Nearly 30 people, including two minors, were injured overnight after Ukraine launched naval kamikaze drones at the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi, according to local officials.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the strikes deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and were part of a pattern of Ukrainian terrorist attacks. The city authorities subsequently closed several beaches that were damaged in the raid.

Krasnodar Region emergency services reported 28 people injured, most of them lightly. Three adults and a 16-year-old boy were taken to hospital.

Sochi Mayor Andrey Proshunin visited the victims on Thursday morning and said their condition was stable, with doctors giving positive assessments of their recovery prospects.

Ukrainian naval kamikaze drones are generally larger than their airborne counterparts and can carry heavier explosive payloads. Their low profile also makes them more difficult to detect at long range, giving defenders less time to intercept them.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky previously threatened airlines operating in Russian airspace, suggesting their aircraft would not be safe because of Ukrainian drone attacks. Moscow said the remarks amounted to confirmation that Kiev was deliberately employing terrorist tactics.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted 448 Ukrainian long-range aerial drones overnight but did not comment on the naval drone attack.

Kiev has regularly targeted the southern Russian region. Drone attacks on the port city of Novorossiysk the previous night killed four people, including a minor, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

A massive attack by Yemeni’s Houthis on Saudi Arabia has become the first serious test for the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement – a defense pact between Riyadh, Ankara, and Islamabad established just a month ago. We’re no longer talking about a future security architecture in abstract terms. Rather, a very concrete question is being posed: What actions should Saudi Arabia’s allies undertake following a strike on its territory?

According to the Saudi-led coalition, Houthi missiles and drones struck civilian and economic targets in four southern cities. At least 73 people were injured, including women and children. Fires broke out at energy facilities and damaged utility infrastructure; operations at some enterprises were temporarily suspended. The Houthis claimed to have attacked Saudi Aramco facilities in Abha, Jizan, and Najran, as well as the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.

The city of Jizan is of particular significance. Its oil refinery has a capacity of around 400,000 barrels per day and is one of Saudi Arabia’s largest refineries; it primarily supplies the domestic market. Through this attack, the Houthis demonstrated their ability to achieve three goals: threaten the population, disrupt energy infrastructure, and cast doubt on Saudi Arabia’s reliability as a key oil supplier.

The geography of the attack is notable. Khamis Mushait is a vital military hub for Saudi Arabia, Jizan is an oil refining center and port, Najran lies near the Yemeni border, and Abha serves as the administrative center of the Asir province. It was a distributed operation targeting various sites and one of the largest operations launched against Saudi Arabia since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran on February 28, 2026.

This brings up the delicate issue of the Mecca Agreement. The document was signed on August 7, 2026 by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan; its publicly stated formula clearly implies that an armed attack on any one of the three states is considered an attack on all. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan even likened this arrangement to Article 5 of NATO. However, an impressive-sounding collective defense formula does not automatically imply a functioning military mechanism.

The full text of the agreement has not been disclosed publicly. It is thus unclear who determines whether a specific incident constitutes an attack that triggers mutual obligations, whether the assistance is automatic, and who would command the designated forces. The first meeting of the joint political-defense committee took place on August 31. The parties agreed to establish a secretariat in Riyadh and began discussing joint exercises, military interoperability, and defense production. While the political commitment has been proclaimed, the framework for its implementation is still taking shape.

Even NATO’s Article 5 does not require all allies to automatically enter into war; each state takes whatever measures it deems necessary. In the case of the Mecca Agreement, the scope for interpretation is likely even broader. Assistance could entail intelligence sharing, the strengthening of air defense systems, arms supplies, and the deployment of specialists – but not necessarily joint strikes on Yemen.

This does not mean that the agreement has failed. Collective defense is not limited to an immediate retaliatory strike, especially if the affected state has refrained from requesting specific assistance. Riyadh may currently be more interested in discreet cooperation regarding intelligence, missile launch detection, and counter-drone measures than a conspicuous entry of its allies into the war.

However, relying solely on rhetoric will not be sustainable in the long run. If the attacks persist, members of the alliance will need to define the threshold at which the principle of ‘an attack on one is an attack on all’ takes on practical meaning. Otherwise, the Houthis and other regional forces will receive a signal that the pact does not alter the cost of exerting military pressure on Saudi Arabia. For any defense alliance, this poses a greater risk than limited military damage: Deterrence only holds as long as a potential adversary believes that the commitments will be backed by action.

Ankara and Islamabad have reasons to avoid direct involvement in the Yemen campaign. Despite close military ties with Riyadh, Pakistan seeks to maintain a working relationship with Iran; its parliament refused to send troops to Yemen in 2015. Türkiye is also reluctant to transform the agreement into an anti-Iran bloc or risk being dragged into a protracted conflict.

Following the strikes, the price of Brent crude approached $99 per barrel, although the initial surge remained within the 2% range. While the market does not yet view the damage as critical, it is reacting to multiple sources of risk. On September 4, Iran and the US targeted each other’s oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Houthis are intensifying pressure on shipping around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Before the war, around one-fifth of global oil supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz. A simultaneous threat to two key shipping routes could rapidly alter the relatively calm outlook of traders.

For the signatories of the Mecca Agreement, the attack does not serve as a trigger to automatically enter the war; rather, it is a test of their ability to devise a unified course of action. Condemnation by Sharif and the Turkish Foreign Ministry represents only the initial level of the response. It now remains to be seen whether the joint committee will be convened, whether Riyadh requests assistance, and what would happen in the event of a follow-up strike.

If political statements are followed by consultations, the strengthening of air defense capabilities, intelligence sharing, and the coordination of joint actions, the Mecca Agreement will acquire real, practical meaning. However, if the practical response is limited to rhetoric about a ‘cowardly attack’, the reputational gains derived from the August summit will quickly evaporate. The Houthis struck more than just Saudi targets; they effectively tested whether the alliance exists beyond the text of the joint communiqué. Currently, there is no definitive answer to this question – and there is a feeling that none may come.

Global heat hit an all-time high in August, with temperatures averaging 16.96C worldwide, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Western Europe suffered its hottest summer on record, as heatwaves, drought, and wildfires battered the region.

August 2026 was 1.65C hotter than the 1850-1900 average, a period commonly used as the benchmark for temperatures before large-scale industrial warming, Copernicus said on Thursday. It was the hottest August in records dating back to 1940 and effectively matched July 2023, the previous all-time monthly high, with less than 0.01C separating them.

“Humans haven’t seen temperatures as hot as today for, arguably, at least the last 100,000 years,” Samantha Burgess of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which oversees Copernicus, told AFP. Copernicus records extend back to 1940. Scientists use evidence including ice cores, tree rings, and corals to reconstruct temperatures further in the past.

The extreme heat also triggered a sharp rise in mortality. France registered an estimated 5,764 excess deaths from all causes during the June 17-July 2 heatwave – 36% above the expected level in affected areas, according to Sante publique France. Another 1,243 excess deaths were recorded during heatwave periods from July 3-22.

The combination of scorching temperatures and scarce rainfall hit crops and transportation. Germany’s grain harvest fell an estimated 7.3% year-on-year, with the authorities blaming heat and drought, while falling water levels on major rivers including the Rhine disrupted shipping.

Dry vegetation fueled wildfires across the continent. More than 647,000 hectares had burned across the EU by early September, nearly twice the 20-year average for that point in the season, according to the European Commission’s Joint Research Center.

Oceans outside the polar regions reached their joint-highest monthly sea-surface temperature, extending a three-month run of record warmth. Scientists attribute the long-term warming trend primarily to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, while natural phenomena such as El Niño can further boost temperatures in the short term.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell called the latest records “the spiraling price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” warning that extreme heat will continue while coal, oil, and gas are burned. Long-term global warming is currently around 1.4C above pre-industrial levels.

A Russian long-range drone has destroyed a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet shortly after it landed at an airfield outside Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, releasing footage of the strike.

The aircraft was hit at Vasilkov airfield in Kiev Region, according to the ministry.

“Caught on the ground. Burned in one MiG,” the ministry said in a brief statement on Wednesday, playing on the Russian word mig, meaning “a moment” or “an instant,” and the name of the fighter jet.

Footage published by the Russian military shows the jet being detected in the sky before being tracked to an airfield and subsequently struck by a drone. Later aerial footage purportedly shows the wreckage of the aircraft.

The Defense Ministry did not provide further details about the aircraft or say whether its pilot was present when the strike occurred. Kiev has not commented on the loss.

Russian media outlets have reported that the strike appeared to have been carried out using a Geran long-range attack drone.

Two dry cargo ships carrying supplies for the Ukrainian military and a tugboat escorting them were also struck while approaching the port of Odessa, according to Moscow.

Over the past month, Moscow has drastically ramped up long-range strikes against Ukraine, a campaign that is retaliation for Kiev’s efforts to damage Russia’s energy sector and shipping.

South Africa has processed 86,596 foreign nationals for deportation or repatriation in just over two months, the government announced amid heightened tensions over undocumented migration.

Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration, said the cases were handled June 14 to August 20 through coordinated law-enforcement operations.

Kubayi told reporters on Tuesday that Malawian nationals formed the largest group processed during the two-month period, followed by Zimbabweans and Mozambicans. Government data indicated that 90% of those repatriated entered South Africa illegally, with 95% classified as crossing the border outside official entry points.

The minister blamed deteriorating infrastructure along South Africa’s 4,471 km land border for creating vulnerabilities “exploited by illegal crossings, smuggling and transnational crime.”

Mozambique initially said seven citizens died following the unrest, including five in what it described as xenophobic attacks and two in a road accident while fleeing the alleged violence. The South African authorities disputed the account, linking only two deaths to the unrest.

Several African governments, including Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, have since evacuated nationals fleeing the violence.

In response to mounting tensions, President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled a five-point plan in June to deport undocumented migrants, tighten border controls, overhaul immigration laws, and expand cooperation with other African countries.

Pretoria has denied targeting foreigners indiscriminately and pledged to prosecute those responsible for violence. The government also opened a temporary processing center in Musina, near the Zimbabwean border, to handle a surge in returnees. Justice Minister Kubayi said the center processed more than 4,000 people on its busiest day in July, but only 58 in August, prompting its closure.

Three Indian domestic airlines have signed agreements on 105 Russian Il-114-300 passenger aircraft, as Moscow and New Delhi move to expand cooperation in civil aviation and manufacturing.

The proposed purchases include 50 aircraft for regional airlines Pinnacle Air, up to 20 for Air Kerala, and 35 for Sleek Aviation.

The companies are yet to start scheduled commercial flights. Another startup, Flamingo Aerospace, previously agreed to buy six of these planes, whose delivery is expected in 2028.

The agreements, memoranda of understanding, and letters of intent were announced in New Delhi just ahead of the BRICS summit starting Friday. This comes as India and Russia seek to broaden industrial and economic cooperation beyond their traditional areas of partnership.

The first planes will be made in Russia, but local production will start once the program is finalized, UAC CEO Vadim Badekha said. “The key task which we are concentrating on is finalizing our agreements on the production of the aircraft here in India,” he told the media at the INNOPROM. India trade fair.

Badekha added that validation in India of the Il-114-300’s Russian type certificate will also be an important step before supplies begin.

The Il-114-300 is a 68-seat turboprop designed for regional routes. It can operate from smaller airports and short runways, making it suited to operate from smaller cities.

India is the world’s third-largest aviation market and has been expanding air links to its fast-growing tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Under its regional connectivity program (UDAN), New Delhi is also seeking to bring more smaller airports into the country’s commercial aviation network.

UAC and India’s state-run aerospace manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), are working on licensed production of the SJ-100 regional passenger jet in India.

The two companies signed a cooperation agreement in January as a basis for starting licensed production. More than 80% of the agreement has now been finalized, Badekha said.

The SJ-100 is a short-range jet capable of carrying up to 103 passengers. UAC previously said production in India could begin in around three years, with output eventually reaching 20-40 aircraft annually.

UAC has also said it expects to sign a contract with the first Indian operator of the SJ-100 at Aero India 2027. The company is offering not only aircraft supplies, but also production localization, maintenance, and after-sales support.

Multiple US military aircraft were damaged in an Iranian strike on a key American airbase in Jordan, CBS reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The attack reportedly took place overnight on Tuesday and targeted Muwaffaq Salti Air Base near Azraq, about 100 km northeast of Amman, a major hub for US air operations in the region.

One A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, suffered severe wing damage, while around eight F-15s were lightly damaged but returned to service, according to the report. No US personnel were killed.

US forces reportedly fired more than 30 Patriot interceptors during the attack. Jordan said it intercepted 18 Iranian missiles, with two falling in unpopulated areas and causing no casualties.

US Central Command has not confirmed the reported damage. It has, however, rejected Iranian claims that two US Navy destroyers were hit in the latest strikes and said American forces had destroyed ten Iranian crude carriers since September 5, including five on Tuesday after Tehran allegedly targeted a US warship with ballistic missiles.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday pledged to attack “a lot more” Iranian vessels if Tehran continues to target American assets. He claimed Iran is prolonging the conflict to influence the US midterm elections, hoping for gains by Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the war.

Tehran has repeatedly warned neighboring states against allowing their territory or airspace to support US operations against Iran. Since February, Iranian forces have targeted multiple US assets in the region, including in Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, and Jordan. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi last week defended the strikes, arguing that Tehran could not be expected to hold back when Arab territory and airspace had been used in US attacks on Iran.

Russian security operatives have foiled a Ukrainian plot to carry out a false-flag attack on the British ambassador and other diplomats in Moscow, which was intended to draw the UK into a direct conflict with Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

In a statement on Thursday, the agency said it had detained a Russian national who worked for an organization contracted to protect the British Embassy in Moscow. The man collected sensitive information about embassy security on instructions from a Ukrainian contact, as well as personal data on diplomatic personnel, including photographs, home addresses, details of vehicles, and itineraries, the FSB said.

“The Kiev regime planned to carry out sabotage and terrorist attacks against British diplomatic representatives in Moscow to subsequently blame Russia for them in order to draw the United Kingdom into direct armed conflict with the country, secure additional weapons deliveries [to Kiev], and ramp up sanctions on Russia,” the agency said.

Neither the UK Embassy in Moscow nor British Ambassador Nigel Casey has commented on the statement.

Karpenko, 44, became known for recording interviews with Russian prisoners of war and covering POW swaps between Moscow and Kiev, as well as for propagating videos featuring Russian nationals collaborating with the Ukrainian military.

Karpenko was also criticized by Ukraine’s Commission on Journalistic Ethics, which said his videos exposed prisoners’ identities and at times resembled interrogations. The blogger also faced accusations of Islamophobia after an interview with a captured Russian serviceman from Chechnya, during which he made remarks widely seen as offensive to Muslims.

Britain has been one of Ukraine’s biggest backers since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, providing billions of pounds in military and financial assistance to Kiev. London has also refrained from condemning Kiev over a string of assassinations and bombings targeting Russian military officials and public figures inside Russia.

After Ukraine claimed responsibility for the 2024 killing of Russian General Igor Kirillov, commander of the Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces, Downing Street said Britain would “not mourn” his death.

US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left Kiev “shocked” by the conduct of Vladimir Zelensky’s team during their latest visit, Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod has claimed.

Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Kiev on Sunday for talks with Zelensky after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow a day earlier, as part of Washington’s efforts to advance a settlement of the Ukraine conflict.

“They left somewhat in shock,” Skorokhod told Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk on Tuesday, criticizing what she described as inappropriate behavior by Ukrainian officials during serious diplomatic talks.

“Unfortunately, our great leaders don’t understand that there are situations where you can joke around, but there are also things where it’s not just inappropriate – it’s beyond comprehension,” she said.

Skorokhod specifically pointed to David Arakhamia, the head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People parliamentary faction, wearing a T-shirt bearing the words ‘Kiev regime’ during the meeting with the US representatives.

The lawmaker separately claimed that Witkoff and Kushner brought Kiev peace terms that were “even worse” than previous proposals after their talks in Moscow. She suggested that the conditions included demands concerning constitutional changes and formal recognition of territories, while acknowledging that some of her information was unofficial.

Zelensky offered a different assessment of the US negotiators’ visit, claiming on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner had presented “a couple of quite good ideas,” while adding that Kiev still needed to determine whether they could be implemented.

Putin and Trump spoke by phone on Tuesday about efforts to settle the conflict and the US envoys’ visits to Moscow and Kiev. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described the hour-long conversation as “constructive and frank” and said both leaders had positively assessed the diplomatic efforts of Witkoff and Kushner.

Massive wildfires have broken out in Antalya Province, Türkiye, forcing hundreds of people from their homes. Videos from the area that surfaced on social media show apocalyptic scenes of hills engulfed in flames and black smoke darkening the skies.

The fire broke out in Antalya’s Aksu district on Monday and soon spread to the neighboring Kepez district, according to Anadolu news agency.

At least one person died of a heart attack after being affected by smoke from the fires, the local authorities said. Two people were also hospitalized with leg injuries linked to the fire, and eight others were treated for smoke inhalation.

The authorities evacuated people from at least 254 homes in the two districts and temporarily closed a highway linking the Mediterranean coastal resort city of Antalya with Isparta, around 130 km to the north. More than 2,000 homes in the region were also affected by power outages.

Antalya Aksu’daki yangının havadan görüntüsü.

Antalya’da orman yangınlarıyla mücadele sürüyor. Evler tahliye edildi. Antalya’nın üç ilçesinde çıkan orman yangınlarına müdahale devam ediyor.

•Aksu, Kepez ve Serik’te çıkan yangınlar yerleşim alanlarını tehdit ediyor.… pic.twitter.com/xm6mNGW9OG

— Aykırı (@aykiri) September 8, 2026

Five firefighting aircraft, ten helicopters, more than 160 fire engines, and 1,000 personnel were deployed to tackle the blaze.

Turkey's Antalya CHOKES under APOCALYPTIC FIRES — skies turn RED as FLAMES SPREAD, ENGULFING HOMES & CROPS

No word YET on CASUALTIES pic.twitter.com/hftIcz7ox6

— RTVisual (@RT_Visual_on_X) September 8, 2026

Videos published online show massive walls of fire raging through mountain forests, leaving scorched earth behind as smoke filled the skies. At night, the sky over the hills affected by the fire turned red.

France, the UK, and Belgium all had their hottest summers on record. In some areas, drought was also followed by violent storms and flash flooding.

US President Donald Trump has promised a $5,000 “dividend” to every adult American if Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

Speaking at the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, Trump argued that the US economy and revenues generated by his tariff policies would allow Washington to make direct payments to citizens.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump told the cheering crowd. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”

“The only caveat I have is that the dividend that we’re making must be spent in the United States of America,” he ⁠added.

🚨 JUST NOW: President Trump just stunned the ENTIRE room saying if Republicans win the House and Senate he will give a Trump Dividend

$5,000 to EVERY Adult citizen

THIS IS A HUGE WIN pic.twitter.com/2vN81DTGYD

— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) September 10, 2026

The president did not explain how the payout would be implemented or funded. At $5,000 per adult, the plan could cost well over $1 trillion.

Trump repeatedly boasted about the amount of money flowing into the US as a result of tariffs and foreign investment. His administration previously claimed that more than $20 trillion in new investment is coming into the country, while Treasury officials have projected annual tariff revenues potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars.

The president also touted his administration’s recent oil agreement with Venezuela, which gives the US majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, before joking about how easy it was to find oil in the South American country.

Trump hilariously jokes about oil in Venezuela 🤣

"You know the way Exxon and Chevron, they go around looking, they hire these geniuses... they spend millions and millions for equipment, they go all over the world looking, they can’t find it. In Venezuela, what you do is the… https://t.co/KumAyRpQyG pic.twitter.com/E7YEbgOYUT

— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) September 10, 2026

“You know the way Exxon and Chevron... they spend millions and millions for equipment, they go all over the world looking, they can’t find it,” Trump said. “In Venezuela, you look on the ground and you see ground that’s soaking wet with oil, and you say, ‘Let’s build our rig right there.’”

Trump also joked about renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself while discussing the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran.

“We should call the Hormuz Strait the Trump Strait! I should get something out of it. The Trump Strait!” he said. “I’m sure the Iranian leadership will be thrilled with that!”

TRUMP ON IRAN TONIGHT –– War, Hormuz, Pickaxe, "Mr. Supreme Leader", Nukes (GOP Midterm Convention)

• If JCPOA wasn't canceled and if “our beautiful B-2 bombers” had not hit them, “they would have a nuclear weapon right now and I would be addressing them as Supreme Leader:… pic.twitter.com/aWP8STQHvN

— Urgent Intel (@urgentintel) September 10, 2026

The president reiterated his prediction that the conflict with Iran will end and oil prices will fall after the US midterm election, tying his foreign-policy and energy message back to the vote in November.

“When I’m on the ticket, Republicans always do well,” Trump added. “I’m asking you to pretend I’m on the ballot… Just one more time.”

The two-day Dallas convention, conceived by Trump as a campaign showcase ahead of the midterms, is the first such gathering ever held by the Republican Party outside a presidential election year. Trump is scheduled to return on Thursday to deliver closing remarks.

OpenAI has come under fire after claiming its AI solved one of mathematics’ most famous problems. Researchers are raising questions over how the company arrived at the breakthrough, while others are accusing it of exaggerating the achievement to boost valuation ahead of a potential IPO.

The company announced on Tuesday that an internal AI system had solved the Navier-Stokes problem, one of mathematics’ famous Millennium Prize questions. It concerns equations describing how liquids and gases move and asks whether the math can suddenly break down under certain conditions. A correct solution carries a $1 million prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute.

OpenAI said around 10,000 AI agents worked on the problem for roughly 88 hours, exchanging millions of messages and generating around 130 billion output tokens before producing a computer-verified proof.

The company says the result satisfies the official wording of the prize problem, although it does not intend to claim the money. It also presented the feat as evidence of how rapidly its internal AI systems are advancing.

The announcement has drawn mixed reactions, with some calling it an “exciting day for mathematics” while others have raised suspicions of plagiarism and questioned the significance of the achievement.

Mathematicians have also cautioned against declaring the problem solved before the proof is independently examined. Diego Cordoba, whose work helped pioneer the approach used by the AI, said a valid solution would be a “big surprise.”

Others have been far more critical. Prominent tech commentator Mehdi, who has a large following on X, opened a lengthy attack on the announcement by telling OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to “go f**k yourself,” before accusing the company of trying to “privatize the very mechanism of human knowledge.”

Mehdi argued that OpenAI had tackled an easier version of the problem and used brute-force computing rather than genuine machine reasoning or scientific intuition.

