French lawmakers linked to President Emmanuel Macron have withdrawn a controversial bill aimed at expanding anti-Semitism laws in the country, which had been set for debate in parliament on Thursday.

The “law to combat renewed forms of anti-Semitism” was drafted in 2024 by a group of MPs led by Caroline Yadan, a lawmaker affiliated with Macron’s Renaissance Party. Despite the withdrawal, lawmakers have reportedly indicated they may reintroduce a similar proposal by June.

The draft aimed to broaden the definition of “apology for terrorism” to include “indirect” speech deemed pro-terrorist. It also sought to make it illegal to call for the destruction of any country recognized by France.

Critics have also warned that the proposed law could restrict legitimate free speech and potentially fuel the very anti-Jewish sentiment it was intended to combat, according to France24.

According to France’s Jewish protection organization SPCJ, at least 1,320 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in the country last year, maintaining the sharp rise seen after the onset of the Israel-Hamas conflict in 2023. The Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities, and has drawn mounting international criticism.

France, where Muslims make up an estimated one-tenth of the population, formally recognized Palestinian statehood last year, joining a wave of Western nations advocating a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.

Slovakia will file a lawsuit with the EU’s Court of Justice challenging the bloc’s decision to ban imports of Russian gas, Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.

In January, the EU formally approved a plan to phase out supplies of Russian pipeline gas by 2027, overriding vetoes from Slovakia and Hungary.

“We object that where it was not possible to use a qualified majority, it was used, and that the right of a sovereign EU member state to veto something was circumvented,” Fico said at a press conference on Friday, as quoted by TASR.

Justice Minister Boris Susko said the lawsuit would be filed next week, while Fico stated that Slovakia would seek an injunction suspending the regulation.

Hungary, whose outgoing prime minister Viktor Orbán argued that the EU has “shot itself in the lungs” by imposing sanctions on Russia in response to the Ukraine conflict, filed a similar lawsuit in February. Fico has also strongly criticized what he described as “suicidal” sanctions and urged the bloc to engage diplomatically with Moscow.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the bloc should use “the momentum” from Orban’s election loss last week to further restrict member states’ veto powers, preventing them from blocking loans to Ukraine.

Bulgarians are about to vote in the country’s eighth election in five years. Unpopular caretaker governments have come and gone, and now victory looks almost certain for former president, Ukraine skeptic and left-winger Rumen Radev.

This election has the potential to reshape Bulgaria’s relationships with the EU and Ukraine, and Brussels is following the vote closely. RT has already explored some of what’s at stake, but if you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:

When is the Bulgarian election?

The election is scheduled for Sunday, April 19. All 240 seats in Bulgaria’s National Assembly are up for grabs, with 121 seats needed for a majority. Votes must be counted no later than four days after election day, but results will likely be clear within hours of the polls closing on Sunday night.

There are just over 6.6 million registered voters in Bulgaria, and election turnout generally hovers at around 45%. However, repeated snap elections since 2021 have drained voter enthusiasm: just 33% and 38% of eligible Bulgarians voted in the country’s two general elections in 2024.

Who’s running for office in Bulgaria?

Ten parties are competing in the election, but two are clear frontrunners: Boyko Borissov’s GERB-SDS coalition, and Rumen Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria.

Borissov is a stalwart in Bulgarian politics. A former communist official, he founded the center-right GERB in 2006, and the party has been in power for 15 of the 20 years since. GERB is an acronym for ‘Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria’, which sums up the party’s ideology: economic liberalism, further integration with the EU, and alignment with Brussels on matters of foreign policy.

Allegations of corruption have followed Borissov for the length of his political career. The GERB leader has been accused of ties to organized crime, intimidation of journalists, and embezzlement of EU funds. As protests against Borissov intensified in 2020, Politico declared that he had successfully created “the EU’s mafia state.”

Radev has made tackling this corruption the central pillar of his campaign, vowing to dismantle the “mafia-oligarchic” power structure that he says has run Bulgaria since the fall of communism and throughout its EU membership. While his Progressive Bulgaria coalition was founded less than two months ago, Radev is an established figure in Bulgarian politics, having served as president from 2017 until his resignation in February. During his presidency, Radev clashed with Borissov over corruption, and withdrew confidence from the then-PM’s government in 2020.

Radev is a vocal opponent of the EU’s Ukraine policy. He opposes Bulgaria’s self-imposed embargo on Russian energy, vetoed an agreement to provide Ukraine with armored vehicles in 2022, blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict with Russia, and told Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to his face in 2023 that there was “no military solution” to the conflict, and that “more and more weapons will not solve it.”

What do the polls say?

Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria is leading Borissov’s GERB-SDS by 31% to 21%, according to an aggregate of opinion polls compiled by Politico. Progressive Bulgaria’s lead varies between five and 20 points in individual polls, but not one pollster shows GERB-SDS in the lead.

According to Politico, caretaker PM Andrey Gyurov’s pro-EU ‘We Continue the Change’ is polling in third place at 12%, followed by the liberal ‘Movement for Rights and Freedoms’ and right-wing ‘Revival’ at 10% and 7%, respectively.

Even if Progressive Bulgaria comes out on top, Radev will have to find coalition partners to form a government. Borissov has built coalitions with centrists and right-wingers before, and Gyurov’s party is one possible partner. However, even with the support of ‘We Continue the Change’, GERB-SDS would still fall short of a majority.

What is the media saying?

With a showdown between a Brussels-friendly centrist and a Euroskeptic populist on the cards, the Western media has drawn comparisons between this weekend’s election and last weekend’s vote in Hungary.

Politico has described Radev as the EU’s next potential “disruptor-in-chief,” following the landslide defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Seizing on Radev’s opposition to Ukraine aid, Reuters, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post have all described him as “Bulgaria's pro-Russian former president.” 

The NATO-funded Atlantic Council has gone further, suggesting that Bulgaria could “replace Hungary as Putin’s proxy inside the EU.”

The framing is misleading. Orban was a well-entrenched incumbent and a conservative, who ruled with a parliamentary supermajority for much of his 16 consecutive years in office.

Radev has run a left-wing populist campaign, going up against a party that has dominated post-communist politics in Bulgaria. Orban was the Hungarian establishment; Radev is seeking to break the Bulgarian establishment and expose its relationships with Brussels to a populace that held mass demonstrations against corruption through the winter.

What both figures have in common is their opposition to the EU’s continued bankrolling of the Ukraine conflict and the bloc’s federalist overreach.

Like Orban, Radev backs pragmatic and neutral relations with Russia. This is not an unpopular position in Bulgaria: according to a 2025 poll, 31% of Bulgarians view Russia positively, while less than a quarter hold a positive view of Ukraine.

Is the EU interfering in the Bulgarian election?

As was the case in Hungary, the European Commission’s decision to activate the RRS was justified by reports that Bulgaria “faces sustained Russian information manipulation pressure.” The commission did not mention that these reports were created by an EU-funded think tank in Sofia, as RT covered in-depth in the first installment of our ‘Battle for Bulgaria’ series.

Gyurov’s government has also set up a temporary unit within the Foreign Ministry to “counter disinformation and combat hybrid threats,” which will be “advised” by former Bellingcat investigator and anti-Kremlin operative Christo Grozev. According to the ministry, this unit will pass reports of supposed “malign influences” straight to the European Commission.

Is Ukraine interfering in the election?

Ukraine was accused of extensive meddling in the Hungarian election, with Zelensky using a key oil pipeline as a bargaining chip against Orban, and Ukrainian-trained spies allegedly aiding the Hungarian opposition. While there have been no reports of Ukrainian interference in Bulgaria, the caretaker government in Sofia has rushed to fulfil a wish list of Kiev’s demands in the runup to the vote.

Where can I keep track of the election?

RT will cover the election live through Sunday afternoon and evening, bringing you up to date results, reactions and commentary.

US President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into the mysterious deaths and disappearances of nearly a dozen American scientists with access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded nuclear and space secrets. The cases have fueled online speculation ranging from foreign espionage to a government cover-up of classified UFO research.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump stated that he “just came out of a meeting on this,” noting that “It’s pretty serious stuff.”

“I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half. Some of them were very important people, and we’re going to look at it over the next short period,” the president said.

Since 2023, at least ten individuals with ties to advanced research have died or vanished under puzzling circumstances. Among them:

• Steven Garcia, 48, a government contractor at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which produces over 80% of non-nuclear components for US nuclear weapons, vanished from his Albuquerque home in August 2025, leaving behind his phone, wallet, and keys and taking only a handgun.
  
  
• Retired Major General William McCasland, 68, former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, disappeared from his New Mexico home in February 2026. His wife told a 911 operator he had “planned not to be found.”
  
  
• Anthony Chavez, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory employee, and Melissa Casias, an administrative assistant at the same nuclear weapons lab, both disappeared in 2025, leaving their homes on foot and abandoning their belongings.
  
  
• Monica Jacinto Reza, 60, a director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, vanished while hiking in California in June 2025.
  
  
• Two other scientists at the Lab have reportedly died since 2023: Frank Maiwald and Michael Hicks. No foul play has been alleged in the latter two cases, and no cause of death has been made public, according to the Daily Mail.
  
  
• Nuno Loureiro, 47, director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was shot dead at his home in December 2025.
  
  
• Carl Grillmair, 67, a Caltech astrophysicist, was gunned down on his porch in February 2026.
  
  
• The body of missing cancer research scientist Jason Thomas was reportedly discovered in a Massachusetts lake last month.

A possible 11th case also emerged on Thursday as the Daily Mail reported that Amy Eskridge, a 34-year-old scientist allegedly researching anti-gravity technology, was found dead in Alabama in 2022 from a self-inflicted gunshot. However, the outlet found that neither the police nor medical examiners had released a public investigative report on the incident. Before her death, Eskridge stated on a podcast that her life was in danger.

Former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker previously told the Daily Mail the cases warrant scrutiny, noting that “they are all suspicious, and these are scientists who have worked in critical technology.”

The authorities have so far not established any confirmed link among the cases.

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has published its list of top ten “anti-Semite and anti-Zionist” influencers for 2025.

Six of the ten “influencers” are based in the US, including American conservative journalist Tucker Carlson, far-right activist Nick Fuentes, and commentator Candace Owens. Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who became a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause in recent years, earned the number two spot, while US influencer Dan Bilzarian took the top spot.

In a report on Tuesday, the ministry defined the ten individuals as people without formal political or governmental positions, but who have a significant following. Positions in the list were decided by the level of influence and “risk,” based on frequency of statements which the Israeli ministry considered to be anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli.

The US perception of Israel, which has been slipping for years on the backdrop of the Gaza conflict, has worsened since the launch of the war on Iran in late February, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. Some 60% of American adults now have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% last year, the survey said.

Atwan, who is the editor-in-chief of the UK-based Arabic language newspaper Rai Al-Youm, argued that he could not be an anti-Semite, as a Semite himself who preaches coexistence with Jews.

“We are anti-Israeli wars against Lebanon, against Iran, against Yemen, against Gaza,” he said. “Israel is not above criticism. So to accuse anybody who is criticizing Israel of anti-Semitism is actually very, very frightening.”

The latest wave of discussion about a possible Turkish-Israeli confrontation was triggered by media reports claiming Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to invade Israel.

Soon afterward, however, that interpretation was challenged in Türkiye. The specific quote turned out to be old and taken out of context, and Turkish voices insisted that Erdogan had made no direct statement about being prepared to launch a war against Israel. Still, he has undeniably been escalating his harsh rhetoric towards Israel, including calling it a terrorist state and comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler.

Yet even setting aside the dispute over the precise wording, the intensity of the reaction to the ‘invasion threat’ reports is revealing in itself. It shows that relations between Ankara and West Jerusalem have already reached a stage at which even an ambiguous phrase is instantly treated as a political signal, and any sharp comment can become part of the wider picture of a major regional confrontation. The ground for such a perception has long been prepared by the very trajectory of Turkish-Israeli relations.

A slide towards conflict

At first glance, this may appear to be no more than another burst of emotional rhetoric of the kind that has long been common in the Middle East, where dramatic threats and demonstrative statements have become part of the political language. But that explanation is too shallow and therefore misses the real point. What we are witnessing in fact reflects a much deeper and more dangerous process. Türkiye and Israel are gradually ceasing to see one another merely as occasional opponents divided by particular disputes, and are increasingly beginning to view each other as strategic rivals in a long game. That is what makes the current exchange of statements especially alarming. Once states enter a phase of systemic rivalry, rhetoric itself starts shaping how elites, societies, and security institutions imagine a future conflict as something almost natural.

In one sense, there is nothing surprising about this. The Middle East is structured in such a way that several ambitious centers of power can rarely coexist without an escalating competition between them. When multiple states claim exceptional status, the role of regional guarantor, or the right to speak for the region or at least for a large part of it, their interests will sooner or later collide. Türkiye and Israel are now moving ever more clearly toward precisely that point. Both states lay claim to a special mission. Both want to be indispensable to outside powers. Both believe that yielding to a rival today may become a historic defeat tomorrow. And both build their strategies not only around the defense of national interests but also around the idea of regional primacy. In such a context, even temporary tactical cooperation does not alter the deeper reality. Competition over space, influence, routes, alliances, and symbolic leadership continues to accumulate at a systemic level.

It is particularly important to understand that Türkiye and Israel were by no means destined for hostility. On the contrary, for decades their relations developed along a very different trajectory. Ankara became the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel in the middle of the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the two maintained working ties grounded in pragmatism, shared links to the Western world, and an understanding that in an unstable regional environment it was better to have additional channels of interaction than to turn ideological differences into a permanent source of conflict. But the true flourishing of Turkish-Israeli cooperation came in the 1990s. That was when both sides began to see in the other an important element of their own security strategy.

In those years, Turkish-Israeli relations did indeed approach a near-strategic level. Military and intelligence cooperation was particularly close. For Türkiye, this meant access to technology, modernization, coordination on security matters, and the strengthening of its armed forces. For Israel, an alliance with a large Muslim country occupying a position of immense geographic importance carried both symbolic and practical value. It demonstrated that the Jewish state was capable of building durable ties in the region and moving beyond the usual boundaries of diplomatic isolation. Joint exercises, military contacts, defense agreements, technical modernization, intelligence exchanges, and political coordination all created the impression that a long-term axis was taking shape between the two states.

It is to that period that the story of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan belongs, a story that still carries symbolic weight for understanding how Turkish-Israeli closeness was perceived both in Türkiye and across the region. What remains a confirmed fact is that Ocalan was captured by Turkish intelligence in Kenya in 1999. Yet almost immediately, a broader narrative took hold suggesting that Israeli intelligence may have assisted Türkiye in the operation. That theme became part of the half-shadowed political memory of the region. For some, it was evidence of the depth of the Turkish-Israeli partnership. For others, it became part of a wider myth that Israel, at critical moments, stood with the Turkish state in its struggle against the Kurdish movement. Even if one leaves aside the question of how accurate those perceptions were, the more important point remains. Such narratives could only take root because, in the 1990s, Turkish-Israeli cooperation appeared so close that many found it entirely plausible that Israel might have had a hand in some of Türkiye’s most sensitive operations.

And this is where one of the most striking ironies of modern Middle Eastern history lies. What once seemed like a durable strategic partnership gradually turned into a field of irritation, mutual suspicion, and then near-open rivalry. Erdogan’s rise to power did not produce an immediate rupture, but it steadily altered the ideological framework of the relationship. The new Turkish leadership viewed the region differently. It sought not merely to preserve ties to the Western security architecture, but to construct its own autonomous axis of influence, drawing upon the Islamic factor, a more active policy across former Ottoman spaces, and the projection of moral leadership on issues tied to the Muslim world. Within that model, Israel could no longer remain for Ankara simply a pragmatic partner. It increasingly became a convenient point of ideological contrast and at the same time an important target of foreign policy pressure.

Much more than just Palestine

The turning point in public perception came with the Mavi Marmara incident of 2010, when Israeli forces raided a flotilla of ships carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza, which Türkiye had helped to organize. During the attack, nine people were killed aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, most of them Turkish nationals. After that, relations deteriorated sharply, and mutual distrust moved far beyond the walls of diplomatic offices. It became part of mass political consciousness. For Turkish society, Israel increasingly appeared as a state acting from a position of force and disregarding moral restraints. For much of the Israeli establishment, Türkiye came to look like a former ally moving rapidly toward radicalization, using the Palestinian issue for its own rise, and shifting toward a more confrontational model of behavior. Later, both sides made efforts to normalize relations. There were apologies, negotiations, a return to formal diplomatic channels, and eventually the restoration of full relations. But that warming proved to be more of a pause than a lasting reversal. The war in Gaza shattered the relationship once again, and it became obvious that the old level of trust no longer existed.

The current tension cannot be reduced to the Palestinian issue alone, even though that remains the most powerful emotional accelerator of the conflict. In reality, Türkiye and Israel now diverge along several strategic lines at once. The first is linked to Syria. For Türkiye, the Syrian arena is directly connected to questions of national security, the Kurdish issue, refugees, border control, and its own capacity for projecting force. For Israel, Syria forms part of a much broader equation involving Iran, Hezbollah, weapons routes, and the danger of hostile military infrastructure taking shape near its borders. For the moment these interests overlap only in part, but the sheer density of the two states’ presence in the same theater is gradually increasing the risk not only of political friction but of operational military clashes as well.

The third line concerns the struggle for symbolic leadership. This is an especially important factor, although it is often underestimated. Israel proceeds from the assumption that it must preserve military and technological superiority, as well as political initiative in questions concerning regional security. Under Erdogan, Türkiye has become ever more insistent in claiming the role of a state that speaks for a broad Muslim audience, especially where Palestinians, Jerusalem, and resistance to Israeli policy are concerned. For Erdogan, this is part of a long-term project in which Türkiye is meant to appear not as a peripheral member of the Western world, but as an autonomous center of power combining military capability, historical memory, and civilizational ambition. From that perspective, confrontation with Israel brings Ankara not only risks but political dividends.

Yet for Israel as well, the current escalation is not devoid of internal logic. In a climate of chronic crisis, military tension, and deep social fractures, the image of an external enemy once again becomes an instrument of consolidation. For a government accustomed to thinking like a besieged fortress, an outside threat is a useful tool of political survival. After the conflict in Gaza, after tensions on the northern front, and against the background of constant confrontation with Iran, Türkiye may begin to be seen by part of the Israeli establishment as the next major systemic challenge. And it’s a challenge unlike any Israel has faced before: not an ideological enemy on the margins and not an ostracized rogue state, but a strong regional power with ambitions, an army, industry, demography, and a desire to reshape the regional balance in its own favor.

In that sense, the danger of Turkish-Israeli confrontation does not lie in the idea that the two countries stand today on the threshold of immediate war. What matters far more is that they are increasingly placing one another on their long-term maps of threat perception. Once that happens, political rhetoric begins to perform a preparatory function, accustoming society to the idea that a future clash is inevitable. It generates expert justifications for greater harshness. It legitimizes force buildups, new alliances, more aggressive moves in adjacent arenas, and a lower threshold of sensitivity to risk. At such moments, conflict may remain below the threshold of open war for a long time, but the underlying developments already start working in favor of its arrival.

The Kurdish question plays a particularly important role in this structure. For Türkiye, it carries an almost existential meaning. Any external contact with forces that Ankara associates with the PKK or regards as ideologically close to it is perceived not as a potential threat to the territorial and political stability of the state. That is why even rumors or suspicions of possible Israeli interest in the Kurdish factor are capable of provoking an intensely painful reaction in Türkiye. It is here that one can see especially clearly how historical memory, intelligence suspicions, regional competition, and symbolic politics are woven into a single dangerous knot. In such an atmosphere, even indirect actions may be interpreted as hostile signals.

Permanent state of near-war

The greatest danger lies in the fact that conflicts of this kind rarely begin as an openly declared major war. Far more often they grow out of a chain of mutual suspicions, peripheral crises, failed signals, shows of force, and miscalculations. First the sides simply become accustomed to thinking of one another as future enemies. Then they begin to act on the basis of that assumption. After that, any local flare-up in Syria, in the Eastern Mediterranean, around the Kurdish issue, around the Palestinian question, or in the struggle over new regional coalitions can become a trigger. That is why the most accurate way to describe what is happening is neither as an inevitable war nor as an empty bluff, but as an accelerating strategic movement toward conflict.

Türkiye and Israel have not yet crossed the line into direct military confrontation. More than that, there is still room between them for restraint, tactical calculation, and an awareness of the price both sides would pay in the event of open war. But the problem is that the strategic environment around them is becoming increasingly broken, while mechanisms of trust continue to erode. In such conditions, even the absence of a direct intention to fight is no guarantee that war will not emerge from the logic of events itself.

If no new system of restraints emerges, if not even minimal formats for crisis management appear, if outside powers continue to use Turkish-Israeli contradictions in their own games, and if domestic political regimes continue to feed on external confrontation, then today’s verbal clashes may well prove to be the prologue to a far harsher and more dangerous phase of Middle Eastern politics. And then the argument over what exactly Erdogan said and how exactly the Israeli press retold it will remain only a minor detail against the background of a far more consequential process. A process in which two powerful states are gradually training themselves to look at one another not as difficult neighbors, but as future major adversaries.

The US is a “dictatorship” that is “willing to bomb, break and destroy without regard to human rights” in order to rob other countries of natural resources, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has told RT’s Rick Sanchez.

In an interview set to be aired on Monday, Sanchez asked the Belarusian leader about US foreign policy staying the same regardless of whom Americans vote into the White House.

Washington’s policy in Venezuela and Cuba, as well as its Middle East wars “show that you are true dictators,” Lukashenko said, arguing that US rhetoric about democracy and human rights strikes hollow in light of massacres like the attack on the Iranian school in Minab in February. The bombing killed at least 175 people, most of them children, according to Tehran.

Washington pursues its main interests, “control over oil and gas,” by “any means necessary,” he said. “You’re willing to bomb, break and destroy without regard to human rights. That’s the essence of a dictatorship.”

Watch the full interview on RT on Monday at 8:30 AM Moscow time.

South Africa’s Democratic Alliance (DA) has been accused of white supremacy and double standards over its alleged failure to label Israel’s military actions in Gaza as genocide.

Speaking at a DA event in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Pastor Nigel Branken, an activist, voiced his dislike for the party.

“I’m one of those people who really don’t like you. I’ve never liked the DA. I find the DA to be the most racist party, full of white supremacy,” Branken said.

“The question for me is a big one. How can we even trust you to lead when you can’t acknowledge that there’s a genocide going on in Gaza?” he asked the DA mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Hellen Zille.

”You say we must wait for the ICJ to rule. The ICJ has found that there’s a plausible case of genocide. The ICJ has said we must respect the rights of people. Amnesty International has ruled. Human Rights Watch has ruled. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has ruled, and you continue to deny that there’s a genocide. Where is your morality?” he said as the crowd heckled him.

”Your party keeps telling us it can’t do anything; it can’t influence what’s happening there. Your party can influence it,” he said amid people trying to stop him.

”You can support other ICJ cases, you can support sanctions. You can support the stopping of coal exports; you can support the prosecution of people serving in the IDF. That is what you can do, Helen Zille. That is what you can do. Shame on you,” he concluded.

Brilliant. The hypocrisy and sophistry is astounding. 73 000 civilians, including childrenj murdered - a war crime - and not a single word of condemnation. An ICC fugitive and no demands for his arrest. Unconscionable.

