite the phase-out order and ongoing legal battle, multiple media reports later claimed that parts of the US government continue to use Anthropic systems.

The developments come amid warnings from researchers, technology leaders, and security officials that AI systems are being integrated into military and intelligence operations faster than governments and institutions can adapt to their increasing capabilities. Experts have cautioned that the same tools that are used to strengthen cyber defenses could also automate attacks and lower barriers for malicious actors.

Iran believes it has emerged stronger from its latest confrontation with the United States and Israel, but remains deeply skeptical that any agreement reached at the negotiating table will be honored, University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi has insisted.

Speaking to Fyodor Lukyanov for Russia 24’s International Review, Marandi said the mood in Tehran is one of guarded confidence after what he described as a “decisive victory” in both military and diplomatic terms. He analyses that Iran’s opponents suffered serious strategic and financial losses, while the war had strengthened Tehran’s self-confidence and further deepened its ties with Russia.

At the same time, Marandi cautioned that few in Iran expect the new memorandum of understanding with Washington to be implemented smoothly, warning that the coming weeks and months are likely to remain difficult.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Do Iranians feel like victors?

Mohammad Marandi: The general view in Iran is that we have achieved a decisive victory. And it’s not just that the country has held its ground.

The Americans, the Israelis, and their allies suffered very serious losses throughout the war.

I believe that the financial damage inflicted on Iran’s enemies is considerably greater than the damage suffered by Iran itself, although that too was significant. As for the subsequent blockade, Iranians are convinced they have won that battle too. The Americans tried to starve Iran into submission, but this turned out to be a double-edged sword. The global economy suffered greatly.

And, of course, the Americans’ recklessness played into Russia’s hands, because of the energy crisis. After all, most of the oil from the Persian Gulf is heavy crude, and the only alternative source in the world with significant reserves of it is Russia.

So they’ve shot themselves in the foot twice. But the Iranians feel they’ve won this protracted war as well. That is precisely why Trump was so insistent on a quick deal.

Lukyanov: The deal, as it stands, suits Iran, as I understand it…

Marandi: Yes, the Iranians believe they have won at the negotiating table too. There were serious disagreements there. Contrary to what Trump and the Pakistani prime minister said, a few days before the agreement was announced, there was no final text of the memorandum. Significant contradictions remained. But by bombing Beirut in an attempt to scupper a potential agreement, Netanyahu, ironically, achieved the opposite. And when Iran decided to launch a second strike against the Israeli regime, Trump immediately made key concessions, including on Lebanon and the withdrawal of Israeli troops to mark the end of the war.

Marandi: Naturally, in Tehran, as, I am sure, in Moscow and throughout Russia, there’s enormous skepticism towards the United States. And there’s boundless mistrust of the Israeli regime. No one seriously expects that the signed memorandum will be easily implemented or that everything will be agreed upon in the second phase. That would be very naive. Most Iranians view the coming days, weeks and months as a very difficult period.

There are likely to be flare-ups of military tension, but most likely not on the scale of the 39-day war. On the whole, people are optimistic, although the economic difficulties are very real. However, Iran’s self-confidence has grown, and the country feels that its opponents have been significantly weakened, even if not completely swept away.

Lukyanov: A key element of this war is Iran’s relations with the Arab Gulf states. They were furious at the Iranian strikes, but cannot ignore the new realities and the strength Iran has demonstrated. What happens now? Is a security framework in the region possible?

Marandi: Iran’s actions against its neighbors were a response. These countries contributed to the war against Iran; in Tehran’s view, they were participants in it. They helped kill thousands of Iranians. And Iran had no choice but to strike back when its critical infrastructure was under threat. When the enemy began striking at vital targets, we had to respond with strikes against the states that were aiding the Americans and Israelis.

As we can see from the example of Oman, when a country does not provide bases or contribute to the war against Iran, it reaps the benefits. Iran’s relations with Oman are very good, as they are with Iraq. Tehran is now trying to engage each of the five remaining Gulf states bilaterally, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. In some cases, it has been more successful, in others less so. The aim is to forge new relationships.

Lukyanov: Following last year’s 12-day confrontation, I heard some of your colleagues lamenting that Iran had found itself face to face with its enemies, practically on its own. Did you feel isolated this time around?

Marandi: To a certain extent, yes. But I must point out that Russia helped Iran and showed solidarity, particularly during this war. The same can be said of other friendly countries, to a greater extent than before. I think it’s fair to say that Iranian-Russian relations have advanced significantly over the last four or five years. And this war has continued to strengthen them. There’s certainly an element of isolation. When you stand up to an empire, you are alone. I’m sure that the Russians, even with the support of Iran and China over the last five years, have also felt isolated. But it is unfair to claim that Russia did not support Iran, especially in this war, because assistance was provided. And it seems to me that the path we are on is, unfortunately, linked to war, death and destruction; this is not of our own making, but it is leading to a further strengthening of the close ties between Iran and Russia.

This interview was produced specifically for the program International Review (Russia 24), and was translated and edited by RT team

Billionaire Bill Gates has claimed that the late pedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein tried to blackmail him over affairs he had with Russian women, according to newly released congressional testimony.