He suggested that the supposed breakthrough was achieved by thousands of AI agents simply searching mathematical ground already explored by human researchers in order to manufacture an artificial “Sputnik moment” to boost excitement around its technology and inflate its valuation ahead of a stock-market listing.

OpenAI has acknowledged that the project began after hearing rumors that outside mathematicians had made progress on related problems but has denied accessing their unpublished work. At the same time, it said it could not rule out that anonymized data from their use of OpenAI products had helped improve its models.

President Donald Trump claims that the US has already taken out “about nine” Iranian oil tankers and threatened to attack “a lot more,” as the two countries trade strikes on commercial and military vessels around the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command has confirmed that it destroyed eight Iranian crude carriers in two recent operations – three on September 5 and another five on Tuesday – after accusing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of firing ballistic missiles at US warships.

“We’ve taken out about nine of their tankers,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “You’re going to see a lot more.”

The president did not elaborate on potential targets or the timing of further attacks, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran would continue to lose tankers whenever it targets US naval vessels.

CENTCOM forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 8, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a U.S. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days. The U.S. warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attacks and… pic.twitter.com/Gi8a2tloN1

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 8, 2026

“They lost five more last night. Four were damaged. One was sunk. So they’ll continue to pay a price for that,” Rubio said, adding that the US will continue to “strangle them economically.”

Iran has retaliated by claiming attacks on ten vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, including two US Navy ships and eight tankers. CENTCOM has denied that its warships were hit. Iran also launched ballistic missiles toward the Al-Azraq air base in Jordan, while the IRGC warned tanker crews near Bahrain and Kuwait to abandon their vessels ahead of potential attacks.

The renewed confrontation has driven Brent crude back above $100 a barrel amid concerns over further disruptions to one of the world’s most important energy corridors.

“I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer.”

Asked about the prospect of renewed negotiations with Tehran, Trump said his administration is “not looking for it,” although he acknowledged that talks could still take place.

“There is a lot more than nuclear,” he said with regard to an agreement, adding that other issues will now have to be put on the table.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel is “very close” to defeating Iran, during a visit to Israeli troops stationed atop Mount Hermon in Syrian territory, which was seized by the IDF following the collapse of former President Bashar Assad’s government.

Netanyahu traveled to the strategic summit on Wednesday accompanied by Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai.

“Damascus is right here, Lebanon is right there, the Syrian Golan Heights are right there,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office, claiming that Israel now exercises “absolute control the likes of which has never been seen before” over the surrounding area.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Mt. Hermon in Syria, together with Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Deputy Chief-of-Staff Maj- Gen. Tamir Yadai.

The Prime Minister was briefed at an IDF outpost overlooking Syria by Head of Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Rafi Milo and… pic.twitter.com/pnEYLyKQya

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 9, 2026

He said Israel will not allow a “terrorist army” to establish itself along the border, before turning his remarks toward Tehran.

Syria condemned Netanyahu’s visit as “illegal entry” into its territory. The Foreign Ministry called the trip “provocative” and a “blatant violation” of Syrian sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international law, and urged the UN and other international actors to press Israel to end its incursions.

Israel seized the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and other positions inside the UN-monitored buffer zone in December 2024, after Assad’s government fell. Israel initially described the deployment as temporary, but has since entrenched its presence. Katz said during Wednesday’s visit that Israeli troops are “not moving” from the “security zone.”

The continued military presence in Syria and southern Lebanon has also put Netanyahu at odds with Washington. In July, President Donald Trump reportedly urged the Israeli leader to withdraw from both countries, saying, “they don’t want you there.”

Ukrainian security operatives involved in a scandalous gunfight between two rival factions of Vladimir Zelensky's government in Kiev last week are facing a fresh probe – this time for speaking Russian during the clash.

The September 2 gang-warfare-style clash between the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR), centred on an attempt to arrest white supremacist Stepan Kaplunov, a senior officer in the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a paramilitary unit operating under the HUR and thought to be in control of a number of Ukrainian scam-call centers.

Ukraine’s language ombudswoman, Elena Ivanovskaya, said Wednesday she had requested personal information on all those involved and demanded the two services provide an explanation as to why their officials “used a non-state language while performing their official duties.” The data was needed “to clarify the circumstances and make a balanced decision on response measures,” she said in a statement published by Ukrainian media.

Ukrainian is mandatory in the country's public sphere, including government, education, media and customer service. Violations can result in administrative fines of up to $270.

Kiev announced plans in February to take all Russian and Russian-language books out of circulation in Ukraine. Ukraine expanded 2016 import restrictions to outright ban any commercial Russian and Belarusian book entries in 2023.

Kiev is also seeking to block access to Russian music on international streaming platforms inside Ukraine and prevent performers from the neighboring country from appearing in domestic popularity charts, according to Ukrainian Sanctions Policy Commissioner Vladislav Vlasiuk. More than 100 Russian performers have been blacklisted in Ukraine and the list will be expanded, according to the official.

Russian remains widespread

Despite the restrictions, Russian remains widely used in Ukraine. Ukrainian Culture Minister Tatyana Berezhnaya said earlier this year that 71% of Ukrainians regularly consume Russian-language content, with nearly a quarter doing so every day.

Ukrainian officials, especially those in Vladimir Zelensky's inner circle targeted by anti-corruption agents, have been repeatedly caught using Russian on surveillance audio.

The Western-backed Ukrainian anti-corruption agency (NABU) published audio recordings that showed that the chief cybercrime prosecutor accused of extorting protection money from Ukraine’s massive scam-call industry was predominantly using Russian in his communications.

Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga also spoke Russian throughout a lengthy recent interview with a Kazakh outlet while acting in his official capacity.

Every year, Russia publishes a private analytical report intended for a select group of military and defense industry leaders. The Russian Military Yearbook is designed strictly for senior officers, security agency staff, and executives of companies in the defense sector.

Unlike public reports on the state of the armed forces, the Russian Military Yearbook is meant for internal use. It addresses military planning, advancements in weaponry, and developments in the defense industry, along with the key priorities of the Russian military leadership amid ongoing conflicts. Consequently, the yearbook sheds light on the priorities of Russia’s defense apparatus.

First principle: Russia should be responsible for the stability and development of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). While Moscow does not harbor imperial ambitions to annex former Soviet republics, Russian politicians and military officials view these nations as vital partners in trade, infrastructure projects, and security. 

Therefore, countries of the “post-Soviet space” should not join other political and military blocs, especially the EU and NATO. Such blocs often pressure members to sever ties with Russia and are sometimes directed against Russia. 

However, Russia welcomes participation in economic collaboration, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative. What benefits neighboring countries also benefits Russia due to the close economic ties between them.

“The West is entertaining the idea of creating a geopolitical confrontation arena in the South Caucasus, attempting to push Russia aside from the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Rejecting such attempts, the Russian Federation intends to do all it can to protect the region.” 
– Analytical report of the Institute of Contemporary International Studies of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry

Second principle: Moscow views stability through the lens of a “multipolar world.” This refers to a situation in international relations where there is no single hegemon or “world police.” Decisions regarding security and regional organization are made either at the regional level or during global negotiations, rather than by one or two central powers.

It may seem that America’s recent setbacks – including conflicts with European allies and protracted crises in Iran and the Middle East – create an ideal situation for Russian strategists. As Washington’s influence wanes, America’s capacity to control global affairs may diminish as well. However, that perception is wrong. 

Russian military and political leaders desire not only a world without hegemony but also one characterized by stability and adherence to international laws. Even setting idealism aside, this approach undeniably serves Russia’s interests. UN principles help maintain the status quo and ensure regional leadership.

Moreover, America’s inability to manage conflicts (which are often instigated by its own government) only serves to destabilize the world. This compels Moscow to allocate more resources for potential interventions. The Kremlin is well aware of what happens when a crisis outside its borders spirals out of control.

“According to S.V. Lavrov, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, ‘The USA could become one of the responsible centers of power together with Russia, China, and other powers of the Global South, East, North, and West in the foreseeable future’, but this is subject to them abandoning the counteraction to the objective process of multipolarity strengthening” 
– Analytical report of the Institute of Contemporary International Studies of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry

Russian analysts do not believe that it is possible to return to the former Western-centric world order. They believe the Trump administration is too preoccupied with internal issues and is consistently souring relations with European allies, whom it views as ‘parasites’. Meanwhile, the EU is becoming increasingly reliant on rigid neoliberal institutions, making it less open to negotiations due to entrenched anti-Russia sentiments among its leaders. 

Consequently, the only remaining option is to build a multipolar world.

Despite the prevailing pessimism surrounding global politics, Russian experts believe that new conflicts can be avoided, even during such troubled times. 

However, analysts are concerned about one particular region. 

Very Cold War

In addition to the existing conflict zones, experts are also analyzing another potential flashpoint – the struggle for control over the Arctic. And this isn’t just about the vast reserves of valuable resources in the Arctic – estimates suggest that around 13% of the world’s oil and 30% of its natural gas lie beneath the ice.

Disputes over this “no man’s land” and its surrounding waters have been going on for nearly two centuries, and date back to the first attempts to carve out spheres of influence in the Arctic. Canada even attempted to occupy one of Russia’s Arctic islands during the Civil War, though this “occupation” was limited to a few settlers who were soon sent home by the Russian Navy.

Experts note that NATO countries have already begun a major arms buildup specifically aimed at potential Arctic operations. Military exercises are frequently held in the region, such as the recent Exercise Cold Response 26. In March, tens of thousands of service members participated in drills led by the Norwegian armed forces.

“During regular exercises in the Arctic, NATO countries carry out activities to conduct reconnaissance of all types, prepare and deliver missile, air, bomb, and torpedo strikes. Skills related to combat control and logistics, the interaction of dissimilar forces and means are honed.” 
– Vadim Istomin, doctor of Technical Sciences 

And this is just the beginning. NATO countries have initiated Arctic-aimed retraining and rearmament programs set to be completed by the early 2030s. NATO members call it preparation for possible threats. Yet analysts speculate that it could also be preparation for a coordinated attack.

Here are several examples:

Canada – North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) modernization: A new threat detection system for the Arctic is being developed. The Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar is set to reach initial operational capability by the end of 2029, while the Crossbow network of sensors will be operational by 2030. The Polar Over-the-Horizon Radar is anticipated to become operational between 2032 and 2033. Infrastructure for aviation and the command system are also being upgraded.

Canada – Rearmament of the Air Force: Canada is purchasing 88 F-35As to replace its CF-18 fleet. Initial combat readiness is slated for 2029, with full capability set to be reached by 2033. This program aims to enhance the defense of Canada’s Arctic region.

Denmark and Greenland – Defense Program 2024-2033: Military infrastructure in the Arctic and North Atlantic is being strengthened through the acquisition of new Arctic ships and drones, alongside the deployment of additional surveillance assets in Greenland. The Joint Arctic Command is also being bolstered to support extended operations in the area.

This isn’t just speculation. In 2021, the Pentagon adopted a new strategic plan titled ‘Regaining Arctic Dominance’. It explicitly states that the US intends to push Russia and China out of the Arctic, including through threats and the use of force.

“It appears that, distracted by the conflict in Ukraine, the Americans have seemingly pushed the Russian Arctic to the periphery of their attention for the time being. But this is a dangerous delusion. Washington never abandoned the thought of redrawing borders in that area.” 
– Aleksey Fenenko, doctor of Political Science, professor of the Faculty of World Politics, Lomonosov Moscow State University 

In addition to the natural resources and military presence in the Arctic, NATO is interested in the Northern Sea Route. This corridor connects Asia and Europe via the Arctic Ocean, providing a faster alternative to the traditional southern route through India and the Suez Canal. Considering rising piracy and the Iran crisis, navigating the icy waters has become a safer alternative. 

Canada is expanding its fleet of icebreakers, and Norwegian spy vessel the FS Marjata is increasingly being spotted in the Barents Sea. Meanwhile, Finland is deploying American F-35A fighters just 150 km from the Russian border. The US is ramping up its military presence in Alaska, launching new NAVSTAR military satellites over the region, and ordering amphibious vehicles, which are ideally suited for operations in the north. Swedish BvS10 Beowulf amphibious tracked all-terrain vehicles are a particularly popular choice. 

The Russian military is already preparing for potential conflicts in the Arctic. The Russian Army and Navy traditionally have a strong presence in the North and benefit from developed infrastructure. New missile defense systems ensure aerial security. Tor-M2 missile systems, available in various configurations, also play a significant role. The specialized variant for naval vessels, the Tor-M2KM, is particularly easy to produce in mass quantities.

Russia is ready to respond to any challenge in the Arctic; yet this crisis can still be avoided. 

Meanwhile, Russia is forced to address another issue on a daily basis – though one may call it more profitable. 

Arms market shakeup 

The armaments and military equipment (A&ME) sector, unlike many others, boasts consistent growth in both demand and supply, expanding by 28% over four years to reach $679 billion.

The composition of imports has also changed, becoming more unstable and concentrated in regions of existing or potential conflicts. Warsaw has emerged as the world’s leading arms purchaser, spending $33 billion on weaponry in 2023 alone. Given Poland’s status as “NATO’s vanguard,” there’s little doubt about the purpose behind this arms buildup.

Clearly, supplies to Ukraine have significantly increased, but experts point out an important detail: Western allies mainly send legacy military equipment to Kiev, which allows them to quickly modernize their own arsenals. And it’s clear who benefits most from this situation.

“After getting rid of the obsolete weapon systems supplied to Kiev as military aid, the ‘collective West’ countries began large-scale purchases of modern and more expensive arms. At the same time, the USA became the main beneficiary and recipient in this situation, having practically monopolized the arms market of NATO member states.” 
– Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade 

Since 2021, the Russian defense industry has grown approximately fivefold (with the output of some sectors increasing by six or even seven times). However, the bulk of this production is consumed by the Russian military, and exports are severely restricted due to sanctions. Nevertheless, analysts believe that after the end of the Special Military Operation, the Russian defense sector may dominate the market.

Experts note that the unique advantage of Russian weaponry developed during the Ukraine crisis is its proven adaptability to real-world battle conditions. Most Western and Asian arsenals have been tested only during military exercises, whereas new Russian models have been designed and adapted based on data gathered from the battlefield.

The primary goal of Russian defense companies was not to create a budget-friendly training model; they needed to design weapons that would prove reliable in real battle conditions. Developers also received ample feedback from soldiers who tested the weapons in battle.

These imports extend beyond just rifles, ammunition, missiles, and aircraft. Analysts forecast that by 2030, 40% of the entire defense market will revolve around technological exchange – selling access to new developments, as well as training engineers and military personnel.

This sector is already evident in Russia’s partnership with India. For instance, Rosoboronexport is working on localizing AK-203 rifles and 125mm Mango APFSDS rounds in India, as well as upgrading T-72 tank engines at Indian facilities.

High-altitude and high-tech

When people discuss Russian military exports, they often think of tanks and Kalashnikov rifles. This makes sense, as the Russian Army is primarily viewed as a land power, and advancements in the development of rifles and tanks indeed play a significant role in its capabilities.

However, the Ukraine conflict has highlighted the crucial importance of air superiority, especially in the age of drone warfare. The Russian military employs a wide array of tools tailored for various tasks.

On the one hand, there are powerful systems like the S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system. Adopted by the Russian military in 2007, this system can detect aerial objects up to 600 km away and engage aerodynamic targets at a distance of up to 380 km. This system has repeatedly demonstrated its effectiveness, even though it was designed at a time when warfare was quite different.

“The S-400 Triumph is capable of fighting the entire range of modern air targets within its zone of responsibility. This isn’t only the merit of the developers but also of the General Staff which managed to predict long-term threats.” 
– Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade 

But there are also small, mobile systems that are indispensable in urban combat and dynamic modern warfare. 

A prime example is the Dzhigit support launcher. Without its Igla-S and Verba missile launchers, it looks like a sophisticated garden chair. However, fully equipped, it can fire powerful missiles in rapid succession or salvos, functioning on the ground, in buildings, or mounted on a combat vehicle. Military personnel particularly appreciate its stealth capabilities and battlefield survivability.

As for new Western radar and missile defense developments, analysts are skeptical about them. They note that while these new models often set records, they don’t necessarily enhance practical use.

“The TRLM-4D is also a leader in the number of simultaneously detected targets – 1500. However, the only thing that such a number of blips on the radar screen can give to the crew having just 24 ADMS is a sense of despair.” 
– Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade 

Uncertainty is the new certainty

Overall, Russia’s strategy can be summed up as “active preparation for the worst, moderate hope for the best.” Politicians, military leaders, and defense industry representatives understand that the Special Military Operation may continue for an extended period, while adversaries seek to exploit any weaknesses that Russia may have; therefore, new crises are almost inevitable. Recent years have demonstrated the resilience of the Russian military and economy, but that alone may not ensure success.

At the same time, analysts believe that a peaceful resolution to all issues is possible. However, it probably won’t be brought about by the goodwill of politicians, but rather by the demonstration of strength and the readiness to respond to any threats. 

Singapore is considering chemical castration for sex offenders amid a rise in reported sexual crimes, particularly those involving children.

Police recorded 1,531 molestation cases in 2025, up 7.3% from 1,427 the previous year.

The issue was raised in parliament this week, with lawmakers questioning whether penalties and safeguards for minors should be strengthened.

Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said on Tuesday that the government remains open to using anti-androgen drugs, commonly known as chemical castration, if there is clear evidence that they can reduce crime rates.

“So far, the evidence is not conclusive on that,” he said in a written parliamentary reply.

Chemical castration involves drugs that suppress testosterone and reduce sexual desire. Unlike surgical castration, it does not involve removing reproductive organs, and its effects are generally reversible once treatment is stopped.

A new sentencing system that took effect in July allows serious violent or sexual offenders considered at substantial risk of reoffending to be held beyond their minimum prison term of between five and 20 years. They can remain in custody longer if authorities determine they still pose a threat to the public.

The wider debate over safeguards has followed a recent case involving a self-styled religious mentor who committed sexual offenses against children after previously being arrested over the alleged molestation of a 17-year-old and released on bail. The case prompted lawmakers to question whether bail conditions and screening rules for people working with children should be tightened.

The joint military exercises now underway between the United States, South Korea, and Japan are a clear signal that Washington is still moving ahead with the long-term project of building its alliances and partnerships in Asia into a tight military-political structure, despite leadership changes in both the US and South Korea. The current Washington administration, however, isn’t above using political leverage to keep Seoul in line.

The joint exercises of South Korea, Japan, and the US became a regular occurrence already under Biden, and they now serve as a kind of answer to the question of how far the course toward building a Washington-Tokyo-Seoul military-political alliance – which was very clearly visible under Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol – is continuing under the new presidents.

Many people assumed that if Biden was actively driving this integration and the Washington Declaration had already been signed, then Trump, supposedly an isolationist, would slow it down or even reverse it.

But no – what we see is that although the pace may have slowed somewhat, the overall direction remains the same. That is quite important, because talk of a possible ‘Asian NATO’ has not gone away.

It is still not entirely clear what shape such a configuration could take. On the one hand, there is AUKUS. On the other, there is an increasingly active system of military alignments involving the US, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Practicing preventive strikes, river crossings, and similar operations was always part of the scenario. Formally, everything began as a response to a North Korean attack, but the script usually moved quickly toward a triumphant counteroffensive.

It is entirely possible that the trilateral exercises of the US, South Korea, and Japan are oriented not only toward containing North Korea, but also toward containing China – and more broadly toward integrating and coordinating three countries that the Americans are trying to turn into a military-political bloc. That process has never been easy.

The problem is that while Washington-Tokyo and Washington-Seoul ties were relatively straightforward and did not suffer deeply from historical baggage, relations between Seoul and Tokyo have long been much more difficult. It was hard to establish any real parallel cooperation between them despite active American pressure, because anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea was, until recently, one of the important pillars of national political identity, especially under Democratic Party governments.

That began to change with the arrival of conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol, who for the first time turned the wheel 180 degrees and openly argued that, in present conditions, Washington and Tokyo should stop relitigating the past and instead think about alliance in the present and jointly forecast the future.

Naturally, this caused outrage among the Democrats, then in opposition. There is no need to repeat all the insults with which Lee Jae Myung attacked Yoon – accusing him of groveling before Japan, forgetting the horrors of colonial rule, and so on.

Suddenly, the Democratic Party became effectively center-right, and Lee’s line can now broadly be described as pro-American, at least in public terms.

He openly said that the old formula of “security with America, economics with China” no longer works – that South Korea is now oriented only toward the United States. Of course, this does not mean a complete break with China. He wanted Seoul to be a bridge between Washington and Beijing.

But overall, Lee is moving in the American wake, and one important sign of that is that there has been no reversal on the Japanese track.

Lee effectively stated that all agreements signed under Yoon would be honored, because even if part of the Korean public does not accept them, they were promises made in the name of the nation.

The culmination of this moment was the joint musical performance by Lee Jae Myung and Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi.

Of course, there are still occasional flare-ups, because there cannot not be. For example, Japan’s defense minister skipped a defense forum in Seoul because of another controversy linked to a donation to Yasukuni Shrine, which South Korea sees as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism and colonialism. But overall, the level of integration is much higher, and it continues the same direction set under the conservatives.

The current trilateral exercise is a visible marker of that course.

Those exercises were supposed to proceed normally. But the day before they began, Trump suddenly posted on social media that the drills were expensive and sent bad signals to North Korea, and that he had therefore instructed the defense secretary to scale them down. Then he added that he had asked the South Korean president to join us in our struggle with Iran, and Lee refused.

This creates a very clear picture. Trump, in effect, took revenge for Seoul’s refusal – and, judging by subsequent developments, may even have forced President Lee into taking some limited part in the US confrontation with Iran after all.

Why did Lee refuse in the first place?

First, South Korea’s relations with Iran are not especially bad. Second, for domestic audiences, despite his pro-American course, Lee still wants to preserve the image of a populist who occasionally pushes back against the US, pursues an independent policy, and certainly is not going to send South Korean troops to fight for American interests – especially in a conflict that would be highly risky and politically toxic.

During the Iraq war of 2003-2008, South Korean troops were largely deployed to guard South Korean engineers working on oil fields. The surrounding territory was generally controlled by pro-American Kurdish forces, so the South Koreans spent much of their time sitting tight, occasionally joining mop-up operations.

Joining the Iran war would be very different. Here, regardless of what they were doing, they would have to defend themselves against Iranian missiles and drones – and it is far from clear how effectively they could do so. And any casualties, in today’s media and political climate, would carry obvious domestic political and reputational consequences.