The DA has never “waited” for any international court to… https://t.co/1R69DkBZ1u

— Phumzile Van Damme (@zilevandamme) April 16, 2026

In a calm response, Zille said there are terrible and serious things happening in the world and she takes great interest in those issues. However, she insisted that South Africa also has its own project which has never succeeded on, which is bringing all citizens to live in harmony.

On social media, the video triggered a surge of commentary, some amused, others scathing.

@JuliRee_Mts “White on white violence “This white man calls out the DA on being racist and calls out their defence on Apartheid during Helen’s campaigns trail.”

@TumishoMasha ”The DA will lose votes for this mark my words.”

@Knick_RSA “We must find this White Brother we need this type of White people in Politics. He speaks truth to power! Right in the Face.”

First published by IOL

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing new calls to resign after it was confirmed that disgraced former British Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson had been appointed despite not being cleared by security officials.

Mandelson, who was London’s envoy in Washington between February and September 2025, was arrested earlier this year over allegations that he leaked sensitive British government data to late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The media claimed he continued friendly relations with Epstein even after the disgraced financier’s imprisonment in 2008, while also receiving money from him.

The Guardian reported on Thursday that Mandelson had failed the vetting by the Cabinet Office in 2024, but the Foreign Office ignored its recommendations and still made the 72-year-old ambassador.

Downing Street confirmed the report, but stressed that Starmer, who previously assured the parliament that “due process” had been followed in the envoy’s appointment, was unaware of Mandelson’s security clearance problems.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC that it was “completely preposterous” for the Labour government to claim that Starmer didn’t know about the situation.
“This story does not stack up. The prime minister is taking us for fools. All roads lead to a resignation,” she stressed.

Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, insisted that Starmer “must go” if he really misled the parliament and the public.

Starmer is refusing to step down, telling journalists on Friday that he was “absolutely furious” over not having been informed about Mandelson’s failed vetting, calling it “staggering” and “unforgivable.” He promised to address the lawmakers on Monday to “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency.”

However, the British media appears to be unconvinced by the prime minister’s excuses. On Friday, The Times warned about “a new crisis for Starmer, whose premiership almost collapsed over the Mandelson scandal in February.”

The headline in the Daily Mail read: “Starmer on brink as his Mandelson ‘lies’ are exposed,” while the Express insisted that the prime minister “must resign after blatant lies to MPs.” The Telegraph described the PM’s position as “scarcely credible,” adding that “he cannot survive.”

The Mandelson affair has already dealt a heavy blow to Starmer’s team, with his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, quitting in February after taking the blame for the appointment of an envoy with known links to Epstein.

McSweeney’s departure was followed by that of the prime minister’s communications director, Tim Allan, who said he was stepping down to allow Starmer to build a “new team.”

The British royal family and Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, have also been hit by the new trove of Epstein documents. Already stripped of his titles over his ties to the late sex offender, the ex-prince is now facing allegations of “misconduct in public office” due to allegedly supplying Epstein with sensitive documents.

US President Donald Trump has again lashed out against NATO, stressing that he does not need its help in the Strait of Hormuz, and saying that the military bloc was “useless when needed” during the war on Iran.

On Friday afternoon, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that the key oil and gas freight corridor was “completely open” for all commercial vessels for the remainder of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, which is set to end next week.

Just an hour later, Trump took to Truth Social and confirmed that the Strait of Hormuz was open to traffic, later claiming that Tehran has agreed to “never close it again.” He also stressed that the regional US blockade against Iranian vessels would continue until Washington’s demands were met.

pic.twitter.com/VZ5R6TKxf5

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 17, 2026

Trump has for weeks slammed his European NATO allies for not joining the war on Iran, after the country effectively blocked the strait to ships from what it called hostile nations. The US president hinted that the US could leave the military bloc as a result.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who co-chaired the meeting alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, announced that London and Paris would launch a “multi-national mission to protect freedom of navigation as soon as conditions allow.”

Trump has already accused Starmer of being a fair-weather friend earlier in the Iran conflict. Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, the US president suggested he could rethink the trade deal Washington struck with London last year, giving the UK a reprieve from his tariff onslaught.

The EU’s newly unveiled age‑verification app is a “surveillance tool” disguised as a privacy‑respecting solution, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has warned. Security researchers were reportedly able to bypass its protections in under two minutes.

The app, which was presented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, is intended to let users prove their age online without revealing personal data. Von der Leyen called it “technically ready” and said it meets the “highest privacy standards.”

But Durov has dismissed those claims, alleging that the app is “hackable by design” and is part of the EU’s three‑step plan – to present a “privacy‑respecting” but vulnerable app, let it get hacked, then remove privacy features under the guise of fixing it.

“The EU bureaucrats needed an excuse to silently start turning their ‘privacy‑respecting’ age verification app into a surveillance mechanism over all Europeans,” Durov said.

The EU’s push for mandatory age checks comes as several countries have adopted similar measures. Australia has already banned social media for under‑16s, while Denmark, France, Spain, Italy and Greece are jointly testing age‑verification tools. Germany has proposed a similar ban. 

However, critics argue that these laws create centralized “honeypots” of personal data and increase surveillance risks. In the UK, a proposed digital ID scheme has already drawn fire, with opponents warning of a “police state.”

Durov, who has long clashed with Western governments over free speech, has repeatedly warned that digital freedom is being eroded and that “a dark, dystopian world is approaching fast – while we’re asleep.”

EU and NATO officials fear that European armies would be unable to conduct a major military operation – such as a hypothetical war with Russia that Brussels continues to claim could be imminent – without a secure supply of fossil fuels. EU lawmakers and NATO officials met this week to assess how reliance on oil affects military readiness, according to Euractiv.

The proposed solution looks distinctly like a notorious Brussels brainchild – conceived in strict adherence to the EU’s green agenda, impractical, and intended to be borne by the bloc’s national governments.

Europe’s fuel squeeze

Only two months ago, US President Donald Trump was blaming Cuba’s communist system for a lack of jet fuel – deliberately caused by his administration’s naval blockade of the island nation. Now, capitalist European governments are facing similar pressures after disruptions linked to Trump’s war on Iran.

In its latest monthly report, the International Energy Agency warned that Europe – which sources roughly three-quarters of its jet fuel from the Middle East – could soon face physical shortages. Analysts estimate this could happen by June if only half of lost supply is replaced, or by August if 75% is restored.

Airlines for Europe (A4E), a major industry group, has already called for coordinated kerosene purchases to tackle the situation.

Tanks don’t run on electricity 

“Fossil fuels are the Achilles’ heel of our defense,” Finnish MEP Pekka Toveri, a former general, reportedly said after the EU/NATO meeting, noting that “Leopard tanks do not run on electricity.”

NATO’s director for defense enablement and resilience, Julien Kita, said modern military equipment is even more fuel-hungry than previous generations. He warned: “In the unlikely scenario of a full-scale NATO operation, the air domain would account for around 80% of fuel demand. And that requires a lot of fuel.”

Polish MEP Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz echoed the concern, saying the EU could “invest millions in rearmament… but if we cannot secure fuel for tanks and jets, there will be nothing to move.”

European intelligence agencies claim a large-scale conflict with Russia is likely to break out by 2030, even as Moscow denies any hostile intentions.

Tanks must go green

During the discussions, officials reportedly proposed ‘carbon-neutral’ fuels as the main long-term solution, including biofuels, hydrogen, and products derived from renewable electricity.

Hydrogen – a highly-volatile fuel that is difficult to store – remains far from becoming a viable substitute for hydrocarbons. It only found use as rocket propellant for space launches and in some niche applications, such as air-independent propulsion in German Type 214 submarines.

The Toyota Mirais, which almost a decade ago became the first commercially-available car to run on hydrogen fuel cells, is one of the worst-selling models. Just 210 units were bought last year, down from 499 in 2024.

But how will the EU pay for alternative fuels for war?

While domestic manufacturing of non-fossil fuels can potentially solve scarcity of supplies, warfare is as much a calculation of what you can afford as it is what you can do with the capabilities.

Cheap mass-produced drones became the dominant feature of the Ukraine conflict. They also give Iran leverage over the best-funded military in the world. And the EU’s economic perspectives are not particularly good at the moment. 

The replacement strategy would have benefited from abundant nuclear power – but as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted herself, the bloc made a “strategic blunder” by suppressing it and pressing for wind and solar instead.

While EU institutions are promoting an ideologically-pure solution for a purportedly existential problem, implementation would ultimately fall to individual member states.

A European Commission official told Euractiv that additional funding for sustainable fuels could be made available through the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), a grant distribution mechanism.

“The program includes security of supply among its priorities, although it is ultimately up to member states to decide what falls within that scope,” the official said.

The implementation of joint projects between Moscow and Brazzaville is expected to further strengthen bilateral ties, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has said. 

During his working visit to the Republic of the Congo, the minister stated that Russia places high priority on developing comprehensive relations with the African country.  

“We [Russia] are confident that the implementation of joint projects and the expansion of cooperation in various fields will help deepen the partnership between our countries at all levels and bring tangible benefits to the peoples of both states,” Novak noted. 

Novak arrived in Congo (Brazzaville) on Thursday as the head of a Russian delegation and took part in the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Denis Sassou Nguesso. As part of the trip, the minister visited the Russian House in the capital and paid tribute at a monument to Yuri Gagarin, where he laid flowers.  

At the same time, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Borisenko and Congolese Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso discussed preparations for the third Russia–Africa Summit, which is planned for this year in Moscow.  

In addition, the ministers raised the topic of expanding trade and economic cooperation, with a focus on projects in the fields of energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and personnel training. 

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, discussions were held in line with agreements reached during talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso in Moscow in May and in Beijing in September. 

The Cuban government attempted to open a direct back-channel with US President Donald Trump last week, tapping a private businessman to hand-deliver a sealed letter to the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources.

The reported message, which was ultimately intercepted, was meant to bypass US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has pursued a policy of regime change on the island.

The move was orchestrated by Raul Rodriguez Castro, grandson and chief aide of 94-year-old former Cuban President Raul Castro, who is widely considered one of the island’s most powerful figures, the report said. It added that the letter bore an official Cuban government seal and was formatted as a diplomatic note.

The courier, Roberto Carlos Chamizo Gonzalez, 37, a luxury tourism and high-end car rental entrepreneur based in Havana, was stopped by security officers at Miami International Airport, who confiscated the letter and sent him back to Cuba.

The paper suggested that the move appeared designed to circumvent US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants and Washington’s most forceful advocate for maximum pressure on Havana.

Ricardo Herrero, executive director of the Washington-based Cuba Study Group, suggested that an attempt to sidestep the top US diplomat was “downright foolish and bound to backfire,” adding that “it’s worse to go with an unknown with no personal relationship to the president, which makes it look more foolish.”

The back-channel bid comes as Cuba is reeling under its worst economic crisis in decades. After US forces kidnapped Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January 2026, Washington severed Cuba’s main oil lifeline from Caracas and imposed a near-total fuel blockade. The island is also struggling with recurring complete blackouts.

Trump has labeled Cuba “a failing nation”, threatened a “friendly takeover,” and has said recently that the US “may stop by Cuba” after the war in Iran. Havana has warned it is ready for any American attack.

The US could impose travel restrictions on European officials attending the FIFA World Cup this summer over concerns of rising anti-Semitism, Euractiv has reported.

The idea was raised by Yehuda Kaploun, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi serving as special envoy for combating anti-Semitism under President Donald Trump, the outlet said on Friday.

Kaploun spoke this week at an event organized by the European Jewish Association in Brussels, stating that his office is “holding countries accountable for ministers who are saying things, and they are not being allowed into the country.”

An EU official cited by Euractiv claimed that Kaploun privately linked aniti-Semitism allegations to access for the 2026 World Cup. Asked for clarification, the US official said the administration “can take any step that the secretary of state and the president deem necessary,” while declining to discuss “any nitty gritties.”

At the European Jewish Association Annual Policy Conference in Brussels, @USAmbToBelgium and I reiterated the Administration's strong support of Belgium's Jewish community and thanked @MargolinRabbi and @EJAssociation for their efforts to highlight the concerns of Jews across… pic.twitter.com/kzxhCxdyqt

— Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun (@StateSEAS) April 16, 2026

Rise in anti-Semitism in Europe?

Accusations of anti-Semitism have frequently been used by Israeli officials to undermine opponents of its policies. However, a recent report from Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs suggests that the problem is particularly bad in the US rather than any European nation.

Relations between Israel and several European governments have deteriorated in recent months, particularly due to the bombing campaign in Iran. Some countries have taken concrete steps to undermine the operation, as opposed to just rejecting Trump’s call to join it.

Spain condemned the strikes as illegal and refused to allow the US to use its airbases. France blocked flights carrying munitions for Israel from crossing its airspace. Belgium reportedly intercepted two military shipments from Britain passing through Liege Airport en route to Tel Aviv.

In the Netherlands, lawmakers voted on Thursday to suspend and partially scrap an EU-Israel association agreement. The proposal to sanction West Jerusalem this way faced opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban but gained momentum after his recent electoral defeat.

World Cup marred by chaos

The economic impact of the 2026 World Cup – to be hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico – remains uncertain. Just this week, the Financial Times reported that US hotels have begun lowering summer prices amid fears of weak demand. Owners fear inflation, anti-American sentiments, and high ticket costs could discourage international visitors.

FIFA was partially responsible by canceling thousands of hotel reservations intended for teams and technical staff. While overbooking is common for large events, the scale in this case exceeded expectations, the report said.

Fans have also expressed frustration over ticketing practices, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times. It described a backlash against a newly introduced premium tier above Category 1, misleading some buyers who will be receiving less favorable seating than anticipated.

The tournament has also been directly affected by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Tehran has no intention to send a team to compete on enemy territory. Football federation president Mehdi Taj suggested relocating matches involving Iran to Mexico, though FIFA chief Gianni Infantino has signaled that the schedule will remain unchanged.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US would work alongside Iran, using “a lot of excavators” to recover Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and bring it to the United States. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei, however, reiterated that Iran would not give up the stockpile, which he described as “as sacred as Iranian soil.” Tehran maintains it is not seeking nuclear weapons, a claim disputed by the US and Israel.

The US and Iran continue behind-the-scenes talks as the two-week ceasefire is set to expire next week.

The situation remains tense in the Strait of Hormuz, where some ships have been able to pass after Iran announced it would reopen the strategic shipping route to all commercial vessels. However, most tankers and cargo ships attempting to cross have suddenly turned back, according to maritime tracking services.

Iranian parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf later clarified that the strait would “not remain open” as long as the US continues its naval blockade of Iranian ports.

A 10-day ceasefire entered into force in Lebanon on Friday following several weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that claimed more than 2,000 lives in the country.

Here are the latest developments:

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz is “completely open” to commercial vessels for the remainder of the ceasefire, which is due to expire on Tuesday

• Trump thanked Tehran and said the strait is “open and ready for business,” but added that the US naval blockade on Iran “remains in full force” until a deal is “100% complete”

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) warned the US and Israel they will face a “regret-inducing” response if attacks continue

• At least 2,196 people have been killed and 1.2 million displaced in Lebanon amid Israeli airstrikes and evacuation orders to expand a “security zone”

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

British oil and gas giant BP has been sued in Kenya over claims that toxic waste from oil exploration four decades ago poisoned water sources and caused deaths in the East African country.

The case, filed by 299 petitioners, was allowed to proceed by a Kenyan High Court and centers on exploration work carried out in the 1980s by Amoco Corporation, later acquired by BP, near Kargi and Kalacha in the Chalbi Desert in the country’s north.

The petitioners say waste containing hazardous substances, including radium isotopes, arsenic, lead and nitrates, was dumped in unlined pits or left exposed, according to court documents cited by AP. They allege the contamination poisoned groundwater, sickened residents and livestock, and contributed to more than 500 deaths.

The lawsuit, filed at the Land and Environment Court in Isiolo, also names Kenyan state agencies, accusing them of failing to act despite evidence of contamination.

BP has not publicly responded to the court’s decision. It also declined to comment, AP reported. The ruling does not determine whether the allegations are true, but allows the claims to be heard in full. The case is due back in court in May.

The multinational oil and gas company is not the first Western energy firm to face legal action in Africa. British energy giant Shell, operator of the SPDC joint venture, has been embroiled in multiple lawsuits and compensation claims over oil spills in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. French oil major TotalEnergies, which has operated in Nigeria for more than six decades, has also faced criticism from communities and activists over alleged spills, pollution and environmental neglect.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has once again attacked the press, accusing journalists of producing an “endless stream of garbage” in their coverage of the Iran conflict and comparing the Pentagon media pool to the Pharisees, a Jewish group in the Bible who often clashed with Jesus.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host appointed by US President Donald Trump to lead the US Department of Defence, has repeatedly clashed with the press more than a year into his tenure.

Hegseth’s latest comments follow critical coverage of his “CSAR 25:17” reading at the Pentagon prayer service, which was labeled “fake” due to its similarity to the fictional passage from Ezekiel recited by Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

“I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday. “Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on.”

“The Pharisees – the so-called and self-appointed elites of their time – they were there to witness, to write everything down, to report,” he added. “But … even though they witnessed a literal miracle, it didn’t matter, they were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda.”

The Pentagon chief had previously accused media outlets of producing “fake news.” In March, he criticized the “dishonest and anti-Trump press” for trying “to downplay progress, amplify every cost and call into question every step.” Later that month, Hegseth said journalists highlighted US casualties in the Iran war “to make the president look bad,” including the six US Army reservists killed in an Iranian attack on an operations center in Kuwait.

Hegseth’s latest remarks come as Trump and officials in his administration have increasingly framed aspects of the Iran war in biblical terms and used references to the Bible in public statements about the conflict and related military actions.

Multiple US military commanders have reportedly offered religious interpretations of the attack on Iran, with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) saying some described Trump as a harbinger of the Second Coming and the conflict as a “signal fire” for Armageddon. Separately, Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure healing a man, which drew online criticism.

The US has expanded its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, telling its military to pursue Iran-linked vessels everywhere around the globe, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, has said.

Washington announced it would stop ships from accessing Iranian ports on Monday after talks with Tehran’s representatives in Pakistan failed. Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz for the Americans and their allies following the US-Israeli attack on the country on February 28. The US blockade of the key waterway, accounting for some 20% of international crude and LNG trade, further increased the strain on the global economy, causing oil and gas prices to skyrocket.

US forces outside the Persian Gulf area will also “actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran,” Caine told journalists on Friday.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff singled out operations in the Pacific, saying that the US would be going after vessels that left Iran’s ports before the blockade started, according to AP.

It provided a list of contraband items to be confiscated, which included weapons, ammunition, nuclear materials, oil products, iron, steel, and aluminum.

According to the US Central Command, a total of 14 ships heading to the Strait of Hormuz have turned around since the announcement of the blockade. None of the vessels have so far been boarded.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that Pakistani tanker Shalamar became the first ship to exit the Strait of Hormuz with a cargo of crude oil since Monday.

On Thursday, Iranian UN envoy Amir-Saeid Iravani labeled the US blockade “a clear act of aggression,” accusing Washington of breaking international law by infringing upon rightful maritime commerce.

Passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is now completely open, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi declared on Friday. He added that the waterway will remain open for the remainder of the ceasefire in Lebanon.

Araghchi’s announcement came shortly after a 10-day truce came into force between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, which has been one of the major obstacles to a peace deal between Iran and the US.

Writing on X, the Iranian minister stated that “in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire.”

He noted however, that the vessels would be allowed to move along the “coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran,” suggesting that the strait will remain under Tehran’s control.

The Strait of Hormuz has been shut down ever since the US and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran in late February. The closure has driven up energy prices and rattled the global economy, disrupting one of the world’s most important trade arteries, which handles around 20% of global crude exports.

In the minutes following Araghchi’s announcement, oil prices plummeted by more than 10%, with Crude oil dropping to just over $83 per barrel and Brent coming in at around $88.

Indian refiners are making payments for Iranian oil in yuan, after a temporary sanctions-waiver by the US enabled New Delhi to buy crude from the Middle Eastern country, Reuters reported.

The US issued the one-month waiver on March 20, which Washington says will not be extended.

Payment for the Iranian cargoes is a complicated issue due to the US sanctions on Tehran, deterring some prospective buyers of crude from the country.

Indian Oil Corp bought 2 million barrels of Iranian oil in ‌April, the country’s first purchase of Iranian crude in seven years, reportedly worth $200 million.

New Delhi has also allowed four vessels carrying Iranian oil to berth for its largest private refiner, Reliance ⁠Industries.

Both trades are being settled through ICICI Bank, a private bank, which is routing funds in Chinese yuan via its Shanghai branch, the news outlet reported.

Indian refiners have previously used yuan to settle some Russian oil purchases.

The yuan’s emergence as a global currency would be essential for Beijing to turn into a true “financial powerhouse,” President Xi Jinping has said, amid concerns about the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

Iranian crude accounted for 11.5% of India’s total imports before it ceased purchases in 2019 after the tightening of US sanctions.

New Delhi is the world’s third-largest importer and consumer of oil and procures 90% of its requirements from abroad.

The Daily Telegraph’s incoming owner, German-based media conglomerate Axel Springer, is demanding that its employees now stick to a pro-Israel stance, British journalist Owen Jones has reported, citing a letter circulated among staff.

Earlier this week, the UK government cleared Axel Springer’s £575 million ($778 million) takeover of The Telegraph – a right-leaning newspaper which is at times dubbed the ‘Torygraph’ for its support of the Conservative Party – with the deal expected to close by the end of June. Axel Springer already owns German newspapers Bild and Die Welt as well as Politico.

On Wednesday, Jones reported, citing a Telegraph insider, that CEO Mathias Dopfner had circulated a letter among employees laying out the company’s binding “Essentials.” The first point prioritizes “freedom, freedom of expression, the rule of law, and democracy,” while the second states that “we support the right of Israel to exist and oppose all forms of antisemitism.”

Jones said that “the description of the Essentials is, frankly, Orwellian,” adding that out of almost 200 countries in the world, only one is mentioned in the document.

He also cited a frustrated Telegraph insider, who argued that “affirming the right of a country committing genocide and ethnic cleansing is more than a little concerning,” adding: “It also raises the question of how any reporting from the paper can be considered factual if that is our core principle.”

According to Jones, the phrase ‘Israel’s right to exist’ has been “repeatedly deployed by Israel’s cheerleaders across the West to justify Israel’s crimes.” He also remarked that “the Essentials do not prohibit racism in general” and that there “is no explicit rejection of Islamophobia.” The journalist also suggested that Dopfner was deliberately blurring the lines between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel’s actions – including devastating strikes in Gaza and Lebanon.

Dopfner – a self-described “non-Jewish Zionist” – has made no effort to conceal his political views. In October 2023, after Hamas’ attack on Israel, he wrote an op-ed for Politico saying that “the chant ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free’" is tantamount to calls for genocide of the Israelis.

In 2025, he said it was “surprising that Israel is not being celebrated worldwide for its historic strikes” on the Iranian nuclear program while fuming over what he described as “anti-Israel propaganda” in media coverage of the attacks.

In addition, a Die Zeit investigation claimed, citing leaked e-mails, that Dopfner once summarized his beliefs by the phrase “Zionism uber alles” (Zionism above all else).