The Microsoft co-founder appeared before the US House Oversight Committee on June 10 as part of an investigation into the convicted sex offender’s activities and ties to influential figures. A transcript of the closed-door interview was released on Tuesday amid scrutiny that Gates has faced since disclosures from the so-called Epstein files were released by the US Justice Department this past year.

The files include allegations concerning Gates’s extramarital relationships, requests for drugs, a purported sexually transmitted infection, and “sex with Russian girls.” They also detail his discussions with Epstein on global health initiatives, polio eradication, health data systems, and a proposed pandemic simulation years before the Covid-19 outbreak.

In his testimony, Gates acknowledged that, despite knowing of Epstein’s sex-related criminal conviction, he established contact with him in 2011 in hopes of getting access to wealthy donors for his global health projects. However, Gates said he cut ties with the financier in 2014 when Epstein failed to deliver.

According to the billionaire, Epstein then obtained “sensitive information” about his personal life and tried to use it to blackmail him and pull him back into his orbit.

“Epstein was working to use information about my infidelities, in addition to many lies that he layered on top, to pressure me to reengage with him,” Gates told lawmakers. “He was unsuccessful in this effort.”

Gates’ ties to Epstein have long raised questions, as the latter lacked any known public health expertise, despite taking part in discussions on global health projects and data systems. The Microsoft co-founder claims the meetings were aimed solely at securing funding for the Gates Foundation but resulted in no charitable contributions.

Gates has repeatedly apologized for his association with Epstein, saying he should never have met with him in the first place.

The broader Epstein files scandal has revived questions about how the convicted sex offender managed to maintain access to billionaires, politicians, bankers, and royals after his 2008 conviction.

Other prominent figures who have already testified in the investigation include former President Bill Clinton, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and billionaire Les Wexner.

China’s LineShine has been named the world’s fastest supercomputer at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany, surpassing the US-built El Capitan. It marks the first time since 2017 that a Chinese machine has topped the TOP500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

Supercomputers are used for complex scientific tasks ranging from climate modeling and human brain simulations to cryptography and advanced research.

According to rankings released on Tuesday, LineShine, developed by the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, can perform nearly 2.2 quintillion (billion billion) calculations per second. It outperformed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s El Capitan by more than 20% in a key benchmark. The American system had held the top spot in the twice-yearly TOP500 rankings since November 2024.

LineShine also stands out for relying entirely on standard central processing units (CPU) rather than the graphics processing units (GPU) used by most leading supercomputers.

GPUs, prized for handling large numbers of simultaneous calculations, are critical to advanced AI systems and have become a focal point in the technological rivalry between the US and China. Seeking to slow China’s progress, the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed restrictions on exports of advanced chips.

“China can adapt to develop its own version of technology as good as – or maybe even better than – existing technology, despite US export controls,” Dongarra said.

This week marks the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum – an event that has reshaped British politics over the past decade and may well continue to do so into the future.

Brexit had its origins in Britain’s complex relationship with the EU and its predecessor organization, the European Economic Community (EEC) – a relationship that has for decades been at the heart of British politics.

Since the 1950s, Britain has been divided over whether it should become a member of these European-based organizations, and the Conservative and Labour parties have always been split over the issue – with both right wing Conservatives and left-wing Labourites being strongly opposed to UK membership.

French President Charles de Gaulle, fearful that Britain would be a Trojan horse of American influence, vetoed two attempts by Britain to join the EEC in the 1960s.

In 1973, after de Gaulle’s death, Prime Minister Edward Heath, a moderate Conservative, arranged Britain’s belated entry into the EEC. When Harold Wilson became Labour prime minister in 1974, in response to pressure from the Labour left, he held a referendum a year later on whether Britain should remain a member – and 67% of UK voters decided that it should.

It is noteworthy that the 1975 referendum was conducted in a civilized manner, and that the arguments put forward by both sides were confined to the issue of EEC membership.

Margaret Thatcher was always a lukewarm supporter of the EU – once describing it as “a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.” Thatcher refused to allow the British pound to be replaced by the euro, and engaged in a protracted war of attrition to prevent the EU from encroaching upon British sovereignty and independence. It was Thatcher’s dispute with her foreign secretary, Geoffrey Howe, over the EU that provoked his resignation, and led to the leadership challenge that deposed her as prime minister.

Tony Blair was an enthusiastic supporter of the EU and the vast expansion of its power and influence that occurred during New Labour’s term in office.

Fast-forward to David Cameron’s prime ministership in 2015. Cameron was then engaged in renegotiating the Maastricht Treaty – the foundational document of the EU that set out the terms governing Britain’s membership in the bloc. Right-wing Conservatives remained strongly opposed to Britain’s membership in the EU – and in order to obtain their support for his renegotiations, Cameron promised them that if he could not obtain an outcome they approved of, he would hold a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU.

The EU refused to grant Cameron any concessions – and Cameron was obliged to hold a referendum, believing that it had no prospect of succeeding.

The Brexit referendum was set down for June 23, 2016 and Cameron, supported by Blair and a raft of politicians from both major parties, led the well-funded but poorly run and focused Remain campaign.

It soon became clear, however, that Brexit had become an issue around which deep-seated dissatisfaction with other, seemingly unrelated, issues – including mass immigration, the loss of British sovereignty, the faltering economy, the cost of living crisis, and ethnic diversity – galvanized.

