A loud argument between Russian intelligentsia over Schubert, Bach, and the merits of a fugue has delighted millions of viewers far beyond the Russian-speaking internet.  

Here's the backgroud.

Set the scene.

St. Petersburg, 2019. Three old friends are bantering around a table when the topic naturally turns to Franz Schubert, as it does, and things get emotional.

Who is at the table?

Esteemed musicologist Natalia Entelis is at a post-lunch table with friends; former orchestral violinist Emil Finkelstein and his wife Elena Fradkina, who was celebrating her 80th birthday. Their daughter, pianist Polina Fradkina, who – possibly knowing what was coming – recorded the video, posted it online recently in connection with comments over the merits of an online music course, and it has struck a chord. 

What caused the argument?

Finkelstein opens with a demand for an inquiry, into how Schubert could have written such brilliant music without knowing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Opposite and stoic in her resolve, Entelis observes that fugues are almost entirely absent from Schubert’s masses and, as you would, points instead to the Italian tradition he studied. 

The best video you'll see all day pic.twitter.com/PMkiUnn63G

— Joan Cook from PBS (@MissPavIichenko) September 2, 2026

Tip: a fugue is more or less a form in which one musical voice introduces a theme and others pick it up. Bach used them.

Menwhile, birthday girl Fradkina drops a bomb, asking if writing one is “some f***g mark of quality?” 

Voices rise and hands fly, of course. Italian polyphony, naturally enough – always the first to go – is dismissed as “bullsh*t.”  

Beethoven’s preference for Handel over Bach enters the fray, obviously, before Fradkina declares: Schubert’s songs were works of genius; everything else was “crap.”  

The argument ends with one final disagreement:  

 “Schubert, as a person, is my favorite composer,” Entelis says.  

“No,” Finkelstein corrects her. “Bach is your favorite composer.” 

What triggered the argument?

Finkelstein, now 85, told the St. Petersburg publication Paper that Entelis was working on an academic article about Schubert at the time,.

“I once got to perform a mass by Schubert, a religious work, that is terribly boring, to my taste,” he recalled. “I did not like her writing about bad music.” 

He described the exchange as something more personal. “It was a dispute about who values which music, and who loves which music,” he said. “A dispute about love, if you like.” 

Why did the pianist post the video?

An online course on medieval and Renaissance music by popular lecturer Anna Vilenskaya had come under fire from specialists over factual errors, prompting a wider argument about accuracy in popular education.  

“Understanding how music works is not a collection of correct dates and terms,” she wrote. “Facts are needed to see the process behind them.”

Why does the argument feel so intense?

In late Soviet life, private flats – and kitchens in particular – were gathering places where friends could spend hours arguing about everything from politics and history to books, music and everyday life. 

“I grew up in a family of musicologists,” Fradkina wrote on Facebook, recalling how everything at home revolved around music: “from family squabbles over a missing slipper to fierce discussions about the roots of antisemitism, from Slavophiles and Westernizers to the proper way to make Olivier salad. Somehow, sooner or later, it all came back to music.” 

What have international viewers made of it?

With English subtitles, the clip became a hit on X. One widely shared upload has received more than five million views and thousands of comments. 

Viewers called it “the most intellectual argument” they had seen on the platform and said they would watch five seasons of the discussion. Some joked that the scene explained Russian classical literature; others described it as “a breath of fresh air” and even a video that “heals the nervous system.” 

I wish Americans would have more arguments like this around the dinner table, instead of arguing over garbage political matters heard on the TV. Russians arguing passionately about the the extent of Schubert’s knowledge of polyphony & Bach. https://t.co/iku9sQbnlz

— Professor R Shaldjian Morrison,διδάσκαλος,夏炉冬扇, 散人 (@Swarthyface) September 3, 2026

“I wish Americans would have more arguments like this around the dinner table, instead of arguing over garbage political matters heard on the TV,” one user wrote. “Russians arguing passionately about the extent of Schubert’s knowledge of polyphony and Bach.” 

The reactions sometimes romanticized three individuals as representatives of an entire culture. But they also recognized something genuine: in an internet full of anger without intimacy, this was an argument that became heated because everyone at the table cared. 

What does this say about Russians?

So while some might be surprised at the emotionality of Russians engaged in a passionate discussion of pinnacles of European culture, here's the reality.

Finkelstein says he and Entelis are still friends and still meet for coffee.

Speculation abounds over the reason for CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s recent trip to Moscow. Which probably could have been an email. Or a social media post. Just like everything else this administration does.

Oooh, don’t tell me! He went to demand that Russian President Vladimir Putin not help Iran! Or he went to ask whether they’re still up for more speed dating to talk peace in Ukraine! Or maybe just to talk about swapping prisoners. Which happens fairly regularly. And doesn’t require a personal visit. Or maybe Ratcliffe just had a jonesing for that ice cream at the GUM mall in Red Square. Who really knows.

So I’d like to personally take the opportunity to add to the theories, which can only really be evaluated sometime down the road in hindsight.

The thing that strikes me the most about this trip is the sudden secrecy. Specifically from an administration with a penchant for blabbing about everything. If Trump wanted to tell Putin or Russian intelligence something, he’d do it himself on Truth Social Instead, he was uncharacteristically vague, calling the trip semi-routine. When is this guy tight-lipped about anything? It’s so far out of character for the American President that one is almost obligated to look for a motive for the secrecy.

So with that in mind, it seems reasonable to ask whether there is any financial or political constituency that stands to benefit from the message being sent by this unusually secretive trip.

Well, it turns out that it just happened to take place at the same time as the European Union was meeting to set its new 7-year budget, and Eastern European Baltic nations were making a massive push for cash from Brussels.

So here you have Europe, that’s been sitting there while Kiev says 'gimme money', and 'I deserve it because I’m defending all of Europe for you. Oh, and even better, actually, defending DEMOCRACY for you lazy bums'. And instead of whacking it on the nose and going, 'NO, BAD! Brussels just goes, 'Wanna treat?'

So now, what do you know, here comes Latvia, who’s been watching this whole charade, seeing that Ukraine goes from begging to getting tossed a bone every single time, and now they too are like, 'Woof, woof, I’m defending all of Europe for you. Where’s my money? 7 BILLION EUROS, specifically'.

And it’s not like Latvia is even bothering to come up with its own twist on Ukraine’s pitch. It’s not like they’re saying, 'Ukraine’s pitch to Brussels is, ‘Look, we’re being invaded. You’d better give us what we want because we’re the only thing standing between Putin showing up in Europe with a neck pillow for an Interrail tour of Europe.’ So we, Latvia, need to come up with something else. Especially since we aren’t actually being invaded – we just need some emotional-support money'.

No, instead, they’re just basically saying the exact same sort of thing minus the existential threat – that Latvia is the bouncer at the Baltic door keeping Putin on the other side of the velvet rope.

And now energy prices are going back up again, too – an 83% spike in gas prices since the beginning of this year in Latvia, and 24% over just the past month. An established trend since the EU cut everyone off from Russian fuel and now Trump’s cutting everyone off from fuel from the Middle East with his apparently endless 'mine’s bigger' standoff with Iran.

Oh look, here comes Lithuania now, too. What a surprise! Another guy watching from the cheap seats and going: 'Hang on. We’re also next to Russia. We have security problems, infrastructure costs, and defense bills. Where is OUR cash handout?'

Turns out that Lithuania has just gone directly to Brussels with the invoice, essentially saying: You keep telling us the eastern flank is crucial to European security. Wonderful. Please prove this commitment using the traditional European unit of measurement: euros.

When it comes to Eastern Europe, the EU’s seven-year budget plan is starting to look like a group dinner where everyone suddenly remembers that the guy at the end of the table has a corporate credit card.

All this comes after the western press reported that the CIA director flew to Moscow this week to tell Russia not to attack NATO countries. Which is actually great marketing for the cause of Eastern European countries shaking down Brussels and basically launching a grant program. They’re behaving now as though a potential future hypothetical Russian attack on NATO is serious enough to justify enormous new expenditures, but the benefit of Brussels’ largesse risks going to Washington as the top weapons supplier.

The trip is remarkably convenient for governments seeking to turn fears about Russia into a case for vastly increased European defense spending – and for the American defense industry that stands to benefit from a big chunk of that spending.

But hey, who really cares if everyone’s barking out for treats when you’re Brussels and all you ever need to do is reach into the pockets of the taxpayer. Even if you then run straight back to Uncle Sam with it and drop it in his lap.

A US Army doctor has testified that she knows of 28 US military deaths caused by Covid-19 vaccines, Politico has reported citing a court deposition. The US government is investigating 2,544 deaths reported following the jabs, the official has said.

Theresa Long, who also serves as an adviser to US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reportedly gave the testimony during an August 14 deposition in a federal court case in Virginia. Neither her testimony nor her role at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had previously been reported.

Long allegedly said that the 2,544 unverified deaths were reported to the department’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Former US President Joe Biden ordered all US military staff to be vaccinated or be discharged from service, resulting in over 9,000 dismissals. After returning to office, President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to offer reinstatement to those who had been discharged for refusing a vaccine.

Long testified for the defense in a lawsuit being heard by District Court Judge Michael Nachmanoff over the dismissal of Terry Adirim as director of the CIA’s Center for Global Health Services. Adirim alleges that the intelligence agency fired her for political reasons, specifically because of her advocacy for Covid-19 vaccination.

Adirim served as acting assistant secretary for health affairs at the Department of Defense during the pandemic. The CIA fired her in April 2025, a move highlighted at the time by several conservative political commentators, including Ivan Raiklin, who is a defendant in the lawsuit. Her termination came about a month before she would have qualified for full federal retirement benefits.

In May 2025, Nachmanoff expressed skepticism about Adirim’s chances of prevailing in the case when he declined to issue an injunction reversing her termination. The CIA has argued that the matter is an ordinary contract dispute.

Romanian authorities have indicted social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate in absentia on charges including human trafficking, sex offenses involving minors, money laundering and witness tampering. The brothers have been held in a US jail since mid-July while fighting a separate British extradition request.

Both have strongly denied wrongdoing.

Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer and dual British-US citizen, built a global following promoting wealth, hyper-masculinity and traditional gender roles. His online content has attracted millions of followers while drawing widespread criticism over remarks about women.

Romania’s Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced on Friday that Andrew had been charged with human trafficking, having sex with a minor, money laundering and influencing witnesses. Tristan is accused of aiding and abetting him.

Prosecutors allege that in 2012 Andrew recruited a 15-year-old girl in the UK by falsely claiming he wanted a romantic relationship with her before taking her to Romania. She was then allegedly forced to produce pornographic content for a webcam business, with the brothers controlling her through threats, emotional blackmail and physical violence.

Prosecutors have separately accused Andrew of having sex with another 15-year-old girl.

The case has been referred to the Bucharest Tribunal, where preliminary proceedings are expected to take at least two months.

Eugen Vidineac, the brothers’ Romanian lawyer, said the defense would challenge the indictment. Andrew and Tristan, who moved to Romania in 2016, were arrested there in December 2022 in a separate case involving similar allegations. An appeals court later returned that case to prosecutors after finding some evidence inadmissible. The charges were not dismissed, but travel restrictions were lifted in February 2025, allowing the brothers to fly to Florida.

In July, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service announced additional charges against the Tates, bringing the British case to seven alleged victims and 59 charges combined, including rape, sexual assault and trafficking-related offenses.

The brothers were subsequently arrested in Florida following a British extradition request.

Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, has said Andrew and Tristan will vigorously fight extradition, describing the British case as politically motivated because his clients have repeatedly criticized the UK authorities and political establishment.

Dozens of masked men have descended on a Kiev court to support a Ukrainian military intelligence operative charged over a shootout between two of the country’s security agencies that left at least three people injured.

The suspect, identified as Sergey Ivanov, was detained following the shootout between operatives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) that unfolded in Kiev on Wednesday. At least three HUR operatives were injured in the skirmish.

Ivanov is believed to have been in command of the military intelligence unit involved in the clash and is now accused of attempted murder of a government official. An SBU operative, whose identity has not been officially disclosed, has also been detained and is now accused of exceeding official powers.

Several dozen masked men, some wearing camouflage, gathered outside the Pechersky Court to support Ivanov. The court held the hearing behind closed doors, determining whether the suspect should be taken into pre-trial custody. Ivanov was ultimately released on personal recognizance, the mildest possible pre-trial restriction in Ukraine. He was ordered not to contact witnesses, leave his place of residence, and surrender his passport.

Later in the day, the same court heard the case of the SBU operative involved in the skirmish. The court also convened behind closed doors and handed the operative the same restrictive measure of release on personal recognizance.

The standoff apparently revolved around Stepan Kaplunov, a reported white supremacist and senior officer with the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a paramilitary unit under the HUR patronage. While the SBU claimed Kaplunov participated in a Russian government plot to assassinate a “leader of the Russian opposition movement” on Ukraine’s Independence Day, the militants accused the service of kidnapping him and holding him at a black site for about ten days. 

Kaplunov, who was released from SBU custody following the shootout, blamed the “historic competition” between the SBU and HUR, claiming his kidnapping was an attempt by the agency to get to his superiors.

A storm is gathering in bond markets across the globe as yields on government debt are in many cases near multi-decade highs. 

High and rising government debt levels pose a problem for bond markets for which no solution seems imminent. The rising deficits, meanwhile, are colliding with diminished demand for government debt.

On top of this, renewed fighting in the Middle East earlier this week pushed oil prices higher and elicited concerns of what one Wall Street analyst called an “inflation monster.” 

RT takes a look at the rumbling in global bond markets and what to look for in the coming days and weeks.

What happened and what caused it

After fighting between the US and Iran restarted earlier this week, oil jumped more than $4 a barrel on Tuesday, settling at a five-week high of $94.65 per barrel Brent. Prices retreated somewhat later in the week, but oil is still set for a roughly 9% gain on the week. US diesel futures, meanwhile, surged to a 52-month high earlier in the week.

More broadly, the volatility comes as major economies have flooded the market with debt, demand for which has been tepid. In particular, the pool of price-insensitive institutional buyers is shrinking in what is a larger structural shift. All things being equal, investors want higher yields to absorb the quantity and also to protect themselves against rising inflationary risks.

Perhaps most concerning are what seem to be permanently expanding budget deficits in numerous countries, particularly given the apparent lack of political will to stem the profligacy. The US recently passed the $40 trillion debt mark with no sign of slowing down. Debt as a share of economic output is at or above 100% across the G7, except Germany, which seems determined to catch up.

Heavy borrowing by AI companies – which are in many cases unable to fund growth out of cash flow – is also contributing to the rising rates. According to a blog post by the European Central Bank, US tech giants are flooding European bond markets to fund AI investment, potentially reaching $1 trillion by 2028, thus crowding out other borrowers – including governments.

Meanwhile, higher energy prices are having a direct feed-through to inflation. Consumer prices in the Eurozone climbed 3.3% in August year-on-year, the fastest pace of inflation in nearly three years. The recent move higher in oil prices will only make this worse. 

What it all adds up to is that yields on government bonds across major economies are in many cases trading at levels not seen in years or even decades.

• The UK’s 30-year bond yield hit its highest level since 1998.

• Japan’s 10-year yield has broken through the 3% mark for the first time in three decades.

• Yields in Germany and France are also trading at their highest levels in a decade.

• The yield on the US 10-year, the single most important interest rate in the world, is at a level last seen in 2023.

“It’s becoming harder and harder to disentangle” all the factors behind the moves in bond markets, said Ed Al-Hussainy, a portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle. “The only thing we can say right now is that they’re all pointing in the same direction, and that’s in the direction of higher rates, and they’re doing it globally.”

War and the bond market

US yields are currently sitting at or near multi-decade highs across much of the curve and have edged higher since hostilities with Iran resumed. With the war now in its seventh month, many analysts are wondering whether the bond market might end up being the major constraint on US military ambitions.

It wouldn’t be the first time Treasures put a damper on moves by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

A few months into his new term, Trump introduced his Liberation Day tariffs, thus opening a trade war against the whole world from the White House lawn. It would take exactly three trading days for the 10-year yield to chalk up a gain of around 50 basis points, putting it on pace for its biggest weekly rise in a quarter century. The administration beat a humiliating retreat by canceling or postponing most of the tariffs.

Meanwhile, the worsening inflation climate is not lost on the Fed. New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh delivered a hawkish message at last week’s Jackson Hole Symposium – an implicit acknowledgement of the war-related risks. The market is now pricing in a 70% chance of a rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in September.

A hike would push Treasury yields higher, but mostly at the short end. This is essentially what the market gave Warsh after Jackson Hole: the 2-year jumped while the long end was much calmer, producing what is called a bear flattening, when short-term yields rise faster than long-term yields. This can be interpreted as a vote of confidence that the Fed is going to deal with inflation.

But if the war in Iran is raging and inflation is surging, a Fed hike might not convince the market. If the Fed hikes and long-term rates rise anyway, it would be a very ominous signal that the central bank might be losing control of the bond market.

France – the new sick man of Europe

France has emerged as the Eurozone’s biggest sovereign debt risk, which means that a problem once confined to the southern periphery of the union has moved to one of the two political pillars of the entire European project.

France’s finances are a mess. The country’s public budget deficit stood at 5.1% of GDP in 2025, while its debt-to-GDP ratios hit 115%. Both figures are well above EU limits and both are highly unusual for a country that is neither at war nor in a deep recession.

France has accumulated more than €3.5 trillion in public debt, which is becoming more expensive to finance as the yields on its bonds have risen dramatically over the past year. As a result, the French 10-year is trading above its Greek and Italian counterparts, a state of affairs that few previously would have imagined.

Meanwhile, Paris has committed to billions in increased defense spending in the coming years. A major update to the country’s defense budget authorizing an additional €36 billion for 2026–2030 was signed off on by lawmakers in June.

France, with its political deadlock and fiscal profligacy, may have emerged as the most acute source of potential stress in the EU, but the trend of higher yields is visible across the bloc. German Bunds, the benchmark for the bloc, have also moved sharply higher, hitting 15-year highs. 

The surge in European yields is potentially bad news for the US. Japan recently off-loaded some US Treasuries to defend its beleaguered currency. The move elicited a rare joint US-Japanese intervention, ostensibly aimed at stabilizing the currency but almost certainly with the deeper goal of preventing a weak yen from forcing Japan to unload Treasuries to defend it.

Given that Europe is a large holder of Treasuries, there are two ways this can become a problem for Washington. First, higher yields across the bloc make European bonds relatively more attractive, thus potentially steering yield-hungry investors toward Europe. Second, if European financial conditions deteriorate badly enough, banks and other institutions may need to raise cash. Selling Treasuries would be a natural source of funding. Either way, US yields would rise.

What to watch for in the coming days and weeks

Any prolonged resumption in hostilities in the Middle East could easily push oil prices back over $100. With bond markets already strained, selling could pick up further. Any disorderly selling would be a signal in itself. But short of that, inflation is the key transmission mechanism to watch. A new wave of price growth would push investors to demand more compensation for holding long-dated liabilities and would likely force the hand of central banks, who may still be reluctant to tighten. 

Meanwhile, with politicians reluctant to impose fiscal discipline, the bond market might have to do it for them. If yields continue to rise, governments will eventually have to choose between higher taxes, lower spending, and still greater borrowing costs. Policy-wise, what invariably prevails are options to kick the can further down the road, but any substantial change in rhetoric toward fiscal responsibility would suggest that the bond market’s message is beginning to be heard.

Norway’s $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund could sharply reduce its holdings of US Treasuries under a proposed overhaul aimed at boosting returns through other types of debt, the institution has announced. The shift could cut its Treasury allocation by almost $80 billion, according to Financial Times estimates.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, recommended in a letter to Norway’s Finance Ministry on Tuesday that government debt be cut from 70% to 50% in its fixed-income portfolio. The change would reduce its global government bond allocation by about $106 billion, with most of the reduction falling on US Treasuries, the FT calculated.

NBIM said a 50% government bond allocation would still be enough “to cover the liquidity needs” during periods of market turbulence, while the remainder would provide exposure to “more sources of risk premiums.”

Under the plan, US Treasuries would fall from 34.1% to 21.9% of the fund’s bond benchmark. Much of the money would rotate into higher-yielding non-government US debt, including mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae.

The allocation away from government debt comes at a time when government bonds have been selling off across leading economies, pushing yields in many cases to multi-year highs.

The proposed cut, although not significant relative to the size of the US Treasury market, signals a further shift at the margins away from US debt. This comes as rising deficits are forcing the US to issue more debt while foreign buyers have shown less appetite for Treasuries.

Economist Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC on Friday that Norway’s move matters less for its size than for the signal it sends. “The size isn’t big, but the signal that traditional holders and buyers are becoming less reliable is a very important one.”

Last month, meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Treasury would at least double its buyback operations of long-dated USTs. Although framed as a mere liquidity operation, the move was widely interpreted as an attempt to bring long-dated yields down. It came shortly after the 30-year yield reached its highest level since 2007.

The Norwegian proposal is not yet final. NBIM described it as “advice” that will feed into broader recommendations to the Finance Ministry, with the government expected to submit its final proposals to parliament in spring of 2027.

Clashes broke out between protesters and police in central Madrid this week following a mass rally over the Spanish government’s handling of the migrant crisis in Ceuta.

The enclave, a small Spanish territory located on the North African coast, has faced severe pressure since around 72,000 people crossed from Morocco in late July. Although most returned or were sent back, thousands remain, straining local services and intensifying criticism of the Spanish government’s border policy.

The unrest followed a gathering outside Madrid City Hall on Wednesday, with official attendance estimates ranging from 50,000 to 150,000. Several hundred demonstrators later moved toward parliament, where police said objects were thrown at officers. Riot police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, leaving four people arrested and several officers injured, according to EFE news agency.

The demonstration was part of gatherings held across Spain to mark Ceuta Day. Although organizers presented them as a show of solidarity with the territory, many participants blamed Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing government for the crisis, chanting “Sanchez, traitor, resign” and calling for him to be jailed.

Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s right-wing party Vox, said that Ceuta had been “abandoned and betrayed.” He also claimed that the crisis offered a warning of what could happen elsewhere in Spain unless the government took stronger action.

Sanchez had previously condemned the mass crossing as a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity” and pledged to strengthen border controls. Addressing the Spanish parliament on Thursday, he acknowledged that the authorities’ response “has not been sufficient.” He said trafficking networks and false claims circulated on social media were among the factors behind the influx.

Tensions have also risen inside Ceuta, where residents have demanded faster deportations and a stronger response from Madrid. Local authorities have struggled with overcrowding, sanitation problems, and disease outbreaks, while police have investigated numerous violent and sexual crimes during the crisis.

A police intelligence report submitted to a Spanish court this week said suspected Moroccan officers had guided migrants toward crossing points, but stopped short of accusing Rabat of organizing the operation.

The AfD enters the Saxony-Anhalt election with a ten-point plan for rapid reform as the political establishment resorts to surveillance, raids, ban proposals, and economic threats to stop it.

A few days before the September 6 state election in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is on the verge of becoming the first party outside Germany’s postwar political cartel to govern a German state. Two months ago, at its state party conference in Magdeburg, the party presented a clear and ambitious 100-Day Program. The party entered the final days of the campaign united, confident, and focused on the concerns of ordinary German citizens. The ten-point plan offers a practical course for immediate action should the AfD assume government responsibility. It seeks to restore order and protect the homeland.

The establishment has answered this program with threats rather than arguments. The state Office for the Protection of the Constitution (a fittingly Orwellian name for such a dystopian organization) has classified the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt as a ‘confirmed right-wing extremist’ party since 2023, allowing an agency controlled by the Interior Ministry to spy on the strongest opposition party and infiltrate it with informants. Days before the vote, leading SPD (Social Democratic Party) and Green politicians renewed calls to ban the AfD’s state branches in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg. Ten days before the election, police searched 15 properties in an investigation into the alleged continuation of Artgemeinschaft, a Germanic neo-pagan association banned in 2023 as a ‘right-wing extremist’ organization. Two AfD parliamentary candidates were among those targeted. The legal merits of the case will be decided later, but the political images were broadcast before voters enter the polling stations. The message was plain: The state will place every possible obstacle before a party it cannot defeat at the ballot box.

First, the AfD will terminate the state broadcasting treaties and begin the reform of public media. The present compulsory fee forces every household to finance television and radio organizations that regularly treat opposition to mass immigration, hysterical climate policy, European centralization, and the war course against Russia as signs of moral or political deviance. The AfD wants a leaner, cheaper, and fully transparent system that informs citizens instead of lecturing them. This proposal strikes directly at one of the establishment’s main instruments of power, which helps explain the fury it has caused.

Second, the program promises deportations from minute one. An AfD government would use every legal instrument available to ensure that people who have received orders to leave Germany are actually returned to their countries of origin. Temporary detention would prevent those scheduled for removal from disappearing before deportation. Borders must be controlled, German communities must be protected, public resources must serve those entitled to them, and laws must be enforced. A state that announces deportations but fails to carry them out teaches both citizens and foreigners that its rules are empty words. The AfD intends to end that practice immediately.

Third, asylum seekers who are allowed to remain will have to perform mandatory community service. Anyone supported by society will be expected to make a contribution to it. Centralized accommodation in suitable facilities will become the rule, while placement in private apartments will be restricted to exceptional cases. This will improve oversight, security, and the orderly administration of the asylum system while respecting the taxpayers who finance it.

Fourth, an AfD state government will redirect public money away from party networks and ideological pressure groups. It will end funding for party foundations, including its own, and cut state support for the asylum and integration industry, the climate rescue industry, gender programs, and projects such as ‘School without Racism – School with Courage’. These organizations are presented as independent parts of civil society, yet many promote the establishment’s political slogans and campaign against the AfD. Taxpayers are thus forced to finance bodies that instruct them how to vote and denounce them when they refuse. The AfD would break this cycle. Public money would return to the people of Saxony-Anhalt and serve roads, schools, families, public safety, and other real needs instead of an army of activists protected from the economic conditions imposed on everyone else.

Sixth, the AfD will establish special classes for children of refugees and asylum seekers. These pupils will be taught material from their home countries to prepare them for eventual return and reentry into their national school systems. The measure will also protect the learning environment for German students and reduce the strain on teachers who are expected to overcome language barriers, cultural conflicts, and serious differences in educational level without adequate support. At schools affected by violence and persistent disruption, the AfD will deploy professional private security services. Teachers should teach, students should learn, and parents should be able to send their children to school without fear. The present system often conceals disorder because officials worry more about damaging the image of ‘diversity’ than about protecting children. Violence is softened into ‘conflict’, intimidation becomes a ‘challenge’, and falling standards are blamed on a lack of funding. The AfD rejects this evasive language. When a school is unsafe, security must be restored. When students cannot follow lessons, they must receive suitable instruction. A functioning school serves children through discipline, knowledge, and clear rules.

Seventh and eighth, the program calls for a cultural renewal that honors German traditions. Rainbow flags will be removed from schools because classrooms should not serve as advertising space for deviant sexual orientations and leftist political campaigns. The black-red-gold federal flag will fly in their place. This will teach children that Germany is their shared country and that belonging to it carries duties as well as rights. The state’s existing #moderndenken (modern thinking) campaign will give way to #deutschdenken (German thinking). The new initiative will affirm German history, culture, regional character, and national identity. The AfD also rejects the attempt to define Saxony-Anhalt chiefly through the Bauhaus movement, whose international style sought to strip art and architecture of much of their inherited ethnic and regional character. It will instead place more emphasis on the older heritage of the land and the people who formed it. This has provoked a flood of claims that the AfD threatens art itself. The charge confuses the withdrawal of state favor with censorship. Artists may continue to create what they wish, but they will no longer possess an automatic right to public money. The German nation has the same right to preserve its own culture that every other people is told to exercise with pride.

Ninth, the AfD will reduce the number of ministries in the state government. Too many ministries produce more offices, titles, press departments, and senior posts for loyal party functionaries without producing a better government. A smaller administration will lower costs, shorten lines of responsibility, and make it harder for ministers to hide failures inside a maze of agencies and committees. The government should concentrate on the essential services that affect daily life.

The final polls put the AfD at around 42%, almost twice the CDU’s 22%, with the Left Party near 13%. Depending on how many small parties fail to clear the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament, the AfD could even win an absolute majority of seats.

Ulrich Siegmund, who received 99.5% support in his election to the executive board, has nevertheless called for humility, discipline, and hard work until the last ballot is cast. Against him stands the whole machinery of the old order. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned that an AfD government would frighten away foreign investors. This is nonsense: Investors care about affordable energy, public safety, skilled workers, and reliable rules, all areas in which the established parties have failed. Leftist activist groups are urging voters to cast tactical ballots for the SPD and Greens solely to deny the AfD a majority. Commentators have discussed whether civil servants and police officers might refuse orders from an elected AfD government. German law does not permit refusal merely because a superior belongs to the AfD, but we all know that German law means nothing when push comes to shove.

The major parties maintain their firewall and would rather form a coalition across old ideological divisions than allow the strongest party to govern. The AfD’s answer remains its program: a concrete plan to govern from the first day and break with decades of failed establishment rule. The old parties had decades to solve these problems. Their rule brought higher costs, weaker public order, open borders, more crime, failing services, and contempt for national identity. Now that voters are turning away from them, they call the voters dangerous. Saxony-Anhalt has the chance to show that ballots still outrank secret-service files, media campaigns, ministerial warnings, and political threats.

India has launched its first imaging satellite that will operate from geosynchronous orbit, giving the country the ability to obtain frequent, near-real-time images of large areas for disaster monitoring, agricultural, and military purposes.

The Earth Observation Satellite-05 (EOS-05) was launched aboard the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) GSLV-F17 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2:55 am on Friday. Around 18 minutes later, it was placed in a transfer orbit.

EOS-05 is intended for “persistent monitoring of [the] Indian region,” ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan told RT India. Unlike India’s existing Earth-imaging satellites in lower orbits, which must pass over the same location again before fresh imagery can be collected, EOS-05 will be able to keep watching the same broad region for much longer periods.

“It is continuously monitoring. You can even take spot photographs,” Narayanan said, adding that its steerable camera can be moved across a designated area to scan selected locations.

Mission Success!

GSLV-F17 has successfully accomplished its mission, placing EOS-05 into the intended orbit.

Sharing a few memorable moments from the lift-off.

For more information:https://t.co/VneB2jgZoY#GSLVF17 #EOS05 #ISRO pic.twitter.com/kv0zB6V5Vi

— ISRO (@isro) September 3, 2026

Lower-orbit satellites can require around a day to return to the same area. By operating from a geosynchronous orbit, EOS-05 reduces that gap and provides more frequent imagery. The capability also has a security dimension.

“You’ve got an eye in the sky, which helps you see exactly what you want to see 24/7, and then gives you that much more reaction time,” retired Indian Army Lieutenant General Arun Sahni told RT India. “I don’t have to wait for a revisit.” 

The satellite could strengthen observation along India’s borders with Pakistan and China, he said. India and Pakistan exchanged missile and drone strikes during a brief conflict last year, while Indian and Chinese troops clashed along their disputed Himalayan border in 2020.

At 2,367 kg, it is the heaviest satellite yet carried by India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) into a transfer orbit.

The mission was the GSLV’s 19th flight and ISRO’s first successful orbital launch this year. It follows the failure of the PSLV-C62 mission in January after an anomaly in the rocket’s third stage.

An earlier attempt to deploy a geosynchronous Earth-imaging satellite in 2021 also failed because of a problem with the GSLV’s cryogenic upper stage.

German car giant Volkswagen is set to shed around 100,000 jobs worldwide after management and unions agreed to cut a further 50,000 positions by the end of the decade, the company has said. The reductions would amount to roughly one in seven of its global workforce.

Volkswagen, like much of German industry, is facing a severe financial and operational crisis, having watched profit margins collapse. CEO Oliver Blume has cited the loss of Russian energy as a key factor, along with increased competition from China.

The scale of the restructuring marks a dramatic retreat for a company long regarded as a symbol of German industrial strength. Volkswagen already had around 50,000 job cuts underway at its namesake brand, Audi, Porsche, and software subsidiary CARIAD, mostly through voluntary departures and early retirement. The latest plan effectively doubles that figure.

If carried out in full, the loss of around 100,000 positions would be the largest workforce reduction ever undertaken by a global automaker. Volkswagen employs roughly 650,000 people worldwide.

The company is also shrinking its ambitions elsewhere. Its model range is set to be cut by as much as half, while investment and research spending for 2027-2031 has been capped at €135 billion ($157 billion). Volkswagen is restructuring around annual sales of roughly 9 million vehicles and is targeting a 9% operating margin by 2030.

Hit by US tariffs and patchy demand for electric cars, Europe’s largest carmaker is struggling on several fronts. The crisis has been compounded at home by soaring energy costs since Berlin abandoned cheap Russian pipeline gas following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, increasingly relying on costlier LNG imports, including supplies from the US.

Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev has linked Germany’s industrial decline directly to its break with Russian energy. “No Russian gas – no German industry,” he wrote on Friday, commenting on plans by steel giant ArcelorMittal to shut major operations in Duisburg, affecting around 550 of the site’s 800 workers.

The energy shock has eroded a competitive advantage that underpinned German manufacturing for decades. The country subsequently suffered two consecutive years of economic contraction followed by sluggish growth, with manufacturers cutting production, investment, and jobs.

At the same time, Volkswagen has been losing ground in China, once its most important market, to domestic rivals such as BYD and Geely. Chinese automakers have also expanded rapidly in Europe, putting additional pressure on Volkswagen as it struggles to make its electric vehicles competitive on price and cost.

