Luigi Mangione has admitted to fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and pleaded guilty to two federal stalking charges.

The 28-year-old entered the plea before US District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan on Friday, according to the Department of Justice. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, with sentencing scheduled for December 18.

Federal prosecutors said Mangione traveled across state lines and tracked Thompson’s movements before the killing. He pleaded guilty to interstate stalking resulting in death and cyberstalking through interstate facilities resulting in death.

“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione told the court. He did not enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors, which can allow defendants to receive reduced charges or a lighter sentence in exchange for pleading guilty.

Mangione still faces eight felony counts in New York, including second-degree murder, six weapons charges, and possession of a forged instrument, with his trial due to begin on Sept. 8. Following his federal plea, his lawyers moved to dismiss the murder and firearms charges, arguing that New York’s double-jeopardy protections bar him from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has said it will oppose the motion, which must be resolved before the case can proceed.

The discharged shell casings and bullets found at the scene had the words “deny,” “depose,” and “delay” written on them, apparently in reference to the practice of denying health insurance payouts to clients.

A manifesto attributed to Mangione and published by the media referred to decades of “corruption and greed” in the US healthcare system, describing industry executives as “parasites” and accusing them of abusing the country “for immense profit.”

The case has renewed public debate over health-insurance industry practices and access to care. Expressions of support for Mangione on social media have also prompted officials to warn against glorifying the killing or portraying him as a hero.

The DOJ announced in April 2025 that it would seek the death penalty. Garnett dismissed the capital murder and silencer-related charges in January, leaving two federal stalking counts. None of the remaining state charges carries the death penalty, following a 2004 ruling by New York’s highest court that struck down the state’s death penalty statute.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday called on Pyongyang to engage in dialogue to formally end the Korean War, which has remained unresolved for more than 70 years.

The two countries have technically continued to be at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Lee, who became South Korean president last year after his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached over his attempt to declare martial law, has sought to improve relations with North Korea and its ally China, which had deteriorated under Yoon.

“Let us put aside our intentions to threaten each other and begin discussions to end the long-running war as the directly involved parties,” Lee said, adding that they could also discuss “effective ways to halt the advancement of the North’s nuclear capabilities.”

Lee said he hoped the two countries would “sit face-to-face for peaceful coexistence and mutual growth,” and that such talks could provide a forum for discussing ways to curb North Korea’s nuclear development.

North Korea has yet to respond to Lee’s proposal.

In April, President Lee Jae Myung apologized to North Korea over drone incursions into the country. South Korean prosecutors indicted three people — a National Intelligence Service employee, a military officer and a graduate student — for sending unmanned aerial vehicles into North Korea between September 2025 and January 2026. Seoul had previously denied official involvement in the incursions, saying they were carried out by civilians.

In March, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described South Korea as the “most hostile state,” vowing to “thoroughly reject and disregard it.” Seoul would “pay the price” for its provocations, he said.

Saudi Arabia has announced the formal launch of a multinational maritime defense coalition aimed at safeguarding shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as escalating hostilities with Yemen’s Houthis threaten one of the world’s most important trade routes.

Thirteen countries have completed the procedures required to formally join the alliance, while 15 have signed its joint statement, the Saudi Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

Riyadh described the development as the “actual launch” of the coalition and the beginning of its institutional and operational activation. Saudi Arabia will provide its first commander, while Pakistan is expected to appoint the deputy commander. The alliance is expected to coordinate intelligence sharing, joint exercises and maritime operations aimed at protecting commercial navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Earlier this month, the Houthis announced coordinated ballistic missile and drone strikes against military camps belonging to Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government. The group said it acted after detecting preparations for an offensive against Houthi-held territory.

Government forces acknowledged casualties, while Reuters cited government sources as saying at least 30 soldiers had been killed.

Tensions have been building since July, when a dispute over direct flights between Houthi-controlled Sanaa and Tehran helped unravel the longstanding truce. After Saudi-backed forces struck Sanaa airport on July 13 to prevent an Iranian aircraft from returning a Houthi delegation from Tehran, the group blamed Riyadh, declared the ceasefire over, and subsequently announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.

The confrontation poses a particular threat to Riyadh because the Red Sea has become an increasingly important outlet for Saudi oil amid the US-Iran conflict and severe disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Aramco has redirected crude away from Hormuz through its cross-country pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Loadings there have averaged more than four million barrels per day since June, more than four times the level recorded during the same period last year, Reuters reported, citing tanker-tracking data.

With oil and petroleum products accounting for more than three-quarters of Saudi exports, a sustained disruption of Red Sea shipping could therefore threaten a crucial alternative export route.

The coalition’s activation also comes amid reports that Riyadh is preparing for a potentially broader confrontation with the Houthis. The Guardian reported earlier this month, citing Yemeni sources, that Saudi-backed forces were being re-positioned for a possible sea and ground offensive.

US-based tech billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump have rekindled their friendship after falling out last year, with Musk preparing a major donation to Republicans for the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people who accompanied the two to China.

Relations between the two men soured in mid-2025 when Musk attacked Trump’s signature tax-and-spending package, calling the draft “utterly insane and destructive.” The rift came despite Musk’s outsized role in the 2024 election cycle. After Trump’s victory, the billionaire was appointed to head the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk’s return to Trump’s inner circle became apparent during their flight to Beijing in May, when he joined the president, Cabinet officials, business executives and family members aboard Air Force One. The two appeared friendly, with Musk discussing plans for new US factories, while Trump talked about a space-launch video and asked about one of Musk’s sons, people aboard the plane told the WSJ.

During the flight, Musk also told Trump he planned to spend at least $100 million on a voter-turnout operation to support Republicans in the November midterm elections and help them retain control of Congress, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the strategy.

The rapprochement reportedly followed nearly a year of behind-the-scenes efforts, including private calls, pressure from mutual friends, invitations to Mar-a-Lago and a White House dinner. Trump and Musk briefly spoke at the memorial service for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who had reportedly sought to reconcile the two.

The two men are unlikely to return to the close relationship they once had, according to Trump’s aides. Still, they have resumed speaking roughly once a month, discussing artificial intelligence, China, and world events, people familiar with the conversations said.

Musk played a major role in Trump’s 2024 election victory, publicly backing the president and reportedly spending at least $288 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates.

The renewed alliance comes as Democrats hold an edge over Republicans in the latest national polls ahead of the November midterms, while Trump’s net approval rating has fallen close to a record low amid growing public dissatisfaction with his presidency, including over his handling of the Iran conflict.

Iran has invoked Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky to accuse Washington of basing its foreign policy toward Tehran and the wider Middle East on “lies,” as efforts to end the months-long conflict remain stalled.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei cited a passage from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ in a post on X on Saturday, saying it “aptly describes” the predicament in which the US system of governance and its regional foreign policy have found themselves.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him,” Baghaei quoted the Russian writer as saying.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump claimed Iran was being “very badly defeated” and described the Islamic Republic as “a very evil country.” He also urged Americans to accept higher gasoline prices while the conflict continues, arguing that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” was worth preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The price increases have come amid severe disruption to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran restricted the strategic waterway in response to US-Israeli strikes in late February and Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. The escalation initially sent global oil prices soaring to as high as $120 a barrel.

The dispute over the Strait of Hormuz remains one of the principal obstacles to a settlement, with Tehran and Washington making competing claims over control of the strategic waterway.

Despite the conspicuous difference in size, speed, and strength between the sexes, a debate is now raging in women’s professional basketball in the United States whether to let men compete alongside the ladies.

Nobody would ever confuse Royce White, 35, with a woman. The man with stands 6 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 260 pounds (118 kg), sports a bushy beard, and is bald. He has an ex-wife and two children. In other words, not exactly somebody you would expect to find in the glossy pages of Playboy magazine. But what would never sell at the newsstands may eventually sell at professional women’s basketball games.

Coming out of college, White was selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2012 draft, although he never played for the team due to a severe fear of flying. But apparently he has recovered from that condition because now he has said he would welcome the chance to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).

White, who was a Republican candidate in Minnesota’s Senate primary, admitted to Fox News that he’s transgender and identifies as a woman “sometimes … for [the] purpose of basketball, professional basketball.”

“I think I’d be unstoppable,” White candidly admitted with no apparent shame. “I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do… I think it’s only fair.”

Yes, you heard that right. White thinks it’s “only fair” that he be allowed to play in a professional female league where the average height of the players is just 6 feet 0.8 inches (184.9 cm), whereas the average height for male players is 6 feet 7 inches (200 cm).

In a lengthy ESPN piece on the WNBA superstar, Cunningham said: “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she says. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

The comment reverberated through the world of sport like a category 8 earthquake. After all, with over 3 million followers on TikTok, Cunningham carries a lot of clout. When she talks, people listen.

Regrettably, however, Cunningham’s comment has turned a regular evening of basketball into a political circus, with half the audience condemning the woman while the other half declaring its support. A popular T-shirt for Sophie supporters is emblazoned with XX-XY, referring to the female and male chromosome pairs and pointing to the inescapable biological differences between men and women. On the other side of the debate, Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wore a shirt that carried the caption “Trans Kids belong,” when the conversation involves grown men, not children.

The furor was so loud that the White House even remarked on it. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Cunningham during a press briefing.

“The backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing. They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue, which again, is an 80/20 issue. It’s common sense,” she said.

Some progress has been made. The US Supreme Court has ruled that states can lawfully ban transgender women and girls from competing in female school and college sports teams. In the 6-3 decision, the court upheld restrictive laws from Idaho and West Virginia, concluding that separate teams based on biological sex do not violate the Constitution or Title IX, the law against sex-based discrimination in education.

Meanwhile, transgender women have been barred from competing in the female categories of the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced an eligibility policy restricting the female category to biological females, verified via a one-time gene screening, starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The US world of professional sport may wish to take a cue from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which recently updated its guidelines to restrict participation in women’s sports categories strictly to athletes assigned female at birth. Athletes assigned male at birth may practice with women’s teams or play in the transgender category, but they cannot compete in women’s collegiate events.

It’s time for women to speak up and show solidarity with their fellow athletes in the realm of professional sport, lest the entire feminist movement has been for nothing.

The planned transfer of US-made missiles and other weapons from Türkiye to Ukraine will “inevitably undermine mutual trust” with both Washington and Ankara, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.

The US State Department notified Congress earlier this month that it was prepared to authorize the re-export of weapons from Turkish stocks to Ukraine. The package reportedly includes 70 M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles, 12 M270 multiple-launch rocket systems, more than 2,500 M26 rockets with cluster warheads, and 47,000 203mm cluster artillery shells.

The total value of the proposed transfers is estimated at around $280 million.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has similarly claimed that NATO military specialists provide Kiev with intelligence and help coordinate precision strikes, including attacks that have hit homes, energy facilities, schools, and hospitals.

The Strait of Hormuz will remain under Tehran’s control, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has said, calling on Washington to “stop indulging in delusions.” The statement comes in response to President Donald Trump saying he would soon declare the sea passage a “territory of the US.”

US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February prompted Tehran to close the strait, with Washington responding by imposing a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The blockade disrupted traffic through one of the world’s most important energy corridors, initially sending global oil prices soaring to as high as $120 a barrel.

“Once and for all, accept the reality: up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a post on X on Saturday, adding that the waterway “will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease your fanciful delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade.”

Speaking on Friday at a police academy in Nassau County, New York, Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic was being “very badly defeated” and said that, once victory was secured, “pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the US.”

Earlier this month, Tehran set out a series of conditions for reopening the strait, including compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, and the release of frozen Iranian funds, and a permanent end to hostilities against Iran and its regional allies. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has also said that reopening Hormuz will depend on Washington fully accepting Tehran’s conditions.

Last week, Trump said his administration was in no rush to reach an agreement. In an interview with Axios, he said Washington was “low-keying” the negotiations while allowing economic pressure on Tehran to build.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday outlined the country’s achievements and priorities for future growth as the world’s largest democracy marked its 80th Independence Day.

Addressing the nation after hoisting the Indian national flag at Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, Modi cited India’s rapid economic growth from being one of the ‘Fragile Five’ economies in 2013 to a $4.15 trillion, fast-growing major economy, and said the country is emerging in the eyes of the world as a widely accepted and respected nation.

The ‘Fragile Five’, was a term for Türkiye, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Indonesia, which were overly dependent on unpredictable foreign investments and large current account deficits to fuel their economic growth.

“Our country is not going to move forward with small dreams,” Modi said, noting the country rises through the “strength of its dreams, its resolutions, and its capabilities.”

📹🇮🇳 ‘We Can No Longer Move Forward With Small Dreams’: Modi’s Big Message From Red Fort

The prime minister urged Indians to “dream big,” saying a nation rises through the strength of its dreams, resolve and capabilities. https://t.co/F71jMC9sPT pic.twitter.com/GgzxMjxJmL

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 15, 2026

Fuel for growth

Listing India’s achievements in the last 12 years since his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, Modi said the country’s defense production has increased fourfold, electronic manufacturing has increased sevenfold, and digital transactions have increased 100 times.

This, however, raises the demands for energy security, Modi acknowledged, stating that the South Asian nation will need electricity “on a very large scale.”

The Indian leader reiterated the country’s target of achieving a capacity of 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047 and highlighted the need for accelerating offshore exploration to find oil and gas that could replace imported energy that makes the national economy vulnerable to external shocks.

⚛️ AI Needs Power, PM Modi Wants Nuclear To Bring It

Pointing to GPUs, AI and data centres, Modi said, “Energy security is the need of our times,” adding that India will need electricity “on a very large scale” and is targeting 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047.

The SHANTI Act,… https://t.co/dIK8Pogw5h pic.twitter.com/Ihr51lv9xx

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 15, 2026

New Delhi in December 2025 passed the SHANTI Act (the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act), which modernizes India’s nuclear framework and opens the door to greater private sector participation in India’s nuclear energy industry, which has been lacking so far.

The country currently operates 24 nuclear power reactors across seven different sites with a total installed capacity of 8.78 GW. This includes Russia-built Kudankulam designed to house six VVER-1000 reactors with a total planned capacity of 6,000 MW. Units 1 and 2 were connected to the national grid in 2013 and 2016, respectively, while units 3, 4, 5, and 6 are at different stages of implementation and construction.

Overall, India currently has ten reactor units with a combined capacity of 8,000 MW are under construction, while pre-project activities for ten additional reactors are also underway.

Focus on self-relaence

“It is our conviction that India must not be dependent on other countries. We must become self-reliant,” Modi stated, calling for strengthening the country’s capabilities and protecting national interests.

“India possesses a stable political mandate, a stable government, a vibrant democracy, a robust judiciary, and guiding all of us is the Constitution of India,” Modi said. He also noted that the youth are the “biggest beneficiaries” of India’s development, and said his government will run free online coaching networks for competitive exams for students. The move comes weeks after student-led unrest rocked the country’s capital and led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Celebrating friendship

India achieved independence from British rule on August 15, 1947, through largely non-violent means and beginning the end of Western colonial rule over the world. Independence Day celebrations were held across the country, in state capitals and various offices.

In Moscow, Indian Ambassador Vinay Kumar raised the tricolor at the Indian Embassy as the Indian national anthem was sung. In a symbolic move, a group of Russian and Indian motorcyclists rode across the city to celebrate the decades of close ties, marked by cooperation and trust.

🇮🇳 Tricolour Goes Up In Moscow As Indian Embassy Marks Independence Day

India’s Ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar hoisted the National Flag at the embassy as Independence Day celebrations brought together the Indian community in Moscow.

He also read a passage from the President… https://t.co/WE13aT72aW pic.twitter.com/edLPHQfUe7

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 15, 2026

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated India on the occasion, saying ties with New Delhi continue to develop under the two countries’ “special and privileged strategic partnership.”

Moscow’s ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, assured New Delhi in his Independence Day message that Russia’s support “remains the same today and will continue tomorrow as well” amid the West’s attempts to coerce India into isolating its traditional friend. “Jai Hind. Long live the friendship of Russia-India,” Alipov added.

🧵 🇷🇺-🇮🇳 The Unbreakable Bond: Momentous Milestones in the Russia-India Partnership

📜 The Age of Discovery:

Decades before Vasco da Gama arrived, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin was already exploring Indian lands.

In 1469, he reached the west coast of India, in… https://t.co/zEUGPJilEN pic.twitter.com/3pc9t3tRG2

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 15, 2026

India and Russia maintain what both describe as a special and privileged strategic partnership, grounded in decades of defense cooperation, energy trade, and diplomatic alignment. Trade turnover between the two countries has grown rapidly since 2023, driven largely by India’s imports of Russian crude and other energy resources despite Western pressure on New Delhi to reduce engagement with Moscow. The strategic cooperation program adopted by the leaders of the two countries in December last year set a course for achieving $100 billion in trade turnover by 2030.

Servicemen belonging to a far-right Ukrainian military unit have held a torch-lit farewell ceremony in Kiev for Evgeny Konovalets, the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany.

Konovalets’ remains were exhumed at a cemetery in the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier this week and delivered to Ukraine on Wednesday. They will be temporarily reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery outside the capital.

After dark, fighters of the 3rd Army Corps staged a farewell ceremony for the Nazi collaborator at a cathedral in central Kiev.

The unit was formed earlier this year by members of the Azov nationalist movement, which stems from the neo-Nazi Azov regiment that emerged in 2014 during Kiev’s crackdown on Donbass. The regiment faced repeated accusations of war crimes, including torture, rape, and looting, from the UN and international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Велике повернення великого Провідника: полковник Євген Коновалець — на рідній землі!

Минулої ночі через майже 90 років на цвинтарі Кросвейк у Роттердамі засновник ОУН та командир Січових Стрільців, полковник Євген Коновалець, повернувся до України.

На почесну варту до… pic.twitter.com/gwGBqqedlz

— Третій армійський корпус (@ab3army) August 14, 2026

The coffin with Konovalets’ remains was driven to the cathedral in a historic Austin armored vehicle from the period of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922. It was greeted at the scene by two rows of troops, holding torches in their hands.

The unit’s commander Andrey ‘White Leader’ Biletsky hailed Konovalets and claimed that the current generation of Ukrainian fighters should accomplish the objectives he fought for.

Konovalets fought the Soviet Union during the Russian Civil War as a colonel in the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and led the OUN from its founding in 1929 until he was killed by Soviet agent Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam in 1938. According to declassified documents, a group of Ukrainian nationalists that he led – codenamed ‘Consul I’ – supplied German intelligence with data on Poland from 1925 and moved into “espionage and sabotage” work inside the Soviet Union after 1939.

The reburial of Konovalets is part of a push by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to build a “Pantheon of outstanding Ukrainians,” which he says will fulfill a “moral duty” to bring home those who “defended the idea of independence.” Kiev has already reburied several Nazi-linked figures, including another OUN leader, Andrey Melnik, in May.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously blasted efforts to reinter Konovalets, accusing Zelensky of “dancing on the bones” of those who fell victim to the OUN and once again confirming the “misanthropic essence” of his government.

The Hungarian government broke the law when it seized the servers of Fidesz, the party of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Prosecutor General’s Office has said. The country’s new leader Peter Magyar is meanwhile continuing his quest to purge the remnants of Orban’s 16-year stay in power.

Last month, investigators arrived unannounced at a facility hosting Fidesz’s servers, confiscating all of the party’s communications systems and databases. The raid was carried out as part of a probe into the suspected misuse of some 17 billion forint (€47 million) in funding for the National Cultural Fund by local officials during Orban’s tenure. Fidesz described the actions of Magyar’s cabinet, which came to power after an election win in April, as an “unprecedented” overreach unseen in the country since the fall of Communism in 1989.

On Wednesday, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that while the order to seize the servers was valid, the way it had been carried out “amounted to a fishing expedition.”

“This approach constitutes an unlawful practice under both EU and Hungarian law,” the statement read.

The General Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the Bács-Kiskun County chief prosecutor in charge of the case to repeat the seizure, but this time to only collect data directly related to the investigation.

Fidesz was left dissatisfied with the ruling, again insisting that the actions of the investigators were “illegal.” 

“We call on the government to immediately put an end to the arbitrary political revenge campaign packaged in the form of an official procedure… and to return our servers,” said one of the party’s senior MPs, Boka Janos.

“You would have to be naive to think that this data has not already been copied… and shared with the relevant people,” Bollobas argued.

Magyar’s Tisza party, which came to power on the promise of “regime change,” has begun to actively dismantle the legal, media, and financial structures set up by Fidesz. The new government changed the constitution to impose a 12-year term limit on MPs, effectively banning Orban from running again. Fidesz has repeatedly labeled Magyar’s conduct “authoritarian.”

Russian swimmer Evgeniia Chikunova has taken the gold at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris despite continuing restrictions on Russian athletes.

The 21-year-old won the 200-meter breaststroke on Friday in 2 minutes 19.32 seconds, setting a new championship record. Chikunova has held the world record in the event since April of 2023, when she broke the previous mark at the Russian National Championships in Kazan.

Chikunova is competing in France as a neutral athlete under European Aquatics rules, which still prevent Russian swimmers from representing their country at the championships.

Russia was banned from some international events starting in the mid-2010s, and the trend sharply accelerated following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Evgeniia Chikunova has an emotional reaction to her win in the 200m Breaststroke Final 💙

She proves that hard work pays off 💪

Where to watch #Paris2026 ▶️ https://t.co/Hhlj1DcK88#EuropeanAquatics #Swimming pic.twitter.com/CZsHRUkILk

— European Aquatics (@EuroAquatics) August 14, 2026

Since the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision last month to provisionally lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and withdraw its recommendations restricting Russian athletes’ participation, various sporting bodies have lifted their bans on athletes from the country.

In April, World Aquatics moved to restore full participation rights for Russian and Belarusian swimmers, including the use of national flags and anthems. However, European Aquatics has delayed implementing the change until September 1, meaning Russian competitors in Paris remain neutral.

Moscow has repeatedly accused Western countries of politicizing sport, insisting that competitors should be judged solely on sporting merit.

Chikunova’s victory was one of five medals won by Russian swimmers on Friday, including gold in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. By the end of the day, Russian athletes had collected 26 medals, including nine golds, at the Paris event.

A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia just before 6 AM local time on Saturday, damaging buildings causing a tsunami. At least five people were killed, according to preliminary reports.

The earthquake’s epicenter hit the seafloor around 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) northeast of Mbay in eastern Indonesia, the country’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said.

Tsunami waves up to 0.94 meters tall were reported in several regions, according to the agency.
Three aftershocks of magnitudes 5.6, 6.1 and 5 followed the initial quake, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

At least five people were killed, Melki Laka Lena, governor of the southeastern province of East Nusa Tenggara, said in a statement cited by the media.

Videos circulating on social media, purportedly capturing the earthquake, show building facades crumbling as terrified people flee.

Other footage shows buildings that had entirely collapsed.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of thousands of islands, sits at the meeting point of several major tectonic plates and lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the most seismically active regions on Earth.

The country has faced devastating earthquakes in recent decades, including a devastating 9.1 magnitude event in 2004, which killed more than 220,000 people in the broader region.

A Ukrainian Red Cross driver was detained by police and then conscripted while evacuating two vulnerable families from a dangerous area near the front line on Friday, the organization reported.

Kiev has increasingly relied on violently enforced mandatory conscription amid battlefield losses and Russian advances on the front lines. Reports and videos of what has now been sardonically dubbed ‘busification’ crop up almost daily, showing draft officers ambushing men in the streets and dragging them into vans, often brawling with relatives and passersby.

According to the Ukrainian Red Cross, one of its vehicles was stopped at a police checkpoint in the Nikolaev Region. A police officer took the driver into custody for a blood alcohol test but instead delivered him to a local branch of the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCK), the body tasked with overseeing Ukraine’s mobilization, the Red Cross said in an Instagram statement.

Nikolaev regional police said that it has launched an investigation into the incident but stressed that the driver had no draft exemption and was subject to conscription.

The incident came a day after the head of Nikolaev Region’s TCK was arrested on corruption charges. The official took bribes up to $10,000 per person to take men off the national conscription tracking register, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said in a statement on Thursday.

Kiev’s forced conscription campaign has led to escalating tensions within Ukrainian society. Many citizens see it as disproportionately targeting poor people, with richer Ukrainians can afford to bribe corrupt officials in order to dodge the draft.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an overture to win over India’s youth on Saturday, as he led 80th Independence Day celebrations of the world’s largest democracy. 

Addressing the nation after hoisting the national flag at the historic Red Fort in Delhi, he noted that the “biggest beneficiaries” of India’s development will be the youth. 

Modi announced that his government would set up free online coaching networks for various competitive examinations, leveraging India’s robust digital public infrastructure and freeing families from the heavy financial burden they incur from sending their children to private coaching institutes.

The government will also train 11 million young people in artificial intelligence skills to prepare them for the new jobs that are opening up.

India, the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people, also has the world’s largest youth population, with the average age around 29. 

#WATCH | Delhi: From the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "The race for coaching classes has become a massive burden for our middle-class families. Every parent feels that if they don't send their child to a coaching class, they aren't considered a… pic.twitter.com/Qq74edZTl2

— ANI (@ANI) August 15, 2026

The country recently saw widespread youth protests over the leaks of the questions for a national medical entrance test, ultimately forcing the then federal education minister to resign. The fiasco, and the police violence against the protesting students in the national capital and other cities, stoked anger in the country, especially among the middle class. 

The prime minister’s online coaching initiative would be a blow to the country’s thriving private coaching networks, some of which have been blamed for the exam scams in recent years. The industry is valued at up to $15 billion.

India achieved independence from British rule on August 15, 1947 through largely non-violent means. Most of Britain’s other colonial possessions and those of other European powers would follow suit in the coming decades.

When European officials talk about migration, their lexicon is rich with high-minded platitudes – “humanitarian values,” “human rights,” “rules-based order,” and “shared responsibility.” Yet behind this rhetoric lies a transactional reality: The European Union’s single overarching policy on migration and asylum is keeping people out, regardless of the human cost and despite all the EU common values.

For decades, Brussels has refused to address the root causes of global displacement. To do so would require confronting a persistent colonial mindset – one that views the Global South, and Africa in particular, as a warehouse of raw resources to be extracted, while abandoning its populations to economic destruction and conflict.