Europe could run out of jet fuel within weeks if oil supplies continue to be disrupted by the Iran war, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol warned of far-reaching global consequences from what he described as “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced,” triggered by disruptions to oil, gas, and other critical supplies flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The US-Israeli bombing campaign prompted Iran to close the critical route, a conduit for roughly 20% of global oil, to “enemy ships,” triggering a breakdown in supply chains. US President Donald Trump declared a blockade of the strait on Sunday after failed talks with Tehran, a move that caused tankers to turn back and pushed oil prices back toward $100 a barrel.

Europe had “maybe six weeks or so” of jet fuel left, according to the agency chief, and unless the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, “soon we will hear the news” of flights being cancelled due to shortages.

Birol likened the situation to a “dire strait,” warning that the longer disruptions persist, the worse the impact on growth and inflation worldwide. The fallout would mean “higher petrol prices, higher gas prices, high electricity prices,” he said.

Western Europe is widely seen as the biggest loser from the Hormuz blockade due to its heavy reliance on Middle Eastern oil after sanctioning Russian supplies.

Politico reported earlier this month that London’s Heathrow Airport has already seen cancellations linked to soaring jet fuel costs, while Scandinavian carrier SAS has reportedly scrapped about 1,000 flights. Smaller British regional airlines Skybus and Aurigny have also cut services as fuel prices surge roughly 120% year-on-year, and Air France has raised fares on long-haul routes.

Moscow has signaled it is ready to plug any oil supply gap to offset shortages triggered by the Middle East conflict. Earlier this week, Indonesia secured an agreement to import Russian crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas, while the Philippines has taken its first Russian oil cargo in five years after declaring an energy emergency. Vietnam has signed new oil and gas cooperation deals with Moscow, and Thailand has also expressed interest in Russian supplies, underscoring Russia’s expanding role as a key supplier during the crisis.

The Burundian communications minister, Gabby Bugaga, died on Thursday “following an accident,” officials have confirmed.

The government said Bugaga passed away in the early hours of April 16, describing the death as “unexpected” and expressing condolences to his family, colleagues, and the nation.

According to several posts on social media, Bugaga was found dead at the wheel of a Toyota 4x4 parked in a palm oil plantation in Kivoga, northwest of Bujumbura, in Ntahangwa district. However, the exact circumstances remain unclear, with no further details provided by the authorities.

The Ministry of Communication and Media also confirmed on X it had received the news with “dismay.” Staff extended condolences to Bugaga’s family and to members of the media community.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of the sudden death of the Minister,” he wrote on X, adding “may God receive him and reward him for the courage, diligence and dedication that characterized him in all his duties to serve the country.” 

Bugaga had served as communications minister since August 2025, after previously working as a member of the country’s National Independent Electoral Commission. He was a well-known journalist and worked for the National Radio and Television of Burundi (RTNB).

His death comes amid a number of high-profile fatalities involving African officials in recent months. In March, Kenyan MP Johana Ng’eno was among six people killed when a helicopter crashed and caught fire in Mosop, Nandi County.

Earlier this month, James Unomasa Uerikua, the governor of Namibia’s Otjozondjupa Region, died in a car accident. His son also lost his life in the same crash.

South African opposition figure Julius Malema has been sentenced to five years in prison for firing a rifle at a party rally nearly a decade ago, in a ruling that could cost him his seat in Parliament if upheld on appeal.

Malema, leader of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), was convicted last year on five counts, including unlawful possession of a firearm, discharging it in public and reckless endangerment. The charges stemmed from video showing him firing the weapon before supporters at the party’s fifth-anniversary rally in Mdantsane, in Eastern Cape province, in 2018.

Prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence. In Thursday’s ruling at the East London Regional Court in KuGompo City, Eastern Cape, the court rejected defense arguments that the shooting was merely celebratory.

“It is clear that if crimes are allowed to go unchecked and unpunished, it poses a serious threat to our democratic state,” Magistrate Twanet Olivier said before delivering the sentence, according to Reuters.

He was, however, granted leave to appeal and remains free pending the outcome. If the sentence stands, South African law would bar him from serving as a lawmaker because he received a prison term of more than 12 months without the option of a fine.

Following the ruling, Malema accused Magistrate Olivier of being “racist” and “possibly a member of AfriForum,” the Afrikaner lobby group that brought the case.

“We can tell you now, no sober judge will ever agree that a person shoot one bullet and then he’s sentenced for five years,” he told supporters outside court.

“They are trying by all means to silence this voice. They will never win,” he said, adding that “we are fighting the enemy and the enemy is white supremacy.”

He founded the EFF in 2013 after being expelled from the African National Congress, the country’s longtime governing party, where he led its youth wing.

US President Donald Trump’s war of words with Pope Leo XIV appears to have split his own MAGA movement. While a number of prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from the exchange, others have stepped in to reassure him of their continued support.

Trump responded with a social media tirade, calling the Pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” and posting an AI‑generated image of himself as a Jesus‑like figure, robed in white, healing a sick man while surrounded by fighter jets and US flags.

Here are the Republican believers who have come out of left field:

Senator Lindsey Graham 

One of the most prominent hawks in Washington slammed Pope Leo in a Fox News interview, claiming the pontiff was “miscalculating” by advocating for world peace.

“The Catholic Church didn’t really get Hitler,” Graham claimed, arguing that the Vatican is now repeating the same mistake by failing to recognize the “evil” of Iran.

Graham, a Southern Baptist who says he bases his unconditional support for Israel on the Bible, insists that Iranian leaders are “religious Nazis” who would “kill all the Jews if we let them.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson

The Southern Baptist defended Trump by suggesting that Pope Leo had deserved the backlash for “wading into political waters.”

He also tried to lecture the pontiff on Christian theology, claiming that Pope Leo did not understand the “just war” doctrine which Washington has used to justify its attack on Iran.

Developed by Saint Augustine, the doctrine holds that warfare is permissible only as a tragic last resort to restrain evil and restore peace, never for vengeance or gain. Pope Leo was an Augustinian friar for 12 years.

Johnson, an evangelical Protestant with a business degree from LSU and a law degree he parlayed into running a law school that never enrolled a single student, felt the need to correct the pope on a point of Augustine’s war doctrine.

The same week Johnson offered his lesson from… pic.twitter.com/bavANtL9Yb

— Christopher Hale (@ChristopherHale) April 16, 2026

J.D. Vance

The US Vice President, a Catholic convert, also accused Pope Leo of misinterpreting the Augustine doctrine, urging the pontiff to “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” 

He also argued that the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” rather than foreign policy.

Bernie Moreno

The Catholic senator from Ohio delivered a pointed personal attack, stating that his “mother would be ashamed of the current pope.”

Tom Homan 

Trump’s latest ‘Border Czar’ and a self‑described “lifelong Catholic” told the Vatican to “stay out of immigration” and that they “don’t know what they’re talking about.” He also offered to “sit down to explain” Catholic doctrine to the Pope.

Elise Stefanik

The New York congresswoman claimed on network news that the pope had “politically attacked” Trump, insisting the papacy should remain “strictly spiritual.”

MAGA financier Hal Lambert 

Pope Leo’s criticism of Trump is part of a “Chicago‑centric” plot involving former President Barack Obama to hurt Republicans in the midterms, according to the Point Bridge Capital CEO, a prominent Republican megadonor.

MAGA elites are now regularly delivering lectures about the teachings of Jesus Christ to…the Pope.

This is not “I disagree with the Church on X issue.”

This is “My personal interpretation of the Gospel is superior to the Vicar of Christ.”

It’s deranged in a way I didn’t… https://t.co/p25YXaaOkG

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) April 17, 2026

A crack in the MAGA movement

Trump has made U-turns on a number of campaign promises, including the war on Iran, and has already seen his support base fracture. His sudden attack on the Catholic Church has ruffled even more feathers within the MAGA movement.

Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has become a vocal Trump critic, went further by denouncing the president’s AI Jesus image as “blasphemy” and condemning Trump for attacking the Pope on Orthodox Easter.

Three other prominent conservatives who have recently had a falling out with Trump, namely Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones, all delivered scathing critiques of the president’s feud with the Pope and the AI Jesus image.

Jones and Owens have gone as far as to call for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment, describing him as a “genocidal lunatic.”

Russia has sent an important message to the world by sending a ship with oil to Cuba last month as the US blockades the island, Havana’s envoy to New Delhi has said.

Moscow shipped 100,000 tons of oil required for Cuba’s normal functioning after the US imposed restrictions, Juan Carlos Marsan Aguilera told RT India in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

“After three months without oil, a Russian ship arrived in Cuba,” he said in the latest episode of India, Russia, and the World. “It was more than that, a message [to the world] that Russia would support Cuba at a critical moment.”

Russia was sending a broader message by backing Cuba “because the US was threatening any country supplying oil with tariffs or [an] attack on ships,” the ambassador said.

READFULLTEXT

Moscow proved that it is “possible not to follow rules imposed by the US,” Aguilera noted. “[The] day after [the] ship arrived, [US President Donald] Trump said I am not opposed to any country that would like to supply oil to Cuba,” he said, adding, “that was not true as the possibility of sanctions was always on the table.”

Russia, China, and India are important partners of Cuba, the envoy stated, citing Moscow’s huge presence in the energy and transportation sectors and China’s assistance to the nation’s energy transition.

“India and Cuba have a longstanding history. We are celebrating 66 years of bilateral ties,” Aguilera said.

Cuba supports India’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat because in Aguilera’s words, “The Global South needs a relevant position.”

The US blockade of Cuba is an economic war on the island nation, the Cuban ambassador said. Washington’s concept of peace means countries submitting to its interests, which is unacceptable, he said. “Cuba is an obstacle to US dominance,” Aguilera added.

“With this blockade, it is difficult to sustain the healthcare system because you don’t have electricity,” he said, pointing to the huge impact on all vital sectors, including food production. “So this has a massive impact on the entire economy.”

The first Trump administration imposed a raft of measures to strangle the Cuban economy, Aguilera said, adding that the present one had gone even further.

On Trump’s January 29 executive order declaring Cuba “as an extraordinary threat to the US,” Aguilera wondered how a nation of 10 million people could pose a threat to a much larger country.

US officials have warned their European counterparts that the supply of previously contracted American arms could be delayed due to dwindling stockpiles as a result of the war on Iran, Reuters has reported, citing sources.

Tensions have been mounting between Washington and its NATO allies since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, with President Donald Trump branding the Europeans “cowards” for their unwillingness to join the military operation. Trump has also warned of a possible American withdrawal from the bloc.

Several European nations, including those in the Baltic and Scandinavia, are now unlikely to receive promised US arms deliveries in time, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The sources declined to name the exact countries because some share a border with Russia, making the news of possible delays in deliveries “sensitive defense information,” Reuters said.

Trump has long pressured European NATO members to buy more American arms so that they can take security on the continent into their own hands, and also to supply Ukraine during the conflict with Russia.

Moscow has rejected as “nonsense” claims that it harbors any aggressive plans against NATO, saying that Western politicians are using Russia to scare the population and justify increased militarization. According to Russian officials, the country will only fight the bloc if it is attacked first.

On Thursday, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu issued a warning to Finland and the Baltic states over Ukrainian drones reaching Russia via their territory.

Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective against Kiev’s UAVs or Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen can ignore voters’ opinions as she essentially cannot be voted out like recently defeated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Alice Weidel, co-chair of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has said.

The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, with a recent YouGov poll suggesting that it would get 27% of the vote if elections were held now. The CDU/CSU and SPD trail behind with 23% and 13%, respectively, according to the survey.

Speaking at a press conference this week, Weidel acknowledged that Peter Magyar’s landslide victory in the Hungarian election, which ended 16 years of Orban’s rule, was “absolutely legitimate,” but raised concerns about democratic accountability among the EU leadership.

Praising Orban as “an important, critical voice” within the EU, Weidel then agreed with a German journalist from Die Welt, who said that “Orban could be voted out; Ms. von der Leyen cannot be voted out.”

It took von der Leyen only 17 minutes to issue a statement celebrating Magyar’s victory after Orban conceded defeat. “Hungary has chosen Europe,” von der Leyen said. “Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”

Later, she also called on member states to scrap the national veto in EU foreign policy, claiming qualified majority voting was “an important way to avoid systemic blockages” – a direct swipe at years of Orban’s vetoes on Ukraine-related decisions.

Von der Leyen has faced criticism over numerous controversies since becoming EC president in 2019. Among the most notable is the ‘Pfizergate’ scandal, which centered on personal text messages the EU chief exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during negotiations over a €35 billion deal for 1.8 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses. In May 2025, an EU court ruled the commission had “failed to provide credible explanations” for why the messages were not retained.

Von der Leyen has survived multiple no-confidence votes in the past two years, with her critics lambasting her over a lack of transparency and handling of the immigration issue. She has also long been attempting to force through a series of fundamental changes to EU rules in order to create a two-tier bloc, into which Ukraine could be integrated despite not meeting the usual requirements for member states.

An April 2026 Polling Europe Euroscope survey placed von der Leyen’s approval rating at 33%, a 12% drop from February. A separate Ipsos EuroPulse poll from September 2025 put her positive rating even lower, at just 23%.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Admiral Brad Cooper has praised Israel and Arab states hosting American bases as “exceptional” allies in the war against Iran. He made the remarks amid reports of a possible second round of peace talks this week, as a two-week truce is set to expire on Wednesday.

During a press conference with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon on Thursday, Cooper hailed Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE as “exceptional teammates.”

“And there’s been no better teammate than Israel,” Cooper added.

“Together, the four best air forces in the world – the Israeli Air Force, the US Air Force, and the air forces of the US Navy and US Marine Corps – together met and exceeded our own military objectives over and over again,” Cooper said.

The admiral recalled that he met Israel’s Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, late last month to ensure the two countries remained “closely aligned.”

Speaking alongside Cooper, Hegseth denied that the war had been “foisted upon” Trump by Israel. “President Trump makes his own decisions about the interests of this country and defending our interests, and then works with allies and partners – in this case Israel, which has a lot of will and a lot of capabilities, which we’re grateful for,” he said.

Kent, who resigned from his position last month in protest of the war, said intelligence agencies could not confirm Trump’s claim that Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons.

In the remote forests of Bastar, a district in central India’s state of Chhattisgarh, the air no longer carries the acrid scent of gunpowder. Instead, the sweet, heady fragrance of Mahua flowers drifts through villages once trapped in the grip of left-wing extremism.

Bastar is famous not only for its forests and diverse tribal groups, but for the Maoist insurgency, functioning for decades as the epicenter of their conflict against Indian security forces. Bastar has been considered a prominent stronghold of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), an armed wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a banned political organization in India, since early 2000s. Inspired by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, the rebels advocate for class struggle and agrarian revolution through armed resistance.

What was long touted as the Maoists’ ‘Red Corridor’ – a vast stretch of ‘liberated zones’ from southern India toward Nepal – has now been dismantled. Sustained operations by India’s security forces, particularly since 2024, have significantly weakened the presence of Maoists, also known in the region as ‘Naxalites’ or ‘Naxals’ after the 1967 uprising in Naxalbari village in West Bengal state.  

After more than four decades of insurgency, roads, electricity, schools, and governance are steadily reclaiming territory that the state had lost to armed rebels.

Speaking in parliament on March 30, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said that the left-wing extremists and their supporters had presented a false narrative before innocent tribal people that they were fighting for their rights and to deliver justice to them. He said that Naxalism has now been “almost completely eradicated from Bastar,” and a campaign has begun to build schools and open ration shops in every village there, calling it one of the key achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. 

Peace returns

In Puwarti village, birthplace of the notorious Maoist commander Madvi Hidma linked to the deaths of hundreds of security personnel and civilians – a security forces camp now stands where arms training for his battalion once took place. Children play near a newly built Anganwadi child-care center.

Hidma’s deputy, Barse Deva, surrendered in early 2026, and his battalion has largely disintegrated through encounters, surrenders, and dispersal. Similar change is visible in Gougunda, a former Maoist bastion perched on a 660-meter-high cliff surrounded by dense forest. For the first time in living memory, electricity has reached the village. Residents who once lived by the sun’s rhythm now stay up late studying, working, or socializing.

Gangi Muchaki, who opened Gougunda’s first grocery shop with government help, beams under the glow of a solitary LED bulb: “This feels surreal! I still cannot believe that we have electricity, a motorable road and a ‘kirana’ (grocery) shop in our village. The night of red terror is over; this is a new dawn.”

End of Isolation

Maoists had deliberately banned constructing roads or installing electricity poles, as well as telecom towers, to maintain control of these areas through isolation. Today, the Border Roads Organization, an agency under the Ministry of Defence of India developing and maintaining road networks in India’s border regions and remote areas, is cutting all-weather roads through the forests. These road link remote districts in Chhattisgarh toward the southern city of Hyderabad. Arterial roads closed for 15-30 years due to frequent ambushes have now reopened.

Displaced villagers are returning home. In Baleveda village, falling under Narayanpur district, a Border Security Force (BSF) camp now occupies the site where Maoists once held their so-called kangaroo courts and carried out executions.

Ramulal Wadde, a Madia tribesman who lived in exile for 20 years in a slum, has returned as the new sarpanch, an elected head of a village-level self-government, along with about 20 other families. They are now rebuilding homes that fell into disrepair during their absence.

Wadde recalls the terror of those years: “This area is the place where they executed so many innocent villagers, including my relatives, for simply defying their diktats, like giving away one child to Naxal’s Bal Sena or simply daring to go out of the village to the town to see a doctor or study in a state-run residential school.”

His own family suffered losses on both sides of the conflict – one son, who was forced to join the rebels, was eventually killed by security forces, while another was killed by Maoists after he was branded a police informer.

Wadde himself fled after he was labelled an informer. As sarpanch, one of his first acts was symbolic: “The first thing I did as the village head was to raze the Shaheed Minar (a tower to honor the fallen Maoists) to dust. You see the hand pump there. I deliberately paved its platform with the debris of their pillar of pride to trample upon their legacy every day and forever.”

Since 2000, violence between insurgents and security forces has claimed nearly 12,000 lives, including over 4,000 civilians, according to the South Asian Terrorism Portal.

Similar scenes of return and reconstruction are unfolding in villages like Khader, where new brick homes funded by the prime minister’s housing scheme are rising amid the jungle. Despite brutal Maoist reprisals – including public beheadings of suspected “informers” witnessed by families – residents are coming back in growing numbers.

Education Replaces Indoctrination

Maoists destroyed or closed hundreds of schools and killed over 20 teachers since 2020 while running indoctrination centers in thatched huts. The state is now reversing the damage. In Bastar’s interior areas, 263 schools have reopened or been newly established, enrolling over 9,000 children, with nearly 100 new buildings under construction.

District officials, including Narayanpur’s district magistrate Smita Jain, conduct ‘Sushasan Shivir’ (Good Governance Camps) on motorcycles without fear, turning them into festive occasions where villagers obtain documents recognized pan-India, including Aadhaar cards (a 12-digit individual identification number issued to Indian residents), ration cards, and other essential documents.

Security forces have cleared jungle paths not only for operations but also to deliver governance directly to remote communities.

Veteran journalist Animesh Paul, who has covered the insurgency for nearly two decades, observes the dramatic shift. “Travelling in a police vehicle today is routine; just months ago, it would have been considered suicidal,” he opines.

Eliminating Leadership, Rehabilitating Cadres

In May 2025, Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general-secretary of the banned CPI (Maoist), was neutralized in a 50-hour encounter in the Abujhmarh hills. Young local recruits like Manish Usendi – whose brother was killed by Maoists for wanting to join the police – played roles in such operations. The collapse of Naxalites accelerated with a chain of high-profile operations executed by security forces. The elimination of top leaders, including Hidma, shattered command structures and triggered mass surrenders.

Over 2,700 Maoists have surrendered in the Bastar region in recent years as part of a larger nationwide trend. Senior officers credit sustained pressure on leadership, financial networks (extortion from contractors and forest produce traders), and infrastructure expansion for reducing the group’s capacity for major attacks.

Chhattisgarh’s Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, who also holds the Home portfolio, sums up the current phase: “The operation has been successful. But you don’t relieve yourself immediately after the operation. It is time for healing the state. Also, the Naxals are gone, but they’ve left behind landmine-riddled roads, jungles and ponds. The forces are clearing them out to make the jungles safe for everyone.”

Mangtu, who joined as a child soldier at age 14, confides, “I was so smitten by the uniforms and weapons of the Naxals that I accompanied them, almost hypnotized.” Aspiring to become a taxi driver, he adds, “I am training to be a taxi driver; some are getting training to eke out a living as plumbers. I am done with this goalless and endless revolution. I am tired of running and hiding. I want to live a normal life now and start a family.”

Many surrendered rebels revealed the Maoists’ brutal practice of forced sterilization – vasectomies and tubectomies performed without anesthesia on hundreds of young cadres – to sever family bonds and turn them into detached “human weapons.” They are now seeking a reversal procedure.

The dream of a contiguous ‘Red Corridor’ exploiting tribal grievances, poverty, and weak state presence has now collapsed into isolated pockets. Historically, the Naxalite leadership was often from Telugu-speaking regions in the country’s South, as the movement drew from post-Independence agrarian unrest, including the Telangana Struggle of 1946-51. The foot soldiers were local ‘adivasis’, or tribal people, while funding came mainly from local “levies” rather than large-scale foreign support.

After eliminating insurgency, authorities are now replacing parallel local governance structures and Kangaroo courts with transparent governance. Hundreds of security camps that have been established in the villages will further  transition into schools, health centers, or community facilities once the area is fully stabilized. Central forces continue de-mining of areas to ensure physical safety. There are many underlying vulnerabilities – single rain-fed agriculture, dependence on minor forest produce like Mahua flowers and tendu leaves, and lack of irrigation – created fertile ground for insurgency.

The proposed Bodhghat project on the Indravati River, estimated at around $6 billion and intended to generate 125 MW of power and irrigate nearly 700,000 hectares across key districts, could enable multiple crops and reduce the economic fragility that Maoists once exploited.

The grand Maoist vision of a continuous “Red Corridor” stretching from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh to Pashupati in Nepal now lies in tatters, reduced to scattered remnants in a handful of remote pockets. What remains is the harder, more enduring task: translating military gains into lasting peace through inclusive development, responsive governance, and economic opportunity.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has criticized the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, arguing that it could empower the regional armed group Hezbollah.

The 10-day truce, which took effect on Friday, is aimed at halting Israel’s military operation in Lebanon, which has left 2,196 people dead and 1.2 million displaced.

The IDF renewed airstrikes and expanded their presence in southern Lebanon last month after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in support of Iran.

“While I appreciate every effort to bring peace through diplomacy in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, we have to be realistic about the situation on the ground,” Graham wrote on X.

“I will not support any agreement regarding peace in Lebanon that fails to convince me that it will result in the disarmament and demise of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization,” Graham said.

According to the US State Department, Israel has agreed to halt “offensive military operations against Lebanese targets,” but has reserved the right to “take all necessary measures in self-defense.” The deal also calls on the Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah from attacking “Israeli targets.”

Hezbollah, which was not involved in the US-mediated negotiations, said the truce must halt all IDF activities in Lebanon.

US President Donald Trump’s true religion is “Israelism” rather than Christianity, conservative journalist and podcaster Tucker Carlson has claimed, criticizing the president’s Middle East policies.

Carlson made the remarks in response to controversial statements Trump made over the past week, including his attacks on Pope Leo XIV and posts depicting himself as a Christ-like figure.

