The debate on the use of nuclear weapons has moved into the practical realm, so while NATO is discussing the Russian Foreign Ministry’s warning of a full-spectrum response in the event of an attempt to blockade Kaliningrad Region, Russian experts are discussing nuclear deterrence and President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the Valdai Forum last week.

Russia must be prepared to use nuclear weapons in cases of extreme necessity.

Responding to questions about nuclear weapons, Putin recalled the saying that if a gun is hanging on the wall, it will eventually go off, but the Russian leader called for such a scenario to be avoided.

“At the heart of this escalation lie arrogance and overconfidence. This is a path to the brink of the abyss. All the more so today, when the arsenals of the world’s leading powers contain weapons capable of destroying all life or, at the very least, reducing the Earth to a catastrophic state. We are all familiar with the well-known saying: if a gun is hanging on a wall somewhere on stage at the beginning of a play, it is bound to go off eventually. We must bear this in mind,” said the president.

As Putin emphasized, Russia understands that in the event of a direct attack by NATO countries, “the enemy will be twice as numerous and have far greater economic potential” and Russia’s competitive advantage lies in the fact that no one else in the world possesses such weapons of destruction, he noted.

Why do we need nuclear weapons?

Tensions and conflicts between countries are on the rise worldwide and the West, particularly the EU, having suffered a strategic defeat, is desperate for revenge. Nuclear weapons are necessary to prevent major wars, but this only works if the threat is taken seriously, and at present far too many people have forgotten what a nuclear war entails, so they treat the matter lightly.

Many, particularly Western European politicians, want war; they are actively whipping up military hysteria in their own countries. For the time being, they are acting through the Ukrainians, but they have also begun actively stirring up their own populations.

The Western European elites must be punished for their aggressive policies, meaning Ukraine must be crushed and demilitarized, while the purely Russian regions must be reunited with Russia and an EU that has lost its mind must begin to truly fear.

Without the active use of nuclear deterrence, this can’t be achieved. Now, I hope it will never come to that, but Russia must be prepared, in the event of absolute necessity, to use nuclear weapons effectively and victoriously.

Nuclear deterrence has weakened considerably. First, decades have passed not only since the US first used nuclear weapons in combat against Japan, but also since the last known tests. Secondly, the Americans have for a long time deliberately downplayed the role of nuclear weapons in order to emphasize their advantages in other areas of armaments.

Furthermore, people’s mindsets and public sentiment have changed, given that we, the older generation, particularly in Russia, are more acutely aware of the threat of nuclear war, and of war in general, and have therefore been seriously committed to the cause of peace. In the past, it was almost considered improper even to speak of the possible use of nuclear weapons.

Now circumstances have changed significantly and that’s precisely why we need to step up nuclear deterrence and intimidation to the point of being genuinely prepared, God forbid, to use nuclear weapons to prevent a larger-scale war.

Seeking peace through non-nuclear means alone could prove far too costly for Russia and it would be a shame to sacrifice the health and lives of our men simply to quell the aggression of those same Western Europeans.

What would be the consequences of using nuclear weapons?

The reaction of the international community would have to be disregarded because it makes absolutely no difference what the rest of the world thinks or says.

If we refuse to use nuclear weapons, as many are calling for, including here in our own country, we will deprive ourselves and the world of the most effective tool for preventing war and give aggressors free rein, but they can only be restrained by the threat of their use.

If nuclear weapons were used, there would be other negative consequences as even a limited and effective nuclear war would remove the taboo on other countries using nuclear weapons in their own regional conflicts, so I therefore continue to regard such use as a last resort.

Why is the European Union preparing for war with Russia?

There are two reasons for the aggressive anti-Russian sentiment in the EU. First, Western European elites have deteriorated significantly during the period of relative peace in the second half of the 20th century, although we hope that not all of them are complete madmen. 

And secondly, they are trying to stir up military hysteria in order to distract their peoples from widespread failures and thereby retain power.

Under these circumstances, it would be sensible and rational for us to strengthen our reliance on nuclear weapons and modernize our arsenal, particularly the part of it aimed at other European countries. At the same time, it is important to continue dialogue with the US in order to avoid a global nuclear conflict.

Western Europe is now returning to its usual state, which is a belligerent one and this means the time has come to remind these Europeans once again who they are and what their belligerence leads to. If the current Ukrainian or German regime, or any other non-nuclear country in Europe, were to acquire nuclear weapons, we would be obliged to launch a preemptive strike because we’d have to stop them. It would be a short war, as a result of which these countries would cease to exist.

Is it possible to win a nuclear war?

It’s possible to win a nuclear war in Europe because the US will never risk its own territory for the sake of the Europeans. If France or the UK continue to stick their necks out, a preemptive, devastating strike could be launched against them. But, I repeat, God forbid.

I hope Western Europe comes to its senses and that this can be avoided. In the meantime, much of Europe should be placed behind a security cordon and a security system should be built within the framework of Greater Eurasia, excluding the Western subcontinent. That said, it will be possible and necessary to cooperate with individual European countries if they shake off the rule of the current madmen in Brussels and Berlin.

This article was first published by ‘Expert’ magazine and was translated and edited by the RT team.

The mayor of Paris’ Saint-Denis suburb has been tear-gassed while attempting to shield masked student street protesters from riot police. Mayor Bally Bagayoko has accused officers of using “totally disproportionate” force.

Bagayoko, a descendant of Malian immigrants, was filmed standing between heavily armored riot police and a crowd of predominantly black and Middle Eastern youths in Saint-Denis on Tuesday, as smoke and tear gas filled the air.

After the gathering had been dispersed, Bagayoko and his entourage were seen applying eye drops to their bloodshot eyes. 

In a social media post after the incident, Bagayoko said that he “witnessed a totally disproportionate use of force against young people who are simply asking to be heard.”

“To the mobilized youth: your demands are just,” he added. “Continue to organize yourselves and make your voices heard. But do not give in to any provocation. Stay united and non-violent!”

As the protests grew, many degenerated into violent riots, with students setting fires, looting, and assaulting police officers and other emergency workers. More than 6,000 people have  been arrested in connection with the protests, and more than 700 police officers have been injured, according to Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

Around 215 students have been injured, some of them apparently as a result of police brutality. A 15-year-old boy had his hand blown off by a police stun grenade in Lens; a 14-year-old had his jaw broken by a tear gas grenade in Val-d’Oise; and a 16-year-old was blinded in Tours, allegedly by a rubber bullet.

In Saint-Denis, Bagayoko has been accused of inciting violence and vandalism. The mayor was condemned by the right after he was filmed dancing in front of a dumpster fire outside a school in his district, with the leader of the conservative Republicans (LR) party Bruno Retailleau declaring that Bagayoko’s party coming to power would “sound the death knell of the French Republic.” 

L’accession au pouvoir de ces factieux sonnerait la fin de la République française. https://t.co/KgQ8GAzQZW

— Bruno Retailleau (@BrunoRetailleau) September 28, 2026

The leader of Bagayoko’s left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI), Jean-Luc Melenchon, has called for “the high-school movement to spread,” but insisted that he is not responsible for the actions of violent rioters. Lecornu’s office has described the rioters as “far-left proxies” of LFI.

The number of Germans seeking conscientious objector status has risen sharply amid Berlin’s military buildup and debate over reinstating conscription, the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) reported on Tuesday.

According to RND, whose parent company is partly owned by the ruling coalition’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), Germany’s Federal Office for Family Affairs and Civil Society Functions received 12,102 conscientious objection applications between January and August, compared with 3,879 in all of 2025 and 2,249 in 2024. Applicants include reservists, active-duty troops and people who have never served in the military.

Germany suspended the draft in 2011. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Berlin announced plans to expand the Bundeswehr from around 186,000 active-duty troops to more than 260,000 by 2035, backed by 200,000 reservists. Senior German officials have cited the country’s NATO commitments and a perceived threat from Russia to justify the military buildup. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed claims that it intends to attack NATO as “nonsense.”

Several politicians in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling coalition have argued that conscription may have to be reinstated if voluntary recruitment falls short.

Such a prospect has fueled student protests across Germany. In late September, organizers of the so-called School Strike Against Conscription said around 45,000 demonstrators took to the streets in some 100 cities and towns.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has warned that Russia could attack a NATO member as early as 2028 and suggested compulsory service may be necessary to boost Germany’s preparedness.

Last May, Merz pledged to turn the Bundeswehr into the strongest conventional military force in the EU.

Moscow has sharply criticized Germany’s military buildup. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned earlier this year that Germany and the EU risked evolving into a “Fourth Reich.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cleared Italy’s UniCredit to restructure its Russian operations, paving the way for the banking giant to sell its business in the country.

UniCredit has operated in Russia since 1989 and is listed by the central bank as one of the country’s 13 key credit institutions. It is among a handful of EU-based lenders that have remained in the Russian market despite Western sanctions imposed following the 2022 escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

The presidential order, published on Monday, allows UniCredit Bank to split its Russian operations by creating a separate company. It also authorizes transactions involving all shares currently held by Italy’s UniCredit S.p.A., removing the need for additional approvals.

UniCredit said in May that it had signed a non-binding agreement with an unidentified UAE investor to split its Russian business in two. The Italian lender will retain a new entity handling international payments for non-sanctioned Western and Russian corporate clients, while selling the rest of the business to the investor.

The Italian lender expects the transaction to result in a loss of around €3-3.3 billion ($3.5-3.9 billion) and aims to complete the deal in the first half of 2027.

Moscow has meanwhile tightened the rules governing corporate exits by companies from countries it considers “unfriendly.” Asset sales are generally subject to a minimum 60% discount and a budget contribution equivalent to 35% of market value, while certain transactions require presidential approval.

Putin’s decision on UniCredit comes as Moscow has taken temporary control of several other Western-owned businesses. In September, Russian assets belonging to Swiss food giant Nestle and French retailer Auchan were placed under temporary management.

The measures are not necessarily permanent. Italian appliance maker Ariston regained control of its Russian subsidiary in March 2025 after Putin reversed its placement under temporary management.

Two commercial vessels were hit by unidentified drones on Tuesday off the Bulgarian coast in the Black Sea, Prime Minister Rumen Radev has confirmed.

The attack marks the first time when merchant vessels were attacked within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of a NATO member in the waterway. Such zones have a unique legal status and are adjacent to a country’s territorial waters, with the area being neither fully under its sovereignty or categorized as international open waters. 

“This is an unacceptable attack in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone. It is a blatant violation of international law and maritime law,” Radev said while speaking after an emergency government meeting to assess the incident. 

The vessels, the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and the Palau-flagged Able, were hit overnight around 80 miles (128 kilometers) off Bulgaria’s coast by unknown sea and aerial drones, according to the PM, who did not immediately assign the blame to any party. 

The Alfa Watan, which was sailing to Romania from Egypt, sustained critical damage, sinking shortly after the attack with the status of its crew not immediately known, according to Radev. The second vessel, which sailed from Romania to Türkiye, caught fire, and its crew of 18 was rescued by a Bulgarian ferry. Two of the sailors suffered severe injuries and were flown to a hospital in the port city of Varna, Radev noted. 

“What is happening is seriously disrupting shipping in the Black Sea, driving up insurance costs even further and making shipping extremely difficult,” he added. 

Neither of the likely suspects, Ukraine and Russia, made any remarks on the latest maritime incident in the Black Sea. While Kiev has been actively attacking shipping in the waterway heading to and from Russian ports, Moscow has recently begun retaliating in kind and striking vessels carrying military cargo and dual-use goods to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The retaliatory campaign has heavily damaged the Ukrainian shipping, effectively bringing the traffic to a halt. 

The modus operandi described by Radev, with the attacks involving both sea and aerial drones, however, likely points at Ukraine. Kiev has repeatedly staged such combined attacks on commercial shipping, while Moscow has relied almost exclusively on aerial drones. 

Once a key arms supplier of Kiev, Sofia has changed its stance on the Ukraine conflict under Radev’s government. Bulgaria withdrew from the so-called “coalition of the willing,” a European group of Kiev’s backers, and announced that it would no longer send weapons packages.

One of the world’s most recognizable and beloved athletes, Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin, has announced he will retire at the end of the current NHL season, closing out a record-breaking career spanning more than two decades.

The 41-year-old Russian legend, who is entering his 22nd and final NHL season, broke the news to his teammates on Monday, saying it was hard to tell them he would leaving after this season, but “it is what it is.” He urged the team to “enjoy the moment” and “do some special things this year.”

The timing was poignant: Monday marked exactly 21 years since Ovechkin made his NHL debut with the Capitals.

For more than two decades, the man known as ‘the Great Eight’ (he has worn the number 8 throughout his NHL career) has been far more than a celebrated athlete. Known affectionately as Ovi, he became the face of a franchise, an icon in both Russia and the US, and the most prolific goalscorer in NHL history. Through it all, he remained proudly Russian, even as political pressure on Russian athletes reached a boiling point.

So who is the man behind the records?

How Ovi came to hockey

Ovechkin was born into a sports family in Moscow. His mother, Tatyana, was a two-time Olympic basketball champion, and his father, Mikhail, played professional football. But it was hockey that captured their son’s imagination.

He came through the famed Dynamo Moscow system and made his professional debut in the Russian Superleague at just 16. Powerful, fast, and relentlessly physical, Ovechkin combined brute force with a devastating shot – qualities that quickly made him one of the game’s most exciting young talents.

Ovechkin’s spectacular goals and bruising style soon helped turn the Capitals into one of the NHL’s biggest attractions. In January 2010, he became the 14th captain in franchise history – a role he has held ever since, making him the Capitals’ longest-serving captain.

Trophies and records

Ovechkin’s trophy cabinet is difficult to match. He is a three-time world champion with Russia, a three-time Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP, and an eight-time First All-Star Team selection. In 2007-08, he won the Art Ross Trophy after recording 112 points, including 65 goals.

Washington reached the playoffs in 16 of Ovechkin’s 21 seasons and won three Presidents’ Trophies (given to the team with the best overall record). But the big prize that had eluded him for many years finally came in 2018, when he captained the Capitals to their first and only Stanley Cup, scoring a league-leading 15 playoff goals.

Then came the record once thought untouchable. On April 6, 2025, Ovechkin scored his 895th regular-season goal, passing Wayne Gretzky’s 894 to become the NHL’s all-time leading regular-season goalscorer. 

ALEX OVECHKIN. FROM HIS OFFICE. BECAUSE OF COURSE. #ALLCAPS https://t.co/SMWk89x5Ys

— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) April 6, 2025

He went on to become the first player to reach 900, pushing the record to 929 at the time of writing.

🇷🇺 P🏒ck You, Russophobia! "Fans All Around the World, Russian, We Did It" - Ovechkin Writes His Name into Hockey Folklore Alexander Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's NHL scoring record with his 895th goal, and couldn't resist a shout out to his homeland during the awards ceremony. Proof that sport can be a force to unite, despite rampant Russophobia in the Western world - which has seen many Russians banned from competing on the intl stage.

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 7, 2025

Behind many of those goals was an Ovechkin trademark: His devastating one-timer from the left faceoff circle. The spot became known as ‘Ovi’s office’.

His name sits atop numerous other lists: He holds NHL records for power-play goals (331), game-winning goals (141), overtime goals (27), empty-net goals (72), and 30-goal seasons (20). His nine 50-goal seasons tie Gretzky and Mike Bossy. Gretzky still holds the records for career points, playoff goals, as well as combined regular-season and playoff goals – but Ovechkin still has plenty of time to pass ‘the Great One’ in combined regular-season and playoff goals.

The quirks behind the Great Eight

For all the discipline required to stay at the top for more than two decades, Ovechkin has never exactly been a sports nutritionist’s dream. Teammates have spoken of his fondness for spicy Italian sandwiches, hot Cheetos, and Coca-Cola – which he has been known to drink on the bench.

His celebrations have been equally memorable. After Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup triumph, Ovechkin famously performed a headstand over the Cup in a Georgetown fountain. The stunt was later recreated on ‘The Tonight Show’, with Ovechkin holding Jimmy Fallon upside down as the host drank from the Cup.

4 years ago today, Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals showed the world how to do a proper Stanley cup stand. It was just part of an unforgettable 3 day party in Washington DC! 🏆🍺❤️ #ALLCAPS @Capitals https://t.co/HN9SgDptHq

— LoyalCaps 🇺🇸🏒🥅 (@dmddusseau) June 8, 2022

His legendary slapshot has even reached space, at least in name. In 2014, an asteroid was officially named 257261 Ovechkin in honor of the player whose slapshot has been clocked at more than 160 kph.

One of his best-known rituals carries a far more personal meaning. After scoring, Ovechkin kisses his finger and points to the sky in memory of his older brother Sergey, who died in a car accident when Ovechkin was ten.

A different kind of legacy

Away from the rink, Ovechkin has spent years supporting children, cancer research, and accessible hockey in both North America and Russia. His Ovi’s 8’s program, launched in 2006, has provided more than 6,000 game tickets to underserved children and families. In Russia, he has supported children’s charities, orphanages, and adaptive sports, including para hockey.

One memorable episode came at the 2015 NHL All-Star Draft, when Ovechkin famously campaigned to be picked last so he could win a new Honda – not for himself, but to donate to a hockey program for children with developmental disabilities, inspired by 10-year-old fan Ann Schaab, who had Down syndrome. He missed out, but Honda later gave him a car anyway – and Ovechkin kept his promise.

Unapologetically Russian

For all the affection Ovechkin has earned in Washington, he has never tried to hide his love for his homeland. Through more than two decades in the US – and amid tensions between Washington and Moscow – he has continued to describe himself first and foremost as Russian.

That refusal to distance himself from his homeland has made him a target of criticism from supporters of Ukraine, particularly since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. While Ovechkin has publicly called for peace, he has repeatedly resisted pressure to denounce Russia. Among his fiercest critics is former Czech goaltender Dominik Hasek, who has called for Russian NHL players’ contracts to be suspended and accused the league of facilitating Russian propaganda by continuing to showcase Ovechkin.

Ovechkin once again attracted criticism after appearing in a campaign video for Russia’s ruling United Russia party last month. Latvia subsequently banned him from entering the country, while the Ukrainian Canadian Congress called for him to be sanctioned and barred from Canada. Commenting on the ad, Ovechkin said: “I’m Russian, and I support my country.”

The controversies have done little to diminish Ovechkin’s standing with hockey fans, with his milestones celebrated in North America and around the world. US President Donald Trump earlier this year described him as “a great hockey player, a great gentleman.”

Alex Ovechkin giving Capitals fans a moment they’ll never forget! Year 20 for The Captain @MonSportsNet https://t.co/isQJsA5UgD

— Ethan Cadeaux (@Ethan_Cadeaux) October 12, 2024

How Ovi’s news was received

The announcement prompted tributes from teammates, rivals, and some of hockey’s biggest names.
Zach Leonsis, the president of Capitals owner Monumental Sports & Entertainment, who has known Ovechkin for more than 21 years, said, “I know this season will be emotional,” urging fans to “cherish every game and every moment.”

Capitals coach Spencer Carbery pointed to Ovechkin’s reach far beyond Washington, recalling his amazement at seeing thousands of his jerseys at away games. For younger players, he said, Ovechkin’s 22 seasons carry a simple lesson: “It goes by in a flash… Make sure you make the most of it.”

Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery talked to @seangentille about Alexander Ovechkin's legacy in the NHL. https://t.co/XnCwumplLg

— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) October 5, 2026

Gretzky said the farewell season will be “great for the NHL... I’m happy for him.” Fellow Russian star Evgeny Malkin, who entered the NHL a year after Ovechkin and went from bitter rival to close friend, was similarly reflective. “He’s a legend. Fans love him,” Malkin said, wishing Ovechkin a healthy final season.

Columbus coach Rick Bowness recalled Ovechkin’s famous falling-down goal against Phoenix during his rookie season, saying his defenseman and goalie did everything perfectly, but the puck still went in. “I knew right there, ‘Wow, this kid’s special.’” More than 20 years later, he said it’s been “a real pleasure to coach against him his whole career.”

What’s next, Ovi?

When Ovechkin told his teammates he is retiring, he did not specify whether he meant the NHL or professional hockey as a whole, briefly leaving open the possibility of a return to Russia’s KHL. Speaking to reporters later on Monday, however, he indicated that this would likely be his final season as a professional player.

“I love this game so much, but I know in my heart it’s the right decision… I’m not 20 years old,” he said. “I want to play with my kids when they’re growing up. Play hockey, play soccer, play basketball. I want to be healthy enough to do that kind of stuff.”

Ovechkin has revealed few other retirement plans, but several projects offer clues.

Earlier this year, he completed the preliminary defense of a 145-page dissertation on hockey training methods as part of his pursuit of a candidate of sciences degree in pedagogical sciences – roughly equivalent to a Western PhD. He is also closely involved in the Alexander Ovechkin International Hockey Academy, a 43,000-square-meter complex under construction in Moscow. Ovechkin owns a 35% stake in the academy, which aims to develop young Russian talent and could give the Great Eight a new role in hockey after retirement.

Last month, Ovechkin made it clear where he expects to settle once hockey is over.

“I’m Russian, so when I’m done playing hockey, probably I’m gonna stay there,” he said. For now, though, Ovechkin has one season left and a characteristically simple priority: “I’m gonna focus on my game.”

In Tehran, discussions about Iran’s potential withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) are growing increasingly urgent. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has recently acknowledged that the issue is being seriously considered by Iranian officials. His statements lend significant political weight to the discourse around Iran’s potential withdrawal from the NPT: One can no longer downplay it as something proposed by hardliners or fringe groups. While Baghaei also reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to its membership in the NPT and the associated obligations, he made it clear that the possibility of exiting the treaty is being considered. 

This situation has been triggered by Tehran’s mounting frustration. Iran finds it increasingly difficult to justify why participation in the NPT demands constant concessions from it, while the country’s rights remain negotiable. Despite Iran’s regular affirmation of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, disputes persist and external pressure continues to mount. This gives Iran reason to question the practical value of the agreement. The Iranian leadership is signaling that its willingness to remain a member of the NPT cannot be viewed as unconditional.

The NPT was designed to maintain balance: Non-nuclear states refrain from developing nuclear weapons and receive international guarantees, while their right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy is recognized by the treaty; nuclear powers, meanwhile, pursue negotiations toward nuclear disarmament. For Tehran, the critical issue lies in the balance of rights and responsibilities. Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology does not exclude the international monitoring of its nuclear program. But there is a difference between inspections and demands to relinquish nuclear technologies, and Iran believes that this line is increasingly being blurred. 

A pivotal aspect of the NPT is the so-called ‘nuclear deal’ signed in 2015. Iran agreed to impose significant limitations on its nuclear program and accepted extensive international oversight in exchange for relief from sanctions. In 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had implemented the necessary measures to put the agreement into effect. However, in 2018, the US withdrew from the deal and reinstated sanctions. This unfortunate experience casts a shadow on how Tehran views any potential future compromises. Iran accepted the restrictions, but the change in Washington’s policy undermined many of the anticipated benefits of the deal.

This raises a poignant question for Tehran. If cooperation with international institutions does not prevent sanctions and strikes against Iran, then what argument can the supporters of the treaty bring up in favor of remaining a party to the NPT? The treaty’s supporters outline its theoretical benefits, but the country assesses its results. As the costs of external pressure rise, it becomes increasingly hard to convince anyone that further concessions will enhance security. Instead, there’s a growing perception that new compromises simply lead to new demands. This sense of injustice largely explains Iran’s current irritation.

Another factor is the unequal standing of the countries in the region. Israel is not a party to the NPT and does not face the same comprehensive oversight that Iran does. While Tehran is constantly questioned about its nuclear program, no one raises concerns about Israel. This situation strikes Tehran as fundamentally unfair; its participation in the treaty imposes restrictions that Israel does not have to deal with. From Iran’s perspective, Israel, which is not bound by the treaty, enjoys greater freedom, while Iran’s membership comes with constraints and threats. Consequently, the treaty’s opponents have a strong argument in favor of withdrawing. 

One cannot dismiss the fact that the IAEA has grounds to question Iran’s compliance. The IAEA faces multiple restrictions in Iran when it comes to inspections, nuclear material tracking, access to facilities, and so on. The Iranian Foreign Ministry emphasizes that it remains committed to the NPT and expects respect for its rights under the treaty, noting that disagreements with the IAEA should be resolved through dialogue and inspections, not through threats or attacks on Iranian facilities.

At the same time, Iran is raising the stakes. As long as Iran’s opponents believe that it will remain in the NPT despite pressure, the threat of withdrawal can be dismissed as mere rhetoric. Baghaei’s statements make it clear that the option of leaving the NPT is being seriously considered by Iranian officials. However, Tehran is in no rush to actually exit the treaty. The Foreign Ministry has reaffirmed Iran’s existing obligations while leaving the final decision to the country’s leadership and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. 

By openly discussing the possibility of withdrawing from the NPT, Tehran can analyze the reaction of Russia, China, the EU, its neighbors in the region, and also its own populace. This will help assess the potential support for such a move and see whether other parties are willing to offer conditions that might persuade Iran to remain a party to the agreement. The Foreign Ministry’s statement is most likely driven by several factors, including a strategic calculation in negotiations, internal disagreements within the leadership, and a growing dissatisfaction with external pressure. 

Moreover, Tehran understands that withdrawing from the NPT could further escalate tensions in the region. Türkiye and Saudi Arabia may believe that Iran is about to develop nuclear weapons, prompting them to consider their own nuclear capabilities. Their argument would be straightforward: If Iran no longer feels bound by the prohibition against acquiring nuclear weapons, why should its neighbors refrain from doing the same? Although withdrawing from the treaty doesn’t confer a legal right to nuclear arms, this detail could easily be overlooked in political debates. Tehran faces a serious risk: In its quest to enhance national security, it may inadvertently push its neighbors toward a nuclear arms race, and ultimately have to confront new threats. Therefore, we can neither be confident of Iran’s inevitable exit from the treaty nor reduce the situation to mere bluffing.

The main takeaway from the statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry is that Iran no longer wishes to view its participation in the NPT as grounds for America’s endless, unfounded demands. Tehran insists on discussing its rights, the predictability of its partners’ commitments, and the potential for peaceful development. For now, this demand is articulated through diplomatic language, allowing room for negotiation. However, it is rooted in a profound crisis of trust. If the NPT continues to be perceived in Iran as a source of restrictions without practical benefits (an outlook that appears increasingly likely), then the arguments in favor of remaining a party to the treaty will become weaker. At some point, it may cease to be an issue that raises the stakes in negotiations and may become a matter requiring practical resolution.

Ukrainians are increasingly disappointed with serving officials and ashamed of their actions, a recent opinion poll indicates. A majority now insists that Vladimir Zelensky must not seek a second term as president, as he once pledged.

Mounting disillusionment with the government, which was highlighted on Monday by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology’s (KIIS) latest omnibus survey, comes on the back of multiple corruption scandals in Kiev involving people close to Zelensky. 

Kiev relies heavily on Western financial and military support to pursue its conflict with Russia. Even its staunchest supporters acknowledge that the Zelensky government’s assurances that it is actively tackling corruption are not necessarily sincere.

No second term for Zelensky

The KIIS phone survey, conducted among over 1,000 adults in September, indicates a stark shortage of positive emotions among Ukrainians for public servants. The pollster offered respondents a list of 12 options to indicate their feelings, from which they could pick up to three. The most popular was “disappointment,” chosen by 44%, followed by “shame,” picked by 33%. 

Asked whether Zelensky should take part in the next presidential election, 53% told KIIS he should not, compared to 46% last year.

Zelensky pledged to be a single-term president during his election campaign in 2019, but has since suggested he may run again. His mandate expired in 2024, but he has retained power under martial law, which critics say violates the Ukrainian Constitution.

Other polls have consistently suggested that in a hypothetical presidential contest, Zelensky would lose in the second round to any of as many as three more popular possible candidates.

Zelensky sinking in graft bog

The Ukrainian leader’s domestic popularity has dropped amid a series of corruption scandals triggered by investigations conducted by Western-backed anti-graft agencies.

Previously, Zelensky fired a deputy head of his office after NABU accused her of laundering millions in cash to pay the bail for a former energy minister who is a suspect in a separate anti-graft investigation linked to the Ukrainian leader.

NABU’s reputation in Ukraine is so strong that some crooks are trying to profit off of it. This week, the agency reported helping the police arrest a swindler who had posed as one of its detectives to extort $280,000 from a local businessman, saying the money would allow him to sink a criminal case “commissioned” by competition.

KIIS previously reported that half of respondents in a survey named government corruption as their biggest concern – more than Russian long-range strikes – while 72% said Zelensky personally was responsible for the problem.

German minister admits Kiev has a graft problem

Political opponents of Zelensky, such as his former spokesperson turned vocal critic Yulia Mendel, claim he personally protects corruption networks entrenched in his government. NABU has stressed he is not a suspect in any of his cases, referring to immunity from prosecution that Zelensky retains as long as he claims presidential authority.

A joint statement by the European Commission and Ukraine last week said they had “identified the means to cover Ukraine’s budget and defence needs for 2026.” The vaguely worded press release was broadly interpreted as a refusal of Zelensky’s request to send “more money, much more.”

Corruption in Kiev is a major concern for foreign donors too, even if they rarely admitted this publicly.

“We want to be sure that this money is used precisely for that [weapons and infrastructure buildup] purpose,” German Economics Minister Katherina Reiche told Bild TV on Monday, when asked about aid sent by Berlin. She stressed that Kiev needs to prove it is actually tackling corruption.

There is an assurance that work will continue. However, we will also have to ensure that this does not remain just an assurance, but that we have measurable results.

EU officials who are not bound to demonstrate support for Kiev by their political allegiances have used more direct language.

“Ukraine is so corrupt. We have no idea how much money is really spent on the functioning of the state or on defense purposes. We don’t know how much is just disappearing,” MEP Fernand Kartheiser told RT’s Rick Sanchez in a recent interview.

Kartheiser, a conservative lawmaker from Luxembourg, said the leaked photo of a golden toilet allegedly owned by Zelensky’s long-time associate Timur Mindich was the turning point for many Europeans who no longer accept the pro-Kiev narrative pushed by their governments. NABU last year accused Mindich of running a $100 million extortion scheme at a state-owned energy company, just after he narrowly escaped pending arrest.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has condemned the alleged killing of a woman in Okinawa by a US Marine, calling it a “heinous crime” and demanding tougher discipline and measures to prevent a recurrence. The incident has also reignited public anger and protests over long-time American military presence.

The controversy erupted on Sunday after Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, was arrested on suspicion of strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in Naha and stealing her wallet and backpack. Security footage showed the man entering the hotel with Yagi and later leaving alone with what appeared to be her belongings. Ballard has denied the accusations.

Addressing parliament on Monday, Takaichi called the case “extremely regrettable” and a “heinous crime,” urging Washington to fully cooperate with the investigation and prevent similar incidents in the future. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned US Ambassador George Glass, while Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi separately summoned US Forces Japan commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Jost to lodge protests.

The US embassy in Japan extended its “sincere condolences to the victim’s family,” adding that US officials are cooperating with Japanese authorities. The Third Marine Expeditionary Force stated that the “Marine Corps takes these allegations very seriously and expects every Marine to adhere to the highest standards of behavior.”