As the late Muammar Gaddafi once bluntly observed, the Africans heading toward Europe are simply chasing the wealth that was stolen from them, leaving their own countries impoverished – a simple logic that is hard to argue with. Instead of fostering genuine development or equitable partnerships, Europe’s approach relies on outsourcing its border enforcement to North African buffer states, effectively turning neighboring regimes into outsourced jailers for Fortress Europe.

Rabat understands precisely how vulnerable Brussels is; whenever diplomatic frictions arise, border controls suddenly soften, demonstrating that North Africa holds the ultimate asymmetric leverage over European security. In the end, we should not lose sight of the fact that both Ceuta and Melilla are historically Moroccan territories occupied by Spain – an unresolved colonial footprint that Rabat can exploit whenever it seeks to pressure Madrid.

However, the Ceuta shock loses its “spontaneous” appearance when viewed alongside shifting diplomatic signals from Washington. Despite the Trump administration’s signature anti-immigration rhetoric, official Washington quietly signaled an unprecedented openness to Rabat’s territorial ambitions weeks before the surge.

This signal was further compounded by Washington’s growing frustration with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez over his refusal to allow US military bases to be used for operations against Iran, his vocal opposition to Israeli policy in Gaza, and Madrid’s lagging defense spending.

The crisis exposed the hypocrisy of the EU foreign policy establishment and laid bare ideological fractures across Europe. When similar migration spikes occur along Europe’s eastern borders, Brussels officials such as Kaja Kallas immediately decry them as “hybrid warfare” and an existential threat to democracy. Yet when a key Western partner in North Africa utilizes the exact same border pressure mechanisms against a dissenting member state like Spain, the EU’s reaction is a fractured double standard. Madrid’s isolation was engineered not only from Washington and Rabat, but from within Europe itself, led by conservative governments hostile to Sánchez’s unyielding pro-Palestinian stance and defiance of the mainstream Atlanticist consensus.

Capitalizing on the chaos, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government swiftly suspended the Schengen free-movement agreement with Spain, reinstating border checks to punish Madrid politically. Countries as far away as Denmark even called for Spain to be suspended or expelled from Schengen – a reactionary escalation never directed at Germany when it welcomed over a million asylum seekers in 2015. Rather than standing in solidarity with a member state, Europe weaponized the shock, demonstrating that Rabat succeeded in triggering a secondary systemic crisis inside Fortress Europe itself.

The possibility of high-level geopolitical manipulation behind the Ceuta surge was not entirely dismissible. As many observers point out, the sudden border breach served a dual purpose: providing European far-right “vultures” with an immediate anti-immigrant weapon while simultaneously delivering geopolitical punishment to Sanchez’s government for its principled foreign policy. The reaction of Israeli officials – such as UN Ambassador Danny Danon cynically mocking Spain’s state of emergency and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanding Madrid “open its doors” to Gazans – exposed an unmistakable appetite for retaliation against Spain’s recognition of Palestinian statehood and accusations of genocide.

Whether through explicit collusion or strategic alignment, the convergence of Moroccan territorial ambitions, American pressure over military bases and trade, and Israeli anger created an asymmetric pincer movement. In this framework, Morocco acted as the operational hammer on the ground, while Washington and Tel Aviv provided the diplomatic cover, turning human desperation in Ceuta into a deliberate, multi-national strike aimed at crippling an unyielding European administration.

This geopolitical pincer movement exposes the fundamental structural flaw at the heart of Europe’s externalized border regime. By converting displaced people into diplomatic currency and neighboring states into indispensable jailers, Fortress Europe has not secured its frontiers; it has rendered them volatile flashpoints for foreign leverage.

As long as Europe relies on externalized repression rather than addressing the structural roots of global inequality, its southern perimeter will remain an open fault line – ready to be activated whenever its autocratic partners decide to demand a higher price.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the UK as the “Islamic Republic of Britain,” as the country’s new Labour government weighs taking measures against Israel.

Speaking on an Israeli Army Radio podcast on Friday, Netanyahu criticized the British media’s coverage of Israel, while comparing it to reporting during the 1967 Six-Day War.

“Go find that in Britain today, which you could call the Islamic Republic of Britain,” he said, as cited by Israeli media.

Netanyahu then echoed a 2024 joke made by US Vice President J.D. Vance, saying Britain could become the first “Islamic republic with nuclear weapons.”

According to the latest census-based figures, Muslims account for around 6% of the UK’s population, while Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has possessed nuclear weapons since the 1990s.

An industrial facility in Russia’s Samara Region was attacked by Ukrainian missiles, local governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said.

Emergency services have been deployed on site, Fedorishchev wrote in a Saturday morning post on Max.

The information regarding damage and casualties is currently being verified, he added.

In the Rostov Region, around 1,000 residents of seven villages were left without electricity after a Ukrainian drone damaged powerlines in the area, according to local governor Yury Slusar.

Around a dozen UAVs and three missiles were destroyed by air defenses in the region overnight, Slusar said. There have been no reports of injuries, he added.

Ukraine has several types of long-range missiles in their arsenal, including British-supplied Storm Shadow and homemade Flamingo munitions.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on Max that at least 16 incoming drones were shot down on the approach to the Russian capital during the night.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that a total of 598 Ukrainian UAVs were shot down or intercepted by electronic warfare means above 20 of the country's regions overnight.

Moscow has condemned Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s civilian infrastructure and residential areas as terrorist attacks aimed at compensating for Kiev’s setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces continue their steady advance.

Russia has responded by intensifying long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities and logistics infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it does not target civilians and that its strikes are directed solely at military targets and infrastructure supporting Kiev’s forces.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Friday that a total of 14 such strikes had been launched over the previous week, hitting drone production plants, weapons, and logistics centers, as well as fuel, energy, and transport infrastructure. Military airfields and ports where cargo used by Kiev’s troops are unloaded and stored have also been targeted.

The board of the Kennedy Center has voted to restore Donald Trump’s name to the Washington arts venue, multiple media outlets report, just two months after it was removed on a federal judge’s orders.

The Trump-aligned board voted to rename the institution after Trump and John F. Kennedy last December, and his name was subsequently added to its facade. However, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in May that the board lacked authority to change the name established by Congress and ordered the Trump signage removed. Workers complied in June.

This time, the board is not formally renaming the Kennedy Center after Trump. According to Axios, an inscription below the Kennedy Center sign will read “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,” while the physical site will be named “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

The board also voted on Thursday to move forward with a two-year closure of the center’s main venue for renovation. The proposed overhaul would refurbish aging infrastructure, polish the building’s marble facade, and renovate its halls and theaters.

“Under President Trump’s bold leadership, the Kennedy Center is on its way to becoming the finest cultural institution anywhere in the world,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Axios.

The naming saga has already inspired legislation in Congress. In January, Senator Bernie Sanders and several Democratic colleagues introduced the Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego (SERVE) Act, which would prohibit federal buildings, land, and other assets from being named after a sitting president. The bill remains at the committee stage.

Jason Arday, the former University of Cambridge professor who recently resigned amid allegations of plagiarism and misrepresenting his credentials, was found dead in his home on Friday, police said in a statement cited by the media. The death is not being treated as suspicious.

Arday, 41, was recognized as the youngest-ever black professor at the institution when he joined as a professor of sociology of education in 2023. He resigned from that position after he was accused of plagiarizing his 2015 PhD dissertation and questions arose regarding his academic posts and other achievements. Arday denied the plagiarism allegations.

The Metropolitan Police said first responders called officers to the academic’s south London home on Friday afternoon after finding him “unresponsive.” He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“At this time, his death is being treated as unexpected but is not believed to be suspicious,” the police said.

The academic’s resignation came just two days after Cambridge announced that it had launched an investigation into his academic qualifications and honorary appointments, as the wider controversy burst into the spotlight. Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded him his PhD, had carried out its own probe but did not uphold the plagiarism allegations.

“Many passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source,” he wrote, calling Arday a “plagiarist and fabulist.”

According to a detailed investigation by The Guardian, several institutions have disputed Arday’s claims regarding his academic posts and achievements, while police contradicted his account of an investigation into alleged racial abuse.

After being approached by a journalist investigating the alleged plagiarism, Arday allegedly reported him to the authorities. 

UK police have faced several controversies and accusations concerning ‘two-tier’ policing.

The debate reignited in June after bodycam footage was released showing the arrest of Henry Nowak after he had been stabbed by 23-year-old Vickrum Singh Digwa. The 18-year-old lay mortally wounded in handcuffs as officers  dismissed his repeated pleas that he’d been stabbed after his attacker falsely accused him of racism. One officer’s words, “Don’t think you have, mate,” ignited lasting public outrage over the event.

Cases of infectious disease, including gastroenteritis, have been reported among migrants in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta since the mass influx from neighboring Morocco occurred in late July.

Spain’s National Institute for Health Management (INGESA) confirmed that gastroenteritis has broken out among recently arrived migrants, Spanish media reported on Friday. The agency also confirmed cases of scabies and impetigo, while noting that both conditions were present in Ceuta before the latest influx.

However, INGESA has rejected claims that Ceuta’s healthcare system has collapsed. The agency also refuted reports of a tuberculosis outbreak, saying a suspected case had tested negative.

Gastroenteritis is an inflammation of the stomach and intestines, usually caused by a viral or bacterial infection, with symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. Scabies is a contagious skin infestation caused by microscopic mites that produces intense itching and a rash, while impetigo is a bacterial skin infection characterized by sores that can rupture and develop yellowish crusts.

More than 72,000 migrants entered Ceuta on July 30-31, many by swimming or crossing coastal breakwaters – a figure equivalent to roughly 70% of the enclave’s regular population. The influx has overwhelmed reception centers and put additional pressure on healthcare and law-enforcement resources. Most of those who entered have since been returned to Morocco, but up to 11,000 are estimated to remain in Ceuta, according to local officials.

Once the naked hatred of German journalism prompted Vladimir Zelensky’s most fervent British backers to criticize Ukraine’s “gamification of killing” Russians, things went from bad to worse for Kiev – on the battlefield and in the diplomatic arena.

Russia punishes Ukraine with ‘harsher methods’

Vladimir Zelensky’s long-range strikes against Russia have already provoked a fearsome response from Moscow, but the Ukrainian leader doubled down this week, with his forces killing more than a dozen civilians in drone raids on Tatarstan and Krasnodar. 

Russia responded by wiping out military-industrial and dual-use facilities in Kiev and Zaporozhye and destroying port infrastructure on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. RT has already covered Russia’s campaign against Ukrainian ports in detail, which Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said will intensify in an interview released on Friday morning.

Zelensky’s moaning, as Lavrov calls it, has been directed at his Western donors, who possess a dwindling supply of Patriot interceptor missiles that could help repel Russia’s missile barrages. However, the US used the bulk of the world’s Patriots in its war on Iran, and the Europeans aren’t in the mood to share. Moreover, as RT explained, Zelensky’s math is fundamentally flawed. Even if he were to get all the missiles he wanted, he’d only have enough interceptors to repel two attacks at best.

With all other options exhausted, Ukraine reportedly asked Russia for a truce with regard to attacks on shipping in the Black Sea. Moscow rejected the proposal, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accusing Kiev of “brazen acts of terrorism” against civilian ships and ruling out “half-measures that merely grant the Kiev regime a temporary ​breathing space.”

Zelensky learns how to lose friends and influence

Diplomatic relations between Poland and Ukraine are already strained due to Kiev’s stubborn veneration of Nazi collaborators, and the Polish public’s goodwill toward Ukraine is evaporating. According to a poll published on Wednesday, 67% of Poles support the deportation of unemployed Ukrainian men living in Poland as refugees.

Across the Atlantic, US Vice President JD Vance reportedly gave Zelensky a dressing down for attacking Black Sea shipping. According to the Financial Times, Vance’s patience reached its limit when Ukrainian forces attacked ships bound for a partly US-owned terminal in Russia’s port of Novorossiysk. 

Russia frees US Marine

Diplomacy paid off for the US this week when Russia agreed to release former US Marine Robert Gilman, who was arrested in 2022 after a drunken assault on a policeman in Russia. Gilman was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and arrived back on US soil on Tuesday.

Welcome home, Robert Gilman! 🇺🇸

After more than four years detained in Russia, American citizen Robert Gilman is finally back on U.S. soil.

Thanks to the Trump Admin, another American is safely home where he belongs.

God bless Robert Gilman, and GOD BLESS AMERICA. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Tn8C8h9QBD

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 12, 2026

“After my discussions with President Vladimir Putin, Russia has agreed to release him, very much on a humanitarian basis,” US President Donald Trump stated. “We appreciate this decision.” US envoy Steve Witkoff apparently played a central role in the negotiations and thanked Putin for his “personal ​engagement throughout this process.” 

Gilman’s mental health has reportedly deteriorated in incarceration, and he is expected to receive treatment at home in Texas.

Germany’s spy expansion

Under the new legislation tabled by Merz’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, the BND will be permitted to carry out offensive cyberattacks on Russia and other foreign adversaries, while the BfV will be allowed to infiltrate Germans’ smartphones and computers. The new powers were described as “a revolution” by Dobrindt. Moscow described them as another example of Germany’s “rabid militarization,” while Germany’s right-wing AfD warned that they will turn the BfV “from an early warning system of democracy into an architect of a totalitarian reality.” We’ve seen this before in Germany, and it did not end well. 

The BfV’s new powers will likely be turned against the AfD, the country’s most popular political party and a poll-topper in Saxony. The agency has already tried to list the party as a “right-wing extremist” group and been granted permission to surveil the AfD’s Bavaria chapter. 

The rise of Islamic NATO

As Europe tears itself apart, the Middle East’s Sunni powers are drawing closer together – with profound implications for the region. Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan signed the ‘Mecca Pact’ this week, agreeing to treat an attack against one member as an attack against all three. However, it remains unclear how the three countries would react to such an attack. The so-called ‘Islamic NATO’ has already been criticised in Iran as a “paper agreement” that will make Saudi Arabia no safer than the presence of American troops on its soil. 

If any country is concerned about the pact, it’s India, foreign policy analyst Robinder Nath Sachdev told RT India on Tuesday. With a nuclear-armed Pakistan strengthening its alliances, New Delhi must work out what it needs to do “to counter this new reality, which is a worrisome reality,” he said. He added that India will have to look at “our other partnerships with other nations, including, of course, Russia.”

Tucker meets RT

As the fallout from Tucker Carlson’s political manifesto continues to settle, historian and RT columnist Tarik Cyril Amar looked at why Israel is potentially more worried about a third-party challenge by Carlson than the US Republican establishment is. Meanwhile, RT’s Rick Sanchez sat down with Carlson himself for an exclusive, hour-long interview.

Carlson ruled out any plans to run for president, but unloaded on the US’ “criminal” leadership class, the “permanent bureaucracy,” and the Democrat/Republican consensus on money and foreign policy that has created a “one-party state posing as a democracy.” The conservative journalist revealed how Israel had attempted to recruit him to share the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, and promised to keep speaking out against the neocon “war lobby” and Israeli influence in Washington, no matter the risk.

“What are you going to do about it? Kill me? OK, I’m not afraid of that. I’m a Christian. So I’m just going to keep talking,” he told Sanchez in one particularly powerful exchange. 

Showdown in the West Bank

The US-Israeli alliance seemed to meet its limits this week when a group of armed Israeli settlers laid siege to three Palestinian families in their homes in the West Bank village of Qusra. As it turns out, one of these families had relatives living in the US, and the response from Washington was unusually sharp.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee – who has previously equated Tucker Carlson’s criticism of Israel with antisemitism – described the settlers as “unsettlers” and “Israeli terrorists,” saying that “doing this to this family’s home is criminal.” Huckabee is typically supportive of the illegal settlement of Palestinian land, and his condemnation of this incident looked like an attempt to draw a line between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ settlers as much as a message to West Jerusalem.

RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij traveled to Qusra, but was unable to reach the besieged Palestinian homes despite her having received clearance from the IDF due to Israeli settlers who harassed her crew. Watch the full encounter below:

The Kiev regime is fighting a NATO proxy war against Russia at the expense of its own people, while its leadership pockets Western funding, US journalist and geopolitical analyst John Varoli said.

Speaking to RT on Friday, Varoli said Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and “his clique” have “absolutely no interest” in the Ukrainian people, adding that they neither represent, care for, nor serve them.

“The Ukrainian regime serves the interests of the NATO countries, which are fighting a proxy war against Russia,” Varoli said. “They are literally willing to fight until the last Ukrainian,” he added.

Varoli said Zelensky’s “masters” in Brussels, Washington, DC, and London are telling Kiev to keep fighting Russia for as long as they can.

Kiev is refusing to accept the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers because it would have to compensate their families, the journalist claimed, adding that the regime has “huge amounts of money” and receives billions of dollars from NATO every month.

“But the question is, where is that money going?” Varoli said, adding: “It’s going into the pockets of Zelensky and his oligarchs. That money is being stolen.”

WATCH the full video below.

The US Republican Party must address the economic pressures facing Americans or risk driving more young people toward socialism, Vice President J.D. Vance has said.

Vance made the remarks in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, pointing to the cost of housing and education, access to well-paid jobs, and the ability to start a family as key concerns.

“Our response to that can’t just be to ignore the economic concerns that I think are feeding this rising interest in socialism,” Vance said.

He pointed to what he described as trillions of dollars in new investment flowing into the US, saying it would create middle-class jobs. He also cited stabilizing housing prices and the administration’s push for lower interest rates, while acknowledging that the effects of its policies could take time to be felt.

“My warning to my fellow Republicans would be if we don’t get this right, don’t blame young people for being sympathetic to socialism. We’ve got to blame ourselves,” Vance said.

He added that Republicans could not counter the trend simply by defending the free market, saying “You don’t stop socialism by throwing slogans at people about the free market. You stop socialism by making people’s lives better.”

Vance’s comments come ahead of November’s midterm elections, with the cost of living among the main issues worrying voters. A national poll conducted by Marquette University Law School in May showed inflation and living costs were the public’s top concern, cited by 37% of respondents.

Economic pressures have been compounded by higher energy costs fueled by the US-Israeli war on Iran and by Trump’s tariffs, while high home prices have made homeownership more difficult to attain. The median asking price for a US home stood at $430,000 in June, according to data cited by Forbes.

The divide has also become more visible in electoral politics, with progressive candidates making gains in Democratic primaries across the country. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, rose to prominence on an affordability-focused platform.

Republicans have also faced weak ratings on the economy. The Marquette survey put Trump’s approval on the economy at 30% and on inflation and the cost of living at 22%, while respondents favored Democrats over Republicans on handling both issues.

US hospitals have billed tens of millions of dollars for sex-changing interventions on minors, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The ‘Wolves in White Coats’ report, released this week and citing watchdog research, said hospitals and clinics have billed nearly $120 million for more than 5,500 surgeries and 8,500 courses of hormones or puberty blockers for minors since 2019.

Some providers may have used misleading or potentially fraudulent billing codes to get insurers to cover the interventions, according to HHS. The department identified nearly $50 million in claims for puberty blockers given to children aged nine to 17 under a general hormone-disorder code without a gender-related or early-puberty diagnosis on the same claim.

Hospitals and clinics identified in the report have been referred to the Department of Justice and investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for potential violations of federal law. According to HHS, the observed billing patterns require additional investigation.

The report said the procedures offered hospitals a long-term source of revenue, as minors who begin hormone drugs can remain in medical care for years. Citing outside estimates, it put lifetime costs at up to $75,000 without surgery and as much as $170,000 when operations are included.

“The Biden Administration ... contributed to the expansion and normalization of sex-rejecting interventions through nondiscrimination policies ... and other federal programs,” the report stated.

The move is part of a broader rollback of transgender-related policies since Trump returned to office. His administration has moved to restrict medical transition procedures for minors, bar transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, and restrict people with gender dysphoria from serving in the US military.

At least 27 US states have enacted restrictions on gender-transition procedures for minors, while several major hospitals have stopped offering some services amid legal challenges, funding pressure and changing medical guidance.

The British government is refusing to disclose information on how an Israeli “information warfare” firm targeted Scotland’s pro-Palestine first minister. Nobody’s saying who ordered the operation, but a trail of clues leads through Africa to Tel Aviv.

RT already covered the French plot in our ‘Wired for War’ series, and BlackCore’s activity in Scotland followed a similar playbook. At least 256 accounts were created to spread disparaging information about First Minister John Swinney, a vocal supporter of Palestine who has publicly stated that “a genocide is unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israel’s actions,” banned public funding to Israeli-linked companies, and called on the British government to recognize the State of Palestine.

The British government has refused two separate Freedom of Information requests filed by The National, a Scottish newspaper. In one response, the government said it would not disclose any information it had on BlackCore, as to do so would “prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and any other state,” The National reported on August 11. In a second response, it explained that the request was denied in order to “avoid giving offence to other nations and retain the trust of our international partners.”

Let’s be clear - a genocide is unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israel’s actions.

We all have a moral and legal responsibility to act, and Scotland will play its part.

Today I have set out a range of diplomatic, economic and humanitarian measures. Read below for more. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/suoMbpNu2j

— John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) September 3, 2025

The other state referenced here is evidently Israel.

Is BlackCore an Israeli intelligence cutout?

Little is known about BlackCore. The company scrubbed its online presence immediately after the Viginum report was published, but according to archived material from its website, BlackCore is “an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare.” It specializes in “shap[ing] narratives” and “influenc[ing] perceptions” for clients in politics and government, and supposedly has been operating for 15 years.

According to an investigation by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, the company is not registered anywhere in the world, but shares web infrastructure with two companies founded by tech entrepreneur Guy Geyor and lawyer Doron Afik. Both of these firms employ veterans of Israeli intelligence agencies, including one former member of the Israel Defense Forces’ Unit 8200.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France has demanded information on BlackCore from the Israeli government. However, it is unclear whether Israel has responded.

The Africa connection

BlackCore’s operations went beyond the US and Europe. In the course of their investigation, Vigilum agents discovered that some of the same social media accounts used to spread falsehoods about three left-wing candidates in France were used to spread content promoting Angola’s ruling MPLA movement. The accounts switched their usernames from French to Portuguese to reach Angola’s Portuguese-speaking population, but forgot to switch languages in some cases, continuing to post in French.

Investigators found a BlackCore-associated web address – ‘angola-plan.blackcore.online’ – which detailed a four-week training program that the company provided to the Angolan government in February. The program covered “communicating positive government campaigns” and “social media operations.”

BlackCore was also tied to a project called ‘Politizando Angola’ on multiple social media platforms, and a TikTok account called ‘Deep Dive Africa’. Both accounts use the same branding, and are linked by phone number to a fake Islamic charity that BlackCore used in its French and Scottish operations.

‘Deep Dive Africa’ promoted an Israeli medical mission to Togo in February. A humanitarian project of the Sheba Medical Center, the mission was in no way connected with BlackCore’s election operations. However, the Sheba Medical Center is entirely funded by the Israeli state, meaning BlackCore was using the same web infrastructure to carry out ‘information warfare” in some countries, and state-backed soft power operations in others. 

All roads lead to Israel

The hospital post is not a smoking gun. Rather, it is an example of how every detail in the BlackCore story is another thread leading back to Tel Aviv. The same pattern is borne out across the growing sphere of Israeli private intelligence agencies and cyberwarfare companies: ‘former’ Israeli spies working in the private sector, almost exclusively to advance Israeli interests, often with the tacit backing of the Israeli government.

While it is understandable that Israel would seek to wash its hands of any involvement in foreign interference, the fact that the UK would trade political capital to protect Israel’s reputation – after the EU also refused to investigate Israeli election meddling in Slovenia and Cyprus – raises another uncomfortable question: just how much influence does one Middle Eastern state have on the leaders of Europe?

The US is making military support for NATO members contingent on how closely they align with President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, Bloomberg has reported.

Washington has recently sent NATO members a document containing a series of questions aimed at gauging their alignment with the Trump administration, the agency said.

Governments were asked whether they had “been publicly supportive” of US foreign-policy initiatives, including those in the Middle East and Western Hemisphere, the outlet reported, citing a copy it had reviewed. Washington also wanted to know what “restrictions” individual countries have imposed on US forces operating from military bases on their territory.

The apparent loyalty test comes amid widening tensions between Washington and its traditional European allies, with Trump repeatedly accusing NATO members of relying on US protection while failing to contribute enough to their own defense.

Trump has long been a fierce critic of NATO countries’ defense spending, repeatedly accusing European members of underfunding their militaries and effectively relying on Washington to bankroll their defense.

Earlier this summer, he renewed his criticism ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, arguing that the US “spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit.” He contrasted nearly $1 trillion in annual US defense spending with significantly smaller expenditures by individual European allies.

Defense spending is not the only source of friction, however. Tensions have intensified further over the US war with Iran, with Trump criticizing European allies for refusing to become more directly involved and complaining that “they were not there for us.”

Several NATO members also refused to allow Washington to use jointly operated military bases for offensive operations against Iran. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth branded the restrictions “shameful,” arguing that they had put American troops “at risk.”

The growing disagreements have, in turn, fueled debate in Europe about reducing its reliance on Washington for security. European officials have increasingly discussed “strategic autonomy” and the need to develop greater capacity to defend the continent should US priorities diverge from the rest of NATO.

Two developments in recent days offer a revealing picture of how Russian-Syrian relations are evolving after the change of power in Damascus.

On August 9, after roughly 18 months of negotiations, Russia and Syria agreed on a new memorandum defining the future framework for the use of facilities of the Russian military bases in Tartus and Hmeimim. Almost simultaneously, a delegation from Rossotrudnichestvo (the Russian federal agency responsible for foreign humanitarian and cultural cooperation) delegation held talks with Syrian officials and preparations were announced for reopening the Russian House cultural exchange centre in Damascus. Military cooperation is being reformulated rather than dismantled, humanitarian links are being restored, while trade, food supplies, energy and education continue to connect the two countries.

Much of the Western debate assumed that the fall of Bashar Assad’s government would sharply reduce Russia’s position in Syria. Moscow had been one of Assad’s principal political and military partners, while the forces that replaced his government had fought against the old order. Yet foreign policy is rarely governed by symbolism alone, especially in a country emerging from a devastating conflict. Syria’s new authorities are increasingly judging external partners by a more practical measure. What can each of them offer Syria now, when the country needs reconstruction, food, energy, security and political room for maneuver?