On Monday, Trump described the US-born pontiff as “weak” and “terrible for foreign policy” after the pope called Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization “truly unacceptable” and said that Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

On his show, Carlson argued that the US had launched the war against Iran “on behalf of Israel” and “at the instigation of Israel.”

“What’s the religion, honestly, of Donald Trump? It’s not Christianity, clearly. It’s Israelism. It’s the defense of Israel,” Carlson said, adding that support for the Jewish state has become a “civic religion” of the American government.

He described Trump’s social media posts as “iconography” and “attempts to send a statement about faith,” which “doesn’t actually add up to a theology.”

Carlson said Trump’s actions amounted to a “mockery of God by a temporal leader” and praised former US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who labeled the post “more than blasphemy” and “an Antichrist spirit.”

US Vice President J.D. Vance, who is Catholic, sided with Trump, arguing that it is “very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.”

Several senior US officials have invoked religious imagery to justify the war with Iran, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urging Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

The 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon entered into force on Friday, with US President Donald Trump insisting that Hezbollah is part of the agreement, although the armed group had boycotted peace talks with Israel as futile.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) renewed their operation in Lebanon in early March after Hezbollah fired rockets and mortars at Israel in support of Iran.

At least 2,196 people have been killed in Lebanon, and 1.2 million have been displaced, as Israel carried out airstrikes on Beirut and other cities and issued sweeping evacuation orders in an effort to expand its “security zone” in southern Lebanon.

Iran, which reached a two-week ceasefire with the US and Israel on April 8, has listed an end to the Israeli campaign in Lebanon as one of the key conditions for a permanent peace deal.

US President Donald Trump’s policy has ended up creating problems for Americans, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said, citing soaring energy prices linked to the war on Iran.

Lula made the remarks in an interview with El Pais published on Thursday.

“[Trump] is playing a very dangerous game. He operates on the premise that American economic, military, and technological power dictates the rules of the game. Ultimately, it ends up creating problems for the United States,” he said.

“When he decided to attack Iran, I don’t know if he realized that fuel prices would rise and that the people would be the ones to pay the price,” the Brazilian president added.

Fuel prices in the US have surged since the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran closing the key freight corridor to ships associated with nations it considers hostile. The fighting has also damaged key petrochemical facilities in the region.

Negotiations between Washington and Tehran have not produced results since a tentative ceasefire took hold last week. Iran has blamed the breakdown of the talks on “unrealistic demands” presented by the US, while Washington has reacted by announcing a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for Tehran-linked vessels.

The possibility of new talks is being discussed, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists on Wednesday, without providing further details.

Kirill Budanov, the former head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, has recently stated that his country is not able to produce drones on its own.

Many supporters of the Ukrainian regime found this statement, coming from the current Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, to be at odds with Vladimir Zelensky’s own comments. Following Budanov’s remarks, Zelensky rushed to put out the fire, claiming that the newest Ukrainian drones can fly up to 1,750 kilometers. Meanwhile, tape measure in hand, Ukrainian media tried to hastily calculate where the drones could reach.

In response, the Russian Ministry of Defense published a detailed list of companies within the EU that are responsible for manufacturing components for Ukrainian drones. The idea wasn’t so much to reveal potential priority targets as to demonstrate international involvement in producing long-range ‘Ukrainian’ weaponry.

One could react to the news that Ukraine only has drone assembly facilities (i.e., not full-cycle production) in different ways. Some may irrationally celebrate Ukraine’s backwardness.  However, for a country whose industries are constantly attacked by Russian precision weapons, decentralizing the production chain and relocating it beyond the battlefield is essential.

This news indicates that, having diversified its production across several countries, European industry is capable of creating long-range drones, and these weapons are already being used against Russia.

The EU is focused on increasing the financial efficiency of its war efforts against Russia. Rather than relying on expensive missiles and launch systems, the bloc is ramping up its industry to produce comparatively cheaper means of mass destruction. Given that, in today’s landscape, the leading experts in drone warfare are Russians, Ukrainians, and Iranians, the EU is apparently attempting to shed moral responsibility for drone strikes. After all, European soldiers don’t have to be deployed to launch long-range drones.

In reality, the degree of responsibility remains unchanged. The drones carry munitions, have a long range, and strike not just military facilities but also civilian facilities and individuals unrelated to Russia’s military operation or the energy and fuel sector.

A year ago, the EU completely depended on American arms supplies in the war against Russia. Now, it aims to reduce that dependency.

The problem isn’t that the bloc risks confronting Russia alone, and would suddenly have to ‘grow up’ if the US were to completely withdraw from the conflict – these risks are known and accepted by the EU.

And it’s not just that it runs the risk of exhausting its own economy: despite declining living standards due to rising taxes, the EU still has some resilience.

The real issue is that the European Union is no longer just Ukraine’s rear logistical support system – it is becoming a full-fledged participant in the conflict. This shift threatens the core foundation of the European project – internal security, market stability, and predictability in everyday life. 

In other words, it challenges the very purpose for which the EU was created. 

Russia has the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are found to be deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned on Thursday.

“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”

Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.

In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on Russia in what Moscow has characterized as “terrorist attacks,” with the Russian military regularly reporting hundreds of UAVs downed in a single night.

Late last month, Kiev attacked Russia’s Baltic Sea ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk with swarms of UAVs. The raids resulted in fires in both towns, which house extensive petrochemical infrastructure.

Multiple Ukrainian drones have also struck the territories of Finland and the three Baltic states since early March. Despite this, all four nations have avoided condemning Kiev outright for violating their airspace.

Moscow has already formally warned Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia against allowing Ukraine to send drones via their territory, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. “If the regimes in these countries are smart enough, they will listen. If not, then they will have to deal with the consequences,” she said.

Disruptions to fertilizer supplies caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran risk triggering a multi-year food crisis globally, World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder Jose Andres has warned. 

Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz have already driven up energy prices and rattled the global economy, disrupting one of the world’s most important trade arteries. The route handles around 20% of global crude exports, but it is also critical for shipments of nitrogen-based fertilizers. 

Speaking to The Guardian on Thursday, Andres said delays in fertilizer deliveries risk missing critical planting windows, reducing yields in subsequent harvests and fueling a chain reaction of lower output and higher food prices. 

“It is not only oil that leaves through the Strait of Hormuz. I foresee a very big increase in famine across the world by the fall of 2026 and 2027,” he said, warning that shipping turmoil in and around Hormuz is already tightening fertilizer supplies and pushing up costs for farmers.  

Andres warned that poorer nations would bear the brunt. “In places like Haiti, they don’t serve you a kilo of rice, they serve you one ounce at a time. Those people are going to be suffering the consequences,” he said, suggesting governments allocate a small share of national budgets toward food security. 

A UN Development Program report estimates that up to 32 million people could be pushed into poverty across 162 countries due to the Middle East war’s wider economic impact, with import-dependent nations facing the greatest strain. The heaviest burden is expected in parts of Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and small island states.

A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will include the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah, US President Donald Trump has said, following his earlier announcement of the deal.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump announced an upcoming meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, adding that “they’re going to be having a ceasefire, and that will include Hezbollah.”

His remarks followed an earlier announcement on Truth Social that a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had been agreed following talks in Washington. He said the truce would begin at 5 PM EST (22:00 GMT). The post, however, did not mention Hezbollah.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Moussawi reportedly told the media that the group would respect the ceasefire, stressing that Israel must “abide by it completely,” including a “total cessation of hostilities” and withdrawal from the “occupied territories.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the announcement in a post on X, while Netanyahu also reportedly confirmed he had agreed to the truce.

More than 2,000 people have been killed and thousands more wounded, including hundreds of women and children, since Israel launched its invasion of southern Lebanon in early March in what it described as an operation against Hezbollah. More than one million people have been displaced – around one in five of the population. 

Last week, the IDF carried out its largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the conflict began, pounding central Beirut just hours after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran.

The US-Israel war on Iran could push regional repair costs in the Middle East to as much as $58 billion, with oil and gas facilities alone accounting for up to $50 billion, according to an analysis released by energy research firm Rystad.

However, the report stresses that the main constraint is not funding but limited global capacity to supply key equipment and engineering services, which could delay repairs for years.

Rystad’s estimate marks a sharp increase from the initial $25 billion projection the firm issued three weeks ago, reflecting the broader scope of damage before the April 8 ceasefire between the US and Iran.

“Repair work does not create new capacity. It redirects existing capacity, and that redirection will be felt in project delays and into inflation far beyond the Middle East,” Rystad senior analyst Karan Satwani said.

“The $58 billion bill is the headline, but the knock-on effects on energy investment timelines globally may prove just as significant,” Satwani highlighted.

Rystad said total repair spending is likely to average around $46 billion, with downstream refining and petrochemical assets accounting for the largest share due to the scale and complexity of the damage. Industrial, power, and desalination facilities could add $3 billion to $8 billion, with recovery timelines diverging across assets and countries due to differences in execution capacity and supply chain constraints.

Tehran plans to seek compensation from five Arab states – Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia – for damage from the latest military standoff, Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani told Tasnim. He said the countries acted as “co-participants” with the US and Israel and breached their obligations toward Iran.

Last week, the Iranian Red Crescent Society reported that 125,630 civilian units had been affected by the war, including 100,000 residential homes, some of them completely destroyed. It also cited damage to 23,500 commercial properties, 339 medical facilities, 32 universities, 857 schools, and 20 Red Crescent centers.

IRCS head Pir Hossein Kolivand stressed that around 15 major logistical sites, including fuel depots, airports, and civilian aircraft, had been hit, highlighting widespread disruption to transport, energy, and public services.

US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.

Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.

Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”

VP Vance getting heckled at TPUSA event

“You’re killing children!” pic.twitter.com/1rPZzghChb

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 14, 2026

Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.

“I recognize that a lot of young voters don’t love the policy that we have in the Middle East,” he said, asking the students not to turn away from the Republican Party. “I’m not saying you have to agree with me on every issue. What I’m saying is don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic.”

Vance took questions at the event because Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk, had canceled her plans to lead the event due to unspecified threats, according to a statement from TPUSA.

The suspected killer’s lawyers insist that federal investigators could not conclusively match the bullet recovered from the crime scene to the alleged assassin’s rifle.

Last week, the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), the Taiwanese conservative opposition party, paid a six-day visit to mainland China. Invited personally by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Cheng Li-wun traveled through Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing in what became the first high-level meeting between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the KMT in a decade.

Relations across the Taiwan Strait have entered their most dangerous phase in years. China’s national rejuvenation is accelerating, the US is intensifying its strategic competition with Beijing, and separatist forces on the island have become increasingly emboldened. Against this background, the meeting between Xi and Cheng signaled the re-emergence of the only political channel with a proven record of reducing tensions and preserving stability.

The KMT and the CPC may differ on many matters, but both understand a basic reality that the current authorities in Taipei refuse to acknowledge: there is only one Chinese nation, and the future of both sides of the Strait depends on avoiding confrontation.

The Taiwanese authorities’ outcry

Predictably, Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party denounced Cheng’s trip. DPP figures accused her of being “subservient” to Beijing and portrayed the visit as a betrayal. Yet these attacks revealed less about Cheng than about the DPP’s own political predicament.

Since Tsai Ing-wen entered office in 2016, the DPP has systematically dismantled the political foundations that had previously kept cross-Strait relations stable. Beijing cut off high-level communication with Taiwan after Tsai refused to endorse the principle that both sides belong to one Chinese nation, expressed politically through the 1992 Consensus. What followed was a downward spiral of mistrust, military tension and diplomatic isolation.

The DPP has attempted to compensate for this failure by drawing Taiwan ever deeper into foreign geopolitical plays. Taipei has strengthened military coordination with the US and expanded its cooperation with Israel’s defense sector. It has deepened political and security ties with Japan while quietly extending support to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, effectively aligning the island with the broader Western bloc.

These policies have not made Taiwan safer. On the contrary, they have transformed it into a front line in Washington’s containment strategy against China. The more the DPP binds Taiwan to external powers, the more it erodes the possibility of peaceful development across the Strait.

For the DPP and its foreign allies, preserving hostility is politically useful. Tension allows them to justify higher military spending, closer foreign dependence and the illusion that Taiwan can indefinitely move toward formal independence without any consequences. But for ordinary people on the island, this strategy offers only risk, instability and economic pressure.

Cheng Li-wun’s itinerary was carefully designed and politically meaningful. Her visits to Jiangsu province, Shanghai and Beijing reflected the mainland’s comprehensive vision for cross-Strait relations.

In Jiangsu, Cheng engaged with local economic and cultural institutions, emphasizing the deep historical and social ties between people on both sides of the Strait. Jiangsu has long been one of the mainland provinces most closely connected to Taiwan through investment, trade and family networks. By beginning the trip there, Beijing underscored that cross-Strait relations are a matter of shared heritage and practical cooperation.

In Shanghai, Cheng met business representatives and discussed opportunities for renewed commercial exchange. Shanghai remains one of the mainland’s principal gateways for Taiwanese investment and entrepreneurship. The message was clear: stable relations bring tangible benefits. Trade, tourism, student exchanges and industrial cooperation once delivered prosperity to millions of Taiwanese families. Those benefits have steadily diminished under the DPP’s confrontational approach.

The final stage in Beijing gave the trip its unmistakable strategic weight. There, Cheng met Chinese President Xi Jinping in the highest-level interaction between the two parties since 2015. Xi framed the future of cross-Strait relations around four principles – shared identity, peace, people’s well-being, and national rejuvenation.

Cheng’s response aligned closely with this framework. She stated plainly that opposing Taiwanese independence and maintaining the 1992 Consensus is the only way to “avoid war, prevent tragedy, work together and create peace.” That formulation captured a truth increasingly recognized by many Taiwanese citizens. Continued movement toward independence risks catastrophe.

A follow-up with real substance

Unlike many diplomatic meetings that end with vague declarations, the KMT-CPC talks produced concrete follow-up measures. Most important were ten new initiatives, including the creation of a regular communication mechanism between the two parties.

This is a major development. Since 2016, one of the most dangerous aspects of cross-Strait relations has been the absence of reliable channels of communication. Miscalculation becomes far more likely when there is no trusted means to exchange views or manage crises.

The new mechanism is intended to institutionalize dialogue between the two parties, allowing them to coordinate on economic, cultural and political questions. Other measures include support for youth exchanges, tourism, trade, academic cooperation and greater access for Taiwanese businesses operating on the mainland.

The KMT presented these measures as practical steps to restore normality and reduce the possibility conflict. Party figures argued that Taiwan needs fewer slogans and more channels for communication.

Taiwan’s official authorities reacted differently. DPP politicians dismissed the agreements and insisted that only the government in Taipei has the legitimacy to conduct cross-Strait affairs. Yet this position ignores an obvious reality: the DPP government has failed to maintain any meaningful dialogue with Beijing for nearly a decade.

If official institutions are paralyzed by ideology, alternative channels become necessary. The KMT’s role is therefore not a challenge to Taiwan’s interests, but an attempt to defend them where the current authorities have failed.

Cheng’s visit inevitably invited comparison with the famous “Journey of Peace” undertaken by then-KMT Chairman Lien Chan in 2005. That eight-day trip to mainland China marked the first meeting between top KMT and Communist Party leaders since 1945, when Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing.

The 2005 initiative came at another moment of acute tension. Like today, separatist sentiment on the island was growing, while the US encouraged a harder line toward Beijing. Lien’s meetings with Hu Jintao in Beijing established a framework for communication and helped reduce the risk of confrontation.

The historical symbolism was profound. In 1945, despite civil war and ideological struggle, the two sides still recognized one another as legitimate political forces within a single Chinese nation. The CPC acknowledged the KMT as the lawful government of China, while the KMT accepted the CPC as a legitimate opposition force.

Lien Chan’s trip revived that logic. Cheng Li-wun’s visit now represents its contemporary continuation.

A growing public demand for stability

The political climate inside Taiwan is also changing. Global instability, rising energy prices and economic uncertainty have increased pressure on ordinary households. Many Taiwanese increasingly recognize that the DPP cannot solve these daily problems.

The promise that confrontation with the mainland would bring greater international support has not been fulfilled. Instead, Taiwan faces slower growth, declining opportunities and growing insecurity.

By contrast, memories remain strong of the years when stable cross-Strait relations produced clear benefits. Tourism flourished. Taiwanese businesses expanded on the mainland. Students and families traveled more easily. Economic growth was stronger, and the danger of war seemed more distant.

As a result, public demand for restored exchanges is growing. More people understand that peace is not achieved through rhetorical defiance or dependence on foreign powers. It is achieved through dialogue, realism and mutual recognition.

The only viable path forward

The significance of Cheng Li-wun’s visit lies in the fact that it reopened a political channel that had been deliberately shut.

The DPP’s strategy has led Taiwan toward greater isolation and greater danger. By encouraging separatism while relying on the US and its allies, it has turned the island into a geopolitical pawn.

The KMT-CPC dialogue offers a different path: opposition to Taiwanese independence, commitment to the 1992 Consensus, institutional communication, and a shared determination to avoid war.

The Taiwan question will not be solved through military pressure, foreign intervention or endless political theater. It will be solved through cooperation between the two forces that still recognize the deeper historical and national connection across the Strait. CPC-KMT cooperation is therefore the key to solving the Taiwan question and securing a peaceful future for the Chinese nation.

The Pentagon has approached major US car manufacturers General Motors and Ford about producing weapons and military equipment, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing sources.

General Motors already supplies military vehicles to the Pentagon through its GM Defense unit, while Ford has no major military contracts.

The discussions reportedly involved senior executives and focused on whether – and how quickly – civilian factories could be redirected toward producing munitions and other military supplies, as Washington seeks to replenish stockpiles depleted by the Ukraine conflict and the war on Iran, the outlet wrote on Wednesday.

GE Aerospace and vehicle and machinery maker Oshkosh were also involved in the talks, which began before the US-Israeli war against Iran started on February 28, it added.

The war against Iran has significantly strained US weapons stockpiles. The American military has launched more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles during the first four weeks of the campaign. The rate has prompted alarm among some Pentagon officials, the Washington Post reported last month. While the US Department of War does not disclose the exact number of Tomahawks it has, analysis suggests that before Operation Epic Fury, the US Navy had between 4,000 and 4,500 such missiles.

US President Donald Trump has requested a record-breaking military budget of around $1.5 trillion for the 2027 fiscal year, up from nearly $1 trillion this year, according to the administration’s budget outline. The proposal includes more than $1.1 trillion in base defense funding alongside additional allocations tied to ongoing military operations.

US President Donald Trump has announced that a ten-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been agreed upon following talks in Washington.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump stated the truce would begin at 5 PM EST (22:00 GMT), following what he described as “excellent conversations” with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The talks, held in Washington DC, were the first direct meeting between the two nations “in 34 years” and involved US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump said, adding that he had directed US officials to work with both sides toward a “lasting peace.” Trump also claimed that the deal would be his “10th” such achievement.

pic.twitter.com/AKnhxPU033

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 16, 2026

Trump did not mention Israel’s ongoing war with Hezbollah after its invasion of southern Lebanon in early March, or its attempt to effectively annex some 15% of the country. Last week, the IDF carried out its largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the conflict began, pounding central Beirut just hours after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Israel has killed over 2,000 people and wounded thousands more since March 2, including hundreds of women and children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced.

Israeli officials reportedly expressed “outrage” after Trump announced the ceasefire ahead of the planned Israeli security cabinet call to discuss a truce. Netanyahu told the ministers that the deal would begin “at the request of Trump,” according to Ynet, adding that Israeli forces would remain in their positions in southern Lebanon.

Armed robbers took around 25 people hostage during a bank heist in the Italian city of Naples on Thursday, local media reported.

The incident unfolded shortly before noon at a Credit Agricole branch in the hilltop Vomero district, where attackers stormed the bank and seized customers and staff.

Police rapidly surrounded the bank, sealing off the area, and firefighters were deployed. Witnesses cited by media said the suspects barricaded themselves inside, triggering a tense standoff in one of the city’s busiest neighborhoods.

After about two hours, security forces launched a coordinated breach, with firefighters smashing a reinforced window to allow police to storm the building.

All hostages were freed in the operation. At least six people were treated for shock, but no serious injuries were reported.

Naples chief prosecutor Nicola Gratteri arrived at the scene as investigators began working to establish the sequence of events and identify those responsible.

Reports suggest at least two suspects were involved, though it remains unclear whether any arrests have been made or if the attackers managed to escape.

Reports suggest at least two suspects were involved, though it remains unclear whether any arrests have been made or if the attackers managed to escape.

Bank robberies involving hostage-taking are a recurring feature of crime in Naples. Italian media report that attackers typically strike during business hours, threatening staff and customers and holding them inside while waiting for time-locked safes to open. 

The Russian armed forces carried out mass strikes on Ukrainian military and energy sites on Thursday in response to a drone attack that killed two children in the country’s Krasnodar Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Russian strikes hit facilities involved in the production of cruise missiles and medium- and long-range UAVs, the MOD said in a statement on Thursday, adding that energy infrastructure sites used to support Ukraine’s military were also targeted.

”In response to terrorist attacks by Ukraine against civilian targets on Russian territory, a mass strike has been carried out over the past day using long-range precision weapons launched from land, air, and sea, as well as strike drones,” the ministry statement read.

”The objectives of the strikes have been achieved. All designated targets have been hit,” it added.

The strike followed a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian Black Sea port city of Tuapse, in which two children aged five and 14 were killed.

Ukraine also attacked a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in Russian territorial waters, injuring the vessel’s captain, a Turkish national, who has been hospitalized, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced on Thursday.

Ukraine has frequently targeted Russian port infrastructure and energy facilities, as well as tankers and cargo ships.

Russia has accused Kiev of using Western-supplied weapons to target civilians, with the Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday releasing a list of European companies it said are involved in manufacturing military drones for Kiev.

The ministry stated that, rather than strengthening the security of European states, the actions of some of the continent’s leaders were increasingly dragging their countries into a war with Russia.

Former South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has condemned a death penalty bill debated in Israel’s Knesset, saying the proposed measure targeting Palestinians reflects legal practices associated with apartheid and colonial rule.

Pandor highlighted a draft bill discussed during a March 30 session of the Knesset that seeks to mandate the death penalty for Palestinians involved in attacks resulting in the loss of Israeli life.

According to Pandor, the legislation bypasses traditional judicial safeguards, representing a “mandatory” sentence dictated through legislative act rather than a standard court hearing or trial.

Pandor, who has long been a vocal figure in South African political communications and international strategy, likened the bill to laws enforced under British colonial and early South African rule circa 1935. During that era, the death penalty, specifically hanging, was mandatory for black citizens convicted of certain crimes, with no alternative sentencing available to the courts.

“Now, we’re going back to laws that we link with colonialism and apartheid,” Pandor remarked, suggesting that such measures validate international accusations of Israel operating as an apartheid state.

The proposed bill has sparked significant international debate regarding its alignment with democratic values and international law.

Türk also said its application would “constitute a war crime”. The new law passed its third and final reading in the Knesset by 62 votes to 48, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voting in favour.

The bill stipulates that Palestinians convicted in Israeli military courts of carrying out deadly attacks deemed to be “acts of terrorism” would be executed by hanging within 90 days, with a possible postponement of up to 180 days.

A member of Ben-Gvir’s party, Limor Son-Har-Melech, who survived an attack by Palestinian gunmen in which her husband was killed, argued that the law was necessary, citing the example of how one of her husband’s killers was later released and went on to take part in the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.