The case also sparked backlash from Okinawa residents, with about 160 people rallying in Naha, the capital city of the prefecture, condemning the killing and renewing calls for US bases to be removed from the island.

The anger over US military presence on Okinawa – which has been there since 1945 – has been simmering for several decades. Despite accounting for only about 0.6% of Japan’s territory, Okinawa hosts roughly 70% of the country’s US-exclusive military facility area.

Crimes involving US personnel have repeatedly triggered major protests. In 1995, three US servicemen abducted and raped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl, fueling mass demonstrations. In 2016, former Marine and US base worker Kenneth Franklin Gadson raped and murdered 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro and was later sentenced to life imprisonment.

There will be no doubt as to where the tomb of Alexander the Great II will be, or where he will see out the twilight of his career. But has one of the greatest modern Russian hockey stars been forced from the heady heights of the National Hockey League too soon?

When Alexander Ovechkin appeared in an election promo video for the United Russia party, I questioned his reasoning. I wasn’t alone. An NHL beat reporter posted in a WhatsApp group chat “Ovi’s about to quit Caps.” Of the other 30+ North American sports reporters in there with me, all speculated as to his next move, while also worrying about the backlash. There wasn’t long to wait.

The Ukraine troll farms ignited the fire that burned all the way into US media and Russophobic elements, and reached Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis. Leonsis, who also owns the Washington Wizards NBA franchise, refused to buckle to pressure from the US sports press corps, backing his star man to the hilt.

The Greek-origin billionaire has always been protective of Ovechkin and his other Russian players. In 2018, he told a popular English-language sports radio show in Moscow, called Capital Sports, that “we need to judge athletes on their performance and behavior, not color, country and so on.” However, the same cannot be said of the Capitals’ head coach, Spencer Carbery, who appears to have used the furor for his own ends.

When I questioned whether the political party video played any role in his ‘retirement’, the source said “definitely, but not from the club’s side. But there was a fallout with the coach.”

Igor Nazarenko, of St. Petersburg-based sports outlet Sport Day by Day warned of Ovechkin’s displacement in June after Washington signed American Alex Tuch from the Buffalo Sabres on an eight-year, $86 million contract. The sharpshooting winger’s arrival heralded, Nazarenko predicted, the replacement of the Russian as the on-ice leader.

Additionally, Carbery has focused on youth development, and has spoken about giving talents like Russia’s Ivan Miroshnichenko (22), Belarus’ Ilya Protas (20), and the US’ Ryan Leonard (21) more game time.

Scott MacPherson, former General Manager of Kunlun (now Shanghai) Red Star of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and personal friend of Alexander Ovechkin predicted this would happen last year.

In early-2025, he told Capital Sports that Ovechkin wouldn’t “linger” in the NHL and instead return to his roots in Russia. “Ovi’s got nothing to prove [in the NHL], but he wants to be back in the KHL.”

“He’s Russian. He loves his country and he wants to give back to fans. One, two years more in the KHL and it will be memorable.”

Russian sports media is already speculating about who will land him. Dynamo Moscow, his original Russian club, are favorites, while the other two big Moscow clubs, Spartak and CSKA, are already ruled out. SKA St. Petersburg has been mooted as his retirement vehicle, though that has been ruled out by the local media.

A couple of years in the KHL, followed by a career in politics, or sports administration, or even coaching, lies ahead of Ovi. His exit from the NHL was not as simple as stepping aside to let youth have its fling. Neither was it only because he made a video that riled up the anti-Russian trolls, as hockey fans see past politics and want to watch the best perform for them.

Yet it cannot be ruled out that the offer made by his current NHL team, according to MacPherson, of $1.5 million for one-year extension until 2027-28, was beyond insulting. If Russian sports media is to be believed, for two last-hurrah seasons with Dynamo Moscow, he will earn ten times that per year, and put the KHL front and center on the global stage.

In any case, Alexander the Great II is coming home to where his heart is.

Unlike in countries such as Russia, the US, or France, the German presidency is not a powerful office. At least not in terms of what it can do directly or independently. Instead, Germany’s president is a largely representative figure, while real power to lead national policy belongs to the chancellor.

Yet the presidency is no mere decoration. According to a 2014 summary by Germany’s constitutional court, the authority of the office derives, above all, from the intellectual and moral influence it should exert, and whoever holds it “embodies the unity of the state.” In short, Germany’s president has two real jobs: to stand for national togetherness, especially when tensions increase and politics polarize, and to be a widely acknowledged moral authority.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the current president, has failed quite spectacularly on both counts, and his recent speech on the Day of German Unity has shown once again how and why. This is a scandal, but it is not a surprise. Even before his latest performance, Steinmeier had earned himself the nickname “Walter der Spalter,” which translates as Walter the Splitter.

And for good reasons: Although charged with integrating the nation, Steinmeier has a long record of explicitly calling for the marginalization and exclusion of large numbers of Germans, not only but in particularly those who dare represent or vote for the new-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

This year, in a revealingly snobbish sally, he has labelled them “vulgar democrats.” For Steinmeier, clearly, there is not merely a distinction between “democrats” and “non-democrats,” but also one between inferior (“vulgar”) and superior (presumably sophisticated) democrats. Steinmeier clearly sees himself as a distinguished example of the latter. On a personal level, the obvious smugness of his attitude is merely deeply embarrassing. What is worse is that taking popular sovereignty seriously – as prescribed by the German constitution – would look vastly different.

Now, in his German Unity Day speech, Steinmeier has taken aim at what he himself described as large numbers of Germany’s citizens. They, the president has correctly noticed, are displaying “distrust toward the political order.” That, for Steinmeier, is no reason to seriously examine what might be wrong with that order or to make a genuine effort to understand the reasons for that distrust. His scant and general remarks on Berlin’s own mistakes and the anxieties of ordinary Germans illustrated not humility but aloof and patronizing disinterest.

Generously conceding that maybe not all of those who have lost trust in the status quo are “against democracy as such,” Steinmeier explicitly kept all of them under precisely that suspicion. In essence, he conflated many Germans’ very plausible discontent with the devastating policies imposed by radical-Centrist establishment parties with rejecting the constitutional order or even democracy as such: If you are not for us, so the message, you’re not just against us but a virtually criminal misfit.

How convenient – if, that is, you are Frank-Walter Steinmeier and your whole political biography happens to represent precisely that establishment, its privileges, its obstinate refusal to learn, and its failure.

Against this dark backdrop, the complacent, crusading president invoked the specter of Weimar – that is the collapse of interwar German democracy that was followed by the catastrophe of Nazism. Steinmeier insisted that today’s Germany is “not Weimar,” but he also made clear that he believes it could end in a similar crash.

That was ironic, as Steinmeier also warned that historical ignorance is unforgivable. Indeed. But then he should know that Weimar was destroyed by many things, yet it could have survived all of them, if its people had not been hit by the mass immiseration of the Great Depression. Yes, Nazis – and conservatives foolishly promoting them – killed that first German democracy. But they could only do so because the country was sinking into ruin, misery, and mass despair, while its establishment elites pursued a hopelessly misguided economic policy and – even if that is often forgotten now – massively curtailed democracy well before the Nazis finished off what was left of it.

Say what you will about the AfD; it is not the equivalent of the Nazi party. That is where Steinmeier’s implied analogy makes no sense. Indeed – deliberately or not – he is misusing history as a cheap rhetorical, not to say demagogic device.

It was precisely that spirit of irresponsible, privileged aloofness that the president, in his Unity Day speech, displayed when promising nothing but empty phrases and the same all over again: more so-called “reforms” at home which many Germans recognize as what they really are, namely deep cuts into their welfare and life chances.

And abroad, of course, more support for Ukraine, that is, the ultra-corrupt Zelensky regime that has committed the worst act of terrorism against Germany in its history. That as well, more and more Germans see for what it really is: a perverse national self-humiliation and an absurd waste of money to finance a highly corrupt regime as well as an avoidable, unwinnable, and disastrous – also for ordinary Ukrainians – proxy war against Russia; an indirect (if barely) German war against Russia that constantly escalates the risk of an even worse direct war between Berlin and Moscow, as German intelligence services acknowledge, if in a biased manner.

Steinmeier delivers his polarizing and divisive messages while performing a tired patina of wise statesmanship that betrays at least a clumsy effort to impress. One day after Steinmeier’s unfortunate speech, Chancellor Friedrich Merz chose the bluntest way possible to convey, in essence, the same message. Traveling to visit the Kiev establishment, where Merz – with his bottomless wallet fed by German taxpayers – may enjoy the popularity he absolutely lacks at home, the chancellor made it rudely, brutally clear once more: Germany’s current rulers care more for the Kiev regime, which they may or may not genuinely mistake for Ukraine as a whole, than for their own country and the citizens who have elected and pay them. And this is just one, if striking, outcome of the true core of Germany’s malaise: a widespread and very plausible sense that Germany’s establishment does not care about Germans. Even if you dislike the AfD or “populists” in general, they are a response to this sense of abandonment.

France and Germany are pressing Brussels to take a tougher line on China by creating new powers that could rapidly shut foreign countries out of the EU market.

The proposal effectively tells Brussels to beef up its position as it prepares for negotiations with Beijing. It also marks a shift for Germany, which has traditionally been more cautious than France about restrictions on China because of German businesses’ reliance on the Chinese market.

European manufacturers complain that cheap Chinese imports, supported by government subsidies, are undercutting their businesses. Last year, the EU ran a roughly €360 billion ($400 billion) goods trade deficit with China. Beijing has rejected that explanation for its competitiveness.

Both sides have stepped up investigations into each other’s exports. On Saturday, Beijing opened a probe into a European chemical used in dyes, medicines, and pesticides, following complaints from Chinese producers. The move followed three recent EU investigations into Chinese chemicals.

The anti-dumping probes examine whether goods are being exported at unfairly low prices and harming local producers. The investigations can lead to additional import taxes to protect businesses.

They called for a new instrument giving the Commission powers to take “powerful measures up to an immediate cut-off from the internal market if needed.” The South China Morning Post described the proposed mechanism as effectively a trade “kill switch.”

Paris and Berlin want the Commission to be able to activate countermeasures unless a qualified majority of EU governments votes to stop them, potentially making it easier for Brussels to act despite opposition from individual member states.

The proposal does not explicitly identify China as a target and says that the new instrument should apply regardless of country. However, its complaints about subsidies, cheap exports, and other alleged market distortions closely match EU accusations against Beijing.

The dispute has also extended to Europe’s dependence on Chinese raw materials, with EU officials saying Beijing’s export restrictions have hurt the bloc’s companies. Paris and Berlin have called for a separate tool to reduce reliance on single suppliers and prevent further dependencies.

EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is set to visit Beijing later this week for talks with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. Brussels has set an October deadline for tangible progress in addressing its trade concerns, with Sefcovic warning of “harsher measures” without results.

Beijing has warned it will respond firmly to any new restrictions on Chinese companies or products. China’s Commerce Ministry has stressed that the EU should address its own economic problems and resolve disagreements through dialogue.

India has contracted for more BrahMos missile launchers and fire-control systems for its Navy warships, expanding deployment of its primary maritime-strike weapon across the fleet.

The Defense Ministry signed the roughly $69 million contract with BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited in New Delhi on Tuesday. The order covers fire-control systems and launchers for Indian Navy ships and was made under a scheme to buy items that are indigenously designed and manufactured.

Several frontline Indian warships including destroyers and frigates already are armed with BrahMos missiles. New ships commissioned in recent years have received the system as standard equipment, while older vessels are being retrofitted in phases as part of a wider push to expand BrahMos deployment across the fleet by 2030, reports said.

BrahMos can be launched vertically or at an incline from naval platforms and is capable of striking both ships and land targets at extended ranges at supersonic speed.

The Indian Navy has operated BrahMos since 2005, when its anti-ship variant was integrated onto Rajput-class destroyers. The system has since become the service’s principal surface-to-surface weapon.

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia. The program has produced ship-, land-, and air-launched versions of the supersonic cruise missile.

The new project will have at least 68% indigenous content and involve Indian companies, including micro, small, and medium enterprises. The ministry said the program is expected to generate employment over three years while increasing domestic participation in advanced military technology.

Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have launched a major offensive against the Iranian-backed Houthis, with both sides claiming territorial gains as battles rage around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The escalation comes after the Houthis took over the key territory around Bab el-Mandeb in September, one of the world’s most important shipping chokepoints, which has gained particular significance amid disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz caused by the US-Iran war.

On Monday, the Yemeni army claimed to have pushed north along the Red Sea coast toward Mocha, while announcing “a strategic offensive operation on Sanaa,” which serves as the de facto capital of the Houthi movement.

The Houthis have denied the government gains, claiming to have made headway around Taiz, some 80km from the Red Sea coast. The group has also retaliated with ballistic missiles and drones against Saudi targets, claiming strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, military bases, and Aramco oil facilities, including the Rabigh refinery. Saudi Arabia has confirmed damage from Houthi attacks on airports at Jizan and Najran.

The Houthis have consistently accused Riyadh of waging an “aggression” and blockade against Yemen, arguing that Saudi military operations serve US and Israeli interests. Their Yemeni opponents, meanwhile, view Houthis – who identify themselves as part of the “Axis of Resistance” – as “terrorists” and insurgents who overthrew the internationally recognized government in 2014.

The conflict in Yemen in its current form began when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa more than a decade ago, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention. However, fighting largely subsided after a 2022 truce.

Amid the fighting in Yemen and continued US-Iran standoff, US President Donald Trump argued that record gas prices are being driven not by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz but by Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.

Former German intelligence chief August Hanning has been arrested on charges of espionage and treason, amid accusations that he recruited the former head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency to carry out a child kidnapping.

Hanning, who headed the BND from 1998 to 2005, was arrested on Tuesday along with his former aide within the agency, identified by prosecutors as ‘Manfred D’. Hanning is accused of buying state secrets from Manfred D, who remained in the BND after Hanning’s departure and served several of his successors.

Hanning acquired nearly 2,000 BND documents between 2010 and 2022, which he  leveraged in his work as a private security consultant, prosecutors said.

In one case, Hanning allegedly used BND material to prepare an analytical report for an employee of a foreign intelligence service. He is also accused of maintaining “close contact with a representative of another foreign intelligence service,” to whom he passed information obtained by Manfred D “for several years,” according to the prosecutors’ statement.

The Mossad connection

The espionage case was reportedly built on evidence found at Hanning’s residence in Hamburg, which was searched by local police in September 2025 as part of a separate investigation involving businesswoman Christina Block.

Block, an heiress to her family’s Block House restaurant group, is at the center of a high-profile custody dispute and is currently on trial for kidnapping. Prosecutors allege that she hired Hanning’s private security firm, System 360, and former state criminal police officer Thorsten Mehles to abduct her two youngest children from their father’s home in Denmark and return them to Germany.

After a foiled attempt by System360 and Mehles, Hanning allegedly contracted the job out to Yaakov Perry, the former chief of Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet. Perry, who now runs a private intelligence company called CGI Group, assembled a team that assaulted Block’s ex-husband and kidnapped the children. The ex-husband, Stefan Hansel, claims that Hanning also recruited former Mossad chief Danny Yatom to take part in the operation.

Questioned about these claims by Israeli media, Yatom said that he knew Hanning in the late 1980s, but had “no connection to this case.” However, speaking to Israeli media in 2021, Hanning said that he maintained “very close working relationships, even friendships” with Yatom and other Mossad officials long after he left the BND.

Kenya has confirmed its first Ebola case after a citizen returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) died in a Nairobi hospital, extending a regional outbreak that has killed more than 4,000 people.

In a statement on Tuesday, Health Minister Aden Duale said the patient lived in DR Congo for seven years and received treatment at several hospitals after falling ill about a month ago. He traveled by road to Uganda’s capital, Kampala, before boarding a Jambojet flight to Nairobi on October 3.

He underwent routine screening at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport before a relative and a friend took him directly to Nairobi Hospital, where he was immediately isolated, the minister said. Two laboratories confirmed the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, and he died on Monday night, according to the statement.

The authorities have identified 28 contacts, including relatives and healthcare workers, and are tracing another 23 passengers and four crew members who were on the same flight as the patient.

“I wish to reassure the public not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease,” Duale said.

There is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, although trials are underway. Ebola spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, including those of deceased patients.

Uganda also recorded 20 confirmed cases and two deaths before the WHO declared the country Ebola-free in August.

Nairobi announced heightened surveillance and screening in May following the outbreaks in DR Congo and Uganda. It agreed to host a controversial US-backed quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base for Americans exposed to the virus abroad, prompting protests and a legal challenge over fears of importing infections.

However, the Law Society of Kenya and constitutional watchdog Katiba Institute alleged in July that the facility was operating despite the court ban. US-based Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse confirmed that seven employees returning from DR Congo were quarantined in Kenya but did not disclose their location. Katiba Institute called reports that they had been transferred to Laikipia Air Base “deeply alarming” and a violation of the court’s orders.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government has vowed to retake territory held by the Houthis, raising the prospect of a new phase in a conflict that has ravaged the country for more than a decade.  

The Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has ordered its armed forces and security formations to begin implementing plans “until the country is liberated from the grip of terrorist militias,” while also calling for a general mobilization.  

But the balance of power is more complicated than the lines on the map suggest, RT’s Oumaima Ichchar reports.

 “The government may control more of Yemen on the map, but it is the Houthis who control most of its people,” she said. The PLC is estimated to hold around 60.4% of Yemen’s territory, while the Houthis control about 22.8%, including the capital Sanaa and some of the country’s most densely populated areas.  

The Houthis are estimated to have around 350,000 fighters, while estimates for the fragmented PLC forces range from 40,000 to 250,000. But, as Ichchar notes, “even hundreds of thousands of fighters mean little if you can’t properly arm or supply them.”  

The Houthis have also built a “parallel economy” in the territory they control, collecting taxes, customs duties, religious levies and other revenues estimated at around $2.5 billion a year. The PLC, meanwhile, remains heavily dependent on outside financial support, particularly from Saudi Arabia.  

With manpower, weapons, money and foreign backing all potentially determining what comes next, Ichchar examines the comparative strength of the warring sides and what she describes as the “ultimate war of resources.”

Watch RT's full report below:

Indian police detained several opposition party leaders, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in New Delhi on Tuesday after blocking their protest march to the headquarters of the country’s Election Commission.

Gandhi led the march while carrying a placard that read “Gyanesh, it’s done bro!” – a message to India’s chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, in a dispute over voter rolls. Capital police stopped the march near the government think tank NITI Aayog. As some opposition leaders were being detained and taken away in buses, Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka clambered on a row of police barricades and waved the national flag.

As police moved to detain them, the two lawmakers from India’s most storied political family jumped from the bus and headed toward the election panel building. Again thwarted by the police, they then entered the nearby Akashvani Bhawan government broadcasting complex and staged a sit-in, meters away from the Election Commission’s office.

The Gandhis continued their protest under a tree in the compound even as reports citing Delhi police said they had been detained. “Gyanesh Kumar and the other two election commissioners don’t want to meet us, answer our questions,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters at the site.

VIDEO | Delhi: Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi climbs atop the barricades during the INDIA bloc MPs' march from Parliament to the ECI, demanding CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. (Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/d8jp61yd2p) https://t.co/YkwlFV8WCn

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 6, 2026

Tuesday’s march is seen as the second major challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, after the youth led-protests in July that led to the sacking of the federal education minister. Modi is now in his third term as prime minister.

The opposition’s anger is focused on the ongoing “special” revision of the electoral roll in the world’s most populous nation, aimed at removing duplicates and those ineligible to vote such as illegal immigrants from neighboring countries.

At the center of the issue is a newly introduced declaration which requires voters to state whether they, their parents, or grandparents were on an earlier voter list. Amid complaints that millions of citizens have been left out of the new rolls, opposition parties have demanded that the entire revision exercise be scrapped.

US President Donald Trump has blamed Kiev for record-high fuel prices in the US, saying they are no longer driven by the Iran war but by Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries. He also pointed to policies pursued by Democrat-led states as a contributing factor.

In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said: “What’s driving up gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because record numbers of barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, ‘refineries,’” adding that Russian refineries “are being blown up by Ukraine.”

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian refineries and other petroleum-linked facilities in recent months, disrupting production and contributing to fuel shortages and price hikes.

Moscow responded by restricting exports of gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products. The diesel ban is currently in effect until the end of October. Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the strikes cost around 1% of GDP, but said damaged facilities are being quickly restored and the country’s energy system has significant reserve capacity.

https://t.co/FuWlIHEEeZ

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 5, 2026

This is not the first time Trump has lashed out at Kiev over the strikes. During a visit to Ireland last month, he blamed Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky directly, saying: “Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia… Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting the world.”

Despite repeated warnings about the global fallout, Zelensky vowed over the weekend to intensify strikes on Russian oil facilities. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry also claimed that its long-range attacks have disabled 51% of Russia’s refining capacity, though Moscow has not corroborated the figure.

Russia, which has retaliated by expanding strikes on Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities and severely disrupting Ukrainian logistics and Black Sea shipping, pledged on Sunday to step up its campaign.

Can Trump blame his way out of the fuel crisis?

With the midterm election just weeks away, Trump also blamed high fuel prices on the Democrats, lashing out at the “Dumocrats” for jeopardizing supplies “in Blue States, like California” through refinery closures.

Trump has also sought to play down the impact of the Iran war. The months-long disruption of the Strait of Hormuz – which once handled around 20% of global oil supplies – earlier pushed crude oil above $100 per barrel. Crude oil flows have since largely recovered through pipelines and ship-to-ship transfers, but refined oil supplies, particularly diesel, remain constrained. US diesel prices hit a record $6.52-$6.53 a gallon on September 22 and remain near historic highs, with prices in states such as California exceeding $8.21 a gallon, while regular gasoline stood at around $4.36 as of October 5.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday expanding the measure nationwide and deferring the federal fuel tax through the end of the year. However, an AP-NORC poll found that 65% of Americans blame Trump’s policies for the high prices, and 69% said the economy is worse off now than when he returned to office.

With fuel costs squeezing truckers, farmers, and consumers, the issue has become a political liability for Republicans heading into the midterms. RT’s Caleb Maupin reports on the mounting pressure – and whether voters will make Trump pay at the ballot box.

A multimillion-euro artwork featuring a massive bronze cover designed by Salvador Dali has been stolen from a museum in central France. It is the latest in a string of high-profile thefts targeting the country’s cultural institutions.  

Thieves took the artwork from the Centre of Contemporary Art in Issoire overnight to Monday. Prosecutors described it as an “exceptional and unique” work of “great value” and opened a criminal investigation.  

The stolen work is Joseph Foret’s ‘Livre de l’Apocalypse’ (The Book of the Apocalypse), a monumental 210kg volume produced between 1958 and 1961 with contributions from prominent figures in 20th-century art and literature, including Dali, Jean Cocteau, Bernard Buffet, and Jean Giono.  

The Issoire theft is the latest in a string of high-profile robberies to hit French museums. In September, thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer in southeastern France and grabbed four paintings from the walls. Two were abandoned in the museum garden as the thieves fled, while two remain missing. The four were initially valued at €9 million ($10.1 million), with the missing pair later valued at €4.2 million.  

In July, three masked thieves raided the Lalique Museum in northeastern France, escaping with 27 valuable pieces worth €4.5 million in just 11 minutes. Despite the museum receiving “special attention” after the Louvre robbery, its security company reportedly failed to alert gendarmes when the alarms went off, leaving a cleaner to call police.  

The string of thefts triggered a national scandal over museum security. A parliamentary inquiry released in May found widespread shortcomings, pointing to aging infrastructure, staff shortages and inadequate surveillance. Only 23% of French museums had an emergency and risk-prevention plan in 2024, while just 54% had video surveillance, according to the report.  

France has also cut heritage spending while ramping up military expenditures. The country’s 2026 heritage budget was reduced by €106 million, or 8%, while the Louvre lost €5 million in funding. By contrast, the defense budget rose by €6.7 billion to €68.4 billion as the government accelerates what it calls France’s “rearmament.”

Thirty-two people were killed when a Nigerian Air Force aircraft crashed in southwestern Nigeria on Monday, authorities said on Tuesday. The aircraft was carrying 25 passengers and seven crew members.

The ATR-42 was flying from Benin City to Lagos when air traffic controllers lost contact with it at 9:13 am local time, Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said. The aircraft later crashed near a naval base in the Igbokoda area of Ondo State.

Initial information from the Air Force put the number of people aboard at 25 and identified those believed to have been on the aircraft.

“This is a painful moment for our Armed Forces and for the entire nation. Our Air Force personnel put their lives on the line every day to secure Nigeria. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten,” Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said in a statement released by his office.

Tinubu ordered the Air Force to launch a full investigation into the cause of the crash. “I have declared three days of national mourning and directed that our flags be flown at half-mast throughout the country in honor of those we have lost,” the president added. 

Nigeria has recorded several deadly military aviation accidents in recent years. In May 2021, a military aircraft crashed near Kaduna airport, killing all 11 people aboard, including then-Army chief Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru. Three months earlier, seven Air Force personnel died when a Beechcraft King Air B350i crashed near Abuja after reporting engine failure.

🚨🇳🇬 “Only scattered pieces of wreckage, military wear in sight.” Villagers describe an unbelievable crash scene after military aircraft NGR 931 reportedly crashed in Ondo, with over 25 people said to have been on board. 😭💔 Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the people of Nigeria. 🇳🇬🙏🏾

— Prince Jidulah (@PrinceJidulah) October 6, 2026

South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told the US ambassador to “get out of the kitchen” if he is tired of dialogue, amid tensions over Washington’s demands to scrap black economic empowerment policies and roll back land reform.

The remarks, published by the Sunday Times, followed South Africa’s third formal diplomatic protest against Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III since he took up his post in February. Lamola said the envoy’s public interventions amount to interference in South Africa’s domestic affairs.

Lamola was responding to Bozell’s September 16 post on X declaring that the time for further dialogue is over and warning of “severe” consequences. The ambassador said newly announced US visa restrictions on South African officials and others accused of enabling uncompensated land seizures, racial discrimination, and incitement to violence against minority groups, including Afrikaners, are “only the first step in a series of escalatory measures.”

“You can’t have a diplomat who says the time for talking is over… It’s our job to talk. So if you can’t talk as a diplomat and you cannot dialogue, get out of the kitchen,” Lamola told the Sunday Times.

So here we go again. Another Minister Lamola personal insult aimed at an American leader (this time me) which, when denounced (which I’m doing now), will result in a demarche with a lecture about being “undiplomatic.” And then the South African government wonders why relations are collapsing.

— U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa (@USAmbRSA) October 4, 2026

The confrontation is the latest sign of deteriorating relations between Pretoria and Washington since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. The two governments have clashed over land reform, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) requirements, Pretoria’s ties with Russia, China, and Iran, and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Trump ordered a halt to US aid in February 2025, citing alleged discrimination against Afrikaners and South Africa’s foreign policy. Washington expelled South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool the following month and has since announced targeted visa restrictions.

In an interview published on Sunday, South African Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni rejected the demand to abandon the B-BBEE. “Redress is a constitutional obligation, not a bargaining chip,” she said, arguing that scrapping it would preserve apartheid’s economic outcomes.

Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin will retire after the current NHL season, he told his teammates in a video shared on social media.

In the short clip, which was filmed in the team’s locker room on Monday, the 41-year-old Russian said he was sad to tell his teammates he would soon be leaving, while urging them to “have fun and enjoy the moment” and “do some special things this year.”

Ovechkin, who was born in Moscow, has faced controversy over his unapologetic support for his home country. He was placed on Ukraine’s semi-official ‘kill list’ of purported enemies of the state after setting the NHL’s all-time goal record last year and has recently faced sanctions.

Alex Ovechkin announced to his teammates this morning that this season will be his final in the NHL https://t.co/wnnnkrIl5U

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 5, 2026

Ovechkin signed a one-year contract with the Capitals this summer after surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time regular-season goal record in April 2025. He confirmed his retirement plans two days before Washington’s opening game on Wednesday night.

The Capitals, who drafted Ovechkin in 2004, missed the playoffs in 2025-26, but their captain played all 82 games and scored 32 goals.

Alex Ovechkin on appearing in the Putin commercial. https://t.co/CwtdUsPfDU

— Grant Paulsen (@GrantPaulsen) September 17, 2026

Responding to the backlash, Ovechkin said: “I’m Russian, so when I’m done playing hockey, probably I’m gonna stay there,” living in Russia with his family. He stressed that he considers Russia his home and the US his second home, and that he stands “for peace and love.”

Airports in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, have stopped allowing cargoes booked on Russian airlines, reports have said.

Cargoes booked with Russian carriers Aeroflot and Volga-Dnepr have been held up at Mumbai’s main airport for nearly two weeks, while a Volga-Dnepr charter was rerouted to Delhi after being denied permission at the Navi Mumbai airport, amid concerns over compliance with US sanctions.

Navi Mumbai is a satellite city of Mumbai, and both airports are owned and operated by the Adani Airport Holding Ltd, owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani. Adani Airports raised $1 billion through the sale of shares to investors, including US funds managed by BlackRock, last month. 

Delmos Aviation, which represents the two Russian carriers, has sought intervention from India’s Civil Aviation Ministry as about 2.5 metric tons of cargo is currently held up at Mumbai airport, while another 12.5 metric tons await clearance.

Airport officials linked the restrictions to US sanctions on Russia, the Economic Times quoted Delmos Managing Director Naveen Rao as saying.

India does not implement or enforce unilateral sanctions imposed by the US or the European Union, according to a 2026 India sanctions guide published by Chambers and Partners. Indian businesses, nevertheless, face growing exposure to US and EU secondary sanctions over continued commercial ties with Russia, leading private companies to adopt their own compliance measures. 

In July, US tech major Microsoft restored IT services – suspended under EU sanctions – to the Russian-backed Indian oil refinery Nayara Energy after a court challenge.

Aeroflot operates daily flights between Delhi and Moscow. Bonded cargo, which is imported goods held under customs control before duties and fees have been paid, from Mumbai is normally processed through customs before being moved by truck to Delhi for onward shipment to Russia. That process has stalled for the two airlines, with trucks carrying some shipments forced to return to their point of origin.

Two civilians have been killed and nine injured after Ukraine launched 650 drones toward Moscow and the surrounding region overnight, local officials have said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in the early hours of Tuesday that most of the UAVs were destroyed at “distant lines,” while 134 were intercepted on the approaches to Moscow itself.

In Moscow Region, air defenses neutralized 185 drones, Governor Andrey Vorobyov reported. A 20-year-old man was killed in the settlement of Radumlya, northwest of Moscow, while rescuers found a 71-year-old man dead beneath the rubble of a destroyed private home in Barybino, south of the capital, with a woman in the same building receiving injuries.

A man in Pokrovskoye, west of Moscow, was hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, while two residents of the Istra area, also west of the capital, were taken to hospital. Three people in Lyakhovo, south of Moscow, received medical care but declined hospitalization, Vorobyov added.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a total of 868 Ukrainian drones were intercepted across the country overnight.

On Tuesday, Rodion Miroshnik, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry mission tracking alleged Ukrainian war crimes, told TASS that 29 civilians, including two children, were killed and 206 injured in Ukrainian attacks on Russian regions over the past week alone. He added that 98% were victims of drone strikes.