Long buried divisions within the Conservative and Labour parties re-emerged with renewed bitterness as the campaign got underway. Boris Johnson threw his lot in with the Leave campaign – thereby laying the basis for his election as prime minister in 2019. The Leave campaign also saw the emergence of Nigel Farage as an influential national political figure, and the Reform party has its origins in Farage’s Brexit campaign.

Dominic Cummings emerged from obscurity to run the successful Leave campaign – and on June 23, 2016, 52% of UK voters surprisingly voted to leave the EU. It was in the impoverished working class north that the Leave vote was by far the highest.

David Cameron, shocked by both the referendum result and the bitterness and division that he had unwittingly unleashed, immediately resigned as prime minister.

The divisions within British society conjured up by the Brexit referendum intensified over the next three years as the woke elites in the south joined forces with Remainer politicians (most notably Theresa May), the judiciary, the finance sector, the civil service, and most media organizations to sabotage the implementation of Britain’s departure from the EU.

Only after Boris Johnson’s election victory in 2019, on a platform of promising to “get Brexit done,” was Brexit finally implemented, four years after the referendum – and then only in a modified and partial form. Even today, Britain remains bound by the European Human Rights Act and a raft of EU legislation that had been incorporated into UK law.

Boris Johnson was never forgiven for implementing Brexit, and Remainer animosity played a large part in him subsequently being deposed as prime minister.

Most politicians, however, believe that the referendum result should be accepted, at least for the time being – notwithstanding that many would like to reverse it, and recent polls show that a majority of voters are now in favor of rejoining the EU.

Brexit may have receded somewhat into the background as a discrete political issue – but that is because the Brexit referendum itself exposed and highlighted those very issues – the cost-of-living crisis, mass immigration, woke ideologies, cultural diversity – that now completely dominate contemporary UK politics.

How then is the continuing impact of the Brexit referendum to be explained?

Remainer animosity – fostered by powerful elites – is perfectly explicable and it is not likely to go away any time soon. Nor is the rather stale debate about the economic consequences of Brexit likely to cease. But Brexit was never about economics – something that Cameron and most Remainers never understood – nor was it really about Britain leaving the EU.

The Brexit referendum was a catalyst that gave British voters who had been pauperized and culturally alienated by globalization a unique opportunity to express their mounting anger and dissatisfaction by the simple act of casting a vote in a referendum.

For these voters, the EU was a symbol of globalization and all its consequences – poverty for the working class, mass immigration, cultural diversity, and the dominance of woke ideologies. And what David Cameron did was give these voters, by voting yes or no to EU membership, an opportunity to vent their anger against globalization.

People who voted Remain were by and large those who had benefited from globalization and wholeheartedly embraced all of its consequences – economic, cultural, and ideological.

What the Brexit referendum did was dramatically expose, for the first time, the seemingly unbridgeable north/south class and ideological divide that is at the heart of contemporary British society. This divide still exists and has grown wider and more bitter over the past ten years – and that is why Brexit still resonates powerfully in Britain and will continue to do so into the future.

Hungary has delayed a key procedural step in the EU membership bids of Ukraine and Moldova, complicating Kiev’s plan to open all six accession clusters by mid-July, Politico has reported. Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar has said fast-tracking Ukraine’s EU accession would be premature.

Kiev has repeatedly demanded a faster path into the bloc, with Vladimir Zelensky insisting on full membership no later than 2027 despite opposition from multiple EU members.

Budapest blocked the circulation of a joint letter outlining the position of all 27 EU member states to the European Council and European Commission, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing two EU diplomats.

Decisions on accession to the bloc require unanimous backing from member states, with Hungary remaining the only country opposed to moving the process forward.

“There are six clusters in total, and we don’t think opening them all at once is a good idea,” Magyar told reporters after last week’s European Council meeting in Brussels. Such a move could send “the wrong message” to Western Balkan countries that have spent years pursuing EU membership, he said, referring to Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia

Magyar has previously said Ukraine’s accession could take ten to 15 years and tied further progress to Kiev’s treatment of the ethnic Hungarian minority. Around 80,000 Hungarians live in Ukraine, mostly in the western Zakarpattia Region, and their status has long strained relations between the two neighbors. The issue was a recurring source of friction under Magyar’s predecessor, Viktor Orban, who repeatedly blocked Kiev’s efforts to move closer to the EU.

Under Orban, Hungary refused to send weapons to Kiev and protested the forced mobilization of ethnic Hungarians, some of whom hold Hungarian passports, into the Ukrainian military to fight Russia.

Ukraine’s accession bid has also been consistently opposed by Slovakia. Bratislava and Budapest argue that Ukrainian membership could draw the EU into an open conflict with Russia and undermine the bloc’s economy.

Moscow says it does not oppose Ukraine joining the EU, but has criticized what Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described as the bloc’s evolution into an “aggressive military-political alliance” and an “appendage of NATO.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also argued that Ukrainian accession could weaken the EU and potentially destabilize the bloc.

Nigeria sees the upcoming Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow as an important opportunity to advance bilateral ties with Russia, newly appointed Nigerian Ambassador to Moscow Joseph Olusola Iji has said.

Speaking to RT, the diplomat said strengthening relations will be at the center of his mission in Moscow. Abuja expects to participate in the summit and views the event as a key platform for expanding cooperation across the continent as well.