The new Damascus authorities have no past Russia relations to remain loyal to, but they do have present problems they need to manage. Syria faces damaged infrastructure, weak fiscal capacity, serious energy shortages, high dependence on imported food and a still incomplete process of restoring effective state authority. Under such conditions, ideological preferences give way to utility. Partners are assessed by the markets, resources, technologies and security assistance they can provide.

This helps explain why the new Syrian leadership is seeking closer relations with the United States, the European Union, Türkiye and the Gulf states while avoiding a rupture with Moscow. That policy only appears contradictory if Syria is expected to choose one geopolitical camp. Damascus needs Western investment and access to international finance, but it also needs functioning supply chains, energy resources and military expertise. A country that has spent years under sanctions and war has little incentive to close channels that still work.

The discussion around Russian oil illustrates this clearly. In early August, Reuters reported that the Syrian side had signalled to Washington its willingness to substantially reduce purchases of Russian oil. Limiting Moscow’s economic presence is part of Washington’s regional strategy, but Russia has become a major supplier of oil to Syria, and replacing those volumes quickly is much harder than declaring an intention to diversify imports.

Damascus may try to reduce dependence on Russian supplies over time, but diversification is not the same as disengagement. The former increases Syria’s autonomy, while the latter would remove one of the few external channels already functioning at scale. Better relations with the West do not require the elimination of ties with Moscow, just as closer cooperation with Moscow does not prevent Damascus from attracting Western or Gulf investment. The more external options Syria has, the harder it becomes for any single partner to dictate the terms of its foreign policy.

Russia’s importance is most evident when bilateral trade is examined not merely by total value, but by its composition. For Syria, what matters is that Russian supplies are concentrated in sectors directly affecting daily life, social stability and the government’s ability to keep the economy functioning – such as food security.

According to Syrian customs data cited by Reuters, around 85% of the wheat imported by Syria in the 2025-2026 season came from Russia, amounting to approximately 2.9 million tonnes. In a country where bread remains a basic element of mass consumption and household budgets have been weakened by years of conflict and inflation, such supplies have significance far beyond ordinary commerce. Grain affects state procurement, consumer prices, subsidies and public sentiment. A disruption in wheat imports can quickly spill over from the economic sphere and become a political problem.

Russia already has the production capacity, commercial interest and logistical experience needed to deliver large quantities. Abandoning such a source without a reliable substitute would be economically reckless.

The same applies to energy. Russia supplied Syria with around 16.8 million barrels of oil in 2025, while in the first months of 2026 deliveries reached roughly 60,000 barrels per day, an increase of about 75% over a relatively short period. Syrian domestic production remains far below pre-war levels and is insufficient to meet national demand. Imported oil is vital for transport, electricity generation, agriculture, industry, public utilities and reconstruction.

In a fragile post-conflict environment, oil shortages can undermine public confidence and deepen social tension. Western and Gulf actors can offer finance, investment and advanced technologies, but many such opportunities require time and political negotiations. Russian food and energy supplies respond to immediate needs, which is crucial for a government trying to stabilise the country now rather than several years from now.

The new memorandum concerning the Russian military bases in Tartus and Hmeimim is a product of the same pragmatism. It can be seen as a reduction of Russia’s military footprint because Syria is regaining control over part of the civilian infrastructure and the old legal model is being revised – but it is still a restructuring, not a full withdrawal. After 18 months of negotiations, Moscow and Damascus managed to avoid the breakdown of military cooperation, instead finding a way to transform it.

According to the information made public, civilian facilities are to pass under Syrian management, while military sites are expected to be transformed into joint Russian-Syrian training and professional development centres. Part of the Russian military presence is also expected to remain. Its importance lies in creating a model the new Syrian leadership can defend politically. The previous framework was closely associated with the Assad era and could be portrayed as an infringement on sovereignty. The new model gives Damascus greater formal control while preserving access to Russian military expertise.

This compromise would make little sense if Syria had already decided to remove Russia from the country. The 18 months of negotiations suggest the opposite. Damascus wanted different terms, not a complete break, while Moscow wanted to preserve a meaningful role without insisting that previous arrangements remain untouched. The result is a framework better suited to the new political reality.

Syria’s armed forces face a long process of reconstruction. Training, command structures, equipment maintenance, border security and territorial control all require resources and external assistance. It is far from certain that the US or the EU are prepared to take responsibility for rebuilding Syrian defence capabilities comprehensively. Their interests in Syria are also fragmented, shaped mostly by counterterrorism, border security and regional competition. Support for a stable Syria does not necessarily mean support for a militarily stronger and more autonomous Damascus.

Russia has decades of experience dealing with Syrian military institutions, familiarity with much of the equipment in service and long-standing knowledge of the country’s defence infrastructure. Moscow is not Syria’s only possible security partner, but replacing its accumulated expertise quickly would be difficult.

The new Syrian leadership is clearly not trying to reproduce Assad’s foreign policy. Damascus wants better relations with Europe and the United States, investment from the Gulf, expanded trade with Türkiye and reintegration into the international economy. Yet none of these goals requires a break with Russia. In fact, the wider Syria’s network of partners becomes, the more useful Russia may be as one of several external poles that help Damascus preserve strategic flexibility.

Value, not ‘values’

Russia remains important not because Syria’s new authorities share the worldview of their predecessors, but because Moscow still offers tangible value in sectors vital to recovery. It supplies food and energy, retains military expertise and possesses established institutional links. For a government trying to stabilise a country after years of war, predictability and practical capacity can matter more than political sympathy.

Western pressure may influence individual areas of Russian-Syrian cooperation, particularly where energy trade, sanctions and security arrangements are concerned. But persuading Damascus to abandon a partner already embedded in critical supply chains and security structures is much more difficult than urging it to diversify. Syria can cooperate with the West without accepting a zero-sum logic in which every gain in relations with Washington or Brussels must be matched by a loss for Moscow.

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been grappling with dismal conditions for months during the US-Israeli war on Iran, amid mounting reports of severe exhaustion, supply shortages, and mental-health problems among crew members. The problems have sparked an uproar among crew members’ families and prompted demands for answers from US lawmakers.

The vessel, a 5,000-person nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier capable of carrying up to 90 aircraft and conducting more than 100 combat sorties a day at peak capacity, left San Diego in late November. It has now been deployed for more than 260 days, including more than 200 consecutive days at sea – an extraordinary stretch by Navy standards.

On top of that, the flattop has spent much of that time in a combat environment, with Iran claiming to have targeted it on numerous occasions. Even as US officials insist the carrier remains operational, the hardships of a prolonged campaign appear to be taking their toll.

Here is what we know about the issues facing the aircraft carrier and its crew.

What are conditions like aboard the Abraham Lincoln?

The complaints from crew members and their families go well beyond the usual discomforts of a long deployment.

They include shortages of toothpaste, deodorant, and soap, problems with hot and potable water, broken toilets, unreliable laundry facilities, disruptions to food supplies, and mail delays so severe that some care packages reportedly disappeared into the system for months. Other reports describe mold, failing plumbing, and holes worn through parts of the flight deck from extensive use without adequate repairs.

Democratic Congressman Mike Levin claimed that the food situation is so bad that crew members’ meals “came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas.” The meager meals were first reported by USA Today as early as mid-April, although the Pentagon denied that there were food shortages at the time.

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for more than 250 days, pushing its crew to the limit. Sailors report exhaustion, deteriorating living conditions, shortages of basic supplies and serious food problems: small portions, poor-quality meals and periods of depleted stocks. The… https://t.co/iWYaeKchzU pic.twitter.com/C4cheR4N2M

— Tom Antonov (@Tom_Antonov) August 13, 2026

According to Maritime Executive, the supply problems are partly due to logistics, as the main base of the 5th Fleet is located in Bahrain, deep inside the Persian Gulf, meaning many shipments must pass through the Strait of Hormuz and risk Iranian strikes.

Is the crew burning out?

There are strong indications that it is. One of the most striking episodes confirmed by CENTCOM occurred on August 3, when a sailor went overboard from the Abraham Lincoln and was recovered roughly an hour later.

🚨🇮🇷🇺🇸 Text messages from a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln reveal no milk in three months and ROTTEN food arriving at sea...

He reportedly wrote that almost nothing fresh makes it out except meat, because only frozen goods survive the supply run, and called it the worst… pic.twitter.com/ylCgsHap26

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 13, 2026

Citing US officials, CNN reported that the Navy treated the incident as a mental-health episode, adding that the sailor was medically evaluated and later removed from the ship for further care.

At a meeting with Navy leaders, another spouse said her husband had sent a message saying he hoped he “doesn’t wake up tomorrow,” according to Stars and Stripes.

“The morale is not good,” one family member said, as cited by MS Now. “Apparently, the ship’s doctor or therapist said they need to hit port soon, or people are going to start, you know, losing their minds.”

Could stress on the flattop lead to violence?

Citing an unnamed “informed military source,” Iranian news agency Tasnim reported earlier this month that seven US Navy personnel had been killed and several others wounded in a violent confrontation aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

According to the report, an adviser to CENTCOM, commander Adm. Brad Cooper, boarded the carrier to address complaints about the prolonged deployment but was booed and pelted with water bottles before the confrontation escalated into a knife fight.

How much pressure has Iran put on the Abraham Lincoln?

Multiple analyses have suggested that Iran,  which is militarily inferior to the US,  has been relying on attritional warfare to hold its ground and gain concessions from Washington. Kamal Kharrazi, head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said Iran was prepared for a “long war” and argued that the longer the conflict continued, the greater the economic pressure on other countries would become.

As the conflict has dragged on, Tehran has claimed to have mounted numerous attacks on the Abraham Lincoln. On March 1, Iran announced it had fired four ballistic missiles at the carrier, with CENTCOM saying the missiles “didn’t even come close.” Later that month, Tehran claimed that missiles and drones had struck the vessel, rendering it inoperable and forcing it to withdraw – an allegation also rejected by Washington.

In early April, Iran said it had launched multiple waves of attack drones toward the Abraham Lincoln group in the northern Indian Ocean, forcing it to withdraw.

While it is unclear whether the Abraham Lincoln sustained any damage during the attacks, it was hardly operating in a benign environment, with CENTCOM reporting roughly 10,000 aircraft flights and the expenditure of about 1.5 million pounds of ordnance during the mission.

What beef do US lawmakers have with the Pentagon?

On Wednesday, a member of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, published an open letter to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, raising “serious concerns” about the situation aboard the ship and questioning whether it could sustain continued operations.

“The Lincoln is not an isolated case. Recent carrier deployments have repeatedly stretched beyond their originally anticipated durations, suggesting that extended deployments may be becoming a feature rather than an exception of the Navy’s force-generation model,” he added.

Fellow Senator Ruben Gallego has called for a bipartisan congressional oversight visit to the Abraham Lincoln, casting doubt on Pentagon assurances.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has gone further, blaming Hegseth personally and saying sailors are “paying the price” for Pentagon failures. “When Pete Hegseth was nominated, everyone knew he was completely incompetent... Pete Hegseth must be fired immediately,” he insisted.

What does the Pentagon say in response to the accusations?

Hegseth dismissed reports of poor living conditions and food shortages aboard the Abraham Lincoln as “completely misrepresented,” while acknowledging that some deployments could last longer and be tougher than others.

Meanwhile, the AP reported that the USS George Washington is now moving toward the Middle East from Vietnam to replace the Abraham Lincoln. The redeployment is expected to weaken the US footprint in the Pacific amid tensions with China, however.

Bottom Line

While the Pentagon insists that the Abraham Lincoln “remains fully capable of meeting all mission tasking,” and there is no credible evidence that Iran managed to cripple the ship, its crew appears to have come dangerously close to the breaking point.

After more than eight months of deployment, the vessel appears to be struggling with logistics and supplies of basic amenities, amid growing concerns over its crew members’ mental health. While the Abraham Lincoln is expected to be relieved soon, its performance raises questions about Washington’s overall ability to sustain effective long-term operations against even a militarily inferior adversary.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has won back his seat in parliament, in a by-election boycotted by every other major British party. Farage vacated his seat and triggered the election in an effort to “stick two fingers up to the establishment.”

Farage was declared the winner in his Clacton constituency on Thursday, with the Reform leader taking 63% of the vote, a 17% increase from 2024.

However, Farage’s only opponents this year were novelty and fringe candidates, with the Labour Party, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Greens boycotting the election. Out of these candidates, Count Binface, a BBC comedian whose costume includes a bin on his head, won 27% of the vote.

The boycott was a calculated move by the UK’s establishment parties aimed at delegitimizing the election. Farage vacated his seat in July in an attempt to win it back with a larger majority than in 2024, an outcome that would have humiliated his opponents in the mainstream parties. In a statement at the time, he described the election as a chance for voters to “stick two fingers up to the establishment.”

LIVE: Nigel Farage declares victory against the establishment. 🔥https://t.co/YNLoGFCdmT

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) August 14, 2026

While Farage was denied the opportunity to defeat Labour and the Conservatives for the second time in two years, he still portrayed his win on Thursday as a “victory against the establishment.”

“I called this by-election because I wanted the people of Clacton to be my judge, not the mainstream media in Britain, and the political establishment who paint us as criminals,” he told supporters after results were announced. “We have beaten the candidate for the uniparty.”

At the time Farage vacated his seat, he had been under investigation by Britain’s parliamentary standards watchdog since May, over a £5 million ($6.7 million) gift he received from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne before he took office in 2024. The probe was set to be expanded after the Sunday Times revealed that he failed to declare funding from convicted fraudster George Cottrell between 2019 and 2024.

Farage maintains that he did nothing wrong, and that Harborne’s donation was “a large personal gift” which will allow him to pay his security bills. Farage insists that he was under no obligation to declare benefits from Cottrell – who allegedly allowed the Reform leader to stay in his properties and avail himself of private security – as he was not in office when he received them.

The investigation was paused when Farage relinquished its seat, but was immediately reopened once results came in on Thursday.

What is there in common between Ukrainians and the highlanders of the Caucasus, and what parallels can be drawn between Russia and Great Britain in the 19th century, and these same countries in the 21st century? In the 19th century, the British Empire fought against the Russian Empire using the highlanders in the Caucasus in a way that’s very similar to how Britain is now using Ukrainians. 

In the 19th century, the Russian and British empires clashed fiercely over spheres of influence in the Caucasus. This geopolitical rivalry made use of all the means available at the time: wars between spies and diplomats, covert operations, arms smuggling, ideological battles, and active media propaganda. Read more about the confrontation between Russia and Britain, the secret operations in the Caucasus, and the lessons that those who now place their trust in Britain should draw from history. 

To India via the Caucasus 

“Britain will defend the freedom-loving nation from Russian aggression,” “British military advisers supplied fighters with weapons to resist the Russian army,” “British diplomats organized elites to combat Russian influence” – such headlines have become commonplace in Western media during the Ukraine conflict. Yet these same phrases could very well describe another historical conflict where British and Russian interests collided: the covert war waged by the British Empire against Russia in the 19th century, aimed at undermining Russian influence in the Caucasus.

At first glance, it might seem odd that events in the Caucasus, occurring far from Britain, could threaten London’s interests. But it only appears so. 

After the Napoleonic Wars, the Russian Empire was at the height of its power. It led the “Holy Alliance” – a coalition of European great powers that shaped continental politics. Additionally, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Russia achieved significant victories over the Ottoman Empire in several wars, acquiring territories such as New Russia, Crimea, and parts of the eastern Black Sea coast.

Britain, however, perceived this as a direct threat to its interests in India. London believed that Russia wouldn’t stop in the Caucasus but would advance further, potentially threatening Persia. And through Persia, and then Afghanistan, there lay a direct path to India, which was then referred to as the “jewel in the crown” of the British Empire. Although there was no concrete evidence that Russia intended to seize distant India, British elites firmly held this belief. In order to safeguard India against the mythical “Russian threat,” Britain encouraged tensions in the Caucasus.

In service of the Crown

Britain’s active intervention in Russian affairs in the Caucasus was preceded by two wars: the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. As a result of these military triumphs, Russia solidified its position in Transcaucasia and gained control over much of the eastern coastline of the Black Sea.

Fearing Russia’s growing power in the region, Britain started supplying the Circassians with weapons and ammunition as early as 1830. For instance, in December of that year, six weapon-laden vessels were intercepted off the coast of what is now Abkhazia. However, for a time, these arms shipments remained limited to smuggling.

A turning point in Russia-Britain relations came with the arrival of British diplomat David Urquhart in Istanbul. A highly energetic individual, Urquhart had joined the rebels who fought for Greek independence when he was just 16 years old. After the war, he stayed in the region and developed a keen interest in the politics and culture of the Ottoman Empire. By 1833, he was appointed to the British trade delegation in Istanbul, and in 1835 he became the embassy secretary. It was Urquhart who crafted Britain’s aggressive anti-Russia policy in the Caucasus.

Urquhart initiated the work of British diplomats and spies directly in Circassia, as the Northern and Western Caucasus regions were then called. He attended elder councils and fervently promoted the idea of waging war against Russia. Notably, he was behind the adoption of a “national oath” by the mountain peoples, proposing that the Circassians unite for a common cause against Russia instead of fighting each other. 

He also persuaded the Circassians to take an oath according to which anyone who entered negotiations with the Russians would be killed, their possessions divided among their executioners, and their families sold into slavery. A parallel can be drawn with contemporary Ukrainian politics, where any possibility of peacefully resolving the conflict with Russia is utterly unacceptable, and proponents of such initiatives face severe repercussions.

Britain also supplied the highlanders with arms. British intelligence agents James Bell and James Longworth oversaw smuggling operations that delivered firearms to the Caucasus, bribing tribal leaders and elders in the region. For an extended period, they lived undercover in the Caucasus, adopting Muslim names and fictitious titles. On behalf of the British government, they promised the Circassians that Britain was committed to protecting their independence and even vowed to fight against Russia. Throughout the 1830s, dozens of British agents were active in the Caucasus.

Most importantly, Urquhart focused on a propaganda war. An ardent Russophobe, he convinced the British public that Russia posed a deadly existential threat to the British Empire. He argued that Russia was preparing to conquer Persia and further invade India. The British press played a crucial role in spreading fears of a “Russian threat.” 

Newspapers reported on the struggle of the “freedom-loving highlanders” against the “barbaric Russian oppressors.” They conveniently overlooked the fact that the highlanders themselves were quite savage at the time – slave trade and blood feuds were common in the region, and the enlightened Russian Empire resolutely opposed this. 

But just like in Ukraine today, the London media exaggerated the losses of the Russian Army, insisting that the decisive support of the highlanders would ensure Russia’s defeat in the Caucasus.

The ‘Vixen’ case 

While Britain’s supply of weapons to the highlanders and its organizational and ideological efforts harmed Russia, this did not decisively influence the course of the conflict. British hawks opted for provocation, aiming to ignite a conflict between Russia and Britain and other Western European nations. The pretext they found was rather unusual.

Russia was defending its legitimate interests in the Caucasus and sought to halt arms shipments to the highlanders. To this end, the Russian Navy patrolled the eastern Black Sea coast, directing all foreign commercial vessels to only two ports: Anapa and Redoubt Kali (near modern-day Poti). Britain viewed this as a violation of free trade and resorted to blatant provocation.

In November 1836, Russian military brig the Ayaks detained British schooner the Vixen in the port of Sujuk-Qale (modern-day Novorossiysk). The British vessel was unloading arms intended for the highlanders: eight cannons, nearly 13 tons of gunpowder, and a large quantity of firearms. Clearly, this wasn’t about free trade; this was direct military support for Russia’s adversaries.

The expedition was organized by none other than Urquhart, while the captain of the schooner was the British spy Bell. Remarkably, Bell didn’t hide his intentions; he openly sought to provoke the Russian fleet. After the capture, the Vixen was confiscated, and its crew expelled to Türkiye. 

Russian Emperor Nicholas I refused to back down. Instead, he placed the armed forces on heightened alert and demonstrated an unwavering commitment to defending Russia’s interests in the Caucasus. No one in Europe was willing to wage war against Russia either.

As a result, London had to recall Urquhart from Istanbul and abandon all its demands regarding Russian influence in the Caucasus.

Not just the Crimean War

The war in the Caucasus could have concluded as early as the late 1830s. However, the British weren’t ready to accept defeat and began preparing for another conflict.

Agitators infiltrated the eastern Caucasus, modern-day Chechnya and Dagestan, inciting the highlanders to resist Russia. British agents assured them that London would support a rebellion against Russia and provide the necessary weapons and supplies.

The strategy was based on the assumption that Russia would become bogged down in the Caucasus and unable to counter British actions elsewhere. And that’s indeed what happened. When the Crimean War broke out from 1853 to 1856, 270,000 Russian troops were stationed in the Caucasus to maintain order in the region. 

Simultaneously with the onset of the Crimean War, attacks on Russian settlements intensified, led by the forces of Imam Shamil, who controlled territories in Chechnya and Dagestan. In the North Caucasus, the Circassians launched assaults on Novorossiysk and Yekaterinodar (modern-day Krasnodar). While these raids had little impact on the overall course of battles, they undoubtedly diverted the focus and resources of the Russian command.

Throughout the Crimean War, the British press frequently raised the issue of “Circassian independence.” At the Paris Conference, London also highlighted the Circassian question, demanding that Russia recognize Circassia’s independence or, at the very least, withdraw troops from the Caucasus; in exchange London would prevent the highlanders from attacking Russian territories. 

Despite this diplomatic pressure, the Russian Empire successfully defended its rights in the Caucasus. The likely reason lies in the fact that after more than 20 years of fierce struggle against Russia, the highlanders didn’t achieve any considerable progress. As for Russia, even amid a brutal war with the leading European powers of the time, it managed to retain control over the Caucasus.

Last attempt

Although the Crimean War ended in defeat for the Russian Empire, its position in the Caucasus remained stable. In an attempt to undermine Russia and lay the groundwork for future operations, the British dispatched a group of insurgents to the region in 1857.

The contingent was led by Polish military officer Teofil Lapinski, who participated in the 1848 uprising and fought against the Austrians in modern-day Ukraine and Hungary. During the Crimean War, Lapinski fought against Russia while serving in the Polish Corps, which was part of the Ottoman Army. 

When, after the Crimean War, it became clear that Circassia had no chance of achieving independence, Lapinski began planning a military operation in the area. His mission was financed by pro-British General Zamojski and the Circassian elites that had settled in the Ottoman Empire. The intellectual driving force behind this operation was Stratford de Redcliffe, the British ambassador in Istanbul. Leveraging his considerable influence at the Sultan’s court, he secured the support of Ottoman officials and supplied the group with arms and ammunition.

Russian envoy Apollinary Butenev managed to uncover the plot and alerted the governor of the Caucasus, Prince Baryatinsky. Nevertheless, British steamship the Kangaroo, commanded by Captain Neggs, eluded Russian cruisers, and in February 1857, the insurgents landed in Tuapse.

The insurgent unit was bolstered by defectors from the Russian Army, primarily Poles and Ukrainians, increasing its numbers to around 800 fighters. For about a year and a half, supported by the Circassian nobility, Lapinski effectively resisted the Russian Army. He skillfully utilized the terrain and was supported by the British and Turks.

However, General Philipson, who commanded Russian forces in this part of the Caucasus, successfully recruited one of Lapinski’s associates, who relayed crucial information about Lapinski’s actions to the imperial troops. During a bold Russian naval landing in Gelendzhik, Lapinski narrowly escaped capture. Additionally, the Russians managed to cut off supply lines for weapons and reinforcements to Lapinski’s forces and, having gathered reserves, inflicted several painful defeats on the insurgents.

The situation worsened when the British realized the inevitable defeat of the Circassians and their insurgent allies and withdrew their support. By the end of 1859, Lapinski and what remained of his insurgent group retreated to Istanbul.

That same year, Russian troops captured Imam Shamil, the leader of the highland peoples of the Northeast Caucasus. Though some scattered groups continued to resist, the overall campaign was over. Hundreds of thousands of Circassians unwilling to live under Russian rule relocated to the Ottoman Empire.

It was also a triumph for Russia over Britain, which, despite all its diplomacy, intelligence efforts, and covert operations, failed to overcome the strength of Russian intelligence services, diplomacy, and army. 

This serves as an important reminder to the nations and states that count on the support of Britain when waging war against Russia. While they may have some occasional success, ultimately, the outcome will always be the same.

Palestinian residents of the West Bank village of Qusra have been ordered to leave their homes after a days-long siege and repeated attacks by Israeli settlers, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declaring the area a closed military zone in what it claims is a move to protect civilians.

In an interview with RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij, Han Abdul Karim Hassan, a besieged Palestinian resident of Qusra, said the IDF declared the village a military zone after days of enabling terror by the settlers.

“The army came and entered the area while I was standing here, accompanied by a whole procession of settlers, so I asked them, ‘Aren’t you here because of the settlers?’” Hassan said. “Then they told us, evacuate the house now.”

“Then the girl called me, and I told her not to come out; in other words, I told her, ‘Don’t come out because you’ll be killed,’” he added.

Hassan stressed that Jewish settlers established the outpost in January, launching daily attacks and intimidation. He said they tore down the gates of the farm and the doors of the house, blocked roads, and cut off electricity, water, and food supplies.

“That situation has been going on for two weeks, and they still haven’t resolved it,” he added. “My children are exhausted, they’re being confined.”

Earlier this year, Israel allocated 1.3 billion shekels ($431 million) for 34 new West Bank settlements, as its expansionist policies face criticism from the UN, Arab countries, and EU members. Settler violence against Palestinians has also surged since Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.

Watch RT’s full report from the area below:

A NATO fighter jet has destroyed a drone that entered Latvian airspace, the US-led bloc has said.

The announcement came as Ukraine carried out a major UAV attack against Russia’s northwestern Leningrad Region on Friday. A total of 54 drones were shot down or intercepted above the region overnight, local governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said. A fire broke out at the key Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga during the raid, but it was swiftly extinguished, according to the governor.

There have been multiple reports in recent months of Ukrainian drones violating the airspace of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland, or crashing inside those countries, while on their way to Russia.

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said on Friday that “this morning, we saw Italian Eurofighters based in Lithuania and Turkish F-16s out of Estonia scramble, with one Eurofighter downing a drone over Latvian airspace.”