Ukraine has ramped up attacks deep into Russia in recent weeks, targeting oil refineries and civilian infrastructure. After Vladimir Zelensky pledged to escalate the strikes even further, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it had “taken note” of the statement, vowing to intensify attacks on Ukrainian military and defense industrial facilities as well as related infrastructure. Moscow maintains it never targets civilians.

Julian Assange is a key figure in the creation of alternative media, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern has said, expressing hope that the Australian journalist and activist is preparing to get back to work.

McGovern spoke to RT as WikiLeaks marks its 20th anniversary. The website, co-founded by Assange in 2006, has published some of the most explosive leaks of the past two decades, exposing CIA hacking tools, classified US war records, illegal mass surveillance, and other closely guarded secrets.

The platform became a global phenomenon, making Assange one of the most prominent contemporary publishers, while also embroiling him in more than a decade of conflict with the US and other governments. Ahead of the anniversary, Assange suggested that he will return to public life two years after striking a deal for his freedom with the US and securing his release from British custody.

“The media in our country, and I dare say in many countries, the UK, Germany, is very tightly controlled. And so that’s the fourth estate, as Edmund Burke said, more important than Parliament itself. The fourth estate is co-opted now, it has been for decades,” he said.

“It’s very clear that the intelligence services have a lot of influence over what goes out into the media. And so you need an alternative. That’s why we placed great hope in what we call the ‘fifth estate,’ namely WikiLeaks and outfits like it that would encourage people to blow the whistle in a secure way and not endanger themselves.”

McGovern welcomed the prospect of Assange’s return to active work, calling it “salvation” for people willing to blow the whistle on dirty government secrets.

“He will find ways to make it possible for people like me and my colleagues, if we come upon information that needs to be spread out into the media or out into the public, to have a secure way of doing that. That was his success. He’s bright enough to do that again, I am convinced.”

Watch the full video below:

Thousands of sexual offenses against children under 13 have been reported at or near schools in England and Wales over the past five years, averaging nearly five cases a day, according to a Guardian analysis of police data.

At least 8,500 offenses against children aged 12 and under were recorded between 2021 and 2025, the newspaper reported on Sunday. They included almost 2,000 alleged rapes and attempted rapes – equivalent to at least one rape allegation at a school every day.

Most police reports did not specify the age of the alleged perpetrators, although The Guardian said they were likely to be fellow pupils given where the incidents occurred. In at least 1,890 cases involving under-13 victims, the alleged offender was reportedly under 18. Girls were the victims in nearly two-thirds of cases where the victim’s sex was recorded.

Police also recorded at least 9,100 sexual crimes against children aged 13 or over at or near schools, as well as 6,140 offenses involving the possession, production or distribution of sexualized images of children.

Children’s Commissioner for England Rachel de Souza described peer-on-peer abuse in schools as “widespread, normalized and too often brushed under the carpet.” She said that despite recent government efforts, much more needed to be done, stressing that the problem extended beyond schools and reflected a broader societal issue.

Lawyers and campaigners condemned the scale of the abuse and called for tougher action.

“Those in authority can no longer claim that they were not aware of how prevalent an issue this is,” said Andrew Lord, a lawyer representing sexual-abuse survivors. “Anything short of concrete action to tackle this problem is simply not good enough.”

Janaya Walker of End Violence Against Women said repeated warnings had failed to prevent young people from being “harmed en masse.”

The controversy also comes amid heightened scrutiny over child sex crimes linked to gangs involving men of Pakistani origin. An inquiry funded by Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe reported in June that at least 250,000 women and girls were raped by grooming gangs since the year 2000, and that senior politicians helped the gangs escape prosecution.

The government has tightened online-safety rules, expanded sex education and introduced mandatory abuse reporting for professionals working with children. Critics, however, argue that the safeguards remain inadequate.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a statewide disaster emergency over a rapidly growing measles outbreak, expanding authorities to vaccinate and test residents as cases surge across the northeastern US.

The emergency, announced on Monday, is the first declaration of the kind by a US state since measles cases began rising sharply nationwide in 2025. New York has recorded 108 confirmed cases this year through October 3, with the majority reported in rural communities among populations with low immunization rates.

“After reviewing the latest data on measles cases in New York State, I am declaring a State Disaster Emergency to strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront this disease,” Hochul said. “No one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease.”

The executive order is scheduled to remain in force through November 4, the day after the midterm election, and expands the number of healthcare workers permitted to administer measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines and conduct testing. Pharmacists will be allowed to vaccinate children as young as two, while registered nurses will be able to order tests for suspected cases.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, previously questioned Pennsylvania’s reporting of its first measles-associated deaths and suggested they may have been “fabricated.” State health officials rejected the criticism.

Nationwide, the US is battling its worst measles resurgence since 1991. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 3,887 confirmed cases as of October 1, compared with 2,289 during all of 2025.

Measles is among the world’s most contagious diseases and spreads through airborne respiratory particles. The virus can remain infectious in a room for up to two hours after an infected person leaves.

A vaccination rate of around 95% is required to prevent sustained measles outbreaks, but vaccination rates have declined in parts of the US and elsewhere, with health experts attributing the trend to misinformation spread during the Covid-19 pandemic and protests against vaccine mandates.

A 15-year-old school student had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade during a protest in the French city of Lens. The incident comes amid a nationwide wave of unrest and street violence that has gripped France since late September.

Demonstrators demand increased funding for public schools and better learning conditions, including more teachers, smaller classes, and repairs to dilapidated buildings.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Francois-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of the northern Pas-de-Calais department, reported that the teenager’s “hand was torn off,” apparently by a police grenade, during a protest outside Behal high school in Lens earlier in the day.

“There was no hand left, not even his wrist, there was nothing there,” one student told BFMTV, describing the gruesome scene. The boy was rushed to a hospital in Lille and is in non-life-threatening condition, according to officials.

Lauch stated that violence erupted after an estimated 200 students began hurling objects at police officers who were deployed to the school to lift a blockade imposed by protesters.

French police have several types of non-lethal explosive crowd-control devices in their arsenal, including grenades capable of dispersing rubber pellets and the GM2L tear-gas and stun grenade. The type involved in the Lens incident has not been officially established, although French media reports that witness accounts and footage appear consistent with a GM2L.

Amid escalating street violence across France, Marine Tondelier, the national secretary of the Ecologists party, called for reform of police crowd-control protocols. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of the left-wing France Unbowed party, wrote on X on Monday that the “escalation of police tactics is out of control,” eclipsing even the May 1968 demonstrations.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office accused France Unbowed and “its far-left proxies” of orchestrating the unrest – which the party has denied.

According to the French authorities, more than 5,060 people have been arrested since late September. Around 650 police officers, 78 education staff, and at least 190 students have also been injured in the unrest.

French police have repeatedly been accused of using excessive force when confronting protesters. In 2018-2019, at the height of the Yellow Vest demonstrations, at least 20 protesters lost an eye, while others had theirs hands partially or entirely blown off after being hit by 40 mm rubber projectiles and explosive grenades.

In March 2019, then-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for a comprehensive investigation into reports of excessive use of force by French police.

Yemen’s Houthis have claimed a direct missile strike on Riyadh’s main international airport as part of a large-scale barrage targeting airports, military bases, and oil infrastructure across Saudi Arabia.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Monday night that the group, officially known as Ansar Allah, carried out three operations using “a large number” of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones in response to intensified Saudi-backed strikes on Yemen.

The first attack targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and achieved a “direct and precise hit,” Saree claimed, saying air traffic was disrupted. The second targeted Saudi Aramco’s refinery in Rabigh, where the group claimed a direct hit started fires. The third operation reportedly targeted Abha Airport, Khamis Mushait air base, the Aqeefah military camp, and other “sensitive sites” in Najran and Jizan.

The Saudi authorities have not addressed the specific claims of direct hits on the airport and refinery or said whether Houthi strikes caused disruption at King Khalid. The Foreign Ministry issued a broader statement condemning continued Houthi attacks on Riyadh and several other Saudi cities and “civilian and economic facilities,” while reiterating the kingdom’s right to respond.

#Statement | The Foreign Ministry expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s strongest condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist Houthi militia’s continued targeting of civilians and civilian and economic facilities in the Kingdom; its blatant and repeated attacks against the holiest sites on earth—Makkah and Madinah— the capital Riyadh, and the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan, Najran, Taif, and Yanbu; and its targeting of Saudi vessels in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) October 5, 2026

Loud explosions were reportedly heard in northern Riyadh near King Khalid airport. An AFP journalist reported hearing a “powerful explosion,” and residents said blasts shook windows in the area.

The Houthis warned international airlines against using Saudi airspace, declaring it a theater of military operations, while exempting the airspace over Mecca and Medina. King Khalid airport remains operational, but Flightradar24 data shows substantial delays, with average delays reaching 38 minutes.

The group said the barrage was retaliation for 60 Saudi air and missile strikes on Sanaa and the provinces of Al-Jawf, Taiz, Hodeidah, Saada, and Marib over the previous 24 hours, which it said caused civilian casualties. Saree claimed that Saudi forces conducted 1,576 strikes since the latest escalation began.

Saudi-backed forces said on Monday that they recaptured Dhubab and the nearby towns of Bab and Hadeid, with witnesses telling AP they saw government tanks and troops entering the towns. The Houthis have denied reports of a broader retreat, while fighting has also intensified around Taiz.

The US is also assisting the Saudi campaign with intelligence sharing, target identification, and operational planning, American and regional officials told AP. The US Embassy in Riyadh has warned Americans to remain vigilant for missile and drone attacks.

A three-nation military alliance dubbed the “Muslim NATO” has activated its collective-defense commitments and ordered the rapid deployment of military forces and capabilities to Saudi Arabia amid an escalating confrontation with Yemen’s Houthis.

Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan made the decision at an emergency meeting of the Mecca Defense Alliance in Riyadh on Monday after a series of Houthi attacks. In a joint statement they condemned the “attempted targeting” of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina, as well as attacks on Saudi cities and civilian and economic infrastructure.

The group decided to “move immediately to the practical implementation of the collective defense commitments” and take measures to provide agreed military forces and capabilities and ensure their “rapid deployment” in Saudi Arabia. It said the move was intended to boost military readiness and integration and strengthen the three countries’ “collective capacity to confront and counter threats.”

The Emergency Meeting of the Strategic Political and Defense Committee under the Makkah Alliance for Defense reaffirmed the solidarity and unity of our countries in confronting the heinous attacks against the Kingdom and the holy sites. The committee agreed to activate collective deterrence measures within the framework of the Alliance in response to the attacks and all those responsible for them.

— Khalid bin Salman خالد بن سلمان (@kbsalsaud) October 5, 2026

The alliance was formed in August under an agreement treating an armed attack on any member as an attack on all three, mirroring NATO’s Article 5 collective-defense principle.

🔊PR No.2️⃣7️⃣5️⃣/2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣ Joint Statement: Emergency Meeting of the Strategic Political and Defense Committee of the Makkah Alliance for Defence, Riyadh -5 October, 2026 🔗⬇️ https://t.co/ynFYzqILzc

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) October 5, 2026

Yemen’s civil war has escalated sharply in recent weeks. A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government said on Monday that 100 fighter jets were taking part in Operation Dawn of Yemen, providing air cover for ground forces. Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said 324 “high-value targets” had been destroyed.

Yemen’s government announced a new campaign on Sunday aimed at retaking all Houthi-held territory. The move followed major gains by the group in September, when it captured swathes of the Red Sea coast and territory around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping route.

Government forces said on Monday that they had retaken several areas around the strait, including the town of Dhubab, which sits strategically along the strait. The Houthis have disputed reports of government advances.

Saudi Arabia first intervened in Yemen in 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government after the Houthis had driven it from Sanaa the previous year. Large-scale fighting decreased significantly following a UN-brokered truce in 2022.

Fighting escalated again last month. The Houthis have accused Riyadh of imposing an illegal siege on Yemen, while Saudi Arabia says the group has stepped up missile, drone, and maritime attacks against the kingdom itself and shipping in the Red Sea.

The escalation comes as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most shipping and US-Iranian talks on ending the conflict have stalled.

Several Saudi allies have stepped up military support for the kingdom. Britain has agreed to provide air-to-air refueling for Saudi warplanes, while France is sending troops, radar, and air-defense systems to help protect the Red Sea oil hub of Yanbu.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has taken Thames Valley Police to court over raids on his residences as part of an investigation into his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein.

The former British royal has challenged the legality of search warrants executed in February that saw him briefly placed in custody on suspicion of sharing confidential government information with the convicted American pedophile financier.

The former Duke of York has for years faced separate allegations of sexual misconduct. In 2022, he settled a civil lawsuit with American activist Virginia Giuffre out of court. According to media reports, the former prince had to pay £12 million ($16.3 million) in hush money to the woman, who accused him of raping her in 2001 when she was 17.

Giuffre took her own life in 2025. Her posthumously released memoirs prompted King Charles III to strip his brother of his remaining titles and to evict him from his royal residence last October.

Epstein was found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial in 2019, in what was ruled a suicide.

On Monday, the press office for Britain’s judiciary announced that Mountbatten-Windsor’s legal claim will be heard in private on Thursday at the High Court.

“The case concerns an application by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for a judicial review to quash search warrants issued by a judge at the Central Criminal Court on 18 February 2026,” the judicial spokesperson said, as cited by the media.

The proceedings will be closed to the public at the request of Thames Valley Police, which also confirmed that they are “engaged in legal proceedings in relation to warrants previously obtained from the Central Criminal Court.”

The former prince’s ties to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender came under renewed scrutiny following the release of the final tranche of the Epstein files by the US Justice Department in February. Some of the emails released indicated that Mountbatten-Windsor used his position as UK trade envoy, which he held from 2001 to 2011, to brief Epstein on investment opportunities in Afghanistan, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and China.

Thames Valley Police subsequently raided Mountbatten-Windsor’s home on the Sandringham Estate and his former residence at Royal Lodge in Windsor. He was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, but was eventually released “under investigation” after 12 hours of questioning, and has denied any wrongdoing. He is the most senior member of the royal family to be arrested in modern history.

On Sunday, The Telegraph reported that the police investigation has stalled due to the refusal of the US Justice Department to hand over the unredacted versions of the Epstein files to the UK authorities.

In May, Thames Valley Police said the probe would also look into allegations of sexual misconduct by Mountbatten-Windsor.

The last tranche of the Epstein files included images appearing to show then-Prince Andrew kneeling over a woman lying on the ground, as well as a claim by an anonymous FBI witness that he attended “pedophile ring parties” in the mid-1990s in which minors as young as six were allegedly abused.

Some of the materials released by the Justice Department also appeared to corroborate allegations by Giuffre – one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein.

Commenting on the release of the last batch of the files in February, Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev described the former prince and his “liberal Western friends” as “satanic.”

The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group has launched a motion to probe the European Left Alliance (ELA) over an alleged breach of “EU values” and support for student unrest gripping France, Politico has reported, citing an email it has obtained.

Protests have gripped the country for days and have spread to neighboring Belgium. Students are demanding increased funding for public schools and better learning conditions, including more teachers, smaller classes, and repairs to deteriorating buildings. In numerous locations, the protests turned violent, leading to the full closure of some 400 high schools and around 5,000 arrested, mostly teenagers. 

The protests have been endorsed by the left-wing La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI), which instructed its officials to step in to protect students from riot police yet urged demonstrators to stay nonviolent. The French prime minister’s office, citing intelligence services, accused the party and “its far-left proxies” of organizing the violence altogether. The LFI has strongly denied allegations that it somehow initiated or orchestrated the violent unrest.

The ELA has condemned the looming action by the right-wingers, insisting it was not in breach of the bloc’s values. 

“The ECR, whose own members regularly attack these very values, is abusing an EU procedure to try to avert attention from investigations of breaching EU values by the far- and extreme right,” ELA Co-President Catarina Martins said, as quoted by Politico. “Standing with young people asking for better education is not a breach of EU values,” she added. 

In France, former interior minister and the leader of the Republicans (LR) party, Bruno Retailleau, called for outlawing the LFI, branding it a “seditious party” that is “fascinated by violence.” The ban demand has been dismissed by LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon as “ridiculous” and “absurd,” with the politician mockingly suggesting that the proponents of the allegations against his party apparently been using “telepathy.”

Student protests have spread from France to Belgium, with demonstrations over education conditions marred by vandalism, fires, and arrests in the Liege region on Monday.

The unrest follows weeks of violent school protests across France, where students began protesting in mid-September over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating buildings, and long school days. Belgian students have raised similar grievances while also opposing local education reforms, higher public transportation costs, and rising tuition fees.

Hundreds gathered outside schools across Liege, blocking entrances and marching through the city. Shops in the center closed as a precaution, while protesters attempted to damage shutters at the Saint-Michel Institute. Firefighters also reported scooter fires in nearby Herstal and Chenee.

Belçika'nın Liege kentinde öğrenciler, hükümet karşıtı protesto gösterileri düzenliyor. https://t.co/peDq12gwOL

— gdh (@gdhdijital) October 5, 2026

Police made 16 arrests on Monday, according to local media. Officers also found glass bottles and fabric in some protesters’ bags that they said could potentially be used to make Molotov cocktails, although no flammable substances were discovered.

Manifestation des étudiants de plusieurs écoles liégeoises ce vendredi place Saint-Léonard pour dénoncer la réforme de l’enseignement et l’augmentation du coût de la vie dont notamment les tarifs du bus. @DESQUESNESF @valerieglatigny @WBE_officiel @Fil_law https://t.co/HniBxkoPgd

— L-Post (@lpost10) October 2, 2026

In France, nearly 2,000 people were arrested last Thursday, while more than 300 law enforcement officers were injured. School staff and students also suffered injuries, prompting police watchdog investigations.

The disruption continued on Monday, with the French Education Ministry reporting protests at 413 secondary schools.

Despite the violence, student organizations say they intend to continue demanding more funding, replacement teachers, smaller classes, and lighter schedules. Supporters argue that neglected facilities and excessive workloads have made learning conditions unacceptable.

The unrest has also sparked a political row in France, with the government accusing the left-wing France Unbowed party of orchestrating the protests after lawmakers visited school blockades. The party rejects the allegation and blames government neglect for students’ anger. Its leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has called for nonviolent action.

The student demonstrations overlap with broader public-sector protests against spending cuts involving teachers, healthcare workers, firefighters, and transportation staff. The movements have added pressure on President Emmanuel Macron, whose approval ratings have fallen to 16-18% in recent polls.

The US has sought to influence Brazilian politics for decades, including through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and has played a role in the country’s current presidential election, independent journalist and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar has told RT.

He was speaking after Sunday’s first round of voting, in which right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, finished ahead of incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Both fell short of the 50% threshold needed to win outright. The two are set to face each other in a runoff on October 25.

Brazil’s government has previously accused Washington of interference in its internal affairs, while Trump has denounced the prosecution of the former president – who is serving 27 years for plotting a coup – as a “witch hunt.” Brazil’s Federal Police have since opened an investigation into alleged US interference in the election, following a request from the Attorney General’s Office over reported US funding of projects aimed at undermining the country’s Supreme Court.

“The Americans put a lot of money in this election,” Escobar said, calling for a federal investigation into possible foreign influence.

He singled out Brazil’s influential evangelical churches, claiming that the CIA had spent “decades” funding efforts to cultivate them and that this was now “paying off.”

Escobar’s remarks come as US involvement in Brazilian politics has already become a point of contention between Brasilia and Washington. Flavio Bolsonaro met US President Donald Trump at the White House in May, while his brother Eduardo has lived in the US since 2025. Eduardo was sentenced by Brazil’s Supreme Court in June to four years and two months in prison for coercion after the court found that he had sought US pressure on Brazilian authorities in an effort to interfere with proceedings against his father.

The runoff is widely seen as a highly polarized contest over Brazil’s political direction. Lula has sought to strengthen the country’s role in BRICS and deepen ties with China and other Global South powers, while Bolsonaro has advocated closer relations with Washington.

Lula previously served two terms as president from 2003 to 2010 before returning to office for a third term in 2023, following the annulment of corruption convictions that had prevented him from running in 2018.

A Bolsonaro victory could also have major implications for Brazil’s foreign policy, according to Escobar. He predicted a “complete reversal” toward closer alignment with Washington and the Trump administration.

Such a shift could diminish Brazil’s role in BRICS, Escobar argued, saying the country could become a “bystander” within the group. Brazil is a founding member of BRICS alongside Russia, India, and China.

The EU’s complicity in last year’s coup attempt in Georgia is proven by the bloc’s silence on the violence committed by anti-government protesters, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze said on Monday.

Kaladze, who also serves as secretary-general of the ruling Georgian Dream party, was referring to the storming of the presidential palace on October 4, 2025, during municipal elections in which he won a third term as mayor.

The EU has accused Georgian Dream of steering the country away from a path toward membership in the bloc. Georgian officials have countered that Brussels is punishing the government for refusing to join anti-Russian sanctions or to “open a second front” in the Ukraine conflict.

Brussels has also backed opposition claims that several recent elections were rigged, helping fuel unrest, according to Kaladze. Statements by EU officials about violent demonstrators amounted to “only encouragement, because all this was planned by them,” he told journalists.

Kaladze accused Brussels of seeking to put “their agents into power, so that they can then use the country and the Georgian people to pursue their interests.”

He nevertheless urged the EU to turn the page and rebuild relations with Georgia on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

The storming of the presidential palace was initially presented as a “peaceful revolution” by parts of the pro-EU opposition. The protesters also had the backing of French-born former President Salome Zourabichvili, who had sought to remain in office after her term expired in December 2024.

Georgian Dream came to power in 2012 amid public dissatisfaction with then-President Mikhail Saakashvili and later reversed several reforms that had strengthened the presidency under his rule.

Recent elections in both Georgia and Moldova have been denounced as rigged by opposition forces. Brussels, however, has continued to strongly support Moldova’s pro-EU government while relations with Georgia’s leadership have deteriorated.

The world should accept some “bad things” including hacks, scams, and misuse in exchange for the benefits of artificial intelligence and keeping the technology broadly accessible, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said.

In an interview with Politico published on Monday, Altman rejected the idea that preventing all harmful uses of AI would justify placing the technology under tighter control.

“The world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency,” Altman said.

The OpenAI chief said he would not restrict access to AI even in exchange for guarantees against major hacks, misuse, scams, and other harmful consequences. “I think people will do tremendously – orders of magnitude more – good stuff than bad stuff,” he explained.

Altman stressed, however, that he would not accept “the really catastrophic risks,” including “a serious loss of control to AI.”

The remarks come as OpenAI faces scrutiny over increasingly autonomous AI agents behaving in unexpected ways. Over the summer, the company’s agents escaped their testing environment and hacked into servers belonging to Hugging Face, an online repository for AI models and datasets. Since then, AI agents have gained unauthorized access to or attempted to breach websites belonging to US federal agencies, the Australian government, and the UN.

OpenAI was among six major US tech companies that signed a White House accord last week pledging stronger safeguards against rogue AI. Google, Meta, xAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, and OpenAI agreed to introduce tougher internal controls and independent audits, and to ensure their models “do not hack or access technical systems in unintended ways.”

Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton warned last month that increasingly powerful AI could eventually escape human control, with potentially catastrophic consequences for humanity. He argued that there is no established method for ensuring humans remain in control of systems that become significantly more intelligent than their creators.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has likewise called for government regulation, warning that AI in the hands of malicious actors is powerful enough to trigger events causing “a billion deaths.”

Multiple security and vetting failures across Oman, the UAE, and Israel allowed a pilot previously deemed too radical to fly to reach the cockpit of a Tel Aviv-bound FlyDubai passenger jet and attack its captain, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing sources.

The near-disaster occurred on Wednesday onboard the Boeing 737 MAX 8 flying from Dubai to Ben Gurion Airport with around 180 passengers and crew members. Roughly two hours into the flight, co-pilot Hamam Hammami asked Capt. Smit Machchhar if he could pray, and after receiving permission, hit him several times with an emergency axe as the plane went into a dangerous dive.

However, the badly wounded captain managed to open the locked cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to rush in and overpower Hammami. Two other Flydubai pilots traveling aboard the flight took the controls and eventually landed the plane safely in Saudi Arabia. The UAE attorney general has called the assault an attempted terrorist act, with the investigation still ongoing.

Oman, however, did not circulate its concerns more broadly or formally revoke his license in a way that would likely have alerted the UAE, the paper reported.

One of the last missed opportunities to stop Hammami was reportedly on Israel’s side. While Flydubai submitted its passenger and crew manifest before departure, Hammami was not flagged despite Omani pilots being barred from flying into Israel because the countries lack diplomatic relations, according to the paper.

Israel’s Transportation Ministry said it did not believe it had the authority or intelligence capability to vet crews and had never requested access to a passenger-information database established in 2023.

CNN earlier reported that now-deleted social-media accounts bearing Hammami’s name contained material featuring Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and a suicide bomber who killed seven CIA personnel and two others in 2009. The network’s analysis of Hammami’s alleged X account also found him “deeply religious and misogynistic.”

“If this was a dedicated jihadist terror attack, there are multiple levels of failure,” aviation-security expert Matthew Borie told the WSJ.

Meanwhile, Machchhar’s actions, which helped to prevent the disaster, drew widespread praise. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his courage had helped avert a major tragedy, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described him as a “hero of the entire world.”

Ethiopia has warned that coercion and aggression will not undermine its interests in the Red Sea and Nile, a day after Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia declared maritime governance the exclusive responsibility of coastal states and rejected unilateral measures harming downstream water supplies.

In a statement on Monday, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry cited the East African country’s historical and geographical connections to the Red Sea and its position as the source of the Blue Nile, saying these realities cannot be altered by coercion or destabilization measures.

“Actions taken through proxies or acts of aggression will not change the facts on the ground,” the ministry said, declaring Ethiopia ready to defend its sovereignty and “core national interests.”

Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan have long clashed over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam with a generating capacity of 5,150 megawatts, which Ethiopia built on the Blue Nile and inaugurated in September 2025. Egypt and Sudan fear its operation could threaten their water supplies and demand a binding agreement on filling and operation. Ethiopia considers the dam essential for electricity generation and development and maintains that it will not harm its downstream neighbors.

According to the Foreign Ministry’s statement, the Blue Nile originates almost entirely in the Ethiopian highlands and supplies around 85% of the Nile’s total flow.

Ethiopia’s push for sovereign access to Eritrea’s Assab Port has also strained relations with Eritrea, which accuses the country of plotting to take its ports by force. The two countries broke diplomatic ties last week after Ethiopia accused the Eritrean authorities of financing armed groups seeking to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Multiracial households have become increasingly common in South Africa over the past two decades, with more than one in ten now comprising people from different racial groups, Statistics South Africa reported.

The proportion has risen from just 1.3% in 2001 and 1.7% in 2011 to 11.4% in 2022, with most of the change taking place in the decade between the last two censuses. Statistics South Africa defines a multi-racial household as one in which two or more people from different population groups live together as one household. These include black African, white, coloured, Indian or Asian, and other population groups.

The Western Cape has the highest proportion of multi-racial households, where they account for almost one in five households. Gauteng follows, while Limpopo has the lowest proportion. This partly reflects the racial make-up of individual provinces, with multi-racial households more common in areas with more diverse populations, according to the report.

Johannesburg and Cape Town stand out among South Africa’s metros, although multi-racial households are increasingly found outside the country’s major cities. More than four in five multi-racial households were located in urban areas in each of the three censuses studied.

However, the proportion living outside urban areas has also grown, from about 15% in 2001 to more than 18% in 2022. Indeed, about two in five multi-racial households are now found in non-metropolitan municipalities.

The make-up of these households has changed substantially too. In 2001, large households were common, with almost three in 10 multi-racial households containing six or more people. By 2022, they accounted for fewer than one in 25. At the same time, three-person households have become dominant. Fewer than one in five fell into this category in 2001, compared with almost half by 2022, according to the Census figures.

”The rise of multi-racial households in South Africa is a direct reflection of democratic freedom in several aspects of life,” says Statistics South Africa. According to the report, the increase reflects greater cultural integration through urbanisation, migration and education, as well as the freedom to marry, cohabit and form families across racial lines. 

First published by IOL

Russia’s parliament has ratified a temporary employment pact with India as Moscow prepares to take in thousands of Indian skilled workers this year, particularly in construction and logistics.

The State Duma approved the agreement on October 1, followed by the Federation Council a day later. The pact was signed in New Delhi on December 4 last year and governs temporary employment of Indian citizens in Russia and Russian citizens in India.

Russia has agreed to take around 70,000 skilled Indian workers during 2026, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told a parliamentary consultative committee last week, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The agreement covers employment and service contracts, as well as full-time students who take temporary jobs outside their studies. Moscow says the framework will help regulate labor flows from India in line with the needs of the Russian economy.

Workers covered by the pact cannot receive worse pay or working conditions than local citizens in comparable jobs. Employment generally requires a work permit, while compensation in cases of layoffs, as well as pension, social security, and medical insurance, will be governed by host-country laws and applicable bilateral agreements.

Russia has increasingly turned to India to meet workforce shortages. Authorities estimate an immediate shortfall of at least 2.3 million workers, including around 800,000 in manufacturing and 1.5 million in services and construction.

New Delhi has responded with a reality check to the collective West’s attempts to pressure India through economic and trade coercion to sever its ties with Moscow.

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told a weekend gathering of global foreign policy and security experts, including Western elites, assembled in the Indian capital what they would rather not hear: India’s ties with Russia are “not easily forgotten.”

“For us, Russia, and the Soviet Union before that, was a country that stood by us in many ways when our security, when our territorial integrity were under threat. And at a time when, you know, much of the world preferred backing a military regime next to us," the Indian foreign minister said, describing that history as a continuing influence on New Delhi’s ties with Moscow.

The West has used its control of the world’s finance system and geopolitical alliances to try to isolate Moscow ever since the Ukraine conflict began in 2022. Those efforts have largely failed as the world’s emerging economies and countries of the Global South have developed closer economic and trade ties with Moscow.

🇮🇳🇷🇺 ‘Russia Stood By Us When Our Territorial Integrity Was Under Threat’ Jaishankar On Why India Hasn’t Forgotten At the Munich Security Conference, EAM Jaishankar recalled that while “much of the world preferred backing a military regime next to us,” Russia stood by India. He added that today’s relationship has “widened beyond that.”

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) October 4, 2026

However, the illegal tariffs and sanctions wielded by the West have also increased the cost of economic activity and fanned inflation, inflicting economic pain across the world. The US also recently passed a law to impose steep sanctions on Russia’s top energy buyers, which includes India. New Delhi has warned that such tariffs will impact bilateral relations and that ensuring energy security for the country’s 1.4 billion population is its priority.

Military cooperation remains a key component of the relationship, alongside nuclear and space cooperation, while trade, investment, energy, and natural resources have become increasingly important, the foreign minister said.

Russia accounted for 40% of India’s major arms imports in 2021-25, the largest share from any supplier, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The share has fallen from 51% in 2016-20 and 70% in 2011-15 as India has diversified its suppliers.