“It will also be an advantage for multilateral relationship... it’s quite important for us,” the envoy stated.

Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Moscow will host the third Russia-Africa Summit in October, saying the Kremlin expects African leaders to approve a new three-year cooperation roadmap.

Iji acknowledged a persistent trade imbalance between the two countries, which he linked to sanctions-related restrictions, payment difficulties, and logistical challenges. He argued that expanding Russian industrial investment in Nigeria could help increase bilateral trade and create a more balanced economic relationship.

Iji highlighted the importance of media cooperation, saying: “It’s very important [media exchange with Russia] because the media are expected to build bridges.”

Last October, the administration of US President Donald Trump placed Nigeria on its list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ amid allegations of genocide against Christians in the country. Abuja has repeatedly rejected the claims, arguing that the country’s security crisis is driven by insurgency and banditry rather than religious persecution and affects Nigerians of all faiths.

India has honored Russian scholar Dr. Lyudmila Khokhlova, acclaimed Indology professor and linguist, with the Padma Shri award for her contribution to the field of literature and education, and advancing Indian languages and culture.

The Moscow State University scholar has a decades-long academic career spanning historical linguistics, the origins and evolution of Sikhism, and the study of Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, and Marwari. She has authored six books and 92 publications, while teaching generations of young India specialists.

President Droupadi Murmu presented India’s fourth highest civilian honor to Dr. Khokhlova on Tuesday in New Delhi.

Earlier in January, speaking to RT when the award was announced on India’s Republic Day, she said: “I wish for Indians to keep moving forward, continue their rapid economic development and preserve all the glorious spiritual traditions since ancient times.”

“This award means a lot to me both personally and professionally. And I will work as much as possible to make myself worthy of this award,” she added. Dr. Khokhlova is an Associate Professor in the Department of Indian Philology at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Fewer than ten Russian scholars have received the Padma Shri since it was instituted in 1954. 

The Iran conflict shows that the era of the unipolar world is over, a leading policy expert has said. The US can bomb a country to the Stone Age, but cannot “create global governance,” Samir Saran, the head of the Observer Research Foundation, told the Primakov Readings International Forum in Moscow.

“If the biggest power in the world cannot open the Hormuz Strait, I don’t think that power should be recognized as being anything close to being powerful,” he said on Wednesday at the event.

Speaking exclusively to RT on the sidelines of the event, Saran stated that traditional friends Moscow and New Delhi do not have another partnership that can claim the same level of trust.

“India and Russia have a very special relationship and a special connection with each other,” he said.

On New Delhi’s concerns regarding Moscow’s ties with Beijing, he said Russia and India should “view only what we do with each other. We should double it, then triple it, then grow [the relationship].”

“We should be each other’s most essential partners and we should continue to invest in that. What we do with others should not be a concern to either of us.”

“We will not have the dominance of the USA and USSR of the past ever. There will be no real superpower in the next 25-30 years,” he said.

Saran went on to say that commodities will be key among the “four drivers of the world of the future,” listing technology, demography, and identity as the other three.

He slammed the “new export control ethic emerging around AI,” saying it will create divides like never before. “Technology is going to create an underclass,” he warned.

Saran predicted that “identity and sovereignty are going to be stronger in the next 20 years than they were in the last 20 years.” 

Germany has pulled the plug on its largest naval shipbuilding project since the end of WWII, scrapping plans for a fleet of six F126 frigates first ordered under then-Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

The plans to axe the project were first reported by Der Spiegel on Tuesday, which said the program had long been plagued by numerous issues. The ministry confirmed the move the next day, saying it was “due to significant delays, enormous cost increases, and incalculable risks.”

It also noted that completing six F126s would have driven total costs above €18 billion ($20.3 billion) – compared to the initial estimate of €5.27 billion for four vessels.

The contract was initially awarded to the Dutch Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS), but the project quickly stalled as the company struggled to transfer ship design data into the production systems used by German shipyards and suppliers due to incompatible software.

Costs already started ballooning as early as 2019 – even before the contract went to DSNS – with then-Left Party MP Matthias Hohn calling the project a “money pit.”

Critics pointed to the fact that Katrin Suder, then-state secretary in the Defense Ministry, was herself a veteran McKinsey employee. A later federal audit found that in most cases, the ministry failed to justify why external consultants were necessary.

According to Der Spiegel, as DSNS continued to struggle with the order, German defense officials weighed handing the contract to German shipbuilder Naval Vessels Lurssen, now owned by Rheinmetall, the country’s largest arms manufacturer. But the ministry ultimately ruled this out, saying it would have meant waiving its right to sue DSNS for damages.

The termination of the project was a severe blow to Rheinmetall, with shares plunging as much as 17% in the stock’s worst single-day fall in years.

In place of the F126, the ministry plans to buy eight MEKO A-200-DEU frigates – ships originally pitched as a stopgap “bridge solution.” Built by the TKMS shipbuilding conglomerate, the MEKO A-200 is far smaller than the F126, at around 120 meters and 4,200 tons.

The first four frigates would cost around €6.3 billion, with an option on four more for around €5.3 billion if exercised by the end of 2026, pending approval from the Bundestag’s Budget Committee.