That is one more reason why Lee Jae Myung refused to participate in the American war against Iran. And it is also why Trump trapped him so effectively in a contradiction between his promises.

On the one hand, Lee has repeatedly spoken of the need to draw North Korea into dialogue. To pursue that goal, one would logically need to reduce military activity, including the very exercises that North Korea constantly condemns as rehearsals for aggression.

On the other hand, because North Korea says it will not negotiate with Seoul regardless of whether conservatives or Democrats are in power – on the grounds that South Korea lacks real agency – the more realistic promise from Lee’s side has been the restoration of wartime operational control.

At present, if a major war breaks out, South Korea’s armed forces do not answer directly to the South Korean president but to the so-called Combined Forces Command – effectively, to the Americans.

This arrangement was originally created to prevent South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, from dragging the peninsula into a second Korean War. Today, however, it is widely viewed in South Korea as a limitation on sovereignty. Lee Jae Myung loudly promised that by the end of his presidential term, in 2030, he would restore this operational control.

For that to happen, South Korean generals have to show that they can solve complex strategic tasks as effectively as their American counterparts. And for that, regular, large-scale exercises are necessary. By reducing the scale of the exercises, Trump struck directly at that ambition.

Lee was, of course, forced to put on a brave face and say that the reduction of the drills would indeed send the right signal to North Korea.

But in reality, the far more important and painful consequence was that the exercises would no longer provide the full opportunity to rehearse what is required for the transfer of operational control.

And after that, as we can now see, Seoul’s position on assisting the US against Iran shifted in a direction more convenient for Washington.

That is why this matters. North Korea, naturally, criticized both the US-South Korea drills and the trilateral exercises with Japan. But what is crucial here is this: the bilateral drills were cut back, while the trilateral drills continue just fine. And that says a great deal about Washington’s real goals in the region.

EU candidate countries should cut ties US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement as they conflict with Brussels’ long-term interests, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos has said.

Speaking at a Centre for European Policy Studies event in Brussels on Tuesday, Kos warned that prospective members should not develop relations with outside powers that could pull them away from the EU.

”We should not risk our future members building dependencies on others that run counter to our long-term interest,” she said.

Kos singled out Trump’s political movement, saying the Brussels faces “pressure from the West, from the MAGA ideologists who try to persuade us that our European civilization is in decline, that our economy is in decline, and that we don’t have the right democracy.”

Kos also claimed that the EU is facing “adversaries” seeking to influence its enlargement process. “For the first time in history, we have adversaries in the enlargement process,” she said. Asked whom she meant, Kos replied: “Clearly, Russia is one of them.”

The comments come amid growing US economic engagement in the Western Balkans, where several countries are seeking EU membership. American-linked projects have been pursued in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania, including a controversial resort development connected to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

History doesn’t repeat itself, not even as farce, and thus the latest chapter in the centuries-long confrontation between Russia and Europe will look different from those that came before it.

Today, the German authorities are closing Russian cultural and diplomatic institutions on flimsy pretexts and Norway is seizing Russian research vessels – and while the methods are new, the underlying impulse is familiar. Europe has sought to constrain Russia’s independence since at least the late 15th century.

For now, however, European governments aren’t seeking direct military confrontation, but this should not be mistaken for pacifism in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, or London – nor should we take seriously their ritual declarations about dialogue and a new regional security architecture, given there are more practical reasons for their restraint.

First, Western Europe’s largest states lack the human and material resources for a war with Russia, and although their position is somewhat better when it comes to weapons, much of that capacity is already being directed toward Ukraine, whose population is being asked to make enormous sacrifices in pursuit of European objectives.

However, the European people show little appetite for these sacrifices, mainly because living standards haven’t deteriorated nearly enough to persuade ordinary Germans, Italians, French, and British people to march into a conflict with Russia. Nor should anyone place much faith in Poland or the rest of Eastern Europe because Warsaw’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric disguises a much weaker willingness to actually fight.

France’s development of an independent nuclear deterrent was itself an acknowledgement that Europe could not assume that the US would risk its own destruction on their behalf. Charles de Gaulle and his successors didn’t build this arsenal because they were confident of American guarantees.

Nobody in Europe, therefore, seriously believes that Russia can be easily defeated in a war, because if they did, the temptation to attempt it would be much greater.

Yet these rational calculations run up against a more subjective danger, and we shouldn’t overestimate the European elite’s instinct for self-preservation.

Unlike Russia or China, Western Europe has experienced no comparable replacement of its ruling elites over the past 150 years, meaning today’s political establishments are, in an important sense, descendants of those that led Europe into the First and Second World Wars.

Western European politicians, particularly German and British, have historically displayed a tendency towards adventurism. Indeed, George Kennan, an astute observer of political cultures, drew a revealing contrast in his 1946 Long Telegram where Russian foreign policy, he wrote, “is neither schematic nor adventurist” and “doesn’t take unnecessary risks,” but the same cannot always be said of Europe.

Europe has a more troubling historical record and its powers have repeatedly created dangerous situations that ultimately escaped their control, with World War II as the supreme example. Napoleon’s invasion of Russia and Germany’s invasion more than a century later were also enormous gambles, courses of action that appeared reckless even to many contemporaries.

For the moment, Europe is conducting its struggle against Russia primarily through indirect means because it lacks the resources for something more ambitious and retains enough sound judgment to recognize the dangers of escalation – but it would be reckless for Moscow to assume this restraint will last forever.

With every new stage of confrontation, European governments are burning bridges that might have otherwise supported a more balanced system of coexistence. Seen in this context, Russia’s decision to close the Goethe Institutes isn’t merely a symmetrical response to German measures, but also makes sense in the long term.

Whether we like it or not, cultural and humanitarian cooperation has increasingly become an instrument of state policy, though exceptions remain. Russian and French museum professionals, for example, continue to work together on some projects, as do academics and cultural figures in other fields, but these relationships have become increasingly subordinate to the logic of soft power.

Even seemingly innocuous forms of international cooperation are now expected to serve national objectives, and this is regrettable – but it reflects the expansion of modern foreign policy far beyond traditional diplomacy. Governments can use funding and institutions to influence almost every sphere of international contact.

But in Western countries, these demands are particularly pronounced, so institutions such as the Goethe-Institut cannot realistically be separated from Germany’s broader foreign-policy objectives, and German officials inevitably expect publicly supported cultural organizations to influence attitudes towards Germany and advance the country’s interests.

The result is paradoxical: The political burden placed upon cultural institutions eventually undermines the very value of the relationships they were created to foster.

Perhaps the erosion of these old forms of cooperation is therefore unavoidable and it may even prove necessary if future cultural and academic contacts are to become less dependent on the political climate in European capitals.

For now, however, Russia faces a more immediate problem, in which European leaders remain afraid of direct confrontation, yet their own decisions are steadily pulling them deeper into a spiral of confrontation.

Their caution is real, but history gives Russia little reason to assume that caution will always prevail over adventurism – and that requires vigilance from Moscow and the resolve to act accordingly.

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

Israel must do more to explain to its nationals how they are expected to behave in Thailand, according to remarks by Bangkok’s foreign minister, Sihasak Phuangketkeow.

Sihasak, who also serves as deputy prime minister, met Israeli Ambassador Alona Fisher-Kamm on Tuesday following a series of scandalous and potentially criminal incidents involving Israeli nationals that have stirred tensions in Thailand.

“Thailand is a country that welcomes tourists. But welcoming tourists does not mean that visitors, regardless of nationality, can do whatever they want in Thailand,” the minister told the press. “Visitors must understand and respect Thai culture and traditions,” just as Thai tourists must when traveling abroad.

Fisher-Kamm, who indicated ahead of the meeting that she wanted to raise concerns about growing hostility toward Israelis and Jews in Thailand, described the discussion with Sihasak as “good and open” and said it touched on “close cooperation in agriculture, labour, healthcare, and cybersecurity.”

Dual deportation case as Thailand tightens screws on troublemakers

Thailand, a country long known for tourist-oriented nightlife, is seeking to distance itself from its reputation as a destination for debauchery and attract other types of visitors, including families and people interested in ecotourism.

The policy shift coincides with changing attitudes toward foreigners among parts of the local population, particularly in cases where visitors are seen as disruptive to public order. The government has introduced several measures, including shorter visa terms and easier deportation procedures, aimed at dealing with troublemakers.

Last Friday, Israeli national Jacob Ohayon became the first foreigner to be expelled under the new deportation rules. A Thai court had sentenced him to a suspended 15-day jail term and imposed a fine over a dispute with the owners of Samui Exotic Park, a Thai woman and a French man.

The threats ultimately cost Ohayon his right to remain in Thailand, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who also serves as interior minister, personally signing the deportation order. The French man, Kevin Dimino, was likewise expelled over his harassing and physically abusive behavior during the confrontation.

Sihasak cited the case, stressing that “anyone, regardless of nationality, who violates Thai law must face strict enforcement.” The foreign minister added that Bangkok values its good relations with Israel, where more than 60,000 Thai workers are currently employed.

On September 7, 2026, a high-level Jamaican delegation delivered a historic legal petition to Buckingham Palace addressed to King Charles III. Its objective was to compel the monarch, as Jamaica’s head of state, to refer to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the island’s highest court of appeal, three questions that have haunted the British Empire for centuries. Was the forced transportation of Africans to Jamaica and their subsequent enslavement lawful? Did this system constitute a crime against humanity? Does the United Kingdom bear an obligation to make reparation for slavery and its enduring consequences?

Culture Minister Olivia Grange, who led the delegation, shared a photo on X of herself holding the document aloft, captioned: “The petition has been filed.” King Charles III was not present at the handover. British media reported he was on vacation at the time, though Buckingham Palace said it had worked closely with the Governor General of Jamaica to ensure the petition was properly lodged.

The day before, on Sunday, September 6, the delegation had taken part in a church service in south London under the theme of “remembrance, justice and repair,” ahead of the formal filing the following day. This timing is no accident: September 6 commemorates the 1781 departure of the slave ship Zong, aboard which more than 140 enslaved Africans were thrown into the sea so their owners could collect an insurance payout. That crime, unpunished for 245 years, now stands as the symbol of a justice the diaspora refuses to let fade into oblivion.

“In relation to the wrongs that were done, we want answers,” Grange told the Associated Press the day before the filing. “Once we get those answers, then our attorneys will determine what the next move is.”

This petition is part of a strategy, built step by step by Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations chaired by Laleta Davis Mattis, with the support of a legal subcommittee led by attorney Bert Samuels, and a team of UK lawyers. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has thrown its full weight behind the effort proof that this question reaches beyond the borders of a single island. The entire post-slavery Caribbean is rising behind Jamaica.

The UN slavery resolution as a first step

But it is precisely here that Jamaica’s fight joins Africa’s own, and this link must now be made visible, since Western media have worked hard to keep it quiet. On March 25, 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, on Ghana’s initiative, resolution A/RES/80/250 – the very first resolution in UN history devoted exclusively to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.

One hundred and twenty-three states voted in favor. Only three opposed it: the United States, Israel, and Argentina. Fifty-two countries, mostly European including the United Kingdom itself, chose to hide behind abstention.

Jamaican jurist Bert Samuels was not mistaken when he stated that this UN resolution strengthens Jamaica’s legal position against London. Here is the thread that binds Accra to Kingston, the African motherland to the diaspora torn from it. A single struggle is fought on two complementary fronts – one continental and diplomatic, the other insular and judicial, both aimed at the same goal of making the former empire pay for four centuries of human plunder.

A history of reversed debts

To grasp the full weight of this gesture, one must recall that Haiti, the first free black nation of the modern era, was forced in 1825 to pay France a colossal indemnity to “compensate” former slave owners for the loss of their “human property” – a debt that bled Haiti’s economy for more than a century. History, as written by the colonial powers, long decreed that it was the enslavers who deserved compensation, never the enslaved.

Jamaica’s petition overturns this criminal logic. It is no longer the victims who owe the executioner, it is the executioner who must now answer to its victims. This reversal builds on groundwork laid over more than a decade by the CARICOM itself, which as early as 2013 adopted its own ten-point plan for reparatory justice, demanding formal apologies, debt cancellation, technology transfers, and public health programs to offset the health devastation bequeathed by slavery.

The September 7 filing is therefore the legal culmination of a long matured Caribbean strategy that has now chosen to confront head on, in a court of law, the very institution that sanctioned and protected the slave system: the British Crown.

For the African diaspora across Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean alike, this filing is experienced as a long-deferred reckoning. For generations, our elders awaited a political gesture of this magnitude – a formal legal demand addressed directly to the head of the house that organized, financed, and profited from the trade.

Reparations movements that once fought each in their own corner Caribbean organizations, Afro-descendant collectives in the Americas, African diasporas in Europe, activists on the continent itself are beginning to speak with a single voice, carried by recognized institutions: the African Union on one side, CARICOM on the other, and now the UN as a global sounding board.

In West Africa, Jamaica’s move is being followed with particular attention, seen as the natural extension of the fight President Mahama carried to the UN stage. The Africa that watched its children leave in chains is, four centuries later, reunited with a part of its diaspora now come to knock, together, on the same imperial door. In Southern Africa, where the memory of apartheid remains raw, many Pan-African organizations see in this filing further proof that struggles for historical justice slavery, colonialism, apartheid can no longer be treated separately, but must be understood as a single, unified case against the West.

In Europe, among Afro-descendant communities in France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom itself, Jamaica’s petition serves as both a signal of hope and a painful reminder: That our own states of origin or residence still drag their feet on these questions, while little Jamaica, with its modest means, dared to carry the fight directly to the monarch’s door. In the Americas, Afro-descendant movements from Brazil to Colombia are also watching this case closely, seeing in it a potential legal precedent that could be mobilized for their own claims against the former Iberian colonial powers.

This convergence is visibly rattling Western capitals. The United Kingdom’s vote – an abstention, that is, a refusal to choose – speaks volumes about the quiet panic setting in London. One can sense, in the remarks of certain British political figures, particularly within Euroskeptic and identitarian factions, a desire to ridicule Jamaica’s move, to dismiss it as an expensive whim or a political stunt.

Critical voices, including within the Pan-African movement itself, warn of the risks inherent in the path Kingston has chosen. Entrusting a body like the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council – an institution shaped by the British colonial order itself – with judging the legality of slavery risks a ruling that the trade was, at the time, perfectly “lawful” under the British law then in force. Such a verdict, should it come to pass, would hand Western governments a legal argument to close the reparations file for good.

Some observers have already noted that the Privy Council may look at this petition with a degree of skepticism not over whether slavery was wrong, but over the unusual nature of the legal procedure being invoked.

This is why the battle must never be reduced to this single procedure. Jamaica’s strength lies precisely in waging the fight on multiple fronts at once: the legal path before the Privy Council, the diplomatic path through CARICOM, and now the backing of international law embodied in Ghana’s UN resolution. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has, moreover, announced plans to sever ties with the British Crown and transform his country into a republic – a signal that a rejection of the petition by London could, paradoxically, accelerate that rupture rather than prevent it.

When the Jamaican delegation crossed the palace threshold to deliver its petition, it was the echo of 123 nations gathered in New York this past March 25. It was the voice of the African Union, of Ghanaian President Mahama, of reparations movements from Accra to Bridgetown, from Lagos to Brooklyn. It was the voice of an entire diaspora that now refuses to let the history of slavery remain a closed chapter that was never paid for.

South African motorists could face record petrol prices from October as the ongoing war in the Middle East has pushed global oil prices close to $100 per barrel for the first time since July.

The latest data from the Central Energy Fund points to increases of about R2 ($0.12) per liter for petrol. This would push the price of 95 ULP up to R28.05 at the coast and R28.92 in Gauteng, beating June’s all-time highs of R27.19 and R28.05, respectively.

Diesel is also set for a significant increase, with the data pointing to hikes of between R1.50 for 500ppm and R1.80 for 50ppm. This will push the price of 50ppm up to R30.29 at the coast and R31.85 inland, close to its all-time highs of R30.62 and R31.38, seen earlier this year.

This warning does come with a disclaimer, as the predictions are based on early-month data, which is a moving target, as much can still transpire in the markets between now and the end of this month.

October’s predicted increases come in the wake of steep price hikes in September, when petrol rose by R1.34 per litre and diesel by between R2.94 and R3.15.

First published by IOL

Washington could help bring the Ukraine conflict to an end sooner by stopping all assistance to Kiev, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said, commenting on the latest phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump.

The two leaders spoke by phone on Tuesday in the wake of a new round of shuttle diplomacy that saw Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visit Moscow and Kiev over the weekend.

The issue came up as the two presidents discussed ways to reach a settlement of the conflict, Ushakov told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Wednesday. Asked what Washington could do to bring the hostilities to an end sooner, the Kremlin aide said that “first and foremost, [it could] probably stop providing any assistance to Kiev.”

The official acknowledged that US assistance to Ukraine had already “declined significantly” since Trump returned to the White House, compared with the previous administration, when military aid “was provided on a massive scale.”

Trump said he had a “great” conversation with Putin, adding that the Russian president did want “to make a deal.” If Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky “is wanting to make ⁠a deal, that’d be very nice,” he told reporters on Wednesday before boarding Air Force One en route to Dallas for the GOP National Convention.

Moscow has repeatedly said it is ready to settle the Ukraine conflict as long as its root causes are addressed and the realities on the ground are taken into account. 

Kiev has consistently rejected Moscow’s demands on territorial and security issues, insisting on restoring control over all territories it lays claim to and joining NATO.

Moscow has repeatedly cited Kiev’s aggressive posture, as well as the position of its European backers as major obstacles to a peace settlement.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the several European leaders calling for a ceasefire were actually seeking to preserve an “openly Russophobic and aggressive neo-Nazi regime” in Kiev, adding that the Russian people would never accept this outcome.

There is a more than 10% chance that artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity within the next ten years, a senior Anthropic researcher has warned amid mounting concerns over increasingly powerful systems slipping beyond human control.

Evan Hubinger, who works on aligning advanced AI systems with human interests, made the assessment after fellow Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned over fears that leading tech companies are racing toward systems they may not be able to keep in check.

“We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans,” Hubinger wrote on X on Wednesday. “I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.” He added that Anthropic is “trying its best” but still does not have a plan for safely controlling superintelligence and is “not clearly on track” to find one.

Hubinger noted that while current AI models pose a low risk, there is concern that future systems could begin improving themselves recursively, rapidly becoming more capable than humans before adequate safeguards are developed.

Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, announced his departure from Anthropic on Tuesday, accusing both companies of ignoring the “civilizational stakes” and “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”

Coxon told the Wall Street Journal that the most aggressive scenarios could see things become “out of control” as early as the end of 2027. He argued that even companies with strong safety programs remain trapped in a race, fearing competitors will push ahead if they slow down.

Both Anthropic and OpenAI publicly say they take the risks seriously and are heavily investing in safety measures. Their leaders have also backed calls for greater government coordination and mechanisms to slow development if necessary, but have nevertheless continued to develop increasingly powerful models.

The latest warnings come amid growing reports of AI agents, such as those developed by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, repeatedly breaking out of testing environments, hacking external systems and taking unauthorized actions against real people and organizations. OpenAI temporarily slowed some development last month after its model compromised the Hugging Face platform.

Britain’s AI Security Institute has also reported agents creating fake identities, writing malicious code, and attempting to manipulate people during evaluations. Researchers have meanwhile demonstrated that AI can design entire functional viral genomes, adding to concerns over how increasingly capable systems could be misused.

The first edition of the International Industrial Trade Fair INNOPROM. India opened on September 9 at the Bharat Mandapam exhibition complex in New Delhi, bringing together more than 130 Russian and Indian companies.

The event, taking place in Pavilion No. 1, is being held ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit. It is organized by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The operators are Formika Event LLC on the Russian side and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the Indian side.

Organizers said the Russian and Indian national sections were given equal exhibition space. The Russian side features some of the country’s largest state corporations and industrial firms, including Rostec, Rosatom, Roscosmos, United Aircraft Corporation, United Engine Corporation, Sber, Natsproektstroy, Transmashholding, RUSAL, PhosAgro, the Center for Research and Development in Advanced Technologies, A7, and Arnest.

Regional group stands from Moscow, Tatarstan, Krasnodar Krai, and the Chelyabinsk Region are also part of the exhibition, along with companies taking part in a business mission organized by the Russian Export Center. The Russia National Centre has a separate stand displaying traditional Russian folk arts and crafts.

India’s section includes major companies and institutions from sectors such as metallurgy, mining, digital technology, transport engineering, textiles, energy, and oil and gas. Among the participants are MECON, Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), NMDC, MOIL, Central Electronics Ltd., RVNL, Titagarh Rail Systems, Tata Power, ITC Group, KABIL, Shatei Engineering, and Bansal Spinning Mills.

Business matchmaking is also a major theme of the fair. The Russian Export Center and the Confederation of Indian Industry have created networking zones at the venue to help companies identify suppliers and customers and to discuss potential joint projects.

“INNOPROM provides an important platform for bringing together representatives of industry, technology providers, investors, and government institutions from India and Russia to explore new opportunities for cooperation,” said Vishnu Sharma, Deputy Director General for Corporate Affairs and Marketing at the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC).

He added that India is developing “world-class industrial smart cities” and said platforms such as INNOPROM support direct engagement with Russian and other international firms, while helping them enter the Indian market and expand their presence there.

According to Sharma, such cooperation could help turn the growing economic relationship between the two countries into “tangible investments, manufacturing localization, technology partnerships, and the creation of new industrial ecosystems in India.”

The trade fair’s business program is running on September 9 and 10, with discussions focused on expanding Russian-Indian trade, economic and industrial ties. Participants are expected to address potential cooperation in industry and high-tech fields, as well as new business opportunities.

The central event will be the main plenary session on September 10, titled “Enhancing Russian-Indian Trade and Industrial Partnership: Towards Greater Self-Reliance.” It is set to feature Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

Officials from both delegations are also expected to tour the exhibition on the second and third days of the fair.

Leading Russian aviation, space, and engineering companies are showcasing their technology at the first INNOPROM. India industrial fair in New Delhi, as the two countries seek to expand trade and industrial cooperation.

The three-day fair features Russian products and technologies across sectors including aviation, space, advanced manufacturing, and industrial engineering.

Aviation is a big area of focus as India, the world’s third-largest aviation market, is looking for planes to increase connectivity between its regional hubs and fast-growing tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has a cooperation agreement with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) for the SJ-100 program in India. UAC will also supply six Ilyushin Il-114-300 aircraft to Indian regional carrier Flamingo Aerospace.