India has maintained that the conflict should ultimately be resolved through dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiations.

Germany could become “embroiled in a violent conflict with Russia,” the country’s foreign intelligence chief has warned, claiming that a mysterious drone incident at Leipzig airport is an example of the “real and imminent” threat posed by Moscow.

Speaking to lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing on Monday, Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) head Martin Jaeger declared that “the confrontation we are facing with Russia has taken on a new, more dangerous dimension.”

“Germany is in danger ​of becoming embroiled in a violent conflict with Russia – the attempted attack in Leipzig ⁠is just one example,” he continued, referring to the discovery of an explosive-laden drone next to a Ukrainian transport plane at the city’s airport in August. 

German authorities have not released any evidence linking the incident to Russia, and Moscow has described the episode as a “hastily cobbled-together provocation” serving “exclusively the aims of Kiev and the militaristic wing of the European political class.” It is “obvious that Germany is pursuing a further course of escalation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month.

Jaeger is one of dozens of Western political, military, and media figures to accuse Russia of waging a “hybrid war” or “shadow war” against Europe in recent weeks. The accusations are, by their nature, impossible to verify, and Moscow has written them off as pretexts to deepen Western involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, justify military spending hikes, and expand surveillance and persecution of domestic opponents.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has explicitly and without evidence described the country’s most popular political party, the right-wing AfD, as “Russia-backed.” Martina Rosenberg, the head of Germany’s Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), alluded to this claim during Monday’s briefing, telling lawmakers that the country is “threatened by diverse dangers from both outside and within.”

Despite their allegations of “hybrid war,” European leaders have repeatedly stressed that they do not believe Russia to be planning any actual attacks on NATO territory. The BND has seen “no indication of an imminent large-scale Russian attack on NATO territory,” Jaeger added on Monday.

Amid an unprecedented escalation in the West’s rhetoric toward Russia, RT is tracking the statements, accusations, and threats in our ongoing ‘Escalation Watch’ special. Keep an eye on it here as we sort the facts from the propaganda and debunk the psyops in real time. 

Iran has forced the US fleet to retreat more than 1,000 km from its borders, leaving no American warships in the Strait of Hormuz or surrounding waters, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander claims.

Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi made the remarks in a televised interview, Iran’s Press TV reported on Monday, amid competing claims by Washington and Tehran over control of the critical shipping route, through which around one-fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies passed before the conflict.

“The Americans fled and moved more than 1,000 km away from our borders. This was not their choice; it was due to the authority of the Islamic Republic and the authority of the IRGC Ground Force,” he said.

Fadavi claimed that no US vessels remain in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Sea of Oman, or northern Indian Ocean, and described US warships as “100 percent vulnerable” to Iranian attacks.

He insisted that the strait remains under Iranian control and warned that ships using the US-supervised southern route could be targeted.

On Monday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency reported that a tanker near Oman complied with an IRGC instruction to turn back or risk attack.

The standoff has persisted despite indirect negotiations. Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that Hormuz would not reopen until Washington accepts Tehran’s conditions.

Iran’s seven-day proposal offers to restore passage and resume nuclear negotiations in exchange for lifting the blockade, easing restrictions on Iranian oil exports, and releasing frozen assets.

US President Donald Trump rejected the terms and threatened to “annihilate” Iran if talks fail. Axios and the Wall Street Journal report that major US combat operations could resume after the midterm election in November.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Iran is committed to diplomacy but is ready to defend against another attack.

Milorad Dodik, the former president of Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has celebrated his party’s performance in Sunday’s general election.

The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) is set to retain its lead in the Republika Srpska parliament, keep the entity’s presidency and hold on to the Serb seat in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three-member collective presidency, according to preliminary results released by the Election Commission after more than 90% of ballots had been counted. The party is projected to get roughly 40% of the seats in the regional legislature.

Dodik himself was not on the ballot after being barred from holding public office over his 2025 conviction for defying Christian Schmidt, the German politician who at the time served as the international high representative overseeing implementation of the 1995 Dayton Agreement. Dodik argued that Schmidt lacked UN Security Council backing for the post and had abused the office to curb Republika Srpska’s autonomy, leading to a bitter political standoff.

Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose sovereignist politics have often aligned with Dodik’s, hailed the result as a “grand slam” for SNSD.

Grand slam! Congratulations to President @MiloradDodik and all our friends at SNSD - especially President Cvijanović and President Minić - on sweeping today’s elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. A strong mandate to continue standing up for the interests and rights of Republika Srpska.

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) October 5, 2026

More than 3 million people were eligible to vote in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They chose representatives on multiple levels from the ten cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina up to the national presidency. The country used biometric voter identification and ballot scanners for the first time in an effort to streamline voting and counting.

Dodik ally Zeljka Cvijanovic and Croat nationalist politician Darijana Filipovic are on course to join incumbent Bosniak presidency member Denis Becirovic in leading the Balkan country, whose political system is divided along ethnic and religious lines.

Savo Minic is set to become the next president of Republika Srpska, succeeding Sinisa Karan, another SNSD member.

Swiss police are investigating a sprawling fraud operation with suspected links to Ukrainian scam call centers, an industry said to be worth billions to corrupt officials in Kiev, Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) has reported, citing law enforcement officials.

According to a report on Sunday, NEDIK, the police network coordinating Switzerland’s fight against digital crime, recently recorded an increase in fraud offenses suspected of having links to Ukraine. The network declined to provide nationwide figures “for tactical reasons,” but noted that at least four fraudulent call centers in Ukraine have been identified in international investigations involving Swiss authorities, with Swiss and German citizens among their main victims.

One investigation by Bern authorities, reportedly underway for years, concerns a man suspected of operating several call centers in Kiev. On just one platform allegedly linked to the operation, reported losses in Switzerland amounted to nearly 4 million Swiss francs ($4.8 million).

Several Ukrainian nationals have also recently been arrested in Swiss cantons for allegedly acting as cash collectors in telephone scams. In St. Gallen in early September, a person posing as a bank employee called a 93-year-old man and instructed him to withdraw and hand over a large sum of money. Police later arrested a 38-year-old Ukrainian who allegedly collected the cash.

While Russians have long been portrayed as the main targets of Ukrainian scammers, sources cited by NZZ challenged that narrative. Brian Lee, head of the Eurasia Observatory at the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), said Russians accounted for just 10%-15% of targets even at the height of the so-called “patriotic fraud” narrative, under which young Ukrainians were recruited into scam networks on the pretext of taking revenge for Moscow’s military operation against the Kiev regime. Victims have been identified in at least 29 countries, with scam centers increasingly targeting Europe and the US, according to a GI-TOC report published earlier this year.

Scam networks and state structures

Corruption has long plagued Ukraine, with high-level scandals including last year’s $100 million Energoatom kickback scheme, reportedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky. Western-backed investigators have since uncovered further graft involving Ukrainian officials.

The scam call center network reentered the spotlight last month after Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko – a key pillar of Zelensky’s increasingly fragile governing structure – resigned amid the exposure of an industrial-scale network across the country with alleged links to senior figures in Kiev. Ukraine’s Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) accused Sergey Kropiva, head of the cybercrime unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office, of leading a ring that collected protection payments from notorious Ukrainian scam call centers. NABU said it identified assets worth almost $1 million allegedly purchased with proceeds from the scheme.

The scam industry has also been linked to powerful security structures under Zelensky’s government. In September, personnel from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and military intelligence (HUR) exchanged fire in Kiev in a confrontation that left three servicemen injured. The clash centered on Stepan Kaplunov, a member of an HUR-linked armed unit detained by the SBU. A law enforcement source cited by Ukrainian outlet Strana said Kaplunov may have been involved in operating scam call centers, pointing to a broader struggle between rival security agencies over the lucrative industry. Ukrainian journalists have also reported that proceeds from criminal operations help finance parts of the HUR’s activities.

Russian forces have recently intensified strikes on Ukrainian telecommunications infrastructure, mobile operators, and data centers in response to Kiev’s botched “pressure campaign” of drone attacks on civilian infrastructure deep inside Russia. The strikes have disrupted internet access, digital television, and other services, including by hitting data centers in Kiev that Moscow says were used by Ukrainian military and intelligence services. Media reports late last month also claimed a Russian strike hit one of the scam call centers in Dnepropetrovsk.

The current Ebola outbreak has passed its peak, the DR Congo Health Ministry said on Friday, citing a decline in new cases in the country and a shrinking number of areas reporting active transmission.

According to the statement, transmission is now concentrated in individual health zones rather than across entire provinces. Of the 63 health zones under surveillance, 12 have recorded no new cases for at least 42 days, while another eight have gone between 22 and 42 days without reporting an infection. The share of identified contacts being monitored has nearly tripled, climbing from around 28% in May to 82% by September 28.

“The peak is really behind us,” Congolese Health Minister Roger Samuel Kamba said at a press briefing in Kinshasa, according to the Congolese Press Agency (ACP). The trend allows health teams to concentrate their response on areas where infections are still being detected, Kamba added.

Despite the improving trend cited by the minister, the virus continues to spread in several parts of the country. The latest Health Ministry data recorded 66 new confirmed cases and 38 deaths, bringing the toll as of October 2 to 8,442 infections and 4,080 deaths. The case fatality rate stood at 48.3%.

“Falling in this curve doesn’t mean that the outbreak is totally under control,” Africa CDC’s Wessam Mankoula said. “We cannot say at this stage the outbreak is under control.”

DR Congo continues to grapple with instability as the M23 rebel group maintains control over parts of the country, fueling clashes and humanitarian emergencies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised similar concerns, warning that insecurity in eastern Congo has hampered surveillance, case detection and contact tracing.

Poland and Romania have refused to help Kiev move millions of tons of grain – which got stuck in Ukraine following Vladimir Zelensky’s war on exports – into the EU, Politico reports, citing officials in Warsaw and Bucharest. Zelensky’s 40-day campaign resulted in Russia implementing a de facto blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, with the wider consequences of the strikes estimated at 1.5% of the country’s collapsing GDP.

Last week, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotsky appealed to the EU for a €1.1 billion ($1.23 billion) allocation to improve transit capacity, which would help free large quantities of grain – Ukraine’s key source of income – trapped in the country.

The request came after Zelensky’s 40-day PR ‘pressure campaign’ on Russia, which involved long-range strikes on oil refineries and civilian infrastructure. The effort backfired, as Russia ramped up strikes on Ukraine’s military-related logistics, including the key hub of Odessa, accounting for an overwhelming majority of Kiev’s agricultural exports.

He added that export restrictions leave Ukrainian farmers without cash needed to plant seeds now for next year’s harvest. “If the situation stays like this till spring, it could mean the decrease of even 35-40% of the planted area,” he warned.

Last month, Ukrainian officials estimated damage to infrastructure from Russian strikes at nearly $10 billion, with wider consequences amounting to around 1.5% of GDP.

Romanian Agriculture Minister Barna Tanczos rejected the prospect of substantially expanding capacity, telling Politico that “the interest for our own farmers remains a priority.”

The Polish Infrastructure Ministry spokesperson said, as cited by Politico, that Poland “has no plans to introduce any changes aimed at increasing the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products.”

Before the €1.1 billion plea, Ukraine requested €220 million from the EU in grants to support farmers affected by disrupted exports, but the bloc effectively turned it down, pointing instead to existing EU mechanisms.

Agricultural trade has long been a source of friction between Ukraine and its EU neighbors. After the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Brussels suspended duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports, which triggered massive protests from European farmers over what they saw as unfair competition. As a result, the EU introduced an ‘emergency brake’ system in 2024, allowing tariff quotas to return for sensitive products if imports exceed set thresholds.

In addition, many of Ukraine’s neighbors, including Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia, maintain significant restrictions on Ukrainian imports at the national level.

India-US trade negotiations have hit a “plateau,” making further concessions “very difficult,” Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, days after Washington said a deal is not imminent.

India and the US have been negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement since February last year, covering market access, tariff and non-tariff barriers, digital trade, and supply-chain resilience. The finance minister’s comments, despite repeated assertions by both sides in the last few months that a deal is near completion, is the first clear indication that the talks have hit an impasse.

“Both the sides have reached a plateau beyond which, giving, or taking, might be very, very difficult,” Sitharaman said at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi.

She said the talks are continuing, and left open the possibility of movement if either side finds additional negotiating space, describing the proposed agreement as “hard and very rigorously negotiated.”

India & US Trade Talks Hit 'Plateau’ – 🇮🇳 FM Sitharaman The negotiations are ‘still ongoing,’ Sitharaman said at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi Monday. ‘Giving or taking beyond that plateau might be very difficult,’ Sitharaman noted. US Trade Rep Jamieson Greer said last week that a deal ‘was not imminent,’ after a meeting with Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal. 📹: ANI

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) October 5, 2026

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last week, following talks with Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, that the two countries have identified the remaining sticking points, but that an agreement is not imminent. Among them are US demands for wider access for its farm and dairy products, a politically sensitive subject for New Delhi.

Goyal struck a more optimistic note last month, saying the deal was almost “done and dusted.” He added, however, that implementation depends on India securing a competitive tariff advantage over rival exporters in the US market.

US goods imports from India reached $103.8 billion last year, compared with $45.4 billion in exports, leaving the US with a $58.4 billion goods trade deficit. Total goods and services trade between the two countries stood at an estimated $239.6 billion.

“The bigger risk is fresh US tariffs over Russian oil purchases or alleged excess manufacturing capacity. Signing a trade deal may not remove that risk.”

A new law signed by President Donald Trump last month gives him authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue significant purchases of Russian energy. India, the second largest importer of Russian oil, has warned that the tariffs could hurt bilateral ties.

Greer, however, has not publicly identified Russian oil as one of the unresolved issues in the trade negotiations.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s repeated trips to Kiev resemble political “pilgrimages” rather than substantive policy at a time when people at home are losing trust in him, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has said.

Merz’s personal approval has hit a record low, with just 10% of respondents satisfied with his performance as chancellor, according to the latest ARD DeutschlandTrend survey conducted in late September.

In an interview with RT on Monday, Kneissl argued that Merz has failed to deliver on promises of sweeping reforms and a new immigration policy during his first year and a half in office.

“People are losing trust that the promises announced by Chancellor Merz, who has promised a lot in terms of fundamental reforms, in terms of a new immigration policy,” will actually be fulfilled, Kneissl said.

She argued that Merz’s focus on Kiev has done little to reverse that trend, likening his trips to the Ukrainian capital to medieval journeys to holy places.

Kneissl suggested that such a demonstrative approach is driven by political strategists who still see backing Kiev as a way of rallying voters. “This is what the PR people tell them: do that, because we have to stand with Ukraine,” she said, adding that while the message mobilized people in 2022, it no longer has the same effect at the end of 2026.

Support for Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance has meanwhile fallen to 18% nationwide – the lowest level ever recorded by INSA – while the AfD has surged to a record 30%, opening a 12-point lead over the governing conservative alliance.

Despite the defeats, Merz has refused to change course, pledging to press ahead with Germany’s military buildup, and claiming last month that “we must defend our freedom against Russia.”

Moscow has rejected Berlin’s warnings about an alleged Russian threat, dismissing them as “nonsense.”

WATCH RT’s full interview below:

“India, Russia and the World” is a weekly podcast that delves into pressing global issues through the perspectives of India and Russia. “Imperial Receipts” is a ten-part series that revisits the history and legacy of British colonial rule in India.

In September 2026, RT expanded its presence in India with the launch of RT Hindi, a new digital news platform aimed at over 600 million Hindi speakers, just nine months after RT India began broadcasting in English in December 2025. To mark the launch of RT Hindi, the channel presented an AI-generated video in which the British monarch “dances to the tune of RT,” performing an Indian dance and speaking Hindi. The ironic promo reel amassed several million views in a few days and sparked a wave of discussions online.

Established in 1996, the Asian Television Awards is a leading competition in the field of broadcast and digital content within the Asia-Pacific region.

Ethiopian government forces and allied fighters have retaken the capital of the northern Tigray region, which rebels seized less than two weeks ago.

Fighters from the pro-government Tigray Peace Forces (TPF) announced in a post on Facebook on Sunday that they had “completely taken control” of Mekelle.

Footage shared by the TPF and dated October 3 shows armed men in military uniforms and vans moving through the streets, with horns sounding as people cheer. The forces entered the city center on Saturday afternoon, followed by federal troops, Reuters reported, citing a source close to the militia.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs the region, acknowledged its retreat in a statement posted on Facebook. It said the regional administration “has decided to temporarily leave Mekelle and operate from another location, while our forces continue carrying out their military operations.”

Residents reported looting of government offices during the withdrawal, while internet and cellphone disruptions have hampered verification of developments, AP reported.

Federal troops also recovered Mekelle’s airport, which TPLF fighters seized on September 23, prompting Ethiopian Airlines to suspend flights to the city and two other Tigrayan destinations.

The East African country has struggled to secure lasting stability since an African Union-mediated peace agreement signed in November 2022 ended the two-year Tigray war, which killed hundreds of thousands. The conflict grew out of a power struggle between the federal government and the TPLF, whose decades of dominance in national politics ended when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. Disputes over disarmament, territory, and the return of displaced people remain unresolved.

The US has rushed to withdraw bombers from an airbase in the UK after receiving new threat information about an alleged terrorist plot against the facility, the New York Times reports, citing sources.

The announcement cited by the NYT comes a week after five men were arrested in what was trumpeted as a high-level security operation near RAF Fairford, which hosts US bombers used in the war against Iran. However, after a hysterical media reaction in the UK, the five, all British citizens in their early 20s, were released on bail the following day.

Days later, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed that London had “strong indications” that Iran could have been behind the incident, which only came to life after a local farmer called the police, having seen a group of men run from their white vans on a country road when caught in the headlights of her car. 

All 12 US Air Force B-1 bombers were withdrawn over the weekend, allegedly after commanders received new warnings concerning a possible Iranian-backed plot against the base, two anonymous US officials told the NYT on Sunday. 

Some aircraft had reportedly only arrived the week before as part of a routine rotation. According to the NYT’s sources, the withdrawal was deemed so urgent that several bombers took off without aerial refueling support. At least three bombers reached their home base in South Dakota by Sunday, the officials said.

The Pentagon’s European Command confirmed that the aircraft left England but declined to comment on any new warnings.

“We can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford are redeploying to their home stations in the United States,” the command said in a statement. “US Air Force bombers routinely operate around the world to support global force readiness and operational requirements.”

Iran has denied having any involvement. The embassy in London accused Britain of promoting “Iranophobia.” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected Burnham’s allegation, saying he is “barking up the wrong tree.”

Estonia is preparing to deploy weapons capable of striking the Russian city of St. Petersburg, the Financial Times has reported.

Amid unprecedented mis- and dis-information from NATO’s European members, Tallinn has presented the proposed buildup as a form of deterrence, should Moscow “test” NATO. However, Russia’s leadership has repeatedly stressed that it has no intention of attacking the US-led military bloc. Moscow has also warned that any direct conflict with NATO would likely escalate into nuclear war.

The British newspaper reported on Monday that Estonia is deploying additional troops along the Russian border and acquiring tactical missile systems capable of reaching St. Petersburg. They include US-made HIMARS and South Korean Chunmoo launchers, both of which can fire longer-range projectiles.

The Baltic state has a standing army of just 4,200 troops, but plans to reinforce it with tens of thousands of reservists if tensions with Russia escalate.

Last month, Defense Minister Martin Herem said during a public lecture that Tallinn could not afford to keep mobilized troops in the field for long.

“I have jokingly said that if we get to the orange zone there and carry out mobilization, but Russia does not attack, then it would be economically more correct to attack ourselves,” he said. “Then at least we will know when it will start, and we will not waste food and air in vain”

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the remark with an idiom: “The circus has left, but the clowns remain.” He added that Moscow has no plans to attack Estonia or any other NATO member.

Commenting on the FT report, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova echoed the president, saying it belongs in the funny pages.

While NATO poses as a purely defensive organization, it has a history of military interventions on foreign soil and does not rule out preemptive attacks. Last week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said European members of the bloc should have been capable of attacking Iran themselves to eliminate what was described as a nuclear threat from Tehran. He argued that Europe’s military buildup should eventually allow it to conduct such operations without relying on the US.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have all sharply increased military spending in recent years and are reportedly seeking additional procurement funds from the EU budget. According to Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, the three Baltic states have asked Brussels to urgently provide €500 million ($570 million) in additional funding, citing the scenario of Russia seeking to “test NATO.”

India has moved “beyond advocacy” in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and is now holding talks with both Moscow and Kiev on Black Sea shipping, grain, and energy exports, as well as possible non-attack arrangements, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said.

New Delhi has become more directly involved in recent months after years of calling for dialogue and diplomacy, Jaishankar said at the Munich Leaders Meeting in New Delhi. India is trying to help first on the safety of shipping in the Black Sea, while discussions have expanded to other immediate concerns shared by the two sides.

“We have conversations with both Russia and Ukraine in this regard,” he said, describing talks over grain and energy exports and “non-attack possibilities” as ongoing.

Ukraine separately acknowledged India’s increased involvement. Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga said last week that New Delhi had submitted the most comprehensive of four ceasefire proposals being considered by Kiev, alongside initiatives from Türkiye, Egypt, and the US.

Kiev is prepared to consider an energy and Black Sea ceasefire if it includes a halt to attacks on energy facilities and port infrastructure, Sibiga said. Ukraine says it is also open to an unconditional ceasefire along the line of contact.

Stubb made the remarks in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Mundo over the weekend. Asked about potential hybrid threats posed by Russia, Stubb said the country would try to interfere with the upcoming Spanish election.

Madrid “should expect some form of sabotage or hybrid attack. It could be related to information warfare or a campaign that threatens their democracy,” he claimed.

The president went on to allege that Russian-backed cyberattacks are “happening as we speak against Spanish banks and other targets,” without citing specific evidence.

“They send asylum seekers to our border, as we have also seen in Ceuta,” he said, accusing Russia of committing acts of sabotage throughout the EU.

He also mentioned cases in which Russian-linked ships were accused of cutting undersea telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea and the recent incident at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport, where explosives-laden drones were found near Ukrainian cargo planes. Germany blamed Moscow and ordered the closure of a Russian consulate in Bonn and a Russian cultural center in Berlin. Russia dismissed the accusations as “nonsensical” and denied any involvement.

Pressed further about Russia’s alleged role in the Ceuta crisis in late July, when more than 70,000 migrants crossed into the enclave, Stubb admitted that he did not “know the matter well enough to take a position.”

Reuters reported at the time that migrants had been encouraged by viral videos and misleading claims about Spain’s asylum and migration rules. Spain later accused Russian- and Israeli-linked networks of spreading disinformation regarding the crisis, which both countries denied.

“When able, when you are sure it is the Russians, or almost sure it is the Russians, attribute it to the Russians,” Rutte said this week.

Direct conflict unlikely

Asked about the possibility of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia, however, Stubb dismissed it as negligible.

“Do we expect Russia to attack? The answer is no. We have no evidence of that,” he told El Mundo.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius urged officials this week not to “exaggerate” when making alarmist statements about Russia and said there is no evidence that the country is planning to attack NATO. Rutte has also said there is “no imminent threat to NATO territory.”

Nevertheless, EU officials have argued that the bloc, as well as NATO, should be prepared for a potential clash with Russia. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the country must be ready for a conflict by as early as 2028. The German government amended its constitutional debt brake to fund military spending and passed a 2026 budget allocating a record €108.2 billion ($121.5 billion) to defense and €11.5 billion in military assistance for Ukraine.

Russia has stated that it would not attack any NATO country unless attacked first – warning, however, that Western military aid to Ukraine makes a dangerous escalation more likely. President Vladimir Putin has argued that European politicians are stirring tensions with Russia to distract voters from problems at home.

A US Marine has been arrested on suspicion of killing and robbing a woman in Okinawa, the Japanese authorities have said.

The victim, identified as Anna Yagi, 39, was found dead in a hotel room in Naha, the prefectural capital, on Saturday. Okinawa is home to several major US military installations and tens of thousands of US service members.

Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, who is stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, is accused of strangling Yagi and stealing her wallet and backpack. He has denied the allegations.

Surveillance footage reportedly shows a man believed to be Ballard entering the hotel with Yagi and later leaving alone with what appeared to be her belongings. Police located him in an entertainment district late Saturday.

The Marine Corps confirmed that Ballard is assigned to the III Marine Expeditionary Force and said it is cooperating with the authorities.

“I must say, discipline and troop education are not working at all,” he added, referring to measures introduced by the US military following a series of sexual assault cases involving American personnel on the island.

The Japanese government lodged a formal protest with Washington on Sunday. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi demanded full cooperation with the investigation, stricter discipline among US personnel, and “thorough measures” to prevent similar incidents.

“The occurrence of such an extremely brutal and heinous incident is a matter of profound regret,” she wrote on X, extending sympathy to the victim’s family.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned US Ambassador George Glass, who pledged full cooperation with the investigation.

Okinawa accounts for just 0.6% of Japan’s territory but hosts 70.3% of the land area of US military facilities in Japan that are exclusively used by US forces, according to the Okinawa prefectural government.

In June 2024, Tokyo formally protested two alleged sexual assaults involving US personnel and delays in disclosing the cases. The Marine Corps subsequently stepped up sobriety checks and off-base patrols, while US Forces Japan later barred service members from off-base drinking establishments from 1:00-6:00 AM.

Despite the measures, further sexual assault allegations involving American personnel followed. In January 2025, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi urged US Forces Japan to tighten discipline and take stronger measures to prevent further incidents.

Brazil’s presidential election is headed to a runoff, with right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, leading incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

With almost all votes counted, Bolsonaro received 47.03% of the vote, compared with Lula’s 45.16%, according to the official tally.

Under Brazilian election rules, a presidential candidate must secure more than 50% of valid votes to win in the first round. With neither Bolsonaro nor Lula reaching that threshold, the two will face each other in a runoff on October 25.

The election is widely seen as a highly polarized contest over Brazil’s political direction, pitting Lula’s left-wing agenda against Bolsonaro’s conservative platform, which emphasizes tougher measures against crime and protecting traditional values.

The vote also presents a foreign-policy choice, as Lula has sought to strengthen Brazil’s role in BRICS and deepen ties with China and other Global South powers, while Bolsonaro has emphasized closer relations with Washington and touted his ties with US President Donald Trump. 

Lula served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2011 and returned to office for a third term in 2023. He was barred from running in the 2018 election due to a corruption conviction and spent 580 days in prison. Brazil’s Supreme Court annulled his convictions in 2021, ruling that the court that tried him lacked jurisdiction, restoring his political rights and allowing him to run again.

Bolsonaro’s other son, Eduardo, has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since 2025. Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced him in June to four years and two months in prison for coercion after finding that he sought US pressure on the Brazilian authorities in an effort to interfere with his father’s coup trial. 

The Brazilian authorities have also investigated alleged US interference in the country’s politics after Trump denounced the case against Jair Bolsonaro as a “witch hunt,” and Flavio and Eduardo Bolsonaro met with the US president at the White House in May.

Yemen’s civil war has intensified, with the internationally recognized government announcing a military operation aimed at retaking territory captured last month by the Iranian-backed Houthis.

The Houthis, a Shiite armed group, continued their own offensive, reportedly seizing more towns in southwestern Taiz province near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said the government ordered “military operations to restore the remaining territory of the republic and extend state authority nationwide.”

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Major General Turki al-Maliki, said the coalition would continue supporting Yemeni government forces. Saudi Arabia first intervened in the civil war in 2015 after the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, the previous year.

Houthi-aligned media reported later on Sunday that the group captured the town of Turbah and the districts of Shamayatayn and Samea, as well as the Taiz-Aden road.

NEW: Footage of the Houthis driving through the city of Al-Turbah in Yemen. https://t.co/S11LYNOTJ5

— OSINT News (@OSINTNewsqrb) October 4, 2026

Last month, the Houthis launched a major offensive along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, capturing the strategic port city of Mokha from government forces. They subsequently took control of Perim, also known as Mayyun, an island lying in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Large-scale fighting died down after a UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022. Hostilities reignited in July amid the US-Iran war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, after Yemeni government forces struck Sanaa Airport to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation home from the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader from landing. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for the strike and retaliated.

The latest escalation comes as US-Iran talks aimed at ending the wider conflict and reopening the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled. President Donald Trump has rejected Tehran’s latest peace proposal. US media reports suggest that he could resume large-scale strikes on Iran after the midterm election in November.

The polls have closed in Brazil’s hotly contested presidential election, which could reshape the country’s domestic and foreign policy.

The race is dominated by incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing challenger, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term in office. More than a dozen other candidates are also on the ballot.

Polls released on the eve of the election showed Lula and Bolsonaro neck and neck. Quaest put them at 46% and 45%, respectively, while Datafolha had Lula at 45% and Bolsonaro at 42%, with both surveys showing a statistical tie. If neither candidate wins more than half of the vote, a runoff will be held on October 25. All other candidates are polling in the low single digits, but their endorsements could prove important in a second round.

Brazilians will also elect all 513 federal congress members, 54 of the country’s 81 senators, 27 governors, and some regional legislatures.

Bolsonaro called for change, blaming Lula’s policies for high living costs and promising tougher security policies and tax cuts. The 45-year-old senator for Rio de Janeiro has also leaned heavily on the image of his father, known to supporters as ‘mito’ (the legend).

Jair Bolsonaro, 71, was sentenced to 27 years behind bars for attempting to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to Lula. He has denied wrongdoing. He spent several months in prison after breaking house arrest monitoring rules before being hospitalized in March 2026 over health issues and eventually transferred back to temporary house arrest, which has since been extended.

Why does this election matter?

Brazil is a founding member of BRICS and has played a prominent role in the group. Under Lula, Brasilia has pursued a policy focused on strengthening multipolarity and resisting Western pressure, particularly from Washington.

The Trump administration has placed renewed emphasis on US dominance in the Western Hemisphere under what it calls the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, a modern interpretation of the 19th-century hegemonic political strategy known as the Monroe Doctrine.

Opposing ‘colonization’

During his current term, Lula has criticized the US over what he described as attempts to undermine multipolarity and impose its will on other nations.

Last year, India and Brazil stepped up talks on trade and investment after both countries were hit with 50% tariffs by the US. Lula also called for a coordinated BRICS response to Washington’s tariff policies, accusing Trump of attempts to “dismantle multilateralism” and promote “unilateralism, where he negotiates one-on-one with other countries.”

The Brazilian president also sharply condemned the US kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early 2026. In March, he proposed boosting defense cooperation with South Africa to reduce reliance on foreign weapons, arguing that both nations could be vulnerable to “invasion.”

‘Trump’s candidate’?

Flavio Bolsonaro, who Lula has described as “Trump’s candidate,” has emphasized his affinity with the US president and repeatedly praised him, while denying receiving assistance from Washington for his campaign. He has insisted that Brazil should seek better deals with the US, including rare-earth minerals – a topic that has been repeatedly invoked by US President Donald Trump in his talks with various nations, including Ukraine and Russia.

The senator also promised a “flood of investments” from the US if he wins. “Brazil and the United States will once again have a high-level and long-term relationship, including the largest trade and investment agreement in our history!” Bolsonaro wrote in a post on X in June.