The termination of the controversial project comes as Germany carries out its largest militarization campaign in decades, with the 2026 defense budget reaching €108 billion. Germany and other European nations have cited the supposed ‘Russian threat’ to justify the build-up. Moscow has dismissed speculation that it plans to attack NATO as “nonsense.”

A church in Odessa dedicated to the Russian Orthodox saint Aleksandr Nevsky has been seized by anti-Russian activists. The incident follows a pattern of government-backed crackdowns on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the country’s largest denomination.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukrainian authorities have carried out raids on monasteries and churches, imposed sanctions on clergy members, and backed efforts to transfer UOC properties to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), whose clerics reportedly participated in the church takeover on Tuesday.

Why is there a church schism in Ukraine?

The OCU was launched as part of then-President Pyotr Poroshenko’s reelection campaign in 2019 and is considered schismatic by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the UOC.

The canonical Ukrainian church has denied accusations that it serves Moscow’s interests and formally severed all administrative ties with the ROC in 2022. Despite that, it faces a possible legal ban under a law that current Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed in 2024.

How was the Odessa church targeted?

According to the UOC’s Odessa diocese, priests and parishioners arrived at the Aleksandr Nevsky church in the morning to find the gates locked. During a confrontation outside, one of the men involved in the takeover, who appeared to be a private security employee hired by the OCU, allegedly grabbed a priest by the throat.

In a video posted online, OCU cleric Teodor Orobets claimed the church now belongs to “real parishioners,” including “military service members, veterans, and our military chaplains.” He declared the church to be re-dedicated to an 11th-century monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery.

In footage filmed inside the church after the takeover, he criticized icons depicting saints who have no connection to modern-day Ukraine, denouncing them as “markers of Moscow religious life.”

What was the Church response?

The UOC said it will challenge the seizure in court. Church officials noted that the congregation restored the building between 1999 and 2001 and has used it ever since.

The church was originally built in 1897 on the grounds of a military hospital, but it was forced to shut down in the late 1940s under Soviet rule.

The temple is dedicated to Aleksandr Nevsky, a medieval Russian prince and Orthodox saint who ruled several principalities, including Kiev. The OCU has rejected his veneration, citing his role in the development of Russian statehood.

Agapetus of Pechersk, after whom the OCU wants to rename the church, is recognized as a saint by both the Ukrainian church it seeks to replace and the Russian one.

Former Scottish National Party chief executive Peter Murrell was jailed for five years and three months on Tuesday after admitting to embezzling more than £400,000 ($540,000) from the party. The offenses took place over a 12-year period.

The case rocked the SNP and drew former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Murrell’s ex-wife, into a lengthy police investigation, although she was later cleared of wrongdoing.

The 61-year-old spent the stolen funds on hundreds of luxury purchases, including a £124,550 ($168,000) motorhome, a Jaguar SUV, jewelry, Montblanc pens, luxury watches, homeware, and designer stationery. He concealed the thefts by falsifying accounting records, entering false accounting codes in the SNP’s accounts, and submitting fake invoices, allowing him to embezzle a total of £400,310.65 ($540,400) over 12 years.

Murrell’s lawyer, John Scullion KC, said his client accepts full responsibility for the crimes and recognizes that a prison sentence is “entirely deserved.”

Murrell’s crimes came to light during a police investigation into the SNP’s finances that was launched in 2021 after complaints about the party’s handling of funds. Detectives subsequently uncovered evidence that the party’s longtime chief executive systematically diverted money for personal use while concealing the thefts through false accounting entries and fake invoices.

The case cast a shadow over Sturgeon, who led the SNP for nearly a decade and was arrested and questioned as part of the police probe known as Operation Branchform. Police later said she would not face any action. Sturgeon denied having any knowledge of Murrell’s offenses, saying she was “deceived, misled and betrayed” and was “completely exonerated” by the investigation.

Nuclear weapons are the only thing preventing humanity from sliding into a global war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, as he commented on the worsening state of international security.

While the civilization-ending power of atomic weapons still deters a global confrontation, regional conflicts continue to erupt and are becoming increasingly devastating, the Russian official said on Wednesday. Peskov made the remarks while moderating a panel discussion at the Primakov Readings in Moscow.

“Directly speaking, we have nothing left in the world except nuclear deterrence. It’s the only thing saving the world from a global war,” Peskov said of international security mechanisms.

“We don’t really have any levers to reach an agreement in this area,” he added. “We can’t even reform the United Nations Security Council.”

The current international security system was established after World War II, with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council playing a central role in maintaining global stability. The same countries – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US – are also the only states recognized as nuclear powers under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Several other countries have acquired nuclear weapons outside that framework, including India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel, though the latter neither confirms nor denies its status.

Critics argue that growing tensions between major powers have left the UN Security Council increasingly divided and less effective. Moscow has blamed the situation on Western efforts to preserve the unipolar world order that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Recently, US President Donald Trump said he is satisfied with the situation regarding the Strait of Hormuz and the progress in negotiations with Iran. US Vice President J.D. Vance expressed similar sentiments earlier, noting that they succeeded in creating a mechanism to prevent further escalation between Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah, and laid the foundation for a future peace agreement during the talks in Switzerland. 