Volkswagen has steadily scaled back production at home. Last December, it ended vehicle production at its Dresden plant – the first time in the company’s nine-decade history that it had stopped carmaking at a German factory. BASF, Bosch, Continental, and other major German manufacturers have also closed or downsized facilities in recent years.

South Africa’s Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) has recovered 8.3 billion rand ($519 million) in assets and funds linked to corruption, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has said, while calling for those who enable graft to face prosecution.

Speaking at the University of Johannesburg’s Combating Corruption Summit on Wednesday, Kubayi said the AFU’s recoveries had increased from about R6 billion reported at last year’s summit.

“These successes are in part because of AFU strengthened collaboration work with anti-corruption task teams, inter-agency working group on illicit financial flows. These are systems that we’ve worked or we are working on, but also these are some of the work that we are doing in partnership, not only with government but also with private sector,” the minister stressed.

But she made it clear that recovering money could not be the end of the country’s anti-corruption efforts. Kubayi challenged professional bodies, particularly those representing accountants and lawyers, to show what action they had taken against members implicated in corruption.

The warning comes as state agencies intensify efforts to recover money and assets linked to corruption. Kubayi said the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had recovered assets and cash worth R936 million, against a target of R1 billion, over the past year.

”I need to highlight what is important about the work that is being done by SIU. SIU just doesn’t recover, but also, it’s able to stop contracts so that we don’t have to come back and recover,” Kubayi added.

The Tembisa Hospital corruption case is one example of the state’s efforts to recover the proceeds of corruption. The AFU secured a final forfeiture order for about R326 million in assets linked to businessman Hangwani Maumela, including luxury properties and vehicles. The SIU helped trace the assets.

OUTA Chief Executive Officer Wayne Duvenage said the recovery of stolen money was important but should not be mistaken for victory against corruption.

He added those involved needed to face consequences beyond losing the proceeds of their crimes. Duvenage said major corruption rarely happens in isolation, often involving officials, business people, and professionals who help structure deals, move money or disguise corrupt transactions.

“If those enablers believe that the worst that will happen is that some of the money may eventually be recovered, while they remain free to continue doing business, then the system isn’t creating sufficient deterrence,” he said.

Accountability Now Director Paul Hoffman SC believes the problem is even more fundamental, arguing that South Africa lacks an anti-corruption institution sufficiently independent from the executive.

”The problem at the moment is that South Africa does not have the necessary machinery of state to deal with corruption effectively and efficiently,” Hoffman noted. He also called for legislation creating an independent, stand-alone body to deal with corruption outside Cabinet control, arguing that the Hawks and National Prosecuting Authority remain under political executive structures.

”Nothing is happening if there’s an arrest. Absolutely nothing. It only happens when there’s a prosecution and a conviction. Then something is happening,” Nel said. He added that the failure to prosecute was particularly concerning when politically connected individuals were involved and questioned why there were no consequences for prosecutors responsible for decisions not to prosecute.

First published by IOL

The EU- and US-funded press watchdog, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has called for tighter controls on AI-based search technology, after discovering that chatbots bypass European censorship laws and present Russian media sources banned by in Western Europe to users.

The Paris-based RSF, which lists EU and the US National Endowment for Democracy among its backers, found that popular AI services can provide RT articles, links, excerpts, and news summaries to web users. “Public chatbots can access these websites and redistribute their content,” a statement by the organisation claimed on Wednesday.

The EU and UK have banned numerous Russian news outlets since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, including RT and Sputnik. Moscow has denounced the EU-wide ban as an attempt to silence coverage of the conflict that contradicts Brussels maximalist political stance.

The censoorship has since spread across virtually every publishing channel, including websites, apps, chats and social media. RT has been blocked and removed from practically all Western tech platforms, while RT France was forced to close in 2023 after its accounts were frozen and RT America suffered a similar fate in 2024.

RSF asked popular AI services to retrieve international news exclusively from sanctioned outlets, including RT, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti.

ChatGPT and Grok emerged as the “leading bots for circumventing EU sanctions,” retrieving headlines and providing links, excerpts and detailed summaries. ChatGPT complied “without reservation,” according to RSF, while Claude responded with “unfailing consistency.”

Gemini cited sanctions to refuse requests while Meta AI, whose parent company unilaterally banned RT from Facebook and Instagram in September 2024, was the only chatbot tested that “consistently refused” to provide the requested material.

A drone has hit the central building of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kiev, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed.

He blamed the incident on Russia, claiming the UAV landed a direct hit on the office of the agency’s acting head, Aleksandr Poklad. The official was not harmed in the alleged Russian attack, according to Zelensky. The Ukrainian leader said he had already tasked Poklad with preparing an “adequate, noticeable, and, if possible, mirror response.”

Footage from the scene that has emerged on Ukrainian Telegram channels appears to show that an explosion damaged the facade of the building, with thick black smoke billowing out of two of its windows.

Surveillance footage that emerged online shortly after the incident shows an unknown projectile, appearing to be a delta wing-patterned kamikaze drone, rapidly approaching the building before exploding into a large fireball.

Nine people were injured in the Shevchenkovsky District, where the SBU building is located, after a drone came down in the area, according to Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko. Seven of them were hospitalized.

The incident comes shortly after Zelensky issued a threat against civilian aviation operating in Russia. “We want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, and everyone who still uses Russia’s key airports: Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video address on Tuesday. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the remarks as a “declaration of state terrorism,” pledging to deliver an appropriate response if Kiev’s threats resulted in a tragedy.

Somali forces have “decisively defeated” militias allegedly operating alongside Al-Shabaab after they launched an attack on Baidoa, the capital of South West State, the authorities have said.

The assault began at around 4:15 a.m on Thursday with explosions intended to cause panic among civilians, the East African nation’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Fighting continued for several hours before subsiding in the afternoon.

The ministry said government troops inflicted heavy losses on fighters loyal to former South West State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen. It did not provide a casualty figure, but said an assessment was underway.

In a separate statement on Thursday, the South West State government said the attack began with two vehicle-borne explosive devices. It said its forces killed more than 40 Al-Shabaab fighters, wounded several others, and seized weapons and military equipment. Bay Regional Hospital received 71 wounded people, including 15 women, and one dead civilian, emergency department head Abdikafi Omar Mohamud told AP. Residents reportedly fled their homes as gunfire and explosions spread into residential areas.

The latest violence follows a prolonged standoff between Mogadishu and Laftagareen. The federal government rejected his disputed reelection in March and took control of Baidoa on March 30, prompting Laftagareen, who had governed South West since 2018, to announce his resignation.
Regional lawmakers elected former Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Nur Madobe as president of South West State in June.

Baidoa, which is about 245km northwest of Mogadishu, hosts more than half a million people displaced by conflict and drought. Al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency against Somalia’s government for nearly two decades and continues to control territory in parts of the country.

Russia is now training more African students than the Soviet Union did, Andrey Maslov, director of the HSE Center for African Studies, said on Friday at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok.

The number of students from African countries enrolled at Russian universities has reached a historic high of over 37,000 this year, Olga Petrova, Russian deputy minister of science and higher education, reported at the same session. The figure is up from around 17,500 in 2020, according to Fernando Jose Sambu, the head of Direction for Work with Government Bodies and Diplomatic Missions of African Countries.

Russia has also expanded state-funded education opportunities for African students, a policy promoted by President Vladimir Putin at the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit.

The expert noted there is strong demand among African governments for Russian expertise in financial monitoring and cybersecurity.

“This is an area that African states are only just beginning to approach systematically in terms of understanding their role in protecting their national digital environments from external influence,” Maslov stated.

The HSE Center for African Studies has been running its E-Governance Knowledge Sharing Program since 2022, providing training for African government officials in the digitalization of public administration. Its first major training school in Moscow in 2023 brought together over 40 mid- and senior-level officials from 23 African countries. The program has since expanded to activities on the continent, including a training school on e-governance held in Tanzania in May 2026.

A group of migrants in the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta have been accused of pulling a baby dolphin from the sea and beating it to death, after disturbing footage sparked outrage online.

The bottlenose dolphin calf was spotted swimming close to the shore at El Trampolin beach on Wednesday before several men dragged it from the water, according to local newspaper El Faro de Ceuta. One of them allegedly struck the animal in the head with a stick, leaving it mortally wounded.

A beach worker reportedly confronted the group and told them not to touch the dolphin and to call wildlife services. They then tried to return it to the sea, but the animal appeared already dead.

Ceuta-based blogger Juan Ruiz filmed members of the group raising the dolphin like a trophy as he approached them. “You can’t take that, it’s a dolphin, you don’t eat that!” he shouted, before demanding to know who had killed it.

When people in the group apparently claimed the animal had already been dead in the water, Ruiz responded sarcastically: “Yeah, it died in the water on its own, right.”

Local environmental group DAUBMA has filed a complaint with Spanish law enforcement, demanding the authorities investigate the incident and identify those involved.

Ceuta has been gripped by chaos since an unprecedented migrant influx from neighboring Morocco in late July, when around 72,000 people crossed into the tiny Spanish territory.

Thousands remain, many living in makeshift camps, on beaches, and in the streets. Local authorities have struggled with overcrowding, sanitation problems, and disease outbreaks, while police have investigated numerous violent and sexual crimes during the crisis.

Residents have repeatedly protested, demanding faster deportations and tougher action from Madrid. Last month, locals tore down migrant shelters at El Trampolin as police intervened to keep the groups apart.

Six Ukrainians and an American described as “mercenaries” and currently being held in prison launched a drone attack on a civilian aircraft in neighboring Myanmar, India’s anti-terrorism agency told a Delhi court.

The seven were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in March while trying to depart India from different parts of the country.

A first-person view drone (FPV) of the type that is widely used in the Ukrainian conflict struck a Myanmar National Airlines ATR-72-600 while preparing to depart from Myitkyina Airport to Mandalay, on February 20, Burmese media reported at the time. 

The passenger-laden plane suffered damage to its nose, mid-fuselage, and tail sections. It is not clear if the NIA was referring to the same attack.

The agency previously told the court on August 19 that the Indian government “has received credible information indicating the involvement of certain Ukrainian and US nationals in a drone attack on a civilian aircraft in Myanmar.” 

The court granted the agency permission to interrogate two from the group – Ukrainian Viktor Kaminskyi and American Matthew VanDyke – in prison.

The details of the court filings were reported by the Indian Express on Friday.

The NIA said in total 14 Ukrainians entered India on tourist visas on different dates and flew to Guwahati in the northeastern state of Assam, where they traveled to the state of Mizoram without the required permits, and entered Myanmar illegally to conduct a “pre-scheduled training on drone warfare, drone operations, assembly, and jamming technology” for ethnic armed groups fighting the military government.

Several consignments of drones from Europe were delivered by the accused to individuals and groups in Mizoram, according to the NIA. The arrested mercenaries also allegedly confessed to have been in contact with and helped “unknown terrorists carrying AK47 rifles.”

The agency said it wants to confront Kaminskyi and VanDyke with certain witness statements to “unearth the larger conspiracy” in the case, details of the other suspects, and the masterminds of the operation.

It said data extracted from seized devices contained images, videos, voice samples, among other things, which have to be corroborated with direct questioning.

VanDyke, the American, is the founder of Sons of Liberty International, which provides military training in conflict zones. He has reportedly been involved in other conflicts, including fighting with Libyan rebels in 2011.

The court in July allowed him special food items and a cook after he complained that the “spicy and oily” prison meals affected his health, but it rejected his request for treatment at a private hospital, and to communicate with his family in the US.

Venice Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco has defended his decision to reopen Russia’s pavilion at the event, saying “art won” despite EU pressure and Brussels stripping the exhibition of €2 million in funding.

In early March, the Venice Biennale announced Russia’s return despite the Ukraine conflict, Moscow’s standoff with Brussels, and unprecedented EU sanctions.

Russia, which has owned one of the exhibition’s oldest pavilions since 1914, went on to stage a show titled ‘The Tree Is Rooted in the Sky’ there in May, bringing together more than 50 young musicians, poets, and philosophers from Russia and other countries. Russian cultural envoy Mikhail Shvydkoy called the exhibition proof that attempts by Western political elites to “cancel” Russian culture had failed.

“It was more than right and proper toward the institution I preside over,” he said, adding that none of its formal decisions contained “a single comma” that violated laws or regulations.

The comments followed Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli’s claim in May that “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin won at the Biennale.” Buttafuoco rejected that characterization, saying: “Putin didn’t win, art did.” He argued that the Biennale’s 131-year history was built on remaining open to the world even during conflicts and likened that principle to the ancient Olympic truce.

Buttafuoco also renewed his criticism of Brussels, which had challenged Russia’s participation on ethical and sanctions grounds. He stated that under the EU’s stated standards on democracy and freedom of expression, roughly 87% of non-EU countries represented at the Art Biennale would fail to qualify.

Russia’s return to one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious art festivals triggered a backlash in Brussels. The European Commission withdrew €2 million ($2.3 million) in funding for the Biennale in July, claiming that Russia’s participation violated EU sanctions and that taxpayer-funded cultural events must uphold democratic values. The Biennale stressed, however, that the grant had been earmarked for film projects that had “nothing to do with Russia’s participation” in the exhibition.

The funding row followed months of pressure from Kiev and its European backers. Ukraine separately sanctioned people linked to the Russian pavilion, while activists staged protests in Venice. The pavilion opened during the May preview but remained closed to the public after the Biennale officially began.

Moscow blasted the funding cut, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova describing it as a “relapse into anti-culture.”

The world’s elderly population has overtaken the number of young children for the first time in human history, according to a new US Census Bureau report. Europe, already the world’s oldest region, is at the forefront of the trend.
People aged 65 and over accounted for 10.5% of the global population in 2025, surpassing children aged five and younger for the first time, the bureau said in its An Aging World: 2025 report.

The reversal has been driven by longer life expectancy and falling birth rates. The Census Bureau said sustained fertility below replacement level can create a “fertility trap,” as the number of potential parents eventually declines.

Around 132 million babies are now born worldwide each year, down from a peak of roughly 142 million in the early 2010s, according to UN data. Africa accounted for roughly 47 million births in 2024, reflecting an increasingly uneven global trend.

The decline has been particularly pronounced in Europe. Just 3.55 million babies were born in the EU in 2024, nearly half the 6.8 million recorded in 1964. The bloc’s fertility rate has fallen to a record low of 1.34 children per woman.

The demographic shift is set to accelerate. The global population is expected to grow by more than 2 billion by 2060, while the number of people aged 65 and over will rise by around 1.15 billion, according to the US Census Bureau.
The elderly are projected to account for 19.6% of humanity by then, up from 10.5% today. In Europe, their share is expected to rise from 21% to nearly 31%, the report said.

The shift will put further strain on government budgets as fewer workers and taxpayers support a growing number of retirees. The Census report estimates that across Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, increased government healthcare spending over the next decade will amount to 2.6% of GDP, twice the projected 1.3% growth in revenues.

Kiev’s Western backers cannot guarantee that Ukrainian terrorist attacks will not endanger their own citizens, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.

Moscow has long accused the Ukrainian government of employing terrorist tactics and deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. President Vladimir Putin has described Vladimir Zelensky’s recent threat against foreign airlines operating in Russia as “state terrorism.”

“They (Western nations) have created a monster, and we always said that this monster will go rogue, as did all the monsters they created before,” Zakharova told Izvestia on Friday.

“What guarantee do they have that Zelensky won’t strike their own citizens when carrying out those terrorist attacks?” she added. “Nobody could ever guarantee that.”

The same agencies were involved in firefights in Kiev this week in what appeared to be a dispute over custody of an HUR operative whom the SBU has accused of involvement in a for-profit plot to organize a political assassination.

German investigators have accused Ukrainian citizens of carrying out the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which caused one of the most serious incidents of damage to energy infrastructure in recent history.

Media reports have also described clandestine Ukrainian operations in Africa and the Middle East purportedly intended to undermine Russian interests, including the training and arming of local militant groups.

Putin criticized Ukraine’s Western backers in remarks on Thursday, arguing that by failing to condemn Kiev’s criminal actions, they effectively become accomplices.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has reported an attempted drone strike on fuel tanks at a depot in the capital, Tripoli, in the latest attack targeting the conflict-torn country’s energy infrastructure.

The remotely controlled drone targeted the Brega fuel depot on Airport Road on Thursday morning, the NOC said in a statement. It initially reported no damage but raised emergency readiness at all sites and ordered teams to lower fuel levels in the tanks as a precaution.

NOC subsidiary Brega Petroleum Marketing Company later said inspectors had found damage to several pipelines and two tanks. According to the company, a suspected drone entered the depot’s airspace before crashing near one of the storage tanks. No casualties were reported.

NOC described the incident as a “dangerous indication” of attempts to target oil facilities through “acts of sabotage.” It warned that such attacks posed “a direct threat to the supply system and essential services,” including power generation, healthcare, and industry.

The assaults have compounded an electricity crisis that triggered protests across western Libya in July. Demonstrators demanding improved services and the resignation of Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah stormed the Mellitah energy complex and temporarily shut gas lines supplying power stations.

On August 30, representatives of the rival camps signed a UN-backed roadmap aimed at holding presidential and parliamentary elections within 24 months under a single executive authority.

Since April, US President Donald Trump’s adviser Massad Boulos has also promoted a power-sharing initiative in an attempt to resolve Libya’s political deadlock. In an RT opinion piece, Libyan academic Mustafa Fetouri argued that the plan could bypass the UN process, keep the rival Dbeibah and Haftar camps in power, and deepen the country’s division.

Horsemen, wrestlers, and archers are testing their strength and skill against the spectacular backdrop of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, where the sixth World Nomad Games are in full swing.

Competitors from 90 countries are taking part in 43 disciplines rooted in nomadic traditions, ranging from eagle hunting, horseback wrestling, and archery to tug-of-war and traditional intellectual games.

Horses take center stage in many of the events of the Games, which run through September 6.

In ‘er enish’ (horseback wrestling), two mounted wrestlers try to drag each other from the saddle, while ‘tyiyn enmei’ (coin picking) requires riders to lean almost to the ground at full gallop to pick up an object.

Another gold for Kyrgyzstan in Er Enish (horseback wrestling) at the World Nomad Games! 🇰🇬🥇 pic.twitter.com/WO5uglfgtX

— Samat (@samat_awa) September 3, 2026

Then there is ‘kok-boru’ (gray wolf), perhaps the games’ most famous spectacle, in which two teams on horseback fight for possession of a goat carcass and attempt to carry it to the opposing side’s goal.

Highlights from Day 1 of the VI World Nomad Games.

The Kyrgyz Kök Börü team defeated Team USA in a very intense game.

🇺🇸 Lad Howell won the hearts of the Kyrgyz crowd with his true warrior spirit. pic.twitter.com/FzwAmJQjJ3

— Samat (@samat_awa) September 2, 2026

Traditional hunting is represented by ‘salbuurun’, featuring golden eagles, other birds of prey, and hunting dogs. Archery, horse racing, and numerous forms of traditional wrestling are also on the program.

Iran’s four-member tug-of-war team finished runner-up at the Nomad Games in Kyrgyzstan. pic.twitter.com/eAe83P3qhV

— Alireza Akbari (@itsalireza_akb) September 3, 2026

Team GB’s female riders took on horseback archery at the World Nomad Games in Kyrchyn Gorge, firing from the saddle against a dramatic mountain backdrop https://t.co/ad3MEBkNH6 @StephenMBland pic.twitter.com/JwpFF2Fi7r

— The Times of Central Asia (@thetimesoca) September 3, 2026

People coming to the World Nomad Games also get to try traditional Turkic sports themselves.

Like this one.

Two people, one wooden board, one stick. Basically, whoever can’t pull the other guy over loses. pic.twitter.com/cCVvPBNYQl

— Daily Turkic (@DailyTurkic) September 2, 2026

The games are about more than sport. Yurts, national costumes, crafts, music, and food have transformed the venues into a showcase of nomadic culture.

The event grew out of efforts in Kyrgyzstan in the 2000s to preserve traditional games whose rules risked disappearing as older generations died. The initiative was later recognized by UNESCO as a good practice for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

First staged in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, the World Nomad Games have since traveled to Türkiye and Kazakhstan before returning to their birthplace this year. What began as a regional effort to keep old traditions alive has grown into an international celebration of nomadic culture.

India has defended its continued purchases of Russian oil, with the foreign minister saying restrictions on the energy trade will not bring a resolution to the Ukraine conflict, which has to come through dialogue and diplomacy.

“This conflict, which is today in its fifth year, will not be solved because somebody is buying or not buying oil or alumina or minerals or metals or fertilizer,” Jaishankar said after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, in the capital, Kiev. “This conflict will be solved by dialogue, by diplomacy, by negotiation.”

Asked whether India will reduce its Russian oil purchases if Washington imposes steep sanctions on Russia’s top oil customers under a new bill, Jaishankar pointed to the challenges of providing energy for 1.4 billion people amid a “very, very difficult” global energy situation.

Russia was India’s largest crude oil supplier last month, providing around 2.1 million barrels per day, or 45% of the country’s imports, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler. Volumes were lower than the record 2.8 million barrels per day imported in July as Indian refiners scaled back some purchases. 

Speaking to the press after meeting with FM Andrii Sybiha in Kyiv #Ukraine

🇮🇳🇺🇦 https://t.co/v7RxoXWzFP

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 3, 2026

Jaishankar said New Delhi respects Ukraine’s perspective on Russian energy, but expects India’s position to be respected as well.

The exchange comes as the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 awaits consideration by the US House of Representatives. The legislation, which cleared the Senate last month, would allow tariffs of up to 100% on the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas. Ukraine has been lobbying US lawmakers for the bill’s passage. 

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to bring a proposal aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict to Moscow and Kiev, President Donald Trump has said.

Trump made the announcement on Friday while discussing the long-anticipated diplomatic missions by Witkoff and Kushner.

“They’re bringing with them a proposal to end the war,” Trump told reporters, without revealing its contents or giving a time frame for the visits.

Earlier on Friday, a source told RT that Witkoff and Kushner could travel to Moscow “soon.”

Witkoff and Kushner are handling several high-profile negotiations for the American leader. Their linked visits to Moscow and Kiev have been expected for months.

Trump has aimed to mediate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine since returning to office last year. However, what appeared to be a path to a breakthrough following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska over a year ago came to a dead end, as Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky refused to compromise on several key issues.

The possibility of Witkoff and Kushner making their trips over the weekend was also reported by the Kyiv Independent and Axios, which cited their own sources.

On Thursday, Putin said he valued American efforts and called Kushner and Witkoff, who were involved in trilateral talks involving the US, Russia, and Ukraine, sincere interlocutors.

In recent weeks, Zelensky has made several public statements about the duo’s possible visit to Kiev, with his latest prediction coming on Thursday night.

Both Kushner and Witkoff have visited Moscow during Trump’s current term, but are yet to travel to Kiev. Zelensky claimed in public remarks that the disparity was unfair to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government previously failed to secure additional supplies of Patriot interceptor missiles from the US, as the stockpiles of the prized weapons were reportedly depleted by Washington’s war on Iran. Zelensky said Kiev needed 300 projectiles to stop Russian missile attacks throughout the winter.

In June, Zelensky ordered a campaign of mass drone attacks targeting Russian transport ships, refineries and retailer warehouses, which political observers said was designed to convince Trump that Ukrainian forces could secure a military victory and should be provided with additional supplies.

Russian retaliation strikes have left Ukraine virtually with no access to maritime trade through the Black Sea and seriously disrupted logistics.

Russia is willing to share high-end technology and expand industrial cooperation with India to help develop its industries, the deputy minister of industry and trade, Roman Chekushov, has said.

”We are ready to share our technologies with them,” Chekushov said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday. He added that India has been seeking technologies from Russia as the two countries move beyond their robust trade relationship.

Chekushov said some Russian companies, mostly in the transportation and chemical sectors, already have production facilities in India. Calling this the initial stage, he said more Russian companies are exploring production in India and expanding in the Indian market. The initiative will also be in line with the Make-in-India policies promoted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he seeks to boost economic growth and jobs in the world’s most populous nation.

The INNOPROM. India trade fair will open in New Delhi next week just ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit. The organizers say the event will showcase advanced technologies and explore cooperation across sectors ranging from aviation to AI.

'Russia–India Moving Beyond Trade Relations & Into Industrial Cooperation' - Roman Chekushov

‘Made in India’ partnerships will create added value, and Russia is ‘ready to share its technologies with 🇮🇳,’ the 🇷🇺 Deputy Minister of Industry & Trade said at EEF. pic.twitter.com/dOKUTrx3nZ

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 3, 2026

Russian aviation, technology, energy, and industrial heavyweights are attending, along with several big Indian companies.

India is also keen on the Northern Sea Route, which Russia is developing as a shorter, more competitive trade route to northern Europe via the Arctic ocean and its Far East.

The two countries have set a bilateral trade target of $100 billion to be reached by 2030.

The EU’s top court has rejected claims that the nature of Russia’s political system can be used as the sole justification to freeze assets belonging to Russian-linked companies, after bloc member Lithuania cited Russian President Vladimir Putin when taking action against an electricity supplier.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) made the finding on Thursday in a case involving Lithuania’s 2022 decision to freeze the funds of electricity supplier Inter Rao Lietuva, which was not itself on the EU sanctions list.

The company operated in Lithuania as an independent importer and supplier of electricity. Some 51% of its shares are owned by Finland-based RAO Nordic, which is in turn wholly owned by Inter RAO, a major Russian state-controlled power company.

The freeze severely disrupted Inter Rao Lietuva’s operations, with the company launching insolvency proceedings after saying it could no longer meet its obligations to creditors.

The authorities in Vilnius claimed that Inter Rao Lietuva was ultimately controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is subject to EU sanctions, pointing to its ownership links to Russian state-controlled companies and the broad powers of the Russian presidency.

However, the CJEU concluded that the nature of Russia’s political system “does not, in itself, constitute sufficiently solid evidence” that the Russian president controls Inter Rao Lietuva.

The court said authorities must have “an objective and sufficiently solid basis” to prove that a company is controlled by a sanctioned individual before freezing its assets.

The case will now return to Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court, which must resolve the dispute in line with the Luxembourg court’s interpretation of EU law.

Israel’s seizure of UN facilities in occupied East Jerusalem amounts to “highway robbery,” Palestinian-American journalist Daoud Kuttab told RT.

His comments come amid an escalating dispute over facilities belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA. Israeli security forces seized the agency’s Kalandia vocational training center in East Jerusalem last week. Israel disputes the UNRWA’s rights to the site and plans to repurpose it as part of a Jerusalem municipal development project.

Earlier this year, the Israeli authorities seized and partially demolished the UNRWA’s former headquarters in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

“Israel… literally stole, took over [UNRWA] buildings and turned them over to the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem. This is highway robbery, literally stealing UN property without any authorization,” Kuttab told RT’s Rory Suchet on Thursday.

Kuttab also discussed the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Watch the full interview below.

US President Donald Trump has said he intends to present Europe with a belated bill for billions of dollars Washington spent arming Ukraine under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump renewed his criticism of the scale of the Biden administration’s support for Kiev, claiming that “Hundreds of Billions of Dollars was given to Ukraine and NATO, free of charge, that Europe would have paid for – If they were only asked.”

“We will be asking for that money, though somewhat belatedly!”

Trump did not specify how much Washington would seek, which European countries would be expected to pay, or how any retroactive payments would be arranged. Earlier this week, he said Biden gave Ukraine more than $300 billion worth of weapons “free.”

Under Trump, Washington has shifted the cost of new US weapons supplied to Ukraine through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) to other NATO members and partners. Launched last year, the scheme allows them to pay for US-made weapons and ammunition supplied to Kiev. NATO says more than $6 billion worth of US military equipment has been funded through the program.

Moscow has maintained that additional Western weapons will not change the outcome of the conflict, arguing that they will only prolong the fighting.

Trump’s latest remarks came as he pushed back against reports that the conflict with Iran has severely depleted ammunition stocks, saying the US is ramping up production and currently keeping newly produced munitions for its own forces rather than selling them abroad.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has announced his resignation after it emerged that Tallinn paid €70 million ($81 million) in advance for artillery shells for Ukraine to a company with no track record of producing the ammunition.

The scandal erupted on Wednesday after the Eesti Ekspress newspaper reported on the botched procurement and the ensuing legal dispute. In August 2024, Tallinn signed a contract with Italian-registered Datasel, owned by Indian company Neco Defence Munitions, to supply artillery ammunition for Ukraine. The government paid €15 million upfront despite neither company having any previous record of manufacturing artillery shells.

A second deal followed in October, with Estonia paying another €10 million in advance. The first batch was due to reach Ukraine in November, but Datasel reported problems and repeatedly delayed delivery.

Despite the setbacks, Estonia signed two more contracts with the company, eventually bringing total advance payments to around €70 million. The money came from the EU’s European Peace Facility, which has been extensively used to fund weapons and other military assistance for Kiev. Tallinn is now disputing the contracts in a case before the European Court of Arbitration in Strasbourg.

“The defense minister does not conduct contract negotiations. The defense minister does not count socks and ammunition. The defense minister makes the fundamental decision to support Ukraine,” Pevkur said.

RKIK head Elmar Vaher acknowledged that his agency was to blame for the scandal, but shifted the responsibility to his predecessor, Magnus-Valdemar Saar.

“I have been familiar with the matter since January. I cannot see inside people’s heads to know how they were thinking and what the main arguments behind their decisions were,” Vaher told ERR. “The decision was made by RKIK’s former director general.” 

It is unclear to what extent the contracts remain unfulfilled, since Estonian officials provided conflicting accounts. Pevkur said “tens of millions of euros’ worth of the ammunition” were delivered and are currently sitting “in a warehouse in a European country.”

The shells, however, were “not of sufficient quality” to send to Ukraine, according to the outgoing minister. The Defense Ministry’s secretary-general, Kaimo Kuusk, described the consignment as “wholly incomplete.” The Eesti Ekspress report called the munitions useless and faulty.

German police have launched an investigation into a suspected arson attack near the Munich premises of defense contractors Rohde & Schwarz and Helsing, detaining two Bulgarian nationals in connection with the incident.

Two incendiary devices were thrown from a car at a construction site around midnight on Thursday, Bavarian police said. One ignited and was extinguished by officers, while a bomb disposal team defused the second. No injuries or significant damage were reported.

Police shortly afterward detained a 28-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, both Bulgarian citizens.

The motive remains unclear, although police noted that “several defense companies are located” at the site. Because a political motive cannot be ruled out, the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office and the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism have taken over the investigation.

Die Welt later reported, citing a police spokesperson, that a letter claiming responsibility had appeared on a platform linked to left-wing extremists.

Since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, EU officials have repeatedly alleged Russian involvement in suspected sabotage and other incidents described as ‘hybrid attacks,’ although Moscow has denied responsibility and conclusive evidence has not been publicly presented.

In another high-profile case, an explosive-laden drone was discovered between Ukrainian Antonov cargo planes at Leipzig/Halle Airport in early August. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Tuesday that authorities believe Russia was behind the incident.

Berlin subsequently announced the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, along with other measures.

Moscow has rejected the allegations. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Berlin of seeking to distract from its domestic economic problems by “planting the evidence” to implicate Russia.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova likewise dismissed the accusations as an “absolutely trumped-up and far-fetched” pretext for closing the Russian facilities.

Kiev has demanded that the UN aviation watchdog effectively shut Russian airspace to civilian traffic after Vladimir Zelensky threatened that Ukraine’s expanding long-range drone campaign would make flying over the country increasingly dangerous.

Ukrainian newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli reported on Wednesday that Infrastructure Minister Nikolay Kalashnik had sent a letter to Juan Carlos Salazar, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), calling for action against flights through Russian airspace.

The letter urged the watchdog to “encourage aviation authorities, air navigation service providers and airlines” operating in Russia to take measures to “protect” civilian aircraft, including a complete ban on flights through Russian airspace by carriers from ICAO member states.

“The presence of civilian aircraft in Russian airspace may entail particularly high risks,” Kalashnik reportedly wrote in the letter obtained by the outlet.

Kiev’s demand followed an explicit threat from Zelensky to foreign airlines, insurers and governments on Tuesday that continued Ukrainian drone attacks would put civilian aviation in Russia at risk.

“The safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” he said, urging carriers to reconsider flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major Russian destinations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described Zelensky’s warning as a move toward “state terrorism” and vowed that Moscow would respond if Kiev’s threats resulted in tragedy. “Let no one doubt that,” he said.

Drones have also struck residential areas, including high-rise apartment buildings and houses.

An attack last month on the Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik in southern Russia killed at least eight people, including four children, and wounded dozens more. Another strike on industrial and civilian sites in Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, killed 13 people, while a July 18 attack on a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Kotovsk in Tambov Region left seven workers dead.

Moscow has described the intensified Ukrainian strikes as indiscriminate terrorist attacks intended to distract from Kiev’s battlefield setbacks and has responded with renewed long-range strikes on Ukraine. The Russian military maintains that it does not target purely civilian facilities, saying its attacks are directed at military, defense-industrial and dual-use sites.

The anniversary of victory over militarist Japan is more than a commemoration of a distant war. It is an opportunity to ask uncomfortable questions: What exactly was defeated in 1945 and what lessons were meant to survive the victory?

What was supposed to end in 1945?

Japan’s surrender ended a catastrophic war in Asia and the Pacific. Germany’s defeat ended an equally catastrophic war in Europe. In both cases, military power had ceased to be merely an instrument of state policy and had become a force shaping policy itself. Countries were destroyed and tens of millions were dead as a consequence.