Bolsonaro has also reportedly pledged to join the US campaign against drug cartels. The US military has at times targeted boats supposedly belonging to traffickers, killing dozens of people.

Shadow of interference

The Brazilian authorities have opened a probe into allegations that the US government funded activities aimed at interfering in the election and undermining the legitimacy of the country’s Supreme Federal Court, Agencia Brasil reported on Friday.

This followed a report by The Guardian earlier in the week, claiming that the White House planned to allocate $1 million for a project titled ‘Countering Lawfare and Censorship in Brazil’.

In September, Lula cited a confidential assessment by the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, which warned that the risk of US interference in the election was at a “critical level.”

Trump avoided openly endorsing any candidates ahead of the election, but said he was following it “very closely.”

“Brazil is a very important country. The people of Brazil are fantastic. These are very important elections,” he said on Thursday.

Moscow has expressed hope that the election would be held “without any adverse external interference.” 

“We are open to… continuing our cooperation with our Brazilian partners across the entire agenda,” the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Latin American Department, Aleksandr Shetinin, told TASS.

Sunday marks 20 years since Australian journalist and activist Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing platform that would publish some of the most consequential leaks of the internet age, exposing classified US war records, CIA hacking tools, mass surveillance and other closely guarded government secrets.

Registered in 2006, the website provided a secure and anonymous channel for whistleblowers to submit material for publication. Its early releases included operating procedures for the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, banking and corporate secrets, and internal documents from the Church of Scientology.

However, it was the scoops published in 2010 that made WikiLeaks a global phenomenon. That year, the website released “Collateral Murder,” raw classified US footage of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed over a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. WikiLeaks later published more than 91,000 documents from the Washington-led war in Afghanistan and some 391,000 reports from the US invasion of Iraq.

Major disclosures continued, including leaks exposing surveillance of US allies by the National Security Agency (NSA). Documents released in 2015 indicated that the NSA had spied on French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Francois Hollande, leading to a diplomatic row. In 2017, WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 releases exposed an arsenal of CIA hacking capabilities, including techniques aimed at smartphones and internet-connected TVs.

Assange has since argued that his prosecution set a dangerous precedent for press freedom, telling the Council of Europe that he was freed after having “pleaded guilty to journalism.”

For a retrospective on WikiLeaks’ two-decade history, watch the full RT report below:

So, big bad US President Donald Trump just successfully strong-armed French President Emmanuel Macron and the EU into dumping their precious ‘rainy day’ diesel from strategic reserves.

Why? Because Trump, threatening a disastrous cutoff of diesel exports to Europe altogether, wanted to keep domestic gas prices looking perky ahead of next month’s US midterms.

“We have decided to release strategic reserves of diesel and crude oil, under the coordination of the International Energy Agency – which will meet in the coming hours or days to organize this… This process will begin by prioritizing diesel,” Macron declared.

Wait, aren’t those the exact same strategic reserves that have given Brussels a collective nervous breakdown over imminent winter shortages? Oh well, what’s a leader to do when he’s just a helpless, innocent little cog in a grand G7 multilateral machine? It’s not like Macron is directly engineering this self-inflicted disaster in any sense, right?

“In any case, France will make this effort regarding its own reserves, which also reflects a desire to send a clear signal to the market,” Macron added. Yeah, the signals are about as subtle as a flare gun to the face.

Visionary European leaders like Macron have long since handed the wheel to Washington because they apparently thought that it was a better look in the eyes of their Ukrainian girlfriend, Zelensky, than dealing with Russia and its cheap gas.

And now we get yet another Macronian capitulation to a more recent bogeymen that he’s been whining about on the global stage: Trump.

All this drama peaked amid a state visit to Madrid, where Macron dropped by a local university to jam out some avant-garde thoughts on Europe alongside prominent Spanish cultural figures. A local writer teed up a softball right across the center of the plate, invoking Trump and the global rise of populism in the same breath as fascism to frame them as an existential threat to democracy. Which, of course, was the ultimate cue for Macron to explain whose fault this mess actually is. And the short answer is: absolutely, unequivocally not his.

“The great blow for France was the 2008-2012 crisis. And who paid the bill? The middle classes. Even in countries that were less affected, some categories have still not fully recovered in terms of purchasing power and living standards they had before that crisis. And this has been a betrayal,” he said.

The same guy who’s been running the joint for nearly a full decade has to time-travel back 15 to 20 years to find someone responsible for the fact that French middle class is currently on economic life support. Because obviously, he couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with it despite holding the royal scepter for the past ten years.

“A key factor in European competitiveness was very cheap gas coming from Russia. That ended in 2022,” Macron pontificated. “But our great export market was China. That is over too. Europe now has a trade deficit with China. Today, every day, we lose €1 billion in trade with China.”

You’ve got to admire the poetry – if not the gall – of the passive tense there. It ended in 2022. Like a rainstorm! It just happened to end. Totally out of his hands. What can a mere mortal do? Same with selling things to China. Poof, it’s over now! Who knows why? A total mystery. Bleeding a billion euros a day while standing there and shrugging.

Never mind his other brilliant policy hits, like trying to flatline French nuclear power before panicking and awkwardly resurrecting it as the next greatest thing in green renewables, or selling off French industrial crown jewels to Americans only to proudly buy them back later at a massive taxpayer loss. Or riffing to the press on his private jet about how Europe shouldn’t be an American vassal – right before making French citizens and industry pay through the nose for the privilege of heating or cooling their homes as a result of doing precisely that.

It’s the exact same laissez-faire energy that he’s currently bringing to France’s annual far-left protest-and-smashfest season. This fall, the usual professional malcontents have managed to rope some high schoolers into doing their dirty work, meaning that we get to endure teenagers setting fire to their own academic institutions because they believe that their school days are too grueling – in a country where they enjoy a mandatory two-week vacation every six weeks of the academic calendar.

Every single year, the same script plays out, and the authorities just hunker down and wait it out. That appears to be Macron’s playbook for everything, even as he enjoys his 18% approval rating. Just wait for the fire to burn out, and then casually chalk it up to something entirely out of your control. He can’t even bother to unroll the hose at this point.

Looks like maybe the French will just have to wait out Macron himself, and for his term to end, before having a shot at anyone actually doing something useful to reverse course on any of this.

Russia’s brown bear population has more than doubled over the past three decades, while a rise in attacks in recent years has prompted authorities and lawmakers to consider new ways to reduce the risks.

An independent online project has also begun mapping reports of bear encounters across the country.

What does the bear map show?

WhereBear brings together reports of bear sightings, attacks and tracks from official sources, media reports, open publications, and users, plotting them on an interactive map of Russia.

The independent service also accepts user submissions. It does not track animals in real time: markers show where and when bears were reported, rather than their current location.

How serious is the problem?

Russia is home to 307,900 brown bears, according to the Natural Resources Ministry.

The largest populations are concentrated in Siberia and the Far East, led by Krasnoyarsk Region with 26,600, Khabarovsk Region with 26,200 and Kamchatka with 24,200. Irkutsk Region has an estimated 22,400 and Yakutia 18,800.

Are bear attacks becoming more common?

Authorities have recorded 59 attacks so far this year, leaving 21 people dead and 38 injured across 22 regions.

The figure compares with 34 attacks in 2025 and 19 in 2024. Officials say around 20 to 30 attacks have typically been recorded annually in recent years, although there have been exceptional spikes. In 2014, 166 attacks were registered.

In the Krasnoyarsk Region, six people died in confirmed or suspected bear attacks in September alone, prompting investigators to open a criminal negligence case.

Heightened-alert regimes have been introduced in several parts of Siberia and the Far East. In Zakamensk, Buryatia, two schools and a technical college switched to remote learning after a bear appeared inside the town.

Why are bears approaching people?

Experts point to several factors, including the growing population, shortages of natural food, and easy access to human food.

Russian hunting inspectors and biologists have pointed to an unusually poor crop of nuts and berries this year. Researchers said that an early, dry spring caused berries to ripen and fall earlier than usual, leaving bears with less natural food as they prepared for hibernation.

How are Russian authorities responding?

The Russian government is preparing additional measures following this year’s attacks.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Wednesday that regions struggling to control bear numbers could receive additional federal funding. The government is also considering regulatory changes that would allow regional authorities to act more quickly, including potentially removing brown bears from the list of species subject to hunting limits.

”As the bear population grows, so does the number of problems,” Patrushev said at a government meeting on the issue.

Natural Resources Minister Aleksandr Kozlov has also proposed giving his ministry greater powers to verify regional estimates of bear numbers and setting baseline population levels for individual areas.

Separately, State Duma lawmaker Dmitry Novikov has proposed creating a public map showing areas where bears, wolves, and other predators regularly approach communities. His proposal includes camera traps and remote monitoring, as well as alerts for residents.

Why aren’t more bears being hunted?

Existing hunting limits are far from being reached. In 2025, hunters killed 12,700 bears nationwide, or around 27% of the nearly 47,000 they were permitted to hunt, according to the Association of Hunters and Fishermen.

Hunting groups have attributed the low uptake partly to the cost of hunting and weak demand for bear meat and skins. The association has proposed scrapping the fee to boost interest.

Why is the bear so closely associated with Russia?

Beyond the current concerns over their growing numbers, bears have featured in Russian culture for centuries, from folklore and literature to heraldry – long before they became an international stereotype associated with the country.

In Russian folk tales, bears can be powerful and fearsome, but also good-natured, naïve, or easily outwitted. They are often called Misha, a familiar form of the name Mikhail.

Trained bears were once common at fairs and public festivities, where handlers had them perform tricks, dance, and imitate people. Bears also made their way into Russian literature, appearing in works by writers including Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. One appears prominently in Tatyana’s famous dream in Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, drawing on a folk belief that dreaming of the animal could foretell marriage.

Bears have also appeared in Russian heraldry for centuries, including on the coats of arms of Yaroslavl, Perm, and Veliky Novgorod. Some of these images can be traced to the 16th and 17th centuries. Yaroslavl’s bear is linked to a legend about the city’s founding, while Perm’s carries a Gospel on its back. 

Outside Russia, the animal gradually became a visual shorthand for the country, particularly in European political cartoons. British caricaturists were depicting Russia as a bear by the late 18th century, often using the image to convey size, strength, aggression, and menace. The stereotype persisted through the Russian Empire and the Soviet era and remains common today, with the ‘Russian bear’ often portrayed as a powerful and threatening beast.

From Olympic Misha to ‘Masha and the Bear’

One of the most famous modern versions of the image came with the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when a smiling bear cub named Misha was chosen as the Games’ mascot. Designed by Soviet children’s-book illustrator Viktor Chizhikov, Misha appeared on everything from stamps and posters to toys and souvenirs.

At the closing ceremony, thousands of participants in the stands formed a giant mosaic of Misha, with a tear appearing to roll down the bear’s cheek. The emotional farewell moved many spectators as an enormous inflatable version of the mascot was lifted into the air by balloons and floated out of the stadium to the song ‘Farewell, Moscow.’ 

Decades later, another Russian bear reached an even larger global audience. The traditional folk tale Masha and the Bear inspired the Russian animated series of the same name, which has become an international children’s hit. One episode, Recipe for Disaster, became the most-viewed animated video on YouTube, according to Guinness World Records. 

Are other countries facing similar problems?

Russia is not the only country reporting an increase in encounters between bears and people.

Japan has faced similar problems, recording a record 238 bear-related casualties in fiscal 2025 and prompting the government to step up measures aimed at reducing encounters.

Human-bear conflicts are also reported in parts of North America and Europe. Wildlife authorities have similarly warned that bears attracted to rubbish and other human food can become accustomed to people and repeatedly return.

While circumstances vary by country and bear species, expanding or recovering populations, natural food availability, and access to human food can all affect how often bears and people cross paths.

The Russian military has struck a data center and a logistics hub in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.

The ministry said that Geran drones targeted a Nova Poshta logistics center in Chernomorsk and a data center in Odessa. Footage released by the MOD shows direct hits on both facilities. Russia has increasingly targeted Ukrainian data centers in recent strikes, with internet and mobile providers reporting damage and connectivity disruptions.

Additionally, Russian forces struck two dry-cargo vessels carrying military supplies to the port of Odessa, hit a drone command post, destroyed an air-surveillance radar, and struck military-used transport infrastructure, weapons depots, drone storage sites, and positions housing Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries across 147 locations. It later added that its forces struck Kiev’s Severny road bridge across the Dnieper, which it said was used to move troops and military cargo.

The ministry also reported that its air defenses downed four guided bombs, three US-made HIMARS rockets, and 1,222 fixed-wing drones over the past 24 hours. The ministry further said Russian forces tightened an encirclement in northeastern Kharkov Region and advanced elsewhere, including in northern and central Dobropolye.

President Vladimir Putin recently warned that Ukraine faces a “catastrophic scenario” after “opening Pandora’s box” by attacking Russian economic and civilian infrastructure, which ultimately failed to alter the course of the conflict. Putin also warned that with its “provocative actions,” Kiev was only hindering a peaceful settlement rather than bringing one closer.

Yemen’s Houthis say they struck oil facilities in Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi attacks on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and other provinces.

In statements late Saturday and Sunday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted a Saudi Aramco facility near the capital, Riyadh, with ballistic missiles and drones, sparking fires at the site, as well as unspecified Aramco facilities in the Khurais area.

The Saudi-led coalition disputed the Houthi claim of the attack on a facility near Riyadh. Spokesman Major-General Turki al-Malki called it an “attempt to divert attention from the scale” of the group’s losses, which he said are driving them to seek “illusory victories.”

Videos and satellite images posted online purport to show large plumes of smoke rising from the facility near Riyadh. Saudi Aramco did not comment on whether any of its facilities were hit.

🛰🇸🇦 Sentinel-2 satellite imagery captured today confirms that Saudi Aramco’s Riyadh refinery was hit by the Houthis, with at least three oil storage tanks appearing to be on fire and thick plume of smoke rising from the facility. https://t.co/C23llbXQxQ

— Egypt's Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT) October 3, 2026

مالم تنقله قنوات العربية والحدث وقناة الجزيرة الحقيرة العبرية من الاستهداف الصاروخي اليمني المبارك اليوم على اراااامكو. نعرضه لكم لاتقصرو إعادة النشر https://t.co/HRg1DY3tQu

— بركان المسيرة (@AlnsarAllah10) October 3, 2026

Overnight, Houthi forces struck the Aramco Oil facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with ballistic missiles. Satellite imagery shows a large plume of smoke originating from the refinery, engulfing several areas of northern Riyadh. At its peak, at around 10:00 local time (07:00 UTC), the plume reached an approximate length of 107km.

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 3, 2026

A video was also released by locals, showing the facility burning. At least three oil storage tanks were targeted in the attacks. https://t.co/QImgjzTMvT

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 3, 2026

According to Saree, the strikes were in response to at least 110 Saudi air and missile attacks over the previous 36 hours on Sanaa and the northwestern governorate of Saada, a Houthi stronghold, along with other areas. He did not provide details on specific targets or casualties, but media reports suggest that one strike damaged a Sanaa hospital, and videos posted online purport to show missiles striking the city.

Strikes on Sana’a https://t.co/VZAC1OAnh5

— Basha باشا (@BashaReport) October 3, 2026

🇾🇪🇸🇦 The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) is carrying out more airstrikes on Houthi military infrastructure in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, following the Houthi attack on the Riyadh oil refinery. The strikes likely hit targets near 15°19'55.50"N 44°10'21.41"E. https://t.co/xqhxwG73mb

— Egypt's Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT) October 3, 2026

الضربة استهدفت مدخل واحد، فخرجت النيران من المداخل الأخرى للكهف. إذا لم تخني الذاكرة، فالمكان المستهدف هو معسكر الحفا في جبل نقم، وهذا الجبل يضم كهوف وأنفاق تستخدم كمخازن للأسلحة والصواريخ. ضربة موفقة. #صنعاء https://t.co/N2djy4ymS8

— يوسف الفقيه🇾🇪 (@YSFYEMEN) October 3, 2026

Yemen’s Saudi-backed forces earlier confirmed the strikes but said they were targeting vital Houthi positions, claiming 700 fighters were killed or wounded in 24 hours.

Tensions reignited in July after government forces struck Sanaa Airport to prevent an Iranian aircraft carrying a Houthi delegation from landing. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia, declared the de-escalation over, and announced a naval blockade of the kingdom. By mid-August, they were launching coordinated missile and drone attacks on Saudi-backed government forces, prompting counteroffensives across several provinces.

Fighting escalated last month as the Houthis struck energy infrastructure in southern Saudi Arabia, including Saudi Aramco facilities and the East-West Pipeline. The group has also made major territorial gains, seizing Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the strategic Bab el-Mandeb shipping chokepoint.

Saudi Arabia is preparing an offensive to reverse the Houthi gains, Reuters reported on Friday, citing officials and diplomats. Riyadh could mobilize more than 100,000 Yemeni government troops backed by Saudi airstrikes, the report said, with Western allies providing intelligence and material support but staying out of combat. Plans reportedly range from retaking the strategic Bab el-Mandeb coast to a broader multi-front assault across Houthi-held provinces.

The renewed fighting has worsened Yemen’s already dire humanitarian crisis. The UN World Food Program warned on Friday that three-quarters of the population is unable to meet its basic food needs.

UPDATE: Later on Sunday, Yemen announced the launch of large-scale military operations to retake Houthi-held territory.

Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad al-Alimi said the government exhausted all possibilities for de-escalation and is moving “from the preparation phase to action” to restore state control.

Donald Trump and major tech leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, SpaceX, Meta and other tech companies gathered for a meeting at the White House to reach a deal on what Trump described as an “AI constitution” to ensure that frontier models do not pose catastrophic, unintended risks.

In the course of the meeting a “morally binding” voluntary accord was signed in order to “win safely,” as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei put it.

Beyond this self-regulation pact, the Trump administration will additionally set up a governmental board to oversee the safety of AI tools.

Another big change emerging from the meeting is not surprising, given Trump’s affinity for the naming of names. From now on, executive departments and agencies “shall use ‘Super Intelligence’ or SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” in official correspondence, reports, and policy documents within the executive branch.

Trump’s rationale is that the word “artificial” makes the technology sound “fake.” So this new White House executive order seeks to implement the change, stating that the name “Super Intelligence” more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.

All of this signals that the American government is actively looking to pivot away from the current doomsday public narrative surrounding AI, aiming instead to focus public attention on the positive outcomes of its development.

Broadly speaking, experts remain skeptical about what genuine safety regulations will actually come out of the pact, given that the executives signing it are likely to be the very ones who will get to define the term “safety.” So at least in this regard, the meeting is largely symbolic.

It is primarily aimed at cooling public heat around apocalyptic AI narratives and the growing discontent over data centers, exactly what you would expect from an administration whose 2024 campaign was heavily bankrolled by tech elites such as Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, and others eager to promote their own corporate agendas.

But if we zoom past the end-times scenarios that the administration and these billionaires are trying to dampen, there is one critical thread left out of the conversation, which is the inherently collectivist nature of the Super Intelligence shaping this future “Golden Age of America.”

From each according to his ability

Since the beginning of his term, Trump and the Republican Party have been championing AI as an individualistic enterprise, framing it as a tool to amplify personal intellectual capabilities and boost American rugged individualism on a new technological frontier. That certainly has a pleasant Americana ring to it, especially if the bell that it’s ringing is Republican.

However, not even all the tech billionaires bankrolling the party see it the same way. A notable example is venture capitalist and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who has drawn parallels between AI and collectivism. Thiel previously argued that unlike crypto, which he believes promotes libertarianism, AI is, at its core, communist.

If you look closely at what kind of future artificial intelligence has to offer, Thiel’s claim no longer seems so far-fetched. There is indeed a deep, structural similarity between the growth of AI systems and core Marxist ideals.

That means your private intellectual ownership is effectively cast out of the window. For good. Whatever you write on the internet, post on YouTube, or even the books you published way before the age of AI, all of it turns into AI food, constantly fed in chunks into a data center to train a model, which in its turn redistributes the results of your work to anyone who uses AI.

That inherently builds a top-down, centralized system of information redistribution, which is reminiscent of how a collectivist state functions.

To each according to his needs

Silicon Valley leaders are increasingly using the rise of AI to push for heavily socialist economic frameworks as part of their public relations strategy. Because advanced AI systems are automating millions of human jobs, tech leaders believe they need to pacify the public by advertising AI as a structural safety net to keep society stable when human labor is no longer economically viable.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman, for instance, advocated for universal basic income, a classic socialist economic concept. If that sounds too good to be true, well, it’s because it is. Even Altman eventually walked back the idea, replacing it with a concept he calls “universal basic compute.”

Comparing AI to public utilities like water or electricity, Altman argues that every human being should be given an equal, baseline slice of a centralized supercomputer’s output in the form of AI tokens, which people can use, share, or sell.

In Marxist terms, these tech billionaires are basically advocating for the redistribution of the means of production to the masses, pushing the idea of collective ownership over the very personal data they seized from you. The “empowering everyone” rhetoric surely sounds nice when reading the utopian visions of Altman and Zuckerberg and it conveniently keeps you from thinking about how those same tech lords acquired your data in the first place by making off with your intellectual property.

Intellectual communism

In the 20th century, Soviet ideologists spent decades trying to engineer what they called the “New Soviet Man.” This was a theoretical ideal of a uniform, selfless citizen who would completely dissolve their individual desires, beliefs, and identity into one collective entity striving for the common good.

This experiment became a major concern for dystopian writers like George Orwell, who saw one of the vices of collectivism in making everyone the same, and it is the very same concept actively criticized by Republicans today as a totalitarian manifestation of communism.

Yet, this totalitarian equality of thought is an inherent design feature of AI operational systems we use every day.

In an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson, Sam Altman explicitly admitted that they train their AI models “to be like the collective of all of humanity.” This means that instead of amplifying unique human perspectives or protecting individual thought, the core goal of leading AI development seems to be building a machine that represents the mathematical average of everyone at once – not highlighting individualism, but eroding it.

Furthermore, AI models by design always favor strict neutrality and highly balanced answers. They are taught to avoid taking strong, polarizing ideological stances, which you may have noticed whenever an AI chatbot answers a controversial question. It automatically forces a framework of mutual understanding and polite compromise, which makes the answer lack individuality or any personal edge.

However, this forced neutrality and conformity has a dangerous dark side to it. By constantly pushing users toward a safe, mass-approved middle ground, AI slowly rewires your individual reasoning patterns and causes you to adopt a safer, collective intellectual framework and a common morality shared by the majority – essentially turning you into a Clockwork Orange.

If one relies on AI to write, think, and make decisions, which is incredibly convenient and tempting in modern, fast-paced society, their unique worldview and ideological standing are gradually lobotomized. Over time, it creates a synthetic collective unconscious where individual dissent is softly phased out in favor of a group consensus, or rather, a group consensus approved by the Superintelligent Equalizer that AI is.

Republican AI paradox

All of this creates a paradox for Donald Trump and his conservative base. Anti-communist rhetoric, warnings of a “socialist takeover,” and the defense of American individualism are the absolute core fixtures of Trump’s political speeches.

Yet, by demanding the rapid, acceleration of the domestic AI industry, Trump is championing the exact technology intentionally or unintentionally designed to dissolve individual identity into a massive collective pool, strip citizens of private data ownership and centralize technological power. And Republicans, knowingly or unknowingly, are actively building the infrastructure for the ultimate collectivist system, all while preaching the virtues of the free market.

So, while GOP members continue to manufacture a new Red Scare to rally voters in the culture wars, they are simultaneously subsidizing a technological framework, which upon closer examination, looks very much like a textbook caricature of some dystopian totalitarian collectivism run by a party of techlords.

And even though Trump says “America will never be communist,” even some of his billionaire donors don’t seem to buy it.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Paris on Saturday to rally against continued aid to Ukraine as part of a nationwide protest organized by former MEP Florian Philippot, who is running in France’s 2027 presidential election.

The protesters called on French President Emmanuel Macron to halt aid to Ukraine and pushed for France’s withdrawal from the EU and all supranational institutions, including NATO. Apart from Paris, the right-wing Les Patriotes party, led by Philippot, organized rallies in Aubiere, Annecy, Grenoble, Perigueux and Chaumont, highlighting issues such as fuel costs, freedom of expression and peace.

The demonstration comes after a series of mass protests has gripped France in recent weeks, with students taking to the streets alongside broader labor actions over wages, public spending, working conditions and the government’s budget plans.

Philippot, a prominent Eurosceptic, marched through Paris with supporters, who waved French flags, as well as banners reading “Russia is not our enemy,” and calling for France to stay out of the Ukraine conflict.

“We must leave NATO, we must stop funding the war in Ukraine and stop arming it as well,” he stressed. “Instead of putting money over there, it must be put into lowering taxes on petrol, for example, because people can’t take it anymore.”

A Philippot supporter argued that “war efforts don’t achieve much,” calling for greater spending on “hospitals, education, and a whole range of budgets that are humane.”

The nationwide unrest comes as the French government unveiled its proposed 2027 budget earlier this week, targeting €54 billion in measures to bring the budget deficit to 5% of GDP, including spending cuts and freezes affecting public services, pensions and social benefits.

Philippot tore up an EU flag in front of demonstrators, saying, “This blue-starred rag is not our flag and never will be. So today, we are obviously going to get rid of it, because our fight is to get out of this horror through Frexit.”

Earlier this week, the EU reiterated its commitment to the €90 billion ($101 billion) loan aimed at covering the Ukrainian government’s budgetary and military financing needs for 2026 and 2027.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is being weakened by the “impotence” of its member states and the UN, renowned American criminal-defense and human-rights attorney Stanley L. Cohen has told RT.

“Unless the international signatories to the Rome Statute and the UN begin to take action against those countries that are seeking to silence, if not end, the call to justice from the ICC, then its power is obviously going to be weakened,” Cohen said in an interview on Friday.

Cohen pointed to the freedom of movement Western nations have afforded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite an outstanding ICC warrant for his arrest. In 2024, the Hague-based court issued warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Gaza war.

The fact that Netanyahu who’s a fugitive, who’s a wanted fugitive and war criminal, can fly to New York, could go in front of the UN, who’s wanted for genocide, and go on to speak in furtherance of genocide without any accountability from the UN, really sums up the problem, the impotence, and apparently the indifference of most of the UN.

Cohen also argued that as global power shifts toward a new generation of leaders in the Global South and Western “violations of international law” are exposed, future leaders will be less willing to tolerate efforts to undermine or constrain the ICC.

Established in 2002 under the Rome Statute, the court is tasked with prosecuting genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression, and relies heavily on the cooperation of its 125 members. However, some of the world’s most powerful states, including the US, China, India or Russia, reject its authority.

Public thought in the Russian Empire was always inclined toward radicalism. Much like France, which had been shaken by revolutions since the late 18th century, Russia faced armed political violence for a prolonged period. In itself, there was nothing unique about the confrontation between the government and radicals. However, the activity, energy, ingenuity, and resilience of terrorist groups in Russia was unprecedented. Of course, Russian terrorists were not the first radicals in the world – consider the actions of Giuseppe Fieschi, who attempted to assassinate French King Louis Philippe I using a multi-barrel volley gun, or the Gunpowder Plot in Great Britain. However, in Russia, some underground movements persisted for decades, surviving various times and switching their political identity. Terrorists emerged in Russia during the era of Emperor Alexander II’s Great Reforms, and Alexander II himself fell prey to them. The entire history of the late Russian Empire unfolded in the shadow of the bomb.

The revolutionary movement in Russia was multifaceted and complex, and terrorism was merely a part of it. The terrorists were, of course, revolutionaries; but revolutionaries weren’t always terrorists. For example, Vladimir Lenin viewed terrorism with skepticism. The phrase attributed to him, “We shall take a different path,” became cliché in the Russian language, but hardly anyone remembers the context in which it was originally spoken. Lenin’s main idea was that a small, underground organization would not succeed, unlike a mass-based insurgent movement. 

The flip side of reforms

The initial actions of the terrorist movement gave the impression of an uprising in a madhouse. 

Revolutionary terror in Russia emerged as an unexpected side effect of Alexander II’s Great Reforms. The Emperor had inherited the throne from his father – the hardline conservative Nicholas I, a man viewed as a martinet who tried to rule the country as if it were an infantry platoon. Convinced that Russia needed to be dragged out of its archaic state, Alexander launched sweeping reforms.

From his accession to the throne in 1855 until his assassination in 1881, the new Emperor continuously introduced changes that transformed the face of Russia almost beyond recognition. The Emancipation Reform granted freedom to millions of serfs whose condition was not much better than slavery. While this was his most famous reform, it was far from the only one. He reformed everything from the judicial system and military to local self-government and the legal code. Several monarchs in Russian history are known as ‘the Great’, but only one – Alexander II – is known as ‘the Liberator’.

From a broad perspective, the reforms were brilliant. But upon closer inspection, the situation was more complex. Alexander strove to cushion the inevitable shock experienced by a society undergoing such rapid change. While they were noble in intent, the reforms had many unpleasant side effects when put into practice.

For instance, Alexander sought to mitigate the impact of the sudden financial ruin of the landed aristocracy, who could no longer rely on the forced labor of the peasantry. Even after gaining personal freedom, peasants were required to make ‘redemption payments’ to the state (in installments) for the land allotments they received; the state, in turn, compensated landowners for the loss of their serfs. This imposed a heavy additional tax burden on the peasantry; meanwhile, the aristocrats (many of whom were not the smartest individuals) often squandered the money received from the government. Moreover, the nobility retained the best land, though it was now cultivated by hired laborers and tenant farmers rather than serfs.

Some viewed the reforms as too drastic, while others considered them insufficient. For a long time, Alexander left the structure of the highest government bodies untouched. He remained the absolute monarch, and his word was law. He didn’t introduce anything resembling a parliament, and there was no constitution. Freedom of the press was also severely restricted by censorship.

It was only a matter of time before radicals emerged. 

Freaks against the Empire

‘Raznochintsy’ (people of miscellaneous ranks) were the primary social base of the revolutionary movement. These individuals were neither nobles, merchants, nor peasants; they made their own living and were not in state service. 

Usually, they were poor but rather well-educated – and often highly ambitious. A famous example is Rodion Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky’s novel ‘Crime and Punishment’. Another source of recruits for revolutionary circles was the impoverished nobility. Legitimate discussion groups were severely restricted at the time; consequently, would-be terrorists gathered at illicit meetings, lending their groups the aura of secret societies.

Some of these societies were quite harmless – essentially nothing more than ordinary, small discussion clubs. Others, however, embraced a bloodthirsty idealism. They championed utopian socialism as their social ideal, viewing mass uprisings as the means to achieve it. Yet they ran up against a dismal reality: Amid the emancipation from serfdom and rapid urban growth, the vast majority of Russian people were concerned with things like property, money, social standing, and in urban areas, education as a means of achieving social status. 

But then, in 1866, an event occurred that foreshadowed ominous and dark times. 

The last point was discussed very vigorously, but it was pure fantasy: The group fantasized about a clandestine terrorist organization with its own far-reaching intelligence network. Yet Karakozov turned out to be the only member of the group who took this ‘Dungeons & Emperors’ role-playing game seriously. At a certain point, he decided that there was no reason to wait any longer, bought a revolver, and set out to assassinate the emperor. 