At first glance, this looks like a diplomatic breakthrough, but the reality is more complex. The Trump administration’s optimistic rhetoric doesn’t change the fact that the negotiation process remains highly volatile, and trust between the parties is minimal or even nonexistent. Moreover, while Vance led the negotiations in Switzerland, Trump, in his characteristic manner, once again lashed out at Iran, effectively jeopardizing the efforts of his own negotiating team. As a result, the Iranian side has temporarily withdrawn from the negotiations, although the Trump administration is trying to downplay this episode.

Nevertheless, it’s premature to say the negotiations have failed. Subsequent statements by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi demonstrated that despite its irritation, Tehran is not interested in immediately disrupting the negotiation process. On the contrary, the Iranian side continues to leave room for diplomacy, while demonstrating that it is not prepared to make concessions under pressure and public threats.

Currently, a temporary negotiation framework is in effect – a sort of memorandum that could remain valid for another 50-60 days. This is not a full-fledged agreement, but merely a pause that each side is using to its own advantage. For the US, this is an opportunity to demonstrate that the crisis is manageable and to reduce risks regarding the Strait of Hormuz and the Lebanese front. For Iran, it is a way to buy time, reduce sanctions pressure, restore diplomatic maneuverability, and test the extent to which Washington is truly capable of controlling its own rhetoric and the actions of its allies. 

Therefore, unconditional pessimism is as misguided as excessive optimism. The negotiations have not failed. The communication channel is functioning, the parties continue to exchange signals, and the timeframe offers a chance for further coordination. But this opportunity is rather limited and unstable. Iran, as always, is trying to win time and make the most of the diplomatic pause. The US is trying to portray the situation as a manageable process, even though it occasionally creates new risks on its own.

The situation with regard to the Strait of Hormuz also remains uncertain. Formally, the US and Iran have reportedly agreed to establish a communication line to ensure the safe passage of ships. Trump has hastened to declare that the strait is “fully open.” However, Iranian sources paint a completely different picture. According to them, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has not granted passage to any vessels. This means that even at the basic information level, the parties and their associated media channels are describing events differently.

This is precisely why there is no certainty regarding the strait. American political rhetoric, the demonstrations of control by Iran, and market signals all tell a different story. The overall picture is neither transparent nor stable. Formally, it may look like de-escalation, but in practice, it resembles a regime of managed uncertainty in which each side retains the ability to interpret events to its own advantage.

The reaction of the oil markets should not mislead anyone. The fact that Brent is currently hovering around $78-$80 per barrel looks good for Washington: An extreme price shock has been avoided for now, as markets appear to have partially accepted the possibility of stabilization. But this doesn’t mean the crisis is over. The oil market reacts not only to facts but also to expectations. If there is a new military incident, an attack on a ship or its blockage, or a tough statement from one of the parties, prices could once again surge to $100 per barrel. In this case, the current stabilization will prove to be a temporary pause rather than a sign of a real settlement.

This is precisely why the situation cannot be assessed in a definitive manner. On the one hand, the existence of a communication channel and a negotiation framework reduces the risk of accidental escalation. On the other, the absence of clear rules, as well as contradictory statements and ongoing military pressure make the situation extremely volatile. This is not a diplomatic failure – but it’s not a true success either. Rather, it is a temporary pause; the parties are trying to buy time, test each other’s intentions, and prevent immediate failure. 

The main conclusion is that the Strait of Hormuz has become not just a transportation corridor, but an indicator of the US-Iran dynamic. As long as there is uncertainty with it, the entire negotiation framework remains unstable. The sides can declare that the situation is under control, but in reality, a single incident, political statement, or misinterpreted action at sea can change everything. Therefore, it’s too early to talk about full-fledged de-escalation. The term ‘gray zone’ is more relevant: While room for agreement remains, there is also the risk of a new escalation. 

Furthermore, the Israeli factor cannot be eliminated. An Iran-US agreement will not exist in a vacuum, but in a regional environment where Israel remains an independent player with its own interests, threats, and red lines. Factors like Lebanon and Hezbollah, the security of Israel’s northern borders, and Iran’s influence on regional armed movements will all directly or indirectly influence the negotiations. Even if Washington and Tehran formally agree on the de-escalation parameters, it is unclear whether the negotiation process can remain free of external pressure.

A separate issue that has not disappeared from the agenda is Iran’s nuclear program. Formally, Iran can still claim that its nuclear activities are peaceful. But the context has changed. Prior to February 28, there were no significant or active discussions in Iran about moving toward creating a nuclear bomb, but now these discussions have become a reality. One can’t simply remove it from the agenda or pretend that nothing has happened. 

Washington will now have to deal not only with the technical parameters of Iran’s nuclear program, but also with the new political atmosphere in Iran. Following recent military pressure, the arguments of Iranian officials who favor a more hardline stance have gained additional traction. This poses a difficult question for the US: How can it restrict Iran’s nuclear program without strengthening the forces within Iran that believe making concessions to the West is dangerous and pointless?

All of this makes the current situation ambiguous. The negotiations have not failed and there is still room for compromise; but a full-fledged breakthrough is impossible. Too many factors currently prevent the parties from reaching a lasting agreement. While the chance of reaching an agreement remains, it will not depend on rhetorical statements, but on the ability of the US and Iran to move from demonstrative signals to real political concessions.

Niger has formally initiated the process of its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), months after its decision to exit the tribunal over claims of “neo-colonialist” bias.