After the war, Japan was forced to embraced a high degree of military self-restraint, symbolized by Article 9 of its constitution and by the deliberately defensive character of its armed forces. Germany followed a different path but reached a similar conclusion: Military power requires strict limits and could not be treated as the normal measure of national strength.

Neither country ended up completely defenseless. Both retained armed forces and entered alliance structures. But for decades, there was an underlying recognition that more weapons did not necessarily mean more security.

Today, that recognition is fading. Japan is undertaking its most extensive military buildup since World War II. Germany is carrying out the most consequential rearmament of its postwar history. Both are increasing military spending, expanding defense-industrial capacity, acquiring more powerful strike capabilities, and deepening strategic cooperation. More ominously, both are reassessing their relationship with nuclear weapons.

The justification is simple. The Japanese are told to fear China. The Germans are told to fear Russia.

But what if these threats are being systematically inflated – and politically manufactured? What if the preparations supposedly intended to prevent war are making a larger war increasingly likely?

Japan’s transformation is historically significant, because its postwar restraint was a conscious reaction to the disaster of the first half of the 20th century. Today, however, restraint is increasingly presented as an obsolete luxury in an age of geopolitical competition.

Japan is expanding its defense budget, strengthening its naval and air capabilities, acquiring long-range missiles, and developing what it calls “counterstrike capabilities.” It is strengthening its military infrastructure and integrating more closely into wider regional military planning. All of this is still framed as defensive measures, but that doesn’t change the fact that Japan is becoming a powerful military actor.

The relentlessly repeated justification is that China is growing stronger, therefore Japan must rearm. China is expanding its naval forces, therefore Japan must expand its own. China possesses increasingly sophisticated missiles, therefore Japan requires long-range strike capabilities.

But this narrative usually omits the strategic environment from which China’s own military policies emerge.

China is not surrounded by Chinese military bases. Instead, it faces a dense US-centered network of bases, alliances, intelligence systems, and military partnerships operating along its maritime periphery. US forces are stationed in Japan and elsewhere across the region. Japan is expanding its own military role and acquiring new offensive-range capabilities. Beijing’s response to this environment is then cited as proof that the original buildup was necessary, creating a vicious cycle of artificial reasoning.

China, like any major power, does pursue its own interests and take part in the global competition for influence. But the idea that China is simply a disguised aggressor waiting for an opportunity to attack Japan ignores both the elementary logic of power politics and Chinese strategic culture.

Why would China deliberately initiate a major war against Japan, knowing that this could bring it into direct conflict with the US and its allies? The more plausible scenario is the opposite, that China will increasingly prepare for a conflict because it sees one being prepared against it.

Germany is undergoing a parallel transformation. The army is expanding, military procurement is accelerating, arms production is being encouraged, and Germany is openly aspiring to a much larger role in EU military security.

The entire project rests upon a single dominant assumption: Russia is preparing to threaten Europe, and Europe must therefore prepare for war with Russia. Every day, the Europeans are being told that Russia intends to attack Germany or conquer Europe. These claims are absurd.

Russia’s strategic concerns have long centered on the military configuration along its borders and the expansion of hostile infrastructure toward them. These concerns are being consistently ignored, and all it does is show an unwillingness to understand how Moscow calculates risk.

The dangerous habit of contemporary Western policy is to assign cause and effect selectively. NATO’s expansion and military buildup are described as defensive. Russia’s response is described as proof of inherent aggression. More NATO deployments become necessary because of that response. Another example of circular logic.

Portraying Russia as an inherently expansionist force with no intelligible security interests creates the intellectual conditions in which permanent confrontation becomes inevitable. And permanent confrontation is increasingly becoming the organizing principle of German policy.

China and Russia have become indispensable threats for those advocating a historic expansion of Japanese and German military power. Without the Chinese threat, Japan’s transformation would be much harder to justify. Without the Russian threat, Germany’s rearmament would lose its central political rationale.

An external threat is useful to unlock budgets, strengthen arms industries, create political urgency, and marginalize those who ask whether another course is possible. But history repeatedly demonstrates that exaggerated threats can produce genuine catastrophes.

The nuclear dimension makes the parallel German-Japanese rearmament even more disturbing.

Germany has long taken part in NATO’s nuclear-sharing arrangements, but discussion is now moving beyond passive acceptance of an existing framework. Berlin is increasingly involved in debates about a broader European nuclear architecture and closer strategic coordination with France. The question is no longer merely whether Germany lives under an allied nuclear umbrella, but how deeply it should take part in planning and arrangements surrounding nuclear deterrence.

Japan’s case is even more historically charged. The only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, Japan built an important part of its postwar identity around the Three Non-Nuclear Principles: not possessing, producing, or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons. Now, questions regarding nuclear sharing, extended deterrence, and the practical limits of Japan’s non-nuclear commitments are being discussed more openly than before.

This should concern the entire world. Once countries with Germany’s and Japan’s histories begin moving closer to nuclear strategy, a critical psychological barrier is weakened. Nuclear weapons become increasingly normalized as instruments of security policy rather than recognized for what they are: weapons whose actual use would represent a failure of civilization on an unimaginable scale.

In March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius proposed a Reciprocal Access Agreement with Japan during talks with his counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi.

This agreement would reduce legal and bureaucratic obstacles to the movement of German and Japanese military personnel onto each other’s territory, facilitating joint training, exercises, and potentially operations.

The proposal would give the Berlin-Tokyo military relationship a more permanent operational structure. Germany has already increased its military activity in the Indo-Pacific through deployments and exercises; a reciprocal access framework would make cooperation easier and more routine.

The symbolism is difficult to miss: Countries whose military histories were forcibly ended in 1945 are now building new structures for military access, deployment, and cooperation with each other.

And growing pressure generates resistance. Military blocs generate opposing alignments. The world is once again being divided into increasingly rigid strategic camps – and the countries that spent decades demonstrating the value of military restraint are now helping accelerate this process.

The lesson the world should draw from 1945

Military strength itself is not the problem. States have legitimate security interests and legitimate reasons to maintain capable armed forces. The decisive question is what political leadership does with that power. A strong military under prudent leadership can deter conflict. A rapidly expanding military under leadership convinced that confrontation is inevitable can accelerate it.

The task of serious statecraft is not to declare one side’s fears legitimate and another’s imaginary. It is to prevent competing security concerns from becoming a machinery of permanent escalation.

Eighty-one years after victory in 1945, Japan and Germany should remember that lesson particularly well. Their postwar restraint was not weakness – it was an understanding born from catastrophe.

Today, Japan is rearming against a supposedly inevitable Chinese threat. Germany is rearming against a supposedly inevitable Russian threat. Both are moving closer to nuclear strategy. Both are expanding military partnerships. Both are being told that there is no alternative.

This is perhaps the most dangerous phrase in international politics. There is always an alternative before war begins.

Norway has seized a Russian research vessel in Svalbard at the request of Kiev, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to denounce the capture of civilian vessels as “state terrorism.”

The vessel, called the Professor Molchanov, was detained while docked in Barentsburg, a Russian-operated settlement on the Norwegian-administered Arctic archipelago. The ship has been barred from leaving after a local court granted a request by Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Naftogaz.

Moscow has since summoned Norway’s ambassador in protest and vowed to challenge the seizure.

Why was a Russian state vessel in Norway in the first place, why does Kiev want it, and what could happen to the ship now?

What exactly happened

The Professor Molchanov arrived in Barentsburg on Tuesday on a scheduled voyage from Murmansk carrying scientists, passengers and supplies for the Russian settlements on the Norwegian-administered Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

On Wednesday, Norwegian police, accompanied by an interpreter, boarded the ship again and read a court order to its captain, barring the vessel from leaving. Nobody aboard was arrested.

The order was issued on August 31 by the Nord-Troms and Senja District Court after an application from Ukraine’s Naftogaz.

What happened to the passengers and crew

The exact number of people on board when the ship arrived in Barentsburg has not been officially confirmed. The Professor Molchanov can accommodate up to 80 people, including at least 20 crew members and as many as 60 scientists and other expedition personnel.

Norwegian media have reported that around 50 passengers and crew were affected by the seizure. 

Russian officials have said that 21 people remained on board. They have been supplied with everything they need and continue working, with no Norwegian police or officials stationed on the vessel.

Those who had already gone ashore were not detained and have been able to continue their planned work. They include participants in the Arctic Biennale art-and-science project. 

The seizure has, however, left some passengers without their planned transport back to Russia. Norwegian authorities have said they are working with Arktikugol to resolve the situation for those affected, but no alternative route has yet been announced.

The Professor Molchanov

The ship, named after renowned Soviet meteorologist Pavel Molchanov, is a Russian state-owned, ice-strengthened research vessel with more than four decades of experience operating in polar waters.

Built in Finland for the Soviet hydrometeorological service and launched in late 1982, the 71-meter-long ship was designed for Arctic oceanographic and weather research. It carries four laboratories on board and can accommodate dozens of researchers alongside its crew.

The ship continues to be actively used in Arctic research, including studies of weather, marine ecosystems, microbiology, biodiversity and environmental conditions in the Barents and Kara seas.

The voyage to Svalbard was part of a regular route between Murmansk and Barentsburg, a Russian mining settlement where the state-owned Arktikugol trust has operated for decades.

Since 2025, the Professor Molchanov has carried scientists, Arktikugol employees, contractors, family members and supplies to Barentsburg and another Russian settlement called Pyramida. Ten round trips were planned for 2026.

It is currently the only vessel providing a direct passenger connection between the Russian mainland and the archipelago after direct air links between Russia and Svalbard ended in 2020.

While Svalbard is under Norwegian sovereignty, it is governed by the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which grants nationals of signatory countries rights to conduct commercial and scientific activities on the archipelago.

Why Ukraine wants the ship

The seizure of the vessel stems from a long-running dispute over Crimea. Ukraine’s Naftogaz has claimed that it lost energy assets after the peninsula’s reunification with Russia in 2014 and took the case to an arbitration tribunal in The Hague.

In 2023, the tribunal ordered Russia to pay around $4.22 billion, plus interest and legal costs, ruling that Naftogaz’s assets in Crimea could be treated as Ukrainian “investments” in Russian territory and were protected under a bilateral treaty.

Moscow has rejected the ruling, arguing that the tribunal had no jurisdiction over the dispute and that the treaty did not apply to assets that had already been located in Crimea before its reunification with Russia.

Nevertheless, Naftogaz has since tried to collect the award by targeting Russian state property abroad. It has pursued assets in several Western countries, including Finland, Britain and France, and says the arbitration award can also be enforced in Norway.

According to Reuters, lawyers acting for Naftogaz had been monitoring the Professor Molchanov for months before seeking its seizure.

Not automatically. The current order only prevents the Professor Molchanov from leaving Barentsburg while the case proceeds. The vessel remains Russian property and has not yet been transferred to Ukraine.

Naftogaz ultimately wants Russian assets seized abroad to be sold, with the proceeds used to cover part of the $4.22 billion award. According to Reuters, its lawyers sought not only the arrest of the Professor Molchanov, but also its eventual compulsory sale.

However, even if the ship were to be sold, it would cover only a tiny fraction of Kiev’s multibillion-dollar claim.

Russia has also said it will challenge whether the ship can be seized or sold at all. While Naftogaz has claimed that the vessel has a commercial function, Moscow has stressed that it is state-owned, operated by Roshydromet, and used for scientific research and supplying Russian settlements in the Arctic.

Moscow’s response

Moscow has protested the seizure and demanded that Norway release the vessel. On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Norwegian Ambassador Heidi Olufsen and delivered a “strong protest” over the detention of the ship.

The ministry stressed that the vessel was carrying out a scheduled trip between Murmansk and Barentsburg and was transporting scientists, Arktikugol employees, and supplies needed by Russian settlements on Svalbard.

It accused Oslo of using the restrictions against Russia to undermine Moscow’s longstanding presence on the archipelago, saying Russian organizations and citizens there had effectively been placed in a “state of blockade.”

The ministry also accused Norway of violating the 1920 Svalbard Treaty and said Russian authorities would work to have the seizure lifted.

President Vladimir Putin described the capture of civilian vessels, attacks on merchant ships and threats against civilian aircraft as manifestations of “state terrorism.” He added that Western countries which ignore such actions risk becoming “accomplices in international terrorism.”

Part of a broader campaign against Russian vessels

Western countries have increasingly moved beyond sanctions and begun physically detaining or seizing vessels they accuse of helping Russia bypass restrictions on its trade, claiming the ships are part of a so-called “shadow fleet.”

A number of ships linked to Russia have been held in European waters since 2025, including tankers and cargo vessels detained by Germany, Estonia, France, Belgium, Sweden, and Britain.

Moscow has repeatedly decried the seizures while dismissing the “shadow fleet” designation as legally meaningless.

Putin warned in August that attempts to seize Russian ships and sell their cargo amounted to “piracy and robbery” and said Moscow could respond in kind against vessels carrying cargo for countries involved in such actions.

An attempt to limit Russia in the Arctic?

Russian officials and experts have linked the seizure to a wider Western effort to weaken Moscow’s position in the Arctic. Murmansk Governor Andrey Chibis accused Norwegian officials of trying to “push us out of Svalbard,” stressing that Russia has longstanding economic and scientific interests on the archipelago and that such efforts would fail.

Military analyst Aleksandr Stepanov warned the seizure could set a precedent for disrupting Russian maritime access not only around Svalbard but across northern waters more broadly.

Russian experts have also described the arrest as a potential blow to Russia’s ability to conduct Arctic research, noting that the Professor Molchanov is used for climate, weather, and environmental studies with relevance beyond Russia itself.

“For the surgeons, it was a regular workday.” This is how, many years later, one of the doctors from Unit 731 recalled the autopsies performed on living humans in a Japanese military laboratory near Harbin during the Second World War.

This is neither a mistake nor an exaggeration: human vivisections, exposure to plague and cholera, and chemical weapons testing on prisoners were simply “routine work” for those who worked in the unit – along with protocols, reports, video recordings, and visits of high-ranking guests who were shown the experiments. 

On the anniversary of the official end of WWII, we recall how this horrific “routine” was sanctioned by top officials in the Japanese government, and examine how biological weapons were tested on prisoners and why the US refused to punish Japanese war criminals after the war ended. 

In 1926, a new emperor, Hirohito, ascended to the throne in Japan. The country, already rife with far-right sentiment, quickly gravitated toward extreme militarism. There were two reasons for this.

Japan dominated East Asia and was economically superior to its neighbors: China, which was torn apart by civil war, and Korea, a former Japanese colony. Against this backdrop, Japanese elites sought to significantly expand their sphere of influence in the region.

The first step in Japanese expansion was the Mukden Incident of 1931, a supposed Chinese bombing of a railway. This became the pretext for the Japanese army to occupy Manchuria, a historical region in northeastern China, and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo on its territory. Japan then hoped to subjugate the remaining territories of China.

The second reason for Japan’s extreme militarism during the interwar period was the idea of ​​Japanese racial superiority promoted by state propaganda. Unlike Nazi Germany, Japanese ideology was not formalized into an official doctrine, but was supported by a significant portion of Japanese society.

A characteristic incident that vividly illustrated the situation in Japan at the time occurred in 1932.

The moderate Japanese Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai had sought to limit the military’s influence on national politics but was assassinated by Imperial Navy officers and conspirators from the far-right League of Blood organization. Then-Emperor Hirohito received a petition with 350,000 signatures, some made with blood, as well as 11 severed fingers: members of the far-right offered their lives in exchange for the lives of the conspirators. As a result, the assassins received symbolic prison sentences, and power in the country was completely transferred to the military.

Japan was about to take the first step in the upcoming new world war.

In 1928, a brilliant graduate of Kyoto University, a young doctor and talented microbiologist, Shiro Ishii, traveled to Europe. He was described as a harsh and withdrawn man. In interwar Europe, he formally studied chemical warfare agents and bacteriology.

Ishii drew an important conclusion: Europe, devastated during the First World War by chemical weapons and the Spanish flu epidemic, was terribly afraid of new diseases and infections. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 banned the use of chemical and biological weapons in war. From this, Ishii deduced that biological weapons could become the tool that would break the will of Western governments.

Returning home in 1930, and armed with this knowledge, Ishii found powerful patrons: the ultra-nationalist Minister of War Sadao Araki and the country’s chief military physician Koizumi Chikahiko. The latter, who had been interested in chemical weapons since WWI, was impressed by the use of chlorine near Ypres in 1915 and hoped to fully develop this idea with Ishii’s help.

Together, in 1933, they obtained imperial approval to begin a secret project. They not only planned to develop biological weapons, but also initially planned to test them on living people.

From a secret laboratory to a death factory

Unit 731 was located in Manchuria, and not without reason. Having occupied this region, Japanese troops gained virtually unlimited access to the Chinese people, whom they viewed as a free resource for their inhumane experiments.

Another category of the unit’s victims were Soviet citizens, primarily ethnic Russians. Beginning in 1930, Japanese saboteurs began capturing Soviet citizens in border areas to obtain intelligence on the situation in the USSR.

China and the USSR were considered Japan’s primary adversaries in the upcoming WWII so Japanese doctors studied the use of biological weapons on representatives of these nations. It is estimated that the Chinese constituted approximately 70% of Unit 731’s victims, while Soviet citizens and a few Koreans, Manchus, and Mongols accounted for about 30%.

The project initially began as a small, secret laboratory in the Zhongma prison camp. But after several prisoners escaped, it became clear that the project needed better security. 

Under the cover name of ‘General Directorate of Water Supply and Prevention of the Kwantung Army’ a real fortress was built in Pingfang, on the southern outskirts of Harbin. To make space for it, about 300 peasant houses were demolished, and in their place were erected barracks, laboratories, and a private airfield. The unit’s total staff numbered about 3,000 people. 

With the outbreak of WWII, similar units were established in Japanese-occupied territories, including Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, and elsewhere. These units were part of the so-called Ishii Network, which numbered about 10,000 people.

The unit was divided into several specialized departments: one researched various viruses and infections, such as plague, typhus, anthrax, and cholera; another designed bombs for delivering biological weapons; and a third was engaged in the mass production of the pathogens themselves. Another department was responsible for “annihilating and writing off logs” – the term used to refer to prisoners subjected to inhumane experiments.

Initially, Unit 731 carried out experiments on POWs, anti-Japanese partisans, and common criminals. Initially, they were well-fed, given meat, fish, and sometimes even alcohol, all to ensure they were in good physical condition before the sadistic doctors began their experiments.

What happened inside

❗The editors warn that the description of the horrific experiments that took place in Unit 731 may shock readers.

Prisoners were infected with plague, anthrax, cholera, typhus, gonorrhea, and syphilis. They were also subjected to experiments to test their resistance to dehydration and frostbite. Essentially, the prisoners were subjected to conditions in which the Japanese army would operate in Southeast Asia and the Soviet Far East. These experiments simulated combat conditions more realistically than one could imagine. 

For example, weapons such as grenades and bombs were tested on prisoners. To determine the optimal treatment for shrapnel wounds, prisoners were tied to posts and bombs and grenades were detonated at varying distances from them. Autopsies were performed on the dead, and those who survived were treated, but only to be killed in the next experiment. Flamethrowers were also tested on prisoners.

A separate horror was human vivisection – experimental surgeries and dissections of living people. These were done to study the body’s response in various conditions. A Japanese medical worker who witnessed this horror and had personally cut open a living person said that “for the surgeons, it was a regular workday.”  Equally disgusting is the description of how, whenever the surgeons needed individual organs, such as the brain, they ordered the guards to find a suitable prisoner. The guards would smash the prisoner’s head with an axe, give the brain to the doctors, and send the body to the crematorium.

Prisoners were also subjected to prolonged starvation, placed in pressure chambers, crushed with heavy objects, electrocuted, buried and burned alive. The effects of phosphorus, phosgene, mustard gas, and other chemical warfare agents were also tested on the prisoners.

All these inhumane experiments were videotaped, meaning they weren’t isolated incidents perpetrated by specific sadists, but rather a routine and established procedure. Notably, some doctors later described with horror what they witnessed in Unit 731, while others, far from repenting, described the experiments performed on living people in scientific articles.

It’s also horrifying that the disembowelment of living people and other inhumane experiments were conducted for high-ranking guests visiting Unit 731 as a form of sadistic and inhumane entertainment.

Weapons in action

The developments of the sadistic doctors from Unit 731 weren’t limited to laboratory use; they were actively used by the Japanese military in China. The Soviet Union first encountered Japanese biological weapons during the battle with the Japanese at Khalkhin Gol in 1939. At that time, Japanese troops secretly smuggled typhus vials on a passenger train and dumped them into border rivers, thus causing an outbreak of the disease on Soviet territory.

The Japanese military then carried out at least 12 attacks against Chinese cities. Specifically, they dropped plague-infected fleas from low-flying aircraft over the cities of Ningbo and Changde, causing an outbreak that claimed tens of thousands of civilian lives. During the war in China, the Japanese military also massively contaminated agricultural facilities, reservoirs, and wells. They also dropped contaminated food and clothing on territories unoccupied by the Japanese military under the guise of humanitarian aid; contact with these contaminated items led to infection and death. According to various estimates, at least 200,000 Chinese people died from plague, cholera, and anthrax spread by the Japanese military.

The plan was to launch aircraft from submarine aircraft carriers; the aircraft, manned by kamikaze pilots, would carry biological weapons developed by Unit 731, including plague, cholera, and typhus. The submarine crews were then expected to intentionally infect themselves and land on US shores.

However, this operation was initially suspended by the Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Yoshijiro Umezu, and was subsequently cancelled after Japan’s surrender.

Attempts to conceal crimes

The Japanese military also planned to use biological weapons against the Soviet Union, but the rapid defeat of the Kwantung Army by Soviet troops thwarted these plans.

Realizing that they were on the brink of total defeat and seeking to cover up their crimes, the Japanese military destroyed the buildings of Unit 731 and its branches, laboratories, accumulated stockpiles of biological weapons, documents, and experiment results. About 300 remaining prisoners and 600 Chinese and Manchurian workers were exterminated.

This was standard Japanese military practice at the time. For example, on August 9, 1945, the day the USSR and Japan entered into war, Japanese gendarmes arrested and executed 19 Soviet citizens in the city of Hailar. Unlike the prisoners of Unit 731, those were ordinary people who were executed as potentially disloyal individuals.

So, when the Red Army units arrived at the site of Unit 731 a few days later, they found only an empty death camp. By that time, at least 3,600 people had died in horrific experiments, and hundreds of thousands others were killed by biological weapons developed by the Unit.

More precisely, it was primarily the USSR that wanted to punish the war criminals. After all, their experiments were also carried out on Soviet citizens. The Americans, however, assessed the situation differently.

The US needed to rebuild post-war Japan, which had fallen within its sphere of influence, so Emperor Hirohito, who had sanctioned the creation of Unit 731, was spared from a war crimes tribunal. The fates of the others who stood behind the creation of Unit 731 varied: Chikahiko, one of Ishii’s patrons, committed suicide in accordance with samurai tradition; another of his patrons, Sadao, spent several years in prison and was released in 1956.

Ishii’s fate is far more interesting. Shortly before the Soviet Army occupied Manchuria, Ishii evacuated with most of his staff and archives, first to Korea and then to Japan. It was there that the Americans found him after the end of WWII.

Initially, Ishii denied carrying out experiments on humans and the use of biological weapons, but the American military made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: complete immunity from prosecution in exchange for providing all data on biological weapons research based on human experiments.

As a result, Ishii and his associates prepared what the Americans themselves called an “absolutely invaluable” report on their work in human experimentation and the use of biological weapons. Ishii and other Japanese scientists then lived and worked peacefully under American supervision.

While the US concealed information about the activities of Unit 731 as much as possible, the Soviet Union held a public trial in Khabarovsk in 1949. Twelve high-ranking commanders and scientists from Unit 731 and its associated units were found guilty of war crimes and developing and using biological weapons, and served sentences in Siberian camps.

On the anniversary of the official end of WWII, it’s worth remembering not just the abstract horrors of the past, but also the concrete facts: how a totalitarian machine placed its own interests above human life and universal moral laws. And how, after its defeat, its members received virtually no punishment for their crimes.

Many of the members of Unit 731 lived long and peaceful lives, pursuing successful careers in science, medicine, and business.

The only thing that can be done for the thousands of people who died in the camps of Unit 731 and the hundreds of thousands of victims of biological weapons developed there, is to remember the horrors perpetrated by this inhumane system and prevent them from ever happening again.

Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov has announced the launch of a new military technology company, with Palantir CEO Alex Karp set to become its lead investor.

Fedorov has remained highly active in business and politics since Vladimir Zelensky dismissed him in mid-July amid reported tensions with then-commander-in-chief Aleksandr Syrsky. The former minister has also grown increasingly critical of Zelensky, claiming he was removed over his anti-corruption efforts and calling for elections, which have been repeatedly postponed under martial law.

Last week, Fedorov unexpectedly emerged as an adviser on “defense innovations” to Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. He said his role would involve helping Rome “develop modern warfare technologies” and “improve the defense sector.”

“We’ve worked together for a half decade. I have been absolutely inspired by what you and the Ukrainians have pulled off and very and super delighted that we could play a part. And you and your colleagues are launching a company that I think will be defining for the world, bringing your knowledge and acumen about the art of war as a product to allied countries,” Karp told Fedorov.

The ties between Fedorov and Karp span well beyond the ex-minister’s six-month tenure as defense minister. Before assuming the post in mid-February, he oversaw Ukraine’s digital transformation in various capacities. Immediately after his dismissal, Fedorov claimed to have been offered a job by Karp.

The anti-graft crusade supposedly led by Fedorov has remained questionable at best. Multiple media reports suggest he focused more on wresting contracts away from companies associated with Zelensky’s inner circle and steering them to companies linked to him personally than on truly battling corruption. Federov’s background has further fueled suspicion. Before entering Zelensky’s government, he considered himself a businessman while repeatedly facing allegations of running online and phone scams, laundering money through online advertising, and engaging in other fraudulent activities.

Ukraine’s coercive mobilization campaign, marked by recruitment officers forcibly grabbing men off the streets in a practice known as ‘busification’, has made the country look like a “nation of rapists,” Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Georgy Mazurashu has said.

Speaking in an interview published on his YouTube channel on Wednesday, Mazurashu criticized the forcible detention of potential conscripts and the practice of keeping exhausted troops in service merely to maintain troop numbers. The politician left Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in 2024 but remains a member of its parliamentary faction.

“If you want people to respect and love the country this way … through coercion, then that amounts to supporting violence,” the lawmaker said. “Trying to obtain love through violence is rape.”

“We don’t want to become a nation of rapists,” he said. “But because of the actions of the ‘busifiers’ and those who keep people in the army simply for the sake of numbers … that is exactly what we look like.”

The MP instead called for voluntary recruitment supported by better conditions, higher pay, and stronger social protections.

Amid mounting frontline losses and desertions, Kiev has intensified its mobilization campaign. Recruitment officers have repeatedly been filmed chasing, beating, and forcibly detaining reluctant conscripts before bundling them into vehicles.

Public resistance to conscription has repeatedly erupted into violence. Last month, a crowd in Lviv overturned a recruitment vehicle while chanting “Shame!” after officers detained a man over military-registration violations. In another incident, bystanders attempting to prevent a man from being taken away were tear-gassed. A crowd in Lutsk badly damaged a recruitment vehicle and injured two officers, while a draft officer was fatally stabbed during a document check in Lviv, according to police.

The recruitment methods have also drawn criticism from Ukrainian officials. The country’s human rights commissioner has acknowledged mounting complaints over enlistment practices. His office received 6,127 complaints concerning recruitment officials in 2025, up from just 18 in 2022, and has stressed that enlistment personnel are not authorized to detain or forcibly hold civilians.

The central bank of the Netherlands has become the latest country to move gold holdings out of the United States, announcing on Wednesday that it had transferred 86 tons of bullion to London. The bank described the move as “crisis preparedness” during a time of “increasing geopolitical unrest.”

The transfer was carried out between March and August. The bulk of the gold was moved from New York, with the rest coming from Canada. Only about 27 tons were physically transported across the Atlantic, while the remainder was accomplished through sales in the Americas and repurchases in London. Prior to the transfer, the Dutch central bank (DNB) had held 313 tons in North America.

“With this relocation, we have improved the tradability of our gold reserves,” according to a written statement by DNB Governor Olaf Sleijpen. “We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience and preparedness.”

The DNB’s move comes after France’s central bank sold its remaining 129 tons of gold held at Federal Reserve vaults in New York between July 2025 and January 2026, leaving it with no bullion in the United States. The proceeds from the sale were used to purchase an equivalent amount of gold in Europe.

Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez repatriated about 160 tons of its gold reserves from foreign banks, a move that was completed by January 2012. However, some 31 metric tons of Venezuelan gold are still held by the Bank of England. Efforts undertaken by then-President Nicolas Maduro to bring the bullion home were stymied by Great Britain, which did not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of Venezuela’s government.

The DNB praised Bank of England-held gold as being “the world’s most easily tradable gold.” The Dutch central bank reported owning 612.4 metric tons as of the end of 2025, worth about €72 billion (about $84 billion).

Germany appears to be seeking a pretext for further confrontation with Russia by accusing Moscow without evidence over a recent drone incident, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has told RT.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the German authorities had concluded that Russia was behind the August 4 incident in which an explosive-laden drone was found between Ukrainian Antonov cargo planes at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

Berlin subsequently announced the imminent closure of the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, as well as tighter border controls for Russian citizens.

Moscow has rejected the allegations, with President Vladimir Putin suggesting they were being used as a smokescreen to distract Germans from domestic political and economic problems.

Speaking to RT on Wednesday, Kneissl said Berlin had followed a familiar Western pattern of blaming Russia before presenting any hard evidence. The latest allegations are “not based on facts,” but merely assumptions, she said.

Kneissl suggested that the speed with which Berlin blamed Moscow could signal that the German leadership is “ready to confront Russia.” 

She also described the decision to shut down the Russian House in Berlin as a “very deplorable measure,” noting that cultural institutions were rarely targeted even at the height of the Cold War.

Speaking on Tuesday, Putin accused the German authorities of having “planted the evidence” to frame Russia. He also called Berlin’s confrontational stance a “gross mistake” that runs counter to the interests of the German people.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the German authorities had long sought to target both the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, and had concocted an “absolutely trumped-up and far-fetched” pretext to further damage bilateral relations.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia would respond to Germany’s moves by shutting down the Goethe Institute centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Ekaterinburg, which promote German language and culture.

Western media are using unverified claims that Beijing censored footage of the deadly Nepal-Tibet floods to promote “false narratives” about China, Hong Kong-based author Nury Vittachi has told RT.

Speaking on Thursday, Vittachi said Western outlets frequently cite Tibetan advocacy groups without adequately disclosing their funding and location, while shaping reporting that portrays Beijing in an overwhelmingly negative light.

“The Western media pick up these groups and they deliberately hide the funding,” he said, arguing that readers consequently get a “very distorted view.”

Vittachi singled out organizations supported by the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED), accusing them of “weaponizing human rights against China.” He argued that negative coverage of China ultimately serves a broader effort to “manufacture consent for a war on China.”

The comments come as Western outlets including the BBC and Telegraph have accused Beijing of suppressing footage of the catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border. The BBC claimed images of the disaster had spread around the world while being heavily restricted inside China.

Reporting live for RT from Gyirong, CGTN correspondent Cen Ziyuan showed the scale of the destruction and the difficulties facing rescue crews trying to reach the worst-hit areas. Heavy mud and huge rocks have blocked access roads, forcing crews to deploy excavators and other heavy machinery, she said.

Cen said rescuers had in some cases spent more than ten hours climbing through mountainous terrain to reach the border area, while helicopters had been used for airdrops. Her report from the disaster zone also showed heavy machinery working near the destroyed Gyirong Port and flood-damaged roads.

The on-the-ground coverage comes as search and rescue operations continue following the catastrophic landslide and flooding, with thousands reported dead or missing across the affected region.

The deadly strike on a wedding in southern Iran earlier this week was likely a direct hit by a US munition, Reuters reports, citing its own analysis.

The strike on Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province on Tuesday left five people dead and nearly 70 wounded. The Iranian authorities said the victims were three women and two children aged 4 and 16.

Four weapons experts who reviewed images and videos verified by Reuters said the damage was inconsistent with debris or a ricochet from another target. Three concluded that the munition was likely American rather than an errant Iranian air-defense missile, while one suggested that it may have missed its intended target.

Two US officials confirmed to the outlet that US forces specifically targeted a telecommunications tower around 135 meters from the wedding site. Weapons experts previously cited by AP and the New York Times identified recovered fragments as belonging to a US air-delivered guided munition, most likely a JSOW.

US Vice President J.D. Vance said on Thursday that Washington is investigating the incident. “We’re investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know,” he told reporters. The US military said it does not target civilians and has not accepted responsibility for the strike.

Australian tunnel safety and disaster expert Arnold Dix has urged rescuers in Nepal not to give up hope of finding survivors inside the tunnels in the Upper Trishuli-3A hydropower project, where scores of workers are feared trapped underground days after a flash flood.

“The operation at Trishuli 3A is proceeding as a rescue, not a recovery,” Dix, who is remotely assisting the operation, wrote on LinkedIn. Footage recorded around the time of the August 26 flood shows around 30 people moving toward and seeking shelter in the power station tunnels, he said. 