The UAC booth features models of the SJ-100, Il-114-300, and MC-21-310 aircraft, alongside a model of the PD-8 turbofan engine used on the SJ-100. UAC head Vadim Badekha said in June that Indian carriers have expressed interest in the planes. Multiple agreements are expected to be signed, RT India reported.

Russian Aircraft Take Centre Stage at INNOPROM.India

The IL-114-300, SJ-100 and MC-21-310 - Russia’s flagship next-generation, fully import-substituted commercial aircraft - highlight the growing 🇮🇳-🇷🇺 collaboration in aviation.

Partnerships involving UAC, HAL and Flamingo… pic.twitter.com/f4KfXDFFs9

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 9, 2026

Russia’s state space corporation (Roscosmos) is also represented at the fair. India’s space program has longstanding ties to the Soviet and Russian space programs, with cooperation continuing in areas including India’s planned crewed spaceflight program.

Other exhibits include industrial robots, detector technology used in nuclear power plants, and smart devices, reflecting cooperation extending beyond aviation and space into industrial technology and automation.

India and Russia are accelerating efforts to reach the bilateral trade target of $100 billion, which was set during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi in December. Putin is set to return to the Indian capital this week for the BRICS summit.

Tooling Up! RT India's @aditi_mishra19 At INNOPROM.India Takes A Look At How 🇷🇺's DOKA Robots Can Lend A Hand - Literally - To 🇮🇳's Pharma & Food Industries pic.twitter.com/xZpM7TlL7U

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 9, 2026

INNOPROM.India: How Sound Waves Are Helping Keep Kudankulam NPP Safer

Echoplus’ ultrasonic flaw detector uses sound waves to identify defects deep inside materials without damaging them – the tech is deployed at 🇮🇳’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to support safer, more reliable… pic.twitter.com/iCiO2w69bQ

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 9, 2026

The two countries are also seeking to expand industrial cooperation beyond trade. Russia is ready to expand technology-sharing and industrial cooperation with India, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov said last week.

The fair has brought together more than 120 Russian and Indian companies. The plenary session on Thursday will be attended by Russian Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov and Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

INNOPROM. India is organized by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade and India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, with support from Formika Events and the Confederation of Indian Industry. The Russian Trade Representation in India is also supporting the event.

Russia has begun training Ugandan health specialists in infection-control measures, Russia’s public health watchdog announced on Tuesday. The program comes as the East African nation remains on alert for Ebola, which continues to spread in neighboring DR Congo and has killed more than 3,200 people.

Ten specialists from Uganda’s Health Ministry and leading research institutions are taking part in the two-week course at the Erisman Institute of Disinfectology, according to Rospotrebnadzor.

The training covers Russia’s regulatory framework, methods, and equipment for disinfection, insect, and rodent control, as well as zoological and entomological surveillance. Participants will also conduct practical exercises and fieldwork. The initiative is part of its broader program to help African countries prevent infectious diseases and strengthen epidemiological preparedness.

Surveillance has continued due to the risk of further cross-border transmission. DR Congo has recorded 6,686 confirmed cases and 3,226 deaths, according to official figures reported on September 7.

No vaccine or specific treatment has been approved for the Bundibugyo strain driving the outbreak, which the WHO has classified as a public health emergency of international concern.

Moscow donated a mobile anti-epidemic laboratory to Uganda in 2024 and has supplied similar facilities to several other African countries, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Namibia, and the Republic of the Congo. More than 80 Ugandan specialists have received training in pathogen monitoring, disinfectology, laboratory diagnostics, and biosafety from Rospotrebnadzor’s scientific institutions, the agency said in May.

European leaders calling for a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict are seeking to preserve the government in Kiev in its current aggressive anti-Russian form, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Even politicians who acknowledge that Kiev cannot militarily retake the former Ukrainian regions that have joined Russia since 2014 and now advocate a truce are pursuing an agenda that threatens Russia and its citizens, the top diplomat said. Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Lavrov named Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as examples.

The proposed ceasefire “is also just a way to buy time, as everyone knows,” Lavrov said, adding that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “makes no secret of that” as he seeks additional weapons supplies.

According to the Russian minister, the goal of this ploy is to preserve and keep in power “the regime currently ruling in Kiev,” whose defining traits he described as “Nazism, aggressive Russophobia, violations of human rights, language rights and religious freedom.”

As for Europe, it wants to preserve that openly Russophobic and aggressive neo-Nazi regime. It is the European plan. I don’t see how the Russian people can accept this outcome.

Moscow’s objections to freezing the conflict remain unchanged, as does its opposition to proposals to deploy troops from NATO member states in Ukraine following a potential peace deal, Lavrov said.

“Any people in military uniforms and any military facilities will be legitimate [targets] for us, and no scenario under which Ukraine will acquire NATO membership in all but name is acceptable to us,” he stressed.

Global oil prices have surpassed $100 per barrel as escalating fighting between the US and Iran, and Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure, raised fears of further supply disruptions. Brent crude broke the threshold for the first time in nearly two months.

Brent futures climbed 2.2% to $100.07 per barrel in Asian trading, their highest level since July 24. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 1.83% to $94.73, while Brent has gained around 25% since early August as hopes of a lasting settlement to the US-Iran conflict have faded.

“Recent developments only reinforce the view that we’re still some way from a restart in talks. In the meantime, the market is likely to continue to price in a sizeable risk premium,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a note early Wednesday.

The attacks came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued an “urgent warning” to tanker crews near Bahrain and Kuwait to abandon their ships, saying vessels in the area would be targeted. Ballistic missiles were subsequently launched from Iran toward US military facilities across the region, including those in Jordan, where air defenses intercepted 18 of 20 incoming missiles, according to the military.

Supply concerns have also intensified after Yemen’s Houthis launched missile and drone attacks on energy facilities in southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The strikes reportedly forced temporary shutdowns and sparked a fire at the Jazan refinery, a major Saudi Aramco facility capable of processing 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Ukraine wants its Western donors to supply highly sought-after Patriot interceptors from their own stockpiles, which would be replenished later with 1,000 missiles that Kiev plans to purchase with EU money.

The unorthodox proposal was outlined on Tuesday by Ukrainian Defense Minister Evgeny Khmara during a video call with Western arms donors. It comes amid a global shortage of US-made weapons, with Ukraine competing for supplies against numerous other countries while arguing that its need to intercept Russian ballistic missiles should take priority.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky previously sought to secure 300 Patriot interceptors for the upcoming winter. His reported effort to impress US President Donald Trump with long-range strikes on Russian refineries and e-commerce warehouses has produced no clear results.

The attacks were allegedly intended to persuade Trump to approve additional Patriot supplies. Kiev also overspent Western donor funds while pursuing the strategy and has a $27 billion military budget deficit.

“The majority of these missiles will only start to be shipped in the coming years, which is why we ask that you supply us the missiles from your stockpiles today in exchange for future improved missiles from our contracts,” he said.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the same meeting that Berlin is working to provide additional Patriot interceptors of the older PAC-2 model from its own stocks, along with air-to-air missiles that Ukraine uses against Russian drones and cruise missiles, including from Western-donated F-16 fighter jets.

Western Europe’s purse remains open for Kiev

The meeting, co-chaired by Pistorius and British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting, coincided with announcements from both the EU and the UK regarding their respective aid programs.

Together with @SecGenNATO Rutte, I welcome the agreement by Member States on the derogation for Ukraine to purchase crucial products for Patriot air defence systems.

The next disbursement of €3.2 billion will enable Ukraine to better protect its skies from Russia’s…

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 8, 2026

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the disbursement of €3.2 billion ($3.7 billion) under the Ukraine Support Loan mechanism, saying the funds “will enable Ukraine to better protect its skies.”

The British government pledged a £100 million ($136 million) “winter air defense package,” with the money slated to be spent on US-made weapons through NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) program.

Trump’s mediation efforts renewed

The latest US proposal contains “worse” terms for Ukraine than those previously on the table, according to Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August 2025 to discuss a possible off-ramp in the conflict, but Zelensky rejected key terms sought by Moscow.

In June, Zelensky announced a 40-day “pressure campaign” involving an escalation of long-range attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure and trade. Moscow retaliated with strikes that left Ukrainian ports effectively cut off from maritime routes.

Western intervention in Libya worsened the security crises facing Nigeria and the Sahel by creating a vacuum that allowed armed groups to spread across the region, Nigerian Senator Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi told RT.

Abdullahi, who chairs the Senate Committee on National Intelligence and National Security, said that although the West African nation faced security challenges before the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, it was able to contain them.

He argued that Western governments removed Gaddafi “without any proper arrangement to maintain the security and unity of the Libyan state,” opening a major security gap across the Sahel.

“Several groups, armed groups, emerged. Some of them with religious agendas, some of them with ethnic agendas, some of them with separatist positions.”

Some attacks have specifically targeted Christian communities, including coordinated raids on three churches in Kaduna State in January in which more than 150 worshipers were abducted.

The violence drew criticism from US President Donald Trump, who designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” last October over alleged violations of religious freedom, and claimed that Christianity faces an “existential threat” in the country. Trump threatened to halt US aid if Abuja fails to stop what he described as the killing of Christians.

Abuja rejected the characterization, saying it does not reflect the country’s reality or government efforts to protect religious freedom.

“The issue of Christian genocide is more or less a whitewash, and it’s promoted by people who want action in the United States, not to protect Christians, but to protect those Christians in the diaspora who want asylum in the United States,” he said.

The senator insisted that Abuja is willing to work with the US but will not accept “dictatorship or mentorship.” 
“Nigeria is free to choose who its friends are,” he said, adding that it can work with any country that understands its security needs.

The senator was visiting Moscow as part of a delegation seeking cooperation with Russian Railways on rehabilitating infrastructure in northwestern Nigeria. He said the proposed long-term partnership could help transform the region into a transport hub serving Nigeria and the wider West African region.

India saw record defense production of around $18.6 billion, with defense exports jumping by 63% to $4.6 billion in fiscal year 2025-26. Exports were driven by expanding from basic protective gear and ammunition to high-tech systems like BrahMos and Akash missiles, aero-structures, radars, and platforms. Agile private companies and start-ups contributed nearly half of all export value through components, sub-systems, and drones.

India’s major exported hardware includes the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, co-developed by India and Russia, Akash air defence systems, Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, Dornier-228 utility aircraft, Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH Dhruv), Swati weapon-locating radars, Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems (ATAGS), naval offshore patrol vessels, fast interceptor boats, lightweight torpedoes, radar systems, avionics, and electronic subsystems.

The Philippines was the first importer of Indo-Russian BrahMos. Indonesia has moved forward with procurement interests following progressive regional agreements, and Vietnam remains in advanced discussions as a key buyer. Over a dozen nations including Malaysia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Chile, and South Africa have evaluated or expressed formal interest in the BrahMos missile system.

It was recently reported that India is marketing its Russian-origin, battle-tested T-90 Bhishma tank upgrade package to international operators. The offering provides a cost-effective alternative to full fleet replacements, featuring advanced thermal sights, digital fire-control systems, and enhanced protection and mobility packages developed through extensive local operational experience.

T-90 manufacturing hub

The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank developed from and designed to replace the legendary T-72. The T-90 was designed and built by Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil, Russia and entered service with the Russian Army in 1992. The tank has been relied upon in major conflicts, including in Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia operates hundreds of active T-90, T-90A, and modern T-90M variants within its ground forces. Algeria has around 570 T-90SA tanks, and Azerbaijan has around 200 T-90S units. Iraq, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and Vietnam maintain small fleets.

India is the largest operator of the T-90 main battle tank. The country has so far procured an estimated 2,100 T-90s, making it likely the world’s largest T-90 fleet despite Russia’s wartime procurement surge. Over 1,300 of India’s T-90s are heavily localized T-90S Bhisma units that serve as the core backbone of the Indian Army’s heavy armored mechanized divisions.

The Indian Army Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers completed the first complete overhaul of the T-90 Bhishma. This significantly extends the series life in service with the army. Last year, the Indian government also initiated the procurement of 1350 HP engines for T-90 tanks to improve the power-to-weight ratio and increase mobility in high-altitude regions. Among the lessons from the Ukraine conflict, upgrading became important.

The upgrade positions India as an affordable, combat-proven tech and modernization provider rather than just a buyer and allows global T-90 users to modernize vintage hardware without buying new tanks, and India’s broader defense export targets.

Aerospace components

India is also quickly emerging as a major global hub for aerospace manufacturing, exporting around $2 billion worth of aircraft components each year. US aerospace giants such as Boeing already source more than $1.25 billion in parts annually from a wide network of Indian suppliers. This shift is being driven not only by production backlogs in the West, but also by India’s growing engineering capabilities. With factories in the US and Europe under strain, major manufacturers are being forced to diversify their supply chains.

Sikorsky S-92 helicopter cabins are manufactured in India through a joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems Limited and Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. Located in Hyderabad, this facility produces fully indigenous cabins and over 5,000 precision components, which are then shipped to the US for final aircraft assembly. Key domestic players like Tata Group, Dynamatic Technologies, Azad Engineering, Mahindra Aerostructures, and Jeh Aerospace build core structural components and sub-assemblies.

Manufacturing has shifted from small, simple parts to complex, multi-meter aero-structures and sub-systems processed from super-alloys and high-grade aluminum. Overall, India’s aerospace components market is expected to grow from $1.5 billion to $4 billion by fiscal year 2029, at an annual rate of 28%.

The role of the private sector

In fiscal year 2025-26, India’s private sector accounted for 24% of total defense production, which reached a record high of about $5 billion. Total defense exports also hit a record $4.6 billion. Of that, the private sector contributed 45%, with the remainder from well-established state-run defense manufacturers.

This growth has been driven by government policies favoring local manufacturing, larger domestic procurement budgets, and restricted import lists.

Companies such as Data Patterns and Astra Microwave produce avionics, electronic-warfare systems, and radar components, while Zen Technologies focuses on anti-drone systems and combat simulation. Solar Industries manufactures precision ammunition and military explosives, and MKU is a major supplier of ballistic protection and military electro-optical equipment, including night-vision and thermal systems.

Growth has been driven by policies that reserve 75% of the military modernization capital budget for domestic firms and by six Positive Indigenization Lists restricting imports of more than 5,500 defense items and sub-assemblies. Notably, India allows up to 74% foreign direct investment through the automatic route to encourage technology transfer.

From licensed production to Indian intellectual property

For decades, India has manufactured Russian defense equipment under license. Much of what is still produced in India is in the ‘build-to-print’ category, where the design – and often the raw materials – are supplied by the foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In effect, India performs the manufacturing work, but control over the end use remains with the OEM. Licensed production grants only a temporary and limited right to make or sell a product; the core technology, source codes, design data, and patents remain with the foreign licensor. This means India cannot freely modify or export the product without permission.

This means investing far more in research and development. India currently spends just 0.6% of GDP on research and development, compared with 2.7% in China and 3.6% in the US. To build real intellectual property at home, India must move beyond assembly-line production and toward original design, software development, and domestic ownership of patents and know-how. Future contracts, joint ventures, and employment arrangements should ensure that intellectual property generated in India remains with Indian entities, rather than defaulting to foreign partners.

Four people, including a child, were killed overnight in Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev has said.

Another 29 people were injured across the city, the official said on Wednesday morning. Three of the victims are in a serious condition, he added.

Novorossiysk is a key hub for Russian maritime trade, which Kiev has been trying to disrupt with regular long-range attacks on ships and port infrastructure.

Kondratyev stressed that only civilian sites were targeted by Ukrainian forces. A church and a kindergarten were damaged, as well as three private homes and five apartment blocks, he reported. Ukrainian strikes also damaged homes in the resort town of Anapa, located some 40 km northwest of Novorossiysk.

Gelendzhik, another resort town in Krasnodar Region to the southeast of Novorossiysk, came under what Mayor Aleksey Bogodistov described as a “most massive and lengthy” drone raid. He did not report any casualties.

Russian air defenses intercepted 596 Ukrainian drones in 12 hours overnight into Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said.

On Tuesday, Zelensky reiterated his calls for a pause in hostilities in the Black Sea, claiming it would come as a relief for the entire world. Both nations are major exporters of wheat, a key food commodity.

A Türkiye-mediated agreement that ensured free shipping in the Black Sea and provided for inspections of incoming cargo ships to ensure that they were not carrying weapons existed in the early phase of the conflict. Moscow ultimately pulled out of the deal after accusing Kiev of using designated safe routes to launch naval kamikaze drones at Russian ports.

Ukraine’s enormous and toxic scam-call industry has suddenly been put under unprecedented pressure from forces Vladimir Zelensky cannot control.

Zelensky’s prosecutor general, Ruslan Kravchenko, tendered his resignation after Western-backed investigators accused his own chief cybercrime prosecutor of extorting protection money from scamsters, allegedly on behalf of his chief. Kravchenko has nevertheless insisted he stepped down for political reasons.

Ukraine’s industrial-scale scam-call network preys on the weak, robbing vulnerable people of their life savings and in some cases pushing them into violent crime. But the competition is literally cut-throat and explosive, and is believed to be behind a recent bomb attack linked to Ukrainian agents in Monaco.

How big is Ukraine’s scam-call industry?

Scam-calling rapidly developed between 2014 and 2016 in Ukraine. The keys to its swift growth were corruption in law enforcement, global technological advances in transborder communications and e-banking, and the abundant labor force.

The Geneva-based NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) estimated in April that the industry generates $1 billion a month and employs 60,000 people.

Who do Ukraine’s scam-call centers target?

One of Ukraine’s specifics is that young men defrauding Russian pensioners can rationalize their actions as fulfilling their patriotic duty without going to the front line.

However, true criminals go where the money is. Last year, GI-TOC estimated that half of victims of Ukrainian offices were Russian, but now reportedly 80% of them focus on Western nations.

How are Ukraine’s scam centers run?

Basically, they are the modern incarnation of telemarketing fraud, known as “boiler rooms” in English criminal slang. Ukrainian “offices” have their own “cold callers” – criminals who search for potential victims, “closers” – more skilled manipulators who actually defraud their marks, “floor managers” to oversee each individual operation, and “drops” who exfiltrate stolen money. In fact, most Ukrainian terms are borrowed.

Who owns and protects Ukraine’s scam-call industry?

Many of the centers pay bribes to officials, though there is a dispute over how compromised the government is. Western media tend to say paying off local police gives you a tip of an impending raid ordered from Kiev.

But Ukrainian media – and last week’s allegations – suggest a top-to-bottom network rife with infighting, hostile takeovers, and selective enforcement of the law.

Who works at Ukraine’s scam centers? 

The workers are overwhelmingly young people in their late teens and early twenties, most of them male, aimless in life and with a taste for making quick cash, according to industry insiders.

“They are convinced that scamming people is better than enduring mockery working as a cashier,” a scam office tech guy told Ukrainskaya Pravda for an exposé it published. “For them it’s a small-time alluring crime.”

Why does the West allow its citizens to be targeted by Ukrainian scammers?

European law enforcement agencies are limited by the fact that their governments are determined to support the government in Kiev to keep the war with Russia rolling.

However, earlier this year, Ukrainian media reported that Western pressure reached a point where a major crackdown was imminent. Zelensky’s messaging aligned with the narrative.

Why has Ukraine’s profitable and connected scam-call center industry been targeted?

Zelensky sent a law to the Ukrainian parliament in early September, seeking tougher punishments for fraudsters.

Some Ukrainian media argued that Zelensky ordered the clampdown to pre-empt the latest scandal, initiated by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies. Last year he tried and failed to place the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) under the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In short, officials close to Ukraine’s leader have been accused of taking over $100 million in kickbacks from Ukraine’s energy industry, laundering millions to secure bail for a former energy minister, creaming millions from a missile and drone maker that was originally a TV production company run by Zelensky’s business partners, and running a system of vote-buying in parliament.

What impact has the sudden clampdown on Ukraine’s scam-call centers had?

Between January and mid-July, law enforcement reportedly took out over 2,000 jobs in the scam industry. But in just a single week in August, officials reportedly raided 95 scam offices where some 1,794 scammers were employed.

While the now-departed Kravchenko boasted of the results, NABU surveillance of his cybercrime underling, Sergey Kropiva, who the agency has accused of running a nationwide protection racket, reveals it was a PR exercise.

“We are not bending over backwards,” he allegedly told an accomplice. “We are dragging our heels, hitting ten of them [fraud offices] a week… The important thing is good media coverage of all this s**t.”

Ukrainian media say as of early August there were roughly 2,000 offices in Ukraine, each employing dozens or even hundreds of people and half of them paying protection money to corrupt officials.

According to Zerkalo Nedeli, the bribes amounted to roughly $240 million per year, 15% of which found its way to the Prosecutor General’s Office in Kiev.

Kravchenko is widely seen as having upped the ante following his appointment by Zelensky in 2025, triggering an industry-wide turf war. His downfall was described in the press with a crime-slang saying: “The cat got ruined by his own greed.”

If prosecutors creamed 15%, who has been taking the other 85%? 

Corrupt officials are reportedly scattered throughout the Ukrainian government, from the border guard service, to Ukraine’s financial regulator, to national police, to secret services.

There were claims in the Ukrainian press that scam money not only lines the pockets of security officials, but also generates off-the-books funding for their operation, not unlike the CIA did under President Ronald Reagan, when it sold weapons to Iran to fuel right-wing Contras insurgents in South America. The CIA reportedly overhauled both the SBU and HUR after the 2014 coup in Kiev.

What kind of risks are the Ukrainian heads of scam-schemes prepared to take?

One of Kropiva’s recorded conversations linked the ongoing semi-crackdown with “that guy in Bali.”

The reference was apparently to the kidnaping of two Ukrainian citizens in the Indonesian island province that took place in February. One of them escaped, while the other was held for ransom and later dismembered.

The victims were identified by the media as Igor Komarov and Yermak Petrovsky, the sons of suspected career crime bosses who were allegedly working together in the fraud business. The horrific torture video of Komarov was national news in Ukraine.

Ermolaev’s son Artur was previously sentenced to a suspended term in Estonia for running scam-call centers that victimized Estonian citizens to the tune of $114 million. There was speculation that the bombing attack was a warning for the father to stay away from the industry.

Meanwhile, Kropiva himself was quite brazen in his managerial role, bragging that he can “screw everyone in the law enforcement” and do what he wants, the recordings show. His alleged accomplice and girlfriend complained when he told her to remove Instagram photos proving her lavish lifestyle.