The West African country reportedly submitted a letter to the UN on Monday to leave the Rome Statute, the treaty on which the ICC was founded.

“While the court had raised great hopes among peoples who cherish peace and justice, it has been misused and exploited,” the letter said, according to AP.

In response, the ICC said it regrets “any decision to depart from the collective effort to end impunity for the most serious international crimes.”

The withdrawal will take effect after 12 months, making Niger the third country to leave the ICC. Burundi withdrew from the Rome Statute in October 2017, accusing the court of deliberately targeting Africans for prosecution. The Philippines followed in 2018, with then-President Rodrigo Duterte saying the ICC was being used as a “political tool” against his country.

Niger’s intention to withdraw was first made public last September when the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), of which it is a member along with Burkina Faso and Mali, issued a joint statement saying the ICC had revealed itself as a “global example of selective justice.”

The AES denounced The Hague-based tribunal as an instrument of imperialist “neocolonial repression” and accused it of targeting actors outside the “closed circle” of beneficiaries of institutionalized international impunity.

The three countries have for years battled deadly insurgencies waged by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The authorities in Mali, where the violence first erupted, referred the situation to the ICC in 2012, but in more than a decade, the court has pursued only two prosecutions.

In March 2025, Burkina Faso and Mali withdrew from the International Organization of Francophone Nations, saying the Paris-based group had deviated from its original mission of promoting cultural and technical cooperation and become a biased tool of “political manipulation.”

Israeli forces have deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank, according to a UN inquiry, which says the attacks amount to war crimes and point to genocidal intent.

Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, presented the findings on Tuesday while discussing a new report on Israeli violations against minors.

He said the commission had found “indisputable evidence” of deliberate targeted killings of Palestinian children, as well as torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, and attacks on infrastructure essential to children, such as orphanages, healthcare, and educational facilities.

According to the commission, Israeli forces killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children and injured over 44,000 others between October 2023 and October 2025. UNICEF findings also suggest that by February 2026, the toll in Gaza had risen to 21,289 children killed and 44,500 injured.

Israeli forces have killed over 20,000 children & injured 44,000 more since 7 Oct. 2023, Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the @UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory & Israel, told reporters today. #HRC62

More on their new report ➡️ https://t.co/gK2KhtlgFb pic.twitter.com/ZQGUQkJKxD

— UN Human Rights Council Investigative Bodies (@uninvhrc) June 23, 2026

Muralidhar stated that children accounted for around 30% of those killed in the occupied Palestinian territories and that attacks on them have been a “continuing activity.”

The commission attributed much of the toll to Israel’s use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas and a failure to take adequate precautions despite the presence of children.

The report also documented cases of children allegedly shot by Israeli snipers or drones while evacuating, sheltering in tents, approaching aid sites, or staying in displacement camps. Medical workers have noted a pattern of single gunshot wounds to the head or upper body, suggesting deliberate targeting.

The commission surmised that Israeli authorities and security forces have continued to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza, as well as war crimes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel has rejected genocide accusations and has repeatedly insisted that its military campaign is aimed at the militant group Hamas, not civilians.

The Gaza war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent campaign has devastated much of Gaza, killing over 73,000 Palestinians and injuring more than 173,000, according to local health authorities.

At least 20 people have been killed in an armed attack in Nigeria’s central Plateau State, local police reported on Tuesday.

The assault took place before dawn on Sunday in Kawel village, located in the Mushere district of Bokkos Local Government Area. Police said a group of armed men stormed the community at around 4:40 AM, opening an attack that left multiple people dead.

Security forces, including officers from the Plateau State Police Command and the Violent Crime Response Unit, were dispatched to the area shortly after receiving reports of the violence. The authorities said the attackers exchanged fire with security personnel before retreating.

Eighteen victims were found dead at the scene and three others were taken to the hospital with injuries. “Subsequently, two of the injured victims were confirmed dead by a medical doctor, bringing the total number of casualties to twenty,” police said.

The motive behind the attack remains unclear. No group has claimed responsibility.

The West African state has long struggled with criminal gangs and extremist groups, which frequently hold people for ransom. This gained global attention in 2014 when Boko Haram militants kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State.

On Saturday, Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters announced that retired Major General Rabe Abubakar died in captivity after being abducted by unidentified gunmen.

Last month, suspected Boko Haram militants abducted more than 40 pupils during a raid on a school in Borno State, according to local officials and civil society groups. The attackers reportedly stormed classrooms while lessons were underway, forcing dozens of other students to flee into nearby bushland.

Russia and India are working on increasing bilateral trade volumes, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, as the countries pursue a trade target of $100 billion by 2030.

Ties between Russia and India, the world’s most populous country and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, are set to reach new heights, Peskov told RT on the sidelines of the 12th International Scientific and Expert Forum ‘Primakov Readings’ in Moscow.

“We are working on increasing the volume of economic relations. This volume has a stable growth trend. We will work together further,” Peskov said.

The bilateral trade target of $100 billion to be reached by 2030 was set during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December.

Earlier this month, Putin expressed confidence in achieving the target, saying, “At present, trade turnover stands at approximately $58 to $60 billion. However, all the necessary conditions are in place to intensify our joint efforts and achieve even more ambitious goals.”

China is currently India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade at $151.1 billion.

India is a country with potential in all areas, Peskov said, adding Moscow’s ties with New Delhi have a “particularly privileged status.”