The Latvian Defense Ministry also confirmed the incident, saying in a statement that “fighter jets participating in the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission successfully shot down a foreign unmanned aerial vehicle.”

“This is well-known to everyone, and we are not going to prove anything to anyone here,” Peskov stressed.

British energy giant Shell’s plan to search for oil and gas off South Africa’s Wild Coast has come to an end after the African country’s Constitutional Court set aside its exploration rights on Friday.

The ruling overturns a 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) decision that had upheld the exploration right. That decision gave the mineral resources department a chance to keep the project alive by going back to the Wild Coast communities for the proper public consultation that never happened in the first place.

Impact Africa was granted the right in 2014 and brought Shell in on a half share seven years later, with the two companies spending about R1.1bn on it. It was first scrapped by the Makhanda High Court in 2022, which found the communities had never been properly told what a seismic survey off their coast would involve.

The court found that consulting the communities now, more than a decade late, and then taking the decision again would not repair the violation. “Consultation is not merely about the opportunity to express a view or influence an outcome,” the court said.

“To tell communities, more than a decade after the fact, that they may now be consulted, would not be curative to their right to dignity.

“Instead, it would say to them that the violation of their rights was not a matter of substance but rather a matter of process.”

Any other outcome, it held, “would allow financial investment to outweigh grave constitutional violations and would signal that the rights of affected parties are subordinate to commercial interests”.

The Wild Coast is a 250km strip of Eastern Cape shoreline carrying customary fishing rights and spiritual practices for the communities living along it. Impact Africa applied for the right in 2013 and was granted it on April 29 2014, then had it renewed in 2017 and 2021 without doing any meaningful exploration in its first three-year term.

The director-general signed off in June 2021 on the transfer of a 50% participating interest in the right to Shell. In October that year Shell gave notice that it would start a 3D seismic survey along the coast, and Sustaining the Wild Coast, All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, members of the Umgungundlovu and Dwesa-Cwebe communities, Wild Coast fishers and Kei Mouth Fisheries obtained an interdict stopping it that December. Natural Justice and Greenpeace later joined the case.

The SCA agreed the right had been granted unlawfully but suspended the setting aside so that the minister could still decide a third renewal application, with a further round of public participation to cure the defects. The communities took that order to the Constitutional Court, which heard argument in September last year and found the renewal process does not allow for the kind of consultation the SCA had in mind.

In a dissent, justice Owen Rogers, with justice Savage agreeing, said there were no grounds to interfere with the SCA’s remedy and would have preserved the possibility of a final three-year exploration period after proper consultation.

Rogers accepted that the communities’ right to be consulted had been neglected and their cultural, religious and environmental concerns not properly considered, but held that a fair remedy had to accommodate all sides. The majority’s order, he said, had consigned the application to “an impermissible twilight zone: supposedly neither granted nor refused, but practically incapable of ever being granted”.

First published by IOL

More than 500 people have been evacuated in the southwestern French department of Landes as wildfires continue to spread and threaten nearby communities.

Prefect Gilles Clavreul ordered an expansion of the evacuation zone after the blaze grew to cover around 1,100 hectares, or roughly 2,700 acres, officials said on Friday. Some 525 people have now been moved to safety, up from around 400 on Thursday, when the latest fire broke out.

France is among several European countries battling wildfires amid a spell of extreme heat that has caused health emergencies and disruptions to power generation across the continent. Temperatures in Landes are expected to reach around 36°C, raising the risk of fresh flare-ups, fire chief Arnaud Fabre warned, according to French media.

Around 500 firefighters have been deployed to contain the blaze. Flames reportedly advanced to within a few hundred meters of the community of Luglon, although no homes or other property have so far been reported destroyed.

”The next fifteen hours will be decisive,” Clavreul told reporters.

🔥 L'incendie de Luglon, dans les Landes, est toujours actif mais a perdu en intensité

🌳 Les flammes ont parcouru 1 100 hectares

🚒 500 sapeurs-pompiers et sapeurs-sauveteurs sont mobilisés, dont des renforts venus de plusieurs départements français

✈️ Un hélicoptère… pic.twitter.com/TVGH4ubDET

— Association Prévention & Signalement Feux De Forêt (@asso_psfdf) August 14, 2026

Landes is heavily covered by pine forests and is particularly vulnerable to wildfires. The area burned in the current fire season has already surpassed levels recorded during the severe wildfire year of 2022. Across France, around 120,000 hectares, or nearly 300,000 acres, have reportedly burned.

The French Interior Ministry has said that 420 people were detained on suspicion of starting fires, either deliberately or through negligence.

The only nuclear power plant in Romania has been completely shut down due to record-low Danube River levels, state-owned energy company Nuclearelectrica announced on Thursday.

River water is essential for cooling many European nuclear plants, making low levels an increasing constraint on power generation. The severe heatwave and drought across Europe have pushed the Danube and Rhine, two of the region’s most vital rivers, to historic lows, disrupting stable electricity generation in several countries while hampering industrial output and major trade routes.

Cernavoda, which accounts for about 20% of Romania’s power output, has two reactors, each with a capacity of 706 MW. In late July, Nuclearelectrica shut down one of them as water levels in the drought-hit river fell dramatically.

Last week, Romanian authorities sank four rock-filled barges near the Danube’s Bala Canal in an unprecedented effort to redirect water toward the Cernavoda plant after the military blasted a channel through the riverbed. Water levels, however, ultimately fell below the threshold needed to keep the reactor operating, forcing the management to disconnect it from the power grid.

At the same time, Bucharest declared a state of energy emergency for August, urging businesses and households to voluntarily reduce consumption during peak evening hours. The government has prepared a system to cut power for industrial consumers in ‌stages and with prior notice if needed.

The energy strain has been felt across the region, with Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant forced to sharply cut output as the Danube fell to record lows.

France has also reduced nuclear generation amid high river temperatures and low water levels. Earlier this week, French state-run energy group EDF said a massive swarm of jellyfish had forced the operator to shut down three reactors at Gravelines, one of the largest nuclear power plants in the country.

The severe drought has hit hydropower generation in Italy, while Norway’s reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in three decades.

Analysts warn the reactor cuts and outages could increase electricity import dependence among the bloc’s most vulnerable countries and drive up power prices across the EU. The disruption could further deepen the bloc’s energy crunch, which began with the loss of cheap Russian gas following Ukraine-related sanctions on Moscow. The strain has worsened this year amid the US war on Iran and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy shipping route.

Western governments are using the term ‘shadow fleet’ to justify what amounts to unlawful attacks on Russian maritime trade, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Countries supporting Ukraine have sought to limit Moscow’s oil revenues by imposing a price cap on Russian crude exports. As enforcement proved ineffective, Western authorities increasingly began targeting vessels suspected of transporting Russian cargo, including through detentions based on unilateral sanctions, documentation, and other alleged violations. Proposals to confiscate and sell seized oil and transfer the proceeds to Kiev have also reportedly been discussed.

“They de facto enacted a ban on Russia’s ability to sell energy resources, while designating all ships which are not obeying the European Union, no matter the flag these ships sail under, as being part of the so-called ‘shadow fleet’,” Lavrov said in an interview published on Friday.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that it could retaliate against what it describes as piracy and theft on the high seas. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said Russia “will be forced to take mirror responses” if actions targeting its maritime trade continue, adding that Moscow would decide for itself where and how such measures would be applied.

Lavrov reiterated the warning, saying the Russian Navy could begin “focusing on the ships serving countries which have made pillaging and piracy their official policy.”

At least a dozen vessels accused by Western governments of belonging to Russia’s so-called ‘shadow fleet’ have reportedly been detained since last year. The UK and France have taken prominent roles in the interdictions, while Germany, Belgium, and Estonia have also participated in such operations.

A blaze broke out at the key Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga after a Ukrainian drone strike on Friday, Leningrad Region Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko has said.

The northwestern region, which surrounds Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg, was targeted by 54 UAVs overnight, Drozdenko wrote in a post on Telegram on Friday morning.

The fire at the port of Ust-Luga was extinguished after several hours. There were no deaths or injuries, the governor wrote.

The port area, which is home to a major gas-processing complex, as well as Europe’s largest oil terminal specializing in the transshipment of petroleum products from rail to sea tankers, has been targeted by Ukraine on a number of occasions in recent months.

St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport said that it had been forced to reschedule some flights due to aerial incursions.

Also on Friday, Ukraine struck a residential building in the city of Bryansk in western Russia, killing one person and injuring at least six others, according to Bryansk Region’s acting governor, Egor Kovalchuk.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said that a total of 553 Ukrainian UAVs were shot down or intercepted by electronic warfare means above 19 Russian regions overnight.

Moscow has condemned Ukrainian drone strikes on infrastructure and residential areas inside Russia as terrorist attacks aimed at compensating for Kiev’s setbacks on the battlefield where Russian forces have continued their steady advance.

Russia has responded by intensifying long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities and logistics infrastructure. Moscow maintains that it does not target civilians and that its strikes are directed solely at military targets and infrastructure supporting Kiev’s forces.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a total of 14 such strikes took place over the past week, hitting weapons and drones production plants, logistics centers, fuel, energy and transport infrastructure, military airfields and ports where cargo used by Kiev’s troops is being unloaded and stored.

India has expanded a pilot scheme that uses Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to transfer welfare payments to two federally administered territories, as it races ahead with testing the digital rupee among a wider audience.

The digital rupee for direct-benefit-transfers initiative was launched in the Union Territories of Chandigarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli on Friday. It aims to cut out middlemen from government-run beneficiary schemes, leveraging the digital rupee’s traceability and transparency.

Those receiving the digital money in their wallets can purchase foodgrains from recognized merchants through a secure, traceable, and real-time digital payment mechanism – eliminating the leakages and corruption that have long bedeviled welfare schemes in the country.

The proof-of-concept pilot was earlier rolled out in federally administered Puducherry, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

The RBI governor said on Tuesday that all BRICS nations are discussing linking their payment systems and CBDCs as they explore ways to reduce the costs and increase the speed of cross-border payments.

BRICS members China, India, Russia, and Brazil have already implemented pilot rollouts of CBDCs.

Mali’s transitional leader, General Assimi Goita, has granted a presidential pardon to French national Yann Christian Bernard Vezilier, who was serving a 20-year prison sentence for undermining the West African country’s security.

The Malian government announced the move in a decree issued on Thursday, saying it requires Vezilier’s “immediate removal” from the West African country.

The authorities stressed that the clemency “does not call into question the facts established” by the court during a trial in which “all the rights of the defense were respected.”

Vezilier was arrested in Bamako in August 2025 alongside several Malian military officers, including two generals. Bamako accused him of working for French intelligence and recruiting political figures, civil-society representatives, and military personnel for activities intended to destabilize the transitional government.

France confirmed after his arrest that Vezilier worked at its embassy in Bamako but rejected the accusations as “baseless.” The French Foreign Ministry argued that he held diplomatic accreditation and was protected from arrest under the Vienna Convention.

The case further strained already fraught relations between Mali and its former colonial ruler. Ties between Bamako and Paris deteriorated after the military seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021. Mali and its allies Niger and Burkina Faso have since expelled French forces, accusing Paris of supporting terrorism to undermine their military-led governments. The three Sahel states have turned to new partners, including Russia, to combat a protracted jihadist insurgency they say French troops failed to quell during a decade-long counterterrorism mission.

Russian forces have struck a railway hub at the Ukrainian Danube port of Izmail, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Friday, as Russia continues to target logistics networks in Ukraine’s Odessa Region.

According to the ministry, overnight drone strikes hit railway infrastructure in Izmail used for “unloading, storing, and transporting military cargo and fuel supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces.”

The Russian military had also targeted infrastructure at the port the previous night, along with a temporary troop deployment site, according to a ministry report issued on Thursday. A military command post at the port of Reni some 45 km to the west was also struck, Moscow said.

Izmail and Reni, along with the port of Ust-Dunaisk in Vilkovo, are located along the Danube River separating Ukraine’s Odessa Region from Romania. The facilities have become increasingly important to Ukrainian logistics as access through Black Sea routes has come under growing pressure from Russian attacks.

Moscow has started regularly targeting vessels serving Ukrainian maritime ports, describing the campaign as retaliation for repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russian civilian ships in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

Kiev’s attacks were part of what Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky described last month as a 40-day “pressure campaign.” The effort coincided with a diplomatic effort to secure supplies of a significant number of Patriot interceptor missiles, which many observers said was a failure.

Pressure on Ukraine’s maritime infrastructure has also continued. In its latest report, the Russian Defense Ministry said two tugboats were hit off Nikolaev.

Russia will intensify its military campaign in Ukraine and seek to destroy every element used by the West to sustain Kiev’s war effort, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

The top diplomat was commenting on actions by Ukraine and its Western supporters that they claim are intended to pressure Moscow into peace negotiations. Russia continues to seek a “lasting, reliable and sustainable settlement” to the conflict and cannot agree to suspend it, Lavrov told Russian media.

His remarks came in response to a series of Ukrainian attacks that caused mass civilian casualties, including incidents in Starobelsk in May and Gelendzhik earlier this month. Russian officials, including Lavrov, have described the drone strikes as deliberate acts of terrorism.

“We will not sink to their level. Instead, we will adopt much harsher methods to destroy everything that enables the West to fuel Kiev’s war machine. We are already doing this, and they are already moaning.” he said.

The minister also reiterated that Ukrainian and Western proposals to freeze the conflict along the current front line are unacceptable. He argued that doing so under present conditions would amount to betraying both the Soviet victory over the Axis powers in World War II and the broader history of Russian statehood.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian government of embracing neo-Nazi ideology and pursuing policies aimed at suppressing Russian language, culture, and identity in the country.

Last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky announced a 40-day “pressure campaign” that included large-scale attacks on Russian civilian vessels, energy infrastructure and facilities linked to e-commerce giant Wildberries. Kiev has argued that the long-range strikes demonstrate that Ukraine has a viable strategy for confronting Russia and bolster its case for additional Western military assistance, particularly Patriot interceptor missiles needed to counter Russian retaliatory strikes.

According to Reuters, Zelensky is now seeking a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea and has conveyed his proposal through an intermediary. Turkish officials have also publicly called for a pause in hostilities in the area.

Lavrov argued that Russia did not initiate the latest escalation and criticized what he described as the failure of some countries to condemn Ukrainian attacks on neutral vessels, including oil tankers contracted to carry Kazakh crude through the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

“Neither Türkiye nor the United States publicly declares that such actions by Ukrainian terrorists are unacceptable,” the minister said.

An American missionary abducted in Niger last year has been released after spending more than nine months in captivity, the Christian organization Serving In Mission (SIM) said on Friday.

“Kevin is in good health and is currently in the care of US officials,” the group said, adding that he is expected to reunite with his wife Krista, their children, and other relatives shortly.

Rideout, a missionary pilot, was kidnapped in the capital, Niamey, on October 21, 2025. According to reports at the time, three unidentified men seized him before apparently taking him out of the city. 

No group publicly claimed responsibility for the abduction, and the circumstances surrounding his release, including who held him and whether any deal was reached to secure his freedom, remain unclear.

The kidnapping came amid persistent security problems across Niger and the wider Sahel, where armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and Islamic State have operated for years. Foreign nationals have increasingly become targets: an Austrian woman was abducted in Agadez in January 2025, two Chinese nationals were kidnapped the following month, and a Swiss woman was seized from her home in Agadez in April.

In another high-profile case, two employees of a Russian geological exploration company were freed in neighboring Mali in April after spending nearly two years in captivity. They were abducted in Niger’s Tillaberi region in July 2024 by JNIM, an Al-Qaeda-linked militant group, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russia’s Arctic region of Arkhangelsk is in talks with India on leveraging the economic potential of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a top local official has said.

“For India, the NSR is truly beginning to take on a new dimension,” the governor of Arkhangelsk Region, Aleksandr Tsybulsky, told RT India on the sidelines of the ‘Arctic – Regions’ Forum, where India is a key partner.

India plans to send its first cargo ship along the NSR, also called the Arctic route, next year, a top official attending the forum said on Thursday, adding that New Delhi sees “huge possibilities” in the route.

The options being discussed between India and Arkhangelsk include those “from building ships for India at shipyards in the Arkhangelsk region, to using our port facilities to deliver cargo from India and to export cargo to India, and technological options such as placing and locating production around the ports of the Arkhangelsk Region,” Tsybulsky said.

Located on Russia’s Arctic coast, the city of the same name sits on the Northern Dvina River and is a major cargo hub linked to the NSR.

‘For India, the NSR is Truly Beginning to Take On a New Dimension’ - Alexander Tsybulsky, Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region

Tsybulsky revealed that the parties are discussing a range of opportunities at the ‘Arctic-Regions’ forum in Arkhangelsk.

‘From building ships for India… https://t.co/rZnUnYfZQc pic.twitter.com/nv3Hz7vFQe

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 13, 2026

The NSR is a 5,600-km sea passage that runs through Russia’s Arctic waters. It is covered by thick ice for most part of the year, but climate change and receding sea ice are widening the annual window for navigation. Still, specialized ice-strengthened ships are required to navigate the NSR. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said separately that Moscow was seeing “growing interest” from countries including China and India, wishing to engage in exploiting the economic opportunities offered by the NSR.

Russia is investing heavily in the infrastructure of the Arctic route, and Moscow is happy with the attention the effort is getting from its global partners, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said at the forum, Interfax reported.

“We can see that our Chinese and Indian colleagues are the most enthusiastic,” he said.

“We very much hope that we will be able to use our Arctic resources both in our own interests and in the interests of… our partners, which will make us and them stronger in the increasingly competitive global economic and political environment,” said Grushko, adding “the Arctic as a region should remain a zone of low tensions, and we are doing everything to keep it this way.”

Brad Pitt has started drinking again and this really is cause for celebration among millions of ordinary people around the world, because after all, what brings us closer to the great and famous, but our vices?

I have often heard people who enjoy a glass of cognac in the morning point out that Winston Churchill used to do much the same, but when asked in what other respects they resemble the First Lord of the Admiralty, twice British prime minister, and Nobel Prize winner, they usually have less to say. And now, if Brad Pitt has started drinking again, perhaps he has become a little closer to us ordinary people, or perhaps we have become closer to him.

But if Pitt has started drinking again, there must have been a reason he stopped, given in 2019, Pitt spoke openly about giving up alcohol. “I’d taken it as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” he said, and by then, he had been sober for about three years.

Of course, it wasn’t as though he had accidentally got drunk for the first time in his life that day, and the point isn’t how much someone consumes on one particular occasion, it’s the cumulative effect. Alcohol can erode a person’s character slowly and gradually, so gradually that the person himself may barely notice, with good physical health, professional success, wealth, and modern medicine allowing someone with a serious drinking problem to remain highly functional for an extraordinarily long time.

Brad Pitt was never found unconscious under a fence and that particular image is worth mentioning because, in our society, lying under a fence is traditionally regarded as the definitive proof that someone has finally become an alcoholic. But alcoholism rarely looks like that, and many people with serious alcohol problems remain successful, go to work, raise families, and are seldom seen visibly drunk. However, money and status don’t change what ethanol does to the human body.

Then came sobriety, but now, according to a recent interview, Pitt has begun allowing himself an occasional drink again. Bottles were noticed at his home, and when asked about them he reportedly described what he was doing as “moderate drinking.”

Here’s what I would tell you, dear Brad Pitt, should you ever care to listen: those morning cognac drinkers are no more Churchill than I am Brad Pitt. I’ve never appeared in a film, I’ve never seen Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston up close, I’ve won neither an Oscar nor a Golden Globe, millions of female admirers have never written to me, and advertisers have somehow resisted offering me multimillion-dollar contracts.But there’s one respect in which you and I are not merely similar but indistinguishable, because illness is wonderfully democratic and dear Brad, I too am an alcoholic.

You are 62 years old and by my standards, you possess an almost unlimited amount of money and access to the finest medical care in the world, but you know something as well as I do, for an alcoholic, the idea of “moderate drinking” is a dangerous one. A person who returns to alcohol after years of sobriety doesn’t necessarily return as the person he was before he began drinking, but decades of habits and associations are still there.

That’s the insidious thing about alcoholism as gradually, every important event becomes connected with alcohol. Celebration means alcohol, disappointment means alcohol, meeting friends means alcohol, being alone means alcohol, and success, failure, boredom, anxiety, holidays, funerals, Friday evenings all mean alcohol. Eventually the brain finds a reason to drink in almost everything.

The way out begins with understanding that life is richer, more interesting, and ultimately more fulfilling than the experiences alcohol promises us. Pitt already knows this and he’s spoken about Alcoholics Anonymous and about the men he met there with considerable affection and respect.

Seven years of sobriety is no small achievement, but neither are three decades of drinking habits easily erased, so think again, Brad. Remember that flight from Europe. Remember the row with your family and the beer spilled over your wife, remember the moment when you decided that enough was enough and, in your own excellent phrase, revoked your own drinking privileges.

Perhaps there was wisdom in that decision that shouldn’t now be discarded simply because enough time has passed to make the past seem less dangerous. There’s an English expression about “falling off the wagon.” Don’t fall off the wagon, Brad, because it’s much harder to climb back on.

This article was first published by Gazeta.ru, translated and edited by RT team

Victims of alleged abuses involving British soldiers in Kenya have called on the African nation’s parliament to block the renewal of a defense agreement with the UK until outstanding cases are resolved.

Survivors, bereaved families, workers, and residents marched in Nairobi on Wednesday before submitting a petition to the National Assembly. They are demanding that lawmakers implement the recommendations of a November 2025 parliamentary inquiry before approving the pact, including holding British troops accountable for crimes, providing victims with legal aid, and enforcing child-support obligations.

Renewing the agreement, which is currently before parliament, without providing redress would be a “grave disservice” to victims, local daily The Standard reported, citing the petition.

The inquiry documented allegations of rape and sexual assault, deaths, and injuries involving unexploded ordnance, environmental destruction, and mistreatment of Kenyan employees by personnel from the British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK).

BATUK, the British Army’s largest contingent in Africa, is based mainly near Nanyuki in Laikipia County. According to the British Army, it comprises about 100 permanent British personnel, 280 rotating troops, and more than 500 Kenyan employees.

Its presence has long faced opposition over alleged abuses and disputes over whether British personnel accused of crimes in Kenya should be prosecuted by Kenyan or UK authorities.

The activists cited the 2012 killing of 21-year-old Agnes Wanjiru, whose body was found in a septic tank at a Nanyuki hotel after she had reportedly spent the evening with British soldiers.

“Those who witnessed the so-called commandos, the white British soldiers, murdering Agnes Wanjiru will not forget that instance, even if the law says that they did not kill her,” activist Booker Omole told The Standard.

BATUK was also blamed for a 2021 wildfire that destroyed more than 12,000 acres at the Lolldaiga Conservancy. London later agreed to pay £2.9 million ($3.9 million) in compensation to thousands of claimants.

The British Ministry of Defense has said it “deeply regrets” problems linked to the unit’s presence and is prepared to investigate new allegations once evidence is provided.

A powerful explosion has ripped through a weapons factory in Italy owned by Franco-German defense group KNDS, a major arms supplier to the Ukrainian military.

No casualties were reported in the blast, which occurred near the town of Colleferro, about 45 km southeast of Rome, on Thursday.

Mayor Giulio Calamita told reporters that the community of roughly 50,000 people, which has longstanding ties to the factory, narrowly avoided a tragedy because many employees were away for the summer holidays. Twenty-four workers were inside the building at the time of the explosion and all were reported safe, according to the RAI news agency.

Footage circulating online shows flames rising behind a group of buildings before a powerful blast sends burning debris into the air.

NOW - Massive explosion tears through an ammunition plant near Rome owned by Franco-German defense giant KNDS, a major supplier of weapons systems and munitions to Ukraine.pic.twitter.com/v9pBj26Zsz

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 13, 2026

KNDS owns the facility through its national subsidiary, KNDS Ammo Italy. The plant manufactures medium- and large-caliber ammunition, including 155mm artillery shells that are reportedly supplied to Ukraine through European intermediaries. KNDS has close defense ties with the Ukrainian military and opened a subsidiary in Kiev in 2024.

#Roma, incendio ed esplosione nel deposito di un'azienda a Colleferro: 10 squadre #vigilidelfuoco in azione per operazioni di spegnimento delle fiamme, che si sono propagate anche alla vicina vegetazione. Elicottero Drago in ricognizione sulla zona [#13agosto 17:30] pic.twitter.com/hCc1JFBNug

— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) August 13, 2026

A preliminary investigation found no indications of foul play, Italian media reported, citing law enforcement sources.
Colleferro has previously seen deadly accidents linked to weapons production at the site, which over the years was owned by Bombrini-Parodi-Delfino (BPD), Snia Viscosa, and Simmel Difesa before being acquired in 2014 by Nexter Systems, now renamed KNDS France, according to media reports.

Earlier this week, a fire also damaged a munitions factory in Bulgaria’s Gabrovo Province. Authorities declared a seven-day partial state of emergency on Thursday because of the danger posed by shells scattered within a 500-meter radius by secondary explosions.

Israeli defense officials have been shocked by the rapid recovery of Iran’s military capabilities since the heavy bombardment by the US and Israel in the opening stages of the conflict, the Jerusalem Post has reported.

Earlier this week, a senior adviser to the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said that Iran’s output of ballistic missiles and drones exceeds the rate at which they are being deployed. “Even if the war lasts for several years, our ballistic missiles will continue to rain down on the enemy,” Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naqdi told Press TV.

In an article on Thursday, the Jerusalem Post said it has independently confirmed that statements by senior Iranian officials of accelerated arms production in the country are accurate.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed for months that Iran’s defense industry was set back years after US and Israeli forces attacked the country around 30,000 times, striking over 2,600 missile and industrial military targets, during the hottest phase of the conflict in late February and early April, the article read.

According to Israeli officials, the Iranians were not only able to swiftly access underground missile sites affected by the US-Israeli airstrikes, but also figured out other creative ways to rebuild their arsenals.

If Tehran keeps manufacturing between 100 to 300 missiles per month, it could become a prohibitive threat for Israel already in 2028, the paper suggested.

This possibility will likely influence broader Israeli strategy about when and if another attack on Iran might be needed, it added.

“The IDF will continue to analyze developments and to be prepared accordingly,” the spokesman stressed.