During the debate in the Knesset, she said: “For years, we endured a cruel cycle of terror, imprisonment, release in reckless deals, and the return of these human monsters to murder Jews again.”

Pandor described the legislative process as “undemocratic” and “evil,” alleging that the session’s conclusion was met with “the drinking of champagne” by proponents of the bill.

The criticism centres on three primary concerns:

• Mandatory sentencing: The removal of judicial discretion in capital cases.
• Selective application: The specific targeting of one demographic (Palestinians) for these capital measures.
• International non-compliance: The perceived neglect of established international legal frameworks governing human rights and occupied territories.

Pandor concluded her assessment by labelling the legislative actions as “absolutely disgraceful”, signalling a continued hardening of the diplomatic stance between Pretoria and Jerusalem regarding human rights and judicial independence.

South Africa filed a lawsuit with the ICJ requesting an injunction against Israel because Israel’s attacks on Gaza violate the Genocide Convention.

South Africa requested that the ICJ grant interim injunctions, including that Israel immediately cease its military operations in Gaza, take reasonable measures to prevent the genocide of Palestinians, ensure that the displaced return to their homes and have access to humanitarian assistance, including adequate food, water, fuel, medical and hygiene supplies, shelter and clothing, take necessary steps to punish those involved in the genocide and preserve the evidence of genocide.

First published by IOL

Stockholm’s allegations that a pro-Russian hacker group attempted to disrupt a thermal power plant in Sweden last year are unfounded and lacking concrete evidence, Russia’s ambassador to the country, Sergey Belyaev, has said. 

Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin claimed on Wednesday that a group linked to Russian intelligence attempted to attack a district heating plant in western Sweden in the spring of 2025. Bohlin stated that Swedish security services had identified the actor behind the attack, which he said was thwarted by the plant’s built-in security systems. 

“The Swedish Security Service handled the case and was able to identify the actor behind it, which has ties to Russian intelligence and security services,” Bohlin told reporters. 

However, Belyaev has rejected the allegations as baseless, noting that Stockholm has not sought any consultations with the Russian side over the issue, which suggests that “there are no specific facts or evidence.” 

He further stated that claims about the alleged involvement of “certain Russian hackers in such illegal activity remain at the level of the ‘highly likely’ principle, beloved by Western countries, that is, unfounded suspicions.” 

Moscow has repeatedly denied Western accusations of involvement in hacking activities as warmongering and has consistently expressed willingness to cooperate on cybersecurity matters. 

The latest Swedish allegations come amid heightened tensions between Moscow and NATO. The military bloc has cited the supposed threat of Russian aggression to justify a massive military buildup and developing offensive cyber capabilities.  

In February, the EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen also said it was “not enough” to have defensive measures and that the bloc needs also to have “offensive capacity.” 

The number of DDoS attacks on Russian companies exceeded 186,000 in 2025, marking a 2.7‑fold increase from the previous year, according to the RED Security cybersecurity firm. In 2026, the upward trend has continued, with weekly attacks on state resources surging from an average of 350 to 949 in the spring, according to the Russian authorities.

Malawi has recorded the highest gasoline prices in Africa and the second highest globally, reaching $3.84 per liter as of Monday, according to data from analytical portal GlobalPetrolPrices.

The southeastern African nation also leads the continent in diesel prices, with fuel costing $3.85 per liter. Malawi is second only to Hong Kong globally in both the gasoline and diesel rankings.

In the African diesel price ranking, the Central African Republic (CAR) follows with $2.231 per liter, ahead of Zimbabwe at $2.110 and Sierra Leone at $2.033.

The surge in gasoline prices places Zimbabwe in second place at $2.230 per liter, followed by the CAR at $1.874 and Sierra Leone at $1.779. Morocco, Senegal, Rwanda, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon also rank among the top ten African countries with the highest fuel prices.

Countries around the world are grappling with supply disruptions following restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February. The disruption has sent oil prices higher and triggered knock-on effects across global supply chains. 

Earlier this month, a joint report by the African Union, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and the World Bank warned that ongoing disruptions to shipping, energy, and fertilizer supplies could deepen trade shocks and trigger a broader cost-of-living crisis across Africa, driven by rising fuel and food prices.

An Iranian embassy has shared an AI-generated video depicting Jesus casting Donald Trump into hell, following backlash over a social media post in which the US president appeared to portray himself as a Christ-like healer.

Trump posted the image on Truth Social on Sunday but deleted it the following day after a wave of criticism, saying he had not recognized its religious implications. It originally appeared in February, when author Nick Adams shared it with the caption: “America has been sick for a long time. President Trump is healing this nation.” Trump’s version was slightly altered.

On Tuesday, the Iranian embassy in Tajikistan posted a clip that opens with the image that Trump had posted. The glow coming from his hands quickly fades as Jesus descends from heaven, slaps him across the face, and sends him tumbling into a fiery abyss.

pic.twitter.com/JfIzjX1Glx

— Iran Embassy in Tajikistan (@IRANinTJ) April 14, 2026

The video had already been circulating online prior to being reposted by the Iranian embassy, and similar interpretations had appeared elsewhere. Various responses to the ‘healer’ image depict Jesus angrily expelling Trump as a ‘moneymaker’ from the Temple of Jerusalem, echoing a well-known story from the Gospels…

Because Trump blasphemed Jesus Christ, Jesus chased him out of the White House with whips. pic.twitter.com/VWRiOHjeTg

— Ben Char (@hbenchaar) April 13, 2026

…or simply punching him.

Well. pic.twitter.com/GVZdGnQCBy

— Arnold (@arnoldi254) April 13, 2026

Trump’s critics have expanded on the concept, using AI tools to generate multiple scenarios in which the savior violently intervenes in the president’s life.

Jesus Punches Trump through history pic.twitter.com/DsI0C6xY97

— Karim Jovian (@KJovian) April 16, 2026

The controversy coincided with Trump criticizing Pope Leo, accusing him of being “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” – remarks that strained relations with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The typically supportive European leader described the comments as unacceptable.

The US will not renew the sanctions waiver that facilitated purchases of Russian oil by India and other countries, a top Trump administration official has said.

A 30-day waiver of sanctions on Iranian oil at sea will also expire this week.

“We will not be renewing the general license on Russian oil, and we will not be renewing the general license on Iranian oil,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Wednesday. “That was oil that was on the water prior to March 11. So all that has been used,” Bessent said at a White House briefing.

Washington’s decision not to renew the sanctions waiver on oil from Russia and Iran comes after many US Senators voiced opposition to any extension.

🇺🇸 Treasury Secretary 'Doesn't Know' How Much Russia Made From Temporary Sanctions Waiver

"If oil had spiked to $150, they would have made a lot more."

Yes, that's usually how it works. https://t.co/aIPsnwwMCL pic.twitter.com/3GARziW38k

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 16, 2026

The US granted India a 30-day waiver to purchase oil from Russia early in March to ensure stability in the global oil market.

The US Treasury Department also issued a waiver for Iranian oil on March 20, paving the way for some 140 million barrels of crude to reach global markets amid the Middle East conflict.

India made its first purchases of Iranian oil in seven years after the US waiver in April.

Iranian crude accounted for 11.5% of India’s total imports before it ceased purchases in 2019 after the tightening of US sanctions on Iran, NDTV reported.

New Delhi emerged as a key market for Russian oil after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. It bought almost two million barrels a day in 2024 and nearly $44 billion of crude from Moscow last year.

India is the world’s third-largest importer and consumer of oil. The country gets 90% of its requirements from abroad, and the Middle East accounted for 54% of its oil imports as of February. The Iran conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have heightened supply concerns in the South Asian nation.

The US Senate has voted against two resolutions blocking American arms sales to Israel put forward by independent lawmaker Bernie Sanders.

The resolutions received support from some 75% of Democrats during the votes on Wednesday, but still failed to pass as the Republicans almost unanimously rejected them.

Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, was looking to stop the $295 million sale of bulldozers and the $151.8 million sale of 12,000 general purpose 1,000-pound ‘dumb’ bombs to West Jerusalem.

Both resolutions ended up being voted down by 59 to 40 and 63 to 36, respectively.

In previous years, arms sales to Israel enjoyed strong bipartisan backing, but Democrats have begun to shift their stance since West Jerusalem began its military operation in Gaza in response to the deadly October 7, 2023 incursion by Palestinian armed group Hamas.

Despite the failure of his resolutions, the Vermont senator later expressed satisfaction over the fact that “Democrats are beginning to listen to the average American who is sick and tired of spending billions of dollars to support [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s horrific wars when people in this country can’t afford housing or health care.”

The Republicans claimed that blocking weapons deliveries to the Jewish state could harm the US in the conflict with Iran, which Washington and West Jerusalem attacked jointly on February 28. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch warned that this could embolden Tehran and “send the message that the US is prepared to leave our ally Israel vulnerable.”

More than 72,000 people have been killed and over 172,000 others injured in the Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past three years, figures from Palestinian health authorities suggest.

Israel has appointed an ambassador to Somaliland, deepening ties with the breakaway Somali region months after its controversial decision to recognize the territory as an independent state.

Michael Lotem, former Israeli ambassador to Kenya, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, was named as a non-resident envoy, according to a statement from Israel’s Foreign Ministry cited by public broadcaster KAN.

The appointment comes weeks after West Jerusalem accepted Somaliland’s first ambassador to Israel, ending the region’s decades of diplomatic isolation.

In December, Israel became the first UN member state to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent state, drawing widespread criticism from regional actors and Somalia, which considers the breakaway region part of its sovereign territory.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia and declared independence in 1991 after a decade-long civil war. The territory, located along the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden, has since built its own relatively stable government, security institutions, and currency, but it has not been internationally recognized.

“Somalia categorically rejects any attempt to confer diplomatic or political recognition on any part of its territory outside the authority of the federal government,” the ministry said, declaring that Somaliland remains “an integral part” of Somalia.

Mogadishu had previously condemned Israel’s recognition of Somaliland as a violation of international law, warning that it undermines efforts to stabilize the East African nation after decades of conflict.

On Thursday, Somaliland dismissed Somalia’s protest as “misleading,” insisting that its diplomatic ties with Israel “constitute the exercise of its sovereign prerogatives and are not subject to external approval.”

Its Foreign Ministry said Mogadishu has no legal authority “to interfere in, comment on, or constrain Somaliland’s bilateral relations with any state.”

A US lawmaker has introduced six articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over actions tied to the war on Iran.

The resolution, submitted earlier this week by Democratic Representative Yassamin Ansari and backed by eight Democratic co-sponsors and several anti-war groups, outlines six charges, including violating the oath of office, endangering US service members, and committing war crimes.

One of the articles focuses on alleged violations of the laws of war. Hegseth is accused of authorizing or failing to prevent operations that resulted in civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure in Iran, including a school in Minab, where at least 175 people – mostly children – were killed in a strike on February 28. The Pentagon has reportedly determined that US forces carried out the strike based on outdated intelligence but has yet to apologize.

Another set of allegations is tied to the so-called ‘Signalgate’ leak, as well as claims that Hegseth obstructed congressional oversight. Lawmakers argue that he withheld full information on military operations from Congress, limiting its ability to conduct proper supervision.

The resolution also accuses Hegseth of abuse of power and the politicization of the armed forces. It alleges that he used his position to influence military decisions for political purposes and undermined the principle of nonpartisanship in the armed forces. In addition, he is accused of actions that damaged the reputation of the US and its military forces.

Axios, which first obtained a copy of the seven-page impeachment resolution, noted that the measure has virtually no chance of advancing in the current Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives and can block any effort to bring the articles to a floor vote. The initiative is reportedly being viewed as an effort to intensify political pressure on one of President Donald Trump’s most senior cabinet officials, even if it is unlikely to result in Hegseth’s removal from office.

Democrats have recently pushed, unsuccessfully, to impeach former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Commenting on the latest step, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told the news outlet: “This is just another Democrat trying to make headlines as the Department of War decisively and overwhelmingly achieved the President’s objectives in Iran.”

The EU spy campaign that helped bring down Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a lesson to anyone who defies Brussels, former Slovak Interior Minister Vladimir Palko has warned. “What they did to Orban yesterday, they can do to you tomorrow,” he told the outlet ‘Marker’ on Monday.

Orban’s Fidesz party suffered a landslide defeat to Peter Magyar’s Tisza on Sunday, with Tisza outperforming even the most one-sided polls to win a 54% to 38% over Fidesz. Magyar’s party now holds 137 of 199 seats in parliament, giving the incoming PM power to rewrite the country’s constitution as he – and his allies in Brussels – see fit.

That the EU wanted this result was obvious. Orban had been a thorn in Brussels’ side for 16 years and was an insurmountable obstacle to the bloc’s plans to approve a €90 billion loan package for Ukraine. Throughout the election, evidence of interference by the EU, Ukraine, and opposition-friendly Hungarian media trickled out of Budapest. With the election over, the full extent of the EU’s intelligence campaign against Orban – and its implications for populists across Europe – is slowly becoming apparent.

“The defeat of Viktor Orban after 16 years of rule is not surprising at all,” Palko told Marker. “However, the tragedy is what happened in the election campaign.”

The EU spied on Orban for years

Palko, who served as deputy director of Slovakia’s SIS intelligence agency in the 1990s and interior minister between 2002 and 2006, confirmed information that had already surfaced in the runup to the election: namely that opposition journalist Szabolcs Panyi gave Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto’s contact details to an unnamed EU intelligence agency, that then wiretapped Szijjarto and leaked details of six years’ worth of his calls with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov back to Panyi and other pro-opposition reporters. Panyi’s outlet, Direkt36, derives 80% of its project costs from the EU.

EU spies also fed the Hungarian and international media stories of Russian “election fixers” attempting to swing the election for Orban, and of plots by Russian military intelligence agents to stage an assassination attempt on Orban for publicity. The claims were unfounded, but were seized upon by Magyar, who worked chants of “Russians, go home!” into his campaign rallies.

The EU in turn used these reports to justify the activation of its ‘Rapid Response System’ (RRS): a suite of online censorship tools that allowed Brussels’ “fact checkers” to remove supposed “disinformation” from social media platforms in the runup to the vote. In every election in which it has been activated, the RRS “almost exclusively targeted” right-wing and populist candidates like Orban, the US House Judiciary Committee found in an investigation last year.

“Only one thing is shown from the recorded phone calls: The Hungarians were friendly towards the Russians,” Palko noted. “But this already is a mortal sin for the EU establishment. This is the new European Union that is coming.”

The new European Union

The Hungarian election ultimately came down to kitchen-table economic issues. Roads, healthcare, public safety, and public transport were the leading issues among voters in all 19 of Hungary’s counties, and the electorate chose Magyar’s promises of cash injections for underfunded public services over Orban’s geopolitics-heavy platform. Magyar will depend on the EU to fund his economic plan to the tune of €20 billion, and as such will be easily leveraged by Brussels, giving further incentive for the bloc to back his campaign.

Yet the role of EU intelligence in the result has been ignored, even by Orban’s ideological allies on the continent. This, Palko reckons, is a mistake. “All those who were not bothered by it should be warned,” he said. “What they did to Orban yesterday, they can do to you tomorrow.”

As RT reported, the EU has rolled out its same censorship playbook in Bulgaria, where elections this weekend pit a veteran center-rightist against a populist, Euroskeptic challenger on the left. Robert Fico in Slovakia, a left-wing populist and vocal opponent of the EU’s Ukraine project, will likely face the same treatment when he seeks another term in office next year.

Ukraine has attacked a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in Russian territorial waters, injuring the vessel’s captain, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said. 

The ship’s captain, a Turkish national, has been hospitalized, the agency reported on Thursday. Investigators have examined the scene, documented the damage, and ordered a forensic explosives analysis.

Ukrainian drones have also targeted a number of coastal cities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Region, including Sochi and Dagomys, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

The greatest damage from the overnight attack was recorded in the town of Tuapse, where two people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl. Seven others were injured, officials said.

In the port city of Novorossiisk, drone debris struck a civilian vessel, causing a fire and injuring one person, Kondratyev said. The authorities suggested the vessel may have been the tanker cited by the Russian Investigative Committee.

Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Peter Magyar, has pledged to suspend the news operations of the state broadcaster following two tense interviews he gave on Wednesday.

Magyar’s Tisza party secured a decisive victory in Sunday’s parliamentary election, effectively ensuring he will form the next government. He has indicated that action against MTVA will be among his first steps in office.

Magyar has accused the broadcaster of bias against his movement and of disseminating “propaganda” in support of outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose 16-year tenure ended with Tisza’s win.

“What has been happening here since 2010 is something that Goebbels or the North Korean leadership would admire – not a single true word being spoken. This cannot continue,” he said during one of the interviews. The presenter rejected the claims.

Magyar, formerly a member of Orban’s Fidesz party, campaigned on improving relations with the European Commission and unlocking more than €16 billion ($19 billion) in frozen EU Covid-19 recovery funds, which Brussels withheld over rule-of-law concerns.

While EU officials have long accused Orban of undermining independent media in Hungary to consolidate power, the bloc used a network of outlets it funds to meddle in the recent election. Pro-Magyar journalist Szabolcs Panyi admitted to sharing the phone number of Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto with a European spy agency. His outlet Direkt36 and its sister publications later accused the diplomat of coordinating Hungarian foreign policy with Russia, based on intercepted conversations between Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

He also said he expected Kiev to resume deliveries via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, a move he said could prompt Orban to lift his veto on a €90 billion ($106 billion) EU loan for Ukraine before leaving office.

The US-Iran talks being mediated by Pakistan to end the latest Middle East conflict are nearing a breakthrough, Al Jazeera has reported.

The likelihood of a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program has improved significantly, the news outlet reported, citing Pakistani sources.

Iran’s nuclear program has been the bone of contention in talks with the US to end the Middle East conflict after Washington announced a ceasefire on April 7.

Negotiators from the US and Iranian sides have been at odds over the duration of any uranium enrichment freeze by Tehran as part of its nuclear program.

Pakistani sources say there has been a 'major breakthrough' over a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme. https://t.co/Ehyfs0l5Ue

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 16, 2026

The country’s stockpile of 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium also remains a sticky issue.

The optimism towards breaking a deadlock came after a Pakistani delegation led by Army Chief Asim Munir arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks to resolve the Middle East conflict.

The delegates were continuing to relay messages between Washington and Tehran, the news outlet said.

The Al Jazeera report said Munir has brought a new message from the US, adding that he plans to facilitate another round of talks between Tehran and Washington.

The initial round of US-Iran talks led by US Vice President J.D. Vance and Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf ended without a breakthrough in Islamabad on Sunday.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Türkiye this week was part of a “double-pronged strategy” to neutralize any detractors to a deal, the news outlet said.

The options being considered include sending Iran’s uranium stockpile abroad to a third party or bringing it down to either uranium in its natural form or up to 3%, according to the report.

The conflict between the US and Iran is close to being settled, President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday.

Trump has also said that a 20-year uranium enrichment moratorium on Iran is not long enough, referring to a reported proposal made by Vance in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry reportedly said on Thursday that no dates have been set for the next round of talks between the US and Iran.

International organizations have rejected the creation of a “parallel government” in Sudan, warning against steps that could deepen divisions in the conflict-ridden country. 

In a joint position released on Wednesday at the Third International Sudan Conference in Berlin, the African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, League of Arab States, the EU, and the UN indicated that such initiatives risk undermining the country’s sovereignty and unity, while urging all sides to move toward de-escalation.

The statement was released as Sudan’s civil war, ongoing since April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), continues to fuel instability.

“[The Quintet] rejects any attempt to undermine these principles, including through the imposition of parallel governing structures that risk further fragmenting the Sudanese state,” the press release stated.

Last July, the Leadership Council of the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) announced the creation of a rival government, naming RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as chairman of a 15-member presidential council that includes regional governors. Abdelaziz Adam al-Hilu was named as vice chairman, while Sudanese politician Mohamed Hassan Othman al-Ta’ayshi was designated as prime minister.

The formation of the rival government, according to TASIS, renews its “commitment to building an inclusive homeland and a new secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan, founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality.”

Later, the AU, Arab League, and Saudi Arabia condemned the RSF for announcing the formation of a parallel government in the conflict-torn country. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has denounced the “so-called militia government” as a ploy by the RSF to deceive its allies, while its true intent is to seize power for personal gain.

At the time, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) warned that the move could further fragment Sudan.

British state broadcaster the BBC is set to cut between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs – about 10% of its 21,500 workforce. 

Interim Director General Rhodri Talfan Davies informed employees of the planned downsizing on Wednesday, citing “significant financial pressures... production inflation remains very high; our licence fee and commercial income is under pressure; and the global economy remains turbulent.”

A staffer reportedly told the Independent that the announcement was like “Hunger Games” where employees will have to compete with each other to keep their jobs.

The state-linked broadcaster faces a $10 billion lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump who has accused its flagship news program Panorama of “intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring” a speech he delivered in January 2021 ahead of the US Capitol riot.

A government review and Freedom of Information requests have found that some 81 BBC staff have been accused of sexual misconduct since the 2013 revelations of rampant sexual abuse of minors by pedophile entertainers Jimmy Saville and Stuart Hall over decades, apparently missed by the broadcaster’s management.

Philippa Childs, head of broadcasting union Bectu, warned that the proposed cuts would be “devastating for the workforce” and the BBC itself, noting that employees are “already under significant pressure after previous redundancy rounds.” The reductions would be the largest since 2011.

Davies will be replaced in mid-May by former Google executive Matt Brittin, whose media experience is limited to joining the board of The Guardian last year. 

US President Donald Trump is making “a big move towards controlling the marginal barrel of oil,” attempting to shift the world’s energy focus from the Persian Gulf region to the Gulf of Mexico, “where oil tankers are now lining up,” geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo told RT in an interview on Wednesday.  

A sharp drop in OPEC oil production is an expected result of US strategy to reshape global energy flows away from the Strait of Hormuz, he said. Luongo, publisher of the Gold Goats ‘n Guns newsletter, warned the fallout would hit countries reliant on Middle East crude the hardest, with Europe being the biggest loser.

According to him, Trump is trying to “rewire the world in some fundamental way” by challenging the reliance on the Hormuz choke point. 

Luongo said Europe was the primary loser, with EU countries the most vulnerable due to their heavy reliance on Middle Eastern oil after sanctioning Russian supplies. 

There could be upsides for China and Russia, he claimed, saying that Moscow could rejoin global markets when sanctions are reconsidered.

Bloomberg reported earlier this month that OPEC oil production suffered its steepest monthly drop in at least four decades in March, falling by 7.88 million barrels a day as conflict in the Middle East throttled exports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.

Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.

”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”

The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity.” The measure, proposed by Ghana, urged countries to consider apologizing and contributing to a reparations fund. It passed with 123 votes in favor, including from Russia and China. The US, Israel, and Argentina voted against it, while 52 countries, including the UK, abstained.

The move has since triggered widespread backlash among Western governments and political figures. The UK, which, according to a report by a former International Court of Justice judge, owes over $24 trillion in reparations to 14 Caribbean countries, has opposed the demands. British Chancellor Rachel Reeves previously said the country “cannot afford” the sums demanded, while the Conservative opposition has dismissed reparations as a “scam.”

On Tuesday, Turk welcomed the General Assembly’s March 25 resolution supporting the AU and CARICOM campaign, acknowledging that “efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in certain quarters.”

He urged UN member states to adopt and enforce anti-racism laws, include young people of African descent and civil society in decision-making, and maintain momentum towards reparatory justice.