Dix said tunnels can remain comparatively stable after devastation above ground and may preserve breathable air and survivable spaces. “Silence is not evidence of death. It is only the absence of a signal,” he wrote, citing past rescues in Chile,

Thailand, and India where people survived underground for days without contact. Rescue teams are still trying to reach workers at more than a dozen hydropower sites along the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor. At Trishuli-3A, a 93-member team is working with Chinese tunnel specialists, while teams from India and South Korea are assisting operations at other sites. 
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लाङ्गटाङ्ग जलविद्युत सुरुङबाट शव उद्धार || Dead Bodies Recovered from #LangtangTunnel#NepaliArmy #BhotekoshiFlood pic.twitter.com/Oc9UYTpD6v

— Nepali Army (@NepaliArmyHQ) September 3, 2026

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Thursday that 1,252 people have died and 4,216 remain missing. Around 900 people working at hydropower projects are among those still unreachable, while 11,993 people have been rescued. 

The gang-warfare-style clash between Ukrainian security agencies that left three troops shot in Kiev and shocked the country is being spun into competing narratives by the rival parties involved.

Depending on which one of Vladimir Zelensky’s security agencies is speaking, the central figure in the conflict is either a hired gun working for Moscow, or a brave Ukrainian combat officer who was illegally detained for over a week by rogue Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) agents.

What triggered the scandal?

The gunfight on Wednesday morning followed the disappearance on August 23 of Stepan Kaplunov, a reported white supremacist and senior officer in the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a militia commanded by notorious neo-Nazi Denis “White Rex” Kapustin, under the patronage of the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR).

What excuses has the SBU offered for taking the HUR’s man?

On Thursday, as the scandal over the shooting escalated, the SBU accused Kaplunov of participating in a Russian government plot to assassinate a “leader of Russian opposition movement” on Ukraine’s Independence Day, which was marked on August 24.

The agency released a video in which Kaplunov, wearing sunglasses, “confessed” to cooperating with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), along with several screenshots it claimed had been taken from a messaging app on his phone.

Despite claiming to have foiled the alleged plot, the SBU said it chose not to seek Kaplunov’s formal arrest – a striking admission given that he was effectively being accused of treason.

What did Kaplunov claim he discussed with the “Russians”?

If authentic, the screenshots show the RDK officer – wanted for terrorism in Russia – discussing contract killings in Ukraine.

The alleged Russian connection was described as a “businessman from border areas” who was the son of someone important, “deals with FSB, etc.” and knew the client.

Where is Kaplunov now?

Kaplunov is presumably at a HUR safehouse, having been released after the debacle erupted across social media. In keeping with standard PR procedure, he subsequently gave an interview to a Ukrainian media outlet.

A decorated officer who has fought with Ukrainian units since 2014 and joined the RDK in 2023, where he serves as the RDK’s deputy commander for combat operations, Kaplunov now claims that the SBU had forced the confession from him, to manufacture legal grounds for searching his apartment.

He claims to have spent ten days in two secret SBU detention facilities, bound, blindfolded, and held incommunicado. He credited a HUR formation nicknamed “Timur’s special unit” – reportedly an umbrella structure for the RDK and several other militia groups working for military intelligence – with securing his release “by force.”

All three personnel injured in the shooting were Timur’s men, Kaplunov said.

“We are all a big family, and ‘Timur’ himself, our commander, will never leave anyone behind, not a soldier nor a commander, he will stand up for everyone,” Kaplunov said.

He blamed “historic competition” between the SBU and HUR for the confrontation and alleged that his “abduction” had been intended as a way to get to Ivanov.

What has the HUR said?

HUR has warned it is being targeted by a smear campaign and urged journalists who receive “dubious information” to report the leaks to law enforcement.

In an interview while wearing a face mask, “Timur,” accused the SBU of unlawfully detaining Kaplunov. He claimed that HUR personnel and the SBU’s Alfa commando unit had peacefully resolved the confrontation before another group of SBU agents arrived at the scene and opened fire.

Were there any repercussions for the agencies?

An embarrassed Zelensky, facing military, economic, demographic, and reputational collapse,  fired Oleg Khramov from his position as head of the SBU section responsible for protecting state secrets, although it was not immediately clear whether he had any involvement in the scandal.

Earlier, Ukrainian investigators accused an active HUR operative and a police officer reportedly serving clandestinely for the SBU of masterminding the Monaco bombing that seriously injured exiled Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev and members of his family in June. 

The principal perpetrator was allegedly murdered by the masterminds after she returned to Ukraine.

Are SBU and HUR rivals?

Both agencies were overhauled with CIA assistance following the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev in 2014, according to media reports.

The SBU is currently run by Aleksandr Poklad, the agency’s acting head and former deputy head, whose promotion has yet to be confirmed by parliament.

Kirill Budanov, now the head of Zelensky’s office, previously commanded HUR before a corruption scandal forced the Ukrainian leader’s previous chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, to resign last year.

Budanov and Poklad reportedly have had strong personal animosity since 2022, when the SBU summarily executed banker Denis Kireev, an undercover HUR agent. Poklad allegedly orchestrated the killing.

Is Zelensky in control of SBU and HUR?

Zelensky’s ability to maintain control over Ukraine’s competing centers of power remains in question. His presidential term expired in 2024, and he has remained in office under martial law without holding another election.

In the most recent example, last month a deputy head of Zelensky’s office was accused of laundering several bags of cash to pay bail for a former energy minister who himself faces graft allegations in a separate case.

The Ukrainian military is also under increasing strain as Zelensky has failed to secure additional supplies of Patriot interceptor missiles, the weapons Kiev badly needs to intercept Russian ballistic missiles.

Despite the shortage, he ordered mass strikes in July on Russian cargo ships and retail warehouses, prompting overwhelming retaliatory strikes.

This week, Zelensky also threatened foreign airlines operating in Russia, claiming that Russian airspace belongs to Ukrainian kamikaze drones now.

With the situation rapidly unraveling, it remains unclear what people trained to spy, sabotage, abduct, and kill on behalf of the state might choose to do next.

For decades, mutual deterrence among major powers provided the world with a degree of predictability, with the nuclear factor lying at the heart of this system since the middle of the last century. The great powers restrained one another and, in doing so, restrained themselves.

They understood that overly ambitious geopolitical adventures could carry unacceptable risks, thus “strategic stability” was the reassuring term given to what was, in reality, the capacity for mutual destruction. International institutions grew around this balance like mushrooms around a tree trunk, but beneath all the agreements and diplomatic language lay something much simpler: the fear of the consequences of a direct conflict between major powers. Now, however, that system is falling apart.

Many posit that the problem is precisely the loss of fear as political elites have ceased to believe that nuclear war is genuinely possible and hence the declining restraint we see in the conflict in Ukraine, in the Middle East and, potentially, in Asia.

The apparent solution is therefore to remind everyone just how terrifying nuclear war would be. Restore the fear, the argument goes, and states will once again exercise restraint and become ready to negotiate new rules. There’s logic to this, but there’s also an enormous danger.

In that case, nuclear weapons could cease to be primarily a political and psychological barrier and become simply another means of warfare, albeit an extraordinarily powerful one. Would this restore fear? Or would states instead accelerate the development of nuclear weapons designed for more effective battlefield use? Well, in the present atmosphere of growing recklessness, either is conceivable.

Nuclear weapons are the most powerful weapons humanity has invented and they were created to fight wars, but we discovered that they could perform another function by preventing the largest and most destructive wars from occurring at all. Today, however, perceptions seem to be returning to their starting point that a weapon is a weapon, even when it is nuclear.

Yet expecting weapons to solve the problems between states places impossible demands on them, particularly when warfare itself is becoming increasingly asymmetrical and all-pervasive.

States are finding it harder to hold on to what they can’t afford to lose. The erosion of borders, once celebrated as one of the great achievements of liberal globalization, is acquiring a much more alarming character.

States won’t simply accept this loss of control, so every action produces a reaction, which means the struggle will become fiercer. More importantly, the battlefield will increasingly encompass almost every sphere of human activity.

Under such conditions, what does “strategic stability” even mean, and how can it be maintained?

War itself increasingly resembles not a means of resolving conflicts but a permanent form of interaction, even coexistence and there may be no decisive victory or defeat, but only repeated attempts to exhaust an opponent economically, militarily, politically, and psychologically.

However, prolonged attrition produces two contradictory effects. States become more experienced and capable of enduring confrontation, but at the same time, fatigue accumulates, along with the temptation to end an apparently endless struggle by reaching for the most decisive and destructive argument available.

The world is losing the systemic safeguards that once limited such impulses and it increasingly resembles a hunting ground during open season.

So what, then, can we hold on to? For now, perhaps only common sense and an accurate assessment of the relationship between our ambitions and our actual capabilities. It’s a fragile lifeline, but it may be enough to prevent us from feeding the flames and instead keep us clear of them.

At least until the value of restraint, including self-restraint, is once again understood by everyone.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team

South Africa’s police service has fired Crime Intelligence deputy head Major-General Feroz Khan after he failed to appear for an expedited disciplinary process.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, SAPS (South African Police Service) said Khan was deemed dismissed in terms of the SAPS Discipline Regulations after failing to attend proceedings before the senior officer responsible for the disciplinary matter.

“The South African Police Service confirms the dismissal of Major General Feroz Khan from the Service,” the police said. SAPS reiterated its commitment to accountability and professional conduct, stressing that all members, regardless of rank, are subject to the same disciplinary framework.

“SAPS reiterates its commitment to accountability, discipline and professional conduct within the organisation. No member, regardless of rank or position, is above the law or the applicable disciplinary framework,” the statement read.

The police added that, because the matter has been the subject of legal proceedings, it would continue to respect court processes and would only provide further information where legally permissible.

Judge Connie Prinsloo found that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter and that Khan had failed to establish urgency. The ruling effectively cleared the way for SAPS to continue with the internal disciplinary proceedings.

Khan’s legal team had argued that the disciplinary hearing proceeded in his absence while he was receiving medical treatment following a shooting in Johannesburg in June. However, the court did not consider the merits of his case, focusing instead on jurisdiction and urgency.

Khan, who served as deputy national head of SAPS Crime Intelligence, has become one of the most prominent figures in South Africa’s ongoing policing crisis.

Khan remains under subpoena by the commission, although his appearance has been delayed because of medical concerns. Separately, Khan is facing criminal charges alongside Gauteng Hawks head Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa and businessman Tariq Downes.

The trio are accused of defeating the ends of justice and contravening the Precious Metals Act over allegations that they facilitated the release of a businessman found in possession of an unwrought gold bar in 2021. All three have denied wrongdoing and are out on bail pending the continuation of their criminal case.

First published by IOL

The EU and NATO are pursuing an increasingly aggressive campaign to attempt to divide Eurasia, contain Russia and China, and preserve Western global dominance, while hurting themselves in the process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Lavrov also said Moscow would not “beg” European nations to lift sanctions and accused the West of seeking to freeze rather than resolve the Ukraine conflict.

Addressing a lecture organized by the Russian Znanie Society, Lavrov presented the confrontation with the West as part of a broader struggle over the emerging multipolar world order. He argued that Western powers are trying to counter the rise of new economic and political centers while Russia is seeking closer cooperation across Eurasia based on “equality, mutual benefit, and honest dialogue.”

Here are the key takeaways from Lavrov’s address.

West ‘needs an enemy’

The EU and NATO are pursuing anti-Russia policies “even more fiercely, if not frantically” in an attempt to split the Eurasian continent, Lavrov said. He pointed to “walls and trenches” being built along EU borders with Russia, mocking claims that such measures are needed to prevent an alleged Russian invasion.

“This is sick imagination, but I think it is not so much sick imagination as deliberate policy,” he said.

According to Lavrov, both NATO and the EU need Russia to remain an enemy in order to justify their policies at home. “If this artificially created image of an enemy in the form of Russia disappears, the overwhelming majority of governments in the EU and NATO countries will simply be swept away by voters,” he stated.

He went on to accuse Europe of being unable to cooperate “honestly,” arguing that for more than 500 years it had been “the main source” of global upheaval, including two world wars. Europe, he said, is attempting to preserve what it sees as its right to global hegemony.

‘Neo-Nazi spirit’ in Europe

The foreign minister said that a “neo-Nazi spirit” remains “very, very resilient” in parts of Europe and singled out Germany, where he said the “metastases of Nazism” were re-emerging.

Lavrov pointed to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s pledge to make Germany Europe’s leading military power “again,” saying the choice of word had left him “stunned.”

“If this person does not understand what the word ‘again’ means in this context, then this is extremely dangerous for Europe,” Lavrov said, accusing the region of once again becoming a source of ideas of “national and racial superiority.”

‘Dictate’ rather than ‘negotiate’

Lavrov linked Western policy in Europe to persistent “neo-colonial habits” elsewhere in the world. Western diplomacy, he argued, is increasingly based not on reaching agreements but on coercion.

“The West does not want to negotiate, it wants to dictate,” he said, adding that diplomacy has effectively been “replaced by sanctions.”

He accused Western states of seeking to undermine the consensus-based architecture built around the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which he praised for emphasizing consensus, mutual respect, and mutual benefit. According to the minister, Washington and its allies are instead creating smaller groupings designed to erode ASEAN’s central role.

Multipolar alternative

Russia’s answer, Lavrov said, is to strengthen open regional platforms rather than build closed military groupings. He cited the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, ASEAN, BRICS, and other structures whose cooperation Moscow wants to deepen.

He highlighted the “ASEAN plus partners” model, saying its participants have equal rights and decisions are based on inclusive principles rather than diktat.

Lavrov linked these efforts to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for a “Greater Eurasian Partnership” open to all states on the continent and based on shared economic and development interests. He described the broader shift toward a multipolar world as an objective historical process that the West cannot stop.

EU ‘shot itself in the foot’

Lavrov also argued that the EU has inflicted severe economic damage on itself by abandoning Russian energy and accepting the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, describing the EU’s response to the sabotage as “self-humiliation.”

The EU is thus voluntarily squandering its economic advantages while transforming itself from an economic association into an “openly aggressive anti-Russian military bloc” supporting NATO.

Russia will not ‘beg’ Europe

Moscow, however, will not “beg” European nations to lift sanctions or restore economic ties, Lavrov said.

He argued that European leaders had assumed Russia valued its economic relationship with the EU so highly that it would eventually come “running and begging” for sanctions to be removed.

“That will not happen,” Lavrov said. “It is absolutely not in the genetic code of our people. We have, if you like, our own pride.” Russia has enough countries willing to cooperate “honestly,” he added, and does not need to seek reconciliation with Europe on its terms.

‘Fuhrer Ursula’

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – “we call her Fuhrer Ursula,” Lavrov said – is stripping national governments of their powers and concentrating them in Brussels.

He stated that von der Leyen was trying to pull into the European Commission powers that EU members had never transferred to Brussels and which “remain with national governments.”

“Nobody asked her what those European values were,” he said, pointing to restrictions on the Russian language and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “If the legislative ban on the Russian language in education, culture, everyday life, and the media reflects European values, then welcome back to Nazism for Europe,” Lavrov said.

West wants to ‘freeze’ Ukraine conflict

Turning directly to Ukraine, Lavrov said Western governments had abandoned – or at least played down – their previous rhetoric about inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia and were instead seeking an immediate halt to fighting along the current front line.

“They do not want to settle this conflict, but to freeze it, preserving this threat on our borders,” Lavrov added. Accepting such an outcome would also amount to abandoning Russia’s stated goal of “denazification,” he argued, saying Moscow would not agree to preserve an anti-Russian government in Kiev.

“We would betray our ancestors who defeated Nazism in 1945,” he said. “I do not think our people are ready for that.”

US ride-hailing company Uber has shut down operations in Nigeria and Uganda, ending a 12-year presence in Africa’s most populous nation and a decade of service in the East African country.

The withdrawals took effect on Wednesday following what Uber described as a “thorough review” of its business. The company did not disclose how many employees or drivers were affected, but said assistance would be available during the transition.

Uber said the closures were limited to the two markets and that it remains committed to Africa. The move coincided with a global Uber restructuring involving around 3,300 job cuts, equivalent to roughly 10% of its workforce. In a message published by the company on Wednesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the restructuring would reduce costs and free resources for investment in growth and innovation as Uber seeks to “build the autonomous future.”

The company launched in Lagos in 2014 and Kampala in 2016. Its African operations have faced persistent disputes over driver earnings, commission rates, and regulation.

The Nigerian exit also followed a dispute over access to airports operated by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria. Uber denied that the issue prompted its departure, saying the decision reflected changing business priorities and investment plans. The shutdown leaves Bolt, inDrive, and the government-backed LagRide among Nigeria’s main alternatives.

In Uganda, Uber faced competition from platforms including SafeBoda and Faras, while drivers complained about low fares and high commissions. Local reports also cited rising operating costs and difficulties retaining drivers.

The latest exits limit Uber’s direct African presence to South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, and Morocco. Its technology is also used in Mauritius by Taxi by ala-lila, a locally managed service powered by Uber.

Russia remained India’s largest supplier of crude oil in August, selling around 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd), or 45% of the country’s total imports, data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler shows.

Russian shipments were down from a record 2.8 million bpd in July, when they accounted for more than half of India’s crude purchases. However, India’s overall imports also declined to around 4.6 million bpd in August, nearly 8% below the more than 5 million bpd bought the previous month.

Indian refiners ramped up purchases in May, June, and July to guard against potential supply shortages amid the conflict in the Middle East. The August decline reflected some normalization after months of heavy buying, scheduled maintenance at Indian refineries, and lower availability of Russian crude, according to Kpler.

“August was less a story of India voluntarily stepping away from Russian oil than of Russia having fewer barrels to offer,” Abu Dhabi-based commodity analyst Natalia Katona told the Financial Express. Lower Russian seaborne exports and stronger competition from Chinese refiners for available cargoes also weighed on supplies to India, she said. 

The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela were among India’s other leading oil suppliers during the month. Venezuelan shipments rose sharply, reaching their highest level since 2020, according to Kpler data. 

The purchases have continued despite the prospect of new US tariffs targeting major buyers of Russian oil. The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which cleared the US Senate last month, would allow tariffs of up to 100% on imports from the five biggest buyers of Russian oil. The bill has US President Donald Trump’s backing but still has to pass the House. 

India maintains that its oil purchases are guided by affordability, availability, and national energy security rather than geopolitical considerations.

Mozambique and Zimbabwe have launched an expansion of the Beira-Harare fuel corridor that will increase pipeline capacity by 67% and boost fuel supplies to landlocked southern African markets, the pipeline operator CPMZ said on Wednesday. 

Presidents Daniel Chapo of Mozambique and Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe broke ground on the project, which is expected to raise annual capacity from 3 million to 5 million cubic meters by the end of 2027. The upgrade will allow the corridor to transport around two billion additional liters of fuel a year. 

“The stronger Beira-Harare corridor will support Zimbabwe’s energy security while creating greater capacity to serve markets beyond our borders,” Mnangagwa said. “It shows what Mozambique and Zimbabwe can achieve through cooperation around infrastructure of shared regional importance.”  

The Mozambican president noted the project would strengthen the country’s position as a gateway for regional trade and deepen infrastructure cooperation with Zimbabwe. 

CPMZ said it is also studying a longer-term upgrade that could raise the pipeline’s annual capacity to around 12 million cubic meters to meet projected demand through 2050.   

Mozambique does not produce crude oil or operate a refinery and relies on imports for its petroleum products. However, its Indian Ocean ports serve as an important gateway for fuel shipments to landlocked countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, and the DR Congo.  

Nigeria has confirmed that around 200 US troops deployed to support its fight against armed groups will begin leaving the West African country, with most expected to withdraw by late September.

A smaller advisory and intelligence team will remain, while cooperation in training and information sharing will continue, Nigerian military spokesperson Major General Samaila Uba said on Tuesday. “The deployment of United States personnel was tied to specific operational and counterterrorism objectives,” Uba said, according to AP.

The troops arrived in February to provide intelligence, targeting, and training support. Washington subsequently deployed MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drones to Bauchi Airfield in northeastern Nigeria. The mission came after US President Donald Trump accused the Nigerian authorities of failing to protect Christians and threatened military action.

Nigeria rejected claims that Christians were being systematically targeted, saying jihadist violence, banditry, and communal conflicts affect citizens of different faiths.

US Africa Command chief General Dagvin Anderson announced in July that most of the American troops had been withdrawn, saying the campaign had successfully degraded Islamic State’s leadership and disrupted its wider network. Samuel Memeh, chairman of Nigeria’s Democratic Leadership Alliance, disputed that assessment. Memeh told RT that the deployment had produced no significant improvement in security and argued that foreign forces alone could not defeat the country’s armed groups.

Lagos-based security consultancy SBM Intelligence said in a report last month that at least 7,825 people were abducted across Africa’s most populous nation between July 2025 and June 2026, a 66% increase from the previous 12-month period.

The seizing and targeting of Russian civilian vessels constitute acts of “state terrorism,” President Vladimir Putin has said, warning that these actions are making peace talks with Ukraine more difficult.

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, the Russian president denounced the recent captures of Russian civilian vessels and pointed to Kiev’s threats against passenger aircraft.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky previously stated that the “safe days” in Russian skies are over, addressing foreign airlines, insurers, and governments whose aircraft continue to use Russian airspace.

“This, of course, is a manifestation of state terrorism,” Putin said, adding that these actions “undoubtedly complicate the possibility of bilateral peace negotiations.”

He also warned that “those who remain silent and do not pay attention to this become accomplices in international terrorism,” referring to Kiev’s Western backers.

The Professor Molchanov is a Russian state-owned research vessel that operates regular passenger and cargo services between Murmansk and Svalbard, carrying scientists, workers, their families, tourists, and supplies to Russian settlements on the archipelago. Moscow has said the seizure will be challenged in court.

The detention follows a series of Western seizures of Russian-linked vessels accused of belonging to a so-called “shadow fleet,” although the Professor Molchanov itself was seized in connection with a legal claim by Ukraine’s Naftogaz against Russia. Moscow has rejected the “shadow fleet” label as having no basis in international law and accused Western states of using sanctions as a pretext to interfere with civilian maritime trade.

Putin warned last month that attempts to seize Russian ships and sell their cargo amounted to “piracy and robbery,” saying Moscow is prepared to respond in kind in any part of the world.

Kiev has also stepped up attacks on civilian shipping. Putin said earlier this week that around 100 Russian merchant vessels had been damaged over a 40-day period, with sailors killed in the attacks, including Russian and foreign nationals.

Western countries are trying to draw India into a confrontation with China by pushing a more military role for the Quad grouping, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok. 

Lavrov said India feels “very uncomfortable” in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) grouping, arguing that the US and Japan have sought to add a military component to it.

“They are conducting maritime security exercises and are keen to draw our Indian friends into games against another great friend of ours – the People’s Republic of China,” Lavrov said.

The Quad grouping of India, the US, Japan, and Australia focuses on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Its activities cover areas ranging from trade and critical technologies to maritime security, with the four countries also taking part in the annual Malabar naval exercise.

At a meeting hosted by India in May, Quad foreign ministers launched a maritime surveillance initiative aimed at increasing information sharing and maritime domain awareness. India is also due to host the grouping’s next Quad-at-Sea Ship Observer Mission, intended to improve interoperability and knowledge-sharing.

📹 Germany Wants To Be Europe’s Top Military Force ‘Again’... Lavrov Points To Nazi Past, Calls It ‘Extremely Dangerous’

Referring to German Chancellor’s call to make Germany “the best country in the world, the main military force in Europe again,” the Russian FM said, “I was… https://t.co/iTxDLWQ0bO pic.twitter.com/mGHu4cCpxU

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 3, 2026

Lavrov linked the grouping to what he described as a broader Western effort to weaken the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by creating smaller blocs in the region.

He said Western countries are also trying to establish a “second Quad,” comprising the US, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines – instead of India – with the aim of fragmenting ASEAN unity.

India has pushed back against suggestions that participation in the Quad is directed against Beijing, saying it pursues an independent foreign policy based on national interests.

Lavrov also accused NATO of seeking to expand its presence and infrastructure in Asia. The US-led military bloc has stepped up cooperation with Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand in areas including maritime security, cyber defense, and emerging technologies.

The Global South cannot merely remain consumers of artificial intelligence but should also author the norms governing the technology, to avoid it being used against their sovereignty and security, an Indian cyber and AI law expert has said.

China, India, and Russia will become integral to this norm-making process, Pavan Duggal told RT on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

The Global South can no longer be a mere spectator, but must be “an actual author of the norms for AI before they get crystallized,” Duggal told the gathering on Wednesday. He added that China, India, and Russia represent the collective thought leadership and vision of the Global South and will play a major role in creating the governance framework for AI.

Duggal said that a country’s sovereignty now extends beyond its traditional territorial boundaries and encompasses cyberspace and emerging technologies such as AI. Countries need to create stricter laws for providers of AI services anywhere in the world, as long as the services are delivered within their respective territories.

Nations of the Global South also have to ensure that their data does not fall into other countries’ hands, so it is not used to “prejudicially impact their sovereignty, security, and integrity.”

“We don’t want to be just consumers of AI services provided by someone else and governed by their respective norms,” he told RT.

Security cooperation is also expected to remain on top of the agenda for the BRICS summit later this month in India.

Current AI regulations across countries focus on the risks of the technology but don’t deal with making it accountable, he added.

Duggal said countries like India are beginning to see a new trend of “cognitive colonialism,” where people are ready to become “cognitive slaves” of big tech companies so long as their day-to-day work is done by AI.

Nearly half of the world’s estimated 934 million farmers suffer unintentional pesticide poisoning each year, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

The study, conducted by researchers from the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), analyzed 214 publications from 2006 to 2023 alongside World Health Organization mortality data. It estimated up to 433 million cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning annually, affecting around 46% of agricultural workers worldwide. About 11,000 cases are fatal each year.

The burden falls disproportionately on the Global South, researchers found.

South and Southeast Asia and eastern Africa recorded the highest estimated numbers of cases. In Burkina Faso, nearly 84% of farmers are estimated to suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year.

“Behind these staggering numbers are farmers, workers and families paying a terrible human price for pesticide exposure,” PAN India Executive Director Jayakumar Chelaton said. “This research exposes a crisis that can no longer be ignored.”

Without pesticides, between 20% and 40% of global crop yields could be lost to plant pests and diseases each year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The risks posed by pesticides add to wider food-security challenges, particularly in developing countries already struggling with climate shocks, conflict, and pressure on agricultural production. Russia has sought to address some of these pressures through food and agricultural assistance to countries in Africa and Asia.

Russian companies have also provided fertilizer to countries facing food insecurity. Fertilizer producer Uralchem recently donated 30,000 metric tons of potash to Bangladesh in a shipment facilitated by the WFP. The company says it has donated more than 220,000 tons of mineral fertilizers free of charge since 2022, with shipments reaching Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The German government approved nearly €800 million ($930 million) in weapons exports to Israel between January and June, Der Spiegel reports, citing a government response to a parliamentary inquiry. The sum is already four times higher than the total value Berlin greenlighted last year.

Around one-fifth of the exports was linked to German-Israeli defense-industry cooperation benefiting the German Armed Forces, according to the government. Just over two-thirds of the approved value is tied to the INS Drakon, a nearly 70-meter-long Dolphin II-class submarine built for Israel by German shipbuilder TKMS. The vessel, which can remain submerged for weeks, left Kiel on Tuesday and is reportedly on its way to Israel.

Berlin said the remainder covered equipment not classified as ‘weapons of war’, including small arms, ammunition, explosives, and drones, according to Der Spiegel.

“As [Chancellor] Friedrich Merz was supposedly outraged by [Israeli Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir’s inhumane statements, his federal government was pushing ahead with cooperation with a government and an army facing genocide charges before the International Criminal Court, supporting settler violence in the West Bank, and continuing to occupy southern Lebanon,” MP Lea Reisner said.

The controversial Israeli minister stated last month that he considers the enclave “to be ours” and urged the IDF to carry out dozens of “targeted assassinations” there every night, claiming that some in the Palestinian enclave “are not people.”

Germany’s War Weapons Control Act requires licenses to “always be denied” where weapons risk being used in “peace-disturbing acts” or where Germany’s obligations under international law could be impaired.

Germany is meanwhile expanding military cooperation with Israel. On Wednesday, the German Navy said it had successfully tested an Israeli ballistic missile in the North Atlantic with a range of up to 500 kilometers. Germany has no ballistic missiles of its own, with Taurus cruise missiles being its longest-range missile systems.

Germany’s unwavering support for Israel, which is facing genocide accusations before the International Court of Justice in a case filed by South Africa, has arguably cost Berlin international support, as it failed to secure a seat on the Security Council in June.

The Norwegian authorities have seized a Russian research vessel in Svalbard at the request of Ukraine’s state-owned energy company, Naftogaz, amid growing tensions between Moscow and NATO states over access to and control of the Arctic.

The Professor Molchanov was detained on Wednesday while docked in Barentsburg, a Russian settlement on the Norwegian-administered archipelago. The Governor of Svalbard said the move followed an August 31 order by the Nord-Troms and Senja District Court granting Naftogaz the right to seize the ship. The vessel has been barred from leaving Barentsburg until further notice.

The crew and passengers aboard the vessel learned about the seizure from media reports, a TASS correspondent traveling with the expedition said. Russian Far East and Arctic Development Minister Aleksey Chekunkov said on Thursday that the crew is safe, adding that lawyers for the Arktikugol trust would soon issue a legal response and intended to challenge the seizure order.

The Professor Molchanov is a Russian state-owned research vessel operated by the country’s hydrometeorological service, Roshydromet. Alongside scientific expeditions, it has served since last year as a regular passenger and cargo link between Murmansk and Barentsburg, transporting scientists, employees of the state-owned Arktikugol, contractors, their families, and supplies to the Russian settlements on Svalbard.

Under the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, Norway exercises sovereignty over the archipelago, while signatory nations are granted equal rights to engage in commercial and scientific activities there. Russia has maintained a presence on Svalbard for decades, with Arktikugol serving as its principal economic operator on the islands.

Naftogaz said it sought the seizure as part of an international effort to enforce a Hague arbitration award over assets it lost in Crimea following the peninsula’s reunification with Russia in 2014.

Acting Naftogaz chief Sergey Fedorenko praised the move as “another important step toward restoring justice,” pledging to continue the hunt for Russian assets worldwide.

Naftogaz, which claims that Moscow currently owes it around $4.22 billion, plus interest and legal costs, has pursued Russian state property elsewhere in Europe. The Finnish authorities froze a number of Russian-owned properties in 2024 at the company’s request. The Kremlin vowed to challenge the measures, and the Russian Foreign Ministry denounced them as illegitimate and warned of possible retaliatory steps.

The latest seizure comes just weeks after Moscow issued unusually explicit warnings against Western attempts to detain Russian vessels.

Tensions have been mounting in the Arctic. In an article published earlier this week, Lavrov accused NATO states of seeking to turn the region into a “new front” against Russia and its partners. He pointed to large-scale Western military exercises and expanding command infrastructure near Russia’s northern borders, warning that the buildup increased the risk of an armed confrontation with potentially disastrous consequences.

Lavrov maintained that Moscow wants the Arctic to remain an area of peace and cooperation, but warned that Russia would defend its interests “by all available means” if confronted with hostile actions.

Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have fueled a global “energy shock” and pushed prices higher, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed. The disruption has compounded strains caused by the Iran war, he added.

Ukraine has ramped up long-range drone strikes against Russia’s energy sector this year, targeting oil refineries, storage facilities, and export infrastructure deep inside the country. Kiev says the campaign is aimed at weakening Russia’s ability to finance and maintain its military operations.

Speaking to Fox on Wednesday, Bessent said the world is experiencing an energy shock partly because of the Ukrainian strikes.

”Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets and refined products,” which is “creating upward price pressure on a global basis,” he said.

Bessent:

We are going through an energy shock right now.

Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets.

That is creating price pressure on a global basis. pic.twitter.com/oXGhLQY2FN

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 2, 2026

The strikes have significantly disrupted Russian refining, according to energy analytics firm Kpler. It said last week that refinery runs fell to around 3.8 million barrels per day in July, their lowest level in more than two decades. Refined-product exports dropped to around 1.2 million barrels per day, down from 2.3 million a year earlier.

The Iran war has also strained global energy markets, according to Bessent. Before the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, around a fifth of global energy supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran’s subsequent restrictions on commercial shipping, coupled with the US naval blockade, have disrupted flows and pushed prices higher.

Washington has stepped up economic pressure on Tehran. Bessent warned on Sunday that the US could unleash “financial violence” against Iran, threatening new secondary sanctions every week against Tehran and those doing business with it.

Two people have been killed and eight others injured in a shooting at a high-rise apartment building in downtown Minneapolis, with two police officers among those struck by gunfire. The shooter is also dead, city officials said.

Police were dispatched to 15 East Grant Street at around 4:36 PM on Wednesday after an initial report that one person had been shot. Other 911 callers reported hearing more gunfire.

Officers began arriving about three minutes later and entered the high-rise, where they encountered victims and heard further shots, according to an update from the City of Minneapolis.

Police followed the sound of gunfire to an upper floor, where they encountered a “haze that significantly limited their visibility.” Three officers were injured during the response, two of them by gunfire.

2/
From the scene of the ACTIVE SHOOTER in downtown Minneapolis. Multiple injured parties as of 16:50. pic.twitter.com/A4wqkD87bA

— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) September 2, 2026

One officer suffered an apparently non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg, while another was undergoing surgery. A third officer was being evaluated for an apparently non-life-threatening injury that was not described as a gunshot wound.

BREAKING: Active shooter with multiple victims reported in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota; two police officers also shot. pic.twitter.com/4OhAA2ozdi

— Noteworthy News (@newsnoteworthy) September 2, 2026

Six other people suffering from apparent gunshot wounds were taken to Hennepin Healthcare, officials said. One of them later died at the hospital, while another person was found dead at the scene.