While Israel has refrained from military action against Iran since June, the standoff between Washington and Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz continues.

The traffic in the key waterway, which accounts for a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas trade, has reduced to eight ships per day amid reports of more strikes on vessels, according to Reuters. It stood at between 130 and 140 ships daily before the conflict.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the Americans had “total control” over the strait. Tehran denied the claim the next day, saying that the waterway remains “under Iran’s control and management” and will stay closed until the US changes its behavior.

A new US report that includes India among the countries allegedly helping China to evade steep American tariffs has added another wrinkle to India-US relations.

The White House report, titled ‘The Great Transshipment Scam’, flagged over 40 US trading partners, including India, for aiding Chinese tariff evasion by operating a “shadow trans-shipment network.”

The concern raised in the report is about the practice of a country facing steep US tariffs sending its goods through a third country that faces lower tariffs – which Washington calls “illegal transshipment.”

The report by Peter Navarro, the top trade adviser to US President Donald Trump and a known India-baiter, said “India’s Pune-Gujarat-Chennai production belt absorbs pumps and compressors… affecting industrial supply chains in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus.”

“A Chinese pump that leaves Pune as Indian is a pump not machined in Cincinnati, Dayton or Columbus,” Navarro told reporters on Thursday.

India is included in the first group, along with Canada, the EU, Israel, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan.

New Delhi has not yet responded to the report.

The US has used sweeping sanctions and tariffs as it tries to bend the world to comply with its geopolitical, technological, and economic goals. China exports face an average of 23.2% US tariffs, while India faces 10% tariffs on about 70% of its exports to the US.

Navarro’s report adds another pressure point to the tense dynamic between Washington and New Delhi. “Countries that relabel or reroute tariffed goods to evade U.S. law should face immediate interdiction, penalty tariffs, sanctions, and potential loss of market access,” it warned.

The report gave a wide range for the annual value of the transshipped goods, from $40 billion to $303 billion, based on the methodology and definition used. The Customs and Border Protection agency, it said, is using an AI architecture that fuses “anomaly detection, link analysis, capacity validation, and mirrored-flow verification” to detect such practices.

The White House has accused more than 40 nations, including some of its closest partners, of helping Chinese goods evade US tariffs by exploiting differences in levies imposed on third countries. 

A new 25-page report titled ‘The Great Transshipment Scam’, released by the White House on Thursday, names Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, Taiwan, and the EU among those allegedly involved in the practice. 

The document claims the “scam” involves sending Chinese-made goods through another country, where they are lightly processed, repackaged, or relabeled before being shipped to the US under a new declared origin. 

Washington says the practice took off after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese products in 2018. Since returning to office, Trump has expanded levies to much of the world, creating wide differences in tariff rates between trading partners. Last month, he also imposed new tariffs on imports from 60 countries over alleged failures to combat forced labor, drawing protests from several major US partners. The White House acknowledged that such gaps may themselves have increase incentives for rerouting. 

China has repeatedly condemned Trump’s tariff regime, accusing Washington of protectionism and economic coercion and arguing that its trade and technology restrictions disrupt global commerce.

Earlier this month, the Chinese Commerce Ministry announced tighter export controls on drones and related technologies and retaliatory measures against several American entities, warning of further countermeasures if Washington introduces new restrictions.

US President Donald Trump has imposed steep tariffs on imported drones and their components, potentially complicating Ukraine’s plans to expand UAV sales to Washington.

Under a proclamation signed on Thursday, drones weighing more than 25 kg and those equipped with thermal imagers will face tariffs of 100%, along with certain docking stations and critical components. Smaller unmanned aircraft will be subject to a 25% levy.

Lower rates will apply to selected US partners, including 15% tariffs for the EU, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan, and 10% for the UK. The measures are set to begin taking effect in 21 days, with some delayed for 180 days.

Trump said a Commerce Department review found that the US was “too reliant” on foreign drones and components. The White House said the measures are intended to reduce supply-chain and security risks while rapidly expanding domestic production.

The move, however, could complicate Kiev’s recently revived push to sell drones to the US.

Trump said last month that Washington would buy Ukrainian UAVs, while Reuters later reported that Kiev had agreed to export drones for the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance program. During discussions last year, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky suggested a broader drone deal with the US could eventually be worth between $10 billion and $30 billion.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe has been accused of knowingly using a “cookie stuffing” scheme at her shopping startup that allowed the company to collect commissions for sales it did not actually generate, according to Bloomberg.

Phia, co-founded by Gates and fellow Stanford graduate Sophia Kianni, markets itself as a digital shopping assistant that finds cheaper products and discount codes. Despite Gates trying to distance herself from the “nepo baby” label and present the venture as independent of her billionaire father, it immediately attracted tens of millions of dollars from prominent Silicon Valley and celebrity investors during its first funding round and was actively promoted by Bill Gates.

The controversy around the company first erupted last month, when Bloomberg reported that Phia’s browser extension was automatically inserting affiliate tracking cookies into online purchases, allowing it to claim commissions even when shoppers had not used its coupons or links.

The practice, known as “cookie stuffing,” can constitute federal wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

However, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that internal Slack messages and source code show Gates and Kianni had known about the practice for months.

In one December exchange, Gates reportedly asked developers to ensure automatic cookie drops were working across retailers so Phia could monetize “every transaction.” Kianni later told engineers that “whatever we can do to keep these cookies dropping will be amazing.”

After the features were disabled in July, average daily revenue reportedly fell from about $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000. Phia claims part of the decline came from suspending other monetization tools and says it has begun reversing improperly attributed commissions while hiring a compliance chief.

Gates has denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes and told the US Congress this year that the financier had tried to blackmail him over his extramarital affairs. He has called his association with Epstein a serious mistake.

German camera maker Leica has excluded a Russian photographer from its prestigious Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) following Ukrainian criticism over his links to the Russian RIA Novosti news agency.

Valery Melnikov, a three-time World Press Photo winner, said in a social media post this week that his long-term series, ‘Mariupol. Open Wounds’, had initially been selected by the Leica jury for the 2026 shortlist before being dropped.

The project, which Melnikov has worked on since 2022, documents civilians living in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol, in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The city was liberated by Russian forces in May 2022 following an 85-day battle that left much of it in ruins. The DPR, along with Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions, voted to join Russia in referendums later that year. 

Leica had initially described the series as focusing on residents who “suffer the unbearable humanitarian consequences of the war.”

Melnikov said the complaints came from “either photographers or bloggers from a neighboring country” who described him as a “Kremlin-media-linked photographer.”

Ukrainian photographer Sergey Korovainiy, who has covered the conflict, had publicly criticized Leica’s decision to shortlist Melnikov, according to media reports.

According to Melnikov, Leica representatives told him that some of the photographs in the project had been taken while he was working for RIA Novosti. He stressed that his employment history had always been public, adding that the competition rules contained no restrictions on such circumstances.

Leica has not publicly addressed Melnikov’s account of the conversation.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, several EU member states have seen discrimination against performers from other nations perceived to have sympathy for Russia. Moscow has denounced such measures as “Russophobic censorship,” warning that attempts to “cancel” Russian culture will ultimately fail.

Melnikov, a 2015 LOBA finalist, has covered global conflicts, including in Syria, Afghanistan, and Mali. The winners of the 2026 award are due to be announced on October 8 in Wetzlar, Germany.

Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova has claimed her second gold medal at the European Gymnastics Championship in Zagreb, winning the vault. The Olympic champion earlier took gold in the individual all-around, as well as bronze on the balance beam and in the floor exercise.

Earlier this week, Russian gymnasts dominated the women’s all-around at the tournament, claiming gold and silver. Melnikova took first place ahead of teammate Anna Kalmykova, while another Russian, Liudmila Roschina, narrowly missed the podium, finishing behind France’s Elena Colas in her first senior season.

At the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, Melnikova won gold in the women’s team event and bronze in the individual all-around and floor exercise.

The participation of the Russian team was marred by hostile actions from the host country, which initially refused to provide visas to nine members of the Russian delegation, including both of the medal winners, a coach, and the team’s physician. Russian diplomats managed to secure visas for four of the affected athletes, while others remained barred from entering Croatia.

In addition to the visa troubles, the host country also refused to allow Russian athletes to compete under their national flag. 

European Gymnastics reinstated Russian athletes to competitions earlier this year, enabling them to perform under the national flag, following a ruling from World Gymnastics.

However, for the events for which hosting rights were awarded before July 28 this year, Russian teams can be barred from displaying the country’s flag and other symbols at the host’s decision.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has branded Israeli settlers besieging three Palestinian families in their West Bank homes “terrorists.” The days-long siege has targeted several properties, including one owned by a dual US citizen.

According to the UN, the blockade in the village of Qusra began last Sunday, leaving approximately 15 Palestinians, including at least two children, trapped in their homes without access to electricity or water supplies. The Palestinians are also believed to be running out of food and medicine.

Huckabee, known for his pro-Israel views and support for the settler movement, issued the rare rebuke in a post on X on Thursday.

“The actions of those doing this to this family’s home is criminal… Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting. No excuse for such thuggish behavior,” the diplomat wrote.

The US envoy also claimed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the police had removed the “Israeli terrorists” from Qusra at the US Embassy’s request.

The US intelligence community doubted reports of an Iranian plot to kill President Donald Trump by shooting down Air Force One as it departed a NATO summit in Türkiye, the Washington Post has reported. Their assessment was reportedly conveyed to the administration, yet the Secret Service still opted to covertly move Trump to another aircraft.

US media broke the story of the clandestine maneuver this Monday. On leaving the meeting, Trump abruptly switched from his new Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8 to the previous Air Force One, but it turned out he secretly left that aircraft as well in an airport catering truck, flying aboard a smaller military plane to the UK. He is said to have reboarded the older Air Force One there to create the impression that he was on it the entire time.

CIA analysts were highly skeptical of intelligence on an imminent assassination plot and conveyed that position to the administration. Reports about the threat were “Israeli-derived, not US-generated, and viewed as low confidence,” an unnamed intel official told the Post.

Trump admitted to switching planes on Tuesday, insisting he was only doing what the Secret Service considered the best course of action. “I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane. I just have to do what they say,” Trump told reporters. 

The scandal also coincides with the departure of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who announced on Wednesday she would leave her position at the end of the month “so she can spend more time” with her family. The 28-year-old, who became a mother for the second time in May, returned to the White House after a hiatus in June. Leavitt’s abrupt departure has sprouted theories that she was among the unwitting officials left on the decoy aircraft and that the affair may have been the final straw for her.

Released in early August, the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s latest white paper signals that Tokyo, under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, is converting years of incremental modernization into a more integrated and far-reaching national-security architecture – one that is altering the strategic landscape along China’s eastern periphery. It envisages a system designed not merely to absorb an attack, but to conduct strikes farther from Japanese territory.

The white paper frames Japan’s security environment as the most severe and complex since the end of World War II. It points to Chinese military activities near Japanese waters, the Taiwan question, North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, and closer coordination among China, Russia, and North Korea. These are Tokyo’s stated assessments. More consequential is the early revision of Japan’s three core security documents – the National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, and Defense Buildup Program – and the translation of the post-2022 defense expansion into a tighter, more comprehensive system.

Two developments stand out: a major reorganization of intelligence and the military and the operationalization of long-range counterstrike systems that extend Japan’s reach well beyond its traditional defensive perimeter.

A new intelligence command for a new era

A central institutional step is the creation of the National Intelligence Bureau on July 31. Upgrading the former Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, the bureau consolidates information from across government agencies and operates with roughly 700 personnel as the secretariat of a National Intelligence Council chaired by the prime minister. Japan has long managed with fragmented intelligence structures; the new body is designed to function as a stronger central ‘control tower’.

This move coincides with expanded satellite and maritime surveillance, cyber and electromagnetic capabilities, and improved joint command arrangements under this year’s reorganization of the military. The white paper lists command-and-control and intelligence functions among seven priority areas and describes a national defense architecture that deliberately links diplomatic, intelligence, economic, and technological instruments.

Further steps – anti-espionage legislation and the possible creation of a dedicated foreign-intelligence agency – remain under discussion. The direction is clear: tighter integration of intelligence collection, analysis, economic security, technology policy, and military planning.

The second defining change concerns counterstrike. The white paper identifies stand-off defense systems as a core pillar of the buildup and presents counterstrike capabilities as essential for deterring invasion. Japan maintains that these systems remain consistent with senshu boei – its exclusively defense-oriented policy – while seeking the ability to address threats before they reach Japanese territory.

In practice, the shift alters Japan’s traditional posture. For decades, Japanese defense emphasized territorial protection, missile interception, and responses after an attack had begun. Long-range systems change that. Japan is acquiring Tomahawk cruise missiles and upgrading indigenous stand-off weapons. Among the systems drawing particular attention is the Type-25 anti-ship missile, designed to engage naval targets at greater distances. Development of hypersonic weapons and unmanned platforms – aircraft, surface vessels, and underwater vehicles grouped under a SHIELD (Synchronized, Hybrid, Integrated and Enhanced Littoral Defense) concept – is also advancing. These elements form a more complete kill chain linking intelligence, surveillance, command, and distant engagement.

From a regional perspective, such capabilities complicate security calculations along the first island chain and in waters near Taiwan. Japanese territory can increasingly function not only as a defensive position but as a platform supporting or conducting operations farther from the home islands.

Resources, industry, and structural change

Financial resources are expanding in parallel. Japan accelerated its target of defense spending equivalent to 2% of GDP. Fiscal 2026 expenditures, including costs related to the Special Action Committee on Okinawa and the realignment of US forces, exceeded ¥9 trillion (almost $56.5 billion) for the first time. The white paper elevates defense production and the technological base to a central place, treating them as integral to overall defense capability.

This year’s reorganization of the military reflects this approach. Joint command structures are being strengthened, procurement is being linked more closely to domestic industry and dual-use technologies, and greater participation by startups is being encouraged. The April revision of the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology further eases restrictions on exports, presenting them as means to strengthen deterrence, support partners, and sustain production capacity.

These steps increase the potential for joint production, maintenance, and supply-chain integration with the United States and other partners, positioning Japan as a more active node in a wider defense-industrial network.

Nuclear policy remains formally constrained. Japan has not decided to acquire nuclear weapons, and Prime Minister Takaichi has repeatedly stated that the country upholds the Three Non-Nuclear Principles of not possessing, producing, or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons. At the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 9 marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing – and days earlier in Hiroshima – she affirmed that the country “firmly upholds the three nonnuclear principles” while promoting “realistic and practical initiatives” toward a world without nuclear weapons.

Yet the wording has drawn attention for its careful ambiguity. Takaichi described Japan’s current stance without offering an explicit pledge that the principles would remain unchanged in the security documents now being revised. Discussion around the third principle in particular – the ban on introducing nuclear weapons into Japanese territory – has become more flexible. Government experts reviewing the documents have examined whether that restriction should be reconsidered, with some officials arguing that changed circumstances require a fresh look at nuclear deterrence.

Japan’s advanced civilian nuclear industry, reprocessing facilities, and technical expertise already constitute a latent nuclear capability – an industrial and scientific foundation that could, under certain conditions, be redirected more rapidly than that of most non-nuclear states. This debate does not inevitably lead to a decision to weaponize, but it does indicate that the political boundaries around nuclear policy are less rigid than in previous decades. Given the existing technological base, any long-term movement in this area would carry significant regional implications.

Why China is watching closely

China has responded with diplomatic criticism and military signaling. Chinese officials have described Japan’s accelerated military development as a dangerous turn toward remilitarization and have objected particularly strongly to Japan’s long-range strike capabilities. Beijing has also continued maritime and military activity around areas of strategic importance to Japan, while China-Russia military cooperation has remained an important element of the regional security environment.

Beijing is responding not just to Tokyo’s aggregate military strength, but to its position inside a wider regional network. Japan’s defense cooperation with the US, Australia, the Philippines, South Korea, and other countries is becoming more interconnected. The Japanese strategic documents themselves describe the objective as building multilayered networks and improving interoperability in training, operations, equipment, and industrial bases.

The result is a changing equation. Japan remains much smaller than China in population, military expenditure, and overall military capacity. But it is becoming a considerably more capable, connected, and technologically sophisticated military power than before.

For China, that means the strategic environment along its eastern periphery is changing. Japan is no longer simply the relatively constrained maritime power of the postwar decades. It is developing the intelligence, strike, industrial, and technological capabilities required to act earlier and farther from its territory, while remaining closely integrated with the US-led security system. In short, a more assertive Japan is redrawing the map of East Asian security – and Beijing knows it.

The US military lost 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones, or a quarter of its entire supply of the reconnaissance craft, during its war on Iran, the Washington Post has reported. The loss cost the US taxpayer an estimated $1.3 billion.

The loss figures were revealed by the Washington Post on Thursday, citing three unnamed US officials. A fourth US official told the newspaper that not all the lost drones were shot down. Some, they said, crashed after losing communications with their operators.

A successor to the MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drone, capable of flying for up to 30 hours while carrying out surveillance missions or targeted strikes with Hellfire missiles. One of these craft costs between $30 and $50 million, and the US military had approximately 185 before the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28 – 165 in the Air Force, and 20 operated by the Marine Corps.

Within hours of the war beginning, reports of downed Reapers began circulating on Iranian Telegram channels. Video footage soon followed, with the Iranian military claiming to have shot down multiple MQ-9s mid-flight, and destroyed others as they sat in hangars at US bases across the Gulf region.

By the time the US and Iran reached a tentative ceasefire on April 9, preliminary reports in US media suggested that around two dozen Reapers had been shot down by Iranian forces. If the Washington Post’s figures are accurate, the initial accounts may have undercounted the losses by almost half.

The MQ-9 Reaper entered service with the US Air Force in 2007, and was extensively used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the US’ undeclared wars in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and beyond. Synonymous with President Barack Obama’s drone assassination program, the MQ-9 Reaper was viewed as untouchable until 2017, when Houthi forces in Yemen managed to shoot one down with a Soviet-era anti-air missile.

A string of losses followed, and by the time the US and Israel began striking Iran in February, the Reaper was already considered obsolete and ineffective against any military with anti-air capabilities.

The Reaper is one of multiple weapons systems left in short supply by the Iran war. The US has reportedly used more than half of its Patriot and 80% of its THAAD anti-air missiles, and a third of its Tomahawk cruise missiles since February 28. US President Donald Trump has denied that the US is facing a missile shortage, but has asked Congress for $87.6 billion to cover “urgent needs” related to the war, including $21 billion for munitions.

France’s ambassador to the Central African Republic has been disciplined for sexual misconduct with around 30 local women at his official residence in Bangui, according to French media. 

Ambassador Bruno Foucher brought around 30 women between the ages of 20 and 30 into his residence between January 2024 and March 2026, French magazine Le Canard Enchaine reported on Wednesday. These late-night visits, some of which involved the women sleeping over, reportedly alarmed Foucher’s security detail, who alerted his higher-ups in Paris.

The French Foreign Ministry told the Guardian that an investigation was carried out, resulting in “disciplinary proceedings against the ambassador.” These proceedings, the ministry said, are “ongoing.” 

France losing influence in Africa

France’s influence in the CAR has waned dramatically over the past decade. Although the CAR gained independence from France in 1960, Paris continues to control its currency, and France intervened militarily during multiple civil wars in the 2000s and 2010s. However, French troops had been widely seen as incapable of ensuring stability, so President Faustin-Archange Touadera turned to Russia for security assistance following his election in 2016. 

The trajectory of the CAR follows those of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all of which are former French colonies. All three countries have expelled French troops, with Russia’s Africa Corps stepping in to fight jihadists in Mali, and Russia providing military aid and training to Burkina Faso and Niger. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot visited Bangui in March, ending a period of disengagement that he termed “cooling off,” and reassuring Touadera that “the Central African Republic matters to France.” Amid this outreach campaign, Ambassador Foucher’s conduct is an embarrassment to Paris and a potential impediment to diplomacy.

US military installations across the Pacific are in an alarming state of decay, a new Pentagon inspector general’s report has found, calling for “immediate attention” to fix crumbling infrastructure.

The heavily redacted report, released this week, is part of an ongoing audit of US military facilities in the region. Inspections at 11 installations have revealed various severe issues, including collapsing ceilings, corroded walls, and a significant presence of mold. Additionally, there is extensive use of hazardous construction materials such as asbestos and lead-based paints.

The unclassified “management advisory,” dated August 6, goes on at length about the Kadena and Yokota air bases in Japan. The uncovered issues affected both “mission‑critical systems” and “other critical infrastructure… and housing infrastructure.” Multiple buildings at the bases have “visible corrosion, visible mold, visible fire damage, visible cracks on the building exterior and interior, visible concrete spalling, and exposed rebar,” as well as “inoperable communication connections” according to the advisory.

In some instances, storage buildings had multiple rusted-through holes exposing the hardware inside to the elements. Housing units have suffered from “ceiling collapses, visible mold, or visible concrete spalling,” repeatedly prompting relocation of assigned servicemen and their families. Some of the buildings also had crumbling facade elements “ranging from small fragments to large slabs” falling off, posing a threat to personnel.

The decay of US military installations in the Pacific has been a persistent issue for years, yet neither civilian nor military authorities have been able to reverse it. In 2024, for instance, the Biden administration launched an Installation Infrastructure Action Plan to address the disrepair at bases overseas. According to the plan, at least “70 percent of utility systems at Pacific Air Force locations [were] severely degraded due to the highly corrosive environment.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been pushing a staggering $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027, a sharp increase over the more than $901 billion enacted for the current year. The massive $600 billion increase alone is almost twice the total annual military budget of China, which has been painted as the main US rival by the White House. The administration has repeatedly singled out the Pacific as its priority, rallying local allies to spend more on defense, citing China’s alleged military buildup.

Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader who ruled Cuba for nearly five decades, was one of the defining figures of the Cold War, defying successive US administrations and surviving hundreds of reported assassination attempts.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Castro’s birth, a new RT documentary looks back at his rise to power, his confrontation with Washington, and the ideas that shaped Cuba under his rule.

A key Soviet ally in the Western Hemisphere, Castro stood at the center of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Under his rule, Cuba endured decades of US economic pressure while making major advances in healthcare, science, and education.

The film also explores Castro’s historic ties with Moscow and the legacy of a leader whose influence reached far beyond his Caribbean island.

Watch on RT.

Vladimir Zelensky has made an unusually specific claim about what Ukraine needs to defend itself against Russian ballistic missiles.

In an interview with CNN, Zelensky said Ukraine currently has enough Patriot interceptors to amount to roughly 1% of America’s existing stockpile – itself reportedly depleted by the war with Iran and a source of some acrimony between US President Donald Trump and his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth.

Nevertheless, Zelensky used the CNN interview to call on Washington to sell Ukraine 5% of its remaining Patriot missile stockpile, which he claimed would be enough to get Kiev through the winter. The former actor went further on air, saying that 10% of the US inventory would allow Ukraine to shoot down every Russian ballistic missile fired at the country.

But the numbers quickly begin to fall apart under scrutiny.

How many missiles does the US have, and what does Zelensky want? 

The total number of Patriot interceptors currently at America’s disposal is classified, but the most recent estimates put the figure at around 800, after the US reportedly burned through some 65% of its total inventory during the war on Iran.

Zelensky’s proposed 10% transfer would therefore amount to about 80 Patriot interceptors.

That may sound substantial – until it is compared with the rate at which Kiev has been using them. Zelensky adviser Dmitry Litvin told the New York Times in March that Kiev had received and used some 600 Patriot missiles over four years. There is also the rate at which Russia is firing ballistic missiles to consider.

Zelensky himself told Axios in late July that Russia was firing 30 to 40 ballistic missiles in each major attack, with such strikes occurring three to five times a month.

On July 5-6, Russia reportedly launched 29 ballistic or similarly high-speed missiles in an attack focused heavily on Kiev. Ukraine intercepted none of them, with Ukrainian officials attributing the failure to a shortage of interceptors.

Less than two weeks later, Russia reportedly launched 25 Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles and ten Zircon missiles – 35 in total – alongside several other weapons in another barrage focused largely on Kiev. Ukraine claimed to have intercepted 17 of the Iskander/Zircon/S-400 missiles.

Does Zelensky’s missile math make any sense?

Even under the extraordinarily favorable assumption that every Patriot interceptor destroys an incoming ballistic missile, 80 interceptors would be enough to defeat only 80 targets. At the rate of 30-40 ballistic missiles per major attack cited by Zelensky himself, that would provide enough ammunition for roughly two large-scale attacks – again, assuming every interceptor hits its target.

US and NATO defense doctrine calls for launching between two and four Patriot interceptors at each incoming missile. Zelensky’s claim that a Russian barrage involves 30 to 40 ballistic missiles would therefore mean that Kiev could expend as many as 80 interceptors – or 10% of the estimated US inventory – on a single attack.

Three to five such attacks a month, involving 30 to 40 ballistic missiles each, would amount to roughly 90 to 200 incoming ballistic missiles per month. Eighty Patriot interceptors could not destroy all of them even with an impossible 100% success rate.

At a 1:1 interception ratio, 80 Patriots would cover 80 ballistic targets. At 2:1, they would cover 40. At 3:1, about 27.

In other words, 10% of America’s estimated stockpile of roughly 800 interceptors could plausibly provide enough ammunition for robust ballistic-missile defense against one major barrage, or perhaps several weeks to a month of more selective protection.

It could not literally “destroy all the Russians’ ballistic missiles,” as Zelensky told CNN.

There is another inconsistency, however. According to Axios, just weeks before making his 10% proposal, Zelensky said he needed 300 Patriot interceptors before winter because of the scale and frequency of Russian ballistic-missile attacks.

If the relevant US inventory is around 800 missiles, 300 would represent nearly 40% of the total. Yet Zelensky is now suggesting that approximately 80 – barely a quarter of his previous request – could accomplish something far more ambitious.

What’s the bottom line?

Moscow’s most recent ballistic-missile barrages against Ukraine have reportedly further eroded Kiev’s ability to mount even a token defense. Zelensky’s 40-day influence operation has also significantly backfired, earning him a dressing-down from Washington over attacks on shipping in the Black Sea. His apparent failure to anticipate that Russia would respond in kind and shut down Ukraine’s Black Sea ports could reportedly cost the Ukrainian economy another 1.5% of GDP.