The US is in discussions on staging a second round of peace talks with Iran, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said.

The first direct meeting between the sides since the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28 took place in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, at the weekend, but delivered no breakthrough. Tehran blamed the failure of the negotiations on Washington’s “unrealistic demands,” while the US reacted by announcing a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for Iran-linked vessels.

Speaking about the possibility of another round of talks during a briefing on Wednesday, Leavitt noted that “those discussions are being had, but nothing is official until you hear it from the White House.”

“We feel good about the prospects of a deal... and it’s obviously in the best interest of Iran to meet the president’s demands,” she added.

The talks “would very likely be in the same place as they were last time,” the spokeswoman said, referring to Islamabad.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated on Wednesday that Tehran “is not seeking war and instability, instead, it has always emphasized the importance of dialogue and constructive interaction with all countries of the world.”

“However, any attempt to impose any will on the country or force it to surrender is doomed to fail and the Iranian nation will never cave in to such an approach,” he stressed.

US President Donald Trump told the New York Post on Tuesday that new talks with Tehran “could be happening over the next two days.” In a separate interview with Fox News, he suggested that the conflict is “very close to being over.”

On Wednesday, Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said the country’s leadership “is not giving up” on efforts to help achieve a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

India’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed sharply to $20.67 billion in March, official data has shown. A Reuters poll of economists had projected a deficit of $32.75 billion for the month.

The March figure is also well below the $27.1 billion in merchandise trade deficit recorded in February.

The marginal improvement was spurred by a combination of higher exports and softer imports amid the Middle East crisis.

New Delhi’s merchandise exports rose to $38.92 billion in March from $36.61 billion in February, according to government data.

Imports declined to $59.9 billion from $63.71 billion a month ago.

India’s total exports (merchandise & services) are estimated to reach a new record high of US$ 860.09 Billion in FY 2025–26. Merchandise exports stood at US$ 441.78 Billion, reflecting steady growth. Notably, March 2026 recorded the highest monthly merchandise exports of the year… pic.twitter.com/aGsG2wLqVZ

— Dept of Commerce, GoI (@DoC_GoI) April 15, 2026

The outlook remains challenging as the South Asian nation depends on Gulf shipping routes, exposing it to supply disruptions and cost escalations arising from the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The US said its military had halted maritime trade linked to Iran on Wednesday, though President Donald Trump has claimed he is “permanently opening” the Strait of Hormuz, offering confusing signals on the shape of the conflict.

India’s combined exports of goods and services are estimated to have risen 4.22% year-on-year to around $860 billion in 2025-26, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Tuesday.

New Delhi’s services exports in the fiscal year were pegged at $418.31 billion, and merchandise exports were estimated at $441.78 billion.

India’s trade surplus with the US narrowed to $34.4 billion in fiscal year 2026 from $43 billion a year ago. Exports to the US rose 1% to $87 billion, while imports from the country jumped 16% to $53 billion.

India and the US are in advanced talks to convert a February 26 joint statement into a bilateral trade deal, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said in a post on X.

He added that New Delhi and Washington are finalizing mutual concessions, and meetings are scheduled from April 20 to work toward the structure and timelines of a trade deal.

China became India’s largest trading partner in the 2025-26 financial year, overtaking the US, Beijing’s embassy in New Delhi said earlier this month.

Washington was New Delhi’s largest trading partner for four years in a row until 2024-25.

Two children have been killed and two other people injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse, a senior regional official has said. The victims were aged five and 14.

Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev wrote on Telegram on Thursday that an apartment block and five houses were damaged in what he described as “a massive UAV attack.”

Kondratyev added that “many fragments” fell on unnamed industrial sites near the city’s seaport, while drones also damaged a house in the village of Loo, outside Sochi.

Russia has accused Ukraine of using Western-supplied weapons and equipment, including drones, to target civilians. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released what it said was a list of European companies involved in manufacturing military drones for Kiev.

“Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the moves of European leaders are increasingly dragging these countries into the war with Russia,” the ministry said.

Belgian authorities have seized two shipments of military equipment components bound for Israel, the news website Declassified UK has reported.

The shipments arrived from the UK at Belgium’s Liege Airport on March 24 and were scheduled to be flown to Tel Aviv two days later aboard an Israel-based Challenge Airlines cargo flight. Adrien Dolimont, head of Belgium’s Wallonia region, said authorities were alerted by the NGO Vredesactie and quickly intervened to inspect the cargo.

“On Israel-related issues, our position is clear: we do not grant licenses for equipment that would strengthen the military capabilities of the parties involved,” Dolimont said.

Several European countries have canceled weapons deals with Israel over its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, as human rights groups and the UN have accused Israel of indiscriminately killing civilians.

In 2025, Belgium joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). West Jerusalem has rejected the allegations as baseless and an attempt to “pervert the meaning of the term ‘genocide.’”

The vast majority of Germans are unhappy with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government, a recent YouGov poll has shown, with the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) emerging as the party that would win a hypothetical election.

The AfD would have prevailed with 27% of the vote, the poll, taken between April 10 and April 13, indicated. The opposition right-wing party has emerged as the most popular for the first time since September 2025, according to the survey.

Approval ratings for Merz’s coalition, which is comprised of the Christian Democratic bloc (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), have been steadily declining since it came to power last May. Critics say Merz has failed to reverse the country’s economic decline and fulfil his campaign promises.

The YouGov poll, which spoke with 1,763 respondents, showed that 79% of participants were dissatisfied with the coalition government’s performance – up 5% since March, and 24% higher since last June.

The trend is understood to be particularly pronounced among CDU/CSU voters, with only 34% of them satisfied with the coalition’s performance as of mid-April.

Last month, the AfD made significant gains in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wurttemberg, which are both outside the party’s traditional stronghold in the former East Germany.

In the 2025 general election, the AfD came in second with 20% of the vote, and has remained the most popular opposition party since.

It has campaigned on an anti-immigration platform, while also opposing Germany’s sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine. The AfD has also criticized Berlin’s decision to decouple from more affordable Russian energy.

Iran could consider allowing ships to pass freely through the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz if the US offers concessions, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a source briefed by Tehran.

Reuters said the source did not clarify whether Iran would allow all ships, including those linked to Israel, to pass freely. A Western source confirmed that the proposal to allow vessels to sail through the Omani side had been in the works, but did not say whether there had been any response from the US.

Iran closed the vital shipping route to “enemy ships” shortly after the US and Israel launched their bombing campaign against the country on February 28. US President Donald Trump declared a blockade of the strait on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated peace talks failed to produce a breakthrough.

Disruptions to traffic through the strait, which handles about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows, have caused spikes in energy prices and prompted the International Monetary Fund to warn this week that further blockades would drive global inflation.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, launched a stinging rebuke of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’ address at the UN Security Council in New York on Monday.

Kallas has since been accused of “criminal” double standards in her speech by Amnesty International for ignoring US and Israeli crimes against Iran.

The controversial diplomat spoke during the annual Security Council session on EU-UN cooperation, during which she lamented the “greatest breakdown of international law since the Second World War,” without once mentioning the US or Israel, but mentioning Russia 11 times.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard slammed Kallas in a post on X, blasting her “deliberate failure to mention the two actors responsible for the greatest violations of international law,” referring to the US and Israel.

So today, at the Security Council, High Representative Kaja Kallas has lamented the gravest violation and breakdown of international law since the Second World War, evident, I quote "in today’s two pre-eminent global crises — Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the war…

— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) April 14, 2026

Kallas’ unwillingness to name them “is not just cowardice. It is criminal,” Callamard said, adding that such double standards are what is “destroying international law.”

Kallas, like EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, has a long history of avoiding criticism of Washington while regularly engaging in unhinged attacks on Moscow.

Her claim to have been surprised that Russia and China, who together lost some 35 million people during WW2, are considered among the conflict’s victors was described by Responsible Statecraft as “shocking ignorance.”

“It would be very interesting to meet Mrs. Kallas’ history teacher,” Nebenzia retorted.

Russia’s proposal to host Iran’s enriched uranium remains on the table despite having been previously rejected by the US, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

The issue of Tehran’s nuclear program has long been a sticking point in talks with Washington. US President Donald Trump has demanded that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear infrastructure and hand over its enriched uranium stockpile, a proposal Tehran has rejected.

Iranian officials say they are not seeking a nuclear bomb but insist that uranium enrichment is their sovereign right and intended for civilian use. Tehran has previously indicated it could send some of its enriched uranium to a third country such as Russia and reportedly floated that idea in negotiations before the US and Israel launched their military campaign on February 28.

Speaking to India Today on Wednesday, Peskov said Russia’s offer had been made “quite a time ago” and that Tehran had been “okay with it” at the time. He called the plan “a very good solution,” but said “unfortunately, the American side rejected this proposal,” adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is ready to return to this initiative.”

Peskov’s remarks come amid reports of ongoing indirect contacts over a possible second round of US-Iran negotiations after last week’s talks in Islamabad ended without a breakthrough. Tehran has accused Washington of a “breach of trust” and of trying to dictate terms.

The US reportedly proposed a 20-year moratorium on Iranian enrichment and the removal of Tehran’s existing stockpile. Trump has since said a 20-year ban would still not be long enough, while Iranian negotiators reportedly countered with a five-year moratorium and rejected US calls to confiscate Iran’s roughly 440 kg stockpile of enriched uranium.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Tehran has “an inalienable right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

The US attorney’s office in Washington has requested that a federal appeals judge overturn convictions for members of far-right groups Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, who had been found guilty of seditious conspiracy over the January 2021 Capitol Hill riots.

The members of the groups were granted clemency by US President Donald Trump early into his second term. However, while 12 Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were released from federal prisons, they did not receive a full presidential pardon, unlike nearly 1,500 other people convicted in connection with the riot.

At the time, the US president did not provide any rationale for not pardoning the members of the groups, which has been widely perceived as politically risky. Multiple civil rights organizations, including the Jewish advocacy Anti-Defamation League (ADL), consider Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to be far-right extremists.

The members of the groups, including Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia, who received the second-longest prison sentence (18 years) among all the January 6 defendants, have repeatedly complained about the lack of a full pardon. They had challenged their convictions in a court of appeals, and the deadline for filing court papers had been approaching.

During the January 6 Capitol riot, Trump backers breached security barriers in Washington, DC, in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Biden’s presidential victory. While some protesters were peaceful, others caused property damage and assaulted police officers. 

Trump faced an impeachment trial days before his first term ended, but the motion ultimately flopped, and he was acquitted on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.” Trump has consistently denied coordinating or somehow being responsible for the rioting. 

Following the talks that took place in Islamabad between Iran and the United States, several experts and commentators were quick to declare the negotiations a failure. However, such assessments are rather unfounded and overlook the complexities of multi-layered diplomatic processes. In such situations, a lack of immediate agreements doesn’t necessarily mean failure.

When negotiations fail, the parties typically resort to more aggressive rhetoric indicating their withdrawal from discussions. However, the public statements of both Iran and the US create room for further contacts, and suggest the potential for further negotiations and a willingness to institutionalize dialogue.

Pakistan’s position serves as an additional indicator in this situation; rather than distancing itself from the negotiation process, Pakistan has actively reaffirmed its intention to continue mediation efforts. Announcements regarding preparations for a second round of consultations in the near future highlight Islamabad’s desire to maintain its role as a negotiation venue and prevent the erosion of the emerging diplomatic channel.

Despite the high degree of uncertainty, the situation does not warrant excessive optimism. The conflict may escalate again, and a new cycle of confrontation may begin. At the same time, signs of limited alignment between the parties should not be ignored either. 

Indeed, both Iran and the US continue to present demands, many of which are rigid and sometimes outright unacceptable or absurd. Yet, this negotiating tactic is commonly employed as a bargaining tool, leaving open the possibility of compromise. Certain official statements indicate a readiness for targeted concessions and discussions around specific de-escalation parameters. For example, US Vice President J.D. Vance noted that Tehran may agree on some sensitive issues, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged the prospect of further consultations and maintaining channels of interaction.

It’s notable that even without evident military parity, the US is interested in a ceasefire. This may be due to the need to take a tactical pause to regroup resources, as well as internal political and economic constraints, including the impact of the protracted conflict on the domestic agenda. Conversely, for Tehran, a ceasefire is a means to solidify the current balance without making long-term commitments.

In this context, the negotiations in Islamabad should be viewed not as a breakthrough toward a comprehensive settlement, but rather as an effort to institutionalize a process of limited de-escalation. The primary aim is to lay the groundwork for a temporary ceasefire rather than achieve sustainable peace, which currently seems unrealistic given the deep ideological and political divides.

As noted earlier, Pakistan plays a crucial role in this process as a mediator. Islamabad is interested in preventing further escalation, since any potential expansion of the conflict would inevitably impact its strategic and economic interests. Consequently, Pakistan’s efforts are aimed at preserving the negotiation platform and ensuring a minimum level of dialogue between the parties. 

For this reason, overly definitive assessments of the outcome of the negotiations in Islamabad are inaccurate. Indeed, the parties did not reach an agreement after the first round of talks, both American and Iranian representatives acknowledge this. However, what is more important is that after 21 hours of negotiations, neither side closed the door on further contacts, and Pakistan is already working to organize a second round of consultations in the coming days. Moreover, Vance characterized the American proposals as “the final and best offer” – this implies that a concrete offer is on the table awaiting Tehran’s response.

In diplomatic practice, rigid or even deliberately inflated demands do not indicate the futility of the negotiation process. On the contrary, in the early stages of complex negotiations, parties often adopt hardline positions intentionally so they can later use them as leverage in exchanging concessions. This is particularly evident in Islamabad. The US insists on strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program, the transfer of highly enriched uranium, and free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Iran is concerned about sanctions, frozen assets, security guarantees, and broader regional de-escalation. In other words, the negotiations are centered around a set of specific demands and counter-demands rather than symbolic gestures, and this signals the beginning of serious bargaining.

In this situation, it’s essential to focus not on the emotional reactions of external observers but rather on the positions of key Iranian figures directly involved in the decision-making process. In this context, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation in Islamabad, is particularly notable. The fact that Tehran has sent such a high-level representative to Pakistan, one tasked with tough yet substantive dialogue, is quite telling. Iran’s choice of representative indicates that it is serious about the negotiations and views them as a means to safeguard its interests rather than as a superficial show for the media. 

Washington’s motivations must also be taken into account. Despite its tough rhetoric, the US is also eager to find a way to withdraw from the current crisis. A prolonged conflict in the Persian Gulf, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and instability in the energy markets impose significant strategic and domestic costs on the US. Thus, as far as we can conclude from its public statements, the White House is not just focused on exerting pressure on Iran, but also wants to reach an agreement that can be framed as a diplomatic achievement derived from a position of strength. This explains why, despite stringent demands, Washington has not abandoned the negotiation framework.

The main takeaway is that labeling the negotiations in Islamabad a “failure” is methodologically inaccurate. It would be more precise to say that the first round of talks concluded without reaching a final agreement; however, the negotiation process has entered an important phase – the bargaining phase. The parties are no longer discussing the mere possibility of dialogue; they are negotiating over the costs of the future agreement, the duration of restrictions, mutual guarantees, and political dividends. This indicates that despite its fragility, the diplomatic window remains open. And this is the key outcome of the meeting in Islamabad. 

Certainly, we shouldn’t harbor illusions about the situation. Given Trump’s character, even the current fragile ceasefire could collapse in an instant. However, it would also be a mistake to underestimate the significance of the Islamabad talks. They offer hope that, even if lasting peace cannot be achieved, a long-term truce may be possible. Tehran’s goal is clear: to ‘wait Trump out’ and buy time. The history of the Iranian civilization shows that time has always been on its side. And it’s quite possible that the strategy of waiting things out will prove effective once again. 

US President Donald Trump has said he is “permanently opening” the Strait of Hormuz, presenting the move as benefiting “China and the world” after claiming Beijing agreed “not to send weapons to Iran.” Trump’s remarks come as the US military claims American warships have effectively blocked Iranian trade through the vital waterway.  

Iran’s army has warned it could target marine traffic in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea if the blockade of its ports continues. Tehran insists it does not want war or instability but will not bow to pressure or surrender. 

The escalation is unfolding amid reports of ongoing indirect contacts over a possible second round of US‑Iran talks, following last weekend’s negotiations in Pakistan that ended without an agreement to halt the war launched by Washington and Israel in late February. 

What is actually happening at sea? 

Traffic through Hormuz, a key global trade route, remains effectively disrupted as the US enforces a blockade of Iranian ports.  

Tehran says it will not return to the pre‑war status of the strait and is drafting new rules for ships from countries that imposed sanctions on Iran or supported the US-Israeli attacks to pay a toll as compensation to transit the waterway.  

Analysts at energy consulting firm Gelber & Associates, cited by Reuters, say tracking data shows “a small but increasing number of tankers moving” through Hormuz, although “overall traffic remains sharply below normal levels.” 

Fars ⁠News Agency reported that two Iranian vessels transited the strait on Wednesday, including a supertanker that entered Iranian waters via the open sea with its transponder on and another ship carrying food supplies bound for Imam Khomeini port.  

How is each side portraying the situation? 

Trump has portrayed the latest moves as a success, declaring on Truth Social that the strait is “permanently opened” and that China is “very happy.” He also claimed Beijing had “agreed not to send weapons to Iran.” China has not publicly responded and has previously denied providing military support to Tehran. US officials say the measures are intended to pressure Iran while keeping international shipping routes open. 

How are markets reacting? 

Oil prices have edged higher as concerns over disruptions in Hormuz – which carries about 20% of global oil and LNG shipments – offset hopes of easing tensions.

Brent crude traded near $95 per barrel on Wednesday, with expectations for renewed talks helping cap gains below $100 even as traders remained focused on supply risks in the Middle East. Gelber & Associates said traders are no longer pricing in a full‑scale outage, but are still maintaining a “residual premium” as flows recover unevenly rather than returning to normal. 

Broader economic worries are also mounting. The International Monetary Fund has warned the conflict could weigh on global growth, while Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told the Financial Times that higher oil prices risk pushing up US inflation expectations, describing a “double danger” from the Iran stand‑off and existing trade tensions. 

Equity markets, however, have so far taken a more upbeat view, with major Asian indices rising on hopes diplomacy will avert a prolonged disruption to Gulf energy supplies. 

What is Moscow saying? 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned against further escalation, expressing hope that the US “will be realists… and will not continue the unprovoked aggression” against Tehran, which he said risks destabilizing the wider Middle East. 

What will happen next? 

While Trump says the war could end soon, promising an “amazing two days,” diplomatic efforts appear to be gathering pace.   

Officials from Pakistan, Iran, and several Gulf states say negotiating teams from Washington and Tehran could return to Islamabad later this week. A key Pakistani mediator reportedly arrived in Tehran on Wednesday with a message from the US and is expected to discuss preparations for a second round of talks.   

The US and Iran agreed to a two‑week ceasefire last week, raising hopes for a broader settlement, but both sides have since traded accusations over “unacceptable” demands. Washington has not formally committed to extending the truce beyond its current expiry date, a senior US official told CNN.

Police in Northern Ireland have slapped fines on demonstrators who disrupted traffic to protest soaring fuel prices. Similar demonstrations began across the border in the Republic of Ireland last week.

Global fuel prices have soared since the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which around a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade passed before the conflict.

Northern Ireland police intervened in several slow-moving vehicle demonstrations along a number of major routes on Tuesday. One of the convoys, largely made up of tractors, caused traffic jams at the Sydenham bypass near Belfast City Airport, with numerous passengers seen walking with their luggage at the side of the road.

Calls for more protests across Northern Ireland slated for April 24 are reportedly spreading on social media.

Farmers, businesses, and local people in Northern Ireland came out today and continue to protest to demand government support. They’re being crushed by crippling fuel and energy costs.

Yet you’re here pushing for another Middle Eastern war with Iran that would be enormously… https://t.co/XQPlS6VD6a pic.twitter.com/bpdJTOFMjF

— Nigel Nelson (@nnelsonni) April 14, 2026

The wave of mass protests began across the border in the Republic of Ireland last Tuesday with slow-moving convoys clogging roadways. The country has been hit particularly hard, with gasoline prices up by 15% and diesel currently costing nearly 30% more than in mid-February. Taxes account for nearly 60% of fuel costs in the EU country, and the protesters argue that the government should slash them to ease pressure on farmers, haulers, and commuters.

Speaking to RT on Wednesday, former British MP Andrew Bridgen attributed the dire plight of farmers, haulers and other businesses in Ireland to EU policies.

In keeping with the bloc’s ‘green policies’, consumers in Ireland are having to pay “50% tax, and then a 16% green levy on top,” he explained.

“It’s very difficult to see how businesses can cope with energy costs moving up at this rate,” the former lawmaker added, citing his conversations with business people in Ireland.

Contributing to the general public discontent has been Brussels’s recent decision to suspend subsidies to Irish farmers at a time when fuel and fertilizer prices have shot up.

After 16 years in power, Viktor Orban is stepping down as Hungary’s prime minister. In Europe, the fact that the veteran politician will finally be replaced by a younger, more pragmatic leader is cause for celebration. Peter Magyar, head of the Tisza party that won Sunday’s elections, is set to become Hungary’s new prime minister. His main campaign slogan focused on restoring relations with NATO and the EU.

The liberal press has already labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin the biggest loser in this situation, and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and, by extension, Kiev, as the biggest winners. But is that really true? RT explores how Hungary’s diplomatic relations with key players might change under Magyar’s leadership.

Ukraine: Less toxic, but generally similar relations 

The relationship between Orban and Zelensky (and more broadly, between Budapest and Kiev) has recently become overtly hostile. In addition to the now-familiar exchanges of insults, there have been direct threats. For instance, Zelensky warned that he might give Orban’s address to the Ukrainian military so they could speak with the Hungarian prime minister “in their own language.” Retired General Grigory Omelchenko from the Security Service of Ukraine then said, “Our organization doesn’t need Orban’s address” as the Security Service of Ukraine knows where he lives, sleeps, drinks beer, wine, smokes hookah, and with whom he meets. He added, “Orban should think about his five children and six grandchildren.”

While these dramatic outbursts demonstrate the distinct personalities of Orban and Zelensky, in reality, Orban’s Hungary was not entirely at odds with European and NATO policies regarding Ukraine. A significant portion of civilian and even military supplies – including critical resources like electricity and fuel – flowed through Hungary to Ukraine. 

Until 2024, Hungary, along with several other EU countries, received gas from Russia via the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod pipeline. This pipeline operated for the first two years of the Ukraine conflict, but shortly after Ukraine’s invasion into Kursk Region, it was shut down. In spring 2025, Russian forces used the pipeline for military operations aimed at liberating Sudzha. Both the pipeline and the compressor station in Sudzha suffered significant damage during battles and are not expected to be operational in the near future. Currently, Russian gas is delivered to Hungary via Türkiye.

Inspired by this, Kiev attempted to cut off another crucial fuel transit route: the Druzhba pipeline, which passes through Ukrainian territory. It had operated intermittently until last August, when supplies were stopped due to Ukrainian missile strikes. Zelensky is determined to put an end to Russian oil and gas transit to Europe. Orban, however, was one of the most steadfast opponents of Zelensky’s policy – and in this, he was silently supported by several Eastern European neighbors which also benefited from cheap energy imports from Russia.