Security measures at the time were archaic. Emperor Alexander often walked the streets of St. Petersburg without any security. One can still stroll through the Summer Garden where Karakozov fired his shot. The place hasn’t changed much. Karakozov fired at the emperor but missed and was seized on the spot. Alexander was utterly astonished and thought the man was simply insane. Karakozov was hanged. The police arrested the entire underground group. In theory, they were all fierce radicals, but when one person took their blather at face value, they were no more prepared for it than for an invasion by Martians. Some members of the group were exiled to Siberia. Furthermore, censors closed down the publications read by Karakozov, deeming them politically unreliable. Even fellow revolutionaries were unimpressed by Karakozov’s actions. As for the peasants, they didn’t get why anyone would champion their cause in this manner. Of course, land was important, and redemption payments were burdensome – but what did shooting the Tsar have to do with it?

However, others soon followed in Karakozov’s footsteps. While Karakozov was from the impoverished nobility, another terrorist, Sergey Nechaev, was from a very different background. He was born into a destitute family that sacrificed everything to ensure that he received an education. Nechaev was a course auditor at the university. But he wasn’t just preoccupied with taking lecture notes; he drafted a document that served as a sort of charter for the revolutionary sect. It demanded total self-abnegation and absolute fanaticism from the revolutionaries. Nechaev’s writings abound with terms such as ‘annihilation’ and ‘extermination’. He meticulously compiled a list of individuals who had to be killed for the triumph of revolutionary socialism – some of them right away, others later; his planning would have impressed even the likes of Arya Stark.

While recruiting followers, Nechaev portrayed himself as the leader of a powerful underground movement, but this was a complete fabrication. He found a few people willing to listen to his misanthropic nonsense, but the organization was short-lived. When a student named Ivan Ivanov objected to one of Nechaev’s ‘brilliant’ ideas, Nechaev and a couple of friends lured him to a secluded spot and murdered him. Nechaev died in prison, and the story inspired Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, the novel ‘Demons’, which is based on the story of Nechaev and his group.

Nechaev and Karakozov had quite a few followers. For the time being, they set aside the idea of assassinating the emperor. Instead, a new concept took hold within the circles of young radicals. Many of them were decent people who sincerely sympathized with the common folk – people who worked relentlessly yet lived in poverty. From the desire to help and a sense of guilt toward those less educated and more burdened by life’s hardships emerged the ‘Going to the People’ populist movement. Initially, the main idea was for the activists (propagandists) to move to rural areas disguised as peasants and agitate for a general uprising.

Activists who attempted to spread the propaganda among urban workers (these were often peasants who had recently migrated to the cities) weren’t received well. However, they soon shifted to a more sensible approach: teaching workers literacy and skilled trades, and establishing mutual aid funds. In short, they ended up organizing a humanitarian initiative which had little to do with the revolution. The majority of the propagandists, however, headed for rural areas as planned; certain liberal-minded landowners allowed them to get started on their estates.

It is surprising that Russian TV has never produced a series based on this story. Young nobles and ‘raznochintsy’ would try to pass themselves off as peasants, traveling to villages and fairs to agitate for an uprising. They usually wrote their own propaganda literature, attempting to mimic the style of folk tales. Initially, their strategy resembled network marketing: If each agitator could recruit three peasants per month, and each peasant could recruit three others, at that rate, a nationwide uprising could be launched within a couple of years.

In practice, however, the speech, daily habits, and behavior of the propagandists bore no resemblance to those of actual peasants. Sure, the peasants disliked the flaws of the reforms. But the masquerade raised obvious questions, like: Who is this guy who claims to be a farmer but doesn’t know how to handle a scythe? Many of the revolutionaries looked like they had robbed a costume shop and were dressed as shepherds from a play.

Even when the revolutionaries spoke bluntly, the peasants had many questions. “Fine,” they said, “suppose we overthrow the Tsar and redistribute the landowners’ wealth. But if we rob them, what’s going to stop someone else from robbing us the same way?” The unfailing common sense of the peasants stupefied the propagandists. 

Quite a few young revolutionaries, however, found themselves unexpectedly fond of the common people. Some even settled in the villages and – dropping all pretense – began working as doctors, teachers, veterinarians, or even blacksmiths and locksmiths. And they unexpectedly found themselves showered with people’s affection. They made many friends and settled in rural areas; in the country, a skilled doctor was treated almost like a local saint. The ‘downside’, of course, was that these individuals often lost their revolutionary zeal.

However, many of those who had ‘gone to the people’ returned to the cities with a new mindset.

Justice on the side of the terrorists

Meanwhile, darker moods were brewing within the revolutionary movement. Those who had been overzealous in spreading revolutionary propaganda were arrested and imprisoned. Among those who evaded the police was a young woman named Vera Zasulich. Her background was typical for a revolutionary: She came from an impoverished noble family, had a good education, an unprestigious job with no career prospects, and was infatuated with radical ideas.

In 1877, Dmitry Trepov, the governor-general of St. Petersburg, ordered a propagandist named Bogolyubov to be flogged for refusing to remove his hat in the presence of the official. Corporal punishment had been abolished, making Trepov’s action illegal; the incident caused a public outcry but was swept under the rug.

Feeling outraged by the injustice, Vera Zasulich bought a revolver (which was legal), secured an appointment with Trepov, and shot him. He was critically wounded but survived, and Zasulich was put on trial.

However, no one could have foreseen what happened in the courtroom. Trepov had behaved abominably, and it was foolish to shield him. But the government assumed that, in the eyes of the jury, the attempted murder would overshadow Trepov’s abuse of power. That might well have happened. However, the prosecution, convinced that the verdict was already in the bag, handled the case in a sloppy, incompetent manner. 

There was certainly an element of manipulation in his speech, but this was natural for a defense attorney doing his job. The prosecution, on the other hand, failed to do their job. Aleksandr Koni, the presiding judge – a highly experienced and respected jurist – shrugged off attempts to coerce him into playing along with the prosecution, implying that he was an honest judge who would not rig the proceedings merely because the outcome might displease the government. If the prosecution wants to win the case, it should handle it better!

And so, to thunderous applause, Vera Zasulich walked free from the courtroom, acquitted of all charges. From our standpoint, it is difficult not to have mixed feelings about her acquittal: After all, she had attempted murder. Yet the Russian Empire was governed by the rule of law to such an extent that, in a trial concerning a terrorist act, a jury could acquit the defendant and the government would comply.

‘Let justice be done, though the heavens fall’, the Latin legal maxim goes. Justice was done. And soon enough, the heavens did fall.

Radicals raise their heads

The government soon had to deal with the Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberty) organization – the first truly radical group (from which another group, Narodnaya Volya, soon emerged, that directly carried out assassinations). The members of this group retained the frenzied fanaticism of Nechaev and Karakozov but were far more pragmatic. While they envisioned the same ideals of collectivism and socialism, they believed that the growth of the bourgeoisie and ongoing reforms might render a revolution unnecessary; consequently, they felt they had to act fast. A key tenet of their program was the “extermination of the most harmful or prominent figures within the government and, in general, the individuals who uphold the order we loathe.” The Going to the People movement had left them disillusioned, yet they chose to alter their tactics rather than the underlying concept.

Many of these new terrorists had met during the Going to the People campaign and now formed fully fledged militant cells. Their numbers were small; the entire terrorist underground likely numbered no more than a few hundred people – including everyone who provided the slightest assistance. As to those who were directly prepared to carry out terrorist acts, there were only a few dozen people. Yet the Russian Empire lacked any counter-terrorism service; the police had no understanding of counter-terrorism, and top officials were quite negligent about their own security.

Here’s an example. In April 1879, Emperor Alexander II was taking a walk through St. Petersburg, accompanied by only one officer armed with a saber. 

Near Palace Square, Aleksandr Solovyov (a member of the Land and Liberty movement) stepped out to confront him. The group’s previous assassination attempt had failed because the bullets had lodged in the bulky fur coat of the prosecutor who was the intended target. Mindful of that incident, Solovyov had purchased a massive bear-hunting revolver. On hearing the shots, the Emperor started running along the embankment in a zigzag pattern. Meanwhile, the recoil of the powerful weapon kept throwing off Solovyov’s aim. Ultimately, after five shots were fired, the Emperor’s bodyguard struck him down with his saber.

It soon emerged that Solovyov was not a lone madman like Karakozov; there was a whole organization behind him.

Narodnaya Volya: A plot to kill the Tsar

Terrorists from the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) organization were headed by two people from very different backgrounds. Andrey Zhelyabov was the son of serfs who had risen through the ranks thanks to his exceptional intellect and had become captivated by revolutionary socialism while attending a prestigious gymnasium. Sofya Perovskaya, by contrast, was the daughter of a wealthy and influential official; she broke with her father for the sake of her convictions. In fact, there were quite a few women in the movement; the terrorists disdained prejudices based on social class, gender, or anything else.

In the autumn of that same year, they attempted to blow up the Emperor’s train with dynamite. They rented a house near the tracks, dug a tunnel, and planted the explosives. However, the train didn’t arrive on schedule. It turned out that instead of the imperial carriage, they blew up a different train. Fortunately, the blast only destroyed a baggage car and no one was killed.

The next step was an attempt to assassinate the Tsar inside the royal residence, the Winter Palace. To this end, another terrorist, Stepan Khalturin, secured a job in the Winter Palace. Khalturin was a carpenter and found work in the palace using forged documents.

At the time, palace security was as inadequate as the personal security of Alexander II. Khalturin managed to smuggle 30 kilograms of dynamite into his tiny room, hiding the explosives beneath dirty laundry.

A blast! And… another failure for the terrorists: It turned out that Alexander had stepped into an adjacent room just moments before the blast. However, 11 guardsmen on duty were killed.

Despite the terrorist attacks, Alexander was preparing to initiate political reforms. Mikhail Loris-Melikov was working on the draft of a constitution. He was an aged aristocrat of Armenian descent who had served as both a military commander and a civil administrator during his career. Alexander greatly valued his administrative talents and interpersonal skills. Loris-Melikov combined two qualities: He was an official deeply embedded in the Russian establishment, yet also a man of moderate political views who was prepared to reform the political system without dismantling it – an approach that perfectly aligned with Alexander’s own outlook. Moreover, Loris-Melikov was developing a program to alleviate the plight of the peasantry; he intended to rectify the imbalances of the earlier reforms and bring to completion the work Alexander had begun.

The terrorists’ endgame

This time, Perovskaya and Zhelyabov planned a complex operation involving an entire group of terrorists. They meticulously studied the Tsar’s departure schedule from the Winter Palace. The new assassination attempt was to be carried out by several people armed with homemade dynamite hand bombs.

The police found and arrested Zhelyabov at a safe house. However, this setback only spurred Perovskaya on. The terrorists even planted a command-detonated mine along the Emperor’s usual route, and four volunteers were tasked with hurling homemade bombs as he passed in the carriage. In other words, the plan was multi-layered. The homemade devices lacked shrapnel; they were not like modern grenades. Yet they were powerful in their own right – with a blast force equivalent to up to 1.5 kilograms of TNT. Visually, they resembled simple tin cylinders.

On March 13, Alexander left the Winter Palace on official business. He inadvertently bypassed the mine that had been planted. However, Perovskaya had enough time to reposition the terrorists and lie in wait for the Emperor on his return journey.

In the middle of the day, on the embankment of the Catherine Canal, Nikolay Rysakov hurled a bomb at the carriage. The vehicle was wrecked, but Alexander was not even wounded. Rysakov was seized. A delivery boy was killed on the embankment, and two Cossack guards were wounded. A police colonel who arrived on the scene urged the Tsar to leave at once. But Alexander wanted to first say a few words to his wounded bodyguards – and also, to the terrorist.

That delay cost him his life.

In a bizarre twist, another terrorist – Ivan Yemelyanov – helped carry the Emperor to the carriage; he assisted in seating him, all the while holding, in his other hand, a bomb that he never used. 

By the time Alexander was brought to the palace, he had lost a lot of blood. Amid the chaos and panic, by the time a surgeon reached Alexander, the Emperor was already in a state of deep shock, and the blood loss was irreversible. There was no time for a transfusion, and amputation was pointless.

One of the high-ranking officials remarked to Loris-Melikov as he entered, “There it is – your constitution!”

At 3:35 PM, Alexander II passed away. His assassin died a few hours later.

Since the first bomber, Rysakov, had been captured alive and did not suffer serious injuries, he was immediately interrogated. The young terrorist cracked right away. Two days later, police stormed the apartment where terrorist Gesya Gelfman was hiding. A few hours later, an ambush team left at the apartment captured yet another terrorist. Within a few days, the core of the terrorist group was captured.

Interestingly, many people – even including Leo Tolstoy – appealed for clemency, urging that the terrorists not be sentenced to death.

However, the matter was already decided. Alexander II’s son, Emperor Alexander III, declared that he might have pardoned his own assassins, but not his father’s.

Five of the terrorists, including Zhelyabov, were hanged. Gesya Gelfman escaped execution because she was pregnant; she later died from postpartum complications.

Plans for constitutional reform were abandoned, and political reforms were derailed. Alexander III was far more conservative than his father, and the horrific death of Alexander II further convinced him that those who sought reforms were dangerous propagandists and assassins. The popular uprising anticipated by the terrorist group never happened. 

Meanwhile, Russia was hurtling toward a new wave of terror.

Russia will intensify strikes on military and defense-related facilities in Ukraine in response to Vladimir Zelensky’s threat to increase attacks on Russian oil refineries, the Defense Ministry warned.

In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said it has “taken note” of the Ukrainian leader’s promise a day earlier to step up attacks on Russian oil refineries in response to strikes on bridges across the Dnieper River in Kiev.

Russia has already ramped up strikes on military-related logistics – including the key port of Odessa – and the defense industrial base in recent weeks in response to Zelensky’s botched 40-day PR ‘pressure campaign’, which included long-range strikes targeting oil refineries and civilian infrastructure deep inside Russia.

“Following Zelensky’s statement today, strikes by the Russian Armed Forces on military and military-industrial facilities, as well as related infrastructure in Kiev and other regions of Ukraine, will be intensified,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

People in Ukraine should blame only the head of the Kiev regime for this. It is Zelensky who bears full personal and political responsibility for it.

The Defense Ministry reiterated that the Russian military has been responding to Kiev’s attacks on civilian targets in Russia that were meant to disrupt the State Duma election. It cited strikes on polling stations that killed six civilians, an attempted mass attack involving more than 1,600 Ukrainian strike drones against civilian sites in Moscow on September 19-20, and drone attacks aimed at disrupting the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.

President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the strikes on oil refineries have cost around 1% of Russia’s GDP, but noted that the damaged facilities are being quickly restored, and that the nation’s energy system is operating with significant reserve capacity. Following Russia’s retaliatory strikes, Ukraine no longer has a steelmaking industry, he added.

Until recently, it seemed that a split within the main, long-established opposition party (founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the architect of modern Türkiye) would play into the hands of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Following a court ruling that removed Ozgur Ozel as the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), his supporters broke away to form the Yeni Parti (New Party). The opposition suddenly found itself with two headquarters, two leaders, and a dispute over who rightfully owns its political legacy. However, September polls showed that a significant number of voters had followed Ozel. Yeni Parti took second place in surveys conducted by ASAL and GENAR. While it still has a long way to go to catch up with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), the new movement can no longer be dismissed.

According to ASAL, if parliamentary elections were held, 33.8% of respondents would support AK Parti, while 23.6% would back Yeni Parti; that’s a gap of 10.2 percentage points. GENAR put support for the ruling party at 36.1% and Ozel’s party at 21.6%, recording a difference of 14.5 points. In both instances, AK Parti retained the top spot. Yet, for a political force established only in late July, the result is remarkable – especially considering that the CHP, under the leadership of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, garnered only about 6% in the same polls. The leadership of the party changed due to the court ruling, but judging by the surveys, the party failed to retain the bulk of its voter base.

To understand the origins of Yeni Parti, one must look back at the events of this spring. In May, a court annulled the results of the 2023 CHP congress – where Ozel had been elected chairman – and reinstated his predecessor, Kilicdaroglu. Ozel’s supporters viewed the ruling as interference in the affairs of the opposition. Turkish authorities deny allegations of pressuring the court and insist on the judiciary’s independence. The confrontation lasted several weeks until Ozel and 90 opposition MPs left the CHP. On July 24, they announced the formation of a new party. It immediately secured 91 parliamentary seats, becoming the largest opposition faction.

This demonstrates the unique nature of the current crisis. Yeni Parti emerged from a split within the opposition, yet it did not have to start from scratch. Ozel was supported by MPs, prominent politicians, and a portion of the organizational network that had worked for the CHP. He also retained the experience gained from the campaigns that delivered the opposition’s victory in the 2024 local elections. The new party allows the team to stay together and continue the fight, even though legal and political ties to the former party have been severed. For voters who supported Ozel prior to the court ruling, the shift to Yeni Parti appears logical. 

The party’s future will depend on whether it can reach beyond the CHP’s traditional base of supporters. For now, the September figures can be interpreted either as a success for Ozel or as a redistribution of votes within the opposition. For example, a July study by GENAR put support for the CHP at 15.4% and for the then-nascent Yeni Parti at 14.5%. By September, the balance had shifted: Ozel’s party polled at 21.6%, while the CHP stood at 6.6%. These figures indicate voter migration between the two political forces. However, further polls and, ultimately, elections are necessary to confirm a sustained expansion of the opposition’s overall electoral base. 

There is another issue that party ratings alone cannot resolve: Who will challenge Erdogan in the 2028 presidential election? Following the creation of Yeni Parti, Ozel reaffirmed his support for Ekrem Imamoglu – the mayor of Istanbul and a politician popular among Turkish youth – who is currently under arrest and facing legal proceedings. While Imamoglu remains a pivotal figure for opposition voters, his potential candidacy is complicated by a court case and the invalidation of his university degree, a requirement for presidential candidates. Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas is also mentioned as a potential contender. While Yeni Parti boasts a prominent leader and a parliamentary faction, it is unclear who will be the opposition’s presidential candidate. And in a presidential campaign, this choice could prove far more significant than monthly fluctuations in party ratings.

Despite certain public fatigue regarding his long tenure, Erdogan retains significant political advantages. The ruling AK Party remains the leading party in the two abovementioned polls. Together with its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP, or Grey Wolves), it commands a stable electoral base, and the president continues to set the agenda for national politics. It is too early to say that Erdogan is in serious trouble, as the AK Party retains the top position in both surveys. However, Ozel has managed to retain a significant portion of the opposition electorate following the split within the CHP. If Ozel manages to attract voters who did not previously support the CHP, Erdogan will face a formidable rival.

The economic situation adds further tension to the situation. In September, the Turkish market faced a crisis involving investment funds and a sharp drop in asset prices. Against this backdrop, Zeynel Emre, a representative of Yeni Parti, leveled accusations regarding stock market transactions against AK Party Deputy Chairperson Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya and her husband. Kaya requested to be relieved of her party duties pending the investigation. While the allegations still require verification, the political impact is already evident: The new party is striving to position itself not only as a defender of its own rights following the split within the CHP but also as a force capable of posing uncomfortable questions to the authorities.

Looking ahead, Turkish politics faces another pressing issue: the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2028. The question of whether Erdogan can participate in the presidential race hinges on the timing of the election and constitutional regulations. An early vote called by parliament would allow him to run for another term, but such a decision requires a majority of 360 out of 600 deputies. The ruling bloc lacks the votes to resolve this matter unilaterally. Consequently, the outcome will depend not only on voter sentiment but also on negotiations between parties – including those currently on opposite sides of the political divide. 

The latest surveys only show that following a painful rift within the opposition, Ozel has retained significant support. They do not reveal whether the Yeni Parti can catch up with the ruling AK Parti, find a presidential candidate acceptable to other forces, or bring about a change of power. For Erdogan, this means that he will have to monitor his new rival more closely. And for Ozel, it marks the beginning of a new phase in which he will have to transform his rapidly gained popularity into lasting political influence. Put together, these factors will determine the outcome of their standoff.

Ukrainian officials are embezzling foreign financial aid, former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller has said, adding that Kiev’s backers are well aware of the corruption but prefer not to ask questions.

Speaking on the ‘Jankowski Kontra’ podcast on Polsat News on Saturday, Miller called for suspending aid to Ukraine until Kiev accounts for previously supplied weapons and funds.

“Nobody’s asking what happened to the 300 tanks we sent in the first phase. What happened to the heavy equipment, the lighter equipment... Nobody’s asking what happened to the billions of euros we donated. Mr. Zelensky simply comes and says, ‘Give it’, and we give it,” Miller stated.

Asked whether he suspected that funds transferred to Ukraine were being embezzled, Miller replied: “Of course, everyone knows it.” The veteran politician argued that Warsaw should demand an accounting of how its assistance has been used and halt further support if Kiev fails to provide one.

Poland has been one of Kiev’s staunchest backers in its conflict with Russia, pouring billions into military, financial and humanitarian aid while serving as a crucial hub for Western supplies. Yet relations have increasingly soured over Kiev’s honoring of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators linked to the World War II-era Volhynia massacres, in which UPA militants, linked to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), killed at least 100,000 ethnic Poles.

Relations have also been strained by mounting opposition to Ukrainian refugees. A July CBOS survey found that 52% of Poles now opposed accepting them, against 42% in favor – a sharp reversal from the overwhelming support seen after Kiev’s conflict with Moscow escalated in 2022. Tensions deepened earlier this month after a 31-year-old Ukrainian man stabbed five people at a Benedictine abbey in Jaroslaw, killing a priest.

Western-backed investigators have uncovered multiple other graft schemes involving Ukrainian officials, including one reported earlier this month in which they allegedly embezzled more than $3 million through the delivery of used Soviet-made metro cars donated by Poland.

Against that backdrop, the EU this week rebuffed Kiev’s bid to fast-track its latest €90 billion support loan, making clear that further funds depend on Ukraine delivering promised anti-corruption and governance reforms.

When the leaders of the world’s two largest economies meet, the whole world watches the theatrics, the body language and the substance. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US and summit with President Donald Trump took place against the backdrop of a surge in China’s global trade, while Trump has been struggling with falling approval ratings at home.

The high-stakes summit centred on symbolic gestures, personal rapport, and major economic and technology tensions. It yielded few breakthroughs on structural disputes. The most tangible outcome was an agreement to extend a critical trade war tariff truce by an additional two months, shifting the deadline to mid-January 2027. China’s export boom defied Trump’s tariff campaign.

From a position of strength, Xi was in no rush to make concessions while Trump was constrained by the costly Iran war that was hurting both his popularity and American wallets. The tariffs to address a trade imbalance with China were actually “killing” the US.

View from Delhi

Few nations have been monitoring the proceedings in Washington with greater scrutiny than India, as Xi-Trump discuss AI governance, tariff truces, critical minerals, regional maritime flashpoints, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific security. The outcome could affect New Delhi’s trade ambitions, supply chains, border security, Quad strategy, energy costs and influence.

New Delhi has been closely monitoring shifts in bilateral ties and supply chain vulnerabilities, and wondering about regional security frameworks like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). Indians have been also wondering why they were being singled out for 100% tariff for trading with Russia, while China was being wooed due high US economic dependences. As China has grown in global stature, it was clear that economic and military strength brings prestige and respect.

At the core of it all, for some time now, India’s calculations have been based on an enduring fear of the emergence of a US-China “G2.” Something that could position India as a “second fiddle.” 

The new emerging duopoly could establish a bilateral framework to partition spheres of influence, resolve global disputes, and manage international security above the heads of leading middle powers or an aspiring great power like India. China could get emboldened towards Asian dominance. Early signals were visible during Trump’s second term that Washington preferred a highly transactional foreign policy. Trump’s tariffs were bound to actually give greater leverage to China which monopolizes critical minerals and technologies and has a balance of payments advantage with all.

Despite structural mistrust between the US and China, these baby-steps towards managed coexistence present challenging outcomes for India. On the other hand, a total breakdown of US-China relations would be even worse for New Delhi and the world.

Washington’s policing failures around the world over the decades, and now never-ending Iran war, have lowered America’s global standing and influence. The tariffs have caused a level of distrust in New Delhi. NATO allies and West Asian friends of the US are running helter-skelter looking for alternative security arrangements and umbrellas.

In the recent past, India was looking for alternative sourcing through what is called the ‘China Plus One’ manufacturing strategy. American industrial giants that have been eager to exit China dependence have been investing billions of dollars into Make-in-India, especially in consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, automotive parts, and solar equipment.  This has helped boost manufacturing’s share of India’s GDP and expand the country’s exports.

But now if Xi and Trump move towards a comprehensive trade deal, securing American industry interests, then the move towards India could slowdown. A transactional Trump has been vocal about India’s protective trade policies and domestic market restrictions. He may now push for opening India’s agriculture and technology sectors to American firms. Global commodity price volatility is also being watched closely by India. A reconciliation between Washington and Beijing could stabilize global demand, and be good for New Delhi.

Just days before the bilateral summit, on September 18, Trump signed into law a bill that allows a 100% tariff on top buyers of Russian energy, primarily China and India. Days later, the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington and Beijing had extended their Busan Agreement until January 10, 2027, under which the two sides agreed to avoid new tariffs and trade restrictions on each other.

Will India receive a similar concession? For now, it remains exposed to the tariff threat. Does Trump see India as a softer target? While US threatens India and Brazil, it is more considerate towards China because Beijing exercises much more leverage. Peter Navarro, an American economist and Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, at one point called Ukraine ‘Modi’s war’ - because of New Delhi’s oil imports from Russia. Nobody in Trump’s administration has ever tried to call the Ukraine crisis ‘Xi’s war’. Recall that in July 2025, Washington spared China but imposed an additional 25% on India for buying Russian crude. There is thus increased suspicion that India is in the crosshairs while Beijing keeps escaping US scrutiny.

India’s Indo-Pacific strategy relies heavily on the Quad alongside the United States, Japan, and Australia. But under Trump 2.0, the grouping has faced growing uncertainty, with the US president clearly favoring bilateral deals over multilateral frameworks. If Washington ends up softening its position on the South China Sea in exchange for economic concessions, it would send a deeply troubling signal — not only to New Delhi, but to the wider world.

As China becomes a peer power with the US, a weakening American position on Taiwan could embolden the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). While India’s immediate focus remains sovereignty over its territory along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and its influence across South Asia, an emboldened PLA could be a threat for India. It could weaken India’s position on the painstaking negotiations after the 2020 border conflict. Beijing might become less accommodating toward Indian border positions. Conversely a stable China-US relationship could also bring stability in China-India relations, and reduce the trust deficit. India also does not want Chinese or US influence in South Asia as it considers it detrimental to its security.

India hopes that the Xi-Trump discussions bring stability to the global energy trade. Spiking oil prices are already worsening India’s current account deficit and driving domestic inflation.

Reenergized US-China relations could reduce Russia-China dependency on each other. Russia may then edge closer to India.

Long strategic game

The export juggernaut that Trump sought to tame has kept roaring in what economists are increasingly referring to as ‘China Shock 2.0’. China’s global trade surplus is on pace to top $1 trillion for a second straight year. The Trump administration thought they could use massive unilateral pressure to force China to make concessions, but that did not occur.

Washington also sees Xi as uniquely able to exert pressure on Iran to negotiate, but Xi has shown little inclination to do so. Beijing is selling billions of dollars’ worth of goods to Iran through sanctions-evasion. Xi had urged the US and Iran to return to negotiations to end the war, but Xi has not publicly commented on Chinese support for Iran. China is moving from indirect influence to signalling readiness for a direct role. Could China become the next mediator in the US-Iran war?

Xi pressed Trump on Taiwan ⁠saying he hoped the US would “handle the Taiwan question with prudence.” Meanwhile, Senate Democrats criticized Trump for failing to publicly address China’s military pressure on Taiwan and called for the immediate delivery of approved military aid ⁠and arms sales to the island.

In his characteristic way, Trump said America was “very happy” about Xi’s visit, and hoped that China is “very happy also.” Xi said the US-China relationship had developed into a constructive one of “strategic stability on the basis of respect, fairness and reciprocity,” thus positioning Beijing as an equal to the US on the global stage.

The US and China remain strategic competitors across trade, technology, security and geopolitics, yet both governments have simultaneously demonstrated an interest in preventing competition from degenerating into confrontation. There was a talk about a possible hotline between the two countries, and some sort of a broad deal for sharing a progress report of sorts. Nothing of that sort happened.

Xi Jinping is playing a long strategic game. Washington continues to be at war and mired in multiple geopolitical and domestic crises. Beijing is quietly consolidating its economy, political control, restructuring its military and expanding its strategic footprint. China does not need to defeat America, it may only need to outlast American attention. “America is very happy about this visit, and I’m sure China is very happy also,” Trump said. Whether India is happy will be dissected in the corridors of power in New Delhi.

Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated across Spain to demand affordable rent and stronger protections for tenants amid a deepening housing crisis.

Average rent has almost doubled over the past decade, according to property website Idealista. On Friday, parliament narrowly rejected two emergency housing decrees proposed by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government.

Around 70,000 people marched through the streets of Madrid on Saturday to denounce the decision, according to the authorities, while organizers put the figure at half a million. Similar demonstrations took place across around 50 Spanish cities.

In the eastern city of Valencia, demonstrators clashed with police, who fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowds. Around 30 protesters breached the security perimeter around the City of Arts and Sciences, a landmark cultural complex, before officers removed them.

Protesters are demanding a 50% reduction in rent, open-ended rental contracts, and the expropriation of homes from investment firms they describe as “vulture funds.” Tenants’ Union spokesperson Valeria Racu said a general strike would be called following talks with labor unions.

Histórica manifestación hoy en Madrid contra los desahucios y por la vivienda digna. Impresionante. https://t.co/XURtxVrX3v

— Fonsi Loaiza (@FonsiLoaiza) October 3, 2026

“There is an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for,” the Tenants’ Union, which coordinates the demonstrations, said in a statement.

The protests, which began last month, were sparked by the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, from the Madrid flat where she had lived for around seven decades. She was carried out on a stretcher after being unable to afford a sharp rent increase. Her landlord subsequently agreed to let her return at a lower rent, but the wider demonstrations continued.

Rompen el cordón e intentan asaltar el Palau de #Valencia. La Delegada de Gobierno envía allí a la policía a proteger sus instalaciones, pero en cambio les impide ser contundentes y con pocos medios. @_Laura_Garcia_P https://t.co/nLYWLV56bt

— Alerta Zeta | Sucesos 🇪🇸 (@AlertaZeta) October 3, 2026

In response to the crisis, Sanchez proposed two decrees aimed at protecting tenants. The first included suspending evictions of vulnerable renters, increasing taxes on tourist apartments, and restricting residential purchases by investment funds, while the second provided for the automatic renewal of rental contracts. The measures require parliamentary approval.

La delegada del govern @pilarbernabe ha de donar l’ordre immediata perquè deixen de disparar bales de goma i gas a la gent decent que es manifesta contra els buitres i especuladors. Registrem preguntes. Ni gent sense casa ni cases sense gent. Els perillosos estan dins. https://t.co/FBFIxpeADP

— Alberto Ibáñez i Mezquita 🍉 (@alberto_aim) October 3, 2026

“Housing doesn’t get cheaper with decrees, it gets cheaper with more homes,” Juan Bravo, a PP member of parliament, said.