Earlier at the Primakov Readings, Peskov posed a query on India’s role in the emerging global order, linking its bilateral ties with Russia, to policy expert Samir Saran, the head of the Observer Research Foundation think tank.

In reply, Saran said the role of Russia-India relations is crucial in the emerging world. India will play a pivotal role in a world “where commodities and climate change and development challenges exist. If the Russians and the Americans were the military superpowers and the Chinese are the economic superpowers, India is the development superpower,” he said.

Saran pointed out that India, with a population of about 1.47 billion, has lifted “more people out of poverty, provided more food, provided more solutions to more people than anyone else in the world.”

The World Bank said last year that the number of Indians living on less than $2.15 a day, the international benchmark for extreme poverty, fell sharply from 16.2% in 2011-12 to just 2.3% in 2022-23.

US President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate major oil companies, accusing them of gouging consumers by keeping gasoline prices high despite a drop in the price of oil.

Oil prices surged after the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran in February, disrupting global trade.

In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said he directed the Justice Department to “immediately start looking into this,” adding that he expected prices to fall “a lot faster than what I’m seeing.” He did not name any oil companies in the post.

“Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’”

Oil prices have fallen sharply from highs reached during the US-Israeli war against Iran, after Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, reached almost $120 a barrel in May.

The average US price of regular gasoline has dropped to around $3.90 a gallon from a peak of over $4 in April, though it remains high compared to pre-war levels. Gasoline prices tend to follow crude over time, but not immediately. Refining, distribution, and local market factors also shape prices at the pump.

Brent crude futures for August fell 0.91% to $76.38 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude for August dropped 0.94% to $72.52 a barrel.

The US Treasury Department has also issued a temporary sanctions waiver for Iran’s oil sector, authorizing the production, sale, delivery, and import of Iranian crude oil and petrochemicals.

The move comes as Washington and Tehran pursue negotiations following Qatari- and Pakistani-mediated talks in Switzerland over the weekend. The two sides agreed to a 60-day roadmap toward a final accord, further technical negotiations, and the creation of a high-level committee to oversee the process.

Vladimir Zelensky will skip a major gathering of Kiev’s key backers in Poland to keep it free of “scandals,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said. His absence is linked to Kiev’s honoring of Nazi-collaborators who murdered over 100,000 Polish men, women, and children during World War II.

Tensions between Ukraine and Poland – a key supporter of Kiev – escalated in recent weeks when Zelensky named a special-forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII and whose fighters killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki responded by stripping Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor, prompting several senior Ukrainian officials to renounce their own Polish honors.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko confirmed that Zelensky will not be present at the Ukraine Recovery Conference June 25-26 in Gdansk, which brings together senior EU and NATO figures with Ukrainian politicians and numerous think tanks, and that she will lead the Ukrainian delegation.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhiy called the decision “absolutely justified,” adding: “It is aimed at ensuring that the conference remains within a pragmatic, economic, and correct framework, without excessive politicization and without scandals.”

Tikhiy noted that Ukraine will be represented by top officials, expressing hope that “the conference will be very successful, despite such unfriendly attitudes from the Polish president.”

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a fierce political rival of Nawrocki, said he will not be troubled by Zelensky’s absence. “There was a certain tension between the presidents and some disproportionate reactions on both sides, an unnecessary escalation of emotional tension,” he told reporters. “It may even mean a more efficient conference, and I treat it as a gesture toward de-escalation.”

Tusk previously called the dispute a “strategic mistake that will cost both sides: In business, geopolitically, and reputationally.”

Moscow has welcomed Poland’s pushback. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in late May that the nationalists being honored by Kiev are “absolute bloody butchers” that “killed Poles [and] Jews, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.”

The Kenyan Health Ministry has suspended construction of a controversial US-backed Ebola quarantine facility in the East African country after a court challenge raised questions over the legality of the project and its potential risks.

The move came after Health Minister Aden Duale appeared before the High Court in the capital, Nairobi, and apologized for defying an earlier court order to halt the project. A day earlier, on Monday, the minister was found guilty of contempt of court in a ruling by High Court Justice Patricia Nyaundi.

“The Cabinet Secretary [minister] also assured the court that all construction and site activities had been completely halted and expressed regret for any misunderstanding or perception of non-compliance with the court orders,” the ministry said on Tuesday.

Justice Nyaundi warned Duale against any further disobedience of court directives and discharged him without imposing any punishment.

The proposed quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, located about 200 km north of Nairobi, drew attention last month after Washington announced a $13.5 million initiative to boost Kenya’s Ebola preparedness amid a deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Healthcare experts in the US, including former officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have also warned that the project presents “significant clinical, ethical, operational, and legal challenges.”

At least three people were reportedly killed earlier this month during protests in Nanyuki against the planned initiative.

Despite the order, flights carrying medical equipment and specialist personnel have continued to arrive at the air base, Reuters reported, citing flight-tracking data as well as US and diplomatic sources.

On Tuesday, Kenyan Health Minister Duale told the court that decisions made by the Health Ministry “are guided by scientific evidence, technical advice, and strategic public health considerations.” He said, however, that “the proposed collaboration” between Nairobi and Washington in relation to the facility was suspended “immediately after the conservatory orders were issued.”