After the provocation involving the Druzhba pipeline, relations between Budapest and Kiev entered a critical phase. This past winter, Hungary threatened to cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine (though it never actually did so). For its part, despite pressure from Brussels, Ukraine sabotaged any attempts to repair the oil pipeline; in retaliation, Hungary detained Ukrainian cash couriers carrying funds of unclear origin. 

Another key issue for Hungary is the rights of the ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia. Historically, this region was part of Austria-Hungary and became part of modern-day Ukraine almost by chance. Ukraine has consistently pursued a policy of forced Ukrainization, and while it primarily targets Russians and Russian speakers, it also affects Rusyns and Ukrainian Hungarians. Throughout Ukraine’s years of independence, the Rusyns have been denied minority status, barred from teaching in their native language, and faced obstacles in maintaining ties with neighboring Slovakia.

For Budapest, the rights of ethnic Hungarians have always been a sensitive topic, and Orban has persistently advocated for their rights.

As for Ukraine’s European aspirations, Magyar was blunt: Ukraine’s NATO membership is off the table, and Ukraine won’t be able to join the EU for at least another decade. He echoed Europe’s current position, which likely wasn’t music to Kiev’s ears.

The EU: removing a thorn from its side

Viktor Orban assumed office 16 years ago with similar promises: he vowed to build pragmatic and equal relationships with the EU and NATO based on Hungary’s national interests.

However, Orban’s assertiveness and confrontational style repeatedly led to deadlocks. Budapest’s domestic political decisions contradicted the directives of the ‘Brussels bureaucrats,’ and in response, the EU blocked funding for Hungary. Then Orban resorted to bargaining, using his veto power on any issue to trade his support for concessions from Brussels.

This dynamic was particularly evident in his dealings with Russia—not because Orban was a staunch supporter of Russia (certainly not), but because unanimous agreement is required for adopting each package of anti-Russia sanctions, and this gave him leverage to negotiate with Brussels.

After the Druzhba pipeline incident, Orban (along with the leaders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia) refused to agree to the EU’s 90 billion euro solidarity loan for Ukraine and then blocked it altogether.

It would be ironic if Hungary’s veto turned out to be nothing more than a convenient excuse for everyone in the EU to throw up their hands and say, ‘Well, you see, we’d love to help, but there’s nothing we can do.’ Now, there’s even more reason to wait with the loan: due to the war in Iran, Europe is bracing for an economic crisis, and the money is needed at home. Plus, voters might not like the idea of allocating funds to Ukraine at such a time. 

The EU will likely still find funding for Ukraine, but the loan may be smaller and come later than promised.

Meanwhile, the European Union is seizing the moment: the day after Magyar’s victory, Brussels presented a list of 27 conditions that Hungary must meet to unlock €35 billion in European subsidies. Aside from nearly resolved issues – like lifting the veto on the aforementioned €90 billion loan and the next sanctions package – Brussels is effectively demanding a review of laws from the Orban era that contradict EU policies, including asylum rules for foreigners. 

It’ll be interesting to see how the new prime minister responds. Essentially, Brussels is asking him to relinquish some of the sovereignty that Orban fought so hard to secure for Hungary, and which the majority of Hungarian citizens support. Magyar and his party represent the same conservative right-wing faction as Orban, and in the eyes of Hungarian voters, he is seen as a younger, untainted version of Orban. If he caves to Brussels, especially on sensitive migration issues, it could severely damage his standing among voters. 

The Trump administration viewed Orban’s Hungary as an exemplary nation in Europe. With the increasing popularity of right-wing parties in Europe, the US expected that with its support, they would rise to power – or, in Orban’s case, remain in power. These right-wing forces, all these local European Trumps, were supposed to weaken and eventually dismantle the power of the decaying left-liberal international coalition. That was the plan. 

But things didn’t go according to plan. Whether due to the catastrophic unpopularity of the Trump administration in Europe or the clumsy interference in the domestic politics of a party claiming to promote sovereignty, US Vice President J.D. Vance’s support for Orban seems to have backfired: it appears that this very endorsement cost Orban’s party several percentage points in the elections, resulting in an almost total defeat.

This raises questions about the Trump administration’s overall approach to the EU. European right-wing parties are likely to distance themselves from Washington now. The ‘divide and conquer’ strategy didn’t work, and no special relations were forged with Europe. In fact, in this scenario, the US emerges as the main loser.

Russia: Same old story, different angle

As for Russia, Orban’s defeat doesn’t make a huge difference. Orban was neither a client nor an agent of Moscow, despite claims to the contrary. It’s true that Orban attempted to position himself as a mediator in the Ukraine conflict, but ultimately, his mediation was unnecessary.

Indeed, Orban’s squabbles with Brussels and Kiev have, in a roundabout way, played into Moscow’s hands. But Hungary is too deeply embedded in European and NATO structures to truly pursue an independent foreign policy. Ultimately, whenever they wanted to, both the EU and NATO pushed through decisions regarding Russia or Ukraine. 

This third factor is the reluctance to get drawn into the EU’s conflict with Russia. Hungarians don’t want to be called up to the front or become fresh cannon fodder; they don’t want their country to become the next battering ram against Russia. Hungary doesn’t want to share Ukraine’s fate. Immediately following his victory, Peter Magyar declared that Hungary would not send weapons to Ukraine, making it clear that this is not Hungary’s war now, and it won’t become such under his leadership. 

In this, he has the full and unanimous support of Hungarian voters. 

***

Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin is known for many memorable quotes, and this is a fitting place to remember one of them: “Some think that after the elections, something will happen. But after the elections, nothing will happen. And that’s life.”

Most likely, Hungary will slowly fade from the headlines; Magyar won’t attract as much attention as Orban and won’t obstruct the decisions of NATO and the EU with such fervor. However, Hungary’s overall policy will remain conservative, placing national interests front and center.

This means that in a quiet but resolute way, Hungary will continue to resist the attempts of Eurocrats to pull it into a direct conflict with Russia. For Brussels, that’s bad news: such leaders are becoming more common in Europe, and this approach is gradually gaining traction as the new European mainstream.

A list of Ukraine-linked manufacturing facilities scattered across Europe, which was published by the Russian military, should be treated as a register of potential targets, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

The Russian Defense Ministry rolled out the list earlier on Thursday, claiming that Kiev’s Western backers have been planning to sharply ramp up production of long-range drones to target Russia. The plan is bound to drag European nations involved in the effort closer to direct conflict with Moscow, the military warned.

Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, urged European nations to take the warning at face value.

“[The] Russian Defense Ministry’s statement must be taken literally: the list of European facilities which make drones & other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces. When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners!” the ex-president wrote on X.

A 20-year uranium enrichment moratorium on Iran is not long enough, US President Donald Trump has claimed.

Trump was responding to reports that the US delegation at talks with Iran, led by Vice President J.D. Vance, had proposed a 20-year ban on Tehran pursuing its nuclear program.

At the discussions in Islamabad, which finished without any breakthrough, Iran reportedly offered a five-year moratorium. Tehran’s negotiators also rejected Washington’s call to confiscate Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, believed to be about 440 kg (970 pounds).

“I’ve been saying they can’t have nuclear weapons, so I don’t like the 20 years,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Post on Tuesday.

Iran has said repeatedly over the years that it is not looking to obtain a nuclear bomb, but it also insists on its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

The Iranian consul general in Mumbai, Saeid Reza Mosayeb Motlagh, told RT on Tuesday that there is “a deep mistrust” in Tehran towards Washington, but despite this fact, the Islamic Republic “remains ready to negotiate… provided the discussions are realistic.”

Iran’s nuclear program “never deviated toward military purposes,” which was proven by “the most stringent inspections of our nuclear facilities,” he said.

Any decision by Tehran on the issue – whether it pauses enrichment or insists on continuing it – “will be accepted by the Russian side,” he stressed.

Lavrov also expressed hope that the Americans “will be realists” during the negotiating process and “will not continue the unprovoked aggression” against Tehran, which affects the entire Middle East.

Kiev’s Western backers want to ramp up production of long-range drones to prop up Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry has said, warning the move is bound to drag the European nations conserned into a direct conflict with Moscow.

The ministry said a network of facilities producing drones and their components is operating in a number of European countries, including the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland. Additional sites were identified outside the continent, including in Türkiye and Israel. At least four facilities are located in Italy alone.

According to the ministry, Kiev’s Western backers are seeking to ramp up production of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, a move Moscow described as a “deliberate step leading to a sharp escalation of the military-political situation throughout Europe.” It added that such efforts risk turning host countries into “Ukraine’s strategic rear area.”

“The implementation of terrorist attack scenarios against Russia… using supposedly ‘Ukrainian’ UAVs manufactured in Europe is leading to unpredictable consequences,” the ministry said, referring to repeated statements by Ukrainian officials about expanding long-range strikes.

Instead of strengthening the security of European states, the actions of European rulers are rapidly drawing these countries into a war with Russia.

The ministry named multiple drone manufacturing facilities located in the UK, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

At least four sites producing drone components were identified in Italy, with several plants involved in such activities located in Türkiye, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Israel.  

Ukraine has been regularly launching one-way drones deep into Russian territory, targeting assorted civilian infrastructure, industrial sites, and residential buildings. The attacks have seemingly intensified in recent weeks, with Kiev sending in hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs daily. 

Russian officials have described the strikes as indiscriminate “terrorist” attacks aimed at compensating for frontline setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering. Moscow has retaliated with a long-range strike campaign of its own against dual-use infrastructure and military installations, maintaining it never targets purely civilian sites.

Russian wheat shipments to Sudan have more than doubled, the Russian agriculture export agency Agroexport said on Tuesday. 

Exporters delivered about 1.7 million tons since the start of the 2025/26 season, compared to 0.7 million tons over the same period a year earlier. That volume has already exceeded the roughly 1.1 million tons shipped during the entire previous season. 

The increase is attributed to the restart of several mills in Sudan, which has boosted demand for imported grain while reducing reliance on flour supplies. 

Agroexport, citing data from Sudan’s central bank, said wheat imports in 2025 were estimated at 1.7 million tons, marking an 82% increase year-on-year, while flour purchases fell from 0.7 million tons to 0.5 million.

The Russian share of grain supplies to the African market has reached a record 40%, according to remarks made at an international conference on Africa’s food sovereignty held in Ethiopia in November. 

In the first quarter of 2025, exports to Nigeria increased fivefold year-on-year, while deliveries to Morocco doubled. Shipments to Mozambique surged nearly twelvefold, with notable growth also recorded in Cameroon and Burundi, where imports rose more than twofold and nearly tenfold respectively. Russia also resumed exports to Togo for the first time since 2022. 

In 2024, Russia became the leading wheat supplier to Morocco after overtaking France, which had long dominated the market.

The American military depleted its entire stock of untested Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) early in its attack on Iran last month, a US Army official has said.

The short-to-medium ballistic missiles developed by Lockheed Martin are slated to replace the aging Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). The new weapon completed its prototype phase only last year, and ended up being fielded without a full testing cycle. Media reports indicated that the new missiles were involved in at least one mass-casualty incident during the attack on Iran, killing some 21 people at a school and sports hall in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd.

A US Army unit equipped with the new missiles fully exhausted its inventory early in the conflict, Jimmy Arter, an official at Fort Sill, said. The official made the remarks at the Fires Symposium, which is underway at the Oklahoma Fires Innovation Science and Technology Accelerator (FISTA). 

“We shot our entire inventory of PrSM right now during the start of the war, and we’ve already got more coming in,” Arter said, as quoted by Aviation Week. The attack on Iran has proven the new missile’s capabilities and no further testing of PrSM is needed, Arter claimed.

The PrSM missile was likely used in the February 28 Lamerd strike, the New York Times reported early in the hostilities, citing visual evidence examined by weapons experts. The NYT said that, since the missile was new, it was difficult to assess whether the strike was “intentional” or stemmed from a design flaw of untested munition or faulty intelligence. 

The Pentagon denied its involvement, claiming it did not attack any targets in Lamerd on that day. The US Central Command pointed the finger at Tehran, claiming the munition visible in the footage of the attack was “consistent with the dimensions and silhouette of an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise missile.” The NYT, however, doubled down on its assessment last week, citing experts who said the munition lacked key features attributable to Hoveyzeh and looked like a PrSM.

Pope Leo has arrived in Cameroon after a stop in Algeria as part of an African tour that will also take the first US-born pontiff to Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

The 11-day trip, which the Vatican has described as an “apostolic journey,” is the Pope’s first visit to the continent since the start of his pontificate in 2025.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Unity Alliance, a coalition of separatist factions operating in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region, announced a temporary halt in fighting ahead of the pontiff’s visit. The group said the pause is intended to allow the safe movement of civilians, pilgrims and officials during the pope’s stay.

Pope Leo is expected to hold talks with President Paul Biya, the world’s oldest leader, who has ruled the Central African nation since 1982. He will also visit an orphanage in the capital, Yaounde.

Cameroon has faced separatist violence since 2017, when conflict erupted in its English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions, where armed groups are seeking independence from the majority French-speaking state. According to the International Crisis Group, the unrest has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced over 600,000 others.

The Holy See says the religious leader will travel to Bamenda, a key center of the separatist conflict, for a peace meeting and Mass before heading to Douala for another public Mass and meetings with students, professors and Catholic health workers.

Pope Leo later traveled to Annaba, home to the ancient city of Hippo, where St. Augustine once served as bishop. During the visit, he toured archaeological ruins, planted an olive tree, released white doves as a symbol of peace, visited a nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, met members of the Augustinian order, and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine.

The war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran may have paused, but it is far from over. Its consequences, however, are already being felt, not just across the Middle East, but globally.

Iran’s desperate confrontation with two nuclear powers which have a vast network of allies and client states represents a move toward the erosion of the remnants of a unipolar international system. Tehran’s resistance is accelerating the relentless, albeit gradual, shift toward multipolarity. 

It’s often said that it is easier to destroy than to build and in that sense, US President Donald Trump has played an unintended but pivotal role. By initiating military action against Iran, he has helped weaken the very system the United States spent decades constructing. The expectation in Washington was different. After perceived successes in Venezuela, and encouraged by regional partners, the White House appeared to assume Iran would collapse quickly under pressure.

The logic, crude but clear, seemed to be this: overwhelming military superiority would guarantee a swift victory. The United States had the aircraft carriers and the air bases, while Iran, by contrast, was seen as isolated and vulnerable.

Well, that assumption proved flawed.

The option of deploying ground forces was briefly considered, but quickly revealed its risks because Iran had spent decades preparing for precisely such a scenario. A land invasion would have been a drawn-out and costly confrontation, with uncertain outcomes. For Tehran, such a scenario may even have been desirable, as an opportunity to inflict long-term strategic damage on its adversaries.

The implications extend far beyond the battlefield.

This conflict is accelerating a transformation in how states behave. The old assumptions are weakening and the norms that once governed international conduct are fading. Increasingly, states act unilaterally, choosing when and where to strike, guided less by shared rules than by immediate interests.

The result is a more volatile world. Military force is no longer a last resort; it is becoming a routine instrument of policy. The notion of restraint, once underpinned by fear of escalation or reputational cost, is eroding. What replaces it is a growing sense of impunity.

Ironically, it’s the United States, long the architect of the post-Cold War order, that’s accelerating its dismantling.

The reaction was swift, as governments scrambled to assess vulnerabilities. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened emergency discussions on energy security while European states, already strained, were reminded of their exposure. In this sense, Iran succeeded in broadening the conflict’s impact far beyond its immediate geography.

But the longer-term consequences may be even more serious.

The world is entering a period of intensified militarization. Regions already marked by instability are becoming more dangerous and while the Middle East remains a flashpoint, it’s not alone. South Asia, too, is edging closer to renewed confrontation and even areas long considered peripheral, such as the Caribbean, are showing signs of tension.

The Afghan-Pakistani border offers a clear example. Long a zone of instability, it has seen a noticeable escalation in recent months. Clashes, cross-border strikes, and mutual accusations have become more frequent. Kabul accuses Islamabad of aggression at the same time that Pakistan points to militant groups operating from Afghan territory.

The roots of this conflict run deep. Pakistan once nurtured the Taliban as a strategic asset, but now it finds itself facing a more independent, and less controllable, force. What was once a tool has become a threat and the dynamic resembles a familiar pattern: states confronting the unintended consequences of their own policies.

These tensions are interconnected, and part of a broader pattern, as the weakening of global constraints makes escalation more likely. As states observe the outcome of the Iran conflict, they draw their own conclusions. One of the most dangerous is the belief that force can be used without catastrophic consequences.

That lesson, once internalized, will be difficult to reverse.

The blockade of Hormuz, the resilience of Iran, and the inability of the United States to impose a decisive outcome all point to a changing balance of power. Even a middle-tier state can now challenge a former hegemon and force it into a strategic stalemate, and this reality will shape calculations in capitals around the world.

The trajectory is clear. The international system is moving away from order and toward fragmentation, with multipolarity emerging as a contested, often chaotic environment. Alliances are less reliable and rules are less binding, which means the space for miscalculation is expanding.

The war against Iran may not have ended, not even in its current form; it has already altered the global landscape. It has exposed the limits of power, the fragility of existing structures, and the growing willingness of states to test those limits.

The next conflict is now not a question of if, but where, and in a world increasingly defined by uncertainty, the answer may come sooner than expected.

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

Bulgarian Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov’s days are numbered, and his caretaker government is rushing to tie his country to Ukraine before a potential populist uprising. It’s about gas, influence, and keeping Sofia marching in lockstep with Brussels.

Gyurov was appointed acting prime minister in February, after Rosen Zhelyazkov resigned in November under the pressure of street protests and persistent allegations of corruption. His mandate is non-existent, and his term in office has lasted fewer than eight weeks. Nevertheless, he’s making frantic deals with Kiev before an election that he and his allies are almost certain to lose – all in an attempt to block his opponent from enacting policies that will upset Brussels.

Borissov is unlikely to upset the apple cart, but Radev is a vocal opponent of the EU’s Ukraine project, and he’s dominating in the polls. With the clock ticking, Gyurov set out for Kiev last month.

Why Gyurov tied Bulgaria to Ukraine

At a ceremony in the Ukrainian capital on March 30, Gyurov and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed a ten-year military cooperation agreement. Under its terms, Bulgaria will provide bilateral military aid to Ukraine for the next decade, both countries will jointly produce drones and ammunition, and their armed forces will train together. Furthermore, Sofia and Kiev will align their sanctions policies, while Bulgaria will pay towards Ukraine’s reconstruction and support its bid for NATO and EU membership.

Securing this agreement before the election was crucial for Gyurov. Radev opposes both the deal and Ukraine’s accession to NATO, while even the GERB party under Borissov withdrew its support for the pact in 2024 – with Borissov stating that his party would wait for a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev before signing anything.

Gyurov faced fierce criticism at home for signing such a consequential document without winning an election first: Radev was among the most scathing critics, calling the caretaker prime minister “practically illegitimate.”

Speaking to Politico this week, Gyurov insisted that Bulgaria “cannot wait for the ‘right moment’ when it comes to security.” Bulgaria has been run by multiple caretaker governments since 2021, none of which went through with the deal. In reality, Gyurov seized the “right moment” to ram the agreement through before it could be delayed by Borissov or outright blocked by Radev. 

Of the two candidates, Radev is the more pressing threat to Ukraine and its backers in Sofia and Brussels. Wile Borissov sought to delay the security agreement, GERB still supports military aid to Kiev. Radev, as president, vetoed an agreement to provide Ukraine with armored vehicles in 2022, blamed Ukraine for starting the conflict with Russia, and told Zelensky to his face in 2023 that there was “no military solution” to the conflict, and that “more and more weapons will not solve it.”

Campaigning against the well-documented corruption of Borissov and his circle, Radev’s coalition is leading GERB in the polls by nine points. Gyurov has leaned on Ukraine to close that gap.

Leveraging Ukraine

Gyurov and acting Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynski toured Ukraine at the beginning of the month, with Neynski agreeing to an “active exchange of experience and good practices” with Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency, the State Special Communications Service. Neynski also met with anti-Kremlin activist Peter Pomerantsev to discuss “initiatives to counter propaganda and hybrid threats.”

The same week, Neynski set up a temporary unit within the Foreign Ministry to “counter disinformation and combat hybrid threats,” which will be “advised” by former Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev. Wanted in Russia over his role in encouraging Russian fighter pilots to defect to Ukraine and accused of working with Britain’s MI6 spy agency, Grozev will “assist the organization with specific information exposing malicious influences,” which will then be dealt with “through mechanisms developed by the European Commission.”

What’s the bigger picture here?

Some more clues as to why Gyurov would expend so much political capital on Ukraine and against Radev can be found where politics and energy intersect.

A section of the agreement signed by Gyurov and Zelensky last month states that Bulgaria and Ukraine will “continue to work actively to ensure alternative gas supplies to Ukraine. They recognize that the Vertical Corridor is a strategic route for the transport of additional natural gas from alternative sources to the region, including liquefied natural gas through existing and future liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.”

Currently under construction, the Vertical Gas Corridor will transport an estimated 10 billion cubic meters of American LNG per year from terminals in Greece to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine. The US and EU have backed the project, with Brussels pumping more than €240 million into a Greece-Bulgaria section of the line in 2019, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling Gyurov last week to thank the caretaker prime minister for “supporting the Vertical Gas Corridor, which presents opportunities for US LNG exports.”

Russian gas still flows through Bulgaria to Hungary, Serbia, and North Macedonia from the TurkStream and Trans-Balkan pipelines. Sofia plans to stop this transit by 2028, in line with EU policy. Once Russian gas is no longer flowing, the Bulgarian section of the Trans-Balkan pipeline will be switched to reverse flow and integrated into the Vertical Gas Corridor network.

Radev supported the Vertical Gas Corridor project as president, but with the interests of the US, EU, and Ukraine on the line, Gyurov likely isn’t leaving anything to chance. After all, Radev backed the corridor as an alternative to – not a replacement for – Russian gas imports. Bulgaria, he has argued, should not be “bound by ideology” when it comes to choosing energy partners. Additionally, despite Bulgaria planning to halt Russian gas transit through its territory by 2028, Russian energy giant Gazprom has already paid for transit rights until 2039. Radev’s opponents likely fear that he will honor this contract, especially after he vetoed a law in November that would have allowed the government to seize a refinery operated by Russia’s Lukoil.

The bottom line

The Vertical Gas Corridor is just one factor in an election that Washington, Brussels, and Kiev view as critically important. The possibility that Radev could obstruct military aid to Ukraine has already forced Gyurov to visit Kiev to sign a decade-long security pact, while the prospect of recently-defeated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban being replaced by another obstructionist in Sofia has prompted the EU to throttle political speech ahead of the election.

”These people cannot even imagine to what extent they are discrediting Bulgaria in the EU with their behavior,” he told podcaster Martin Karbovski last week.

Germany’s handling of anti-Israel protests was “disproportionate,” and the government’s use of hate-speech laws to counter the demonstrations unfairly restricted freedom of expression, a report by the EU’s human rights commissioner has found.

Compiled by the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty, and published on Wednesday, the report called on the German government to “ensure that the fight against all forms of hatred fully respects the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression for all members of society.”

The report accuses German authorities of misusing claims of anti-Semitism to ban pro-Palestinian slogans and Palestinian flags from some rallies, and to outright ban others. Police have used excessive force against anti-Israel protesters, the report stated, while “freedom of expression has been restricted disproportionately, regarding debates on Palestinian rights or legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.”