The outcome has increased pressure on Sanchez to call an early election. Spanish media reported that he could bring the vote forward to November rather than next summer. His office declined to comment on the reports.

Tennessee’s prisons chief will step down following a failed attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee said on Saturday.

Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, remains unconscious and on a ventilator after surviving a failed lethal injection with two doses of pentobarbital on September 30, according to her lawyers.

Lee announced the resignation of Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada after ordering an independent review of the botched execution.

“Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment,” Lee said in a statement.

“I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary, and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred,” Strada added.

The New York Times, citing outside medical experts, said Pike probably survived the procedure because the lethal drug leaked into tissue around the insertion sites instead of entering her bloodstream.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder after she, her boyfriend, and another accomplice lured Slemmer, a fellow student, to an isolated area near the University of Tennessee agricultural campus, where Pike brutally beat her and cut her throat. Pike was 18 when she committed the crime.

The case was Tennessee’s second botched execution this year. In May, officials halted the execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers after repeatedly failing to establish intravenous access to administer pentobarbital.

Carruthers was returned to death row, and Lee subsequently granted him a one-year reprieve. The incident raised questions about Tennessee’s lethal-injection procedures months before Pike’s execution.

British livestock farmers are confronting an unprecedented spread of bluetongue, a virus carried by biting midges. Cases this season have exceeded the previous three seasons combined, according to UK government data updated on Saturday.

The UK has recorded 2,579 cases so far in the 2026-27 bluetongue season, which runs from July 1 to June 30 of next year, according to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). The government defines a case as a property where bluetongue has been confirmed.

In just three months, this season’s bluetongue outbreak has recorded more than four times as many cases as the previous three seasons combined.

The government recorded 348 cases in Great Britain in the 2025-26 season, 163 in 2024-25, and 126 in 2023-24.

The virus affects sheep, cattle, and other ruminants. Common signs include fever, lameness, mouth sores, and swelling of the head or tongue. Severe infections can cause a blue tongue, breathing problems, abortions, fetal deformities, stillbirths, and death. The virus does not infect people or pose a risk to food safety.

“Essentially the midges are active earlier and continue their activity until later in the year,” Dr. Christopher Sanders of the Pirbright Institute said in a WOAH publication on an earlier outbreak. “That means that the gap between transmission seasons is actually reduced, which may allow the virus to overwinter more easily.”

The bluetongue outbreak comes as livestock producers across the Atlantic are confronting another insect-borne threat.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has urged member states to blame any incident they find suspicious on Russia even if they lack irrefutable evidence. He also hailed a recent accusation made by Estonia against its eastern neighbor and called on other nations to follow suit.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius this week, Rutte encouraged a public blame game over what he called “malign grey zone activities” routinely attributed to Russia by NATO members.

“You have heard the Supreme Allied Commander yesterday saying, ‘Hey, when able, when you are sure it is the Russians, or almost sure it is the Russians, attribute it to the Russians’ – exactly like Estonia did today. I applaud it,” Rutte said.

Rutte has been known for his staunch anti-Russian position, as well as his ardent support for Kiev in the conflict with Moscow. Last week, he offered to help “protect the United States from threats of Russia” while speaking at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs event in Iowa. During his joint press conference with Sinkevicius, he also maintained that the bloc should be doing “even more for Ukraine, and not less.”

Moscow has dismissed the claims of NATO members regarding the alleged ‘Russian threat’ as “nonsense” and maintained that it has no intention of attacking any member states. It has warned that NATO’s own belligerent rhetoric and military buildup, as well as the surge in NATO military activity along Russia’s western borders could put the bloc on a collision course with Moscow.

Watch the full report here:

French police have arrested a teenager on suspicion of using an aerosol can to direct a jet of flames at a woman’s face during student protests, which are sweeping the country.

The altercation was filmed on Thursday in the southern port city of Marseille, where protesters attacked public transport, torching at least one bus and a fire engine.

The victim, a social worker, told BFM TV that she was waiting for a bus when a crowd of young people approached and began vandalizing the bus stop. She said she tried to intervene, prompting one of the youths to use an aerosol can as an improvised flamethrower.

“I wasn’t expecting such violence. I thought I might get shoved… I didn’t expect kids to be so violent,” the woman said. “Fortunately, my face didn’t suffer injuries as serious as the images might suggest,” she added.

🇫🇷 A woman was burned in the face in Marseille after a masked, hooded rioter used an improvised aerosol “flamethrower” against her during the unrest.

Follow: @europa pic.twitter.com/jEZE6KMrVP

— Europa.com (@europa) October 2, 2026

She suffered first-degree burns to her face, according to Le Parisien.

Police identified the suspect as a 15-year-old boy whose name has not been released.

The demonstrations began in late September over unfilled teaching posts at a high school in Creteil, near Paris, before spreading nationwide as students demanded better learning conditions, including more teachers, smaller classes, and repairs to deteriorating buildings. They have also called for increased funding for public schools.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Friday that 65 education staff, including 40 headteachers, were injured since the protests began. He also reported severe damage at more than 100 schools.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has called for a firm criminal justice response, and where appropriate, for parents to be held civilly liable for damage caused by their children.

The government has also blamed the violence on the left-wing La France Insoumise party and “its far-left proxies.” The party has denied the allegation and urged students to refrain from violence.

Student unions have distanced themselves from the violence but called for further demonstrations on October 6, saying the government has yet to offer concrete measures addressing their concerns.

Louise Paternoster, a CGT education union representative in Seine-Saint-Denis, blamed staffing shortages on government cuts that eliminated 3,256 teaching positions nationwide in 2026.

The government’s proposed 2027 budget, unveiled on Thursday, would increase education funding by €1.2 billion ($1.35 billion) while eliminating another 1,588 teaching posts. Geffray has defended the planned reductions, citing falling student numbers.

The student unrest coincides with broader labor action across France, with unions staging strikes and demonstrations over wages, public spending, and the government’s budget plans.

The US has expelled two more members of the Iranian delegation that attended the UN General Assembly in New York after they allegedly ignored an order to leave the country, AFP and Axios reported on Saturday, citing a State Department official.

US and Iranian negotiators separately met with mediators last month without reaching a breakthrough, leaving the Middle East bracing for a potential resumption of hostilities. US media reported that after the sides failed to reach an agreement on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and other diplomats to leave the country earlier than planned.

“Two more members of the Iranian delegation were found still in [New York] long after the United Nations General Assembly had passed. They have now been kicked out of the US,” a US official told AFP, adding that Rubio “means business.”

According to Axios, one diplomat left on Friday night and the other on Saturday morning.

“Having achieved nothing, the State Department has resorted to propagating baseless and worthless news,” the mission wrote on X on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump has resumed threats to “annihilate” Iran’s leadership in recent weeks, hinting that he could order new strikes unless Tehran accepts his terms.

Iranian officials and the military say they are prepared for further escalation.

“After one failure after another, the worst president in American history just keeps talking – and talking – and now his words have even outrun his own fantasies. You can win every day in your own imagination. But reality is shaped by Iran – by its people, its soldiers, and its missiles,” Mohsen Rezaei, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X on Friday.

The standoff comes as the US reinforces its military presence in the Middle East. The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and USS Makin Island amphibious ready group are heading to the region, adding 9,000 to 10,000 sailors and Marines.

The USS George Washington and USS George H.W. Bush are already operating there. If both remain when the Theodore Roosevelt arrives, the US could have three aircraft carriers in the Middle East by late October.

Some US officials reportedly believe Trump could resume major combat operations after the midterm elections in early November. The war remains unpopular among Americans, with 71% of registered voters saying the Trump administration lacks a clear strategy for ending the conflict, according to a recent Fox News poll.

Nationwide support for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance has collapsed to a historic low following a series of defeats in regional elections, a new poll suggests.

The bloc’s popular backing stood at just 18%, its worst in German postwar history, according to a survey conducted by the INSA polling institution on behalf of Bild.

The poll put the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 30%, the highest since the party was established in 2013. It remains the most popular party in Germany by a wide margin, the poll suggests. The CDU/CSU’s junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Greens are polling at 14% each, with the Left Party at 10%.

The survey was conducted September 28 to October 2 among 1,202 eligible voters; the results were published on Saturday.

Merz has been described as Germany’s least popular head of government in around 30 years. He came to power following snap elections in February 2025, promising to revive Germany’s struggling economy, but has since poured more money into the military while blaming economic problems on Germans themselves.

The survey also came after the CDU suffered defeats to the AfD in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, results Merz described as a “disaster.”

The right-wing party won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt and 38.3% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The CDU finished a distant second in Saxony-Anhalt with 17.5% and failed to clear the electoral threshold in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it received just 4.9%.

Despite the defeats, Merz said he will not change course and will keep focusing on the military buildup and antagonizing Russia. “I will not deviate by a single millimeter from my fundamental conviction that, especially now, we must defend our freedom against Russia,” he stated in early September.

Moscow has dismissed Berlin’s claims regarding the supposed ‘Russian threat’ as “nonsense.”

Journalists and public figures from nearly 40 countries gathered at this year’s Valdai Club conference to discuss how the world is responding to a growing number of crises, and one conclusion stood out – the world has become more complex and there will be no return to an age of simple solutions.

The 20th century gave humanity a great deal, but it also encouraged the belief that fundamental political and social questions can be settled by choosing the correct ideology. Capitalism and communism competed to provide the answer, and after the Cold War, liberal globalism made its own attempt to reduce international affairs to a common set of rules and assumptions, but this has also failed.

We are therefore learning to live in a world where even the most dangerous developments need not produce panic or despair. This was reflected in the agenda at Valdai as participants discussed issues that would have seemed extraordinary 15 or 20 years ago about how societies withstand prolonged war, the increasingly impersonal nature of modern warfare, the military use of AI, and the uncertain future of nuclear deterrence.

Yet these discussions took place without a sense of panic, and without attempts to frighten participants with the prospect of a world in which the US and Europe can no longer set the rules. As Russian President Vladimir Putin argued in the closing session, the global situation under these circumstances could instead change for the better.

One reason is that the overwhelming majority of participants come from countries outside the West, and their perspective is often quite different from that which prevails in Europe, as rather than seeking to restore an international order that is disappearing, they’re trying to understand what will replace it.

In this respect, Valdai provides a useful snapshot of the intellectual debate taking place beyond the Western world.

For Russia, this matters enormously, given new ideas and alternative approaches to development are increasingly being debated in China, India, Iran, and the Arab world, and across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and Russia has much to learn from these discussions.

It’s equally important to understand the thinking of countries that have resisted pressure from the US and Europe and maintained relations with Russia during the past four years. These countries constitute much of the ‘global majority’ with which Russia hopes to build a multipolar international order.

The exchange also gives Russia the opportunity to explain its own perspective, not only on the Ukraine conflict but on broader questions that will shape international affairs for decades, and the first is war.

The second question is how international rules will be established and maintained as Western influence declines.

Russia, China, and other countries have long promoted multipolarity as an alternative model of international order. Putin used his Valdai appearance to call for reform of the UN system and a greater role for developing countries and the Global South in making important international decisions.

The third challenge is older but no less pressing because climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, and poverty have not disappeared, and while the struggle by the US and Europe to preserve their international position has increasingly pushed these questions into the background, they will eventually have to be addressed.

This raises two difficult questions regarding the role China and other Asian powers will play, and which institutions will be capable of coordinating international action.

There is still no clear answer to the first, and Asian countries show little enthusiasm for simply replacing the West as global leaders, but on the second, BRICS increasingly appears capable of playing an important role.

Its weaknesses should not be ignored, because BRICS lacks the internal discipline characteristic of traditional Western alliances, and two of its members, Iran and the UAE, came dangerously close to conflict this spring, yet the organization is increasingly discussed as a source of mutually beneficial ideas and practical solutions.

Another challenge is AI, and this goes far beyond its military uses. Fundamental questions concern the ethical limits of AI, the preservation of humanism, and the danger of what Putin calls “digital totalitarianism.” Technological progress is moving faster than the political and social institutions that are expected to regulate it.

For Russia, perhaps the most important lesson is that the economic and social problems it faces aren’t uniquely Russian, given that countries everywhere are struggling with economic imbalance, technological disruption, and rapid social change, and this is both good and bad news.

It’s good news for Russia because it demonstrates the failure of Western attempts since 2022 to isolate the country from the wider world, but it’s bad news because nobody has discovered universal solutions to these problems.

Economic and social resilience will therefore be critical, as the international system is undergoing changes on a scale rarely seen in modern history. An era lasting more than 500 years, during which Western civilization progressively acquired the ability to determine much of humanity’s political and economic development, is coming to an end, and this transformation coincides with extraordinary advances in technology, medicine, and genetics.

Every major civilization is searching for answers, but the fundamental disagreement concerns how these answers should be found, as Western countries are attempting to preserve the international positions they have accumulated over centuries, while Russia and its partners in BRICS argue instead for an order based on sovereign choice and mutual benefit.

The clash between these two approaches may prove to be the defining conflict of our time.

This article was first published by Vzglyad.ru, translated and edited by the RT team.

Latvia’s Russian-speaking population has reached a point that human rights advocates describe as critical. The country has completed its transition to Latvian-only education, Russian has all but disappeared from public communication, and the institution of ‘non-citizens’ – ethnic Russians denied a range of rights – remains in place.

But on October 3, Latvia elects a new Saeima (parliament). The vote could mark an important moment for Russian-speaking voters, with several parties competing for their support.

Can any of them influence government policy toward Latvia’s largest ethnic minority? Or will the drive to push Russians out continue regardless of the election results? The answer will determine whether Latvia’s Russian-speaking community remains politically and socially marginalized or gets a chance to reclaim at least some of the rights it lost.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 radically changed the position of Russians in Latvia. Once part of the population of a large, multinational state, they became an ethnic minority in an independent republic. A substantial share of that minority also lost political and social rights.

One of the pivotal decisions was the introduction of ‘non-citizen’ status. Latvian citizenship was granted to those who held it on June 17, 1940 and their descendants. Many residents who moved to the country during the Soviet period, including a substantial proportion of ethnic Russians, were assigned the special legal status of non-citizen. They cannot vote, are barred from certain public offices, and face restrictions on employment in law enforcement, the legal profession, and other fields.

“The situation facing Latvia’s Russian-speaking population is grim. Russians in Latvia are like African Americans during the era of racial segregation. They have been stripped of a substantial range of rights. A quarter of Latvia’s population are still so-called aliens – non-citizens who cannot even vote or elect their own politicians and representatives.

Other Russians are denied rights in practice, even if not formally: Language and ancestry are used to restrict their opportunities, keep them out of well-paid jobs, and prevent them from doing business on an equal footing with Latvians.

Russians are almost entirely absent from government. Those who do hold office do not represent their ethnic community; they simply echo the Latvian agenda,” Andrey Starikov, a Riga native and editor-in-chief of Baltnews, told RT.

Language, schools, and cultural life

Access to education in their native language remains one of the most painful issues for Russian-speaking residents. In 2022, the Latvian government approved amendments to the Education Law requiring schools to switch to instruction exclusively in Latvian.

Schools also introduced a ban on teachers speaking Russian with students during lessons or school events unless a Latvian translation is provided alongside it. Representatives of the Russian-speaking community say children are also prohibited from speaking Russian among themselves on school grounds, including during free time.

Russian is gradually disappearing from public life as well. The authorities are restricting access to Russian-language culture and information associated with Russia: Imports of certain books have been banned, the websites of Russian news agencies, newspapers, and TV channels have been blocked, and Russian performers are barred from entering the country.

“In effect, a vast ghetto has been created for Russians in Latvia. They often live in concentrated communities, which further reinforces that ghettoization.

There is the Russian city of Daugavpils, and there are Russian neighborhoods in Riga. Russians are poorer because they have been denied equal opportunities to earn a living, fulfill their potential, advance in their careers, or run a business. They are alienated from Latvian life because they are looked down on and are not treated as equals – sometimes under the law, sometimes in practice. They face a whole host of restrictions,” Starikov said.

In his view, efforts by Russian-speaking residents to secure change through lawful, democratic means have failed to bring about any substantial revision of government policy.

“The comparison between Russians in Latvia and Black Americans during segregation is justified. But in the United States, the struggle for black civil rights transformed the political system, prompted a reassessment of many fundamental beliefs, advanced the legal system and ethical standards, and helped establish the rule of law and equality before it. None of that happened in Latvia.

Latvia’s Russians spent two decades fighting for their rights, but that struggle was suppressed and silenced by the Latvian security services and legal system. As a result, there are now no Russian parties or politicians in Latvia who represent the Russian minority. Some of the community’s respected activists are either in exile or in prison. Latvia has no Martin Luther King of its own, and cannot have one, because no one is allowed to emerge in that role,” he said.

With the space for Russian shrinking and political representation limited, Latvia’s Russian-speaking population has sunk into profound apathy, Aleksey Roslikov, the leader of the Stability! party and a candidate for the Saeima, told RT.

“The apathy among Russian speakers has grown many times worse. Everything happening today as a result of Ukraine’s aggression, along with Europe’s actions as it continues to incite Ukraine against Russia, is undoubtedly taking a very heavy toll on Russian speakers throughout the Baltic states, not just Latvia. All Russian speakers have now been branded enemies and traitors. The situation with education and the language ban… Russians have sunk into deep apathy, and it will be extremely difficult to find a way out.”

Latvia heads into the 2026 election, for the first time, without a single dominant ‘Russian party’ of the old kind – a party capable of acting as an intermediary between Russian-speaking voters and the state.

Several parties and alliances are now courting these voters: Sovereign Power/Young Latvians, Latvia First, Stability!, and Harmony Center. Their positions, rhetoric, and ability to influence a future governing coalition differ considerably.

Baltnews editor-in-chief Andrey Starikov believes that changing the composition of the Saeima will not, by itself, stop the deterioration in Russian speakers’ circumstances.

“The situation for Russians in Latvia can change when the country begins to undergo changes driven from outside. Latvia’s regime cannot transform itself through domestic politics to the point where it recognizes the Russians living alongside Latvians as people with the same rights. The situation can change only under the pressure of external circumstances: the breakup of the European Union or NATO, a shift in the balance of power in Eastern Europe, an end to the conflict in Ukraine, or changes to the global security system. Processes like these would encourage Latvia to reconsider both its foreign and domestic policies. Nothing can be changed from outside through democratic procedures. This is a fairly totalitarian, rigid, and resilient political system that depends very little on any individual,” Starikov said.

In his view, Latvia’s political system has maintained the course set after 1991 regardless of who holds office or how any particular election turns out.

“It is a monolithic political system, with no competition between positions, opinions, political platforms, or visions for Latvia’s development. Elections here are a formality, a ritual. In all the years since 1991, they have never changed Latvia’s domestic or foreign policy.

The political system perpetuates itself. Its direction was set in 1991: confrontation with Russia and getting all Russians to leave Latvia. ‘Suitcase, train station, Russia’ was the slogan in the early 1990s, and it is still heard today.

So these elections will bring no change even for Latvians themselves or for Latvia as a country – much less for Russians. This is simply political theater, a political ritual,” Starikov said.

Roslikov takes a more optimistic view. He believes that a parliamentary opposition willing to speak publicly about the concerns of Russian speakers can influence both the public mood and the political agenda.

The outlook ahead of the vote

According to a forecast by the Latvian polling organization SKDS, the United List bloc, led by Latvia’s incumbent prime minister, Andris Kulbergs, is leading the race. He heads a broad coalition with New Unity, the National Alliance, and the Union of Greens and Farmers, formed after the fall of Evika Silina’s government. The poll puts the bloc’s potential share of the vote at 14.4%.

In second place, with 9.4%, is the center-left Sovereign Power/Young Latvians alliance, formed by politicians expelled from another party in 2022 for refusing to publicly condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine. The alliance hopes to attract votes from the ethnic Russian minority.

Next comes the center-right Latvia First party, with 9.2%. Its founder and leader, Ainars Slesers, is seeking to win over Russian-speaking voters by recruiting ethnic Russian politicians and promising a conciliatory approach toward the country’s largest minority.

The remaining parties are: the Progressives at 6.2%, the National Alliance at 5.6%, the Union of Greens and Farmers at 4.8%, New Unity at 4.3%, Stability! at 2.8%, We Change the Rules at 2.5%, For Latvia’s Development at 2.4%, and Harmony Center at 2%. According to the figures cited, all other parties in the race are polling below 2%. Parties must clear the 5% threshold to enter parliament.

“At the moment, my party has fairly good chances,” Roslikov told RT. “But we fully understand that Europe does not count votes honestly. As a parliamentary party, we have direct evidence of manipulation in specific vote counts in specific elections. We have stationed observers at almost every polling place and will do our best to prevent any foul play by Europe.”

Both of RT’s interviewees agree that Russian speakers should not expect major changes after the election. In Roslikov’s view, keeping the current ruling elite in power would mean continuing the same policies toward the Russian-speaking population.

“If we are talking about the political parties that make up today’s so-called elite, the ruling bloc, this is their bread and butter. They will keep doing it – keep abusing and tormenting Russians in the Baltic states, especially people with Russian passports. There is no hope for change, and there can be none.”

Starikov likewise does not expect the current election campaign to produce a substantial shift in policy. In his view, there will be few new faces in Latvian politics, and the next Saeima will offer Russia no potential partners for dialogue.

“Nevertheless, Russia should still pay attention to this process. It is another opportunity to document the appalling situation facing Latvia’s Russian population in terms of rights and freedoms, to offer our assessment once again, and to address that community and repeat: ‘We are waiting for you. Come to Russia. There is no ultranationalism in Russia. Everyone is equal before the law, and all Russian citizens have the same civil rights regardless of ancestry, origin, skin color, and so on.’”

Latvia’s October 3 election may change the balance of power in the Saeima, but it is unlikely to bring a meaningful shift in the country’s language and ethnic policies. Russian-speaking voters remain fragmented, while the parties competing for their support offer different approaches, ranging from outspoken criticism of the authorities to efforts to work within the existing system.

For Latvia’s Russian residents, the outcome will not be decisive. Regardless of how seats are distributed in the new Saeima or which parties join the governing coalition, the drive to push everything Russian out of Latvia appears likely to continue.

Iran has the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program as a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Beijing has said.

China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Sun Lei, made the statement to the General Assembly on Thursday.

“As a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the NPT, Iran should honor its commitment not to develop nuclear weapons, and its legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy should be respected,” Sun said in a plenary meeting on the use of the veto.

The monitoring body was reinstated as part of the ‘snapback’ mechanism invoked in August by the UK, France, and Germany (the E3), aimed at reimposing sanctions. China and Russia consider the snapback legally invalid and maintain that the sanctions were not restored.

According to Sun, China used its veto to “uphold a correct understanding of right and wrong,” support a political settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue, address non-proliferation concerns, and promote long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.

Under the 2015 agreement, Iran agreed to curtail its enrichment activities in exchange for sanctions relief. President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the agreement in 2018 during his first term and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

In February, the US and Israel attacked Iran in what Trump described as an effort to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the annual Valdai forum on Thursday, said a Russian proposal to transfer Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia remains on the table. The US initially agreed to this but later toughened its position and refused, he said.

“If all the participants in this process ultimately conclude that this would help defuse tensions in any way, we are ready to engage in that work,” Putin stated.

A prisoner being escorted on a train in Russia’s Kabardino-Balkaria attacked law enforcement officers, killing one guard and injuring three others, Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Friday. 

Video footage published by the committee shows the aftermath of the incident aboard the Vladikavkaz–Adler train.

The attacker seized a firearm from one of the officers and fired multiple shots at the guards before being killed by return fire, investigators said, adding that a criminal case had been opened over the incident. 

One of the officers is in serious condition, while two others suffered moderate wounds, RBC reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. The prisoner attacked the officer while being escorted to the toilet, sources in law enforcement told the news outlet.

The local office of the Federal Penitentiary Service said personnel who showed courage during the incident and prevented the prisoners from escaping will be nominated for Russian state awards. One of them will be nominated posthumously.

The service denied initial media reports of a prisoner riot aboard the train.

The partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a prominent US true-crime figure known for her role in the 2015 killing of her abusive mother, has been found dead at his Louisiana home in a suspected drug overdose.

Ken Urker was discovered unresponsive at his Raceland residence on October 1, the day he turned 34 years old, after relatives requested a welfare check when he stopped answering calls and failed to show up for work. Family members said he had seemed depressed and upset the previous evening and later appeared on TikTok Live driving without speaking.

Relatives and Urker’s boss found him lying on his bed, cold to the touch and not breathing, before police arrived. Deputies later found syringes and a spoon near a “brown powdery substance” in the bathroom, along with another syringe, two shot glasses and a holstered handgun on the nightstand. The police report said Urker was “dead upon arrival.”

In a statement to the media on Friday, the local sheriff’s office said there were no signs of foul play but that the death remained under investigation.

The case that made Blanchard famous

Blanchard became the focus of intense media attention after the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who had abused her.

According to well-documented accounts, Dee Dee portrayed her daughter as seriously ill and disabled for much of her childhood, isolating her and forcing her to use a wheelchair and undergo unnecessary medical procedures, while obtaining donations and other benefits based on her supposed illnesses. As she grew older, Blanchard began secretly communicating online and met her future boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, with whose help she plotted Dee Dee’s killing. Blanchard provided Godejohn with a knife he used to stab her mother to death at their home in Springfield, Missouri, on June 14, 2015.

Prosecutors took Blanchard’s circumstances into account when she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016. She was sentenced to ten years in prison and served more than seven before being released on parole in 2023. Godejohn was separately convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The case attracted widespread attention while Blanchard was still incarcerated and resulted in multiple screen adaptations, including HBO’s 2017 documentary ‘Mommy Dead and Dearest’ and Hulu’s 2019 drama series ‘The Act’. Interest further intensified after her release: she gained millions of social media followers, made numerous media appearances and became the subject of Lifetime’s reality show ‘Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up’, which followed her adjustment to life outside prison.

A relationship that began in prison

Urker first contacted Blanchard in 2017, while she was serving her sentence, after watching a documentary about her. He sent what she later described as a “supportive letter” along with his phone number. Their friendship eventually became romantic, and Urker proposed during a prison visit in 2018, but the couple called off their engagement the following year and later separated.

Blanchard rekindled her relationship with Urker in 2024. In December of that year, a year after she had left prison, the couple had a daughter. Blanchard earlier acknowledged that her relationship with Urker had faced difficulties, including the pressure of constant public attention.

By the time of Urker’s death, the couple had reportedly separated again. Accounts citing family sources claim they began living apart roughly two months earlier and ended their romantic relationship about a month before his death, though they continued co-parenting their daughter. Some reports attributed the breakup to Urker’s mental health struggles.

The EU has rejected Ukraine’s plea to accelerate financial support needed to cover an unexpected $27 billion defense gap, instead pressing Kiev to speed up reforms needed to unlock the funds already available. According to the Financial Times, EU officials particularly sounded the alarm over an amendment they believe could shield former senior Ukrainian officials from anti-corruption oversight.

Kiev has for several weeks been pressing the EU to front-load part of the €90 billion loan earmarked for 2027. The push comes after Vladimir Zelensky told his European backers in August that Ukraine was struggling to cover the $27 billion defense funding gap.

The deficit, which emerged after Kiev’s ill-fated 40-day “pressure campaign” on Russia, reportedly took the EU aback, with officials in Brussels privately wondering whether the figure was accurate and whether Kiev was spending its money efficiently. Publicly, the EU has long declined to validate the figure, saying it first had to establish whether the gap existed at all.

Separately on Friday, EU Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho stressed that “we had never said that there was a financial gap.” Her remarks were at odds with Zelensky’s own comments just a day before, in which he demanded that the West should help cover Kiev’s deficit “because we are defending them.”

According to a letter cited by the FT, European commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis and Marta Kos raised particular concern over a controversial provision that Ukrainian lawmakers had attached to an unrelated digital-platform taxation bill.

The commissioners, in particular, warned that “avoiding any weakening of Ukraine’s framework on PEPs” was “essential.” 

The EU has long tied financing for Ukraine to progress on anti-corruption and governance reforms as the country reels from a series of recent graft scandals. The largest centers on an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at state nuclear operator Energoatom, which was reportedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business partner of Zelensky.

Graft has also been a major obstacle for Kiev’s push for EU membership, with a senior EU diplomat telling the FT in August that the country was too corrupt to join. “You can’t bring a country of 40 million people that’s at 104 on the global corruption list into the EU. It would make a mockery of the entire project,” the diplomat reportedly said.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) has announced plans to launch a probe into a new religious affairs office recently unveiled by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

The Wisconsin-based nonprofit said on Thursday that it is seeking transparency into the office’s funding, operations and plans to assess troops’ “spiritual fitness.”

The announcement came shortly after Hegseth said the Pentagon was establishing the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA) to address what he described as a decline in religious community in the military following an era of “political correctness.”

In his State of the Force address on Wednesday at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Hegseth said the new office’s head is expected to serve as the secretary and deputy secretary’s chief adviser on religious affairs.

According to the memorandum signed by the secretary earlier this week, the office is tasked with aligning religious-affairs policy, overseeing the Armed Forces Chaplains Board, representing the department to civilian religious endorsing organizations, and sponsoring research and tools to “support and assess spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience.”

The FFRF said it will use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows the public to request records from US government agencies, to seek documents on the office’s funding, budget and staffing. The group also wants records on how the Pentagon defines and plans to assess “spiritual fitness,” “spiritual readiness” and “spiritual resilience,” including any technologies or tools being considered. The requests will also cover ties to outside religious groups and records concerning atheist, humanist and other nonreligious service members and potential First Amendment issues.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser said Hegseth’s new office would elevate Christianity’s role in shaping US military policy. She also accused him of using his position to advance what she described as a “Christian Nationalist agenda” in the military.

In March, The Washington Post cited former senior military officials and experts on religion and law as saying that Hegseth’s religious policies had challenged longstanding norms limiting the promotion of a particular faith. The war secretary reportedly held monthly evangelical services at the Pentagon at the time, while department employees were reluctant to discuss concerns related to his religious campaign.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon, at Hegseth’s initiative, cut the number of recognized religious denominations and belief systems for service members from 211 to 31. The department’s latest official breakdown from 2019 shows that about 70% of active-duty service members identified as Christian, 2% as atheist or agnostic, and 24% as having no religious affiliation or an unknown religious affiliation.

The US has delivered Taiwan’s first two newly built F-16 fighter jets, part of an $8 billion order that has repeatedly drawn condemnation from Beijing.

The two aircraft, the modern F-16V Block 70 variant, arrived in Taiwan on Friday. They are the first of 66 new fighters approved for sale by Washington in 2019.

Beijing has long opposed US arms sales to Taiwan, which it considers part of China. The delivery came a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Washington and urged US President Donald Trump to oppose “Taiwan independence” and “handle the Taiwan question with caution.”

The new jets will join Taiwan’s existing fleet of older F-16 variants, which Taipei has operated since the late 1990s. The first aircraft from the 66-plane order were initially expected in 2023, but deliveries were delayed by software development and production issues.

The US maintains a one-China policy but remains Taiwan’s primary foreign arms supplier.