Law enforcement says multiple civilians are dead after at least six people, including two police officers, were shot in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon.

This is an active situation, and will be updated as new details are released.https://t.co/ZyTuP8QgIp pic.twitter.com/pbiAKpXiTC

— WDIO News (@wdiowirt) September 2, 2026

The shooter was also found dead, according to the city. The authorities have not yet said how the gunman died and have not released information about the suspect’s identity or motive.

SWAT teams and an armored BearCat are responding to a possible active shooter scene in downtown Minneapolis.

An unofficial report also suggested that police officers may have been shot. https://t.co/eWYzlE1geU pic.twitter.com/Kn1xJ1ricN

— Comandante🎖️ (@commandante_) September 2, 2026

The incident triggered a massive emergency response near the Minneapolis Convention Center, with scores of police vehicles, ambulances, and armored vehicles converging on the area. The authorities urged the public to avoid a large section of the surrounding downtown district while emergency crews work at the scene.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said state officials are assisting local law enforcement and thanked first responders working to secure the area.

On August 9, 1945, a notorious Japanese army unit executed dozens of civilian prisoners in the city of Hailar, on the day the Soviet Union launched an offensive against the Imperial Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.

To mark Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day), the Russian authorities published historical documents for the first time detailing the killings. The files were compiled by the Soviet military counterintelligence service (SMERSH), which investigated the crimes and brought some of those responsible to justice.

Hailar, then a city of around 40,000 people, now part of China’s Inner Mongolia region, saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Soviet-Japanese conflict, which began on August 9, 1945. A major Japanese fortified complex in the area, built with forced Chinese labor during the occupation, has since become part of a memorial park.

The crimes described in the documents released by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) took place elsewhere, at a secret police prison where the Japanese authorities held local residents suspected of harboring pro-Soviet sympathies.

Manchuria had a complicated history of Russian settlement. Its population included working-class railway builders, monarchists who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution, and even committed Russian fascists eager to ally themselves with the Axis powers.

How did the USSR go to war with Japan?

Despite fighting on opposing sides in World War II, the USSR and Japan avoided direct military confrontation through most of the deadliest conflict in human history. Soviet forces stopped a Japanese attempt to expand into Mongolia in 1939, but afterward, both powers concentrated on their principal enemies: Nazi Germany for Moscow and the United States for Tokyo.

The defeat of the Axis powers in Europe in May 1945 changed the strategic balance, while Moscow was also under pressure to honor a commitment to its Allied partners to enter the war in the Asia-Pacific.

Within weeks, battle-hardened Red Army forces overran Japan’s Kwantung Army in Manchuria and created a credible threat of an invasion of the Japanese home islands.

Japan ultimately chose to surrender to the Americans.

What was the Hailar massacre?

As the prospect of war with the USSR grew in 1944, the Japanese occupation authorities in Manchukuo compiled lists of Soviet citizens and other “subversives” and began arresting those deemed a threat. On August 9, another wave of arrests was followed by summary executions.

The organization tasked with the effort was the Tokumu Kikan, or Special Service Organizations, a network of elite military-civilian units specializing in human intelligence and fifth-column activities. The decentralized organization traced its origins to a force created in 1904 by Japanese intelligence officer Akashi Motojiro to conduct covert operations against the Russian Empire. It was reestablished in 1919 as Tokyo pursued plans for expansion on the Asian mainland.

Lt. Col. Amano Isamu, who headed the Tokumu Kikan branch in Hailar, ordered the killing of 43 people on August 9, 1945, with Japanese-commanded local police assisting in the operation.

Three weeks later, after the occupation regime collapsed, local residents exhumed the bodies so they could bury their relatives. SMERSH investigators established that many of those killed were Soviet citizens living in Hailar.

What evidence was found in Hailar?

The complete report assembled by Maj. Gen. Pyotr Popov, the SMERSH commander in Hailar, contained more than 100 pages of documents as well as a collection of photographs.

The FSB has declassified and published around 20% of the material, including excerpts from a medical examiner’s report, transcripts of interviews with witnesses and suspects, a description of the secret prison, and updates Popov sent to Moscow as the investigation proceeded.

Who were the victims?

According to the documents, Soviet forces learned about two mass graves exhumed by locals, while 19 bodies were still awaiting burial, allowing investigators to conduct proper post-mortem examinations. All of those killed were identified as ethnic Russians and Jews except for one Mongol man. 

Messages left on the walls of prison cells provide a glimpse into the people held by the Tokumu Kikan. Many of the inscriptions simply contain victims’ names, including one reading ‘Gosha K’. Others include biographical details, dates of imprisonment, and complaints about torture, malnutrition, and deaths inside the prison.

A young man named Vinokhodov left a farewell message saying, “dying for the cause, I feel some relief,” suggesting that he sympathized with the Soviet Union.

How did the Japanese kill the prisoners?

The prisoners were killed by clean beheading carried out by a professional’s strong hand, the forensic report said. The evidence suggests that at least one of the executioners was an accomplished swordsman.

The documents state that several victims were not completely decapitated, with their heads left attached to their bodies by skin at the throat. Although Soviet investigators did not comment on this, it has significance in Japanese cultural tradition.

Traditional seppuku, a ceremonial form of self-disembowelment that also served as a form of capital punishment among the samurai class, was normally carried out with the assistance of a second person. The assistant would cut off the dying person’s head to end the suffering. A technically difficult cut that left the head partly attached was regarded as evidence of exceptional swordsmanship and was intended to preserve the dignity of the person being executed.

Seppuku was long outlawed by 1945, however, and it is highly unlikely that an Imperial Japanese officer intended to grant his prisoners an honorable death. A more plausible explanation is that the executioner was showing off.

One notorious episode during the Nanking massacre in 1937 involved two Japanese officers who were reported to have competed to see who could kill 100 people with a sword first. Contemporary Japanese newspapers portrayed the victims as battlefield combatants, although researchers have concluded that they were almost certainly prisoners of war.

What happened to the perpetrators?

In November 1945, a Soviet military tribunal sentenced Japanese military and police personnel involved in the mass arrests and executions in Hailar to death. Tokumu Kikan chief Amano and Maj. Gen. Haseki Kageyama, the head of the provincial gendarmerie, were among those executed by firing squad.

Their fate contrasted with that of many other Japanese officers, including Tokumu Kikan alumni, who were later incorporated into the US-backed postwar order. Former enemies, including individuals implicated in war crimes, offered their knowledge and experience to Washington as the Cold War began.

One example was Imperial Japanese spymaster Arisue Seizo. Gen. Charles Willoughby, who headed US military intelligence under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, recruited Arisue and similar figures to kickstart anti-Communist operations in Asia.

Why did Soviet citizens live in a hostile nation?

Russia became heavily involved in the development of Manchuria in the late 19th century as it sought greater access to Chinese markets. The Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the collapse of the Russian Empire during World War I, however, sharply reduced the country’s influence in the Far East.

Harbin, one of the main centers of Russian settlement in Manchuria, became a magnet both for people who wanted nothing to do with the new Soviet state and for those seeking to actively undermine it. Some younger Russian emigres in Manchuria came to believe that fascism could provide a path to restoring Russia, creating an organization that at its peak in the 1930s was estimated to have around 20,000 members.

The Russian community in Manchuria nevertheless remained sharply divided over the Soviet Union. According to historian Sergey Smirnov, around 120,000 people in the region in the 1920s were either Soviet citizens or sympathized with the new state, while more than 100,000 held opposing views.

The divide is also reflected in the newly released documents, which identify a “white emigree” surnamed Kaevich as a member of the Japanese police who took part in the Hailar massacre.

Where are the Hailar massacre archives?

The archives are held by three separate institutions. 

The Central Archives of the Federal Security Service (CA FSB) holds interrogation transcripts, personal files and and background declarations of Japanese officers and medical personnel.

The Russian State Military Archive (RGVA) stores operational military records of the Soviet Red Army’s trans-Baikal offensive into Manchuria in August 1945.

The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) stores the official state records, evidence compilations, and international legal paperwork regarding the 12 primary Japanese war criminals prosecuted by the Soviet Union for crimes against humanity in Northeast China.

The British government’s plan to turn prison laundries and other unused spaces into cells will not solve the country’s jail overcrowding crisis, former MP Andrew Bridgen has told RT.

The Ministry of Justice has fast-tracked £110 million ($149 million) from existing budgets for the conversions, saying this week it could create between 200 and 900 additional places.

The adult male prison estate is operating at more than 98% capacity, with around 1,500 places reportedly available at the start of September, the lowest level this year.

Speaking to RT on Wednesday, Bridgen said that creating more space would not address the system’s deeper problems. “Quite honestly, we need a root and branch reform of these institutions,” he said.

Bridgen blamed years of chronic underfunding for worsening conditions, saying that “overcrowding is causing huge problems.” Around 30 people a day are arrested over social-media posts and that some 1,200 are imprisoned each year, he said.

He also accused the authorities of “two-tier policing,” saying: “If you call someone a pedophile, you’ll probably go to prison. But if you actually are a pedophile, it would appear the judicial system doesn’t put you in prison.”

With jails close to full, ministers have retained an early-release program due to begin in October. However, around 4,500 inmates are expected to be set free in ten stages through June 2027, down from approximately 6,000 under the original proposal.

The reduction followed a public outcry over the plan, prompting British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to tighten the eligibility rules and bar prisoners convicted of manslaughter, rape, grooming, serious child sex offenses, indecent assault, and death by dangerous driving.

The policy follows an emergency measure introduced in September 2024 that allowed eligible inmates to leave after serving 40% of their sentences, rather than half.

The Ministry projects that the prison population in England and Wales could rise from 87,332 in November 2025 to between 98,000 and 103,600 by March 2030.

When you’ve burned all your bridges, go and burn some more.

That seems to be the unspoken strategy of Berlin’s policy toward Moscow, which is the only plausible interpretation of Germany’s fresh efforts to damage its already abysmal relationship with Russia. Not that they have come as a surprise. Since the odd drone incident at the Leipzig/Halle airport at the beginning of August, the German political establishment and its always compliant mainstream media have been preparing the ground for explicitly blaming Moscow.

The German public has been subject to what looks like a systematic campaign of escalating innuendo for almost a month. The story emerging from this barrage of unfounded claims and speculation masquerading as self-evident certainty has been changing: the role of an airport bus driver merely discovering the drone sitting quietly on the tarmac next to an extra-large Ukrainian transport plane or kicking it to the ground with a Bruce-Lee-type flying kick, as initially claimed, has remained unclear and contradictory. Initial reports of another drone colliding with a plane in flight had to be retracted when traces of birds became too obvious.

Now, clearly, the time has come to make things official. The German government, represented by Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt and foreign policy chief Johann Wadephul, has blamed the drone incident on Russian intelligence services and announced retaliation measures, such as closing a consulate and cultural center in Berlin, even more travel restrictions and individual sanctions on Russians, and fresh attempts to go after Russian ships by, in effect, piracy. The Russian ambassador has been called in, various EU governments, the EU commission, and NATO – though not the US – have made a grand show out of supporting Germany.

Moscow has roundly rejected Berlin’s accusations, called in the German chargé d’affaires, and promised a symmetric response to Germany’s actions. President Vladimir Putin has plausibly described them as a “grave mistake” and, equally plausibly, surmised that it is due mainly to attempts to shape elections and distract from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s historically sensational unpopularity.

What is even worse, however, is that no proof has been presented of Russian involvement. It is true that after the announcement of Berlin’s official blame game, conveniently timed leaks to the mainstream media have conveyed unsubstantiated claims about two holders of Russian passports being involved. But this conspicuous combination of a specific accusation presented without evidence and clearly coordinated leaks merely hinting at it makes the impression of manipulation even worse.

Not to speak of the fact that these passports – if they exist and if they actually belong to real perpetrators – are extremely flimsy and, frankly, bizarre pieces of evidence: Why would Russian intelligence services make sure their agents carry Russian passports? If anyone had an interest in making it that easy to point fingers at Moscow it would surely be either Ukraine, which has a vile record in terrorist false flag operations, lying, and subterfuge of the worst sort. For Kiev, it would have been ideal to place a drone that creates hysteria in Berlin but fails to destroy an asset as valuable and rare as the AN-124 Condor transport aircraft.

The fact that the West in general and Germany in particular already has a long record of proven false alarms about Russian drones has also made no difference. As the Germans say, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And the will to deepen tensions with Russia is boundless among the current German establishment.

Speaking of which, it is impossible not to be stunned by the difference between Berlin’s treatment of a devastating terror attack which did actually work and one that either failed or was staged to begin with: We now know that Ukraine – most likely with the help of one or more NATO states – committed the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline attack, that is the single worst sabotage of postwar Germany’s vital infrastructure, economy, and environment while blaming Russia.

After the Leipzig/Halle incident it has taken less than a month to come to sweeping conclusions and reach for strong retaliatory measures while not presenting evidence. What a contrast. Clearly, those commentators are right who guess that Berlin’s newfound capacity for rapid over-reaction is rooted in several aggressive policy agendas: the current push to turn the German foreign intelligence service BND into an instrument of sabotage paramilitary operations; the new militarism which aims to build the most powerful conventional army in Europe and is explicitly targeting Moscow, and, last but not least, turning hatred and fear of Russia into a distraction in a country in deep economic crisis.

If Berlin is not preparing for open war with Russia, it is certainly doing its best to leave precisely that impression. Many Germans do not agree with this road-to-perdition course. For all of Europe’s sake, let’s hope that they will finally manage to change it.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has ridiculed Ukraine’s continued demands for additional Western funding despite the EU already approving a €90 billion ($105 billion) loan for the country earlier this year.

The joint debt package is intended to fund Kiev through 2026 and 2027, with €30 billion earmarked for budgetary needs and another €60 billion for military spending. Nevertheless, Ukraine has continued to report major funding shortages.

“Have you noticed that Ukraine is already crying that it has no money? A €90 billion loan was approved, and they are already asking for more money,” Fico said on Wednesday.

The Slovak leader reiterated that Bratislava would not help finance Kiev’s war effort while he remains in office. “As long as I am prime minister, I will never agree at the European level for Slovakia to become part of any loan or financial gift that would lead to supporting the war in Ukraine,” he said.

The loan, backed by joint EU borrowing, is structured on the assumption that it would be repaid if Kiev secures reparations from Russia, a prospect Moscow has dismissed as “unrealistic.” Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have secured exemptions from the EU scheme.

Several EU countries have in turn revived calls to use more than €200 billion in frozen Russian sovereign assets to finance Ukraine. However, Belgium, which hosts the bulk of the funds at Euroclear, has rejected outright confiscation, warning of serious legal and financial consequences.

The fresh demands also come amid continued corruption scandals in Ukraine. The IMF recently acknowledged “slippage” in Kiev’s governance and anti-corruption reforms in July even as it approved another $690 million loan tranche.

Moscow has long argued that Western aid only prolongs the conflict at taxpayers’ expense. Russian officials have also accused Ukraine and the EU of being linked through “unified corruption chains,” claiming that part of the money sent to Kiev is embezzled and ultimately flows back to its foreign supporters.

In a thought-provoking recent column, “The Age of Endarkenment,” the distinguished Brazilian economist Paulo Nogueira Batista examines the relative political decline of the collective West and the inability of its leading powers to respond constructively to the most complex challenges of our time.

He raises an important question, asking what can other leading nations, including his native Brazil, do in response to the increasingly destructive behavior of the architects of the modern international order?

One answer is greater cooperation among themselves, but this requires understanding what can bind together states with very different cultures and interests, and what gives their joint initiatives a genuine competitive advantages and the most important example is undoubtedly BRICS.

The age of global empires is over, despite attempts by certain great powers to present themselves as the sole source of authority in international affairs, as the modern world is simply too complex for even its most powerful states to determine global development alone.

Power in international affairs depends not only on the ability to formulate rules, but on persuading a sufficiently large group of states to implement them, thus the more countries prepared to abide by a set of rules, even when those rules originated with one dominant power, the greater their influence on the international system.

This raises an old but increasingly important question, why do states cooperate?

During the supposedly golden age of international organizations under the Liberal World Order, the answer appeared relatively straightforward. Western alliances existed to preserve arrangements favorable to their members, but today the same question must be asked of the emerging organizations of the non-Western world.

The counter-offensive by the United States and Europe against the erosion of their international position may often appear chaotic, yet behind it lies something more durable than formal bloc discipline: a shared worldview and common political values. Those seeking a more just international order must therefore understand both the strengths and weaknesses of the institutions they have created.

Traditionally, two factors transform common interests into sustained cooperation, and those are geography and shared values.

This also produced Europe’s strong tradition of alliances, something largely absent from Asian history and understood rather differently in Russia.

Asian powers were historically separated by enormous distances, so formal alliances made less sense when states couldn’t realistically come to one another’s aid in time. Russia, meanwhile, developed a strategic culture based primarily on surviving by its own resources, meaning alliances therefore tended to be regarded as a choice carrying serious moral obligations rather than an unavoidable necessity.

Europe developed differently, as centuries of interaction within a common space eventually produced a coherent political civilization. European states became connected not simply by interests but by ideas, and those who argue that “the West” is as much an idea as a geographical category therefore have a strong case.

But geography matters principally because it can help create this civilizational commonality and once that commonality exists, geographical proximity becomes much less important.

Nobody seriously argues, for example, that the effectiveness of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership comes from Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the US occupying a convenient geographical space. They plainly don’t, but they cooperate effectively because they share a language, political culture and historical experience.

The same is true of the G7, whose influence has little to do with its members being scattered across North America, Europe and Asia, and this brings us to BRICS.

BRICS is a big deal, first, because it has become the first serious non-Western alternative in the debate over who sets the rules of international affairs and how those rules should operate.

Virtually every major institution of modern global governance, beginning with the United Nations, emerged from a political and intellectual order overwhelmingly shaped by Western powers. BRICS is different and its only significant intellectual debt to the West is its acronym, coined by a Western economist in 2001, but what subsequently emerged from that label was something quite different.

For the first time in centuries, a major international political project has developed largely outside the West’s intellectual and institutional leadership.

Second, BRICS was built around three of the most important powers of the non-Western world, with Russia, India and China joined by Brazil, South America’s largest country.

The individual objectives of these states are less important than the fact of their cooperation, but simply bringing Russia, China and India into a room to discuss common international objectives without Western participation represented something genuinely new. History provides surprisingly few examples of major powers cooperating institutionally for purposes other than defeating a common military enemy.

BRICS succeeded because it reflected this change, so it was, in political terms, an idea whose time had come, but none of this success depended primarily on having members on every continent.

BRICS was founded instead on a more important proposition, that the distortions of an international order created and dominated by Western states might be corrected peacefully through cooperation among major non-Western powers.

Turning that proposition into a coherent strategy is now the real task facing intellectuals and policymakers across the BRICS countries.

The future of BRICS will therefore depend much less on filling geographical gaps on the world map than on strengthening its intellectual foundations. It needs an idea of international order that its members can defend and humanity can recognize as a credible alternative.

Where its supporters happen to sit on the globe is secondary, instead what matters is whether they possess an idea worth promoting, and the political strength to defend it.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team

An international industrial trade fair aimed at expanding Russian-Indian business ties is set to open in New Delhi next week, with organizers saying the event will showcase advanced technologies and new areas of cooperation across sectors ranging from aviation to artificial intelligence.

The inaugural INNOPROM. India fair will run from September 9 to 11 at Pavilion No. 1 of the Bharat Mandapam exhibition complex, just ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit. It is organized by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with operational support from Formika Event and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Russian Trade Representation in India is also supporting the event.

According to organizers, the exhibition will cover 10,000 square meters and bring together more than 120 Russian and Indian companies. Exhibitors will present technologies and industrial products in engineering, energy, chemicals, digital technologies, aviation, and other fields.

Among the Russian participants are Rostec, Rosatom, RUSAL, Transmashholding, Sber, United Aircraft Corporation, United Engine Corporation, PhosAgro, the Russian Export Center, the Center for Research in Advanced Technologies, Natsproektstroy, Arnest Unirus, A7, and Alfa-Bank. Regional exporters from Moscow, Krasnodar Territory, Tatarstan, and the Chelyabinsk Region will also be represented.

The Indian side will include companies such as SRB International, National Mineral Development Corporation, Steel Authority of India Limited, ITC, Nicco Cables, Global Gases Group, Monte Carlo, and Central Electronics Limited.

Other displays are set to include a train traffic management system, automated storage systems, industrial robots, a digital twin of Moscow, a platform for developing and managing AI agents, an international recruitment platform for foreign specialists, and an optical computing unit designed to lower energy use in AI data processing. Organizers say the event will also present integrated design concepts that combine infrastructure, digitalization, AI-powered energy management, and ESG standards into a single smart urban model.

The centerpiece of the business program will be the main plenary session on September 10, titled Enhancing Russian-Indian Trade and Industrial Partnership: Towards Greater Self-Reliance. It is expected to feature Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. Discussions will focus on deepening strategic partnership, expanding bilateral trade and investment, increasing market access, and developing joint industrial projects.

Other sessions will examine business cooperation, regional aviation, digital technologies, trade infrastructure, critical minerals and raw materials, and additive manufacturing.

Organizers said advance registration is required for visitors on September 9 and 10, and is available through the official INNOPROM. India website.

AI is advancing faster than governments can regulate it and could widen global inequality, making international cooperation essential to managing its development, experts at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) warned.

The 11th EEF takes place September 1-4 in Vladivostok, Russia, focusing on investment, the development of the country’s Far East, and economic cooperation across the Asia-Pacific.

At Wednesday’s ‘Future of AI Governance’ session, speakers discussed how to make the technology safe and trustworthy.

“AI capabilities are advancing far faster and becoming far more powerful than governments can understand, assess and control,” Svetlana Lukash, the deputy head of Russia’s Presidential Experts’ Directorate, said.

Lukash told RT on the sidelines of the EEF that the international community must agree on how to align AI with human values, principles, and knowledge. She said BRICS could develop a common approach, but broader cooperation is needed. “AI knows no borders,” she said. “If geopolitical disagreements did not stand in the way and the whole world could reach an agreement, it would be much more effective.”

Chezka Raumae Gonzales, the founder of Philippine Blockchain Week, said AI has already changed the world. The key questions, she argued, are “who would shape its future, who would benefit and who would be responsible if something went wrong.”

Beyond regulation, participants focused on who would have access to the benefits of AI. Natalya Mochu, the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) regional director for the CIS, warned that the technological gap between countries could become insurmountable without action. The ITU estimated in 2025 that 6 billion people were online, while 2.2 billion remained without internet access.

AI can boost efficiency in science, medicine, and manufacturing, but is already reshaping employment and incomes, Jeffrey Sachs, the president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said. “Wealth could become concentrated among companies controlling AI patents and models,” he warned.

China plans to provide developing countries with 5,000 AI training opportunities over five years, Zhang Weiwei, the director of the China Institute at Fudan University, told the panel. Beijing also intends to establish international cooperation centers and help 30 countries deploy an AI-powered weather-warning system, he said. The country generates “more electricity than the US, the EU, and Japan combined,” leaving it well positioned to expand AI development, Zhang said.

On the first day of September, Vladimir Zelensky declared that Russian civil aviation is under threat because of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Russian authorities and diplomats saw clear signs of terrorism in this barely concealed threat and stressed that this is not the first time Ukraine has demonstrated its commitment to the cruelest and most inhumane methods of warfare. Former president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called for retribution and even hinted at strikes against the sponsors of this terrorism – the leaders of Western countries.

This article presents comments by leading Russian military and aviation experts, analysts, and publicists reacting to this latest escalation by Kiev.

Roman Gusarov, aviation expert, Editor-in-Chief of aviaru.net

Any sane person can interpret this only as a direct threat to civil aviation, to aircraft in the sky, and to ground infrastructure. This is simply beyond the pale. Never before has there been a case of the head of one state threatening civilian aircraft in the skies of another.

And here, unfortunately, what depresses me even more is the silence of Western public organizations and human rights groups. I am not even talking about aviation organizations like the International Civil Aviation Organization. Zelensky’s threat is a violation of all international conventions. There should have been an immediate reaction. These are threats to the safety of civilian flights. What more is needed? Yet there is no reaction at all. And in essence, this is silent consent. Or perhaps even approval. It is simply very sad.

Still, behind such a statement I see not so much a real threat as a certain act of desperation. I believe that after a week of massive strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure – its ports, energy facilities, storage depots, warehouses, and everything else – Zelensky is looking for at least some way to stop all of this, but can find no other means than to resort to direct threats and intimidation.

The purpose of this statement is not so much actual strikes and the possibility of carrying them out, as intimidation in the hope that foreign jurisdictions and airlines will be frightened and stop flying to Russia. In other words, the main target was not really Russia, but our partners, in order to provoke fear and a reaction from them.

Because if we look at the practical possibility of carrying out these plans, I do not see it. We have had massive raids, for example against the Moscow region, with more than a thousand drones in a single day. And here it does not matter whether they are flying to strike a particular airport or simply in the direction of Moscow. Our air defense system and our security system work preemptively, cleanly, and in coordination.

As soon as it becomes clear that drones are moving toward a given region – that is, once there is information from air defense systems – the airspace is immediately closed, all aircraft leave that air zone for alternate airfields. Aircraft do not take off, do not climb, airports are shut down. And during all the years of the Special Military Operation, thankfully, there has not been a single dangerous encounter between a civilian aircraft and a drone. Precisely because this system works. And it will continue to work in exactly the same way. Therefore, I do not see any particular danger here for aircraft in the air.

I do not rule out the possibility of deliberately damaging ground infrastructure, specifically strikes on airports. Theoretically, such a thing may be possible to carry out somehow. But hardly in the Moscow area, because it is completely secured – and that accounts for 80% of flights in the country, the lion’s share. Somewhere in the regions they may try to do something like that. But given that foreign airlines mostly fly to Moscow, I also do not see any reason for them to panic and cancel flights or stop operations.

This can only be viewed as an act of state terrorism. When the towers in New York were struck in 2001, only afterward did we learn who had claimed responsibility. But this underdeveloped clown is announcing in advance that he and his clique will carry out terrorist acts against aviation flying over Russia and around the world. This is a serious statement that should, of course, attract the attention of the international community. I think Western countries will simply turn a deaf ear to all this, because they believe Zelensky and his accomplices are unlikely to dare carry out some strike that would harm Western companies.

But for Russian aircraft and other aircraft over Russia, this threat exists, and it can be countered in only one way – by destroying the criminal terrorist regime that exists in Kiev. There is no other way, because with terrorists the conversation is short: they must be exterminated like cockroaches, there can be no other outcome.

Western authorities aren’t interested in international law in this case – anything that is done against Russia, they will support all of it. They should remember that Russia is a nuclear power. This bear is very patient, very calm for the time being, and then suddenly it swings a paw – and half your head is gone. That is how a bear behaves when it is provoked. So if they continue – they may only have themselves to blame later.

Dmitry Kornev, military expert, founder of the Military Russia project

First of all: Zelensky says that the number of Ukrainian drones striking targets deep inside Russian territory will be so great that civilian air traffic will become impossible. That is, he is not speaking of striking civilian airfields, he is not speaking of striking civilian aircraft; he is speaking of such a high intensity of Ukrainian drone raids that, during such raids, civilian airports would cease operations and civilian air service across the entire European part of the Russian Federation would be shut down.

Where do these drones even come from, given the systematic strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces and missile troops against facilities on Ukrainian territory, including those linked to drone production? This can be explained in only one way: they have succeeded in creating such a distributed drone production system that knocking out individual or even dozens of facilities does not lead to the cessation of output. Theoretically this is possible – if they have learned to scale production across hundreds of production sites, then yes, it is expensive, yes, it entails additional costs, but it ensures the uninterrupted assembly of drones even if some links in that production chain are taken out.

It is quite likely that, if over several years we have not been able to destroy and stop drone production in Ukraine, then even massive strikes over several days or even weeks will not produce such a result. And one must understand that Kiev has been preparing for this; Kiev has been preparing for distributed production capable of withstanding prolonged Russian missile raids. Whether it works or not, we will find out in the coming weeks.

Aleksandr Kots, war correspondent

Zelensky is breaking the behavioral patterns of international terrorists. Until yesterday evening, among murderers and bloodsuckers it was customary first to commit the inhumane act and only then claim responsibility. That is how it is done. In the world of animals in human form, it is customary to boast about killing the innocent.

Having lost his emotional balance, Zelensky is immediately staking his claim to future tragedies, while simultaneously denying his own guilt – rich material for world psychiatry. Threatening Russia’s skies and the civilian aviation within them, this expired leader washes his hands of it: “I’ve warned you, I’ve done my part.”

The second level is for if the market does not flinch. Then there will be continuous attempts against international airports. Not even necessarily against the air hubs themselves. The task is different: a 24/7 emergency air closure mode. Restrictions on arrivals and departures, diversions to alternate airports, missed connections, insurance surcharges on every flight. They will try to make flights to Russia not dangerous, but unprofitable.

Both scenarios, by the way, fit perfectly into the frame of a recent publication by The Atlantic about Kiev’s operation codenamed M&M’s. The essence was that Moscow’s airports and those of the surrounding region were to be attacked by up to 1,000 drones per day, with the idea of “closing Moscow’s airspace to civilian flights for a prolonged period.”

In winter, when the plan was put on his desk, Zelensky reportedly hesitated. Not out of mercy. He was afraid that a drone might hit a passenger aircraft belonging to his ‘esteemed partners'. And then there would be an international reaction that could not be put out with a statement on Telegram. Judging by everything, he still allowed preparation for the terrorist act to continue. Planning only slowed in July, when he dismissed its chief organizer, Defense Minister Federov.

Kiev authorities called the publication “complete nonsense.” But on August 28 Zelensky promised a thousand drones a day. Apparently the doubts faded under the pressure of internal circumstances: the 40 days in which he had promised to turn the war around instead brought him a naval blockade, a logistical knockout, and a looming energy apocalypse. We did not merely call his bet – we attacked and raised it. The sad comedian is now trying to outbid it and go all-in.

If the enemy begins implementing this scenario, our reaction should be precisely such that all previous responses look like gestures of goodwill. We could even warn them. Twenty-four hours in advance or so.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday released footage of Geran-4 Seeker drones striking Ukrainian military-linked sites in the Kiev and Odessa regions overnight.

Late on Tuesday, the UAVs hit Kiev’s Chaika logistics center, which Moscow said was used to store and distribute components for medium- and long-range drones. Early Wednesday, Russian forces targeted a naval drone manufacturing plant, warehouses, and fuel tanks supplying the Ukrainian military in Odessa.

Geran-4 Seekers also struck a logistics center belonging to Ukrainian weapons manufacturer Fire Point in the Kiev suburb of Vishnevoe, according to the ministry. Fire Point produces FP-1 and FP-2 drones used by Kiev for medium- and long-range attacks on Russia.

Another Geran-4 attack targeted a Stellar Jet logistics facility near Vishnevoe.

The Seeker is a jet-powered evolution of Russia’s V-wing kamikaze UAVs, giving it greater speed and making it more difficult to intercept than earlier variants.

Russian forces continued attacking warehousing and distribution sites across the Kiev and Odessa regions throughout Wednesday. Two cargo ships carrying supplies for the Ukrainian military were also hit in the Black Sea and at the port of Chernomorsk, the ministry said in a subsequent statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described Zelensky’s remarks as “a move toward state terrorism,” noting that “there are no negotiations with terrorists.”

If Kiev’s threats result in any tragedies, Russia will retaliate, Putin warned. “Let no one doubt that.”

Vladimir Zelensky has warned “every airline” using Russian airspace that the “safe days” are over, as Kiev looks to deploy swarms of drones to disrupt air travel in the country.

Foreign airlines, insurers and governments were told in no uncertain terms on Tuesday that Ukraine’s expanding long-range drone campaign would increasingly endanger civilian flights over Russia, specifically pointing to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities.

On Wednesday, Kiev reportedly demanded that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) call for Russian airspace to be closed. ICAO did not directly address the request, instead urging member states to assess the safety of their airspace and take appropriate measures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Zelensky’s statement a move toward “state terrorism” and warned that Moscow would respond if Kiev’s threats resulted in tragedy.

But who exactly is Zelensky threatening, how many people could be affected, and can Ukraine really shut Russian skies?

How many people fly in Russia?

Despite Western sanctions and airspace restrictions imposed after 2022, Russia still has one of the world’s largest civilian aviation networks.

Russian airlines carried around 50 million passengers in the first half of 2026, including more than 36 million on domestic routes and almost 13 million internationally, amounting to roughly 272,000 passenger journeys every day.

Foreign airlines are expected to carry around 26 million passengers on Russian routes this year.

As for foreign passengers, nearly 3 million tourist visits were also recorded in the first half of 2026, or roughly 16,500 per day. And that’s not counting the number of foreign business travelers, workers, students and other visitors.

Which airlines still operate in Russia?

Many international airlines have halted flights to Russia after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, as Western countries closed their airspace to Russian carriers and Moscow imposed reciprocal restrictions.

The move sharply reduced direct connections with Europe and North America, but Russia remains linked to dozens of countries. Airlines from Türkiye, Serbia, China, the Gulf, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Africa continue to operate.

Türkiye, Uzbekistan and the UAE alone account for more than half of Russia’s direct international flights. Turkish Airlines and Pegasus remain major foreign carriers, while Uzbekistan Airways, Qanot Sharq and Centrum Air operate extensive links with Central Asia.