Since 2017, the German government has endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. This controversial definition lists “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as examples of anti-Semitic speech.

Despite accusing Germany of failing to protect the speech and assembly rights of anti-Israel protesters, and failing to protect Jews from anti-Semitism, the EU has never criticized Germany for restricting the speech rights of nationalist political figures. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, has labeled the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization; an AfD politician has been convicted for sharing the government’s own migrant crime statistics; and members of Germany’s ruling center-right and opposition center-left parties have called for a ban on the organization.

Furthermore, the EU has also played a leading role in silencing pro-Palestinian voices. Among them is journalist Huseyin Dogru, a German of Turkish descent who was sanctioned by the European Council last year. The council argued that Dogru’s reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict had sown “ethnic, political and religious discord” in Germany and therefore supported “destabilizing activities by Russia.” German authorities agreed, stripping Dogru and his wife of healthcare coverage and freezing their bank accounts.

Ukrainian conscription officers have been caught on video attacking a 16-year-old boy in Odessa, local media have reported. The incident marks one of the latest episodes in Kiev’s increasingly desperate and violent mobilization drive amid mounting losses in the conflict with Russia.

Footage captured by an alleyway security camera shows several men in camouflage, apparently Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC) officers, jump out of an unmarked van and start running after the teenager. They then beat the boy in a crowd and, according to the victim’s brother, used pepper spray and kicked him in the back. 

Neighbors noticed the incident, contacted the boy’s family, and intervened, causing the conscription officers to flee in their minibus. The boy’s face was reportedly covered in blood and he had bruises all over his body when medics arrived.

According to the teenager’s relatives, the police were also called. However, when they arrived, they reportedly found no evidence of a crime and left without taking action. The boy’s family now intends to seek punishment for the TCC officers.

The incident follows a string of violent conscription episodes throughout Ukraine that have become known as ‘busification’ – the forcible stuffing of men into minibuses. In Odessa last month, a local resident fought off four TCC officers using a heavy metal chain, smashing their vehicle’s windows. In Kharkov, armed conscription officers reportedly shot and killed a man during an attempted forced mobilization in March.

Moscow has accused Kiev of fighting “to the last Ukrainian” to serve Western interests. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, depriving Kiev of the ability to replenish its ranks even through compulsory mobilization.

The US is trying to shift the burden of “containing Russia” onto European NATO members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking during a visit to China on Wednesday, Lavrov blamed the EU and UK for “torpedoing” US-Russian talks aimed at normalizing diplomatic ties and criticized large-scale European rearmament programs.

“European elites see militarization as a guarantee of their survival. And Americans encourage this European militarization as it shifts responsibility for security of the Old World,” he said.

Washington is content for European states to bankroll Kiev against Moscow and even create a new military bloc involving Ukraine, as this places “the main responsibility [on them] for containing Russia,” Lavrov said.

According to the diplomat, the broader Western agenda is to “preserve and renew their hegemony” and put in place new tools to make sure they “live at the expense of others” – as slavery and colonialism did in the past. But as their relative power declines, internal frictions in the West intensify, he said.

“Europe says it is getting off the needle of Russian oil and gas. And it risks getting impaled by an aspen stake, which [the US] is actively sharpening for the Europeans,” he said.

The top Russian diplomat stated that officials in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and London are making efforts to prolong the Ukraine conflict and keep the US involved in it. They have largely nullified the outcome of US-Russian negotiations in Alaska last year, even as President Donald Trump has moved away from his predecessor’s policy of open-ended support for Kiev, Lavrov said.

Moscow has no illusions about the fact that the US pursues dominance over global energy markets, including through recent military operations against Venezuela and Iran and the continuation of sanctions on Russia, the minister concluded.

Somali government forces, backed by regional troops, have killed 27 fighters of Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabaab in a large-scale offensive in the semi-autonomous state of Jubaland, the East African nation’s authorities have confirmed.

The operation targeted areas under Jilib, Hagar, and Afmadow, with ground forces advancing on militant positions while airstrikes by “international partners” were carried out in parallel, Somalia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Among those killed were “key members of the terrorist group,” the ministry said, adding that troops had also “seized weapons and military equipment, including BKM machine guns, RPGs, and AK-47 rifles, as well as landmines that the terrorists had intended to use against civilians.”

Last month, Mogadishu said the National Intelligence and Security Agency had carried out a raid in the Hantiwadaag area of Awdheegle district in the Lower Shabelle region, killing a senior leader of the Islamist militant group. Officials said the man, who was known by several aliases, including Kamaludin Yunis Mohamed, had been a “key” planner behind a series of deadly attacks, including the six-hour siege on Godka Jilacow prison near the presidential palace in Mogadishu in October 4, 2025.

In a statement on Wednesday, AFRICOM said it carried out an airstrike targeting Al-Shabaab on April 13 near Mido, about 90 km northwest of Kismayo.

”AFRICOM, alongside the Federal Government of Somalia and Somali Armed Forces, continues to take action to degrade al-Shabaab’s ability to threaten US forces and our citizens abroad,” it added.

US President Donald Trump has said he is “permanently opening” the Strait of Hormuz, claiming he is making the move for China “and the world.” Trump also said Beijing has agreed “not to send weapons to Iran.”

Trump initially announced the blockade of the vital waterway on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated talks failed to produce a peace deal with Iran. On Tuesday, US Central Command reported that American warships had effectively blocked all Iranian trade through the strait. 

On Wednesday, however, Trump stated in a Truth Social post that “China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz.” He added that “I am doing it for them, also – and the World.”

Trump went on to state that Beijing has “agreed not to send weapons to Iran,” and that Chinese President Xi Jinping “will give me a big, fat, hug when I get there in a few weeks.”

“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also - And the World. This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran…” - President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/g2LbmMJS5a

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 15, 2026

Trump is scheduled to pay a state visit to China on May 14, while Xi is expected to visit Washington for a reciprocal visit at a later date.

Beijing had also accused Washington on Tuesday of “dangerous and irresponsible” behavior over its blockade of Iranian vessels.

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to “enemy ships” in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. Tehran has since demanded recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway and the right to impose tolls.

A gunman has opened fire at a secondary school in the city of Kahramanmaras in south-eastern Türkiye, a local governor has said. It is the second such incident in the country in as many days. An attack on an educational institution in Siverek on Tuesday left 17 wounded.

The second school shooting, which took place in the Onikisubat District of Kahramanmaras, resulted in four people being killed and 20 others being wounded, Governor Mukerrem Unluer said on Wednesday.

The fatalities include a teacher and three students, the governor said. At least four of those injured have been hospitalized in serious condition, he added.

Unluer said that the attacker was an eighth-grade student from the same school. He could have obtained the firearms from his father, who is a former police officer, he said.

The chairman of the provincial branch of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Unal Ates, told Cumhuriyet newspaper that, according to his data, the attacker had mental issues and was known at the school as “a problematic child.”

Ates also claimed that the number of fatalities was higher than the official figures and that at least 35 people were wounded in the incident.

Videos from the scene captured students fleeing the school en mass during the attack, with some jumping out of second floor windows.

Kahramanmaraş Ayser Çalık Ortaokulu’nda yaşanan silahlı saldırıda öğrenciler okul camlarından atlayarak hayatta kalmaya çalıştılar.#kahramanmaraş pic.twitter.com/5SLTcwKQig

— Sol Yumruk (@Sol_Yumrukk) April 15, 2026

Footage also showed at least one dead body being placed in an ambulance.

Kahramanmaraş'ta okulda silah sesleri: Yaralılar var!

Kahramanmaraş Valisi Mükerrem Ünlüer: "Şu an bir saldırı var. Bir okulumuzda üzücü bir olay yaşandı. Yaralılarımızın olduğu bilgisi bize ulaştı. Konuyu derinlemesine araştırıyoruz"https://t.co/PbCqHL1ARC pic.twitter.com/03V82Q8HQk

— BirGün Gazetesi (@BirGun_Gazetesi) April 15, 2026

Russia can plug any oil supply gap triggered by the Middle East conflict and help China and other countries withstand US “aggressive adventures,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, signaling Moscow is ready to offset shortages if Iranian exports are squeezed. 

US President Donald Trump announced the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for roughly 20% of global oil, on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated talks failed to produce a peace deal with Iran. Trump had previously failed to rally European NATO members to help secure Hormuz, which Iran closed to “enemy ships” in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. 

Iran has since demanded recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway and the right to impose tolls.

He said the US and Israel targeted Iran in part over “oil markets,” adding Washington is now trying to shape them while backing Israel.

“Russia and China, thank God, have all the necessary capabilities – already in use, in reserve and planned – to avoid dependence on such aggressive adventures that undermine the global economy and energy markets,” he said.

Lavrov’s remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Tuesday that China is “not going to be able to get their oil… not Iranian oil,” as Washington moves to choke off Tehran’s crude flows through a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. He described China as an “unreliable global partner” for stockpiling oil and limiting exports during the conflict.

The move comes as US forces ramp up enforcement in the Strait of Hormuz, deploying more than 10,000 troops and around a dozen naval vessels to halt Iran-linked shipments after talks collapsed.

The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire last week, raising hopes for an end to the conflict, which has disrupted global trade and driven up energy prices, but both sides have since traded accusations over unacceptable terms.

Slovenia’s newly elected parliament speaker has announced plans to hold a referendum on withdrawing the country from NATO, as the US‑led military bloc reels from its worst internal crisis in decades with Washington threatening to pull out from the organization entirely.

The leader of the Truth Party, Zoran Stevanovic, was elected as the head of the lower house last week. Speaking to public broadcaster RTVSLO, he stated that a vote on leaving the bloc was a campaign promise he intends to keep.

“We promised the people a referendum on the issue of leaving NATO, and we will hold this referendum,” Stevanovic said.

The speaker also signaled a possible visit to Moscow “in the near future,” stating he would like to “build bridges and cooperate well with all countries, regardless of the wall that has been built between the West and the East.”

The push for a NATO exit vote comes as the 32‑member bloc has started to crack over US President Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw support after European members refused to join the US‑Israeli war on Iran. 

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at European partners, calling them “cowards” and the bloc a “paper tiger,” stating that US membership in NATO is “beyond reconsideration.” His continued threats to annex Greenland from fellow member state Denmark have further escalated tensions within the bloc.

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stressed that Trump’s threats to withdraw from the bloc need to be taken seriously, adding that it is “not the law of nature that we have NATO forever” or that it will “survive the next ten years.”

In Moscow, Russian Security Council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the EU itself quickly morphed into a “full‑fledged military component,” it would be “in some ways worse than NATO,” arguing that Brussels has been inflating Russophobic hysteria to justify a large-scale military buildup in preparation for a possible war with Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also speculated that US threats to withdraw from NATO could be intended to shift the primary responsibility for “containing Russia” to Europe in order to free up Washington’s own hands in the “Chinese direction.”

Moscow has repeatedly denied any intention to attack NATO or EU countries, arguing that such claims are being used to justify massive investments in arms amid faltering economic growth.

The first nuclear fuel shipment for Egypt’s El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, built by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, is expected to arrive in 2027, CEO Aleksey Likhachev said on Tuesday. 

Speaking to journalists in Cairo, Likhachev indicated that preparations are underway to convert the plant’s first unit into an operational nuclear facility as early as next year, paving the way for testing, commissioning, and ultimately electricity generation for Egyptian consumers by 2028.

“Our task is to turn the first unit [of the El Dabaa NPP] into a nuclear energy facility starting next year,” Likhachev said.

According to the Rosatom CEO, the construction is in “a very uplifting stage.”

Likhachev also noted that discussions were held with Egypt’s minister of electricity and renewable energy, Mahmoud Esmat, focusing on the current progress and future roadmap of the project. 

El Dabaa, Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, is being built on the Mediterranean coast in Matrouh Governorate. The project includes four VVER-1200 Generation III+ reactor units, each with a capacity of 1.2 GW.  It was launched in 2017 and is being financed jointly by Moscow and Cairo, while Rosatom will supply nuclear fuel to the facility throughout its life cycle and assist the Egyptian side in training personnel and operating the plant.

The total cost of the nuclear power plant is estimated at around $28.75 billion. Russia is financing approximately 85% of the cost with a 22-year loan to Egypt with an interest rate of 3%. 

In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin called El Dabaa a “flagship project in the field of the peaceful atom” and praised Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for his “personal initiative and support.” 

There is no quick fix to the crisis surrounding Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The US must recognize its underlying causes, including Israel’s goal of destroying the country, he added.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to China on Wednesday, Lavrov described the situation as “a crisis knot that will be extremely difficult to untangle.” He explained that “some parties are trying to cut it now – I don’t believe that would produce a [favorable] result.”

According to Lavrov, the current crisis stems directly from the US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February. The resulting disruption to global markets and the Iranian damage to Arab states hosting US military facilities were foreseeable consequences, he stressed.

“Israel appears totally convinced that Iran must be destroyed. I cannot understand how such a belief is possible,” Lavrov said, adding that remarks by US President Donald Trump about wiping out Iran’s civilization had sparked strong international backlash.

US and Israel hurting the Middle East

Commenting on recent US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan, Lavrov expressed hope that Washington would be “realistic, take the region’s interests into account and suspend its unprovoked aggression.”

He expressed solidarity with Gulf nations damaged in the conflict, but stressed that “those who started the war also have intentions not to allow normalization between the Arabs and Iran.”

Lavrov pointed to China’s quiet role in facilitating the 2023 agreement between Saudi Arabia and Tehran, which restored diplomatic ties after seven years and led to the reopening of embassies between the regional rivals.

Iran’s nuclear rights must be respected

Lavrov dismissed claims by the US and Israel that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, citing reports from international inspectors that found no evidence of such activities.

Concerns over Iran’s nuclear program were addressed under the 2019 multilateral agreement known as the JCPOA, Lavrov said, adding that “the United States destroying this initiative as Israel always wanted is a sad fact of modern history.”

He also criticized the European Union for acceding to Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement and playing “the most malicious role” in pushing snapback UN sanctions targeting Iran.

Russia, he said, remains ready to assist in finding a solution, provided that Iran’s right to develop a peaceful nuclear program is upheld.

The US and Israel could be exploiting talks with Iran to prepare for a ground attack on the country, the Russian Security Council has said.

The first round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran, which took place in Islamabad, Pakistan at the weekend, did not result in a breakthrough. Iranian officials blamed the failure of the talks on “unrealistic demands” by the Americans, but expressed readiness to continue looking for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. US President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that the next round of discussions could take place at the same venue “over the next two days.” 

In a statement on Tuesday, the office of the Russian Security Council warned that “the US and Israel may use peace talks to prepare for a ground operation against Iran.”

This assessment is based on the fact that “the Pentagon continues to build up the US grouping in the region” even as negotiations are underway, the key body, headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said.

“If the negotiations fail to achieve the intended goals, the hostilities may resume with greater intensity after two weeks,” the statement said.

Trump earlier signaled he has no intention of prolonging the two-week ceasefire with Tehran, which is set to expire on April 22. The conflict “could end either way, but I think a deal is preferable because then they [Iran] can rebuild,” he told ABC News.

Tehran has said it is seeking a permanent end to the conflict rather than an extension of the truce, with a final agreement that would include guarantees against further attacks, sanctions relief, and ability to continue enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.

According to the Russian Security Council’s assessment, Iran “still possesses a significant stockpile of weapons,” with which it could resist further aggressive moves by Washington and West Jerusalem.

The country’s civilian and military leadership remains stable, with the Iranian society unifying around the government in Tehran since the US-Israeli attack a month-and-a-half ago, it added.

India’s crude oil imports from Russia surged in March, data from a European think tank showed.

New Delhi’s crude oil purchases from Moscow more than tripled in March to $5.8 billion from $1.54 billion in February, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said on Tuesday.

The surge came as shipment volumes doubled and a spike in oil prices pushed up India’s import bill.

“India was the second-highest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in March 2026, importing a total of $6.38 billion of Russian hydrocarbons. Crude oil products constituted 91% of India’s purchases, totaling $5.83 billion,” the CREA report said.

India also imported coal worth $371 million and oil products amounting to $196 million in March, according to the report.

The European think tank’s report said India’s total crude imports recorded an overall 4% reduction in March, though Russian imports surged.

The CREA said the spike followed the US granting a one-month sanctions waiver on Russian oil. The waiver covered cargoes already at sea and shipments on previously sanctioned vessels. The US said the move was to ease oil prices that surged after the Middle East conflict erupted.

New Delhi emerged as a key market for Russian oil after the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. It bought almost 2 million barrels a day in 2024 and nearly $44 billion of crude from Moscow last year.

The conflict between the US and Iran is close to being settled, President Donald Trump has claimed, adding that the second round of peace talks between the two sides could take place in the next few days.

The US president gave interviews to several outlets on Tuesday, where he detailed Washington’s stance on the negotiations with Tehran.

Washington’s delegation, led by Vice President J.D. Vance, met with Iranian diplomats in Islamabad, Pakistan over the weekend. The discussions, however, did not result in any breakthroughs.

The US reacted by announcing a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for Iran-linked vessels. Tehran said the negotiations had failed because of Washington’s “unrealistic demands.”

The conflict, which started with a US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, is “very close to being over,” Trump told FOX Business anchor Maria Bartiromo.

However, he again threatened Tehran with a resumption of US strikes, saying that “if I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And we’re not finished.”

In a phone call with the New York Post, Trump suggested that another round of talks with Tehran “could be happening over the next two days.”

The venue will likely again be Islamabad, he said. Pakistani Field Marshal General Asim Munir, who helped set up the initial negotiations, “is fantastic, and therefore it’s more likely that we go back there. Why should we go to some country that has nothing to do with it?” the president noted.

In a separate interview with ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, Trump stressed that he has no intention of extending the two-week ceasefire with Iran, which is set to expire on April 22.

The conflict “could end either way, but I think a deal is preferable because then they [Tehran] can rebuild,” he said.

Iranian consul general in Mumbai Saeid Reza Mosayeb Motlagh told RT on Tuesday that there is “a deep mistrust” in Tehran towards Washington, but, despite this fact, the Islamic Republic “remains ready to negotiate… provided the discussions are realistic.”

During his press conference in the Chinese capital on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that both Moscow and Beijing support the continuation of diplomatic contacts between the US and Iran.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed veteran politician Roelf Meyer as the country’s next ambassador to the US, more than a year after Washington expelled former envoy Ebrahim Rasool.

Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, confirmed the appointment to Reuters on Tuesday. Meyer, 78, is best known as the National Party’s chief negotiator in the talks that helped end South Africa’s apartheid system in 1994.

Meyer, who is Afrikaner, entered parliament in 1979 during the apartheid era and later held senior cabinet posts under the white minority government. He served in the administrations of Pieter Botha and Frederik de Klerk, including as defense minister and later as minister of constitutional affairs, before emerging as one of the central figures in the transition to majority rule.

South Africa’s presidency has described Meyer as a key figure in the creation of the country’s constitutional democracy and “a true citizen committed to a non-racial South Africa.”

The diplomatic rift came amid a broader deterioration in relations between Pretoria and Washington. Trump has frozen financial aid and imposed a 30% tariff on South African imports amid a dispute over Pretoria’s foreign policy and domestic laws, including its land expropriation legislation, which he says discriminates against white South Africans.

South Africa has also faced US pressure to withdraw its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over the war in Gaza. Pretoria has rejected the demands.

Last month, Bozell was summoned by Pretoria over “undiplomatic remarks,” following his criticism of a South African court ruling that found the anti-apartheid chant ‘Kill the Boer’ was not hate speech.

Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion in financial aid to Pakistan, the South Asian country’s finance minister has said.

Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia has committed $3 billion in additional deposits, with disbursement expected in the coming week. He is currently in Washington attending the World Bank–IMF Spring Meetings 2026.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will head to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for an official visit.

Riyadh’s assistance comes as Islamabad prepares to repay $3.5 billion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this month.

Saudi Arabia Announces USD 3 Billion Additional Support, Extends USD 5 Billion Deposit: Finance Minister

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, has informed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has committed USD 3 billion in additional deposits, with… pic.twitter.com/E8dXPg6g9Y

— Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan (@Financegovpk) April 15, 2026

Earlier this month, Dawn newspaper reported that Abu Dhabi was seeking the immediate repayment of the loan that was provided to Islamabad as part of the external financing support extended by the UAE in 2019.

That aid was extended through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development to help Islamabad tide over a balance of payments crisis.

The report said the UAE debt was rolled over multiple times, but the most recent extensions had shorter durations, indicating the Emirates’ unease over the arrangement.

In 2024, Pakistan faced a debt crisis in the aftermath of the Covid lockdown, supply disruptions induced by the Ukraine conflict, and extensive floods that battered a third of the country. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had stepped in to provide a 3-year, $7 billion package.

Under its agreement with the IMF, Pakistan is required to secure around $12.5 billion in rollovers from China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE to meet external financing needs and maintain its currency reserve levels.

The Dawn report indicated that the UAE will be replaced by Qatar.

Pakistan’s ties with the UAE have been strained over the last year. While Islamabad has signed a mutual defense pact with Riyadh, Abu Dhabi has been moving to build a closer security partnership with New Delhi.

The UAE, which has remained a vital source of foreign remittances for Islamabad, also imposed visa restrictions affecting Pakistani nationals earlier this year.

India has proposed a major expansion of seats in the Lok Sabha, its lower house of parliament, with a draft bill being shared with lawmakers to amend the constitution.

If the bill is passed, the new Lok Sabha will comprise 850 members, up from 543 now, an increase of 57%. The strength of the house is capped at 550, and an amendment is needed to raise it.

Indian law mandates an adjustment in the allocation of seats, based on the population of its states, after every census is completed.

The current Lok Sabha is based on the 1971 census. India then passed an amendment by which constituency boundaries were frozen until the first census after 2026.

The world’s most populous country’s massive census exercise, which began on April 1, is expected to conclude in 2027.

The government hopes to remove the 2026 clause and enact a delimitation, or the process of fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies, based on the 2011 census.

“The country’s demographic profile has since undergone substantial changes,” an official statement on the proposed law’s objectives to revisit the freezing of seats said. Another aim of the proposed amendment is to ensure 33% of seats for women.

New Delhi says the latest census and delimitation exercise will “take considerable time and thus, delay the effective and dedicated participation of women in our democratic polity.”

The move has been criticized by opposition parties, which argue that the exercise should be based on the updated 2021 census exercise, which was not published due to the Covid lockdown.

India’s constitution does not specify a fixed schedule for conducting the census.

India’s southern states have expressed concern that a slower population growth rate in the region would offer an undue advantage to the north by adding more seats to populous states.

The chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin, has warned of a massive protest if the delimitation proposal affects southern states.

American warships have effectively blocked Iranian trade through the Strait of Hormuz, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) has said.

“A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as US forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East,” CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

“In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, US forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea,” Cooper added.

The WSJ also reported that the US has intercepted eight tankers since the start of the blockade on Monday morning.

US President Donald Trump announced the blockade of the vital waterway on Sunday after Pakistani-mediated talks failed to produce a peace deal with Iran. Trump had previously failed to rally European NATO members to help secure Hormuz, which Iran had closed to “enemy ships” in response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. Iran has since demanded recognition of its “sovereignty” over the waterway and the right to impose tolls.

On April 8, the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, raising cautious optimism for an end to the conflict, which has disrupted global trade and driven up energy prices. However, both sides have since accused each other of putting forward unacceptable terms.