She came to her bail hearings wearing what journalists recognized as a $3,400 Saint Laurent jacket, which probably didn’t help her case.

The US is turning Australia into a forward base for potential military operations in the Pacific, with American forces and defense contractors controlling or having access to roughly two-thirds of the country’s military facilities, The Guardian reported on Sunday.

Citing data compiled by the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, the newspaper identified 110 facilities across Australia with some form of US military or corporate presence out of 168 surveyed.

The US military directly controls 17 facilities, including the Pine Gap intelligence complex in central Australia, which plays a major role in US surveillance and military operations. The facility tracks missile launches, intercepts communications and provides targeting information for American forces around the world.

Other installations include a naval communications station in Western Australia used to communicate with submerged US submarines and RAAF Base Tindal in the north, which is being expanded to accommodate nuclear-capable B-52 Stratofortress bombers.

Beyond the facilities it directly controls, the US military has access to dozens of Australian installations, while American defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, operate at others. According to the Nautilus data, 41 of the 168 facilities surveyed have no significant US presence, while the status of another 17 remains unresolved.

The American footprint is also expanding. In June, AFP reported that the US was preparing to establish a permanent stockpile of battle-ready weapons, ammunition, and equipment for the Marine Corps in Australia, with the facility expected to reach full capacity by 2028.

“Over more than a decade, the United States has been preparing the capacity for high-tempo warfighting operations with China, springboarding from Australia,” Richard Tanter, the author of the Nautilus database, told The Guardian.

Canberra maintains that the growing American presence strengthens Australia’s security. Defense Minister Richard Marles said in June that the expanding US footprint was important both for building the country’s military capabilities and for its national security.

Marles also argued that the US presence helped counter what he described as China’s “very significant military buildup” in the region.

Former Australian Defense Minister Christopher Pyne has similarly said the 2021 AUKUS pact between Australia, the US, and UK goes beyond Canberra’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. He described the arrangement as establishing “a new United States submarine base in the Indian Ocean” that would provide Washington with a “massive strategic advantage.”

Tanter criticized Canberra’s approach, calling it “a massive institutional failure in Australia, a kind of learned incapacity at a political, parliamentary and bureaucratic level.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has criticized Kiev for failing to spend enough of its Western-provided procurement money on German weapons, arguing that the country’s massive support for Ukraine should at least benefit its defense industry.

Germany is one of Ukraine’s largest bilateral supporters, providing or earmarking more than €43 billion ($50 billion) in “civilian” assistance and around €58 billion in military aid since the conflict escalated in 2022.

“We are now the strongest supporter of Ukraine in terms of financial and military support. And naturally, the German defense industry must benefit from this,” Wadephul told Bild in an interview published on Tuesday.

The minister said he raised the issue with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky during a visit to Kiev last month.

“At the moment, we are not entirely satisfied with the level of orders in Germany,” he added, saying Kiev has been asked to review its purchases and ensure that the situation “gets better.”

Germany’s demands that the money spent on Kiev flow back to its own weapons makers mirror US President Donald Trump’s approach to Ukraine aid. Since returning to the White House, Trump has largely shifted the financial burden of supplying US weapons to European NATO members and Canada. Under the PURL mechanism, the bloc’s members now pay Washington for US-made arms that are then delivered to Kiev.

Moscow has criticized the unprecedented military buildup by Germany and the wider EU on the pretext of the ‘Russian threat’. President Vladimir Putin said in June that Western governments are no longer concealing their intentions and are “openly saying that they are preparing for war with us.”

Berlin has also stepped up pressure on Ukrainian men of military age living in Germany to return home “without coercion.” Wadephul backed calls by Bavarian leader Markus Soeder and suggested that the German authorities could provide Kiev with information identifying Ukrainians receiving welfare benefits or holding registered residency status so they can be contacted for mobilization. Germany has separately backed stripping newly arriving draft-age Ukrainian men of the automatic temporary-protection privileges granted to refugees.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced the seizure of “one of the most modern, unmanned, and smart submarines” in the possession of the US military. The Pentagon downplayed the incident, saying it was an old drone without any sensitive equipment.

On Tuesday, the IRGC published a video of what it claimed was the advanced US undersea drone, which could perform a wide range of tasks, from seabed mapping to intelligence and surveillance operations, pipeline inspection, and anti-submarine warfare support.

The footage shows a grey, metallic, torpedo-like cylindrical vessel around 5.8 meters long and 1.2 meters wide, weighing around 2.7 tons. The undersea vessel can spend up to 10 days underwater and reach a maximum depth of 6,000 meters, according to the IRGC statement.

The Iranian military identified it as a Dive-LD drone developed by US defense contractor Anduril Industries that entered service in April 2025.

The undersea vessel was surveilling regional waters and “neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment,” US Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesman, said in a statement.

The incident comes amid yet another escalation between the US and Iran. Late Tuesday, Iran launched ballistic missiles toward US military bases in the Middle East in what it called retaliation for an earlier US attack on Iranian oil tankers near Kharg Island. The IRGC also issued an “urgent warning” late Tuesday, telling tanker crews around the docks and anchorages of Bahrain and Kuwait to leave their vessels immediately ahead of potential attacks.

Iranian forces have struck eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and targeted two US Navy vessels in retaliation for attacks on Iranian shipping, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday. It claimed the strikes inflicted “significant damage” on the ships.

US Central Command later rejected the claim that American warships were hit, saying, “no US Navy warship has been struck” and all IRGC attacks failed. CENTCOM added that US forces destroyed ten Iranian tankers over the past week, describing the vessels as part of a multi-billion-dollar network funding the IRGC.

The attacks came after the IRGC Navy issued an “urgent warning” late Tuesday, telling tanker crews around the docks and anchorages of Bahrain and Kuwait to immediately abandon their ships.

“We warn all crew members of the tankers in the vicinity of the docks of Kuwait and Bahrain... to immediately leave their vessels, whether at anchor or at the docks, as they will be targeted,” the IRGC Navy Command said.

The statement accused Bahrain and Kuwait of hosting US forces and being “partners” in Washington’s attacks on Iranian shipping.

Additional footage of a PATRIOT battery conducting a massive ballistic missile engagement over Jordan tonight.

Well over a dozen interceptors can be seen engaging incoming Iranian ballistic missiles. pic.twitter.com/u69lJKtFJ7

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 8, 2026

Iranian retaliation began shortly afterward, with numerous videos circulating online showing ballistic missiles being launched from locations across Iran toward US military facilities in the region.

Videos from Jordan appear to show intense air-defense activity, with Patriot interceptors engaging incoming projectiles, including what some OSINT accounts identified as medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with cluster warheads.

Multiple OSINT accounts identified Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, a major facility used by US forces east of Amman, as one of the principal targets. Some reported missile impacts near the base, but neither the impacts nor the type of warheads used have been officially confirmed.

The latest attacks follow another round on Saturday in which US Central Command said it struck three Iranian crude carriers after ballistic missiles were fired toward a US aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer. Two tankers were disabled and a third, which was carrying no oil, was destroyed after the crew was ordered to abandon ship.

Iran subsequently claimed that it struck three tankers traveling along what it described as an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as three US-linked vessels elsewhere.

Around one-fifth of global oil supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, making threats to commercial shipping particularly sensitive for energy markets. Oil prices continue to climb, with Brent breaking above $100 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time in nearly two months as markets price in growing risks to global energy supplies.

Say what you will about ex-BlackRock bigwig German Chancellor and uber-grinch Friedrich Merz, but he has his moments of unexpected alertness.

Currently, he is shocked, shocked! He has noticed that his party, the mainstream conservatives of the CDU are “in serious danger” after suffering their worst defeat in decades.

Germany’s dark star of unpopularity was, of course, talking about the results of the regional elections in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. They have produced a landslide victory for the new-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, under its shooting star Ulrich ‘Uli’ Siegmund. 

They delivered a colossal, devastating fiasco to the CDU and, of course, Merz personally: The AfD has scored 43.8 percent of the vote, the CDU 17.2 percent. When compared with the last state election, the AfD gained 23 percent, while the CDU lost 19.9 percent.

Polls show that the AfD has massively siphoned off former CDU voters and also mobilized previous non-voters with unprecedented success. In terms of age cohorts, the AfD is dominating almost the entire spectrum except among the very old.

The CDU, which had been in charge in Saxony-Anhalt’s capital of Magdeburg for over two decades, has suffered no ordinary defeat but a catastrophic wipe-out shaking the party, to quote Merz again, “to its very foundations.” The former default ruling party of first West and then post-1990 Germany is in tatters. It is a sign of even worse things to come. In Saxony-Anhalt it has no future, quite literally: among the youngest voters the CDU achieved a pitiful 5 percent, far below its already horrific overall result.

It is true that Saxony-Anhalt is small. One of Germany’s 16 federal states, it has a population of 2.1 million, of whom about 1.7 million can vote. That is less than the electorate of, for instance, the city of Hamburg. Yet no one in Germany even tries to pretend that what has happened in Saxony-Anhalt will stay in Saxony-Anhalt. On the contrary, everyone – across the entire mediascape and political spectrum – takes it as self-evident that these elections are bound to have massive national effects. Likewise, it did not even take US President Donald Trump’s unusual social media post to rub in that the Magdeburg quake is reverberating internationally, too.

If Merz falls – and perhaps even if he sticks to his seat for a long time before doing so – the radical-Centrist coalition currently in charge in Berlin will be under enormous pressure. Witness the fact that its frontman from the Social-Democrats (SPD), Finance Minister and austerity-imposer-in-chief Lars Klingbeil is already making terrified noises about rethinking some Berlin’s mean cuts to pensions, healthcare, and social security. How a little pain can concentrate the mind.

One thing seems to finally have sunk in with Germany’s slow, lazy, and complacent establishment: Neither the so-called ‘firewall’ – that is, deliberate discrimination against not merely the AfD but its millions of voters – has failed and offers no hope for the future. Clinging to that moronic, deeply undemocratic and simply indecently unfair strategy will only make the AfD stronger. Exactly as it has up until now.

Among the sane, such a doubling down might appear absurd: Where would it be supposed to lead? Severe unrest? Secession? But you only have to look at the current establishment’s policy toward Russia, Ukraine, and the Ukraine conflict to realize that Berlin, as it is now, does not shy away from anything just because it’s entirely mad and highly damaging to Germany.

And that, notwithstanding the ceaseless and ever less effective mainstream media propaganda smearing the AfD as Nazism redux, is where the real threat to democracy lies. Merz has already struck a tone that is, in effect, threatening: “Reassuring” German citizens, who mostly cannot stand him, that the German Basic Law, the de facto constitution, “prevails in Saxony-Anhalt as well.”

Since, in reality, no one has challenged that fact, Merz’s statement is suspect. It can easily be read as a crude hint that Berlin is looking for pretexts to engage in dirty lawfare against the AfD in general, the AfD specifically in Saxony-Anhalt, or a state government led by the AfD in Magdeburg. This may become even more likely if the AfD there is joined by CDU renegades, as seems probable.

In that case, the CDU leadership in Berlin – if Merz continues to dominate it – would also want to make an example of these local rebels and punish the AfD for the CDU’s own failure to keep its troops together. Finally, never forget that Merz is also ‘Mr. Firewall’: there is no politician in Germany more associated with that failed policy. His personal frustration must be boundless; his good faith and fairness are infamously limited.

The usual “civil society” cut-outs have already started pointing fingers. Merz himself has found time to reaffirm that “especially now” he won’t “budge a millimeter” from, in effect, trying to drive Germany into an open shooting war with Russia because the current proxy war is just not good enough for him.

And, of course, the public is subjected to an ongoing propaganda barrage smearing the AfD as a whole and in Saxony-Anhalt in particular Moscow’s fifth column. In reality, its crime is to have articulated many ordinary Germans’ perfectly reasonable resistance to the establishment’s out-of-control warmongering.

In sum, take these two lines of CDU defense – or attack – together and it is obvious that the real threat to German democracy comes, as before, from the radical Center: Accusing the AfD of being a Russian Trojan Horse and, at the same time, hinting that its success is somehow incompatible with the constitution – those are the key ingredients for justifying repression. Let’s hope that neither Merz nor his CDU nor the establishment as a whole dare try, because if they do, there will be resistance. Berlin has already ruined peace abroad. Domestic peace should not follow.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has blamed his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party’s crushing defeat by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt on poor communication with voters, while refusing to change course.

Merz, who has been described as Germany’s least popular head of government in some 30 years, maintained he would not budge an inch on his “reform” agenda following what he called his party’s “most serious electoral defeat in decades.”

The AfD took 43.8% of the vote in the eastern German state over the weekend, coming close to securing an absolute majority in the regional legislature. The conservative CDU, which has dominated Saxony-Anhalt’s political landscape for much of the period since German reunification, finished a distant second with 17.5%.

Ahead of the vote, a regional party official told Euractiv that the CDU branch in Saxony-Anhalt was being forced to pay the price for the deeply unpopular policies of the federal government.

Merz also said his party could not accept a situation in which “almost 60% of voters in a federal state, with a very high turnout, vote for political parties that fundamentally call into question our country’s democratic institutions and rules.”

Apart from the AfD, the Left Party – descended from the former East German Communists – and the recently formed left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) were also condemned by the chancellor for supposedly challenging Germany’s “democratic” order, according to state broadcaster DW.

Merz maintained that certain things are “not up for a vote” in Germany, including the principle that “power is granted, not seized.” He vowed to “strengthen our political order and our firm anchoring in Europe.”

Merz came to power following snap elections in February 2025, promising to revive Germany’s struggling economy, but has since poured more money into the military while blaming some of the country’s economic problems on Germans themselves. He has told citizens to work more and claimed that the “welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed.” In May, his government announced plans for social spending cuts and unveiled an unpopular pension reform.

The chancellor also doubled down on his support for Kiev, while acknowledging that “exactly 57.7% of voters” had backed parties critical of Berlin’s anti-Russian policies and unwavering support for Ukraine.

“I will not deviate by a single millimeter from my fundamental conviction that, especially now, we must defend our freedom against Russia,” he stated, advocating for increased military spending and continued aid to Kiev. Berlin has repeatedly justified the policy by citing an alleged “Russian threat,” which Moscow has consistently dismissed as “nonsense.”

Israel’s far-right national security minister has put a seven-year timetable on emptying Gaza of most of its people, and dressed it up as choice. Gazans RT spoke to call it what international law already names it: forced displacement.

Last week, Jewish Power chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir unveiled ‘Disengagement 710’, a policy blueprint for what he calls the voluntary migration of Gaza residents to countries willing to take them. Destinations floated by his party include Türkiye, unspecified Arab states, Ethiopia, and Congo.

The numbers are not modest. The plan foresees the departure of about 250,000 people in the first year, 1.11 million within three years, and some 1.86 million within seven, encompassing the bulk of the Strip’s population.

To run it, Jewish Power wants the next government to create a dedicated ministry for “voluntary migration,” complete with a minister, a director-general, its own budget, an international negotiating team, and an implementation apparatus.

This idea is not new for the Jewish state.

A Zionist through-line

In 1937, David Ben-Gurion, then a leading Zionist figure, promoted the transfer of Palestinians and argued they should be moved to Transjordan. In the 1980s, the same ‘voluntary’ formula was championed by far-right politicians Rehavam Ze’evi – nicknamed ‘Gandhi’– and Meir Kahane. Their schemes never left the drawing board.

Ben-Gvir now presents his version as newly realistic, citing earlier public backing from US President Donald Trump. Trump floated mass relocation from Gaza in early 2025, then walked the idea back under Arab and international pressure. 

His later 20-point framework stated that no one would be forced to leave and that residents should be encouraged to stay. Ben-Gvir treats the first Trump remark as political cover and the second as an inconvenience.

Gazans RT interviewed rejected the initiative as illegal under international law and a crime against humanity.

”People in Gaza and across Palestine know Ben-Gvir’s plans go far beyond our existence in the Strip,” said Abdallah Ali, a resident of central Gaza.

“He wants people out of Gaza, then out of West Bank villages, then out of West Bank cities toward Jordan. He believes in transfer and an ‘alternative homeland’.”

Ali said that is why Gazans, himself included, intend to stay put.

Rami Al Meghari, from Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza, reached the same conclusion for a different reason: memory of exile.

“Many Palestinians found life in other countries, especially Arab states, awkward and humiliating,” he said. “They will not leave Gaza for a destination that cannot guarantee dignity, whether an Arab capital or some African country Israel has long suggested, like Somalia.”

Polls, rubble, and the meaning of ‘voluntary’

A PCPSR poll last year found 56% of Gazans interviewed unwilling to emigrate. A substantial minority, some 43%, said they would.

As of June 16, 2026, satellite analysis by the UN Satellite Centre found 201,290 structures damaged, an estimated 82% of all buildings in Gaza. Of those, 134,422 were assessed as destroyed, 13,848 severely damaged, 28,096 moderately damaged and 24,924 possibly damaged.

Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million people remain displaced. The Shelter Cluster, surveying in June 2026, said 1.98 million people, 94% of the population, need shelter and household items. 

Food and water continue to be an issue. Between mid-April and June 30, 2026, more than 1.2 million people (59%) were still in dire need of assistance.

Assessments in 2026 found 43% of households below the 15-liter humanitarian minimum per person per day, and 62% below the 6-liter drinking-water floor.

But Ali and Al Meghari insist the pull of the land is much stronger.

“Whatever the suffering, even with around 97 percent of cropland destroyed and most of the built environment gone, people are putting up tents and staying in displacement camps. They are not packing to leave,” Ali said. 

“They lived through the 1948 catastrophe and the 1967 Nakba. They will pull through again.”

Al Meghari still hopes the political weather will change. “Life can move forward in Gaza if there is serious international and Arab pressure to implement the second phase of the ceasefire. The United States has a particular responsibility to make that happen. Russia also needs to play a pivotal role to bring the suffering of the Palestinians to an end.”

Reconstruction as leverage

There is little movement on reconstruction. Israel is blocking construction materials, demanding that Hamas disarm and demilitarize first. The Board of Peace has pushed for weapons to be collected and placed under international supervision, a formula Israel rejects.

Ahmed Al-Masri, a lawyer in Gaza, argues Israel has played this hand before and lost. “We lived this in 2014 [Operation Protective Edge – ed.]. Israel said Gaza should not be rebuilt. Then, under international pressure and with UN supervision, it was forced to comply.”

And he also pins some hope on Israel’s October 27 parliamentary vote. “If the far-right government is removed, there might be a beginning, a glimmer on the horizon, and a better political reality for people here, if Palestinians also insist on rebuilding political, social and economic life.”

That is the wager Gaza is making: that endurance outlasts a plan that needs other countries to open their doors, Washington to revive an idea it already shelved, and two million people to accept that ‘voluntary’ means leaving home because the alternative has been made unlivable.

Ben-Gvir is betting the opposite – that the wreckage, a ministry, and a slogan about suitcases can finish what earlier transfer schemes could not. Gazans say they have heard that speech before.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned that Hamas was preparing a major attack days before October 7, 2023, but did not relay the information to Israel’s top security chiefs, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed called Netanyahu roughly ten days before the assault and told him that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation that could cause bloodshed and destabilize the region.

Netanyahu reportedly played down the threat, saying he believed Hamas was more likely to act in the West Bank and that Israel was prepared.

His office has rejected the report as an “absolute lie,” insisting no such call took place.

The alleged advance notice has added to scrutiny over what Israeli leaders knew ahead of the Hamas-led assault and whether warning signs were ignored.

Haaretz previously reported that Sinwar had sent messages through Palestinian intermediaries warning that he was preparing an “earthquake.” The message reportedly reached Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, whose then-chief Ronen Bar briefed Netanyahu. Egyptian intelligence was also reported to have warned Israel shortly before the attack.

Netanyahu’s government has also faced criticism for allowing Qatari funds to flow into Hamas-run Gaza for years. Critics argue the policy ultimately strengthened the group Israel later went to war to destroy.

Questions have also been raised over Israel’s military response on October 7. Investigations have suggested that the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’, which permits extreme measures to prevent the capture of soldiers, may have contributed to Israeli civilian deaths as forces struck vehicles and other locations where hostages or civilians may have been present.

Around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack and 251 were taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 73,600 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

A sharp diplomatic rift has erupted between Israel and several of its key Western partners after 12 countries backed restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and London accused settlers of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in parts of the territory.

The UK, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden issued a joint statement on Tuesday pledging to introduce, support, or consider restrictions on settlement goods, citing “unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion.”

London, Paris, and Ottawa specifically committed to national trade bans, while the group demanded that Israel “immediately halt” settlement expansion, ensure accountability for settler violence and investigate allegations against Israeli forces.

The UK measures linked to settlements include:

• A ban on all imports from illegal Israeli settlements;

• Sanctions on businesses, organizations, and individuals involved in settlement expansion through construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate;

• A ban on UK advertising for properties in illegal settlements;

• Sanctions on extremist settlers who have supported or incited violence against Palestinians;

• A ban on new export licenses for weapons and other goods deemed to “materially contribute to the occupation.”

Goods and services from Israel itself remain exempt.

Israel has retaliated against London by closing the British consulate in Jerusalem, expelling UK representatives from a US-backed Gaza coordination center and barring British politicians and activists. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had already called on his government to recognize Argentine sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

US President Donald Trump reportedly did not object when British Prime Minister Andy Burnham briefed him on the measures in advance. Meanwhile, the escalating row has drawn mixed reactions from governments and political figures around the world.

This live has now ended.

A visit to the Eiffel Tower by a Hindu group has sparked a political row in France after female employees at the monument said they were moved from their posts, and in some cases, replaced by men while the delegation was on site.

The group from the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) visited the Paris landmark on Saturday. Eiffel Tower employees walked out on Monday in protest, closing the monument for a day, before it reopened on Tuesday.

The visit and the allegations

France’s CGT trade union said female employees and contractors were told not to enter or cross certain areas in the tower during the group’s visit. Some were allegedly asked to leave their workstations and move elsewhere, while others were replaced by male colleagues.

Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE), the company that manages and operates the monument acknowledged that the visiting group had requested arrangements limiting “interactions with women.” In a kind of mea culpa, it said the conditions “should not have been accepted.”

BAPS, however, has disputed the suggestion that its arrangements with the Eiffel Tower were intended to exclude women. In a statement, the organization said the visit had been coordinated with the tower’s management because of the size of the delegation and was “never, at any point, intended as a request rooted in gender.”

Nous comprenons les préoccupations exprimées et les prenons très au sérieux.