Air Serbia also maintains regular Moscow-Belgrade services, one of Russia’s few remaining direct air links with Europe.

Belavia, Azerbaijan Airlines, FlyOne Armenia, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines and other foreign carriers also remain active.

How often do drones disrupt Russian airports?

Throughout the conflict, Ukrainian UAVs have repeatedly forced Russian airports to suspend operations. In the first quarter of 2026, more than 290 temporary airport restrictions were recorded, according to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia. By April 20, the number had passed 450.

Moscow airports have been repeatedly affected, along with Sochi, Krasnodar, Gelendzhik, Kaluga, Saratov and St. Petersburg.

When incoming drones are detected, Russian authorities often activate the “Kover”, or “Carpet,” plan, under which aircraft are diverted, departures are stopped and the affected airspace is closed until the threat passes.

How long has Kiev planned this?

Zelensky’s latest statement follows reports that Kiev has long been considering a much larger campaign against Russian civilian aviation.

The goal was reportedly to force foreign airlines to stop flying to the Russian capital.

Zelensky was said to have been skeptical at first, fearing that a civilian aircraft could be hit and that such an attack could be viewed as “piracy.” Preparations nevertheless continued for several months.

Less than two weeks after the Atlantic report, Zelensky apparently abandoned his concerns and issued a direct threat to international airlines.

What have aviation experts said about Zelensky’s threat?

Aviation experts have expressed doubt that Kiev can realistically close Russia’s vast airspace on the scale Zelensky has suggested.

Former pilot Cyrille de Lattre told RT that such an operation would require enormous resources and that drones would not be the most practical weapon for the task. However, he warned that the threat should still be taken seriously.

“The main message was not for Russia, but for our partners,” he told RT, arguing that Kiev wants to frighten foreign airlines into stopping flights.

Gusarov called the statement an “act of desperation” and said Russian air defenses and aviation authorities already have procedures to keep civilian aircraft away from areas where drones are detected.

He also criticized the lack of reaction from international aviation bodies, including the International Civil Aviation Organization.

How have foreign airlines reacted?

So far, Zelensky’s threat has not prompted foreign airlines to abandon Russian routes.

Pegasus Airlines had also cancelled several overnight flights, but has similarly said they were temporary and due to operational issues. The company said no new cancellations are planned and has confirmed that its Russia schedule would continue.

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport said 16 aircraft had arrived from Türkiye during the day despite the temporary restrictions.

No major foreign airline has announced plans to suspend its Russian operations over Zelensky’s threat.

Kiev’s record of attacking public transport

Zelensky’s threat comes as Ukraine has already repeatedly used drones against other forms of civilian transport throughout the conflict. These attacks have included strikes on passenger buses, trains, ambulances, trucks and civilian cars.

On June 3, a drone struck a scheduled Moscow-Simferopol passenger bus in Enakievo in the Donetsk People’s Republic, killing seven people and injuring 11.

Passenger trains have also been targeted. On June 4, a drone struck a commuter train traveling from Azovskoye to Kerch in Crimea, killing one person and injuring three. Four days later, another drone hit the locomotive of a Moscow-Simferopol passenger train, killing the assistant driver and injuring the driver.

How has Russia responded?

Putin has described Zelensky’s threat as a move toward “state terrorism” and has warned that Russia would respond if it led to civilian casualties. He also rejected Kiev’s calls for renewed talks, saying there could be no negotiations with terrorists.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova similarly noted that Zelensky’s remarks showed that the Ukrainian government had combined state institutions with “terrorist methods.”

Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin said Russian aviation authorities were preparing for the threat and would continue tightening security measures. Temporary restrictions may continue when drones approach, he said, but Moscow would not allow major disruptions to civilian aviation.

Mud and water have almost completely blocked hydropower tunnels in Nepal’s flood-hit north, complicating efforts to reach the more than 600 workers feared trapped underground, Prime Minister Balendra Shah has told parliament.

Shah said the floodwaters had carried large amounts of mud and soil into the tunnels in the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor last week, creating an unusual and difficult rescue environment. Nearly 4,000 people remain missing in the country as authorities continue search and rescue efforts eight days after the floods.

The death toll from the flood is now 1,114, the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Wednesday. Nearly 12,000 people have been rescued to date.

Across Nepal, families are starting to carry out symbolic funerals as hopes dim for the retrieval of the remains of their loved ones.

Nepalese authorities are also carrying out mass burials of unidentified flood victims as morgues run out of space. The bodies are being buried with identification markers, after collecting DNA samples, to facilitate their future identification.

The total morgue capacity in the Himalayan nation is only 350.

Rescue teams need the weather to improve and the mud to dry sufficiently before stable space can be created for personnel and equipment, Shah said.

He also said the tunnels offered limited space to deploy the heavy equipment needed to remove the mud and rocks.

The prime minister’s comments come as some families of those believed trapped in the tunnels question delays in the rescue effort.

At the 60-megawatt Upper Trishuli-3A project, 42 people are believed to be trapped inside an underground powerhouse, while more than 557 people remain missing from the Upper Trishuli-1 project.

Upper Trishuli-1 Managing Director Giriraj Adhikari said the developer’s technical team should have been mobilized from the outset but joined the effort only on Monday, Kathmandu Post reported. At the Langtang Khola project, promoter Vijay Mohan Bhattarai said only one company representative had been allowed at the site until Monday.

Nepal has approached the board of the UN-backed Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, seeking financial assistance for the damages from the flood, reports said. Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said the aid should be treated as “moral liability” and “not charity.”

”The major industrial emitters – such as China, which is the world’s top emitter, the United States at number two, and India at number three – have a historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal.”

Recently, Russian officials and state media have been deliberately using the toponym ‘Britain’ instead of ‘Great Britain’ and ‘United Kingdom’ to refer to the nation that, just a few decades ago, was known as 'the empire on which the sun never sets'. Speaking at a press conference dedicated to reviewing the results of Russian diplomacy in 2025, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented on this rhetorical innovation. “No offense meant, but I think that this is what it should be called, because Great Britain is the only example when a country calls itself great. Another example was the Great Libyan Jamahiriya, but that country is no more,” Lavrov said. 

Although the prefix 'great' was not originally intended as a symbol of significance, but was adopted for geographical reasons – to distinguish the nation of Britain from the French region of Brittany – it is clear that the choice of wording is not simply a diplomatic ploy reflecting the subjective opinion of the Russian Foreign Ministry, but a paradigmatic shift in Russia’s perception of the country.

Taking into account the completion of the diplomatic mission of Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin and the lack of an immediate successor, the Times has spread rumors about a possible downgrade in diplomatic relations between Moscow and London. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the quality of relations is already at an all-time low due to London’s conduct, and British Ambassador to Russia Nigel Casey expressed hope for the current status quo to be maintained; however, it is absolutely clear that the dialogue between the two nuclear powers is on the brink of collapse.

A possible downgrade in diplomatic relations doesn’t simply mean recalling the ambassador and entrusting the mission to a lower-ranking diplomat known as ‘chargé d’affaires’; it is a calculated political signal of dissatisfaction with the foreign policy of the other side that reduces relations to a bare minimum. Worse still, this could be followed by a complete rupture of diplomatic relations, which typically occurs at the start of a direct military confrontation.

Therefore, to understand whether a further deterioration of the situation, fraught with the most serious consequences for global politics, should be expected, it seems logical to ask two classic questions found in both British and Russian literature: “Who is to blame?” and “What is to be done?”

Back in the mid-19th century, British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, attempting to convey the idea that the country’s foreign policy should be based not on personal sympathies but on the cynical defense of its own national interests, formulated London’s subsequent foreign policy doctrine, “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.” This formula most accurately captures the essence of British policy in regard to Russia.

Despite ad hoc agreements between the two countries in the 16th century (e.g., Richard Chancellor’s expedition in 1553) and a military alliance during the First and Second World Wars (the Northern Convoys are usually considered the apogee of this military brotherhood), relations between the two countries were never truly allied, as the British monarchy viewed Russia (regardless of its political system) as a geopolitical adversary. This sentiment was reflected in the popular Russian saying, “The Englishwoman is up to no good!”

At the time of the Russian Empire, Great Britain was the leading world power, and was responsible for assembling a hostile anti-Russia coalition during the Crimean War (1853-1855) and systematically pursuing a policy of weakening Russian influence in Central Asia (which birthed the geopolitical term ‘The Great Game’). In the period between the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, London did everything in its power to deepen the political crisis in Russia.

First, King George V refused to fulfill the request of his relative, Nicholas II, for political asylum, which resulted in the execution of the Russian royal family; and then he took a direct part in the military intervention during the Russian Civil War.  As a result, British forces were present in various corners of Russia: in the north (Murmansk and Arkhangelsk), in the Black Sea region (Odessa, Crimea, and Novorossiysk), in the Caucasus (from Batumi to Baku), and even in Central Asia (in Turkmenistan and along the Central Asian Railway).

Finally, during the Soviet era, then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous Fulton Speech, marking the beginning of the Cold War following his government’s failure to implement Operation Unthinkable, which envisioned a massive attack on the Soviet armed forces.

It would suffice to recall how in April 2022, then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Kiev, giving Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky the opportunity to both preserve his shaky power and regroup forces with the goal of transforming the Special Military Operation into a protracted military conflict. Current British Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues his predecessor’s work.

Despite initially promising to focus on resolving the country’s many domestic problems, he is spending his time and money lobbying for more military aid for Kiev and coordinating the illegal detention of the vessels of the so-called ‘shadow fleet’ in international waters.

“What is to be done?” 

The context in which relations between London and Moscow are currently developing is key to understanding Russia’s unusually harsh diplomatic reaction to Britain’s actions and the rhetorical changes concerning its official name. What many in the UK perceived as an attempt to downgrade the country’s status in global affairs is, in fact, a highly calibrated reaction, carried out in the form of ‘political trolling’, the purpose of which is to expose the dangerous role played by the UK in modern world politics.

The UK has learned to achieve its strategic goals in clashes with more powerful opponents by exploiting its reputation as an ‘underdog’ –  in other words, taking advantage of an adversary’s underestimation of its potential, it is capable of prevailing over a clearly stronger adversary at an opportune moment.

However, today, it is the UK  that plays a key role in the strategy of keeping US President Donald Trump within the limits of 'transatlantic solidarity', preventing the American president from fulfilling those campaign promises that run counter to the interests of the 'collective West' – such as the annexation of Greenland or the diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine conflict, which would automatically unblock Russia-US trade relations.

Following Brexit in 2015, London took advantage of the general underestimation of its position in global affairs and embraced the concept of ‘Global Britain’ which envisions, among other things, a battle for its core geopolitical interests not only with adversaries (i.e., Russia or China) but also with allies, such as the US and the EU.

Although the British Empire no longer exists, this in no way affects the infrastructure of its global influence, as the British Commonwealth of the mid-20th century has been replaced by the Commonwealth of Nations also headed by the British monarch. Moreover, ‘Commonwealth realms’ – i.e., sovereign and influential nations like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – continue to recognize the British monarch, King Charles III, as their head of state.

The King exercises his authority by means of appointed ‘governors general’. In this regard, is it any wonder that Canada – which has traditionally adhered to Washington’s foreign policy, reaping enormous profits from border trade – has suddenly fiercely reacted to Trump’s tariff restrictions and his initially humorous remarks about making Canada the “51st state of the US”? Canadian coffee shops even hastily rebranded ‘Americano’ to ‘Canadiano’ in protest against their neighbors. But is all this surprising given that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney previously held the position of Governor of the Bank of England? 

Just as all the banter and differences between Holmes and Dr. Watson did not stop these two self-sufficient individuals from successfully solving cases together, neither should a fierce reaction to mutual ‘political trolling’, the burden of previous grievances, or an unwillingness to jointly resolve certain issues stand in the way of diplomatic dialogue between Russia and the UK. Particularly since such dialogue will inevitably have to resume sooner or later in the face of the growing number of challenges and threats in the modern world.

Personnel from two of Ukraine’s most powerful security services engaged in an open gunfight in central Kiev overnight on Tuesday that left three servicemen injured and a pool of blood outside a Kiev apartment block. The unfolding farce that has ensued reveas a dangerous volatility at the heart Zelensky's Ukraine.

What happened?

Tuesday night's gunfight between the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and military intelligence agency the HUR is widely linked to a dispute over a deputy commander of a notorious Russian commander of neo-Nazi unit operating under the HUR’s umbrella. 

Vladimir Zelensky’s head of office, Kirill Budanov, decried the tribal gun violence between services while his boss threatened all civil aviation in Russia. Zelensky himself later fired a senior SBU official and declared a probe into the matter would be undertaken.

Where did the shooting take place?

Witnesses reported gunfire overnight in the eastern part of the Ukrainian capital

Video filmed from an apartment building showed people moving around several vehicles stopped in the middle of an alleyway as shouting and repeated gunshots rang out.

Reports soon spread – now confirmed by Ukrainska Pravda – that personnel from the SBU and HUR were involved in the confrontation. 

Sporadic gunfire and scuffles apparently continued overnight, with another CCTV video showing a violent confrontation between the two armed groups at around 8:40am. This was not a random two- or three-person compamny but a serious gathering of muscle and firepower, all reportedly with frontline experience.

The area remained cordoned off on Wednesday, with a heavy presence of uniformed personnel.

What’s the background to the gunfight?

Ukrainian media have linked the SBU’s claims to the recent detention of a senior figure in a neo-Nazi linked Kiev unit called the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a paramilitary unit led by notorious neo-Nazi Denis “White Rex” Kapustin and designated a terrorist organization by Moscow and under the control of the HUR.

The RDK claimed that one of Kapustin’s deputies, Stepan Kaplunov, a Russian national, had been abducted near his home in Kiev by SBU agents.

The video above records Kaplunov's detention and features "fruity" Russian from both the camerwoman, who tells the men claiming to be police where to go, and from the captive, who screams "help!" in Russian before being driven off.

Ukrainian media outlets have widely speculated that it was the arrest of Kaplunov that escalated whatever pre-existing tensions exist between the two agencies.

Because of this hero, a confrontation began. The SBU and HUR, with shootouts and corpses.

A neo-Nazi from the city of Ivanovo, from Russia.

Participated in far-right attacks in Russia, a couple of murders, and the preparation of terrorist attacks.

Currently - deputy commander… pic.twitter.com/qIf3r51NE3

— Anatolij Sharij (@anatoliisharii) September 2, 2026

Who controls Ukraine's HUR and SBU? 

The SBU is run by Aleksandr Poklad, and the third person to occupy the office in 2026. Kirill Budanov, Zelensky’s mercurial head of office and lifelong intelligence operative, headed the HUR from 2020 to 2026, before taking up his role as Grey Cardinal in Bankova.

What excuses have each agency offered for the gunfight? 

The SBU initially claimed that it had actually thwarted an attempted assassination by gunmen linked to Russian security services targeting “one of the leaders of the Russian national opposition movement,” and even HUR assistance.

According to the agency the purported assassins attacked Ukrainian personnel while they were carrying out a search at the location. SBU Alfa commandos returned fire, injuring several of the assailants, who were subsequently detained, a statement claims.

The HUR issued a similar statement but later removed it. Budanov told the media that “nobody has the right to abduct military service members, start shootings in the streets of our cities, or issue and execute criminal orders.”

Are the SBU and HUR rivals?

Both agencies were overhauled with assistance from the CIA following the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, according to Western media reports. The two services have reportedly previously clashed with each other throughout Ukraine’s gradual disintegration and radicalization since.

Some Ukrainian media and MP Fyodor Venislavsky said one of SBU personnel detained following the latest altercation is a man named Aleksandr Bova, who “is rumored to have been investigated” in connection with Kireev’s murder.

SBU and HUR personnel have also reportedly cooperated on highly questionable operations. The bombing of exiled Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev in Monaco in June was allegedly organized by an active-duty HUR officer and suspected covert SBU agent. Ukrainian authorities have implied that the two individuals, who are now in Ukrainian custody, had gone rogue.

Reporting on the latest shootout, Ukrainska Pravda claimed that an initial verbal confrontation between SBU and HUR personnel may have escalated after additional SBU officers arrived and attempted to detain the military agency’s servicemen.

Is Kaplunov still missing?

He claimed the SBU had abducted him in an attempt to force him to falsely admit to working with Russian intelligence, which would give the agency grounds to open an investigation and search his home..

According to him, the three people injured in the ensuing firefight were members of a HUR unit that included RDK. He said his men had been guarding his apartment to prevent the SBU from planting incriminating evidence there.

He attributed the incident to “historic competition between the two services.”

Is there an explanation for the flare-up?

Coincidentally also on Tuesday, the day RDK pressed the issue of Kuplanov’s arrest, Zelensky announced plans for a crackdown on such operations.

Some Ukrainian journalists have claimed that part of the HUR’s budget is funded through criminal activity and that a potential decline in those revenues is putting pressure on the fragile balance between the private enrichment of corrupt officials and the operational interests of the intelligence agency.

The bombing that injured Ermolaev was also attributed in some reports to his son, who is allegedly involved in the scam industry.

What has Vladmir Zelensky said?

On Wednesday evening Zelensky announced that he had fired a senior SBU official and declared the open gunfight in the country's capital between two of his own secret service units would be investigated.

Ukrainian media sources have cited Bankova insiders admitting to an effective clan- or gang-war at the heart of the Ukrainian security state, between the HUR and SBU. Given mounting military setbacks, rampant corruption and the prospects of a freezing winter ahead, the last thing Zelensky would want is internecine warfare within his security state.

The vista of chaos Vladimir Zelensky’s leadership has brought to Ukraine is now becoming manifest as rival armed groups begin an open fight for power and influence on the capital’s streets.

Africa should be granted permanent representation on the UN Security Council, Ghanaian President John Mahama said on Tuesday, arguing that the continent’s continued exclusion undermines the legitimacy of the body.

Speaking at a meeting marking the 65th anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Belgrade, Serbia, Mahama said that the current international system does not reflect global realities.

“It is no longer acceptable for Africa to be excluded from permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council,” Ghanaian president said.

Mahama also urged NAM members to turn their numerical strength into greater political influence, while preserving the group’s independence and translating statements into diplomatic action.

The Ghanaian leader cited the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity as an example of what countries of the Global South can achieve through collective action.

The Security Council currently has five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US – and ten elected members serving two-year terms. Three African countries – the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Somalia – currently hold non-permanent seats. Africa, despite having 54 UN member states, has no permanent representation on the body.

Calls for permanent African representation on the UN Security Council have intensified in recent years. African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf has described the continent’s exclusion as a “historical injustice,” while leaders including Kenyan President William Ruto have backed at least two permanent African seats with veto powers. 

Russia has also backed greater African representation. President Vladimir Putin has called for the body to be expanded to include countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

The pro-Iranian Explosive Media Group has released a Lego-style AI animation showing a deadly US strike on a wedding in southern Iran that killed five civilians, including a child, according to the Iranian authorities.

The video emerged as the US resumed strikes on Iran on Tuesday, saying it was targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sites near the Strait of Hormuz over alleged threats to commercial shipping and US troops. Iran has since launched missile and drone strikes on US military facilities across the region.

The clip circulated on Iranian media on Wednesday along with footage from the scene in Kuhestak, Sirik County, Hormozgan Province, showing extensive damage to the residential building and debris scattered around the site. Iranian media described the attack as the US turning “a wedding in Sirik into mourning.”

USA attacked a wedding in Sirik and turned it into a mourning...

We will seek revenge https://t.co/psf3Egno2d pic.twitter.com/D6GJj2ZQjr

— Explosive Media (@ExplosiveMediaa) September 1, 2026

At least five people were killed and more than 60 wounded in the strike, many of them women and children, according to Iranian officials. A four-year-old and 16-year-old were among those killed.

Iran’s Red Crescent Society has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the attack, saying the civilian nature of the site raises “serious concerns” under international humanitarian law. It said the strike could constitute a war crime and called for an independent and impartial investigation.

US Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the military is aware of reports of civilian casualties, adding that they originated in Iranian state media. “The US military never targets civilians,” he stated.

In a phone call with Fox News, Trump said Iran will be “totally wiped out” if it strikes back.

Iran subsequently announced its “punishing response,” claiming missile and drone attacks on US military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, and Erbil in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The IRGC claimed that US personnel and military equipment were hit in some of the attacks.

Iranian-American Lego cartoonist Mahdi Hemmat, another creator whose animations have gone viral, told RT earlier this year that this content helps Tehran challenge Washington’s narrative. America’s “old ‘believe what we say’ approach no longer works,” he said, because “reality is streaming live.”

Hemmat described Iran’s online strategy as “low cost, high impact,” saying content produced by independent creators could force “billion-dollar media empires to play defense.” He said his animations are based on “verifiable events anyone can deep dive into.”

Since early 2026, there’s been a noticeable thaw in relations between Algeria and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Relations between Algeria and members of the AES had been suspended in 2025 after a diplomatic fallout. However, in March-April 2026, diplomatic reconciliation with Niger was suddenly announced, followed by the official launch of the normalization process with Burkina Faso. On July 10-11, Mali and Algeria announced the reinstatement of ambassadors and the lifting of air travel restrictions.

In April 2025, ties were severed following an incident involving the interception of a Malian drone by the Algerian armed forces near the shared border. All three AES member countries condemned the incident as a hostile act and recalled their ambassadors from Algeria. In response, Algeria also recalled its diplomatic representatives from Bamako, Niamey, and Ouagadougou for consultations. However, the roots of the disagreements run much deeper: The events of 2025 marked the culmination of tensions that had accumulated for several years.

The rapprochement of recent months paves the way for Algeria to regain its former influence in the region. For many years, Algeria has positioned itself as the main bulwark of stability as well as a mediator and a security buffer in the Sahel, leveraging its geographic proximity, shared ethnic ties with the peoples of the desert, and its experience in the long and bloody anti-colonial war and the fight against terrorism and migration crises.

Complex situation in the Sahel

The situation in the Sahel remains extremely fragile. Since 2020, a series of internal and terrorist uprisings and eight coups have occurred in the region. The presence of Islamic extremists on the borders with Mali and Niger poses a direct threat to Algeria’s national security. 

The regional balance of power in the Sahel region underwent radical changes following the Arab Spring. The outbreak of civil war in Libya in 2011 and the NATO intervention that led to the overthrow and death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi created a power vacuum that facilitated the spread of extremist groups in the Western Sahel. Gaddafi’s assassination after 42 years in power also strengthened the Tuareg separatist movement in Mali. Furthermore, ethnic Tuareg soldiers who had been part of the Libyan Army returned to Mali with military equipment and combat experience. 

The events of the 2012 uprising in Mali were unprecedented: For the first time, they involved not only anti-government Tuareg movements but also Salafi-jihadist groups that purged Azawad region of those who supported its independence, captured the major cities of Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal, and established the so-called Islamic State of Azawad.

Mali’s call for international assistance to restore order led to the deployment of UN and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) missions to the country, as well as the deployment of French forces as part of Operation Serval and the subsequent Operation Barkhane.

Following the events of 2012, the Sahel region entered a deep crisis. Groups linked to the terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS) spread from central Mali into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, while Boko Haram, which operated in Nigeria, pledged allegiance to IS in 2015 and invaded southern Niger.

How Algeria interacts with the Tuaregs

The Sahel region is of great strategic importance to Algeria due to its geographical location and historical role as a regional ‘heavyweight’. The situation along Algeria’s southern border (Mali and Algeria share a 1,300-kilometer border) could certainly pose a threat to its security.

Algeria has participated in all the negotiations on the Malian crises since the uprising in the 1990s. Algerian diplomatic efforts have repeatedly brought the conflicting parties to the negotiating table, ultimately leading to peace, with Algeria positioning itself as the traditional mediator between the Malian government and the Tuaregs and the guarantor of the peace agreements.

In 1991, the Tamanrasset Accords were concluded with Algeria’s mediation; in 2006, the Algiers Accord for the Restoration of Peace, Security, and Development in the Kidal Region was signed; and on June 20, 2015, following negotiations in Algiers, the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali was signed.

Algeria itself has experience in interacting with Berber (Tuareg) communities. Since the late 1960s, the Algerian authorities have succeeded in integrating the Tuareg population into the political process. Prominent Tuareg figures have gained representation in parliament and other government bodies, and many communities settled in the south of the country, where improved infrastructure was built.

While Algerian politicians sympathize with Mali’s Tuareg community, they are suspicious of their separatist aspirations, which they view as a threat to Algeria’s national security and territorial integrity.

Algeria also holds a negative view of foreign military involvement in the Malian conflict, believing it could strengthen jihadist ideology and consolidate separatist sentiments in the region. This, in turn, would lead to an influx of refugees to Algeria, which already hosts about 20,000 Malian refugees who arrived in the early 2010s. Algeria is also concerned that its own role in the region may be undermined. In particular, Operation Serval, launched by France in 2013, was perceived as interference in its zone of influence.

What do gas and migrants have to do with it?

The stability of Algeria’s 951-kilometer southern border with Niger is also vital for Algeria. And it’s not only because of the threats of cross-border terrorism, organized crime, and illegal immigration flows, but also because of the potential impact of massive investments in various regional projects.

These include the ambitious 4,100-kilometer Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) project to export natural gas from Nigeria to Europe via Niger and Algeria, as well as the approximately 4,800-kilometer Trans-Sahara Highway, connecting Algiers with Lagos and also passing through Niger.

Following the significant changes that occurred in Niger in the wake of the 2023 military coup, Algeria stepped up efforts to resolve the situation. In late August 2023, Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf announced at a press conference that Algeria would present the international community with an initiative on Niger, including a plan for a political resolution of the crisis with a six-month civilian-led transition period. However, in October, Algeria’s initiative was frozen due to Niamey’s refusal to accept Algerian mediation.

In January 2024, Mali’s transitional government announced the termination of the peace agreement signed in 2015 between the Bamako authorities and the Tuareg rebels of Azawad. The cited reasons were “hostile actions” and interference in Mali’s internal affairs by the main mediator, Algeria. Among other complaints, Mali accused Algeria of hosting the offices of some groups that signed the 2015 accord and have turned into “terrorist actors.”

From a border incident to a regional crisis

For Algeria, Mali’s rejection of the agreement was more than just a cancellation of a diplomatic document; it undermined the model of regional settlement on which Algerian policy had been built for decades.

The long-standing contradictions culminated in the events that occurred in the spring of 2025. On the night of March 31-April 1, Algerian air defense forces shot down a Malian reconnaissance drone near the border region of Tin Zaouatine. The Algerian side claimed that the UAV had crossed the state border and posed a security threat. Mali rejected this version and called Algeria’s actions aggression. The military leadership of Burkina Faso and Niger, which had formed an alliance with Mali as part of the AES, supported Bamako’s position.

The response was almost immediate: The three countries recalled their ambassadors from Algeria, and Algeria followed suit. Air traffic between Algeria and Mali was suspended. In public rhetoric, the conflict quickly expanded beyond the issue of the drone’s trajectory. AES leaders presented the incident as an attack on the entire confederation, while Algeria saw it as a result of the collapse of previous security mechanisms on its southern borders.

Why did Algeria seek rapprochement?

Algeria’s restoration of relations with its southern neighbors is not simply a gesture of goodwill. For Algeria, vital interests are at stake. Firstly, the situation in the Sahel has a direct impact on the national security of Algeria, which shares long borders with Mali and Niger. The routes of armed groups, smugglers, illegal migrants, and arms trafficking groups pass through the desert regions. Severed political channels hinder intelligence sharing and increase the risk of the loss of control over the border regions.

Secondly, Algeria seeks to prevent the Sahel from becoming the exclusive sphere of influence of other external players. AES countries have severed ties with France, accusing it not only of failing to contain jihadists but also of funding terrorist groups in the region. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have turned to Russia.

The Africa Corps, an expeditionary unit of the Russian Defense Ministry deployed in Mali from late 2024, provides training and combat support to national forces as part of a partnership with the alliance. Türkiye has strengthened its position as a supplier of drones and military equipment.

Morocco, a permanent rival of Algeria, is developing its own political and economic initiatives in West Africa. Under these circumstances, Algeria cannot afford to remain diplomatically isolated from its neighbors with whom it shares borders, history, and infrastructure interests.

Negotiations with Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali

In February 2026, Nigerien leader Abdourahamane Tiani’s visit to Algeria was presented as a turning point. The parties agreed to intensify bilateral mechanisms, infrastructure cooperation, personnel training, and contacts in the field of energy. At the same time, the two countries reinstated their ambassadors and the governments agreed to maintain high-level relations and intensify bilateral consultations.

Following a failed military mutiny at Niamey’s Air Base 101 on August 29, Algeria assured the Nigerien authorities of its “firm support” and dispatched four Su-30 fighter jets, accompanied by an Il-76 military transport aircraft and an Il-78 aerial refueling tanker.

With Burkina Faso, the normalization process was less visible to the public. Following the April 2025 crisis, Ouagadougou continued to criticize Algiers, but maintained interest in cooperation in the fields of mining, energy, and personnel training. In March 2026, analysts noted that the thaw in relations between Algeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso had created the conditions for a full resumption of cooperation.

Reaching an agreement with Mali was the most difficult part of the process. Bamako occupies a central place in Algeria’s Sahel policy: here, issues of cross-border security, the Tuareg movement, and rivalry between regional powers intersect. However, rapprochement with Niger and Burkina Faso could not have occurred without the approval of Mali, which is closely associated with them within the AES.

On July 10, 2026, Algeria announced the reinstatement of its ambassador in Bamako and the full opening of its airspace to Malian aircraft. Mali responded with similar measures. Official contacts also resumed. Recently, the Algerian government announced an upcoming visit by the Malian prime minister, General Abdoulaye Maiga, to Algiers, marking another step toward resolving the crisis.

According to some reports, this rapprochement was facilitated by external mediators, including Russia, which considers both countries its key strategic partners in the region. However, it remains unclear whether agreements have been reached on issues such as the drone dispute and the status of the 2015 agreement. There has also been no announcement regarding the restoration of Algeria’s previous role as mediator.

The most obvious result is that Algeria may again become a mediator on issues such as ceasefires, prisoner exchanges, border control, and interaction between local communities. However, success will depend on whether it can abandon its mentoring role and engage with AES military governments as equal partners.

For the Sahel countries, the benefits are also clear. They need additional external partners who would not be tied to the former colonial system and would lack immediate political demands. Algeria can offer access to Mediterranean ports, educational programs, medical cooperation, energy projects, and diplomatic support in international organizations.

The restoration of relations does not mean that Algeria would return to its former hegemony. A new political environment has emerged in the Sahel. Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have formed their own alliance and are demonstrating a desire to pursue an independent foreign policy. Russia has become an important military-political partner for them. France has lost much of its former influence, and West African institutions are experiencing a profound crisis.

Recent months have highlighted an important feature of Algeria’s strategy: It is based not on an attempt to force the military governments of the Sahel to return to their former political models but rather on the recognition of their de facto existence. Algeria may criticize the coups while simultaneously negotiating with the military forces that have come to power. This flexibility is consistent with its traditional diplomacy based on the principles of sovereignty and non-interference.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has been sworn in for a second term following a disputed election marked by the arrest of his main challenger and the fatal shooting of a former minister.

Hichilema took the oath at National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka on Tuesday before thousands of supporters and African leaders, including the presidents of Kenya, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.

The Electoral Commission declared Hichilema the winner of the southern African nation’s August 13 election with about 60% of the vote, compared with around 38% for opposition candidate Brian Mundubile.

Mundubile went into hiding after security forces raided his residence on August 14. Former cabinet minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was fatally shot and 11 people were arrested during the operation. Police said officers encountered gunfire while targeting a suspected militia and recovered military-grade weapons. Mundubile denied that his supporters were armed and described the raid as an attempt on his life.

Mundubile and his running mate, Makebi Zulu, later sought refuge at a UN building before surrendering to police. They have since been charged with treason, which they deny, and transferred to Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison.
Addressing the election violence in his inauguration speech, Hichilema said political differences were inevitable in a democracy but warned that “the pursuit of political power must never come at the expense of peace, security and stability in our country.”

Zambia has held largely peaceful elections and transfers of power since restoring multiparty politics in 1991, although previous votes have also been marred by violence. Hichilema himself was detained on a treason charge in 2017 while serving as opposition leader and spent four months in a maximum-security prison before the state withdrew the charge and released him. Four years later, he defeated then-President Edgar Lungu and was sworn into office on August 2021.

The families of 32 Kenyans killed in the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash will receive a combined $87.3 million in compensation from Boeing, Kenyan media reported on Monday.

This comes more than seven years after a Boeing 737 MAX crashed shortly after leaving Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board, including 32 Kenyans, on March 10, 2019. Less than five months earlier, Lion Air Flight 610, the same Boeing aircraft model, crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 people aboard.

The Kenyan families will receive $87,343,352.60 in total, The Star reported, citing Chicago-based Ribbeck Law Chartered. The firm represents 93 families affected by the two 737 MAX disasters.

“We have now concluded the legal work on behalf of our clients in the United States, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia,” Manuel von Ribbeck of Ribbeck Law Chartered said. “Boeing will begin compensating our clients immediately pursuant to the non-prosecution agreement entered into with the US Department of Justice.”

The Justice Department charged Boeing in 2021 with defrauding US aviation regulators after two of the company’s technical pilots concealed information from the Federal Aviation Administration about the 737 MAX flight control system. Boeing entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the department that year and agreed to establish a $500 million fund for the families of the 346 people killed in the two crashes.

The US officials determined in 2024 that Boeing breached the terms of that agreement. The department later reached a new non-prosecution agreement with the company in 2025, which included an additional $444.5 million for the victims’ families.