Zelensky may be working from a different estimate of America’s missile inventory, or assuming that US production would provide a recurring supply in the future rather than a one-time delivery. Alternatively, his use of the phrase “destroy all” may simply be another example of his usual rhetoric rather than a literal claim that Ukraine could intercept every ballistic missile Russia launches.

That leaves two possible interpretations: Either Zelensky is using his own media-manipulation techniques to deliberately simplify or exaggerate the figures in an effort to strengthen his case for further depleting America’s stockpiles, or his assessment of how long such a stockpile would last is seriously mistaken.

The defense team of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk last September, has argued that the defendant should be spared the death penalty, as he only “hit the intended target.” The defense attorneys insist that the prosecution has been unable to prove the alleged shooter put other people’s lives at risk, thus committing aggravated murder.

The latter, which is a capital crime in the state of Utah, requires at least one “statutory aggravating factor” to qualify as such.

Kirk, a popular podcaster and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot in the neck and killed while speaking to about 3,000 attendees of an event at Utah Valley University in Orem on September 10, 2025.

Robinson was apprehended two days later. Investigators allege that he was the sniper who fired the fatal shot from a rooftop, about 130 meters (140 yards) from the packed venue.

In Tuesday court filings, Robinson’s defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant “knowingly created a great risk of death to another other than Charlie Kirk.” Kathy Nester, Michael Burt, Richard Novak, and Staci Visser wrote that the “only evidence presented supports that the bullet traveled above, not through, the crowd,” and thus no one other than Kirk was in the line of fire.

Robinson’s defense team also pointed out that the alleged shooter did not specifically mention “any threat or intended harm to any other individual(s)” in communications with his romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, which was cited as evidence by the authorities.

The prosecutors, in turn, contend that Robinson’s alleged motivation for the assassination stemmed from Kirk’s public opposition to same-sex marriage and gender transitioning.

According to family members and media reports, Robinson became radicalized and mentioned the conservative activist in conversations before the shooting. The unfired rounds recovered from the rifle allegedly used in the assassination reportedly bore inscriptions, including “Hey, fascist! Catch!”

Robinson’s defense team had petitioned Utah District Judge Tony Graf to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty back in June, accusing them of staging a “media tour” concerning a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body. The defense attorneys alleged that this constituted a violation of restrictions on public comments on the case.

The hearing is expected to resume on September 1, with Robinson yet to enter a plea.

Iran can stay in the fight in a prolonged armed conflict with the US, even if it lasts the rest of Donald Trump’s term in office, a senior Iranian general has said.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) voiced confidence in Tehran’s ability to sustain a long-term confrontation during an interview with PBS on Tuesday. His remarks came amid media reports of pressure on US munitions stockpiles and declining morale among American forces deployed in the Middle East.

Tehran’s objective is “to attain deterrence so that the enemy never dares to attack us, so we can live with security,” Naqdi told the US broadcaster when asked whether Iranian commanders intended to “drag out” the conflict until Trump was no longer in office.

“One way is to prolong this war until we get to the next term of the presidency and cause attrition, so that if anyone else wants to attack Iran, they will know there is a cost,” he said.

The conflict has become increasingly unpopular among US voters, raising concerns among Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.

Trump has alternated between threats of further military escalation and claims that Iran has been weakened to the point of almost accepting a peace agreement favorable to Washington. On Wednesday, he claimed that the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, imposed in April, had been widely described as a “wall of steel” and that Tehran “has no money.”

“The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain,” Naqdi told PBS. “We had never seen a real war to gain real experience to learn how to fight with America. In these five months, we have learned how. We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived.”

Should those stockpiles eventually be exhausted, he added, Tehran could instead target what he described as “thousands of [American] economic interests throughout the world.”

The US State Department reportedly ordered Israel to stick to its word and pull its troops out of Lebanon after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said his forces were “here to stay” in the south of the country.

Under a US-brokered framework signed on June 26, Israel agreed to leave the territory it currently occupies in Southern Lebanon in exchange for the Lebanese government disarming Hezbollah and establishing its own military as the sole armed group in Lebanon. During a visit to the occupied territory on Wednesday, Katz declared that “the IDF is here to stay in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.”

“The United States expects all parties to act in accordance with the framework agreement they have agreed upon, and Israel has clearly stated that it has no territorial aspirations in Lebanon,” a State Department official told Barak Ravid – an Axios reporter whom Israeli politicians and security officials regularly leak to – on Wednesday.

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇱🇧The Trump administration criticized Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz's remarks about maintaining Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon, stressing that his comments contradict commitments the Israeli government made under the framework agreement with the United States…

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) August 12, 2026

“A permanent Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon is inconsistent with the commitments given in the framework agreement and does not align with the long-term peace and security of both countries,” the official added.

Israel currently occupies roughly 600 square kilometers of southern Lebanon, including some territory north of the Litani River. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have demolished dozens of villages, and the occupation has resulted in the forced expulsion of more than 1.2 million Lebanese civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that Israel could permanently annex certain areas of southern Lebanon. In an interview with Fox News last month, Netanyahu claimed that some Christian villages in Lebanon “have actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we protect them against the Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them.”

Netanyahu did not name any of the villages, and more than a dozen local Christian leaders in southern Lebanon issued a statement calling his remarks “completely fabricated” and “unrelated to reality.”

Israel’s war on, and occupation of, Lebanon has directly interfered with US-Iran peace talks. The July 17 memorandum of understanding agreed by Washington and Tehran reportedly called for the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” a clause that Israel has not heeded.

Spain will not discuss the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla with Morocco, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles has said after Rabat publicly renewed its claim to the North African enclaves.

The exchange comes nearly two weeks after tens of thousands of people crossed the border of Ceuta in an unprecedented influx that overwhelmed the city. At least 100 people reportedly died, many while attempting the crossing by sea, while Madrid deployed troops and accelerated returns. Most of those who entered have since been sent back, but between 3,000 and 5,000 remain on Spanish territory, according to local officials.

Moroccan Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi told Asharq TV on Tuesday that Rabat regularly raises the status of Ceuta and Melilla in negotiations with Madrid and seeks a long-term resolution through dialogue.

Spain’s Foreign Ministry issued a separate statement saying the country’s territorial integrity “has not been, and will never be, discussed with anyone.”

Ceuta and Melilla are Spain’s only land territories in Africa and form the European Union’s only land borders with the continent. Morocco has regarded the enclaves as occupied territories since gaining independence in 1956 and argues that sovereignty should ultimately be transferred to Rabat. Spain considers them integral parts of its territory, having controlled Melilla since the 15th century and Ceuta since the 17th.

Relations improved after Madrid endorsed Morocco’s autonomy proposal for the disputed territory in 2022. Rabat, however, has not renounced its claims to Ceuta and Melilla.

Madrid has largely praised the Moroccan authorities for helping repatriate migrants following the July influx, blaming people-smuggling networks for the crisis. The surge came shortly after Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla could not be immediately deported.

A sweeping overhaul of Germany’s intelligence services proposed by the government could infringe on police powers in violation of constitutional safeguards, opposition politicians have warned.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt presented a 730-page package comprising three draft laws that would significantly expand the powers of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies respectively.

While there is broad political agreement that Germany’s security apparatus requires modernization, critics say the proposed expansion of the BfV’s mandate goes too far. Germany has traditionally maintained a strict separation between intelligence gathering and police work to prevent concentration of power.

“Dobrindt, with these demands that he hastily dictated into the draft legislation, is doing far more harm than good,” Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Wolfgang Kubicki told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Dobrindt has argued that the proposed intelligence “revolution” is necessary to tackle an evolving “hybrid threat landscape.”

Critics contend that the proposed reform would fundamentally alter the relationship between the state and citizens, particularly because the BfV operates under a different system of legal oversight from ordinary law-enforcement bodies, which generally require judicial authorization for intrusive measures.

“Equipping a secretive security agency with such powers will predictably create more chaos and problems,” Kubicki said.

Green Party MP Konstantin von Notz likewise argued that the reform represents a fundamental departure from existing norms and would “end up before the Federal Constitutional Court.”

The BfV has for years scrutinized the right-wing, anti-immigration AfD over suspected threats to Germany’s constitutional order, giving the agency expanded legal grounds to surveil its leaders. The AfD has rejected the allegations and accused the authorities of using the agency for politically motivated pressure.

Christian Wirth, another AfD lawmaker, warned last month that the proposed reform could transform the BfV “from an early warning system of democracy into an architect of a totalitarian reality.”

The AfD continues to post strong polling numbers despite other major German parties maintaining a policy of refusing to form governing coalitions with it.

Party co-leader Alice Weidel argued this week that the trend could eventually allow the AfD to form single-party governments in some federal states.

She pointed to recent polling in Saxony-Anhalt showing the party at 43% ahead of an election in early September, more than twice the share of the vote it received there in 2021.

India is planning to send its first cargo ship on the Arctic route running along Russia’s northern coast next year, as it seeks to deepen trade with Moscow outside of Western sanctions and without disruptions via the Suez Canal.

The 5,600 km Arctic route, or Northern Sea Route (NSR), runs off Russia’s Arctic coastline and is the shortest shipping route between East Asia and Europe. Climate change and receding sea ice open up the route seasonally – but conditions are harsh, requiring specialized ice-breakers to keep channels open.

“In 2027, we are planning to have the first pilot vessel running through the Northern Sea Route,” the joint secretary in the Indian Shipping Ministry, S. Venkatesapathy, told the Arctic-Regions Forum in Arkhangelsk on Thursday. 

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said New Delhi was showing active interest in the NSR. He said Moscow is seeing “growing interest from countries” about the Arctic route, naming India and China among those talking to Moscow.

Venkatesapathy, who is leading the Indian delegation to the two-day forum, said the Chennai-Vladivostok corridor – also known as the Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC) – has seen a 70% jump in cargo movement, and there is a “humongous possibility” to extend this success to the NSR.

“We are seeing huge possibilities, not only for the EMC but also for the NSR,” the official said, adding two MOUs were signed last year for the development of the routes. He said India found the routes appealing because of their shorter distances, safety, and commercial viability.

India and Russia have set a bilateral trade target of $100 billion by 2030, and Russian oil now makes up more than half of New Delhi’s imports – making the Arctic route a key trade link for the two countries.

For India, the Arctic route can save up to 40% in distance and about two weeks in travel time to most European ports, compared to the traditional route through the Suez Canal. The Suez route has become dangerous for commercial shipping due to the Mideast conflict.

Russia has invested heavily in developing the NSR’s infrastructure, and in 2023, Moscow struck a deal with Dubai-based DP Word to develop container shipping along the Arctic route. Container traffic has risen as Chinese companies have seized the opportunity offered by the NSR. While 23 voyages were completed last year, some 30 are already planned for this year.

Cargo volumes along the route have exceeded 37 million tons over the past two years, and it is expected to reach 20 million tons by 2030.

Cargo movement between Russia and China through the NSR has already exceeded five million tons this year, the director of the Department for the Development of the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic at Rosatom, Azamat Khochuev, told RT on the sidelines of the Arctic-Regions forum.

The state-owned conglomerate, with its fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, is Russia’s designated operator and coordinator of the NSR.

The Kuril Islands will forever remain Russian land, with Japan looking for trouble by continuing to stick to its claim over the archipelago, former Russian President Dmitry Medvdev has said.

The Kuril archipelago came under Soviet control at the end of World War II following Japan’s defeat and was subsequently incorporated into the USSR. Tokyo, however, continues to claim the four southernmost islands – Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai islets – which it calls its “Northern Territories.” The dispute has been the main obstacle to Moscow and Tokyo signing a formal peace treaty in the eight decades since the conflict.

On Thursday, Tokyo lodged a strong protest over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first-ever visit to the Kurils, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi calling the trip “absolutely unacceptable” and saying it “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people.” 

The Japanese Foreign Ministry also summoned the Russian ambassador to the country, Nikolay Nozdrev, over Putin’s trip, Kyodo News reported.

In post on X later in the day, Medvedev said that “Takaichi can prattle on all she likes about the Kuril Islands being ‘historically Japanese,’ but this chatter won’t change a thing. They were, are, and will remain Russian land.”

“Anyone who fails to understand this will face the monstrous consequences of their delusion,” the official, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned without elaborating.

Putin traveled to Iturup, the largest of the Kuril Islands, on Thursday morning, touring a local fish processing plant, a medical center, and a school. He is only the second sitting Russian president to visit the Kurils after Medvedev made the trip in 2010.

Putin addressed the dispute on Wednesday while attending the final stage of Russian Pacific Fleet exercises off Sakhalin. He blamed Tokyo for the broader deterioration in relations between the two countries.

“I would like to emphasize that we pose no threat. We have absolutely no grievances against Japan. On the contrary, it’s Japan that has territorial claims against our country, specifically regarding the Kuril Islands issue,” he insisted.

The status of those territories “is enshrined in international documents as a reality resulting from World War II. Yet even on this, Russia was prepared to seek a solution to reach a peace treaty,” Putin said.

Moscow and Tokyo signed a declaration in 1956 that “opened the way” for a peace agreement, but Japan later backed out of it, the president recalled. After the fall of the USSR, Russia also engaged in constructive relations with several Japanese leaders, including Shinzo Abe, who served as prime minister in 2006-2007 and 2012-2020 and “did a lot” to align the positions of the two nations, he added.

Two adolescent lions who were rescued from the illegal wildlife trade in Israel have been relocated to the Animal Defenders International (ADI) Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa’s Free State province.

The lions, BenTzur and Ori, had been stranded for months due to the conflict in the Middle East, with most flights grounded. Finally, they hitched a ride with the ADI team on a cargo flight from Tel Aviv, which took them on a 50-hour journey via Cairo and Frankfurt before landing in Johannesburg.

According to ADI, over a year ago the 16-month-old lions were seized as tiny cubs by Israel’s Nature & Parks Authority (NPA) during a crackdown on illegally trafficked animals.

“The youngsters had been torn from their mothers, when they should have been suckling, in order to be passed around as ‘trophy pets’ for photos, likes, and shares – the craze being fuelled by social media,” the organisation said.

ADI President Jan Creamer said trophy pets are animals like lions and tigers, and they are taken from their mothers and kept in cruel and unnatural conditions as status symbols. 

“They are treated as fashion accessories for social media likes and then get dumped when the owners get bored, or the animals grow too big, dangerous, and expensive to feed. These young animals suffer miserable lives, caged and in tiny spaces, deprived of their mother’s love, social contact with their own kind, living in basements and on chains when they should be running free,” Creamer said. 

“Social media is providing free advertising for a cruel and abusive trade, with accounts identified by ADI of ‘influencers’ with over six million followers, handling exotic animals, normalising and monetising animal abuse,” it said.

BenTzur and Ori had a lucky escape, and this week made the journey of a lifetime. With very few flights available due to the conflict, they flew from Tel Aviv to Cairo for a two-and-a-half-hour stopover, then on to Frankfurt, Germany, for a 12-hour wait before leaving on their flight to Johannesburg. ADI founders Jan Creamer and Tim Phillips flew with the lions to monitor them, topping up their water and using tongs to give them small pieces of meat prepared in advance through a small hole in the crate.

“The lions travelled well, but it was a long journey, and they were very happy when we finally released them into their house at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary. They rubbed heads, vocalised, and then curled up together on a nice hay bed to sleep. The other lions at the Sanctuary immediately knew there were new arrivals and announced their presence with roars, which made BenTzur and Ori sit up and listen. They were so young when they were taken; they will not have heard the communications of a lion pride,” Creamer said.

Preparations had been made to account for the young lions arriving from the sweltering heat in Israel to mid-winter in South Africa. They were kept overnight in their heated house and given a light meal.

The lions have adapted very quickly to their new routine, responding to the voices of their carers, coming into their house to be fed. They have been enjoying toys like giant robust-a-balls and catnip sacks.

“All the stress of trying to get them here and the exhaustion of the journey were forgotten as they stepped out onto African soil. They had never walked on grass before and were cautious, then started to stride together through our dry, golden, winter grass, growing in confidence and looking around, hearing the voices of other lions; you could see they were where they were meant to be,” Creamer said. 

“Their instincts took over, and they methodically walked the whole 2.5-acre habitat, mapping it out, noting where everything was, sitting on top of the platforms, investigating the dens underneath and playing with the toys. By the end of their third circuit, they knew where everything was in their territory, and lay on top of the platforms, looking and listening to the roars of their neighbours,” Creamer said. 

ADI said the rescue proved to be very expensive due to months of waiting, the scarcity of flights and the escalating cost of aviation fuel, in addition to building a large secure habitat and a brick-heated house. The charity is now looking to cover the costs of BenTzur and Ori’s food, veterinary care, and care team for hopefully the next 20 years, and is appealing for support for these young lions. Due to inbreeding, early-age malnutrition, and associated genetic problems, as well as their close contact with humans, BenTzur and Ori can never return to the wild.

First published by IOL

Zambians are voting in presidential, parliamentary, and local elections on Thursday, with incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema seeking a second five-year term as a bitter dispute over the burial of his predecessor and longtime rival, Edgar Lungu, continues to overshadow the campaign.

Although 14 presidential candidates are in the race, the contest is widely seen as primarily pitting Hichilema against opposition figure Brian Mundubile, a former senior member of the government of late President Lungu.

Nearly 8.8 million people are registered to vote, according to the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ). Under the Constitution, a presidential candidate must receive more than 50% of valid ballots to win outright; otherwise, the two leading candidates proceed to a runoff.

What has happened since Zambia's 2020 default?

Following the country’s 2020 debt default, Zambia signed a $1.3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt restructuring program though it is reported to owe China, Lusaka’s largest creditor, some $6 billion. However, the standard of living for ordinary citizens remains heavily strained due to painful fiscal austerity measures, high inflation, and severe climate shocks like regional droughts.

Speaking after casting his ballot in central Lusaka, Kantumoya Derrick Mpaka, a Zambian national who studied at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), told RT that voting there had been peaceful and orderly.

Who is Hakainde Hichilema?

Hichilema, 64, is a businessman and leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND). He won the presidency on his sixth attempt in 2021, defeating Lungu by nearly one million votes.

Who is Hichilema’s main challenger, Brian Mundubile?

Hichilema’s main rival Mundubile, 55, is an accountant, lawyer, and former lawmaker. Under Lungu, he served as Northern Province minister and government chief whip. He later became leader of the opposition in parliament.

Mundubile has criticized Hichilema’s economic and human rights record and promised Zambians a larger share of the country’s copper wealth. His political background suggests greater continuity with the China-friendly policies of the Lungu era, during which Beijing financed major infrastructure projects.

He is running for the presidency under the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity banner while leading the Tonse Alliance. The coalition was originally formed around Lungu and brought together several parties seeking to remove the UPND from power.

Mundubile’s most notable political achievement has been reaching an agreement with part of the divided Patriotic Front movement. Makebi Zulu, an ally and former lawyer of Lungu, is his running mate. However, several other opposition figures, including Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe, are running separately, meaning the anti-government vote remains fragmented.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry said investment in critical sectors has increased gross domestic product (GDP) from $19 billion to $40 billion since 2021, generated 7.8% growth, and produced a positive trade balance. The Zambia Statistics Agency, however, put annual growth at 3.8% in 2025, followed by a 7.7% year-on-year expansion in the first quarter of 2026.

Mpaka told RT that the figures do not reflect many voters’ circumstances. “On paper, our economy is doing okay, but in reality people are suffering, especially in rural Zambia, where people are living in poor conditions,” he said, citing a wide gap between rich and poor. High food costs, unemployment, and electricity shortages remain major concerns.

How important is Zambia to the global copper industry?

Hichilema has also introduced free primary and secondary education, recruited tens of thousands of teachers, and attracted billions of dollars in mining investment. A February 2026 World Bank Group report ranks Zambia as Africa’s second-largest and the world’s ninth-largest copper producer. Rising demand for minerals used in electric vehicles and clean-energy technology has intensified international interest.

In May, Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe accused Washington of linking a proposed five-year health package worth up to $2 billion to a critical-minerals agreement favoring US companies.

In foreign policy, Hichilema has strengthened relations with the US and Europe while maintaining extensive economic ties with China. Beijing remains a major creditor and investor in Zambia’s mines and infrastructure, including a planned $1.4 billion renovation of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway.

Relations with Moscow have also continued. In a December interview with RT, Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe described Russia as an “all-weather” friend and characterized bilateral ties as a “strategic partnership,” highlighting cooperation in education, energy, and trade.

Does Zambia favor the East or the West? 

Andrey Maslov, head of the Center for African Studies at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, told RT on Thursday that regardless of the election results, any leader of Zambia will follow a multilateral policy.

“Larger than any country in Europe, Zambia anchors two rival transport, logistics, and resource strategies: The US seeks to draw Zambia’s resources toward the Atlantic Ocean via Angola, while China finds it more advantageous to develop the Tanzania-Zambia corridor,” he said. “The country itself is attempting to balance these interests and benefit from these contradictions.”

Maslov noted that Washington might view Hichilema as capable of containing China’s expansion and preventing Zambia from aligning with alternative centers of power. However, the expert predicted that any Zambian leader would pursue a multilateral foreign policy while remaining mindful of public opinion, including opposition voters.

"Zambia is traditionally perceived as a source of copper and cobalt for global markets. Its role is, however, gradually evolving – for instance, the country has already become an exporter of electricity," Maslov adds.

Why is the burial of EdgarLungu controversial?

Former President Edgar Lungu died while receiving medical treatment in South Africa in June 2025, but his remains have not been buried following a dispute between his family and the Zambian authorities.

The dispute has nevertheless entered the election campaign. Mundubile and his running mate, Makebi Zulu, who previously acted as the Lungu family’s spokesperson, have promised to give the former president a dignified burial if elected.

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have renewed their assault on the strategically important city of El Obeid, while drone strikes have been reported in several parts of the country, including the capital region, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing witnesses and local sources.

Eight drones targeted El Obeid, prompting the Sudanese military to activate its air defenses, according to the news agency. Medical sources cited by Reuters said two people were killed and several others wounded.

Drone attacks were also reported in Khartoum, Bahri, Atbara, and other locations, with witnesses saying one UAV crashed into the courtyard of a mosque in Bahri. The report said neither the RSF nor the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had immediately claimed responsibility for the strikes.

El Obeid has become a key flashpoint in the battle for Sudan’s Kordofan region. The city is home to roughly half a million people, including around 100,000 displaced by the conflict, according to Reuters.

Fighting has also intensified hundreds of kilometers to the southeast in Sudan’s Blue Nile region. RSF forces and their allies from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) launched an assault on the border town of Geisan this week, triggering clashes with the Sudanese army. 

The latest fighting follows a series of battlefield gains by the SAF. The Sudanese army recently recaptured Kurmuk in Blue Nile state and, in late July, regained several areas in North Kordofan from the RSF, including Bara, Jabra al-Sheikh, and Um Sayala. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan subsequently visited frontline positions in the region.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to equip its officers with special gloves capable of delivering painful electric shocks to people resisting arrest, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notice.

Known as G.L.O.V.E. (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter), the devices are made by Kentucky-based Compliant Technologies and have already been used by some US prisons and police departments.

ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million on what the DHS calls “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” under a contract running through March 2027.

The manufacturer does not publicly disclose the price of the gloves, but AP reported that ICE plans to purchase thousands of the devices.

The DHS plans to award the contract to Compliant Technologies without competitive bidding, with the solicitation expected as early as Friday.

Headed to Las Vegas this week for Shot Show! Let us know if you're attending and stop by the booth. pic.twitter.com/pKhky6eIXQ

— Compliant Technologies (@CompliantT_CD3) January 18, 2025

A DHS spokesman told Time magazine on Wednesday that “ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country.”

When approached by AP, Compliant Technologies founder and CEO Jeff Niklaus said that “unfortunately, we are unable to speak on this subject.”

John Peters, president of the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, likened the shock to a bee sting, describing it as “immediate and sharp.”

Peters told AP the gloves could be used to force uncooperative suspects out of vehicles or homes, as well as to maintain order in ICE detention facilities.

The planned purchase has drawn criticism from civil liberties advocates amid mounting scrutiny of ICE’s use of force.

Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said ICE has spent the past year demonstrating that its officers are “too quick to use force.”

“Introducing gloves that can so easily be used to deliver terrible pain in encounters is a recipe for harm to the public,” she said.

The planned acquisition comes after nationwide protests over the fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal immigration agents in Minnesota in January.

India is among the countries showing active interest in the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, as fast-growing economies in Asia and beyond seek to develop trade with Russia amid Western sanctions.

“We see growing interest from countries wishing to engage with us on this front,” Putin said regarding the Arctic shipping route. “These partners include, above all, our friends China, India, and other nations who are actively discussing these matters with us.”

Putin, who is visiting Russia’s Far East and Sakhalin Region to oversee naval drills, was speaking to Pacific Fleet personnel aboard the missile cruiser Varyag. He said the interest from partner countries has grown following Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict, and that cooperation on the NSR would follow international maritime law.

India is a key partner in the Arctic – Regions Forum, being held on August 13-14 in the city of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia.

India one of the key countries showing growing interest in cooperation on Northern Sea Route: Putin

Putin warns of rising artificial tensions in the Arctic as interest in the Northern Sea Route grows, while stressing that cooperation remains within international maritime law. pic.twitter.com/Yrx0LllhZb

— Sputnik India (@Sputnik_India) August 12, 2026

With the 10,380-km Chennai-Vladivostok corridor, also called the Eastern Maritime Corridor, operational since 2024, India and Russia have speeded up cooperation on the NSR as they seek to reach their $100 billion bilateral trade target.

Last month, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Rosatom – the designated operator and coordinator of the NSR – has been instructed to sign a memorandum with India on maritime cargo transportation along the Arctic route.

The state-owned conglomerate manages Russia’s unique fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, essential for keeping the Arctic shipping lane navigable.

Russia is investing heavily in the 5,600-km NSR – which runs through the Arctic Ocean off the country’s northern coastline and is the shortest shipping route between East Asia and Europe – to turn it into a major shipping lane.

India and Russia formalized the Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Support (RELOS) pact during Putin’s visit to New Delhi in December. The pact offers India access to ports along the NSR, from Vladivostok to Murmansk.

In June, the Russian minister for the development of the Far East and the Arctic, Aleksey Chekunkov, said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian business community are interested in developing trade ties with the Russian Far East.