Compte tenu de la taille de notre délégation, la visite a été organisée en coordination avec les équipes de la tour Eiffel, au début des horaires habituels d’ouverture, afin de limiter autant que… pic.twitter.com/gyiwzmh6Jv

— BAPS Mandir Swaminarayan Hindou de Paris (@BAPSParis) September 7, 2026

It also said nobody had to its knowledge been denied access to the Eiffel Tower and that it remained committed to equality and mutual respect.

A new BAPS Swaminarayan temple was inaugurated at the Bussy-Saint-Georges suburb outside the French capital on Sunday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the inauguration remotely. The organization is headquartered in Modi’s home state Gujarat.

A sect known for its beautiful temples

BAPS is an affluent global Hindu religious organization within the Swaminarayan tradition, founded in India in 1907. 

The sect is especially known for its elaborate stone temples and cultural complexes across the world. Among its best-known sites are the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in New Delhi, the Akshardham complex in Robbinsville, New Jersey, and temples in London and Abu Dhabi. 

The organization does not publish its finances, but some of the temples have cost millions to build. The New Jersey temple cost an estimated $96 million to build, and the one in Abu Dhabi cost about $84.2 million, publicly available data show.

Its money comes from donations and regular contributions by members.

The organization has over a million followers globally, and says on its website that it is present in over 20 countries. The largest fellowship outside of India is in the United States. The sect is highly influential, especially in western India.  

“I find it truly astonishing that these are the allegations against the community, for they have been known for actively promoting caste, gender and class equality through its humanitarian and social activities,” Yogi Trivedi, a New York-based scholar who has co-authored a book on Swaminarayan Hinduism, told the Indian Express.

The early 19th century saint who founded the Swaminarayan tradition introduced reforms in Hindu society, especially to uplift and empower women. 

The world’s oldest religion, with more than a billion followers, reveres the feminine. Among the many gods in the Hindu pantheon are also prominent goddesses, and women are worshipped on special days in these traditions. However, gender discrimination and female infanticide have persisted in modern Hindu society.

Why is this a big deal in France?

Because the alleged medieval-style exclusion of women happened in Paris – the cradle of the French Revolution and the very symbol of the inspiring Republican ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

France is renowned for decades of campaigning for women’s political, social, and reproductive rights. In 2024, it became the first country to explicitly enshrine the right to abortion in its Constitution.

“In France, gender equality is neither negotiable nor subject to varying standards. It is a principle, and there are no exceptions to it,” French Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight Against Discrimination Aurore Berge posted on X.

French officials invoked those values in responding to the incident, arguing that religious or cultural considerations cannot justify differing treatment of women in a public workplace.

National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet said welcoming visitors must not mean asking women to disappear from public life. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the incident would be investigated.

On Tuesday, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal described the Eiffel Tower episode as “a matter purely between the entities concerned.”

US envoys came from Moscow with peace terms that were “even worse” for Kiev than previous proposals, Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod has claimed, arguing that weeks of pressure on Russia only weakened Ukraine’s negotiating position.

US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday before traveling to Kiev for talks with Vladimir Zelensky the following day.

“This was not just not a breakthrough – they came with even worse conditions than we had before,” Skorokhod said in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Diky.

According to the lawmaker, the new proposals allegedly include demands for constitutional changes and formal recognition of territories – issues she said had not previously been required in the same form.

Skorokhod acknowledged that some of her information was unofficial and declined to disclose further details. She also argued that Kiev’s roughly 40-day effort to pressure Moscow into softening its position had backfired.

Skorokhod portrayed the broader negotiation problems as part of a pattern of costly decisions by Kiev that she said were eating away at Ukraine from within, pointing to corruption, bloated bureaucracy and economic strain.

However, the lawmaker herself has been under investigation by Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities over an alleged $250,000 bribe scheme tied to National Security and Defense Council sanctions. She has denied wrongdoing.

Zelensky, meanwhile, has framed the US negotiators’ visit in a more positive light, stating on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner had brought “a couple of quite good ideas” that Kiev intends to study further. He said the discussions included possible winter de-escalation measures involving energy, grain exports, electricity, oil and gas.

The Financial Times has meanwhile reported that the American negotiators carried updated versions of earlier peace proposals rather than an entirely new plan.

Moscow has declined to confirm any of the rumored terms. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed Skorokhod’s account as “speculation” over what the American envoys had supposedly brought to Moscow and then carried on to Kiev.

“It’s our diplomatic tradition to limit ourselves to what we decide to tell the public,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has nevertheless signaled that the diplomatic process remains alive, saying Moscow hopes trilateral Russia-US-Ukraine talks will resume and that a peaceful settlement can eventually be reached.

Moscow has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy but insists any final agreement must address the root causes of the conflict and respect the new realities on the ground. Kiev, however, has consistently resisted Russian demands on territorial and security issues.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, have held a “positive” phone call focused on efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said on Tuesday.

The call followed a new round of shuttle diplomacy by Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who met Putin in Moscow for more than three hours on Saturday before traveling to Kiev for talks with Vladimir Zelensky the following day.

Speaking to reporters, Ushakov said Putin and Trump had both assessed the envoys’ visits positively and agreed that work through this and other diplomatic channels would “continue.”

Ushakov described the hour-long conversation as positive, saying Putin praised US mediation efforts and Trump personally. Trump, he added, expressed hope for a breakthrough in resolving the conflict during his presidency.

Putin also said that Moscow has no hostile intentions toward European countries, according to Ushakov. Summarizing the president’s remarks, the aide added: “The myths being spread about a Russian threat serve as a pretext for Europeans to increase their support for Ukraine and their own military spending.”

Putin also briefed Trump on the fighting, including Moscow’s prospects for further battlefield advances and achieving its military objectives, Ushakov said.

“The presidents agreed to stay in touch and will call each other whenever necessary,” Ushakov said.

The F-35 multi-role fifth-generation fighter has made headlines for various reasons: its deployment in the conflict with Iran, deliveries to nations participating in the F-35 program, new missiles designed for the aircraft, and staggering operational costs. Even though production of the F-35 has surpassed 1,000 units, doubts persist regarding the program’s overall effectiveness and the aircraft’s compliance with all the standards of a fifth-generation fighter. Let’s take a closer look. 

In June 2015, a report by an American test pilot appeared online under the title “F-35A High Angle of Attack Operational Maneuvers.” It revealed that the latest F-35 was outperformed in a mock dogfight by the fourth-generation F-16D aircraft. Despite the F-35’s advertised advantages, it struggled to get behind the F-16D and lagged in energy maneuverability and pitch rate. What the media overlooked was that the test involved an experimental prototype of the F-35 that lacked operational combat software. Additionally, this prototype was restricted to a 5.5 G overload limit compared to the F-16’s ability to withstand up to 9 G. Once the F-35 received a full software update (starting with Block 3F), the upgraded versions decisively outperformed F-16s and other fourth-generation aircraft during Red Flag exercises – not through maneuverability, but by leveraging their stealth capabilities at long ranges without entering close combat.

Therefore, the main advantage of the F-35 fifth-generation fighter is its stealth capabilities. For the US, stealth is the defining characteristic of fifth-generation aircraft. This refers to the low radar cross-section achieved through the aircraft’s design and specialized coatings that disrupt radar wave reflection. The American strategy hinges on the belief that stealth aircraft can employ long-range missile systems while remaining undetected by enemy aircraft, effectively avoiding dogfights by striking the enemy from a distance.

Other characteristics of the F-35 are more problematic. For example, fifth-generation fighters have a powerful engine capable of sustained supersonic flight without using an afterburner. While the F-35 formally meets these criteria, the F-35B and F-35C variants are restricted from flying above Mach 1.2 for extended periods due to risks of thermal damage to their stealth coatings and tail surfaces. How can a supersonic jet not fly at supersonic speeds? Moreover, the F-35A appears to struggle with sustained supersonic cruising. Compounding these concerns are reports in the media regarding the P&W F135 engine. Reportedly, it faces issues like turbine blade wear, overheating, and a shortage of components for timely repairs.

On top of that, the operational cost of the F-35 is historically high. The total cost of the development and lifecycle of the F-35 has soared to nearly $2 trillion and continues to rise, making it the most expensive weapons system in history. For end users, however, the hourly flight cost is what truly matters. Operating an F-35 runs between $35,000 and $42,000 per hour, while standard F-16s operate at around $22,000 per hour. Overall, this is extremely expensive for a mass-produced fighter. 

Another area where the F-35 falls short compared to its competitors, including Russia’s Su-57 and likely others, is maneuverability. Of course, if the ‘invisible’ fighter manages to hit its target undetected, it may never have to engage in a dogfight. But should close combat occur, the F-35 will face significant disadvantages against highly agile fifth- and even fourth-generation aircraft.

Given that the F-35 clearly has its share of issues, it leads to another important question, namely: Why is it being produced in such massive quantities? Today, it stands as the only fifth-generation fighter jet in the Western world, with over 1,300 units already built and plans for another 2,000 on the way. In the next decade, more than 20 countries will incorporate these jets into their arsenals. So what’s behind this global trend?

The answer seems to lie not in the aircraft’s capabilities or technological advancements, but strictly in the political arena. The F-35 isn’t just a fighter; it is a symbol of close alignment with the US. Countries that purchase the F-35 gain certain privileges from Washington. For example, Israel possesses carte blanche for combat operations and unrestricted access to US weapons arsenals. As for Germany, it may be acquiring the F-35 because it’s currently the only aircraft on the market certified to carry US nuclear weapons within NATO’s nuclear sharing program. This factor may have played a decisive role in Germany’s decision. 

Some countries – potentially South Korea, Japan, and Türkiye – are counting on the F-35’s network-centric warfare and a broad range of munitions while they develop their own viable alternatives to the ‘golden’ F-35. These nations are actively developing their own fifth-generation fighters and are even looking ahead to sixth-generation designs. However, they need a modern aircraft today, and therefore may be willing to overlook certain flaws of the “Battle Penguin” (the unofficial nickname for the F-35 due to its stout appearance). Maintaining strong ties with Washington is crucial for these countries as well. So political commitments and the urgency of having a contemporary fighter jet go hand in hand. After all, they aren’t going to buy Russian Su-57s, are they? Washington and Brussels wouldn’t like that. Though perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the removal of illegal settler outposts in the occupied West Bank, Reuters has reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Netanyahu made the demand under pressure from Israel’s main ally, the US, which recently expressed concerns over the rise in attacks on Palestinian homes by the Jewish settlers, the agency said in an article on Sunday. It was not immediately clear when the demolitions would start, it added.

The Israeli outlet Ynet claimed earlier that the prime minister had instructed that some 100 outposts, built without permission from the Israeli government, be brought down.

According to data from the Israeli NGO Peace Now, there are some 340 outposts erected on Palestinian land in the West Bank, along with 146 settlements formally recognized by the authorities in Israel and receiving funding from West Jerusalem.

The UN and most other countries consider all of the Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law due to them being erected on occupied Palestinian territory.

The UN relief agency, OCHA, said in August that there were an average of six settler violence incidents every day in the West Bank during the first six months of 2026. The attacks by radicalized Jews have led to the displacement of more than 2,300 Palestinians, including over 1,000 children, it added.

On Saturday, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of the Jewish State and self-professed Christian Zionist, said that the settlers behind the attacks were not just criminals, but “terrorists.”
Huckabee insisted that he Israeli government must provide security to Palestinians in the West Bank and make sure that those who assault their homes are aware that they will face “severe consequences.”

The ambassador’s stance was echoed by Netanyahu’s main rival in the Israeli parliamentary election in late October, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who said on Sunday that “if someone comes to burn down the home of innocent Arabs with the people inside it, then of course that is Jewish terrorism.”

Hunter Biden is launching a memecoin called $LAPTOP, named after the infamous notebook that became the center of a political scandal during the 2020 US presidential campaign, his X post has indicated. The post features a video montage of media reports referencing the laptop and promotes a September 9 launch.

The device contained emails and financial records tied to the former US president’s son’s overseas business dealings, alongside explicit images and videos documenting his drug and alcohol use.

The token will launch on Coinbase’s Base network with a total supply of one billion coins, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Biden and his fellow founders will control 30% of the supply, while another 20% has been earmarked for airdrops – free token distributions used by crypto projects to promote new coins.

Memecoins are highly speculative assets and can lose value rapidly. The $LAPTOP project itself says the token has no utility or ownership rights and warns that digital-asset prices “can fall to zero.”

A further 30% of the total supply is tied to 30 political, crypto, and cultural predictions. Tokens will be burned if specified outcomes occur – including a Democrat winning the 2028 presidential election, Bitcoin reaching another record high or $LAPTOP overtaking $TRUMP in value – while tokens tied to outcomes that do not materialize will go to charity.

$LAPTOP

September 9 pic.twitter.com/QokgWLNxgL

— Hunter Biden (@HunterBiden) September 7, 2026

The offer to $TRUMP investors comes after Trump and his wife Melania launched their own memecoins shortly before his return to the White House in January 2025. Trump reported about $635 million in income from $TRUMP in 2025, while most investors lost money – nearly one million wallets were down a combined $3.8 billion by the end of June, according to crypto analytics firm Nansen.

Biden’s laptop became the center of a political scandal just weeks before the 2020 US presidential election, after the New York Post published emails purportedly taken from the device. The newspaper and Trump’s Republican allies alleged that Joe Biden had used his position as vice president to help his son’s business interests in Ukraine, where Hunter served on the board of energy company Burisma. Joe Biden denied involvement in his son’s business dealings.

The laptop also contained explicit images and videos documenting Biden’s drug and alcohol use, some of which later featured in his federal gun trial. He was convicted on three felony gun charges in 2024 and pleaded guilty to separate tax offenses before his father granted him a sweeping federal pardon shortly before leaving office.

“We’re excited about the breadth and depth of talent amongst South Asia’s young media professionals and are committed to helping them advance their careers. That’s why we’re launching an online intensive program that combines expert training, hands-on practice, and mentorship from our seasoned international journalists,” Anna Kovtunova, head of RT’s Educational Projects, said.

The new program, titled “Uniting South Asia: Bring Your Voice to Shape the Future Media Landscape,” will commence on October 5, 2026 and run for three weeks. Applications are open until September 27, 2026. The course is free of charge and conducted in English; places are limited and will be filled through a competitive selection process. Exceptional participants may be considered for positions within the RT team.

Apply here — https://rtacademy.study/south-asia/

The course features dozens of pre-recorded video lessons paired with live webinars led by RT’s top correspondents, anchors, producers, and newsroom specialists. The curriculum encompasses the entire media production cycle and practical skills essential for modern journalism.

RT Academy’s first online intensive course available to the entire South Asian region follows a successful 2025 initiative aimed at top media faculty students from India, further expanding RT Academy’s reach and reaffirming its commitment to nurturing journalistic talent across South Asia.

RT Academy, launched in 2024, has previously offered online courses for journalists from Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN), India, China, and Africa. The academy provides free online courses, in-person workshops, and in-house training for both aspiring and professional journalists. To date, over 10,000 students and professionals from more than 80 countries have completed RT Academy programs, many of whom have gone on to work with RT.

The international RT television network includes news channels in English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Serbian, and French, alongside the RTD documentary channel in Russian and English. RT also operates online portals in ten languages and the global multimedia agency RUPTLY, which supplies exclusive content to broadcasters worldwide. RT is available 24/7 to more than 950 million viewers in over 100 countries.

BRICS is seeking practical ways to make trade between its members cheaper and faster, including through the greater use of national currencies and digital payment systems, ahead of the group's summit in New Delhi this week.

Discussions are ongoing on local-currency settlements and platforms involving central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), aimed at cutting transaction costs in bilateral trade and encouraging investment within the group, TASS reported, citing an Indian government source.

The proposed mechanisms would supplement, rather than replace, existing global payment and settlement systems, the report said, adding that the talks are “not aimed against any specific country or group of countries.”

The approach offers an alternative to creating a single BRICS currency, allowing businesses and banks to settle more transactions directly in national currencies and through interconnected payment networks, reducing reliance on the US dollar and multiple correspondent banks.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal has said New Delhi favors trade settlements in national currencies over a unified BRICS monetary system.

India’s central bank has been pushing the discussion forward. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra said last month that BRICS members were considering linking their fast-payment systems as well as their CBDCs.

Malhotra pointed to India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a real-time domestic payment network, as an example of how quickly transactions can move. The RBI has also proposed that linking BRICS countries’ digital currencies be considered at this year’s summit.

The BRICS members already operate several robust domestic payment systems that could potentially be connected. India has UPI, RuPay, and its Structured Financial Messaging System; China operates the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) for yuan transactions; Russia uses its System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) and Mir card network; while Brazil runs the Pix instant-payment system.

For India, the effort also fits into a broader push to internationalize the rupee. The RBI already has arrangements to promote local-currency trade with the UAE, Mauritius, the Maldives, and Indonesia, although Malhotra has said volumes remain relatively small.

The Indian government source cited by TASS said the work ahead of the summit remains focused on practical mechanisms to lower trade costs and deepen investment cooperation within BRICS, rather than replacing the existing international financial architecture.

Hafidh Ameir Hassan, the husband of Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, has died while undergoing treatment for a heart condition in the country’s semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago, the government has announced.

Vice President Deogratius Ndejembi said Ameir died at around 8 AM local time on Monday at Emilio Mzena Memorial Hospital. He extended condolences to the president, the bereaved family and the Tanzanian people.

The 80-year-old was buried later that day in Kizimkazi, South Unguja, in accordance with Islamic tradition. The funeral was attended by senior government and religious officials, including Ndejembi, Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba and Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi.

African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf described Ameir’s death as a “difficult period” for President Samia and her family and wished them “strength, courage and solace.”

“For almost five decades he stood quietly beside her, through every season of her service to Tanzania. A companionship of that depth becomes part of who a person is. To lose it is to lose a portion of oneself, and I feel for her deeply,” Nigerian President Bola Tinubu also wrote on X.

He became Tanzania’s first gentleman when Samia assumed office in 2021 following the death of then-President John Magufuli. Samia became the country’s first female president and secured a second term in a disputed election last year.

Moscow will deliver a “harsh and painful” response to Hungary’s expulsion of ten Russian diplomats, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.

The remarks were in response to Budapest’s decision to expel ten members of Russia’s diplomatic mission over alleged activities deemed “unacceptable for diplomats” under the Vienna Convention.

“The response to the Russophobic lobby in Budapest will be harsh and painful,” Zakharova said on Tuesday.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban announced the decision on Tuesday. She said the Russian ambassador had been informed that, “according to the assessment of the Hungarian authorities,” the diplomats had engaged in activities incompatible with their status.

The expulsions come as Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s government has sharply reversed Hungary’s policy toward Russia since taking office in May. In a new foreign policy directive, Budapest designated Russia a “threat to Hungary, Europe, and the global order,” marking a dramatic break with the pragmatic relations pursued under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Orban also repeatedly delayed or watered down EU sanctions on Moscow and resisted major financial packages for Kiev, while seeking exemptions that allowed Hungary to continue importing Russian oil, gas, and nuclear fuel. He maintained that cutting Europe off from comparatively cheap Russian energy would damage the bloc’s industrial competitiveness.

His government has also backed new sanctions on Russia and dropped Budapest’s objections to a €90 billion ($105 billion) EU package for Kiev, reversing policies that had previously set Hungary apart from most other EU members.

Moscow appreciates efforts to resume direct negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, and the US as Washington has stepped up efforts to settle the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to Indian media on Tuesday, ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, Peskov said intensive diplomatic work is underway, with American negotiators carrying messages between Moscow and Kiev.

“We hope for a restart of negotiations between three parties – Russia, Ukraine, and America. We do hope for the best. We do hope that sooner or later we will pursue a peaceful solution,” he said.

Peskov added that Russia welcomes mediation efforts by both Washington and New Delhi, and emphasized that Moscow never wanted the Ukraine conflict to happen and launched its offensive in order to end the war started by Kiev in 2014 following the Western-backed Maidan coup.

The spokesman also said Kiev does not appear to be “flexible” or “really willing” to actually end the hostilities, adding that it appears to be “provoked to a great extent by some European countries who cannot get rid of the idea of strategically defeating Russia.”

The Kremlin described the Moscow meeting as constructive and “extremely candid,” saying the Americans presented several ideas for ending the conflict while Putin reiterated Russia’s conditions for a lasting settlement.

Witkoff later said progress had been made toward scheduling another three-way meeting, while expressing optimism that diplomacy could produce an agreement.

Zelensky suggested on Tuesday that the next trilateral talks could be held in the UAE, Türkiye, Switzerland, or another country as early as September or October. Moscow and Washington have yet to comment on specific venues or time frames.

The negotiations have since stalled as the US shifted its focus to its war against Iran while hostilities between Russia and Ukraine have continued.

Moscow has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy but insists any final agreement must address the root causes of the conflict and respect the new realities on the ground. Kiev, however, has resisted Russian demands on territorial and security issues.

Dozen of civilians were killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon over the weekend, RT’s Steve Sweeney has reported.

Attacks by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the neighboring country are continuing despite a US-mediated ceasefire, which has been in force starting late June. More than 4,000 people have been killed and over 12,000 wounded by the IDF in Lebanon since March, according to the authorities in Beirut.

In his report from Lebanon’s Nabatieh area on Tuesday, Sweeney said a baby and two teenagers were among the 22 people who lost their lives in a “bloody aggression” by Israeli forces between Friday evening and the early hours of Monday. The Lebanese Heath Ministry later released updated figures, saying that 27 civilians were killed and 69 others wounded during the period.

He added that the owner of the destroyed home told him that “an evacuation order was issued for this building [by IDF] in the very early hours of Monday morning... he was called by relatives and he evacuated at about 3 AM. And then just minutes later, the Israelis struck.”

The intensification of IDF strikes comes ahead of another round of peace talks between West Jerusalem and Beirut, scheduled to take place on September 15 and 16.

Watch the full report by Steve Sweeney below:

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ordered amendments to the North African nation’s penal code allowing the execution of people convicted of abducting or severely abusing children.

The proposed directive came during a Council of Ministers meeting on Sunday, amid public outrage over the killing of a five-year-old in Blida Province last month. The boy disappeared in August and his body was later found burned in a forest near Bouinan. The National Gendarmerie said four suspects, including a woman, have been arrested, while a fifth remains at large.

Meriem Cherfi, head of Algeria’s National Body for the Protection and Promotion of Children, welcomed the measure, saying it would strengthen deterrence against crimes targeting minors.