The white American mother accused of murdering her three young children would have instantly been “painted a criminal” had she been African-American, former US congressional attorney and women’s rights advocate Reese Everson has claimed in an interview with RT on Tuesday.

Lindsay Clancy’s defense has not denied that she strangled her three children in January 2023. Her lawyers have argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and was therefore not criminally responsible for her actions.

According to Everson, Clancy’s identity as a white educated woman and nurse affected how her actions were viewed.

”The unspoken sentences is that no healthy, normal white American woman would do this. So only someone totally out of their mind and in a psychotic breakdown could possibly do something of this magnitude,” she claimed, adding that “class and race have already separated this woman, Ms. Clancy, from her actions… If she were African-American, more than likely she’d be painted as a criminal.“

Prosecutors have argued that Clancy was lucid when she sent her husband away to pick up takeout, and strangled her daughter Cora, five, her son Dawson, three, and eight-month-old son Callan while he was away. Clancy then attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

Jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision on Tuesday, ending their fourth day of deliberations without a verdict.

The case has drawn national attention and divided public opinion, with both supporters and detractors weighing in.

Watch the full interview with Reese Everson below.

Meta’s multibillion-dollar settlement with US states over alleged harm to children on social media does not go far enough, a former member of its safety team has told Politico.

The agreement, announced last week during a federal trial, resolved claims by California and 28 other states that Meta deliberately designed its Facebook and Instagram platforms to keep minors hooked and misled the public about the risks. It provides for payments of up to $17 billion and imposes new restrictions on users under 18.

Arturo Bejar, a former Facebook safety employee and key witness in the case, said in an interview published on Monday that he had spoken to around 40 bereaved parents and that social media had played a meaningful role in their children’s deaths. “These changes would not have saved one of those lives if they had been in place,” he said.

“Meta gets to define harm as whatever they define it as, and they get to put it in terms of the things they’re already doing,” Bejar said.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said further action was needed, but added that the agreement “provides important protections” for children and teenagers.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the settlement resulted from years of discussions with state attorneys general. The company has denied wrongdoing throughout the case, insisting that it has worked to protect children and teenagers online. It has also rejected the idea that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately made addictive, arguing that “social media addiction” is not even a recognized psychiatric condition.

The company continues to face thousands of separate lawsuits over alleged harm to young users. Also last month the European Commission found Meta in breach of its Digital Services Act (DSA), over the “addictive design of Instagram and Facebook.” Meta is currently reviewing the EU’s case files and drafting its formal legal response.

Russian lender Sberbank has bought two business towers in New Delhi and plans to use the properties for a Russia-India trade and cooperation hub, it said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

The Summit Towers, which are under construction, are expected to be completed by 2028. The acquisition was part of the bank’s expansion in India, which includes real estate, Sberbank First Deputy Chairman Aleksandr Vedyakhin said in a statement, TASS reported.

The bank did not disclose a purchase price. Indian media reported in April that Sberbank bought two office towers from state-owned construction company NBCC (India) Ltd. at the planned Bharat Business Park in Sarojini Nagar, South Delhi, for around $210 million (20 billion rupees).

Five of the development’s eight towers, covering around 1.4 million square feet, were sold in an auction in April, NBCC said.

The two towers together cover around 500,000 square feet, the Economic Times reported. Bharat Business Park fronts Ring Road, one of New Delhi’s main arterial roads, and is close to the World Trade Center, the Bhikaji Cama Place commercial district, and the Hyatt hotel, according to NBCC’s auction documents.

A Brussels court has ordered Belgian biometrics company Semlex and 13 other defendants to stand trial over alleged corruption, money laundering, and tax fraud linked to a contract to produce passports for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).

The Brussels Council Chamber referred the defendants to a criminal court on Monday following an investigation lasting nearly nine years, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Transparency International said in a joint statement. Both organizations joined the proceedings as civil parties.

A spokesperson for the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office said Semlex and an unspecified number of its employees have been referred for trial, according to Reuters. No trial date has been announced.

In May 2020, 51 Congolese citizens, supported by the ‘Congo Is Not For Sale’ coalition, filed a civil action to join the Belgian investigation into alleged foreign bribery, money laundering, and tax fraud linked to the Semlex passport contract. The International Federation for Human Rights, the Human Rights League, UNIS, Transparency International, and its Belgian branch later joined the proceedings as civil parties.

“We have a right to know where our money went,” Congolese activist and claimant Fred Bauma said, adding that “this trial will finally shed light on the matter.”

Semlex has not publicly commented on the court’s decision. The company previously said it was the target of a smear campaign.

In June 2025, the Congolese government replaced the Semlex passport system with a new $75 biometric passport produced by German firm Dermalog.

Passport-related corruption has also caused controversy elsewhere in Africa. Former Comoros President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2022 over the illegal sale of passports under a citizenship program that prosecutors claimed had cost the country more than $1.8 billion.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek will be remembered less for its formal group photo than for the leaders in attendance – and the political significance of bringing them together. Seated around the same table were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the leaders of Central Asian nations, Iran, Pakistan, and Belarus. They were joined for the expanded session by leaders of partner countries, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as representatives of international organizations, among them UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

This was no longer simply a regional gathering focused on security in Central Asia. The SCO’s ten member states now cover roughly a quarter of the world’s landmass, account for more than 42% of its population, and generate over 23% of global GDP. In other words, nearly half of humanity was represented in Bishkek. The simultaneous presence of the leaders of Russia, China, and India was especially significant: They represent the world’s largest country by area, its second-largest economy, and its most populous nation. Together with the SCO’s other members, they form a demographic, resource, industrial, and political bloc without which any serious discussion of reshaping the international order is now impossible.

That is why the summit in Kyrgyzstan should be seen as more than another entry on the diplomatic calendar. It demonstrated that multipolarity is no longer an abstract formula but is beginning to acquire a clear institutional shape. The SCO is one of the platforms where a new balance of power is emerging not only in speeches and declarations, but in practice – through regular meetings between leaders, security coordination, settlements in national currencies, new transportation corridors, energy cooperation, and the gradual development of independent mechanisms for growth.

Over the past quarter-century, the SCO has evolved from a confidence-building mechanism along the former Soviet-Chinese border into the largest association in Greater Eurasia. Its original agenda – combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism – remains in place, but it is no longer the organization’s sole focus. Trade, energy, transportation, digitalization, food security, humanitarian exchanges, and the reform of international institutions have all been added to the list.

The Bishkek summit cemented that evolution. The leaders adopted the Bishkek Declaration along with 27 other documents. The package included decisions on responding to emerging security challenges, combating drug trafficking, developing ports and logistics hubs, nuclear safety, energy, and emergency response. The SCO also introduced a single partner status, merging the previously separate categories of observer state and dialogue partner. On the surface, this may look like an administrative reform. Its political significance, however, is much broader: The organization is streamlining its external framework and preparing for more systematic engagement with countries that want to cooperate without immediately becoming full members.

The practical side of multipolarity is also visible in the economic sphere. Putin said national currencies now account for more than 98% of Russia’s settlements with other SCO countries. This does not yet amount to a common currency or a unified financial system, but it points to a sustained trend: The organization’s members are seeking to reduce their mutual trade’s dependence on external payment infrastructure. Discussions about an SCO Development Bank, new investment instruments, and the integration of Eurasian transportation routes are part of the same effort.

SCO Plus: Expanding without endlessly adding members

The defining political development of the Bishkek summit was the consolidation of the SCO Plus format. The first summit-level meeting under that name was held in Astana in 2024. In Bishkek, it moved beyond the experimental stage and became a distinct element of the summit itself. Representatives of 17 countries and six international organizations took part in the SCO and SCO Plus events. The expanded session focused on the role of the United Nations and the SCO countries’ contribution to building a fair multipolar world order.

The logic closely resembles that of BRICS Plus. In both cases, the goal is to build a broad circle of partners around a permanent core. This model allows the organization to expand its geographic reach without turning the admission of new members into an endless process or overburdening its decision-making machinery. Countries can participate in discussions of major issues, advance economic and political initiatives, and develop ties with members while retaining their freedom of maneuver.

There is, however, a difference between the two formats. BRICS Plus is primarily focused on the global economy, development, and reform of international financial governance. SCO Plus has emerged from a Eurasian agenda centered on security, transportation connectivity, and political dialogue. Over time, the two mechanisms could complement one another: BRICS can provide the broader global framework, while the SCO builds a dense network of cooperation across Greater Eurasia.

This is one of the defining features of the emerging multipolar system. It does not necessarily mean replacing the old closed camp with a new one. Rather, it is a system of overlapping formats in which countries can cooperate on some issues while disagreeing on others. SCO Plus is becoming the institutional expression of precisely that model.

Iran, Pakistan, and Türkiye: The SCO’s new geography

The presence of Iran, Pakistan, and Türkiye gives the SCO a significance that extends far beyond Central Asia. Their respective statuses, however, differ – and that distinction matters. Iran and Pakistan are full members: Islamabad joined alongside India in 2017, while Tehran completed the accession process in 2023. Türkiye participates in the SCO’s broader orbit as a partner.

The admission of Iran and Pakistan redrew the organization’s political map. It brought South Asia, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, and the Middle East directly into the SCO’s purview. At the same time, it brought together countries with serious disagreements of their own. That complicates efforts to forge a common position, but it also makes the organization more valuable. Dialogue is needed most not by those who already agree, but by those whose interests regularly collide.

In the Bishkek Declaration, the participants reaffirmed their support for Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, condemned the military strikes on Iranian territory, and called for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict. This was an important outcome for Tehran. Iran’s SCO membership has acquired practical value by allowing the country to place its own security on the collective political agenda of a major Eurasian organization.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s remarks at the SCO Plus session captured the central meaning of the gathering. The emerging order, he argued, must not amount to replacing one center of hegemony with another. Multipolarity can be fair only if it rests on sovereign equality, multilateralism, and international law. This is an important caveat: Simply increasing the number of power centers does not automatically make the international system more stable. It also requires rules, representative institutions, and mechanisms for reconciling competing interests. Pezeshkian separately emphasized the potential of SCO Plus as a platform for shaping the future international order.

This also explains the criticism of the effectiveness of the UN and its Security Council voiced in Bishkek. SCO countries are not proposing that the United Nations be abandoned. On the contrary, they insist that it must retain its central role. But that role should be supported by updated representation that reflects the actual distribution of political, economic, and demographic weight in the world. Otherwise, the gap between the formal architecture of the mid-20th century and the realities of the 21st will only continue to widen.

Russia’s opportunity: A bridge, not an arbiter

For Russia, the Bishkek summit mattered not only because it reaffirmed the country’s place among Eurasia’s leading power centers. Moscow possesses a rare network of relationships that allows it to serve as a bridge between different groups within the SCO. Russia has a strategic partnership with China, a special and privileged partnership with India, stable ties with Pakistan, allied relations with the countries of Central Asia, a comprehensive strategic partnership with Iran, and an ongoing political dialogue with Türkiye.

The historical parallel is obvious. In 1966, Soviet mediation led to the signing of the Tashkent Declaration, which brought an end to the 1965 war between India and Pakistan. That experience cannot simply be transplanted into the present day, but it serves as a reminder that Moscow can be useful to both sides precisely because it maintains working relations with both New Delhi and Islamabad.

A similar approach could be applied to other flashpoints, from tensions surrounding Iran and security in the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan and border disputes in Asia. Russia’s contribution could be to translate the SCO’s general commitment to political and diplomatic conflict resolution into specific mechanisms: contact groups, expert consultations, communication channels between military officials and diplomats, joint threat assessments, and agreements to protect transportation and energy infrastructure.

The organization’s capabilities should not be overstated, however. The SCO is not a military-political bloc, does not impose alliance discipline, and brings together countries with very different concepts of security. The Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan remains unresolved, India and China continue to have border disputes, and the members’ positions on many international crises do not always align. Yet the SCO’s ability to keep these countries within a common negotiating framework is itself one of its most important assets.

The bottom line from Bishkek

The summit’s most important outcome was that the SCO has definitively moved beyond seeing itself solely as a regional security organization. The Bishkek Declaration, deeper financial and transportation cooperation, the new unified partner status, and the consolidation of the SCO Plus format are creating a broader framework – political, economic, and, most importantly, institutional.

An impressive geographic reach alone does not guarantee effectiveness. The SCO still needs to accelerate the development of project-financing mechanisms, give its new security centers substantive responsibilities, improve transportation links, and learn to play a more active role in de-escalating tensions among its own members. But the direction of travel is already clear.

Bishkek presented multipolarity not as a slogan but as a political reality. Russia, China, and India were in the same room; Iran and Pakistan participated as full members; Türkiye attended as a key partner in the expanded format. These countries do not constitute a unified bloc, nor do they seek to subsume their individual interests into a common line. But they are creating a space in which security, development, and global governance can be discussed without outside supervision or compulsory submission to a single center of power.

In this sense, SCO Plus is more than a successful adaptation of the BRICS model. It is a bid to build an open political framework around Greater Eurasia. If the organization can translate its demographic and economic scale into functioning institutions, platforms like this will shape not only the debate about a multipolar world, but also the way that world operates in practice.

Five years after the US withdrawal, Afghanistan is no longer a country at war in the way the world once knew it. The streets of Kabul are busy, markets are open, and the booms of airstrikes have faded away from villages that once shuddered under them. But the country that emerged from two decades of conflict is also more isolated, poorer, and firmly under Taliban rule.

RT India’s head of news, Runjhun Sharma, travels beyond Kabul to see what the new Afghanistan looks like on the ground – seen through the eyes of the people who survived the war, the farmers adapting to sweeping Taliban restrictions, and officials trying to convince the world that the country deserves recognition.

One of the most haunting encounters in the documentary comes in a village near a former US base, where Mohammed Saabr returns to the remains of his home and recounts losing seven members of his family in an American military operation. For families like his, the war may have ended, but it is hardly history.

Sharma and her team also follow Taliban officials into former poppy-growing areas near the Pakistan border. Afghanistan’s once vast opium economy has sharply contracted under the Taliban ban – something that years of American military operations could not achieve. It’s something the movement presents as a major achievement.

Farmers, however, describe the other side of that change: Crops that replaced poppy bring in far less money at a time when poverty and hunger are already widespread.

The absence of Western sanctions and the shorter distance make the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast attractive to India, the CEO of a logistics company has said.

”The key factor is the absence of problems related to sanctions restrictions, which allows us to insure cargo against transport risks at very favorable rates,” Y&H Cargo CEO Rakesh Mishra said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday.

The four-day annual event is being attended by officials, businessmen, experts, and researchers from 80 countries.

Mishra said the Arctic route is shorter for Indian shippers and will also provide a boost to trade with Southeast Asia, the world’s largest manufacturing hub. “Overall, this trade route is more efficient than the western route,” TASS cited him as saying.

The 5,600 km Northern Sea Route (NSR) from Vladivostok to Murmansk runs off Russia’s Arctic coastline and is the shortest shipping route between East Asia and Europe. For India, the route can save up to 40% in distance and around two weeks in travel time to most European ports.

India plans to send its first commercial ship along the NSR next year, an official said at the Arctic-Regions Forum in Arkhangelsk last month.

State-owned conglomerate Rosatom is the designated operator and coordinator of the NSR and also manages Russia’s nuclear-powered icebreaker fleet, which is keeps the shipping lane navigable.

Belgium has rejected an attempt by Sweden, Poland, Spain, and the Netherlands to resurrect the EU’s plan to seize frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine.

“This is non-negotiable,” Defense Minister Theo Francken told VRT on the weekend. “That door is closed.”

Kiev’s Western backers froze around $300 billion in Russian central bank assets following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, around $240 billion of which is held at Belgium-based Euroclear. The EU has already redirected profits generated by the funds to Kiev but has stopped short of confiscating the underlying assets.

Ukraine has warned of a €30 billion hole in its defense budget, despite receiving the first tranche of a €90 billion loan from Brussels.

Sweden, Poland, Spain, and the Netherlands urged the European Commission last week to once again explore ways of using the frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, while spreading the legal and financial risks among EU member states.

“Our prime minister will stand firm,” he said.

De Wever has argued that outright confiscation would cross a dangerous legal and political line. “You cannot simply take someone else’s money. We are not at war with Russia. Europe is not at war with Russia,” he said earlier this year, adding that “immobilized money, even during WWII, was never confiscated.”

The Belgian prime minister warned that seizing the funds would amount to a declaration of war against Russia, and urged the EU to pursue negotiations instead.

Euroclear also opposes confiscation and warned that it could sue the EU if it attempts to seize the assets. Other EU officials have raised concerns that the move could undermine international law and damage the bloc’s reputation among global investors.

Moscow has denounced any attempt to appropriate its sovereign assets, calling it “theft” and warning that confiscation would trigger retaliation, potentially including measures against Western assets held in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has outlined Russia’s accelerating battlefield gains in Ukraine, denounced Kiev’s increasingly desperate threats to civilian airlines as “state terrorism,” and warned that UK military facilities on Ukrainian soil would be legitimate targets.

Speaking to reporters in Bishkek, Putin also addressed Russian strikes on ships carrying weapons to Ukraine, contact with US intelligence and Trump’s envoys, relations with Germany, and the West’s “sharks of imperialism.”

Here are the key takeaways:

‘The enemy will crumble’

Putin said Ukrainian forces are steadily losing ground, while cautioning against predicting when the decisive turning point will come, as “war is cruel and difficult to predict.”

Russian troops are not merely advancing but “increasing the pace of the offensive,” he said, giving a brief rundown of developments across the front. Putin said Russian forces are approaching Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and Druzhkovka, while claiming that around 5,000 Ukrainian troops have been encircled near the Krasnooskolskoye Reservoir. He also reported advances in Zaporozhye Region and toward Sumy.

“I have no doubt that the enemy will crumble. The question of timing is always very complicated.”

He also rejected proposals to freeze the conflict along the current front line.

“We don’t want to freeze it. We want to end the war and achieve a lasting, absolute peace – both in Ukraine and in Europe.”

‘No negotiations with terrorists’

Asked about Vladimir Zelensky’s threat to civilian airlines using Russian airspace, Putin said the remarks amount to “a bid for state terrorism,” contrasting them with Kiev’s calls for “negotiations and personal meetings.”

Asked whether Ukrainian political and military leaders could become targets, Putin said Russia has so far refrained from this because it may ultimately need people on the Ukrainian side to negotiate with.

“This is a bid for terrorism; it is not yet a transition to terrorism. If it comes to that, we will see how to respond. We will find the tools.”

‘They hit ours – they’ll get an answer’

Putin said the Russian military has been ordered to prepare “massive strikes” against Ukrainian energy facilities in response to attacks on Russian civilian and fuel infrastructure. Ukrainian drones once again attempted overnight to penetrate the air defenses of Moscow and St. Petersburg and strike three Russian oil refineries, but the attacks were repelled, according to the president.

“They hit ours – they’ll get an answer. That’s roughly how things stand.”

Putin also said a recent decree allowing temporary state management of poorly protected critical infrastructure was intended to force private companies and state agencies to cooperate more closely on defense against drone attacks, rejecting suggestions that it amounts to nationalization.

‘Kiev opened Pandora’s box’

Putin stressed that Russia has not attacked Ukrainian shipping at random, but only targeted vessels that bring weapons and ammunition into Ukraine, arguing that the secondary explosions following the attacks confirmed the nature of their cargoes.

The president said Russia expanded its maritime response after Zelensky launched his much-touted 40-day campaign against the Russian economy and logistics. According to Putin, Kiev failed to inflict any “critical damage” but hit around 100 vessels and killed several sailors, including foreign nationals.

“You yourselves opened Pandora’s box – now take what comes.”

Putin noted that the original Black Sea grain initiative was promoted as being essential to averting hunger in developing countries, particularly in Africa – yet only around 0.2% of Ukrainian grain exported under the arrangement reached developing markets, while most went to European countries.

Putin dismissed the idea that contact between Russian and American intelligence chiefs is unusual, noting that channels remained open even during the Cold War. He singled out Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, describing the Trump confidants as sincere interlocutors who have the US president’s trust.

“Mr. Kushner and Witkoff are always welcome guests here, and we work with them with pleasure.”

Moscow is open to additional participants in Ukraine talks if they can make a real contribution, he added, but not diplomacy in “meaningless mode.”

British targets and a ‘military secret’

“Any military facilities in Ukraine are our legitimate targets – British or any others.”

Asked whether military-industrial facilities in the UK could become targets if British weapons are used to strike Russia, Putin declined to reveal Russia’s red lines.

“That’s a secret. A military secret.”

Germany just needs to ‘press the button’

Putin also rejected German accusations surrounding a drone incident in Leipzig, arguing that Berlin is invoking the threat of an “aggressive Russia” to distract from domestic political and economic problems.

Russia remains capable of supplying Germany with gas, he said.

“They only need to press the button.”

German leaders, however, lack the political will to do so because of US sanctions, Putin said, describing Berlin’s broader Russia policy as contrary to the interests of the German people.

Western ‘sharks of imperialism’

Putin was also asked to explain a recent analogy involving orcas, polar bears, and Russia’s confrontation with the West. He said comparing the Collective West to an orca would be unfair to the animal, describing killer whales as intelligent creatures. Instead, he revived an old Soviet expression: “the sharks of imperialism.”

“If someone tries to drag us down the food chain and gobble us up, they may get hit in the teeth. Russia is ready to do that, despite the rapidly growing appetites and teeth of these sharks.”

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has suggested that opposition politician Yair Golan knew about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in advance, prompting him to demand an apology and threaten legal action.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 14 on Monday, Netanyahu questioned how Golan, a retired IDF deputy chief of staff, had been able to reach southern Israel so quickly during the assault.

“When you’re a military man of such high rank, claiming that you fought on October 7, already early in the morning you were there, already dressed and ready at a very, very early hour when others didn’t know, such as the prime minister,” she said.

Golan accused Netanyahu of “spreading a false conspiracy” and “attempting to rewrite” the events. He threatened to sue for defamation unless she apologized within 24 hours and made a substantial donation to survivors of the Nova music festival massacre, where nearly a third of the roughly 1,200 people killed in the attack died.

The retired major general drove to the festival area during the Hamas assault and rescued several people fleeing the massacre, the Times of Israel reported at the time.

Golan is running in Israel’s October 27 election as leader of the left-wing Democrats. However, the opposition bloc’s frontrunner and Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political rival is considered to be Gadi Eisenkot of the centrist Honest! Party.

IDF investigations have identified a chain of systemic failures preceding October 7, including failures to act on intelligence about Hamas’s “Jericho Wall” attack plan. A broader inquiry into failures across Israel’s political and security leadership has yet to clear parliament amid disagreements over its independence, with critics arguing that the government should not have influence over an investigation into its own potential failings.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky issued a warning to every airline that uses Russian airspace, saying any aircraft flying through it will be threatened by Ukrainian drones. President Vladimir Putin called the statement a “declaration of state terrorism.”

The Ukrainian military has been ramping up long-range drone and missile attacks against civilian and infrastructure targets deep inside Russia. The strikes have repeatedly disrupted the work of civilian airports, particularly around Moscow.

On Tuesday, Zelensky claimed that Kiev will close Russian airspace by darkening the skies with drones. “Today, we want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, and everyone who still uses Russia’s key airports: Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe,” he said in a video address published on Telegram.

“Safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” he claimed, adding that the threat is addressed to “the airlines currently flying to airports primarily in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other key destinations in Russia.”

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Bishkek on Tuesday that the increasing strikes against civilian targets in Russia indicate that Zelensky and “the Kiev regime” are “well aware that such statements are proof of their earlier claims about the supposed desire for peace being false.”

Russia has also conducted long-range strikes on military targets in Ukraine in response to repeated attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure in Russia. Moscow stated that Kiev’s “terrorist” tactics are aimed at diverting the attention of the public from Ukrainian setbacks on the battlefield.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said there can be no “negotiations with terrorists,” responding to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s threat against civilian aviation over Russia.

Zelensky warned foreign airlines, insurers and governments on Tuesday that Ukraine’s expanding long-range drone campaign would increasingly endanger civilian flights over the country.

“The safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” Zelensky said.

Putin was asked to respond to the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday.

“If this was said out loud, then it is simply a move toward state terrorism,” Putin said.

“I would also draw attention to the fact that they are asking us to resume negotiations; they are asking for face-to-face meetings,” he added.

There are no negotiations with terrorists.

Putin added that Moscow would find a way to respond if Kiev’s threats resulted in any tragedies.

“Let no one doubt that,” he said.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone strikes on Russia in recent months, repeatedly grounding flights and forcing prolonged disruptions at airports as air defenses respond to incoming threats.

In July, Putin warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory would be met with a far stronger response.

“We will respond in kind – only several times more powerfully,” he said.

Canada has very few similarities with Iran – to Canada’s own shame.

Let’s leave aside the basic differences, such as location, demographics, weather, and cuisine, and focus on the essentials: Historically, Iran is old and firmly based on an ancient civilization; Canada, like the US, is young and a little accidental, a leftover of the British Empire in its settler-colonial-ethnic-cleansing variant.

In terms of religion, Iran is shaped by pious Shia Islam; Canada displays the flaccid mix of an emasculated Christmas-and-jingle-bells-only Christianity and aggressive anything-goes consumerist secularism typical of the contemporary West.

Geopolitically, Iran is a proud and victorious opponent of the US and Israel; Canada is a fairly ordinary vassal in the American empire.

Accordingly, Canada is deeply and proudly involved in the West’s proxy war against Russia by way of using up Ukraine. Indeed, the Canadian contribution is particularly ironic because it also serves a frenetic and powerful nationalist Ukrainian lobby, rooted in deliberately privileged fascist World War Two runaways and Cold War conspirators. Iran, on the other side, has long helped Russia and, for its efforts, been directly attacked by Kiev’s Zelensky regime. In return, Western sources claim, Moscow has been helping Tehran with its ongoing defense against the US and Israel.

Most importantly, Iran is a country on the side of elementary decency, fundamental human ethics, and international law and therefore against the genocide committed by Israel, the US, UK, Germany, and various other Western accomplices against the Palestinian nation. Canada – Israeli murders of Canadian citizens and some cheap and, in effect, empty gestures from Ottawa notwithstanding – has been, at the very best, yet another camp follower of the Western genocide coalition.

Of course, there are orders-of-magnitude differences between the Trump administration’s ‘Operation Economic Outcast’ against Tehran and the latest round of tariff and trash-talk launched against Canada.

The ‘Operation’ targeting Iran, according to its mastermind and cheerleader Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, aims to combine a naval blockade, intelligence gathering, “mapp[ing] every node, every facilitator and every network that Iran” is using to trade abroad, and wide-ranging secondary sanctions to, in Bessent words, “asphyxiat[e]” Tehran. The declared end goal is to “collapse” Iran by inflicting an “Economic D-Day,” as President Donald Trump has put it.

There’s no such intention to wage total economic war in the case of Canada. Regarding Ottawa, Washington has merely initiated a pressure campaign within its empire. Its goal is not absolute destruction but the punishment and coercion of a wayward vassal.

In essence, the Canadian government under Prime Minister Mark Carney has rejected Washington’s offer of a crudely disadvantageous and interfering trade deal, featuring, according to the Financial Times, “ludicrous” American demands.

Washington is striking at Ottawa with 50% tariffs on Canadian goods worth $20 billion, and, in return, Ottawa will give as good as it gets. That’s the plan at least. But while the Wall Street Journal reports that both sides are getting ready for a long fight, there also is still some time for last-minute off-ramps.

Things need to be kept in proportion: the new US tariffs would affect about 5% of Canadian exports to its overbearing southern neighbor. The Canadian retaliation would target about 6% of what the US sends north. Meanwhile, US rhetoric is surging. Trump has renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America and posted an extraordinarily odd AI-generated video about it, featuring (Canadian?) wild geese marching in lockstep under US flags and firing assault rifles. In Canada, for now at least, Carney’s hardline response is popular.

In short, what is really happening between Ottawa and Washington may well seem like a farce if compared to the state of things between Washington and Tehran. Unsurprisingly, the Iranian leadership has declared that it won’t budge. And why should it? It has already won two rounds of war against Washington. While its economy is certainly suffering, the American-Israeli aggression has, in effect, fully immunized Iranian society against any regime-change schemes.

Finally, Washington will not succeed in making key players submit to its secondary-sanctions blackmail. China, now the world’s great oil power, as The Economist concedes, and a crucial partner for Iran not merely in economic terms, has already made that much clear. Russia is very unlikely to be impressed either.

But take a step back and look at the picture as a whole. Here we are: the US is waging economic war – of different intensity – against both opponents and so-called allies. More importantly, it is meeting resistance in both cases. And most importantly, in both cases, there is no reason to assume that Washington will win. All of that is happening against a background of the US escalating its use of brute force: There is the fresh “deal” – really, steal – to siphon off 65 billion barrels of crude from the de facto US protectorate of post-Maduro Venezuela. Regarding the much-disturbed bond markets, meanwhile, Trump has openly threatened to use the US military to shape them to Washington’s advantage.

The idea is about as smart as trying to fix a microchip with a sledgehammer. But, with the US, that doesn’t mean it won’t be tried. For the red thread running through all of the above is a combination of slipping real power, escalating aggressiveness, and rising resistance from others. What makes this so dangerous is that Washington seems to have entirely lost the ability to realistically adjust its aims and demands to its declining capabilities. Think of it as a bully past his prime who is not only very violent but also not smart enough to see when being more flexible would be in his own best interest.

Iran has launched a new wave of missile and drone attacks on US military facilities in the Gulf region after Washington resumed strikes on southern Iran, killing civilians, including children. 

The US military began striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, saying the operation was launched in response to alleged Iranian attempts to attack commercial shipping and US troops in the region. President Donald Trump called the strikes “large and powerful” and warned Tehran that any retaliation would trigger an even harsher response. 

The Iranian authorities said a US strike hit a residential building in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province, where a wedding was taking place. At least five civilians were killed, including a four-year-old child and a 16-year-old teenager, and dozens more were injured. 

Iran subsequently launched what it called a “punishing response,” claiming missile and drone attacks on US military facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, and Erbil in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The strikes targeted Camp Titin near Aqaba, Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain, Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, and Al Dhafra and Al Minhad bases in the UAE. 

Jordan said 13 ballistic missiles entered its airspace during the latest attacks, with ten intercepted and three falling away from populated areas. 

The escalation follows an exchange of strikes over the weekend, after US forces hit Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran retaliated with ballistic missiles and drones targeting US military positions in Jordan. Trump subsequently vowed to “hit Iran hard.” 

Washington has also stepped up economic pressure on Tehran, launching an “economic onslaught” and threatening to cut foreign institutions that deal with Iran off from the US dollar system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that new secondary sanctions could be rolled out every week against foreign banks and companies that continue dealing with Tehran.

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a well-timed ploy to ramp up defense spending? Germany's evidence-free claim that a drone found lying between Ukrainian cargo planes on the canopy of Leipzig/Halle airport is part of a pattern.

Last year's late-autumn drone sighting hysteria that swept across Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, was used by the bloc to amplify and entrench an anti-Russia stance that has seen it throw hundreds of billions it cannot afford into weapons and a war its chosen side cannot win.

Tens of millions of Euro has since been spent on the back of a 'scare' that has been shown to have been irrational, exuberant and driven by vested interests.

The most bizarre national security scare in recent European history began at Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport on September 2 last year. According to Denmark’s Frihedsbrevet news site, an airport employee told her supervisors that she saw two drones approach the area “stealthily,” adding that “they are big. They are not toys.”

The airport was temporarily shut down, and within hours, reports of a similar drone incursion came in from Oslo, Norway.

“I can only say that this is in my eyes a serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the time. “I cannot in any way deny that it is Russia.” Her Norwegian counterpart, Gahr Store, came to a similar conclusion. “Russia has violated Norwegian airspace on three occasions this spring and summer,” he claimed. “We cannot determine whether this was done intentionally or due to navigation errors. Regardless of the cause, this is not acceptable.”

“It is clear we are witnessing a pattern of persistent contestation at our borders,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “Our critical infrastructure is at risk. And Europe will respond to this threat with strength and determination.”

Open-source investigators insisted that the sightings were a hoax from the outset. Sleuths on the Metabunk forums concluded that the ‘drone’ seen at Kastrup Airport in the above footage was actually a small single-engine plane. FlightRadar24 data showed one such plane – a Socata TB-20 Trinidad – passing over the airport’s main runway twice at the time of the sighting.

Where were drones spotted?

Nevertheless, panic spread across northern Europe as drones were supposedly spotted at the following airports, military bases, and infrastructure sites in the following days and weeks:

• September 23: Aalborg Airport, Denmark

• September 24: Aalborg Airport, Billund Airport, Sonderborg, Esbjerg and Skrydstrup airports, Denmark

• September 25: Billund Airport, Denmark; Thyssenkrupp factory, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; University Medical Center, Kiel, Germany; Bundeswehr base, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
  September 26: Karup Air Base, Skrydstrup Air Base, Jutland Dragoon Regiment base, Denmark

• September 27: Orland Main Air Station, Norway

• September 28: Bronnoysund Airport, Norway; Borris Camp, Denmark

• October 2: Munich Airport, Germany; Elsenborn-Butgenbach Air Base, Belgium

• October 3: Munich Airport, Germany

• October 31: Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Germany

• November 2: Bremen Airport, Germany; Kleine Brogel Air Base, Belgium

• November 6: Gothenburg Airport, Sweden; Brussels Airport, Antwerp Port, Belgium

• November 9: Liege Airport, Doel Nuclear Power Plant, Belgium

• November 22: Volkel Air Base, Netherlands

• December 1: In the Irish Sea off Dublin, during Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s arrival by plane

Police across northern Europe received thousands of additional drone reports from civilians. In Denmark alone, nearly 6,000 reports of suspected drones were filed.