Indian shipyards are in talks to build non-nuclear icebreaker ships to navigate the harsh icy waters.

Ukraine has been blocking Russian proposals to exchange certain prisoners while publicly accusing Moscow of holding up the process, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova has said.

Lantratova, whose office is directly involved in prisoner swaps, criticized the Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday, accusing them of misrepresenting Russia’s position on a group of detainees captured between 2014 and 2022 who are from Donbass and Crimea.

“The Ukrainian side published lists of our guys… claiming Moscow refuses to include them in exchanges,” Lantratova wrote.

“Those are our lists,” she added. “We compiled them based on conversations with their mothers, families, and loved ones, and we are fighting for each of them. These are the same names Ukraine cynically publishes while claiming they have been ‘abandoned,’ despite knowing that in reality we are waiting for Kiev to formally respond to our proposal.”

“Ukraine refuses to take them back. They don’t want those 224 people. They value publicity, not human life,” she stated.

On Thursday, Lantratova released another list containing the names of 273 Ukrainians whom she said could also be included in a prisoner exchange.

Last week, several pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels published the personal data of around 150 prisoners from Donbass, alleging that Russia regarded them as “expendable.”

The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics broke away from Ukraine after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, which overthrew the country’s elected government and brought anti-Russian forces to power. The ensuing conflict saw Kiev launch a military operation against the two Donbass republics. Russia initially pushed for their peaceful reintegration into Ukraine under the Minsk agreements, which envisaged special status for the region.

Former Ukrainian and Western leaders later acknowledged that the Minsk process had bought Kiev time to strengthen its military with Western support. After the conflict escalated in 2022, Donetsk and Lugansk held referendums on joining Russia and were subsequently incorporated by Moscow.

Nearly 370 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli prisons, many without having been convicted of a crime, RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij has reported, citing Palestinian and Israeli rights organizations.

The number of minors held under administrative detention – which allows imprisonment without charge or trial – has almost doubled in just over a year, according to the latest figures from Israel’s prison service.

Israel says around 90% of the detained minors are being held for security-related reasons but have not been convicted, according to an RT report. Prison terms generally range from two to three years, although some minors have received sentences of between ten and 20 years.

Israeli police also report that around 100 minors are detained each month for entering Israel without a permit.

The detentions have come amid mounting allegations of mistreatment inside Israeli prisons. Former detainees and rights organizations have reported abuse, torture, starvation, physical and psychological harm, sexual violence and denial of medical treatment.

Israel is also holding the bodies of more than 100 Palestinians who died in its custody, according to a recent report cited by RT.

The situation in the West Bank has received comparatively little international attention amid the war in Gaza, where Israeli military operations have caused widespread destruction and displacement.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has put the Palestinian death toll since October 2023 at 73,386, with another 174,250 people wounded. Israel launched its military campaign following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.

Meanwhile, arrests and raids have continued across the West Bank, leaving a growing number of Palestinian minors in Israeli custody.

Watch the full report by RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij below.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has threatened to reconsider Warsaw’s $50 million annual spending on Elon Musk’s Starlink after the satellite internet provider excluded Polish customers from its European roaming region.

Starlink’s new roaming system groups 36 European countries and territories into a single region, allowing customers to use the service across participating states. Poland, however, has been specifically left outside the zone.

“Hey, @elonmusk, big man, stop discriminating Polish users of Starlink or we might re-think paying you $50 million p.a. for your services,” Sikorski wrote on X on Wednesday.

The “big man” jab appeared to revive a public spat between Sikorski and Musk last year. After the Polish minister suggested Warsaw might seek an alternative to Starlink if the service became unreliable, Musk told him to “be quiet, small man,” accused him of exaggerating Poland’s contribution, and insisted there was “no substitute for Starlink.”

A lightning strike at an Ohio prison injured 16 inmates, leaving one seriously hurt, as deadly storms swept across the US Midwest, state authorities said.

Lightning struck the Grafton Correctional Institution on Tuesday as a group of “incarcerated individuals were returning from the evening meal,” the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) said.

All 16 were initially taken to outside hospitals, with one evacuated by air ambulance. By Wednesday, four remained hospitalized, including one with serious injuries, according to Governor Mike DeWine. No deaths or staff injuries were reported.

The lightning strike came during severe storms that swept across the US Midwest, bringing tornadoes, flash flooding, powerful winds, and widespread power outages.

video released from the State prison complex in Grafton yesterday evening as over a dozen inmates were injured by an apparent lightning strike pic.twitter.com/MAAWTnf8Fw

— Ed Gallek (@edgallekfox8) August 12, 2026

Preliminary data from the US weather service’s Storm Prediction Center indicated that the system could qualify as a derecho – a widespread, long-lived windstorm associated with a fast-moving line of thunderstorms.

Absolutely INCREDIBLE storm structure moved through Phillipsburg, Ohio a short time ago!

📷️ Viewer Submission pic.twitter.com/IW4RNS5enQ

— Max Velocity (@MaxVelocityWX) August 11, 2026

Video published by the Ohio Department of Transportation shows powerful winds flipping a moving car on a highway in Columbus.

BREAKING: Severe Derecho Storm With Winds In Excess Of 100mph Steamrolling Through Midwest.
Car On Ohio Freeway Thrown & Rolled Over By Severe Thunderstorm Derecho Winds! pic.twitter.com/kNgi0kaaHn

— John Basham (@JohnBasham) August 11, 2026

At least three deaths were reported during the storms.

Hobart, Indiana 8/11/2026 11:15am central
NWI Northwest Indiana NW Indiana
MCS Derecho

Unbelievable. Worst storm I've ever been in. By far.

🚨🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/CtH1E4FCLT

— John Scherman (@john22scherman) August 12, 2026

An Ohio resident died during a medical emergency after flash flooding prevented first responders from reaching him, Governor Mike DeWine said. A four-year-old boy was killed after a tree fell on a home in Indiana on Tuesday, according to local authorities. A third person died in a house explosion in Portage, Indiana, which authorities were investigating as potentially weather-related, the Associated Press reported.

Children are among the mounting casualties of Ukraine’s intensifying drone campaign against Russia’s Belgorod Region, where RT has visited a hospital treating some of the youngest victims.

Kiev has escalated long- and mid-range strikes on Russia in recent months. The campaign has killed at least 43 civilians, including four children, and wounded more than 400 others over the past week, according to Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik. Belgorod Region, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkov regions, has been among the areas hardest hit.

In an exclusive report released on Wednesday, RT spoke to several young survivors receiving treatment at the region’s main children’s hospital. More than 260 children have been treated there for serious injuries since Ukrainian attacks on the region intensified, including patients who have suffered amputations.

Vladimir, another young patient, said he suffered multiple wounds.

“My legs, arms, torso, and head were stitched up,” he told RT. “It was scary when I was lying in the ambulance. And they kept telling us: ‘It’s coming.’ And then it hit us like a lightning bolt.”

“When a child realizes they’re not stuck in the day they were injured but continue to live, this is the next step toward recovery,” she told RT.

Belgorod Governor Aleksandr Shuvaev said the region was targeted by more than 7,000 Ukrainian drone attacks in June. At the current rate of escalation, that figure could reach 12,000, he warned.

Watch the full report below:

American journalist Tucker Carlson has told RT that he is not afraid of being killed for using his platform to say what he believes is true.

The former Fox News host has adopted a staunch non-interventionist stance toward US involvement in foreign conflicts in recent years, breaking sharply with President Donald Trump on key foreign policy issues such as Washington’s war on Iran and support for Israel. Since leaving the news network, Carlson’s podcast has routinely garnered millions of views and featured high-profile interviews, including a 2024 conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an exclusive interview with RT’s Rick Sanchez on Wednesday, Carlson said he had “got old enough and insulated enough from the normal levers of control to say what I really think is true.”

What are you going to do about it? Kill me? OK, I’m not afraid of that. I’m a Christian. So I’m just going to keep talking.

“This Iran war, the war with Russia – these are the things that will destroy the US, and I live here and my family’s been here for 350 years, and… I don’t want to see my country destroyed,” he said.

Another prominent right-wing influencer who was highly critical of hawks within the Republican Party and US involvement in foreign wars, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last year.

The murder prompted debate over incitement and inflammatory political rhetoric amid a rise in political violence targeting public figures in the US, including multiple attempts on Trump’s life.

Watch the full exclusive interview with Tucker Carlson below:

The German government is expected to grant the country’s intelligence agencies greater powers, including offensive cyber capabilities against foreign adversaries, according to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.

NATO member states have on multiple occasions accused Russia of hacking government servers, jamming aircraft GPS signals, and redirecting Ukrainian drones into their airspace, with little to no evidence. Moscow has dismissed the allegations as warmongering aimed at justifying the “rabid militarization” of Europe.

Berlin’s Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) are set to undergo “historic reform,” Dobrindt told Bild.

The legislation will transform “intelligence services into genuine intelligence agencies,” he said, adding that “this is a revolution in our security architecture because, for the first time, we are giving the intelligence services operational powers.”

Dobrindt cited hybrid threats supposedly faced by Germany, as well as “attempts at destabilization through sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks, and covert operations by foreign powers.”

The spy agency would also be given greater access to communication and video data, which would be analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence, according to the media outlet.

Dobrindt is to present the reform to the German cabinet on Wednesday. The minister reportedly stressed that the BND and BfV need stronger “operational capabilities and active powers” to fight modern state terrorism and extremist groups.

Dobrindt announced an imminent cabinet decision to expand the powers of the BND in mid-June, while inaugurating a new hybrid warfare center in Berlin.

Last December, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the German government was seeking to authorize the BND to conduct cyberattacks, sabotage, and other offensive operations abroad.

Additionally, under the plan, the intelligence agency would also be vested with broader domestic surveillance powers, with agents to be allowed to enter suspects’ homes to secretly install spyware on computers and other devices, according to the report.

Two pilots have been killed after a US Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter crashed in a field in central Texas and burst into flames, sparking a large wildfire and prompting evacuations in the surrounding area.

The helicopter, based at the Fort Hood military installation, went down near Salado at around 1:35 PM local time on Wednesday, according to the US Army and the Bell County Sheriff’s Office. Both crew members aboard were confirmed dead.

“It crashed into a field, and you could tell it was a violent crash,” sheriff’s office spokesman Cliff Coleman told reporters.

The impact sparked an uncontrolled grass fire that spread across roughly 100 acres. The blaze was about 45% contained by 5 PM local time, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The authorities ordered evacuations in the area as firefighters worked to contain the flames.

Footage from the scene showed burning debris scattered across scorched ground as emergency crews tackled lingering fires.

JUST IN: Two Pilots Killed After Fort Hood Apache Helicopter Crashes In Central Texas

An AH-64 Apache attack helicopter based at Fort Hood crashed Wednesday afternoon near Salado in Bell County, Texas, killing both pilots on board.

The crash sparked a large, uncontrolled grass… pic.twitter.com/g5gZSl9pKK

— Bruce Snyder (@realBruceSnyder) August 12, 2026

No people on the ground were injured and the helicopter did not strike any buildings or other structures, according to local authorities.

The Apache can carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles, 76 rockets and 1,200 rounds of ammunition for its 30mm cannon. The US Army describes its latest AH-64E variant as its most advanced attack helicopter, with the fleet expected to remain in service for decades.

It remains unclear where the helicopter was coming from or where it was headed.

US President Donald Trump has ordered an end to federal funding for so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors through two major government healthcare programs.

The move comes amid a broader rollback of transgender-related policies introduced under previous administrations.

The new restrictions will apply to Medicaid, a joint federal-state health insurance program primarily serving low-income Americans, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid but may struggle to afford private insurance.

“We are not going to pay for our innocent children to undergo these barbaric surgeries and practices, which result in unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.

Individual states will still be able to use their own funds to pay for the treatments.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the decision followed a review by the Department of Health and Human Services that found significant gaps in evidence supporting medical gender transition for minors and raised concerns about potentially irreversible effects.

“Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions that pose serious risks and convey no proven benefits,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said, arguing that ending federal funding would save taxpayer money and protect minors from potentially irreversible harm.

The move is part of a broader rollback of transgender-related policies since Trump returned to office. His administration has moved to restrict medical transition procedures for minors, bar transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, and restrict people with gender dysphoria from serving in the US military.

At least 27 US states have already enacted restrictions on gender-transition treatment for minors, while several major hospitals have stopped offering some such procedures amid legal challenges, funding pressure, and changing medical guidance.

Israel has been intentionally igniting wildfires in forests and agricultural land across southern Lebanon using drones and various munitions, Lebanese firefighters have claimed to The Guardian.

Large areas of woodland, olive groves, and farmland have burned in the nearly two months since the June 17 ceasefire largely halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Hussein Fakih, the head of civil defense in the Nabatieh region, estimated that fires have affected 30-40% of land in some areas close to the front line.

He said Israeli forces began setting fires immediately, alleging that drones have dropped incendiary materials while white phosphorus shells and illumination flares have been fired into woodland.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces dropped flares over a wooded area outside Khiam, sparking fires, according to Fakih. A drone later struck near firefighters attempting to extinguish the blaze, forcing them to withdraw.

The allegations come alongside evidence of extensive destruction across Israeli-occupied parts of southern Lebanon. A visual investigation by the Financial Times and journalism nonprofit Lighthouse Reports found widespread damage to homes, schools, farmland, forests, and essential infrastructure. Satellite imagery indicated that much of the destruction occurred after Israeli forces had established control over evacuated villages in mid-April.

Israeli forces subsequently pushed deeper into southern Lebanon and established what officials have described as a security buffer zone. By June, Israel reportedly controlled around 2,000 square kilometers of Lebanese territory – roughly one-fifth of the country.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has repeatedly demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal and pledged to restore essential services so displaced residents can return.

Conservative journalist Tucker Carlson has accused the US political establishment of turning Americans against each other, telling RT that key decisions are made by unelected officials and the system no longer represents ordinary voters.

Speaking to Rick Sanchez on Wednesday, Carlson said Americans are “encouraged to hate” their fellow citizens as Republicans and Democrats are pitted against one another.

“The truth is, it’s not the differences between us that are the problem, it’s the consensus at the top,” Carlson said, accusing the two parties’ leaders of “collusion against the American people” and acting against the interests of their own supporters.

Carlson, who backed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, has since distanced himself from the Republican Party amid disagreements over the US war on Iran and Washington’s relationship with Israel. In June, he said there was “no chance” he would support the party in the November midterms, while also ruling out backing the Democrats.

Carlson has pledged to help establish a third party, describing the current system as a “one-party state posing as a democracy,” and last week presented a ten-point vision for America. He has ruled out a presidential bid himself, telling Sanchez: “I’m not planning to run for president, that’s for sure.”

He went on to claim that major decisions in Washington are not made by officials chosen by voters, but “by the permanent bureaucracy, the deep state.” 

Carlson described the system as a “fraud,” saying Americans are given the illusion that elections offer meaningful political choice. He said the US therefore needs an alternative, although he acknowledged that he does not know what form it should take. 

The former Fox News host also accused the country’s broader leadership of pursuing interests disconnected from those of ordinary Americans. He claimed the US government had been “hijacked” by people using it “for their own purposes,” describing the underlying problem as a “bad leadership class.”

Watch full interview:

Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is expected to decide whether to charge two close aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged lobbying on Qatar’s behalf, local media has reported citing sources.

The so-called Qatargate affair erupted early last year, when Israeli Channel 12 dropped a bombshell investigation alleging that the closest advisors to the PM were paid by Doha to promote Qatari interests to the top security and political authorities in the country. The investigation implicated Yisrael Einhorn, Ofer Golan, Jonatan Urich, and Eli Feldstein, with the latter official already arrested over alleged involvement in the theft and leak of classified documents prior to the publication.

Urich and Feldstein were both detained and questioned last March over the allegations, while Einhorn, who resides in Serbia, refused to return to the country. Golan, a longtime spokesman for Netanyahu, has survived the longest among the implicated officials, departing from his role only this April.

The AG is now expected to decide whether to proceed with the charges against Urich and Feldstein, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. While the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence agencies have not submitted their assessment on the affair yet, unnamed Justice Ministry officials told Channel 13 there was “sufficient evidence” to charge the suspects over contacts with a foreign actor.

Apart from Netanyahu’s aides, the affair could hit Mossad director Roman Gofman, media reports have said. Prior to taking over the agency this June, Gofman served as Netanyahu’s military secretary and could have a conflict of interest over his close ties to the suspects. Justice Ministry officials are now reportedly deliberating whether the intelligence chief should be barred from signing off on the impending assessment from his agency.

The Qatargate affair has left a new major dent in the reputation of Netanyahu, who has been facing assorted corruption allegations for over a decade. The ties between his aides and the Qatari government appear to have been quite long-standing, with the implicated officials allegedly helping Doha regain its positions in the Gulf as early as amid the 2017-2021 diplomatic crisis, as well as develop a strategy to improve its reputation ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

New York City Council is investigating Polymarket, Kalshi, and other predictive market platforms for “deceptive and predatory” marketing practices, accusing the industry of encouraging gambling and insider trading.

Council Speaker Julie Menin notified Kalshi, Polymarket, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan of the investigation on Tuesday. In a letter to Polymarket seen by Bloomberg, Menin referenced “troubling” news reports suggesting that the company and its competitors “target young adults – and thus potentially minors – with false, deceptive, and unconscionable advertising.”

According to the reports, Polymarket ​allegedly paid ⁠influencers to promote its platform without disclosure, produced videos showing fake trades on its site, presented losing bets as winners, and encouraged insider trading.

“Prediction markets aggressively entice consumers to bet and wager on sports, politics, culture, weather, and pretty much anything. We refuse to let New Yorkers, especially our young people, become collateral damage,” Menin said in a statement on Wednesday.

A White House staffer has been investigated for allegedly making bets based on her advance knowledge of US President Donald Trump’s remarks, while a US special forces soldier has been arrested for using classified Pentagon materials to pocket $400,000 by correctly predicting the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power in January.

Suspicious trades surged during the US-Israeli war on Iran, with The Guardian counting more than $1 billion in “perfectly timed” wagers, including an $850,000 bet just before US strikes on Iran began on February 28, and roughly $950 million in oil futures hours before US Trump announced a ceasefire. Suspicion fell on Washington insiders, and the White House warned staff against insider trading in April.

US journalist Tucker Carlson has said that people linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached him with material from Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 US presidential election.

The laptop belonging to the son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden became the focus of a major controversy weeks before the vote after the New York Post published material from it pointing to alleged influence-peddling involving the Biden family. The story was widely questioned by US media at the time, while dozens of former intelligence officials suggested it bore the hallmarks of a Russian information operation.

Speaking to RT’s Rick Sanchez on Wednesday, Carlson recalled that he was working at Fox News at the time and said he sent one of his producers to meet a person connected to Netanyahu.

“People connected to Netanyahu came to us,” he said, adding that they claimed to have information from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“It was the Israelis who were pushing that,” Carlson said, referring to the laptop allegations. “They called me.”

Asked who originally obtained it, Carlson said he did not know. “Some people claim it was the Russian security services that did that. Maybe. I have no idea.” he said.

Carlson went on to suggest that Netanyahu did not want Joe Biden to win the 2020 election, pointing to the Israeli leader’s close relationship with Donald Trump. He characterized the episode as Israeli interference in US politics.

The laptop scandal erupted in October of 2020, weeks before the US presidential election, when a Delaware computer repair technician released copies of a hard drive containing emails suggesting foreign influence peddling by the Biden family. The New York Post was the first outlet to publish the story. 

Thereafter, CNN published an analysis titled ‘The anatomy of the New York Post’s dubious Hunter Biden story.’ Talking heads and hosts frequently asked if Donald Trump was spreading ‘Russian disinformation’ by bringing up the scandal during presidential debates.

The Washington Post published multiple opinion pieces downplaying the scandal, while the New York Times published an article titled ‘Trump Had One Last Story To Sell. The Wall Street Journal Wouldn’t Buy It’. US federal broadcaster NPR refused to cover the story at all, while the British Guardian published pieces criticizing social media platforms for allowing the story to circulate, citing “likely misinformation.”

Watch full interview below:

Sometimes trust develops gradually in settings that most people are unaware of, such as a working group, a ministerial handshake, or an agreement made on the fringes of a summit that garners national attention for a single day.

For the better part of a decade, Pakistan and Russia have been developing this kind of trust. In the summer of 2026, there were a number of quiet episodes in quick succession that essentially focused on security, diplomacy, energy, education, and trade, with Afghanistan running through almost all of them as a shared concern.

Work behind the scenes

On June 23, Russian and Pakistani officials gathered in Islamabad for the 12th edition of their Joint Working Group on Countering International Terrorism, led by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky and Pakistan’s additional foreign secretary, Ambassador Khalid Jamali. The discussion focused on regional terrorist threats, with a particular emphasis on those originating in Afghanistan. The 12th such meeting – a number which indicates that the relationship is designed not for headlines, but for continuity, the kind that can withstand changes in government and the overall geopolitical climate. The two parties agreed that further intelligence sharing and international cooperation would be critical.

Let us get the practical logic right: Bilateral channels like this one fill a void that slower, more bureaucratic multilateral organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the UN cannot cover on their own. Pakistan values Russia’s counterterrorism experience, particularly in urban warfare and counterinsurgency, while Russia is interested in Pakistan’s own operational experience along its western border. It is not a formal alliance, but it benefits both parties.

A few weeks earlier, the two countries’ interior ministries had already been busy. On June 6, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, on the sidelines of an SCO gathering in Bishkek, signing agreements on curbing illegal immigration, repatriating citizens, and countering narcotics trafficking. It wasn’t bilateral-only: Naqvi held similar meetings that week with the interior ministers of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Pakistan used a regional platform to navigate several bilateral conversations in a few days. One element is worth noting: Participating ministers estimated that approximately 25 terrorist organizations are now functioning in Afghanistan. That single figure explains why Islamabad and Moscow continue to find reasons to communicate more effectively than any communiqué wording about “shared concerns” can.

There is undoubtedly a shared concern for both nations. Nearly every issue on this bilateral agenda includes Afghanistan, although Pakistan and Russia approach it in different ways. Islamabad’s main worry is groups that it claims operate from Afghan territory against targets in Pakistan, primarily the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistan firmly believes the Taliban authorities are harboring. This is denied by Kabul, which views the issue as an internal one in Pakistan. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has claimed assaults far beyond Afghanistan’s borders, even inside Russia, is Moscow’s top concern.

Where the two countries converge is on engagement rather than isolation as the way to manage that risk. In April 2025, Russia removed the Taliban from its list of designated terrorist organizations, and in July 2025 it went further, becoming the first country to formally recognize the Taliban administration as Afghanistan’s government. This was a historically loaded step, given that the Soviet Union fought and lost a nine-year war there against the mujahedin forebears of today’s Taliban. Moscow’s own explanation leaned on both security and economics: continued cooperation on counterterrorism and counter-narcotics, alongside stated interest in energy, transport, agriculture, and infrastructure projects inside Afghanistan. That recognition was formalized further in January 2026, when Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted the credentials of the Taliban government’s ambassador in Moscow.

The Shanghai spirit

Here comes the question as to why the SCO is important. None of this happens in isolation. Pakistan joined the SCO as a full member in 2017, and the group has become one of the more useful platforms on which Islamabad and Moscow meet as equals. They are two states with overlapping headaches: porous borders, extremism that ignores maps, and narcotics routes that have outlived several governments on both ends. Pakistan’s interior minister has repeatedly invoked the “Shanghai spirit”: mutual trust, equality, and respect for sovereignty as the most suitable or perhaps the only framework for shared security challenges.

Kyrgyzstan has held the SCO’s rotating chairmanship since the Tianjin summit in September 2025, with a year focused on long-term stability, including a proposed International Center for Combating Organized Crime in Bishkek. The 2026 SCO Heads of State Summit will be held there from August 31 to September 1. Pakistan is set to assume the chairmanship immediately afterward. Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said Pakistan will use its chairmanship year to emphasize economic ties, connectivity, and regional security, ahead of hosting the next Council of Heads of State summit in Islamabad in 2027, which will be Pakistan’s first time hosting the organization’s flagship leader-level gathering.

The economic relationship between Russia and Pakistan is still finding its footing and both governments now talk about that gap openly. In June, they agreed to work toward a Program of Economic Cooperation running through 2030, aimed at expanding trade and investment and clearing longstanding barriers to bilateral business. Pakistan’s energy minister described the relationship as having moved from Soviet-era ‘unfriendly country’ status to that of a ‘trusted friend’ across trade, energy, defense, and technology, pointing to four recent meetings between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Putin as evidence of sustained high-level attention. A Russia-Pakistan Readmission Agreement signed in Bishkek is also expected to ease visa procedures for business travel.

Connectivity is a specific focus: Pakistan has agreed to explore joining Russia’s International North-South Transport Corridor, a roughly 7,200-km sea, rail, and road network linking India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Central Asia, with Gwadar Port floated as a possible link point in Pakistan, complementing rather than competing with Chinese-backed infrastructure in the country.

Slow and steady progress

It would be easy to see all of this as background noise – working groups, sidebar signings, chairmanship handovers, and pipeline negotiations that have run for over a decade. But the pattern holds together. Pakistan and Russia have built a security relationship with real institutional depth, anchored in shared (even if not identical) worries about Afghanistan; a diplomatic calendar that gives Pakistan a bigger regional platform through 2027; and an economic relationship that both sides now describe candidly as underdeveloped and in need of exactly the kind of patient, unglamorous work on trade corridors, pipelines, and payment mechanisms that rarely makes the front page but is usually what determines whether a partnership becomes durable rather than merely symbolic.

Not every diplomatic story needs a dramatic turn to be worth telling. Sometimes the story is simply that two neighbors who once had little to say to each other now have a standing appointment across several tracks at once and keep it, year after year, one number, one agreement, one pipeline at a time.

Most Poles would back the deportation of unemployed military-age Ukrainian men, a recent survey by the Warsaw-based IBRiS Institute for Market and Social Research has indicated.

Public perception of Ukrainians in Poland has deteriorated in recent months amid a diplomatic spat between the two countries linked to Kiev’s lionization of the perpetrators of WWII massacres of Poles.

Ukraine imposed general mobilization shortly after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February of 2022, barring nearly all military-age men from leaving the country. Nevertheless, tens of thousands have crossed the border illegally and fled to the European Union.