Algeria ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 2003, both of which require states to protect minors from violence, exploitation and abduction. However, the country is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Resuming executions would end a moratorium which has held in Algeria for more than three decades. The country retains capital punishment, and its courts continue to impose death sentences, but no execution has been carried out there since 1993.

Similar penalties exist elsewhere in Africa. Uganda permits death sentences for the aggravated sexual abuse of minors, including offenses against children under 14. Nigeria’s Kaduna State introduced the death penalty and surgical castration for adults convicted of raping children under 14 in 2020.

In the dim interior of Moscow’s Cathedral of the Archangel, a candle softly flickered. Russian President Vladimir Putin stood by an open white stone sarcophagus, made the Sign of the Cross, and bowed his head. Only a few inches remained between the Kremlin of the 21st century and an ancient Russian ruler who died more than 600 years ago. The Russian president called the uncovering of the relics a “miraculous discovery.”

Several weeks earlier, restorers had removed the sagging floor near the cathedral’s southern wall. The old stone lid, which was in danger of collapsing inward, was carefully lifted. Beneath the burial cloth lay the remains of Prince Dmitry Donskoy, a warrior prince canonized by the Orthodox Church and venerated in Russia as the holy savior of Rus’.

On August 18, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Kirill held a prayer service at the sarcophagus. Particles of the relics were placed in reliquaries for veneration by the faithful; one of them may be delivered to Russian troops at the front. Thus, the warrior prince who once led a united Russian army against the nation’s fiercest enemy will once again stand alongside the nation’s army, in a completely different era and war.

On September 6, one of those reliquaries was carried at the head of a major religious procession through Moscow. Led by Patriarch Kirill, the procession drew around 100,000 people and followed a 6.5-kilometer route from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to Novodevichy Convent. More than six centuries after his death, Dmitry Donskoy once again led a procession through the Russian capital.

Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich of Moscow, better known as Dmitry Donskoy, is a fairly common example of a historical figure remembered by virtually all his compatriots, but known only to specialists outside his country. This 14th-century prince played a huge role in the history of Russia, which was then still known as Rus’. His contributions to the fate of Russia as a warrior and statesman were recognized during his lifetime, but after his death, Dmitry gradually became a symbolic figure of the struggle for independence.

The uncovering of his relics could hardly have remained only an ecclesiastical or archaeological event. Modern Russia once again speaks the language of sovereignty, unity, and resistance to an external adversary – the same concepts which national memory associates Dmitry Donskoy.

To understand why Dmitry Donskoy is venerated by Russians centuries later, we must return to where his name became history – the field between the Don and Nepryadva rivers on the morning of September 8, 1380.

An existential enemy

Despite Russia’s long and dramatic military history, it didn’t have many long-standing adversaries with whom it was forced to fight again and again. The list of Russia’s historical adversaries isn’t topped by Poland, Germany, or Türkiye, as one might expect from a brief look at Russian history. The most formidable enemy, one that called into question the very existence of the Russian people, was a state that no longer exists on the world map – the Golden Horde, one of the major powers into which Genghis Khan’s empire was divided after his death.

Regular and heavy tribute payments served as the basis of this dependence. If the people of Rus’ attempted to avoid them, a punitive expedition would arrive, destroying everything in its path, after which the survivors would go back to paying tribute. Horde officials known as the ‘baskaks’ were responsible for its collection. As is usually the case, the baskaks abused their power and engaged in extortion. Whenever they overstepped the boundaries, another rebellion would break out, followed by a new punitive campaign.

The Mongols also skillfully manipulated the Russian princes. There was no single leader in Rus’ at the time, so the princes traveled to the khan’s headquarters to intrigue against each other, turning to the Mongols as arbiters. The winners of this vile contest received a ‘yarlyk’ or charter to rule, along with the obligation to pay tribute and support the Mongols against those attempting to shake off their rule. This period in Russia is still called “the yoke,” calling to mind the yoke meant for draft animals. It aptly describes the severity and humiliation of the situation in which Rus’ found itself for many years. 

Everything comes to an end, however; and by the 14th century, the Golden Horde had plunged into a protracted crisis. The khans were more likely to slaughter one another due to intrigues than to wage war on their neighbors. The nomadic empire was weakening.

The rise of Moscow

Some Russian principalities freed themselves from the yoke, falling under the control of other states, primarily the young and dynamic Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Lithuania’s time as a great Eastern European power was short but brilliant. The western principalities of Rus’ gravitated toward the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; this is how the future country of Belarus began to take shape. In the eastern part of Rus’, however, the control of the Horde was more strict, and events took a different course.

In 1325, Ivan Kalita became Prince of Moscow. ‘Kalita’ is a nickname meaning ‘money bag’ as he was indeed a sort of bagman, an unscrupulous schemer who based his power on the flow of money. He managed to ‘sell’ himself to the Horde as the most loyal of the princes and, most importantly, persuaded the khans to entrust him with collecting tribute from all of Rus’.

Baskaks and other options involving Horde officials were not very convenient for the khan: firstly, baskaks sought to pocket the money for themselves; secondly, dealing with one prince was easier: tribute collection proceeded more smoothly, a specific person could be held accountable, and naturally, the Russian prince had a better understanding of the country’s inner workings than the Mongols.  

Ivan Kalita’s position as a go-between was disreputable but highly lucrative. He profited from the cash flow but managed to strike a fine balance, avoiding further rebellions within Rus’ while satisfying the khan’s demands. His accounting tricks still allowed him to keep some of the money for himself. He also used his position to quietly undermine his rivals, particularly the powerful prince of Tver. Now a smaller city northwest of the modern capital, at the time Tver was a serious rival of Moscow. 

By 1340, when Ivan Kalita died, Moscow had become the richest and most powerful principality in Rus’.

Kalita’s successors – his elder son Simeon and later his younger son Ivan –  were not as cunning as he, but managed to preserve their father’s gains. The principality was supposed to be headed by Simeon’s heirs, but both Simeon and his sons fell victim to the plague. The cause of death of his younger son Ivan is unknown, but he was 33 years old at the time and may have fallen victim to the same disease. Be that as it may, in 1359 rule over the principality was formally passed on to a nine-year-old boy named Dmitry Ivanovich.

Dmitry Donskoy’s personality is almost buried beneath the legend surrounding him. Generations of chroniclers and writers have described the prince as a chivalrous man and a patriot with deep convictions. Such a person was of course supposed to be ideal, and Dmitry was characterized as exceptionally virtuous and wise beyond his years.

More specifically, we may add the following about his character: Dmitry was certainly a religious man, and his faith was sincere. His guardian was Metropolitan Alexei, an authoritative figure and a shrewd politician who played a huge role in Dmitry’s development and the preservation of the principality. Dmitry always had a warm relationship with the Orthodox Church, not least because of the positive influence of Metropolitan Alexei, the most important Orthodox hierarch of his time.

The second important factor was that, after his father’s death, Dmitry was thrown headlong into the brutal maelstrom of politics. He had to learn self-control and military skills literally from childhood. Lithuania pressed in from the west, vying with Moscow as a rallying point for the Russian principalities; the Horde pressed from the south; and the independent principalities were in a state of constant feudal competition. In short, it was the ‘normal’ reality of medieval life. Thus, from childhood, Dmitry was exposed to the harsh school of politics, intrigue, and war. Young Dmitry had to endure short but intense wars with Lithuania. Moreover, Regent Alexei could not protect Dmitry forever, and the latter was forced to negotiate with the Horde and participate in campaigns against other princes. Dmitry besieged Tver, which had long been a thorn in Moscow’s side, and forced Prince Mikhail of Tver to pledge his loyalty to him. 

In 1375, Prince Dmitry, who was then 25 years of age, concluded a treaty with Tver. Prince Mikhail of Tver called himself Dmitry’s “younger brother” (behind this elegant formula was actually a vassal treaty) but from a historical perspective, the key to the treaty was the phrase “If God changes the Horde”: if Moscow fought the Horde, Tver was obliged to join the fight. Apparently, Dmitry earnestly hated the Horde and wanted to fight it. Such an opportunity soon presented itself.  

The rebellious prince

The Horde was rocked by coups. Its de facto ruler was the military commander Mamai. In Russian tradition, Mamai is often referred to as a khan, but this is incorrect. He was a ‘beklarbek’, i.e., one of the top-ranking officials. However, this position afforded him powers almost equal to those of a khan. Mamai ruled the Horde like an ‘eminence grise’, outliving a dozen khans while hiding behind the back of the nominal ruler Muhammad Bulak. Mamai maintained his rule by means of poison, dagger, and intrigue. In 1363, it was Mamai who granted the charter to young Dmitry. However, in the 1370s, Dmitry, feeling powerful enough, refused to pay tribute to the Horde.

This was a bold challenge. At that time, the Horde seemed almost invincible to the Russians. Psychologically, someone had to finally stand up and say “No”, and the most powerful prince of eastern Rus’ did so. Dmitry convened a congress of princes who expressed their support for him.

The war began dismally: a Horde detachment managed to surprise and defeat a small Russian force on the Pyana River. The river’s name in Russian sounds similar to the word ‘drunk’ [pianaya] and alas, in this case, “nomen est omen”: the Mongols took the Russians by surprise when they were relaxing in their camp. After the defeat in the field battle, Nizhny Novgorod, a large city approximately 400 km east of Moscow was devastated. However, during the very next skirmish, on the Vozha River, things took a different turn. This time, Dmitry, who personally led the army, surprised the Mongols at the crossing and pushed their detachment into the water.

Mamai faced a serious problem. Rus’, which was seemingly subjugated long ago, now rebelled. Moreover, Mamai was in serious trouble: Khan Tokhtamysh, a protégé of the mighty Tamerlane, rose up against him. Mamai needed to act quickly and brutally.

Another punitive expedition was organized against Rus’. This time, Mamai, a contender for power in the Horde, led it himself. It was late summer 1380.

Preparing for battle

Mamai saw that this time, he would meet with significant resistance and focused on the political preparations for the campaign. He negotiated with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiello. As a rival of Moscow, Jagiello saw advantage in weakening Dmitry. Prince Oleg, the leader of Ryazan, which bordered the Horde, took an ambiguous stance. A century and a half earlier, in 1237, Ryazan had fiercely resisted the invasion, but the city had been completely devastated, and its inhabitants had almost entirely perished. Now, the descendants of the few survivors did not want to get involved. 

Admittedly, these troops likely numbered about 10,000 men – which is not a staggering number. However, we should remember that we’re talking about the 14th century, and at the time, Rus’, though large, was a sparsely populated country and could not assemble huge armies.

To dispel the fog of war, watchmen – i.e., reconnaissance detachments – were sent ahead to the steppe border. The first detachment went into the steppe and disappeared; a second detachment had already been dispatched from Moscow to search for it when a scout from the first group emerged from the steppe. This was Vasily Tupik, whose group managed to kidnap Mamai’s confidant. The scouts forced him to provide information about the enemy’s whereabouts and plans. This information was so vital that the name of the soldier who obtained it was written down in the chronicles, and thus remained in history. 

Dmitry did not march directly towards Mamai. Instead, he first made a surprise dash west. This was done to accomplish two goals. Firstly, along the way, he ‘picked up’ several units that hadn’t made it to the general assembly. Secondly, he created a convincing illusion that he was busy attacking Jagiello’s Lithuanian army. Jagiello, unwilling to engage in a pitched battle with the strong Russian army, slowed his march. So, by the time Dmitry turned back and embarked on  the campaign against Mamai, it was hard for the Lithuanian prince to catch up. By the morning of September 8, Dmitry had crossed the Don River which separated him from the army of the Horde.

This was a very risky maneuver. The Don is a large river. In case of defeat, the Russian army would have been pushed towards the river and easily annihilated. However, Dmitry wanted to avoid lengthy maneuvers. Time wasn’t on his side: the threat of Jagiello’s Lithuanians in the rear was still present, and no one knew what Oleg of Ryazan was up to. Therefore, he had to defeat Mamai in open battle, and do it quickly.

Before the battle began, Dmitry exchanged armor with boyar Mikhail Brenk. It was a cruel decision: both Dmitry and Mikhail Brenk knew that the enemy would try to kill the man wearing the prince’s armor. But Dmitry needed freedom to move around the battlefield and issue commands. However, he also took care to issue detailed instructions to the commanders.

The battle began on the morning of September 8. 

Kulikovo Field

The chronicle states that the battle began with a duel between two fighters. A warrior monk, Alexander Peresvet, rode out from the Russian side. A former warrior from Bryansk, he had retired to a monastery some time earlier, but left for the campaign against Mamai, with the full understanding and approval of the abbot. Peresvet encountered a steppe warrior, known as Chelubey in the chronicles. The name sounds Turkic, which is logical: Mamai’s main forces were composed of various Turkic peoples. According to the chronicle, both warriors struck each other with spears and died. Apparently, they engaged in a head-on clash, and neither turned away.

Mamai seized the initiative in the battle. Apparently, the steppe army had a numerical advantage, as the Russians spent almost the entire battle on the defensive.

The Horde launched a series of attacks in various areas. They persistently sought out weak points and fought in waves for several hours. Of course, we’re not talking about hours of nonstop fighting. Cavalry armies fought on both sides and the battle resembled a series of skirmishes. The detachments charged at each other, fought for several minutes, then dispersed, making way for fresh reserves. 

The left flank of the Russian army was in danger, however. This regiment was retreating and the princes that commanded it had perished in battle. A small reserve detachment came to its aid, but stabilized the situation only briefly. The Horde forded the narrow Smolka River and pushed the Russians further and further back. The battle had reached its climax; both armies suffered heavy losses and were terribly tired. However, the Horde army had inflicted serious damage on the Russians’ left flank and was about to move into the rear of their center. 

That’s when Bobrok’s Ambush Regiment struck the Horde army.

The old commander had calculated the moment with perfect precision. He arrived when the enemy was already exhausted by the long, hard battle, but the Russian line of defense had not yet crumbled.

Fresh cavalry reserves are a terrifying force at the end of a major battle. After several hours of heavy fighting, the Horde army was hit from the flank as if struck by a train. The balance of power didn’t just shift: the Horde panicked. Now, instead of the Russian left flank, the Horde’s right flank began to crumble. Mamai had no reinforcements left, as he had thrown all his forces into battle.

The pursuit of the Horde was led by Dmitry’s cousin, Prince Vladimir of Serpukhov. Mamai fled, and most of his army followed on exhausted horses. The Russians relentlessly pursued the enemy for about 30 kilometers.

The Russians suffered heavy losses. For several more days, the army stood “on the bones,” picking up the dead, nursing the wounded, and gathering all the weapons and equipment they could find. 

Prince Dmitry was found among a pile of corpses. He was alive, but gravely wounded; his armor was mangled, and he was unconscious. He fought the most important battle of his life at the forefront of his warriors, with a war club in hand, and nearly paid for the victory with his life. Unfortunately, the chroniclers did not specify in what circumstances he was wounded, but the location where he was found speaks for itself: it was, of course, the left flank.

From that moment on, Prince Dmitry of Moscow would be known by the name that would become part of history: Dmitry Donskoy, i.e., Dmitry of the Don.

On September 14, the army turned back.

Afterword

The Battle of Kulikovo had a huge psychological impact. The Russian army routed the Horde in a proper pitched battle – it didn’t hide behind fortified walls, and didn’t just defeat a single detachment; it utterly destroyed the enemy’s main field army. This was not accomplished by any single principality but by a broad alliance. Men who had seen the backs of the fleeing Horde army with their own eyes returned to Nizhny Novgorod, Pskov, Novgorod, and Yaroslavl. 

After the battle, the Lithuanian army quietly retreated home.

In 1395, Khan Tokhtamysh suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of Tamerlane, with whom he had fallen out. The Horde was falling apart and the Russians accelerated this process as best they could.

In 1389, Dmitry Donskoy died before reaching the age of 40. The cause of his early death is unknown. However, he left behind a powerful legacy: a large principality that became the leader in the unification of Rus’; a son who continued his policies; and, finally, the idea of ​​a unified state that would never again lose its independence.

At the end of the 14th century, ‘Zadonshchina’ – a literary monument about the Battle of Kulikovo – was published.

In 1480, Ivan III formalized the complete political independence of Rus’; By this point, its dependence was more of a formality and Ivan III sealed the recognition of the new reality. 

In 1783, Empress Catherine II annexed Crimea – the last fragment of the Golden Horde to be incorporated into Russia. The great conflict thus ended, and all debts were settled. 

European leaders were “scared to death” by US President Donald Trump’s proposals for resolving the Ukraine conflict and worked relentlessly to sabotage Washington’s compromise efforts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

In an interview published on Tuesday, Lavrov accused European NATO members of seeking to prevent Trump from returning to the ideas he had discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last year. He also pointed to a phone call between the two leaders on July 4 this year.

“Europe understands that if the Americans suddenly return to their original proposals... as was the case in Anchorage, Europe was simply scared to death,” Lavrov said. According to him, European leaders “immediately rushed” to coax Trump into abandoning his own initiatives.

“If Western diplomacy comes down to restraining countries that put forward reasonable, balanced, compromise initiatives, then so be it,” Lavrov said. Moscow would then pursue its objectives “not at the negotiating table,” which he said Russia would prefer, “but on the battlefield.”

Lavrov’s remarks come as the Trump administration makes a renewed push to revive stalled diplomacy. US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Putin in Moscow on Saturday for more than three hours before traveling on to Kiev the following day.

Lavrov, however, argued that most of the public talk about diplomacy coming from Kiev and its Western sponsors is intended to secure another pause in the fighting and give their Ukrainian proxies time to rearm and regroup. Despite the renewed US effort, Lavrov insisted that no constructive peace negotiations are currently under way.

“Nothing is happening on the diplomatic front,” he said, adding that developments are instead unfolding “on the real front,” where Russian forces are advancing.

The top Russian diplomat also took aim at London, which has vowed to remain with Kiev to the end. “I feel sorry for Britain,” he said, since that end “will not be a happy one.”

Addressing European preparations for a possible future conflict with Moscow, Lavrov reiterated Putin’s position that Russia has no intention of attacking Europe. If European countries were to attack Russia, however, he warned that it would be “a fundamentally different war” and “very short.”

Russian forces have struck drone and missile production facilities and logistics centers in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.  

The raid comes as a three-day break in attacks on military-related targets in the Ukrainian capital, announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of trips to Moscow and Kiev by US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, expired.

The large-scale overnight strike involved ground-, air-, and sea-based precision weapons as well as long-range attack drones, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ukrainian defense industry facilities involved in the production and storage of drones and cruise missiles were hit during the attack, the statement read.

They included the Kiev Radio Plant where components for reconnaissance and strike UAVs were produced, including long-range models used to attack civilian targets within Russia, it said.

An industrial facility belonging to weapons maker Fire Point was also hit during the bombardment, the ministry said, adding that the site had made warheads for attack drones and Flamingo cruise missiles.

Russian forces launched another large-scale overnight attack across Ukraine, using a combination of ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles and jet-powered Shahed drones.

The attack hit multiple parts of the country, with the heaviest damage reported in and around… pic.twitter.com/dcDfYH3PeG

— GeoInsider (@InsiderGeo) September 8, 2026

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky actively promotes Fire Point and its products internationally, despite the firm being linked to his longtime business associate Timur Mindich, who fled Ukraine after becoming a key figure in a $100 million corruption scandal last year.

The Russian military also targeted another plant engaged in the manufacture of parts for US-designed AI-assisted Hornet medium-range strike UAVs, according to the statement.

🇺🇦 In the Kiev region, several facilities, warehouses, residential buildings, and cars were damaged as a result of last night's attack, according to Timur Tkachenko, head of the Kiev Regional State Administration.

In the Borispol district, a warehouse, an enterprise, and seven… pic.twitter.com/tFggFMkNpX

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) September 8, 2026

Missiles and drones struck transport, logistics, and distribution centers for military cargo in the Ukrainian capital and Kiev Region, the ministry said.

According to the ministry, Russian forces also destroyed several targets in Odessa Region, including facilities in the port of Chenomorsk, used for unloading military cargo.

Earlier, Ukrainian Telegram channels reported air raid sirens and explosions in and outside Kiev as well as in other parts of the country, including in Odessa and Sumy regions.

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced that the Ukrainian capital was under a ballistic missile attack, urging residents to remain in shelters. According to Klitschko, six people were wounded in the city, with three of them requiring hospitalization.

Putin had ordered the Russian military to pause strikes on targets in the Ukrainian capital until Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s talks with Witkoff and Kushner in Moscow.

The meeting at the Kremlin dedicated to the settlement of the Ukraine conflict lasted over three hours. Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later said it was indicative of an “atmosphere of trust” between Moscow and Washington.

Witkoff said he “felt good” about the discussions in Moscow and Kiev, expressing hope that trilateral talks between the sides could be announced “in short order.”

Moscow maintains that its long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukraine are a response to Kiev’s daily drone incursions targeting civilian infrastructure and residential areas inside Russia. According to Russian officials, Zelensky’s government is resorting to terrorist attacks in an attempt to compensate for setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces continue their steady advance.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow maintains that it does not attack civilians, with its strikes being directed solely at military targets and infrastructure supporting Ukrainian forces.

US-based LGBTQ dating app Grindr has agreed to a multi million-pound settlement in a UK lawsuit alleging it shared users’ private information, including their HIV status, with advertising companies without consent.

The £26 million ($35 million) settlement covers claims brought by around 12,000 users over the company’s handling of personal information before early 2020. Grindr disputes the allegations.

“The settlement includes no findings or admission of liability,” Grindr said in a US regulatory filing submitted late last week. It nevertheless acknowledged the “distress and loss of trust” expressed by some users.

The legal action was launched in April 2024 by law firm Austen Hays at the High Court of England and Wales. Information allegedly disclosed also included HIV test dates and whether users took medication to prevent infection, according to the firm. Anonymity orders were granted to protect those bringing the case.

Under the settlement, reached on September 2, Grindr will pay £13 million by the end of this year and another £13 million by March 31, 2027. Individual awards have not been specified, and legal and insurance costs will be deducted under the terms published by Austen Hays.

In 2018, Norwegian researchers found that Grindr had shared users’ HIV status with two analytics providers. Grindr subsequently announced that it would stop the practice.

In a separate case, Norway’s data protection authority fined Grindr 65 million Norwegian krone ($7 million) in 2021 for sharing personal information for advertising without valid consent. An appeals court upheld the penalty in October 2025.

The court also found that Grindr’s assurance that it did not sell users’ personal information to third parties for advertising was misleading, according to the Norwegian Consumer Council.