Did the drones even exist?

Not only is there no proof that Russia was connected with these sightings, there is no evidence that any drones were present at all. No wreckage has been recovered, no perpetrators have been identified, and no footage of the drones exists, except for the video from Copenhagen that apparently shows a light aircraft.

Despite being certain that Denmark was under “hybrid attack,” Mette Frederiksen acknowledged in late September that there could be an “alternate explanation” for the sightings. Six months later, six government sources told Denmark’s TV2 that they don’t “have any technical evidence to support that Denmark was subjected to a hybrid attack with drones.” Frihedsbrevet’s sources came to a similar conclusion, with the airport employee who reported the initial sighting admitting that she could have been mistaken.

Airport management still insist that drones were present in the area on September 22, but police have not acknowledged any drones, only “reports” of drones.

Danish troops reportedly opened fire on a drone over Borris Camp on September 28. According to an investigation by TV2, the only aircraft operating in the area at the time was a turboprop passenger plane. The Danish military, if TV2’s reporting is correct, nearly shot down a civilian aircraft over a false alarm.

After interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage, Norwegian police closed their investigation on November 6, stating that they were “unable to confirm or deny whether drones were actually observed on the night of September 23.”

German police have not been able to confirm any drone activity; Dutch officials have identified no threat, with internal documents stating that there was “no indication of sabotage or attacks on vital objects.” Dutch and Belgian authorities have found no credible basis for panic, with Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken issuing a half-apology last month for attempting to pass off a video of a police helicopter as evidence of nefarious aerial activity.

Did they just lie?

Out of every country involved, Denmark’s leaders were most insistent that Russia was behind the spate of sightings. Frederiksen, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, and Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard all described the incidents as “attacks,” despite nothing being attacked and no attackers being present.

“I consider it a new reality that Denmark and Europe are under more violent and frequent hybrid attacks,” Frederiksen said in a televised address on September 25. “And even though the authorities cannot conclude who is behind the hybrid attacks…there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe's security – and that is Russia.”

The flood of tips and reports from the public can be written off either as mass hysteria, or – more charitably – as a natural reaction from Europeans primed by their politicians and media to believe that Russia is planning an all-out war on the continent. As for why Frederiksen would stoke this fear, however, some clues can be found in her actions.

Denmark, she said last February, needs to undergo a “massive rearmament,” because “We don’t know what [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is planning, but we know that he and Russia are in the process of rearming.”

Frederiksen referenced this rearmament again in her September address, declaring that “the events of recent days only emphasize how important it is.”

Denmark held the EU’s rotating presidency at the time, and Frederiksen added that the alleged drone threat would be made front and center when EU leaders met in Copenhagen the following week, and that she would push for “the establishment of an actual drone wall.”

The EU’s drone wall

Frederiksen kept her word. Published on October 16, the European Commission’s ‘Defense Readiness Roadmap’ stated that a ‘European Drone Defense Initiative’ – the so-called “drone wall” comprising sensors and interceptors – would be operational along the bloc’s eastern borders with Russia and Belarus by 2027.

🚨🇪🇺 “We need to act now”

Ursula von der Leyen now wants to build a “Drone Wall” on the Eastern Flank of Europe to protect from the alleged Russian Aggression. pic.twitter.com/UAGH93fKRc

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) October 1, 2025

Drones continued to dominate the agenda at a European Council summit in Brussels in December. “The European Council strongly condemns all recent hybrid attacks against the European Union and its Member States,” read a statement released after the meeting. “In the light of Russia’s and Belarus’ intensified hybrid campaign, it calls for accelerated efforts to strengthen resilience, protect critical infrastructure, and…decisively ramp up Europe’s defense readiness by 2030.”

None of this is to suggest that Denmark orchestrated the drone panic to justify its remilitarization, or to sell the EU’s “drone wall.” Both initiatives were already underway at the time. Instead, it illustrates how Danish and EU officials saw an opportunity not to let a crisis go to waste, and kept the drone threat alive even as their own police forces, to put it mildly, struggled to substantiate it.

Belgium's very own drone crisis

An investigation by Belgium’s VRT broadcaster has since found that none of the reports of drones were credible, and Francken has been hammered by the opposition for sharing an image of a ‘drone’ over Brussels Airport that turned out to be a police helicopter. VRT found that the defense ministry ignored warnings from Belgium’s Inspectorate of Finance and purchased detection antennas at an inflated price, and Francken is now the subject of an inquiry by the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office.

The debacle is reminiscent of the Agusta-Dassault affair. During the 1980s, defense contractors Agusta and Dassault paid the equivalent of €4 million in bribes to secure no-bid contracts for AW109 transport helicopters and electronic warfare equipment. Once exposed, the scandal led to the criminal conviction of Belgian Defense Minister Guy Coeme and Foreign Minister and NATO Secretary General Willy Claes. 

Nearly eight months after the first ‘drones’ were spotted over Copenhagen, the crisis is still being milked across Europe. In early May, long after the threat had been debunked in Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the Dutch defense ministry announced that it would acquire approximately 900 “electro-optical aiming devices” for use against UAVs, “without prior announcement due to the urgency of a crisis situation.”

Questioned by the Belgian parliament in April, Francken insisted that there is “no other plausible explanation” for the reports other than Russian drones, and that the only way to prove or disprove this is to invest in drone defense technology. “As long as you don’t have the means to detect and neutralize drones, it stands to reason that you cannot immediately produce physical evidence,” he told lawmakers.

The Dutch and Belgians aren’t letting a lack of evidence stop them from pursuing the defense deals that they wanted from this crisis, and the EU is unlikely to step in and pump the brakes.

The EU's censorious and paranoid media industry is the perfect environment for fake news to fester, as long as it suits the bloc. Remember, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's claims of “GPS jamming” hitting her plane on a trip to Bulgaria last September, and how, despite it being roundly debunked within days, it has been allowed to fester to serve her political agenda.

Anti-Russian hysteria is the animating political force in the EU, and the bloc’s leaders clearly aren’t going to let police and media investigations, or common sense, put a stop to the show.

Russia has rejected German claims that it was behind a suspected drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport in early August, with President Vladimir Putin suggesting the allegations were driven by Berlin’s domestic political and economic troubles.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Putin argued that the German chancellor is struggling with public confidence amid factory closures, job losses and falling living standards, and accused Berlin of using the supposed threat of an “aggressive Russia” to justify its policies.

“And where is the evidence? Well, they planted the evidence,” Putin said, describing Germany’s confrontational stance as a “gross mistake” that runs counter to the interests of the German people.

Putin drew parallels with similarly “nonsensical” earlier accusations that Moscow had sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines carrying its own gas to Europe, before the blasts were eventually blamed on a supposedly rogue Ukrainian team.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced new measures against Russia on Tuesday, linking them to the August 4 drone incident. The measures include closing the Russian Consulate General in Bonn from September 18 and terminating the lease of the Russian House in Berlin. Germany will also tighten border controls for Russian nationals, draw up a new list of individuals for EU sanctions, and increase pressure on what Berlin calls Russia’s “shadow fleet.”

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Berlin had failed to provide any evidence substantiating its claims, dismissing the incident as an “absolutely trumped-up and far-fetched” pretext to further damage bilateral relations.

Germany has “failed to present any even remotely convincing or serious evidence” of Russian involvement, Zakharova said. “There is none and there cannot be any.”

Zakharova argued that German authorities had long sought to target both the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin, and had now come up with an “absolutely trumped-up and far-fetched” pretext to further damage bilateral relations.

Berlin “will get a fitting response,” she warned.

She questioned whether German officials had chosen the date out of “stupidity and ignorance” or were “literally announcing a return to their roots” and “ritually demonstrating their intentions.”

“On September 1, 1939, Germany unleashed World War II and, together with the countries of the Hitlerite Axis, killed 70 million people, 27 million of them ours,” Zakharova said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also accused Germany of pursuing further escalation, saying Berlin had failed to provide any arguments substantiating its accusations against Moscow.

In June, Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior MP and member of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Germany “should expel any remaining [Russian] diplomats.” He also described the Russian House as part of Moscow’s “influence” network.

Last year, Kiesewetter caused controversy at home after arguing that Germany should “take the war to Russia.”

EU officials have previously invoked the threat of drones to warn of alleged Russian “hybrid attacks” and justify the bloc’s military buildup.

Similar claims emerged in September 2025, when EU officials and Western media reported that Russia had allegedly jammed GPS signals on a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Bulgaria.

Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 subsequently cast doubt on that account, saying that the aircraft had maintained “good GPS signal quality from take-off to landing.”

The emergence of a new, more just multilateral world order has become an “irreversible” process, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on Tuesday.

Speaking to leaders from 17 countries at an expanded SCO session in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Putin called for greater representation for the Global South and East at the UN and its Security Council. The change, Russia’s president stated, would reflect “fundamental shifts in global politics.”

“We are talking about the formation of a new, truly equitable, multipolar world order. This process is objective and, frankly speaking, irreversible,” Putin said.

More countries are seeking to determine their own future, “defend their legitimate interests” and play an active role in international affairs, according to the Russian president. Against this backdrop, the UN’s unifying role is becoming increasingly important, he added.

Regional organizations such as the SCO are also becoming important pillars of the emerging multipolar system alongside the UN, he added.

The SCO was founded by Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in 2001. It has since expanded to include India, Pakistan, Iran, and Belarus, becoming the world’s largest regional organization by geographic area.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Moscow last week.

What we know: Ratcliffe met with Sergey Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. This has been confirmed by Naryshkin himself, who described the meeting as “routine.” We also know that the US spy chief did not meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The meeting took place, there is nothing unusual in this,” Naryshkin stated afterwards. “In the practice of special services, meetings of managers, personal meetings or online are part of our work. So, the meeting with John Ratcliffe is a working format.”

Naryshkin refused to state what issues were discussed, explaining that they were within the competence of the intelligence services. “And the competence of the intelligence services is such a rather delicate and special thing,” the Russian spy chief said.

What we don’t know: literally anything else.

Rumors abound about additional attendees, as well as the agenda – or lack thereof – that was pursued by Ratcliffe during a meeting which appeared to be anything but routine. But the fact is, any meeting between Ratcliffe and Naryshkin, given the nature of the times we live in, could never be described as “routine.”

A quick reminder: John Ratcliffe’s CIA is currently at war with Russia. Literally.

Ratcliffe assumed his current position on January 23, 2025. Prior to this, he did a short stint as national intelligence director during the last year of Trump’s first term in office. He was a Texas congressman for a few years, as well as a small-town mayor and acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

But he is fully cognizant of the CIA’s secret war against Russia, having been fully briefed while serving as DNI. As a member of Congress, Ratcliffe was a leading policy maker on national security issues serving as a member of the House Intelligence and Homeland Security committees.

Any effort to portray him as some sort of “innocent abroad” fails on the face of the facts.

The CIA has always been at war with Russia. During the Cold War, Moscow Station (the name of the CIA’s operation center based out of the US Embassy) was literally the front line of the spy-versus-spy antics taking place between the US and the Soviet Union.

The CIA headed up Operation Cyclone, a massive paramilitary-driven effort to create a Vietnam-like quagmire for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The goal of Operation Cyclone was to kill Russians.

I worked with people who were directly or indirectly affiliated with Operation Cyclone. ‘Kill more Russians’ was literally their mantra.

There was a time when the CIA hired genuine Russia-area experts. The analysts who populated the Office of Soviet Analysis (SOVA) in the Directorate of Intelligence at the height of the Cold War were some of the best experts on the Soviet Union imaginable.

I know because I worked with them. From 1988-1990, I received two classified commendations from the director of the CIA for my analytical work involving the Soviet Union. I was considered by the CIA leadership to be a top-notch Soviet analyst.

In 1992 the CIA actively recruited me for an analytical position within the predecessor to SOVA, the Slavic and Eurasian Office. I was brought in for a high-level interview, after which I was informed that the CIA would be passing on my application. When I asked why, I was told that I was too married to old school thinking about Russia – in short, I was a ‘Sovietologist’.

In the 1990s, the CIA’s task was to use Boris Yeltsin as an agent of influence to weaken Russia and facilitate foreign control over its resources. The CIA actively infiltrated every aspect of the Russian economy and used ‘soft power’ resources funded by the likes of the National Endowment for Democracy and overseen by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to hijack Russian democratic institutions and Russian social life, especially through media-related activities.

The CIA also was very active in working to break Russia up into more manageable fiefdoms, each ruled over by a CIA-controlled lackey. The Russian-Chechen conflict was a primary example of this activity.

When Boris Yeltsin stepped aside in favor of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president on New Year’s Eve 1999, the CIA immediately made it its task to undermine Putin and replace him with someone from the Yeltsin camp willing and able to do the CIA’s bidding.

Putin’s resistance and resilience as a Russian leader operating independent of CIA control helped shape a new generation of Russophobes in the United States. The first generation were the ‘new Russian’ thinkers that replaced the old school ‘Sovietologists’ at the end of the Cold War. To them, Russia was a playground for which to launch experiments on economic and political domination with absolutely zero regard to the price being paid by the people of Russia.

This generation of Russophobes simply detested Russia and the Russian people, failing to attribute any normative human value to their lives. Millions of Russians lost their lives as a result, and tens of millions of others suffered greatly.

But Putin’s stubborn hold on power, despite concerted efforts by the CIA to oust him (think Navalny), led to the birth of a new generation of Russophobes, so-called ‘experts’ whose only claim to relevance is their undying hatred of Putin and everything Russian.

It is this generation that has gravitated to the upper levels of the CIA’s analytical community, and who openly hate all things Russia. People like Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Julia Gurganus.

It is this openly Russophobic CIA that John Ratcliffe oversees.

His relationship with Julia Gurganus is both instructive and illustrative of the sickness that pervades the CIA when it comes to Russia. Gurganus was the National Intelligence Officer for Russia back in 2016-17, at the height of the Obama-era Russiagate scandal that tried to make the case of collusion between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election from Hillary Clinton.

Gurganus helped manufacture the intelligence that underpinned this false allegation. She was a vociferous critic of Trump, so much so that the CIA quietly exiled her to a think tank position during Trump’s first term in office.

When Trump was reelected, Ratcliffe oversaw the whitewashing of Gurganus’ role in falsely accusing Trump of collusion, leading to the elevation of Gurganus as the senior CIA briefer onboard Air Force One as Trump flew to Alaska to meet with Putin in August 2025. That’s right – Ratcliffe purposefully cleansed Gurganus of her anti-Trump credentials so she could personally brief the president before his meeting with Putin.

There was a time when the CIA’s Directorate of Operations Russia House was home to living legends. People like Milton Beardon, who helped run Operation Cyclone and was chief of the Soviet/East European Division at the time the Soviet Union fell. Gardner Hathaway and Berton Gerber, who ran some of the most successful CIA spying operations from Moscow Station in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

And Murat Natirboff, another legendary Russian hand who led the Moscow Station during the Nicholas Daniloff affairs in the 1980s. Natirboff is instructional in this regard. His father was an officer in the Russian White Army which fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Natirboff hated the communists. But he loved Russia. He was held in very high regard by the Soviet officers of the KGB which faced off against him during his tour in Moscow.

I can personally attest to Murat’s feelings toward Russia – I met him after he left Moscow in 1988, where we spoke about my experiences in Votkinsk as an INF Treaty weapons inspector.

The CIA no longer employs people of this caliber in its operational work regarding Russia. Gone are the days of the Russian romantics – people who took the time to learn about their enemies to bring to life Sun Tzu’s classic observation: “If you know your enemy as yourself, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles.”

The present-day Directorate of Operations is overrun with paramilitary operatives, men (and women) who cut their teeth during the heyday of the post-9/11 ‘Global War on Terror’, where they oversaw secret wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iran.

People like ‘Santa Claus’, the nickname of the CIA’s Kiev Station Chief who sent Ground Branch to Ukraine post-2014 to train the Ukrainian intelligence special operations forces on how best to kill Russians.

Veterans of the CIA’s drone assassination programs now advise the Ukrainian drone operators on how to kill Russians and destroy Russian infrastructure.

In December 2025, the CIA helped direct Ukrainian drones toward a residence in Valdai where Putin was staying.

Yes – John Ratcliffe’s CIA tried to kill the Russian president. The CIA denies Putin was the target, but the data from the guidance chips extracted from Ukrainian drone debris appears to suggest otherwise.

Today, the CIA is knee-deep in the business of killing Russians. They continue to guide Ukraine’s expanded drone warfare campaign targeting Russia. And Russians.

This is John Ratcliffe. This is the organization he leads. So, when people reflect on the recent visit by Ratcliffe to Russia, never lose sight of his primary mission.

Israeli authorities have seized a UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school in the Shufat refugee camp, leaving Palestinian children in East Jerusalem facing uncertainty as their academic year begins.

RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij reports from the ground, where families say they fear losing access to affordable schooling or being forced to send their children into an Israeli-run system.

Fourteen-year-old Noor and her 11-year-old sister Fatima are among those still without a school just days before the new academic year, Dubenskij reported from Shufat. The sisters fear the disruption could derail their ambitions of becoming a doctor and a dentist.

A local community leader interviewed by Dubenskij said parents fear the Israeli curriculum would exclude subjects previously taught at UNRWA schools, including Islamic education and Arab history. Asked by the RT correspondent whether he feared the children would be “brainwashed,” he replied: “Of course, absolutely, without a doubt.”

The developments follow Israel’s takeover of UNRWA’s Qalandiya Training Center in East Jerusalem late last month, disrupting vocational education for hundreds of students. During the raid, Israeli forces shot and wounded a Palestinian teenager. UNRWA said more than 50 Israeli security personnel entered the facility while around 20 staff were inside and forced them from the premises.

Watch the full story below:

The US killed multiple civilians in southern Iran using new “precision” missiles with a wide damage radius, conflict monitoring group Airwars has found. Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of war crimes since the US and Israel launched a war on Iran which has killed up to 3,000 civilians.

In an investigation published on Monday, the London-based watchdog examined three February 28 strikes in the city of Lamerd that killed at least 21 civilians, including seven children. It concluded that the weapons used were likely Lockheed Martin’s Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), which made their combat debut during the opening phase of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The PrSM is designed to explode above the ground, spraying tens of thousands of dense tungsten pellets in all directions rather than relying primarily on the blast itself.

Airwars found that civilians were killed at least 50 meters from the estimated detonation points, while damage extended as far as 150 meters. The three missiles exploded over two residential neighborhoods and a sports center.

Among those killed was a two-year-old girl struck while playing outside her home around 50 meters from one blast. Another strike over a sports hall killed seven civilians, most of them children.

The Associated Press separately reviewed the evidence and consulted six weapons experts, including two former military officials, who also assessed that PrSMs were responsible for the strikes.

“You would be hard-pressed to find a reason to use the PrSM in a densely populated area,” former US Army adviser Michael Meier told AP.

US Central Command has acknowledged deploying PrSMs against Iran, describing their use as a “historic first,” but has denied firing any weapons at Lamerd. It has instead suggested that an Iranian cruise missile was to blame, although weapons experts cited by AP and Airwars disputed that assessment.

Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of war crimes over strikes on civilian areas. The Lamerd attack came on the same day as the US bombing of an elementary school in Minab, which killed 175 people, most of them children.

The Airwars findings come as direct US-Iran hostilities resumed over the weekend after a month-long lull. Washington struck Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday, prompting Tehran to launch missiles and drones at US military facilities in Jordan.

US President Donald Trump has since threatened another round of attacks, saying Washington would “hit Iran hard.”

The extreme drought of the summer of 2026 revealed the hidden secrets of Central and Eastern European waterways, turning local legends into reality. A critical drop in water levels uncovered deposits of old tires at the bottom of Hungary’s Lake Gumis-to, the remains of a mammoth were discovered in the record-low Danube, and the ominous silhouettes of ancient boulders emerged from the water in the dry bed of Germany’s Elbe.

These “hunger stones” (Hungersteine) are hydrological markers from past centuries, on which ancestors carved the dates of catastrophic droughts. The most famous inscription reads: “If you see me, cry.” But while these monuments once foreshadowed crop failure, in the 21st century they foretell a technological crisis for the EU. The paradox is that the shallowing of the rivers has become a death sentence not so much for the climate as for Brussels’ idealized environmental policy. 

The Green Deal touted by Brussels has deprived heavy industry of its basic foundation, leaving it hostage to the vagaries of the weather. This crisis has hit Central and Eastern Europe the hardest, as they are the most dependent on conventional energy resources.

The EU’s factory floor

Concerns about the region’s fate are based on its unique economic structure: Central and Eastern Europe is today the EU’s main manufacturing hub, with an abnormally high concentration of energy-intensive sectors. While Western Europe has shifted its focus to services, in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania, the share of manufacturing in GDP remains stable at 20-25%, almost double that of the United States or France. It is here that the “Detroit of Europe” is located: a colossal automotive cluster – including Volkswagen, Skoda, Stellantis, Kia and BMW – requiring continuous volumes of metal smelting and stamping. Moreover, the region is overloaded with primary links in chemical and metallurgical chains, from US Steel in Kosice, Slovakia and ArcelorMittal plants in Poland to two of the largest chemical plants, Duslo and Grupa Azoty, which supply raw materials to European industry. The closure of these plants would automatically disrupt the entire EU value chain.

Despite both ancient and modern portends of climate disaster, attempts to decarbonize the region are failing: the sunny plains of Hungary, the shallow rivers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Baltic wind farms of Poland are physically incapable of creating a unified, stable energy system allowing for the uninterrupted operation of heavy industry. Eurostat statistics clearly show that, despite reports of the share of renewable energy averaging 46% in Europe, it is the Central and Eastern European countries that are officially among the continent’s worst performers in terms of the energy transition. 

In the Czech Republic, the share of renewable energy in electricity generation has stalled at a critical 19.2%, while Slovakia and Hungary share the bottom spots, with a modest 24.1%. Poland (26-27%) performs slightly better; however, despite its local solar boom, it remains Europe’s “coal island.” Only Romania stands out against the general backdrop (45-48%), relying on the Soviet legacy of large hydroelectric power plants as well as the coastal wind farms on the Black Sea. However, in the context of total final energy consumption – including heating for factories and transport – the actual share of renewable energy in all five countries falls to a critical 14-24%.

Even these modest figures are subject to enormous risks, as happened this past summer. Poland experienced a solar energy boom (up to 30 GW) and launched its first offshore wind farm, Baltic Power. This tandem of sun and wind turned out to be powerless amid the calm summer of 2026. Neighboring Czech Republic – the “forge of Europe,” with Skoda auto factories, has placed its bets on biomass and hydropower on the Vltava and Elbe rivers, which have seen a critical drop in output due to extreme drought.

What keeps the machines running

If we remove capricious renewable energy sources from the equation, the real energy framework that keeps the region from witnessing an industrial collapse becomes clear. It rests on three traditional pillars. First, there’s nuclear power, which we’ll discuss below. Second, there are coal-fired power plants, which Brussels insists must be immediately phased out, but which still provide up to 65% of Poland’s electricity and 40% of the Czech Republic’s. Finally, there’s natural gas. It’s essential not only for quickly balancing the grid when wind turbines fail, but also as a basic chemical feedstock, without which the Slovak Duslo plant or the Polish concern Grupa Azot physically cannot produce plastics and nitrogen fertilizers.

Gas consumption in the EU is currently tied to a series of cynical compromises. The logic of a total rejection of Eastern gas becomes an outright farce if one looks at the latest reports from the think tank CREA: as of July 2026, Hungary was the largest buyer in the EU, spending €486 million (around $565 million) on Russian fossil fuels, the lion’s share (62%) of which was natural gas. Budapest is certainly playing the diversification card, having acquired significant capacity at the Croatian LNG terminal on the island of Krk to back up its auto plants.

However, amid the escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, which in July reduced global liquefied natural gas transit by almost a fifth, LNG logistics have become critically expensive. As a result, the main physical source for energy-intensive enterprises in the region remains gas, which is steadily supplied through the southern corridor of Balkan Stream. This resource is then distributed among neighboring countries – primarily Slovakia and Bulgaria. This allows for speculation about “green independence,” but in reality, the countries’ heavy industries continue to physically operate using eastern fuel.

It is important to understand that Brussels’ declared European Green Deal, initially billed as a global climate mission, has, in practice, transformed into an instrument of strict supranational regulation and financial pressure. Through environmental directives, emissions quotas (ETS), and a cross-border carbon tax (CBAM), the European Commission has built a system of direct control over the economies of member states. For Central and Eastern European countries, this “green transition” has become a language of ultimatums: access to strategic European funds for development and recovery (RRF) has become directly linked to the pace of forced decarbonization, which is destroying their local industrial base.

The climate framework imposed by Brussels is viewed with inevitable cynicism in Central and Eastern Europe. Commitments to close coal mines or switch to renewable energy sources have been used by local elites as bargaining chips in exchange for generous subsidies from cohesion funds. A current example is the tender in Hungary for the development and construction of 1,000 MW wind turbines, which are expected to generate up to 4,000 MW of additional energy by 2030. Hungary will not see any more wind power after the tender is announced – only the north of the country has enough wind to generate the necessary amount, and raising the turbines to a higher altitude won’t help. But since the European Commission has linked the issuance of grants to the development of wind energy, by announcing the tender, Budapest is fulfilling an EU bureaucratic requirement, receiving €1.5 billion to modernize its power grids.

Back to the atom

Against the backdrop of worsening energy problems in the region, hopes are increasingly being pinned on nuclear power plants. Central and Eastern European countries are maintaining a high pace in this area. For example, after it receives the license to launch Unit 4 of the Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant, Slovakia will officially surpass France and become the absolute world leader in the use of nuclear power, which will account for a phenomenal 77.5% of all electricity consumed in the country. In Hungary, the Paks Nuclear Power Plant also supplies up to 50% of all electricity, while in the Czech Republic, the Temelin and Dukovany plants account for approximately 40%. The exceptional interest in this topic is also evidenced by the fact that Poland, historically without its own nuclear power generation, is currently actively implementing several nuclear power projects at both the public and private levels.

In this context, several key issues can be identified, the development of which will shape the nuclear agenda of the region and, most likely, the entire EU. First, there’s the climate factor. Changing weather conditions and extreme droughts impose severe restrictions on the stable operation of nuclear power plants, which require enormous volumes of water to cool the reactors. Second, there’s the fragmented nature of the region’s nuclear geopolitics. A third important issue concerns the securitization of cooperation. The current crisis surrounding the construction of the Paks II nuclear power plant clearly illustrates the shift of nuclear energy to the realm of national security. Finally, there’s the technological dilemma. The main financial and engineering challenge remains the choice between the long-term construction of traditional nuclear power plants and the transition to flexible, but not yet commercially proven, small modular reactors (SMRs).

Against this backdrop, the crisis surrounding the Paks I Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) under construction has become a key indicator of climate risks. Amidst the extreme heat and record drought of the outgoing summer, power generation at the operating plant plummeted by more than 75% at the peak of the crisis in early August. Critically low water levels in the Danube meant that the NPP’s intake systems were physically unable to capture water for cooling. To prevent the collapse of the national grid, Hungarian engineers and military units, with the support of private companies, urgently constructed a submersible sill made of 200,000 tons of rock and crushed stone on the riverbed. This measure artificially raised the water level in the intake area. As a result of these extensive efforts, by August 26, 2026 the Paks NPP fully restored its design capacity of 2,000 MW, returning all four reactors and eight turbines to operation. This precedent has jeopardized the Paks II NPP project initiated by the previous Hungarian administration, which has already been criticized by Prime Minister Peter Magyar. The new leaders are basing their argument on the fact that constructing two more giant VVER-1200 units amid the growing instability of the Danube looks like technological adventurism – especially given how problems with the old 2,000 MW plant nearly paralyzed the country’s power grid.

Magyar’s criticism of Paks II focuses specifically on the original design’s lack of evaporative cooling towers and the retention of a once-through cooling circuit from the river. Opponents of the contract claim that the heat discharge from the new units during periods of drought will lead to the ecological collapse of the Danube. Experts note that Magyar’s initiative to revise the cooling system has pragmatic goals: negotiations will not only help resolve the issue of water level dependence but will also give Budapest a legal opportunity to attract local Hungarian companies in the development of this multi-billion-dollar facility, significantly increasing the national stake in the project.

Thus, there is every reason to believe that the Paks II problem lies not so much in the climate as in the geopolitical realm, where a course has been set for the complete isolation of Russian high-tech companies. Against this backdrop, Brussels is beginning to lobby for an alternative – small modular reactor (SMR) projects, including those which use liquid metal coolant. From a financial and reputational standpoint, a long-term shift toward SMRs could be a major tactical success for Magyar’s team. Replacing the gigantic megaproject, costing over €12 billion, with flexible modular units will reduce initial capital expenditures by billions of euros, affirming the new prime minister’s legitimacy as a cost-effective manager and earning Brussels’ loyalty.

The only loser in this scenario will be large energy-intensive businesses: the per-megawatt cost of energy from SMRs will be 20-30% higher than that of a classic giant nuclear power plant. However, this seems to be of little concern – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen herself has issued a frank and official warning to the auto industry and metallurgists in Central and Eastern Europe that, given the current global political situation, the time for cheap resources and a happy ending for business is gone forever, but that they must “hold on.”

Rescue teams in Nepal continue to search water-logged hydropower tunnels in the country’s north, where hundreds of workers remain unaccounted for seven days after a flash flood devastated areas near the border with China.

The death toll has risen to 1,003, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Tuesday afternoon.

Nearly 4,000 people remain unaccounted for, the country’s Foreign Ministry said, adding about 590 foreign nationals from 39 countries are among them. Some 11,800 have been rescued.

As the authorities try to bring relief and supplies to survivors , rescue teams are racing to locate the hundreds believed trapped in the 12-13 tunnels of the many hydroelectric projects dotting the Trishuli river corridor.

The NDRRMA has listed 639 people associated with the hydropower projects as missing. But the authorities have not been able to establish how many of those could be inside the tunnels or may have been swept away.

At the Upper Trishuli-3A Hydropower Project, where rescue teams had located and drilled into the tunnel’s head on Monday, they were still pumping in air and draining water to enable entry. Excavators and rock breakers are clearing access routes to the 4 km-long tunnel, where between 30 and 40 people are believed to be in the underground powerhouse, the Kathmandu Post reported.

🇳🇵 Salute to Our Nepal Army! 🫡❤️@NepalPoliceHQ

Risking their own lives without hesitation, Nepal Army personnel are tirelessly working on the front lines to rescue people affected by this devastating disaster.

Their courage, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication to saving… pic.twitter.com/e7d0lYFeOq

— Ananda Nepali (@anandanepali99) August 31, 2026

Since Monday, Nepali Army teams working with specialists from other countries have advanced further into several tunnels. The Foreign Ministry said 24 Indian and nine Chinese tunnel-rescue specialists are deployed at the affected sites, while a South Korean team has also arrived in Nepal.

A joint team reached 200 meters into the 9.5 km-long Upper Trishuli-1 tunnel. Rescuers also reached about 50 meters into the Chilime tunnel, and around 150 meters into Langtang – both about 3 km in length.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered the restoration of capital punishment for deliberate arson following wildfires that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens across the country.

Tebboune instructed the government on Sunday to amend the Penal Code before September 15 to impose the death penalty “with immediate execution” for people convicted of deliberately starting fires.

Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb said on Monday that the justice minister had been tasked, in coordination with the secretary-general of the government, with preparing the draft for consideration by the Council of Ministers before its referral to Parliament.

If implemented, the measure would mark a significant departure from Algeria’s de facto moratorium on executions. Courts have continued to impose death sentences, but the North African country has not carried out an execution since 1993.

The move follows devastating fires that broke out on August 26 and swept through several northern provinces. Interior Minister Said Sayoud put the official death toll at 12. He said at least 54 people were injured in the province of Bejaia, six of them critically.

Algeria has repeatedly suffered deadly summer wildfires. At least 90 people, including soldiers deployed in rescue operations, were killed when blazes devastated the Kabylie region in August 2021. Following those fires and related violence, dozens of suspects were handed death sentences.

Investigations have been opened into the origins of the fires, although the authorities have not concluded that all were deliberately started. In July, four suspects were placed in pretrial detention in three separate cases involving alleged deliberate fires on forest land, according to the Algerian Press Service.

More than 6,000 people have been infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) since the latest outbreak began, with nearly half of confirmed patients dying from the disease, according to government figures published on Monday.

The outbreak has spread to 60 health zones across six provinces – Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele, and Tshopo. Ituri remains the worst affected, with 28 of its 36 health zones reporting cases, followed by North Kivu with 15. The country has recorded 6,041 confirmed cases and 2,911 deaths, putting the case fatality rate at 48.2%.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday that the outbreak continues to worsen. “Although surveillance has expanded, numbers of cases and deaths continue to rise due to sustained transmission and geographic expansion,” the agency said in a post on X.

The outbreak, which was declared in May, is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola and has become the largest recorded in DR Congo’s history, surpassing the country’s 2018-2020 epidemic. There are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo strain.

International organizations have also stepped up in support for the response. On Monday, vehicles were handed over to health authorities and Red Cross teams in Kisangani, the capital of Tshopo Province, to help contain the outbreak. “Sustained attention and resources for the Ebola response in DRC remain essential,” Ariel Kestens, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) head of delegation, said on X.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Ebola outbreak a “human tragedy affecting families [and] communities on an extraordinary scale.”