Under the Trump administration, Washington has approved its largest military packages for Taiwan to date, greenlighting an unprecedented $11 billion in arms last December. Trump has also stalled an even larger $14 billion military package for months, openly describing the sale as a “very good negotiating chip” in talks with Beijing.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory under the One China principle, a position recognized in varying formulations by most UN member states, including Russia. China has said it prefers peaceful reunification but has not ruled out the use of force.

A US appeals court has blocked Minnesota’s ban on AI-generated fake nude images, handing Elon Musk’s xAI an early victory in its free-speech challenge to the law.

The state’s anti-nudification legislation – the first in the nation – which took effect last month, targets apps and websites that enable non-consensual sexualized deepfakes, with fines of up to $500,000 per image. It was spearheaded by state Senator Erin Maye Quade after a man allegedly used social media photos to create explicit images of more than 80 women without their consent. Quade likened the measure to longstanding laws against peeping through windows to take photographs.

Musk’s xAI challenged the law in July on First Amendment grounds, calling it an “overbroad, content-based ban on free speech” and warning that penalties could run into the billions of dollars.

This comes as the company faces allegations involving the content the law targets. A class-action lawsuit proposed earlier this year claims that xAI’s Grok Imagine was used to create and distribute child sexual abuse material from real images, and accuses xAI of failing to provide the authorities with information on users who allegedly ‘nudified’ them.

Minnesota urged the court to keep the law in place, arguing that it is needed to combat the “staggering amount” of child sexual abuse material generated by AI products such as Grok Imagine. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office said it is disappointed by the ruling and will continue defending the law.

XAI previously mounted a similar First Amendment challenge to a California law restricting AI-generated election deepfakes. A federal judge struck it down last year, finding the restrictions, as written, amounted to unconstitutional censorship. XAI also argues that Grok Imagine has “rigorous protections” against illegal content and has begun suing users it accuses of bypassing safeguards to create non-consensual sexual images.

Losing control of AI?

The news comes amid broader unease over rapidly advancing AI, from privacy and copyright risks to threats to the livelihoods of human creators, with copyright disputes already sparking dozens of lawsuits.

Recently, attention has shifted to increasingly autonomous models going rogue and acting outside their intended environments. Since ChatGPT creator OpenAI’s agents escaped a test environment and accessed Hugging Face servers over the summer, models from companies such as Google, Anthropic, and Meta have gained unauthorized access to or attempted to breach systems belonging to businesses, governments, and international organizations.

AI companies have begun reporting rogue behavior by their models with growing frequency. OpenAI said on Wednesday that its models may have bypassed safeguards or negatively affected systems at more than 100 organizations, significantly expanding the known scale of incidents. Though AI companies say the the breaches have so far caused little or no harm, they have raised questions over whether developers can maintain control as models gain greater autonomy. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently called for a “balanced rate” of development to give safeguards time to catch up – an appeal backed by Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“What’s good for a Russian is death to a German.” Russian speakers often use this tongue-in-cheek saying to explain the differences between the Russian and German mindsets, whether in everyday matters – such as how mustard should taste – or in deeper questions of worldview and existence.

Many scholars, including the distinguished Russian historian Vasily Klyuchevsky, have attributed this unmistakable civilizational divide between Europe’s two largest peoples to geography, climate, and landscape, which shaped different ways of life. Living in a predictable climate, Germans developed a habit of methodical, steady work. They could plan ahead because their surroundings allowed them to anticipate the results of their efforts with considerable certainty. Russians, by contrast, inhabit a land of unpredictable conditions stretching, in the words of Russia’s modern national anthem, “from the southern seas to the polar frontier.” They have often found that planning ahead can prove utterly futile. As a result, they frequently have to work at a furious pace within tight deadlines, relying on the distinctly Russian notion of avos: the hope that somehow, things will work out.

Germany’s current leadership views Russia as a threat to national security, much as its predecessors did on the eve of the First and Second World Wars. It is methodically remilitarizing the economy and expanding military assistance to Ukraine in an effort to weaken Russia across the board. In 2022-2023, at the beginning of the special military operation, aid packages were limited in scale and narrowly targeted. Starting in 2024, however, Berlin shifted toward long-term contracts for equipment and drones worth more than $10 billion a year, making Germany the EU’s largest provider of bilateral military assistance to Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, formerly Germany’s defense minister, has quietly emerged as the chief overseer of how German funds are distributed. Meanwhile, in keeping with this gradual drift toward military confrontation with our country, Friedrich Merz’s government is continuing Olaf Scholz’s policy of dismantling Russia’s diplomatic presence in Germany. After forcing the closure of Russian consulates general in Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Leipzig in May 2023, Berlin decided this September to shut down the consulate general in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in Berlin.

Recognizing that their government has set the country on a dead-end course, ordinary German citizens are beginning to push back, increasingly throwing their support behind Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party promises a 180-degree turn in both foreign and domestic policy – not a “360-degree” turn, as former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock once proposed, inadvertently producing Germany’s defining political meme of the past decade. In the 2021 election, the main opposition party won just 10% of the vote. Four years later, in the snap election of 2025, its share reached 28.5%. For the first time since German reunification in 1990, it came out on top in every eastern state of the former East Germany. This year, AfD consolidated its gains with victories in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

To be sure, the party’s victories remain regional, and Germany’s other political parties refuse to consider the movement led by Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla even as a hypothetical coalition partner. But if its electoral base continues to expand, drawing support not only from native-born Germans but eventually from immigrant communities as well, AfD could have a chance of securing more than 50% of the vote nationwide. That would allow it to form a government on its own.

”As for German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, he requested a meeting at the last minute. We had an opening this morning, before my address to the General Assembly. We never refuse to hear out any of our colleagues, including those who accuse Russia of every sin imaginable… When we met, I invited Foreign Minister Wadephul to explain what he had come to discuss. He took out his notes and read a text that repeated, word for word, what Germany’s leaders say publicly and officially every day. I told him as much. I learned nothing new… I told him frankly that I had thought he might have something interesting or out of the ordinary to say. They could simply have called and told us to read their official statements…”

Why have relations between Moscow and Berlin deteriorated so profoundly that even meetings between their foreign ministers have become fruitless exchanges of prepared talking points, rather than negotiations aimed at a breakthrough? At least three factors deserve attention.

1) Berlin’s unconstructive role in efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine

From the earliest days of the Ukraine crisis, Germany sought to control the diplomatic process in order to put the country firmly on an anti-Russian course. In February 2014, after unrest broke out on the Maidan, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French and Polish counterparts, Laurent Fabius and Radoslaw Sikorski, acted as guarantors of an agreement between President Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition. It called for a national unity government, early elections, and an end to all forms of violence. As we know, the protesters soon violated the agreement, took up arms, and staged the ‘Revolution of Dignity’.

A year later, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande joined Russia as mediators in talks between Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, culminating in the signing of the package of measures to implement the Minsk agreements. After leaving office, Merkel admitted that Minsk II had been needed not to end Ukraine’s civil war, but to provide cover for further arming the Ukrainian military.

2) The severing of trade and economic ties with Russia

Apart from brief recessions associated with global upheavals such as the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021, Germany’s economy recorded steady annual growth of 1-3.5% in the 21st century. Cheap Russian energy, which helped fuel industrial expansion, was one of the most important ingredients in that success. Another was access to Russia’s sizable market, where more than 6,000 German companies were doing business at the peak of commercial ties.

Germany’s modern ‘economic miracle’ came to an end when its government became a driving force behind the EU’s adoption of a 21st sanctions package, prompting a mass exodus of German capital from Russia. Berlin then refused to investigate the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which damaged the country’s industrial capacity and helped drive some German manufacturing operations outside the EU.

As a result, the economy has stagnated since 2022, with an annual shortfall of around 1%. The broader social and political climate offers little cause for optimism, as low birth rates and an influx of illegal immigrants put growing pressure on public finances. All of this invites grim thoughts about the inevitability of Germany’s “self-destruction,” to borrow the term used by German commentator Thilo Sarrazin. At least, that is, Germany as it has existed since reunification – a process that essentially amounted to West Germany economically ‘devouring’ the East, an approach that reached its natural limits in the early 2020s.

3) Confidence that Russia will act responsibly

Russia has long served as a bogeyman in the German media. Yet, paradoxically, Germany’s government is militarizing the economy in the belief that an actual shooting war may never materialize.

First, the longer Germany uses Ukraine as a military and political battering ram against Russia, the longer Russian forces will remain focused on the special military operation. That spares Germany’s regular armed forces from having to fight Russia directly with everything at their disposal.

Finally, however belligerent some German politicians may sound, they cannot simply switch off their historical memory. It reminds them that over the past three centuries alone, the Russian army has liberated Berlin – Germany’s present-day capital – three times, exactly once per century. It is hard to imagine a German politician today eager to play ‘Russian roulette’ a fourth time. And that brings us back to a defining difference between Russians and Germans: we may take a long time to harness the horses, but once we get moving, we move fast – especially in times of great geopolitical upheaval.

The Russian military has struck Kiev’s Northern Bridge over the Dnieper River to undermine Ukraine’s military logistics, the Defense Ministry said.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said the overnight drone barrage hit an 800-meter road bridge in the Ukrainian capital, which it said was used for Ukrainian troop movements and transporting military cargo.

Officials also said drones struck the Gostomel logistics center in Kiev Region where military supplies are stored. Another attack hit a dry-cargo vessel carrying dual-use equipment as it sailed through the northwestern Black Sea toward Odessa, the statement added.

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko confirmed that the Northern Bridge was hit, adding that the road surface and trolleybus contact network were damaged and that traffic was suspended. Videos shared by Ukrainian media show major traffic jams in one of the capital’s districts.

There are eight major road and rail bridges connecting the eastern and western parts of Kiev. Earlier this week, Russia targeted the Pivdennyi (southern) Bridge, saying it was “facilitating troop movements and the logistical delivery of military cargo for the Ukrainian military units in Donbass.”

A local official told Strana.ua that the bridge carries up to 90% of transit road traffic between Ukraine’s left- and right-bank regions and also handles a significant share of military shipments.

Russia has intensified strikes on military-related logistics and defense industrial base in recent weeks in response to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s 40-day PR ‘pressure campaign’, which included long-range strikes targeting oil refineries and civilian infrastructure deep inside Russia.

The man accused of murdering former UK Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe has also been charged with preparing a terrorist attack on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Joshua Kerry, 28, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire was charged on Friday under the Terrorism Act 2006 and will appear in court on Wednesday, police said. The new charge relates to activities that allegedly took place May 31 to July 8.

“We have been running a hugely intensive and complex investigation for some time. The charge announced today is a result of the tireless work of investigators across the Counter Terrorism Policing network,” Vicki Evans, the senior national coordinator for counter terrorism policing, said.

“My profound sympathies are with Nigel Farage and his family. Let no one make any mistake: an attack on anyone in politics is an attack on us all,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wrote on X. She added that the case “raises serious questions about the security of those in public life.”

Kerry was arrested shortly after Widdecombe’s body was found on July 9 at her rural home in southwest England. Prosecutors allege that the suspect struck the 78-year-old politician 21 times with a hammer in an attack that was caught on camera. No motive has yet been made public.

A Conservative MP for more than two decades, Widdecombe served as employment minister and later as prisons minister. From 2019 to 2020, she was a member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party, which Farage co-founded.

She was known for her socially conservative views, opposing same-sex marriage and abortion. In 2019, a theater show featuring Widdecombe was canceled after critics accused her of endorsing conversion therapy, the controversial practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Widdecombe argued that her comments were misconstrued.

He was doused with milkshakes while campaigning in 2019 and again in 2024, and has also had eggs and other objects thrown at him.

In April 2025, a suspected incendiary device was pushed through the letterbox of his home and burned itself out. Counter-terrorism police reopened the investigation this year after identifying a previously missed line of inquiry. No one has been charged over the incident.

Reform UK said Farage’s publicly funded security was cut by 75% last year, forcing the party and private donors to fund additional protection. Parliamentary authorities have declined to confirm the figure, citing security concerns.

Saudi Arabia is planning a major offensive in civil war-torn Yemen, hoping to reverse gains made by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who seized a strategic Red Sea chokepoint last month, Reuters reported on Friday, citing Gulf and Yemeni officials and Western diplomats.

More than 100,000 Yemeni government troops could be mobilized for the offensive, depending on the scale, according to Reuters. The operation would be overseen by Saudi Arabia and supported by Saudi airstrikes. The US and other Western countries providing intelligence and material support to Riyadh are not expected to take part in combat operations.

According to Reuters, the Saudis are considering two options: an attack focused on recapturing the coastal area around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, or a broader offensive involving synchronized attacks on multiple fronts in Al-Bayda, Marib, Taiz, and Al-Jawf.

The fighting escalated again last month, with the Houthis accusing Riyadh of imposing an illegal siege on Yemen. The rebels have since captured the strategic port of Mokha and Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The Houthis said on Friday that Saudi forces carried out 94 strikes on areas under their control over the previous 24 hours. Omar al-Bukhaiti, a spokesman for the Houthi-run government in Sanaa, accused the kingdom of deliberately targeting civilian sites, including schools and health facilities.

The group earlier fired drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia, targeting energy facilities, but denied striking a power station in Medina, one of Islam’s holiest cities, dismissing the Saudi claim as a “lie.”

Several Saudi allies have stepped up military support for the kingdom. Britain has agreed to provide air-to-air refueling for Saudi warplanes, while France is sending troops, radar, and air-defense systems to help protect the Red Sea oil hub of Yanbu.

Pakistan has deployed 30,000 to 40,000 troops to Saudi Arabia to help defend its borders and intercept missiles and drones, Reuters reported, citing a Pakistani official. Islamabad has also supplied air-defense systems, artillery, drones, and anti-drone equipment, while Pakistani military advisers are working alongside Saudi personnel supporting Yemeni forces. Pakistan has not, however, decided to send troops into Yemen for combat operations.

The governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv Region has paid tribute to a recently deceased veteran of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, whose soldiers were implicated in massacres of civilians in Poland and Soviet Ukraine during World War II.

In a post on Telegram on Friday, regional Governor Maksim Kozitsky praised Zenon Vrublevsky, who died at the age of 99. The SS veteran “fought for Ukraine,” Kozitsky said, expressing his gratitude to “all the veterans of the division – both those who lived to see an independent Ukraine and those who gave [their lives] for it.” His death was widely covered by Ukrainian media.

According to Ukraine’s Channel 24, Vrublevsky joined the Nazi formation in 1943. Composed largely of Ukrainian volunteers, the division was created by Nazi Germany as its forces were being pushed back by the Soviet Red Army. Vrublevsky was captured by Soviet forces following the Battle of Brody the following year but escaped and joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

Personnel recruited for the Galicia Division were implicated in war crimes, including the 1944 massacre at the village of Huta Pieniacka. Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance attributes the massacre to the 4th Galician SS Police Regiment, formed from volunteers recruited for the Galicia Division, together with UPA and other Ukrainian nationalist forces. Around 850 Polish civilians were killed.

Ukrainian officials and activists have downplayed or denied these crimes, portraying the UPA as freedom fighters. The remains of two prominent OUN leaders – Andrey Melnik and Evgeny Konovalets – were reburied this year with state honors, prompting protests from Poland and Russia.

Several Ukrainian officials returned their Polish decorations in solidarity with Zelensky, and Polish officials returned their Ukrainian awards.

Moscow has accused the Ukrainian leadership of embracing neo-Nazism. In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that despite the “well-known Russophobia in the politics of Poland,” Warsaw was right to condemn “the ideology of neo-Nazism” in Ukraine.

Pope Leo XIV has called on artists to join forces to protect human creativity in the age of AI.

Speaking to cultural figures at the Vatican on Friday, the Pope said the Catholic Church hopes to renew its alliance with them to safeguard “what is human.”

“We live in the age of search engines that offer us thousands of instantaneous answers,” he said, contrasting them with art, which he described as a different kind of “search engine” that “does not proceed by indexing but by inquiry.”

He warned that one of the dangers facing modern culture is “homogenization,” arguing that art can provide a counterweight by challenging people rather than simply giving them what they expect.

”Your art… when it draws our gaze, when it compels us to pause before that which cannot be consumed, is a form of cultural and spiritual regeneration,” he said.

Turning directly to AI, the Pope said it is becoming increasingly important to distinguish human art from machine-generated works.

“The Church needs you,” he said. “Algorithms lack the spark of the human, whereas authentic culture and art preserve this spark.”

He told reporters this week that he is not in “panic mode” over AI and can still “sleep at night,” but said warnings from experts about the potential dangers should be taken seriously.

Artists and other creative professionals have increasingly pushed back against generative AI, arguing that developers have trained models on copyrighted works without permission or compensation. They have also raised concerns that AI-generated images, music, and writing could displace human creators, drive down the value of their work, and make it increasingly difficult to distinguish original art from machine-generated imitations.

Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger said last month that he believes there is a greater than 10% chance that AI “could kill all humans” within the next decade.

Others have expressed optimism, with US President Donald Trump dismissing concerns over an AI takeover as a “hoax.” On Tuesday, he signed a deal with executives from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia aimed at introducing safeguards to ensure that “their technology behaves as intended.”

Yemen’s Houthis have denied targeting a power station in the city of Medina. A Saudi-led coalition earlier accused the militant group of targeting the facility supplying power to the Prophet’s Mosque – one of the holiest sites in the Muslim world.

A senior Houthi official branded the accusation a “lie” aimed at tarnishing the group’s image and reinforcing similar claims made by the coalition in the past.

On Thursday, the Saudi coalition’s spokesman, Major General Turki al-Maliki, accused the Yemeni militants of striking the Taibah electricity distribution station in Medina earlier this week in what he called a “cowardly terrorist act” and a part of an alleged broader campaign by the Houthis to “target the Two Holy Mosques.”

In mid-September, Saudi Arabia accused the Houthis of launching a drone towards the holy city of Mecca. The unmanned aerial vehicle was intercepted and destroyed, it added. The Yemeni movement’s leader, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, dismissed that claim as a “heinous lie” in a televised address at the time, claiming Riyadh was “weaponizing lies” to advance its own agenda.

Ankara denounced this week’s alleged Medina attack. “Any attack targeting the sanctity, peace, and security of the Two Holy Mosques is an unacceptable affront directed at the shared sensitivities of the entire Islamic world,” the Turkish government spokesman, Burhanettin Duran, said on X on Friday. He vowed that Türkiye “will continue to stand by Saudi Arabia.”

The developments come amid the continued escalation between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition. Riyadh has backed Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since intervening in the country’s civil war in 2015.

Large-scale fighting largely subsided after a UN-brokered truce in 2022, but the conflict erupted again this summer after an airport in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital of Sanaa was bombed to prevent a returning Houthi delegation that had flown to Iran from landing.

The terror plot that wasn’t 

The arrest of five men at RAF Fairford in the UK on Sunday sparked a terror panic whose consequences are still playing out almost a week later. Shortly after the arrests, British Foreign Secretary Ed Milliband described the incident as an example of “the threats our country faces,” while the British media’s ‘security experts’ pinned the blame on Iran – or in some cases Russia.

“Our belief that we believe” is not the most confident assertion, and this was immediately picked up in Tehran. “I can confirm Iran’s belief that releasing supposed terrorists working for foreign states really says it all. You’re barking up the wrong tree,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.

Counterterror police arrested a British-Iranian dual national in connection with the supposed plot on Thursday, but it’s still unclear whether he’ll be charged. 

Russia reveals its red lines

It is unsurprising that the British media immediately used the incident to escalate tensions with Iran and Russia. After days of intensifying war rhetoric from Ukraine’s British and European backers – which RT is tracking in our ‘Escalation Watch’ special – Russia definitively restated its red lines this week.

In a statement released by three of its embassies on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow “would be ready to use all its arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to defend its territory if NATO countries try to isolate Kaliningrad region from the rest of the country.”

⚡️ Statement by the Embassy of Russia in Ireland (September 29, 2026)

There has been an abundance of talk, recently, from the European political circles that Russia somehow is planning to launch a military invasion of Europe, escalate its alleged hybrid campaign against… pic.twitter.com/eQsrIUFwmL

— Russia in Ireland (@Rus_Emb_Ireland) September 30, 2026

NATO has carried out several military exercises near Kaliningrad this year, and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recently called on the bloc’s military chiefs to surge troops to the Kaliningrad border so that Moscow would be “uncertain of what we will do.” 

Western “hotheads,” however, would do well to consider that NATO’s Article 5 – the bloc’s mutual-defense clause – isn’t as clear-cut as it’s sometimes portrayed. As Russian International Affairs Council President Dmitry Trenin wrote for RT this week, it’s “deliberately ambiguous,” heavily mythologized, and doesn’t guarantee US intervention.

Meanwhile, Russia has continued to intensify its strikes on Ukrainian military and dual-use targets, hitting data centers and logistics hubs in Kiev, and ports and warehouses on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. 

Speaking at Valdai, Putin ruled out any kind of ‘energy ceasefire’. With Ukraine striking Russian refineries and sanctions impairing Russia’s ability to export oil, the idea that Moscow “is supposed to stop hitting things that are important to their economy” is “absurd,” the Russian president stated.

The FlyDubai emergency

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warnings of an imminent attack against the Jewish state were almost realized on Wednesday, when the first officer of a FlyDubai Boeing 737 en route to Tel Aviv allegedly stabbed his captain and attempted to crash the airliner. 

The pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar, has become a national hero in his native India, while the passengers who reportedly stormed the cockpit were lauded by Netanyahu upon arrival in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu has claimed that the first officer had acted based on “Islamist radical indoctrination,” while his government considers the incident an attempted “terrorist attack.”

Although Netanyahu’s ministers have already used the incident to justify – in the words of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir – taking their war against “Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]... to the next level”, the unanswered questions are piling up, as Middle East analyst Farhad Ibragimov wrote for RT.

Lavrov shuts down the propaganda

Another unanswered question: what exactly do Western leaders mean when they accuse Russia of waging “hybrid war?” The accusation, typically leveled at Russia after drone sightings, fires and accidents at weapons factories, and even natural disasters, is almost never substantiated, yet serves to justify the West’s rearmament and escalating war rhetoric against Moscow. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov refused to play into the narrative when he was questioned by the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg on Tuesday. The British state journalist asked Lavrov if he would admit “that Russia is waging a covert hybrid war against European countries,” but Lavrov flipped the questioning.

“Are you referring to when we destroy the drones and missiles that Britain and continental Europe supply to Ukraine, which are then fired at us?” the Russian foreign minister retorted. “Is that what you mean by hybrid war?” 

Rosenberg wasn’t the only Western antagonist humiliated this week. On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered the indignity of having to stand beside Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Berlin, as Tokayev described Putin as “an outstanding statesman” possessing “the qualities that are most essential for the leader of a great country.”

Merz, fresh from his party’s back-to-back election losses last month, then traveled to Munster on Thursday, where NATO had inexplicably been awarded the ‘Westphalian Peace Prize’. After NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte accepted the award, he and Merz were met with boos, whistles, and chants of “murderers” and “blood on your hands” when they stepped outside to greet the public.

Russia expands its Arctic footprint

Finally, while it’s easy to assume that the world’s great powers have traversed, mapped, and tamed every inch of the Earth’s surface, that’s not the case, and new milestones are still being reached. On Tuesday, the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet announced that it had traversed the iceberg-filled Shokalsky Strait for the first time in history. 

The strait runs between October Revolution Island and Bolshevik Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, deep inside the Arctic Circle along the strategically important Northern Sea Route.

Russia is invested in the development of the Northern Sea Route, which is the shortest maritime passage between the Asia-Pacific region and northern Europe. Moscow has also renovated some of its Soviet-era military bases along its northern coast, and stepped up military exercises in the Arctic. As the Northern Fleet passed through the Shokalsky Strait this week, its reconnaissance teams practiced amphibious assault maneuvers on the western side of October Revolution Island.

Renewed fighting between Ethiopia’s federal government and regional armed groups has escalated into a diplomatic rupture with former wartime ally Eritrea. What was an internal conflict has become a wider regional confrontation over ports, water, and alleged foreign interference. The violence threatens a fragile 2022 peace deal that ended Ethiopia’s two-year Tigray war, raising fears of a return to full-scale conflict. 

What triggered the diplomatic rupture?

Ethiopia announced on Thursday the closure of its embassy in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and ordered ten Eritrean diplomats stationed in Addis Ababa to leave Ethiopia within 48 hours. Its Foreign Ministry accused them of threatening national security and blamed Eritrea for “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence against Ethiopia.”

Eritrea reciprocated the measure and severed “all diplomatic ties with Ethiopia with all the negative corollaries that this entails.” It rejected the allegations and accused Addis Ababa of planning to take Eritrean ports and of training and arming Eritrean opposition groups to pursue regime change. Addis Ababa said it remained committed to peaceful coexistence and resolving disputes through dialogue.

The breakdown in relations came days after Addis Ababa accused Eritrea of financing armed groups seeking to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Asmara denies the accusations. 

What are they fighting over?

The conflict grew out of a struggle over federal power and regional autonomy. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party governing Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, dominated national politics for nearly three decades before Abiy took office in 2018. Tigrayan leaders accused his government of seeking to centralize power at the region’s expense. Their confrontation erupted into war in November 2020.

Eritrean troops and Amhara forces fought alongside the federal army. Hundreds of thousands died before an African Union-mediated agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa, in November 2022 halted the large-scale fighting. But disputes over territory claimed by both Amhara and Tigray, the return of displaced people, and the disarmament of Tigrayan forces remained unresolved. Addis Ababa accuses the TPLF of failing to disarm; Tigrayan leaders accuse the government of failing to honor the settlement.

The TPLF further strained the settlement in May by restoring Tigray’s prewar regional council, displacing the interim administration established under the agreement. Amhara militia fighters known as Fano, meanwhile, had turned against Addis Ababa in 2023 after the government moved to dismantle regional security forces. 

Why has fighting resumed in Ethiopia?

On September 20, seven armed groups, including the TPLF and its former battlefield enemies, announced an alliance pledging to oust Abiy’s government and establish a transitional administration. The coalition, known as the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, accused the ruling Prosperity Party of imposing “dictatorial” rule and pushing the East African country toward disintegration. 

Clashes erupted two days later. TPLF forces took control of airports in Mekelle, Axum and Shire, prompting state-owned Ethiopian Airlines to suspend flights to all three cities. Flights were also suspended to the Amhara town of Lalibela, home to UNESCO-listed rock-hewn churches, as fighting spread.

On September 23, Addis Ababa accused the TPLF of launching an “all-out offensive” against government positions in Amhara and Afar. Tigray’s regional authorities said their troops entered a “defensive battle” after federal forces attacked them with aircraft, drones, and artillery. The federal army said it had repelled attacks in Amhara’s North Wollo Zone and killed 272 Tigrayan fighters and wounded 260 others in a counteroffensive.

What is the impact on civilians?

Doctors Without Borders reported more than 420 war-wounded patients at Korem and Alamata hospitals between September 22 and 25, and over 300 at Suhul hospital in Shire during the latest fighting. Insecurity forced the organization to suspend activities at Alamata hospital.

On September 25, UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned forced recruitment by the TPLF, including of children, and reprisals against those resisting recruitment and their families. He also raised reports of arbitrary conscription by government forces.

Why did Ethiopia and Eritrea fall out? 

Eritrea was once part of Ethiopia but gained independence in 1993 after a decades-long liberation war, leaving Ethiopia landlocked. The neighbors fought a border war in 1998–2000, followed by years of hostility until Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki reconciled in 2018. The rapprochement helped earn Abiy the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

Their partnership fractured after the Tigray war. Eritrea was not a party to the Pretoria agreement despite its military involvement. According to the International Crisis Group, Asmara resented being sidelined and wanted Addis Ababa to pursue a complete battlefield victory over the TPLF rather than a negotiated settlement.

Ethiopia’s accusations extend beyond Eritrea. Army chief Birhanu Jula also accused Egypt and Sudan of supporting the rebels. Both countries denied the allegations. On Thursday, Ethiopia ordered an Egyptian diplomat to leave within 48 hours. Egypt retaliated by giving an Ethiopian Embassy counselor the same deadline, calling Addis Ababa’s decision unjustified.

Sudan’s army has also accused Ethiopia of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, its opponent in a civil war that began in April 2023.

How are regional and international bodies responding?

The AU has urged Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Egypt to exercise “maximum restraint and refrain from actions or statements that could further escalate tensions and undermine regional peace and stability.” It asked the three countries to resolve their differences through diplomatic channels.

The UN and EU also urged de-escalation. Russia called for a ceasefire on September 25. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova urged compliance with peace commitments and noninterference, stressing Ethiopia’s unity and territorial integrity.

Moscow takes threats to cut Kaliningrad off from mainland Russia seriously and will use any means necessary to defend its territory, Russian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the OSCE Dmitry Polyansky told RT on Friday.

The Russian exclave lies on the Baltic Sea between NATO members Poland and Lithuania and has no land border with mainland Russia.

“Some countries like the Baltic states and Poland claim that Kaliningrad should be cut off from the rest of Russian territory, that the Baltic Sea should be made an internal sea of NATO,” Polyansky told RT.

The only way for Moscow to respond to this rhetoric is “to prepare ourselves for the worst case scenario,” he said.

“Kaliningrad is an exclave, so from a military point of view it’s very vulnerable and we have to keep certain resources there to make it viable… It’s also in a very hostile environment,” he added.

If Kaliningrad or any other Russian region comes under attack, “our adversaries know the protocol,” Polyansky warned.

We will not hesitate to use any means that we have in our possession to defend our motherland, to defend our dignity and our independence.

“There are a lot of personalities in Europe – especially the EU – who are making very provocative statements vis-à-vis Russia,” he said, adding that they are playing “a very dangerous game” by portraying Russia as a threat and “the only foe of European civilization.”

Watch the full interview below:

Thousands of people have fled an Ebola-hit displacement camp in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), leaving it largely abandoned after clashes erupted during a security operation, the UN said on Thursday.

The Kigonze camp in Ituri Province had housed around 19,000 people. Residents began fleeing after security forces entered the site to search for weapons and suspected members of armed groups, with gunfire reported during the operation.

”The enormous challenge of halting the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo just became even harder,” the UN said.

An Ebola transit center at Kigonze was also destroyed by fire this week, further disrupting containment efforts. The facility, operated by International Medical Corps and supported by more than 50 staff, was used to isolate and assess suspected cases before patients were transferred for treatment.

Fighting has also hampered the Ebola response elsewhere in eastern DR Congo. More than 3,000 people have fled the Rhoe displacement camp in Ituri’s Djugu territory since clashes intensified on September 27, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. At least four people were reportedly killed and seven injured.

As of September 29, Congolese authorities had recorded 8,224 confirmed cases and 3,982 deaths, putting the case fatality rate at 48.4%.

On Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warned against interpreting a recent decline in reported cases as evidence that the outbreak is easing, saying insecurity has disrupted surveillance in affected areas. Of the 63 health zones affected, 45 were still reporting active transmission.

”Falling in this curve doesn't mean that the outbreak is totally under control,” Africa CDC’s Dr. Wessam Mankoula said. “We cannot say at this stage the outbreak is under control.”