As of late June, some 961,170 Ukrainians were residing in Poland under temporary protection, according to Eurostat.

Over a million Ukrainians have also fled to Russia since 2022.

On Wednesday, Rzeczpospolita newspaper, citing the IBRiS survey, reported that 67% of respondents believe that Poland should deport Ukrainian men of military age who are not legally employed in the country. The poll was conducted last week after the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party put forward the proposal.

While the idea unsurprisingly proved popular among PiS supporters and those sympathetic toward the right-wing Confederation party, over 50% of voters backing the ruling coalition of pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk also said they would back the deportation of Ukrainian men, according to the survey.

Earlier in July, Rzeczpospolita, citing data from Poland’s National Police Headquarters, reported that there had been a 30% year-on-year rise in hate crime complaints from Ukrainians residing in the country.

Multiple videos depicting assaults on Ukrainians in Poland have been circulating online in recent months.

Relations between Warsaw and Kiev soured after Zelensky named one of the country’s commando units after the “heroes of the UPA” (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) in May. Poland holds the Ukrainian nationalist militia, which collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II, responsible for the massacre of up to 100,000 Poles in what is now western Ukraine.

Despite a fierce backlash from the Polish public and officials, as well as the European Parliament’s condemnation of what it described as an “unnecessary and unprovoked escalation,” Kiev has stood by the decision.

Meanwhile, in mid-July, the EU announced that it would stop granting temporary protection to newly arriving Ukrainians liable for military service starting from March 2027.

Around the same time, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt similarly told Die Welt that while “asylum is, of course, still possible [for Ukrainians] in principle… fleeing military service is not grounds for asylum.”

Ukrainian officials have, in turn, repeatedly urged EU member states to repatriate Ukrainian draft dodgers as Kiev has struggled to replenish its military amid mounting casualties.

Moscow has accused the leadership in Kiev and its Western backers of being willing to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

The Pentagon was accused of whitewashing US Army crimes after publishing its annual estimate of civilian casualties in 2025.

The report, submitted to Congress late Monday and obtained by US news outlets, contains numbers that are far lower than estimates by independent outlets.

The Pentagon concluded that US military operations killed 153 civilians and injured 243 last year. All of the cited casualties in 2025 stemmed from Washington’s bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, while another 15 remain under review.

However, independent monitors have reported figures significantly higher. The Airwars group has estimated that at least 258 civilians may have been killed during the Yemen campaign, while the Yemen Data Project has put the toll at 238 dead and 467 injured. The Pentagon recorded no civilian casualties from US military operations in the Western Hemisphere, despite dozens of strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific beginning in September of 2025 – a point of particular criticism.

Two US government officials cited anonymously by The Intercept rejected the Pentagon’s assessment, with one describing the report as a “total whitewash” and another calling it “a f***ing joke.”

More than 200 people have been killed since Washington launched its campaign against suspected drug-smuggling vessels. Around 120 died in 2025 alone, but none were classified as civilians in the Pentagon report.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called for immigrants to be housed more widely across the UK, as the country continues to grapple with large numbers of people crossing the English Channel.

More than 3,000 illegal immigrants have reportedly reached the country by boat in the three weeks since Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister.

The crossings increase the already existing pressure over asylum accommodation in Britain. Burnham’s Labour Party is facing increasing voter rejection over its pro-immigrant stance while opposition parties have strengthened their policy stances on immigration. Burnham told the media on Tuesday: “We cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers.”

“I do believe all parts of the country need to […] play their part,” he added.

The government plans to accommodate up to 1,250 male asylum seekers at a former military site near Piddington, a village of around 400 residents in Oxfordshire. Locals have opposed the plan, citing concerns over its scale and impact on the community.

The comments came after 911 people reached Britain in small boats over three days. On Monday, 230 arrived aboard a single vessel, the highest number recorded on one boat, according to official figures.

Nearly 100,000 people were receiving asylum support in Britain at the end of March, according to government figures, including more than 20,000 housed in hotels.

Immigration has become an increasingly contentious issue in Britain, with protests erupting in several parts of the country amid public concern over asylum accommodation and a number of high-profile crimes involving migrants.

Europe has faced a migration crisis since 2015, when more than a million people arrived on the continent, many from the Middle East and Africa. Britain has since seen a sharp rise in Channel crossings, which have become a major political issue.

The only response Western nations will understand for seizing Russian commercial vessels is a forceful one, including retaliation in kind, Carl Zha, the host of the Silk and Steel podcast, told RT.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the seizure of Russia-linked shipping as “piracy” and a gross violation of international maritime laws. Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the position on Wednesday while attending major drills of the country’s Pacific Fleet, warning that hostile actions will be met with an appropriate response.

“If such a policy is implemented in practice, we will be forced to take mirror responses. And not necessarily in the waters where our ships are being raided. We’ll do it wherever and anywhere we see fit,” Putin stated.

Retaliation in kind for attacks on shipping are long overdue, given that Western nations have been engaging in such acts with impunity for a while, Zha believes. 

Responding in force is actually the only approach that would work with the West, which has been built on the ‘might makes right’ approach in the first place, Zha suggested. 

“The common reframe of Western colonial power is that, you know, there’s only one language the native can understand, and it’s a language of force. Actually, every accusation is a confession. For many in the Western NATO alliance, that force is the only language they can understand. So, if Russia does push back, they will be put in their place,” he said.

Watch the full video below:

The US has called Ukraine to heel for targeting oil tankers in the Black Sea after Kiev began launching drone attacks on vessels sailing to a partly US-owned Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal in Russia, the Financial Times has reported.

Ukrainian drone raids targeting the CPC – which funnels Kazakh crude across southern Russia to a marine terminal near Novorossiysk, from where tankers carry it onward to Europe and Asia – have tested Washington's patience to the limit, prompting US Vice-President J.D. Vance to press Vladimir Zelensky to shut down the attacks during a July 31 phone call, unidentified Ukrainian officials told the FT.

The CPC route incorporates a combination of Russian, Kazakh, and Western interests, with Chevron and ExxonMobil among the heavyweight US shareholders.

Ukraine also reportedly attempted to use the strikes as a bargaining chip in talks with the US. An FT source claimed that Kiev had agreed to Washington’s request because it was seeking a US license to produce desperately needed Patriot interceptor missiles.

While US President Donald Trump promised a license in early July, he later walked back on that pledge, while reportedly declining to send additional air defense missiles due to a shortfall caused by the Iran war.

Russia has denounced Ukraine’s attacks on oil tankers as “terrorist acts,” while accusing Kiev of targeting civilian infrastructure.

Kazakhstan also protested the drone raids, though without directly blaming Ukraine. It called the strikes on civilian vessels moving CPC crude as an “unacceptable infringement” on its economic interests and warned that they risked destabilizing lawful trade, energy markets, and global supply chains.

However, Kiev publicly refused to accept responsibility and urged Kazakhstan and other affected countries to “refrain from making hasty and unfounded accusations.”

A video recently released by the Russian Defense Ministry features a female drone pilot reporting the details of a successful battle against Ukrainian forces. Women are being increasingly accepted for combat roles in the country, marking a shift in gender roles.

The short clip published on Monday showed a first-person-view drone operator named Yekaterina, whom the ministry described as a “delicate girl with an iron character.” She explained the role that short-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) played in the liberation of Belitskoye, a town in the Donetsk People’s Republic, that Russian forces reportedly completed three weeks ago.

The ministry previously said the battle required coordinated efforts by multiple drone units supporting assault troops. It produced several similar videos praising pilots who participated in the operation.

Women have been accepted in the Russian armed forces for decades, but most of them served as communications and logistic specialists or medics. Nurses operating close to the front line are regularly exemplified for their courage.

During World War II however, a wide range of combat roles were open to women, producing notable examples like acclaimed sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko and the all-female pilots of the night bomber regiment known as the Night Witches.

The mass introduction of drones during the Ukraine conflict and the creation of dedicated Unmanned Systems Troops within the armed forces has apparently shifted Russian generals’ attitude to female troops.

When we think of WWI-era aviation, what usually comes to mind is the ‘Red Baron’ and Zeppelin raids—in short, most people think of the Western Front in all its fury. However, few people know that during the First World War, Russia was waging its own aerial war, full of challenges and drama.

Dreaming of the skies

Aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky didn’t plan to build a bomber. What he designed was a luxury passenger airliner—a flying hotel with four 100-horsepower engines, a lounge and bedroom. The interior of the plane was heated by an ingenious design that channeled exhaust gases from the engines into a special pipe. The plane even had balconies.In 1914, the aircraft was stripped of all its luxury and transformed into the Ilya Muromets- type long-range bomber. War broke out and Russia repurposed everything for the needs of the army. 

The development of Russian aviation started even before WWI. In the fall of 1911, a dozen aircraft and an airship took part in exercises in the Warsaw Military District (Poland was then part of Russia). The aircraft were used for reconnaissance and communications. The result was quite impressive: the aviators accurately reported the location of the simulated enemy. Soon enough, they had to fight a real enemy. In 1912, the Russians sent a detachment to fight the Turks jointly with the Bulgarian forces. Experiments with light aerial bombs were carried out at this time. In short, a foundation for the development of aviation was laid.

Russia’s main problem during the time (and in fact, this challenge persists to this day) is that it had plenty of bright minds capable of understanding the benefits of aviation; it had original designs and small-scale production of unique aircraft. However, it lacked the industrial base to create a large, continuously replenished air fleet, one that would be resilient to losses and that could decisively influence the course of military operations.

At the beginning of the war, the Russian air force was organized into corps-based aviation detachments. At first, airplanes had to compete with aerostats: the army command considered the latter the primary means of aerial reconnaissance. In fact, there was initially a prejudice against aviators. One of the tragedies of the early days of the war—the defeat of the Russian 2nd Army in East Prussia—was partly due to General Samsonov’s mistrust of aerial reconnaissance. Having received a warning from pilots about a German force on his flank, he ignored it and instead chose to believe the intelligence, which did not confirm this information. The outcome was tragic; despite possessing a formidable new weapon, the commander failed to utilize its capabilities.

However, aviation firmly established itself in the battle formations. The Russian army quickly adopted aerial photography and less conservative military commanders made good use of it.

The primary losses were due to the rapid wear and tear of the aircraft. The planes were unreliable and often malfunctioned even without any contact with the enemy. The weakness of the industrial base also took its toll: in 1915, factories supplied only 157 aircraft to the army. Because of this, repairmen had to resort to tricks to get existing aircraft to fly, and, when possible, pilots used captured aircraft.

Being a Russian pilot at the time was, to put it mildly, no sinecure. By the beginning of 1915, 33 pilots had died. Due to their design and low ceiling, the aircraft were often hit by artillery or even infantry fire.

In the midst of battle

In 1915, the resources of the Russian air force were stretched to the limit. The Germans shifted the bulk of their efforts to the Eastern Front, and the Russian army was forced into the Great Retreat. The army suffered heavy losses and abandoned Poland and Galicia, retreating eastward. Aviation softened the blow and helped predict the site of the attacks, thereby at least preventing the encirclement of ground units. By this stage, the war had turned into a never-ending series of trench assaults, and the cavalry was no longer useful as a reconnaissance force. Pilots, however, could detect enemy defenses from the air and track movements in the enemy’s rear.

There was a shortage of pilots, and the air force was replenished with some unusual figures. For example, the only black Russian aviator, Marcel Pliat, served on Ilya Muromets bombers. He was born in Polynesia, came to Russia by chance, and settled in the country. When the war began, he became a mechanic and gunner on a bomber. Several times, the agile Polynesian climbed onto the wing right in the middle of the flight to repair damage to his airplane, and in the fall of 1916, he shot down two German aircraft in a single battle. By the end of the war, he was awarded two St. George Crosses –  Russia’s highest awards for bravery in combat.

Air combat was still rare at the time. Most often, a pilot carried a pistol or carbine. Ilya Muromets bombers were the only exception – these heavy bombers could carry heavy loads. They weren’t agile, which could prove fatal during combat with fighter aircraft, but the crew carried several light machine guns. Equipped with Lewis and Madsen light machine guns, the Russian bombers turned into flying batteries. During the war, Ilya Muromets bombers brought down an impressive number of enemy aircraft while only one bomber was destroyed directly by enemy fire.

1915 saw the widespread installation of machine guns on airplanes. That summer, a notable air duel occurred between Ensign Ivanov accompanied by observer Lieutenant Alekseyev, and an Austrian aircraft over Ternopil (present-day western Ukraine). The pilots approached each other, exchanged fire, and retreated; during the pauses, the Russians and Austrians exchanged greetings. Finally, the Austrian plane caught fire and crashed over Russian-held territory. A day later, the Russians dropped a photo on an Austrian airfield: the fallen Austrian pilots were buried with full military honors, and, according to military aviation custom, with propellers placed on their graves.

The Russian air fleet remained small. By the end of 1915, only 322 operational aircraft were at the front. There were significantly fewer airplanes than in the West, and the Russian pilots bore a heavier burden of war, since the planes were expected to provide as much support as possible to the bleeding ground forces.

The Ilya Muromets bomber vividly demonstrates both the success and failure of the Imperial Russian Air Force. The four-engine long-range bomber, converted from a comfortable passenger airliner, proved to be a very capable aircraft. The Ilya Muromets performed well, and this prompted the Russian army to form the Squadron of Heavy Aircraft. Muromets bombers could fly at an altitude of about 3,000 meters, were out of reach of the anti-aircraft fire of the time, and bombed large stationary targets, from railway stations to airfields. It was very difficult to shoot the bomber down: the crew was armed with machine guns, and the aircraft flew at a high altitude. Moreover, it could survive even serious damage. Only two bombers were lost to enemy fire. However, technical malfunctioning due to wear and tear and other flight accidents were much more common. Repairs proved challenging, and only 80 Muromets bombers were produced during the war. Often only a dozen remained in service at the front, while the rest awaited repairs. Moreover, the majority of Russian aircraft were of Western design, and the aviation depended on supplies of components from Britain and France.

The last aces of the empire

1916 was marked by a massive offensive on the Southwestern Front. In Galicia, the Russians managed to shake the entire southern section of their front. The plan was to launch a simultaneous attack on several Austrian armies. One of the tactics that proved very useful to the Russians was aerial photography. The Russians had an artillery group, which wasn’t large enough to break through such an extended front. However, what they lacked in striking power, they made up for in accuracy. The positional front allowed them to devote considerable time to their work and make detailed, high-quality photographs of the Austrian positions. Accordingly, the artillerymen fired directly at well-known targets. The 1916 offensive was the Russian Army’s greatest success during the First World War, and in general one of the largest victories on the battlefields during WWI. And aviation played a huge role in this success.

The era left its mark on everything that concerned aviation. In those times, the pilot could not count on ejection, and the airplanes were easily damaged. On the other hand, pilots often made repairs right in the air. For example, during reconnaissance, second lieutenant Georgy Kovenko was attacked by a German Fokker aircraft and his plane suffered damage. Kovenko managed to plug the hole in his radiator pipe with a glove and tie it with a binocular strap, and made it to his airfield.

In 1916, fighter aircraft groups became a separate combat detachment in the Russian army. At the same time, a progressive organizational idea was implemented. Russian aviation was divided into air squads, and each squad was assigned to a formation of ground forces. In 1916, three air squads were joined to form the Combat Aviation Group (BAG). This fighter group was dispatched to dangerous areas. The group  received new planes with machine guns capable of firing through the propeller. This made it much easier to fight. Gradually, Russian aviation adapted to the requirements of the time. The peculiar features of the Eastern Front remained the same: both sides had fewer airplanes compared to the Western Front, and the front was much longer. This meant that the role of the individual pilot was higher and a good aviator was often irreplaceable. 

A characteristic episode occurred in the fall of 1917 between the best fighter pilot in Russia, Alexander Kozakov (the one who rammed into the enemy aircraft and survived to tell the story) and his colleague Ivan Pavlov. Kozakov congratulated Pavlov for taking down a German airplane, and said that if it had been in his power, he would have immediately promoted him to officer. Pavlov coldly replied, “No, thank you, officers are not in fashion now.” Pavlov soon joined the Red Army Air Force, which at first tried to completely abolish the old military hierarchy. Kozakov served in the White Army, and died as a result of an air crash that resembled suicide.

The Imperial Russian Air Service was established and effectively dissolved in the course of WWI – the only war in which it participated. In the next war, it was up to others to rise into the air and fight. 

Scientists have identified a new variant of the Ebola-causing Bundibugyo virus behind the 2026 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Uganda, according to a study published in Nature Medicine on Monday.

Bundibugyo strain is not new: variants of the pathogen caused outbreaks in Uganda in 2007-2008 and the DR Congo in 2012. However, researchers found that the strain circulating in 2026 began with a new transmission of the virus from an animal to humans, rather than the re-emergence of strains responsible for previous epidemics in the region. The animal source remains unknown.

The conclusion is based on an analysis of 22 viral genomes obtained from infected people in the DR Congo and Uganda, which formed a distinct genetic cluster separate from variants linked to the previous outbreaks.

The researchers called for broader local diagnostic capacity and expanded genomic surveillance to detect future outbreaks earlier.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the current virus as the largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded in the DR Congo, surpassing the 2018-2020 outbreak. The agency’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned last week that the disease was spreading faster than efforts to contain it. 

The outbreak had spread across 53 health zones in five provinces of the DR Congo as of August 10, with Ituri remaining the main epicenter, according to the country’s Health Ministry. The authorities have recorded 4,449 confirmed cases and 2,061 deaths, putting the fatality rate at 46.3%. 

Kiev has stepped up its long-range strike campaign against Russia, seemingly expecting its European backers to provide anti-air missiles to defend against Russia’s inevitable retaliation. There’s just one problem: The missiles don’t exist.

Ukraine carried out the attack on Tatarstan despite Vladimir Zelensky’s 40-day “influence campaign” of sustained long-range strikes against Russia – designed to rally Western support – ending less than two weeks earlier with Ukraine’s air defense systems entirely depleted and unable to fend off Russian retaliation. 

Zelensky, seemingly having learned no lessons from the campaign, took to social media to plead with his Western sponsors for “more air defense assistance for Ukraine.” Assistance, however, was not forthcoming. 

Who’s got Patriots for Ukraine?

Of all of Ukraine’s Western-provided air defense systems, none are more valuable than US-made Patriot batteries. Zelensky has spent the last month or so repeatedly asking for Patriot interceptors – specifically the latest PAC-3 models – from his Western backers, but has so far come up empty-handed.

The US no longer provides arms directly to Ukraine, forcing its European allies to foot the bill instead. US President Donald Trump refused to make an exception for Zelensky, rebuffing the Ukrainian leader’s request for 300 interceptors during a meeting in the White House last month. 

Only three of the seven European nations who operate the Patriot system have shared interceptors with Ukraine this year, and the numbers transferred have fallen far below the 300 requested by Zelensky. Germany has given Ukraine 35 missiles, Spain five, and Poland a reported five. 

Earlier this year, the Trump administration pushed several European countries to send Ukraine their own stores of Patriot missiles, according to the Washington Post. Some declined, arguing that to do so would leave their own territory defenseless. “We have done everything we can to our advantage, but as a frontline country we cannot jeopardize our continued readiness in terms of air defense,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen bluntly explained just last week.

On Monday, South Korea – which is believed to have between 150 and 200 PAC-3 interceptors – definitively ruled out any military aid to Ukraine.

How bad is the Patriot shortage?

For these remaining interceptors, Ukraine must compete with the US, Israel, and the US’ Gulf allies, all of whom would take precedence if the US resumes full-scale hostilities against Iran.

PAC-3 interceptors are built by Lockheed Martin, which can produce only 52 missiles per month at current rates. Germany’s MBDA is opening a plant to build Patriot missiles under license, as is Romania’s Electromecanica Ploiesti. However, the German plant will not be open until early next year, and the Romanian factory will open in 2028. Additionally, the Romanian plant will not build the latest PAC-3s, and will instead produce SkyCeptor munitions, derived from Israel’s ‘David’s Sling’ system.

Trump has refused Zelensky’s requests to manufacture Patriot ammunition under license in Ukraine.

Why can’t the US make more missiles?

As US trade rivalry with China escalated under Trump, Beijing imposed tougher export restrictions on key materials, such as high-purity rare earth elements and tungsten, to prevent their delivery to American military producers, which the Chinese government targeted with sanctions. 

Last month, the US Army announced plans to order $53.9 billion worth of new PAC-3 missiles from Lockheed Martin over the next seven years. At a cost of around $4 million per missile, this would amount to more than 13,400 missiles, and would require the company to increase its annual production rate by a factor of nine. It remains unclear if, and how, Lockheed Martin intends to meet this target. 

Could Ukraine use alternative systems?

Ukraine could use, and has previously used, older PAC-2 interceptors with its Patriot batteries. The US Army awarded Raytheon a $441.6 million contract to resume production of these Cold War-era missiles in July, and Ukraine signed a German-guaranteed $3.7 billion contract of its own with Raytheon in April. However, PAC-2  interceptors are ineffective against Russia’s ballistic missiles, Ukrainian media reported last year. 

There are European-made long-range anti-missile defense systems, including the SAMP/T and the IRIS-T SL, some of which have been sent to Ukraine already. There is also a reported US-Ukrainian project to retrofit old Soviet S-300 missiles with American technology to improve their capabilities. Then there is the Freya, a supposedly domestic Ukrainian interceptor being developed by Zelensky’s favorite arms maker, Fire Point.

Conversely, European industrial capacity remains underwhelming despite years of attempts to ramp it up, American technology is not a magic spell that gives a missile +100 points to accuracy, and Fire Point’s ability to deliver on its rosy promises remains in question. Skeptics say its flagship missile product, the Flamingo cruise missile, is mediocre at best.

Are more interceptors the answer?

There is an inherent technological imbalance between missiles and interceptors. Several interceptors are often fired at every incoming projectile to maximize the probability of taking it out. Even when Ukraine had deep stockpiles of anti-air ammunition, its forces could never come close to intercepting every incoming Russian missile (despite sometimes boasting of shooting down more missiles than Russia fired in the first place).

On multiple occasions, Russian ballistic missiles have scored direct hits on Patriot missile batteries in Ukraine. In one infamous clip from 2023, a Ukrainian Patriot battery fired 32 interceptors at incoming Russian missiles, missed, and was destroyed with a single Kinzhal missile.

Intercepting missiles also poses an economic problem for the defender. Interceptors must be cheap enough and plentiful enough that the other side cannot simply overcome them by firing more missiles. American interceptors are neither cheap nor plentiful. Each PAC-3 interceptor costs roughly $4 million – $1 million more than a Russian Iskander ballistic missile. Moreover, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the HUR, believes that Russia builds up to 840 Iskanders per year – compared to 600 PAC-3s built by Lockheed Martin.

The math is not on Ukraine’s side, especially considering Russia also builds up to 180 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles annually, and has already met its yearly production quotas for its newest Tsirkon and Oniks ballistic missiles this month, all according to the HUR.

What is Ukraine’s strategy now?

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said that he is working to get Ukraine the air defenses it “urgently needs,” but Rutte can’t create interceptors out of thin air, and as winter draws closer and Russia likely prepares to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure, the full cost of Zelensky’s long-range PR campaign could soon become apparent.

Russia has created the largest stablecoin not pegged to the US dollar through its A7 cross-border payment system, the chairman of Promsvyazbank (PSB), Pyotr Fradkov, has said.

PSB launched A7 in October 2024 in response to the US and EU sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, including the disconnection of almost all of the country’s banks from the SWIFT international settlement network. The domestic payment system now services 2,000 money transfers on a daily basis and already accounts for some 20% of all foreign transactions by Russian companies.

Fradkov said in an interview with RBK on Monday that PBS takes great pride in A7 becoming “the first to issue a stablecoin tied to the ruble” after making A7A5 available to its customers in September 2025.

“This is a small piece of the global stablecoin market, but it is the largest non-dollar stablecoin. The turnover of A7A5 since its inception has reached nearly $140 billion,” he said.

“The total capitalization of all stablecoins is estimated at around $312 billion. About 99% of that is linked to dollar-denominated instruments. Only 1% accounts for other currencies, and within that percentage, we are the largest with a capitalization of A7A5 at about $570 million,” the banker said.

Its European euro-linked counterpart is second, being valued at $440 million, with a Brazilian stablecoin in third place but far behind, with a capitalization of $52 million, he said.

With further development of A7A5 and other products, “a target of 10% of the market is quite substantial” for A7 in the future, Fradnov said. “If such an ambitious goal is set, it would mean not just trading within Russia but using payment mechanisms in international trade,” he stressed.

The success of the Russian stablecoin has been proven by the reaction to it from Western regulators, the PBS chairman suggested.

A severe El Nino could deepen the humanitarian crisis across Southern Africa by worsening drought, hunger, water shortages, and disease outbreaks, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has warned.

SADC Executive Secretary Elias Magosi said seasonal forecasts pointed to a high likelihood of an El Nino event that could surpass the intensity and impact of the 2023/24 phenomenon.

Addressing the opening of the SADC Council of Ministers meeting in Durban on Wednesday, Magosi said the region needed to strengthen its preparedness as climate-related disasters continued to threaten communities and infrastructure.

”Earlier this year, devastating floods claimed lives, damaged critical infrastructure, displaced communities, and disrupted trade across parts of our region.” 

Magosi said the expected El Nino could further worsen food and nutrition insecurity while increasing fertilizer and energy costs, putting pressure on government finances and increasing humanitarian needs.

“These interconnected shocks threaten to undermine hard-won development gains and hinder our aspirations for regional integration, industrialization, and inclusive economic growth.” 

”We must therefore move from reacting to disasters to investing in resilience through strengthened early warning systems, anticipatory planning and action, climate-resilient infrastructure, disaster risk financing and resilient recovery efforts,” he said.

Stronger early warning systems and anticipatory planning would allow governments and regional structures to prepare for potential emergencies before they escalated.

Magosi also highlighted the need for infrastructure capable of withstanding climate-related shocks, as well as financing mechanisms that could support countries during disasters and the recovery period that followed.

”Adequate financial and human resources must be provided to enable the Centre to co-ordinate contingency planning, emergency response and recovery efforts effectively and swiftly,” Magosi stressed.