German auto giant Volkswagen has agreed on plans to sell one of its factories and convert the site into a military production hub, with Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems set to become its first major industrial partner.

Volkswagen announced on Monday that it had reached an agreement with the state of Lower Saxony and the Israeli investment company Aurelius Capital on key terms for the sale of its Osnabrück plant. Under the plan, Aurelius would become the majority owner, while Lower Saxony would also take a stake in the facility.

The factory would then be gradually transformed from car manufacturing into what Volkswagen described as a “competence center for security and defense solutions.” Its first anchor project would involve cooperation with Rafael on the manufacture of air-defense systems and components for Germany and other European customers.

The Osnabrück site has a history of military production dating back to Nazi Germany. The factory originally belonged to coachbuilder Karmann, which produced aircraft components for the German war effort and used forced labor during World War II.

Volkswagen took over the company’s Osnabrück operations following Karmann’s insolvency in 2009 and decided in 2024 to end vehicle production by the summer of 2027. The new arrangement is expected to provide employment to more than 1,200 workers, while Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said the agreement would open up a “new industrial future” for the site.

The deal had reportedly faced resistance from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, one of Volkswagen’s largest shareholders. The eventual structure keeps Rafael out of the ownership of the plant, with Aurelius and Lower Saxony taking it over instead.

The conversion comes as Volkswagen undertakes one of the biggest restructurings in its history. Last week, the company confirmed plans to eliminate as many as 100,000 jobs worldwide by 2030 as it struggles with weak European demand, high energy costs following the loss of cheap Russian supplies, US tariffs and growing competition from Chinese manufacturers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that modern Germany and the rest of the EU are “transforming into a Fourth Reich,” pointing to Berlin’s drive to build the strongest conventional army in Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that NATO countries were no longer concealing their intentions, and had moved beyond supporting Kiev to now “openly saying that they are preparing for war with us.”

Iran has conveyed its conditions to the US through intermediaries after Washington recently sent new proposals to Tehran, a political source in the Iranian capital has told RT.

The reported contacts come amid renewed regional efforts to revive diplomacy after last week’s flare-up, when the US carried out several rounds of strikes on Iran and Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on American military facilities in Jordan and Bahrain.

“Following the halt of negotiations resulting from US breaches of commitments and its repeated failures in military engagements, the US has recently conveyed proposals to Tehran through mediators,” the source said.

Given Washington’s “repeated violations” and “constant fluctuations in its positions,” Tehran responded by conveying its own conditions to the intermediaries, the source added.

The source did not disclose the details of either the American proposals or the Iranian conditions, but said mediators “continue to talk to both parties.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday that US and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities were themselves the main obstacle to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arguing that Washington was responsible for the resulting lack of access while simultaneously using the issue to increase pressure on Tehran.

“The ball has long been in the US court,” Baqaei said, adding that Washington must end its military attacks, economic sanctions and naval blockade if it wants to resolve the confrontation.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told CNN that Doha had put forward several ideas and was exploring different scenarios aimed at addressing the concerns of both sides.

Tehran and Muscat have meanwhile reported significant progress on a separate arrangement for a temporary safe shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials have stressed, however, that such an agreement would not amount to the full reopening of the strategic waterway, as Washington has claimed.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said Greenland’s future is for its people and Denmark to decide, pushing back against US President Donald Trump’s threat to annex the Arctic island.

Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory rich in minerals and strategically located close to North America. Denmark, which oversees the island’s foreign and security policy, is a member of both the EU and NATO. Trump has repeatedly argued that the US needs Greenland for national security and its mineral resources, putting Washington at odds with its European allies.

“Greenland’s future is for the people of Greenland and Denmark to decide, no one else,” von der Leyen said in the island’s capital, Nuuk, on Monday, concluding a two-day visit. She cited territorial integrity, sovereignty and the inviolability of borders as fundamental principles of international law.

Greenland’s mineral wealth is of particular interest to the EU. The island holds 25 of the 34 raw materials Brussels classifies as critical, and closer access could help the bloc reduce its dependence on China.

Von der Leyen’s trip came as Trump posted a map on Monday depicting Greenland, Canada and other parts of the Americas under the US flag. The image also included Iceland and was labeled ‘United States of America.’

Washington’s push for control of Greenland has strained relations with Denmark and other European allies. White House officials said earlier this year that military force remained “always an option,” raising the prospect of a confrontation between the two NATO members. Trump has also repeatedly questioned the alliance’s value to the US.

The visit also coincided with the start of Arctic Shield, military drills involving 11 NATO countries and around 400 troops in Greenland. No US personnel are taking part in the exercises, which run from September 7 to 18.

Power has been restored to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) after more than two weeks in emergency mode, the CEO of the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, Aleksey Likhachev, has said.

The main external power line to the plant was cut off in March following what the Ukrainian authorities described as “damage” to transmission towers. It has never been restored, with no explanations from Kiev.

Since then, the ZNPP has had to rely solely on the backup line – until August 20, when it was shut down by automatic control systems following an unspecified “incident” in territory controlled by Ukraine. That forced the power plant to fall back on emergency diesel-powered generators.

On Monday, Likhachev told journalists that the external power supply to the ZNPP had finally been restored, and the facility was now “operating as normal.” The Rosatom chief thanked all the parties involved in establishing a temporary local truce needed for the repair work, including the Russian defense and foreign ministries. He also praised the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its “mediation efforts.”

Diesel fuel deliveries to the station were “problematic” because of Ukrainian shelling targeting the roads in the area, ZNPP communications director Evgenia Yashina told Interfax earlier.

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and the adjacent city of Energodar have been targeted by Ukraine on multiple occasions with artillery and drones since Russia took control of the facility in March 2022.

In July, a Ukrainian drone hit a ZNPP service vehicle on the edge of the plant’s industrial site, killing its chief engineer, Aleksandr Yakovlev, and his driver. At the time, Likhachev called the strike a “deliberate terrorist act.”

Several months ago, the Ukrainian military also started remotely mining the area near the ZNPP and Energodar, where plant employees reside, according to the nuclear chief. In early August, four ZNPP employees were injured by Ukrainian landmines dropped by drones.

Moscow has repeatedly criticized the IAEA, which has experts deployed at the ZNPP, for acknowledging the attacks on the facility but stopping short of blaming Ukraine for them.

The EU is effectively committing “harakiri” by abandoning Russian energy in an attempt to hurt Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking on Monday to students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), Russia’s primary college for diplomats, Lavrov argued that European leaders are making their own voters bear the cost of their policies toward Russia.

The EU has committed to phasing out Russian fossil fuels completely by 2027, having drastically reduced Russian oil and gas imports since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Energy costs have risen across much of the bloc, with the US-Israeli war on Iran adding further pressure.

Germany, once considered the EU’s industrial powerhouse, has been particularly affected. Its economy contracted in both 2023 and 2024 – the first back-to-back annual decline in more than two decades – and is forecast to grow by just 0.5% this year.

“Apparently, by ‘European values’ they mean Nazism, burying Nazi criminals with honors, and banning the Russian language, Russian-language education, Russian culture and media, as well as the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he added.

Lavrov argued that the EU’s attempt to pressure Moscow has failed to deprive Russia of customers. “There’s no panic here whatsoever. We’ve always had plenty of buyers,” he said, adding that Russian exporters have shifted toward “those who are more reliable.”

Russia has increasingly redirected its energy exports toward Asia amid Western sanctions. Its seaborne crude shipments to China hit a record 1.86 million barrels per day in January, up 46% year-on-year. Russia has also remained India’s largest oil supplier, selling around 2.1 million bpd in August, or 45% of the country’s imports, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler.

Lavrov said the shift should not be viewed as a sudden “pivot to the East,” arguing that Russia has long cultivated economic ties in both directions.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist, similarly described the EU as a “suicide ship” in April, accusing Brussels of “ideological blindness and incompetence.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged last month that the loss of cheap energy imports had dealt a major blow to the bloc’s economy. Lavrov argued that the policies demonstrate that European leaders “don’t think about the voters that brought them to power.”

September could prove decisive for Germany’s political future, with elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin. If the ruling Christian Democratic Union suffers serious defeats across the board, which is by no means certain, the federal government itself could come under pressure and for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the consequences may be more immediate.

A CDU defeat in Saxony-Anhalt had been expected, but the scale is nevertheless notable. Whether Alternative for Germany ultimately secures an absolute majority and can form a government on its own is almost secondary, because the message to Germany’s political establishment could hardly be clearer. The warning light is flashing red

Merz himself has become part of the problem. Judging by this campaign, he has reached the unenviable political stage at which his interventions appear to produce the opposite of their intended effect, so the more passionately he urges voters in one direction, the more determinedly some seem to move in another.

There is something almost late-Soviet about it, like when an official appeared on television to insist upon something and a significant part of the population instinctively concluded that the truth probably lay elsewhere.

Attempts in the final days of the campaign to portray the AfD as Nazis and Putin’s puppets plainly failed to stop its advance in this eastern state and they may even have helped it by irritating voters already tired of such accusations. Nor did the murky drone incident in Leipzig, which was used to heighten tensions with Russia, noticeably alter the political mood.

Suppose an AfD government is formed in Magdeburg, then the temptation elsewhere in the federal system will be to obstruct it and there’s already discussion of limiting cooperation with AfD-led authorities, including in sensitive areas such as security and intelligence.

That would be an extraordinary path to take, given Germany’s federal system has traditionally functioned effectively precisely because the Länder (states) and federal government cooperate despite political differences. To start withholding information or obstructing a legitimately constituted state government would risk damaging the system in an effort to contain one political party. It would be the sanctions mentality, so familiar from international affairs, brought home and deployed against part of Germany itself.

The alternative may be an unwieldy coalition of virtually everyone else, assembled primarily to prevent the largest party from governing, which may be constitutionally possible, but repeating it indefinitely carries an obvious political cost and voters eventually notice when electoral victories don’t translate into political power.

The more intelligent approach might be to accept the result, allow the AfD to govern where it wins, and gradually draw the party into the political establishment. Government has a habit of disciplining insurgent movements and responsibility exposes contradictions that opposition can conceal, while administrative reality is often more effective than denunciation at diminishing radical parties.

But such a strategy requires political subtlety, something Germany’s federal leadership currently possesses in limited supply. At decisive moments, German politics has a tendency to substitute moral certainty for flexibility, which is why the mainstream spent years constructing a cordon sanitaire around the AfD. Having turned the party into something with which cooperation is deemed morally impossible, it’s now difficult to reverse course without admitting that the original strategy has failed.

The origins of this divergence lie partly in the high period of globalization 25 or 30 years ago. As economies became more interconnected, more decisions migrated from the national to the supranational level, but this wasn’t simply an ideological project as in an integrated world, many problems genuinely could no longer be managed effectively by individual states.

For a time, the arrangement worked because it delivered tangible benefits. The increasingly cosmopolitan political and economic order could point to prosperity and rising living standards and while people might have felt that decision-making was becoming more remote, the system compensated them materially. 

But that bargain has weakened as globalization no longer functions as its architects expected. Economic integration remains dense enough that governments can’t simply retreat behind national borders, yet it no longer produces the political confidence and economic dynamism that once legitimized it and as a result, established elites find themselves trapped between structures inherited from the previous era and electorates demanding greater national control.

The result is the rise of protest movements across Europe. They share certain characteristics, particularly an emphasis on sovereignty and hostility towards established institutions, but they aren’t interchangeable because French, German, and British nationalists won’t necessarily become natural allies simply to spite a Brussels which dislikes all of them. Nationalism by definition reflects different histories and interests.

Saxony-Anhalt therefore matters beyond Saxony-Anhalt and the treatment of the AfD after its electoral breakthrough will provide a useful indication of how far Germany’s establishment is prepared to go to preserve the existing political architecture, and what consequences follow when it does.

None of this means that the Western Europe emerging from the present transformation will necessarily be more congenial to Russia, and Moscow should harbor no illusions on that score. A Europe of resurgent nationalism and competing interests has historically been quite capable of producing instability of its own, and Russia has rarely escaped the consequences.

But political systems don’t remain fixed indefinitely and the European order created during the age of triumphant globalization is entering a period of profound adjustment. Germany may simply be where that transformation is becoming impossible to ignore.

Israeli forces have demolished nearly an entire Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, destroying homes, animal shelters and water infrastructure and leaving dozens of residents without shelter.

RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij reports from Khirbet al-Tabban in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, where locals say the demolitions came without warning and lasted for several hours.

”What happened was the erasure of this village from existence,” local council head Nidal Younis told RT.

According to Younis, homes belonging to 12 families were destroyed, along with rainwater collection wells and small water tanks. Nearly all of the roughly 70 people living in the community were left homeless.

Resident Suad Mohammad Obeid said her family tried to save its belongings, only for much of what they moved to be crushed during the operation. Seven members of the family are young children.

Younis told RT that genuine military exercises in the area are rare, accusing the authorities of using the designation to pressure residents to leave.

The demolitions come amid mounting pressure on Palestinian communities across the West Bank. The UN says violence and displacement in the territory have reached record levels since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

Residents of Khirbet al-Tabban say they intend to rebuild despite fears that the Israeli military could return and demolish the community again.

Watch the full story below:

On the night of September 7, 2026, the results of landmark state elections were finalized in Berlin. Officially, the numbers recorded a crushing defeat for the ruling elites in one of Germany’s smaller states – Saxony-Anhalt, home to just 2.1 million people. Yet many are already interpreting these figures as a complete breakdown of Germany’s postwar political order. 

For the first time, the right-wing conservative party Alternative for Germany (AfD), led by Ulrich Siegmund, captured a historic 43.8% of the vote, coming within a single step of an absolute majority in the state parliament. Add to that the result of the left-wing conservatives from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) at 5.3%, and the historic collapse of the CDU, which plummeted to 17.2%, and the math of Germany’s crisis becomes unforgiving: an overwhelming majority of residents in this eastern state officially voted for a radical break from the policies of the current federal government under German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

The long-standing Berlin consensus of the traditional parties – the much-touted political Brandmauer (firewall) designed to isolate Eurosceptics from financial and political power – has now collapsed. In German expert circles, an uncomfortable diagnosis is increasingly being whispered, if not yet spoken aloud: modern Germany is gradually sliding into systemic, ungovernable chaos, which, in terms of its fractured personnel, social fabric, and psychological state, directly evokes the pre-Reich atmosphere of the late 1920s. Attempts by the liberal mainstream in Berlin and Brussels to interpret this resounding explosion simplistically – purely through the lens of the migration crisis – only reveal a deep functional blindness. The ‘Saxon filter’ has sifted out the political chaff, exposing the underlying processes that are inexorably transforming Europe.

The success of the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance and why it matters

Attempts to dismiss the Saxony-Anhalt case as a flare-up of xenophobia or protest voting by marginal societal groups appear unfounded – the significance of 43.8% for the AfD and 5.3% for the BSW extends far beyond migration debates. The primary driver here, in our view, is the dire state of the Mittelstand – the small and medium-sized enterprise sector which forms the backbone of Germany’s national economy. 

In parallel, the ‘Saxon filter' registered another historical fracture that would have been unimaginable on the electoral map of the former GDR before 2026. In this eastern state, the climate ideologues of the Green Party virtually tied in vote share with the traditional standard-bearers of the left flank – the Left Party (Die Linke). However, this was not due to a victory for the green agenda. Rather, industrial collapse and economic chaos meant that the core protest electorate of the old East German socialists was absorbed wholesale by the triumphant AfD and the pragmatic Wagenknecht Alliance. As a result, the Left Party crashed to the brink of survival, where they were overtaken by the Greens, who gathered the frightened urban middle class under their banner.

The importance of this shift is compounded by the result of the Wagenknecht Alliance (5.3%). Contrary to the canonical dogma of incompatibility between the right and left flanks, a consensus is currently forming in East Germany whose goal can be described as saving German industry and the Mittelstand, with these forces now controlling nearly 50% of the state parliament. Wagenknecht’s left-conservatives and Siegmund’s right-wing sovereignists are tightly bound by a shared macroeconomic platform: demanding an immediate end to the sanctions war with Moscow, a halt in funding for Kiev, and a return to hard-nosed national self-interest. Berlin can no longer mathematically ignore this consolidated revolt by the industrial core – the old model of governing Germany has officially been nullified.

Herein lies the most unpleasant aspect for the current federal coalition government: political elites spent years building a wall around alleged fringe groups like the AfD and BSW, yet now, after these elections, they are obligated to engage with them and maintain dialogue within the framework of existing democratic processes. 

Moreover, the chief existential nightmare for intelligence services in Berlin and Brussels lies in the inevitable institutional legitimization of these “radicals” through purely state-level coalition agreements. By sitting down at the negotiating table in Magdeburg, representatives of the AfD and the Alliance legally gain direct and legal access to classified state security channels and secret documents – including operational reports from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the domestic counterintelligence agency) and infrastructure plans for strategic facilities. 

The root causes: The current state of Germany and its East

The electoral defeat of the ruling CDU in Saxony-Anhalt is a direct result of Friedrich Merz’s economic policies, which prioritized military budget increases while stripping the eastern states of social and industrial support. The special irony is that Berlin’s ambitions to build a powerful independent army in the 21st century are merely an illusion: the Bundeswehr is de facto completely devoid of autonomy and remains under strict, pervasive oversight from Washington and the Pentagon. The attempt to sacrifice Saxony-Anhalt’s real economy to transatlantic military dogma has permanently erased voter trust in the traditional elites.

In examining the broader causes of this crisis, it is necessary to dismantle the myth of a “united Germany,” which has served as Berlin’s polished showcase for thirty-six years. The former GDR never truly became an equal partner within the federation. Instead, it was relegated to a kind of internal protectorate for the western states – a subordinated region systematically drained of its raw materials and skilled personnel.

By 2026, the economic and infrastructural disparities between a prosperous state like Bavaria and the struggling region of Saxony-Anhalt had reached critical thresholds. According to official reports from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis), the gap in living standards has widened into a chasm: while Bavaria’s annual GDP per capita stands at nearly €59,000, Saxony-Anhalt firmly anchors the bottom of the federal list at just €36,517. In real terms, a resident of an eastern state generates nearly half the economic output of a southerner. Against this backdrop, the 2.7% decline in real industrial output in Saxony-Anhalt (particularly in manufacturing and chemicals) looks catastrophic, and far worse than the overall German recession.

The industrial base of East Germany, shaped during the Soviet era, was originally designed for deep integration with the Eastern Bloc. Under the guise of “European integration” following reunification, however, these manufacturing hubs were systematically hollowed out or dismantled. The few enterprises that managed to survive – ranging from the massive Leuna chemical complex to Magdeburg’s heavy machinery plants – were left entirely dependent on cheap Russian pipeline gas and placed under the external corporate management of Western conglomerates.

Saxony-Anhalt’s current state is a mirror of the systemic degradation that Brussels cynically labels the “green transition.” The state’s real economy is being decimated by bankruptcies among small and medium-sized businesses. Living standards, human capital, and social guarantees in Magdeburg and Halle are rapidly deteriorating against the backdrop of thriving cities like Frankfurt or Munich. 

It is precisely this colonial snobbery from the federal center that has transformed Saxony-Anhalt into a scorching political filter. Voters in the East have come to a stark realization: to the Berlin establishment, their factories, their jobs, and their right to a stable life are nothing more than bargaining chips in a grand geopolitical game. Therefore, the triumph of the AfD and Sahra Wagenknecht’s alliance in Magdeburg should be viewed as a fierce declaration by East Germany that it is abandoning a bogus liberal consensus.

The fate of Europe and prospects for Russia

Saxony-Anhalt has acted as a harsh filter, which may also signal a general rightward shift across Europe. Moreover, the liberal establishment in Brussels does not yet fully grasp the true scale of this process. The fact that the AfD’s triumph has become a central topic on the global agenda is confirmed by the rapid reactions of key figures on the global conservative flank: Elon Musk openly endorsed the results with an overnight statement, and Donald Trump quickly posted the election statistics on his social media platform, TruthSocial. It is clear that this local electoral revolt in East Germany is breaking the entire isolation strategy that Brussels spent years building against Eurosceptics and erecting a powerful geopolitical shield for the sovereign-minded elites of the Visegrad Group.

However, behind this outward euphoria lies a deep structural divide, as not all right-wing forces on the continent welcome this victory. The situation holds a fundamentally different, far more unsettling meaning for Western Europe’s leading right-wing leaders, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and France’s Marine Le Pen. For Meloni, who anchored Rome’s EU strategy on compromises with Brussels and unconditional alignment with the West’s anti-Russian course, the AfD’s triumph is a painful blow to her concept of “respectable conservatism.” Saxony-Anhalt has bluntly demonstrated that European voters demand unyielding economic self-interest, not subservience to the European Commission.

For Marine Le Pen in Paris, who previously demonstratively isolated the AfD in the European Parliament in order to bolster her own mainstream image, the overnight 43.8% in secured in Magdeburg represents an existential challenge. They understand all too well that a resurgent, nationalist Berlin could eventually revive old geopolitical ambitions, completely upending the delicate balance of power within the Paris-Berlin axis for decades to come.

However, for Moscow, rather than promising tactical dividends in the form of revived gas contracts, this rightward turn of the EU’s industrial locomotive introduces existential, long-term challenges. The deep historical programming of any European ultra-nationalism inevitably carries within it a creeping revision of the outcomes of World War II and the systematic dismantling of the historical legacy of the Yalta-Potsdam security architecture.

As these nationalist forces consolidate power, Moscow will inevitably face coordinated attempts to rehabilitate the dark pages of Europe’s past. Within this emerging ideological landscape, the sacredness of victory in the Second World War and the immutability of post-war borders will become the primary targets for ideological assault. In the medium term, the complete paralysis of the EU leadership’s ability to forge consolidated decisions will transform the European architecture into a scorched field of egotistical bargaining – a hostile arena where Russia will be forced to aggressively defend both its core values and its national security.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko – a key pillar of Vladimir Zelensky’s increasingly fragile governing structure – has resigned, amid the exposure of an industrial-scale scam-call center network across Ukraine, with alleged links to senior figures in Kiev.

Ukraine's Western-backed National Anti-corruption Bureau (NABU) on Monday accused the head of the cybercrime unit at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office of extorting payments criminal networks running scam-call centers, the very criminals he was supposed to prosecute.

Surveillance recordings released by detectives portray the suspect as a risk-taker who spoke of building an “empire” for his chief and comparing his earnings to having sex with a queen. Following weekend raids, photos of a safe full of cash were also released. 

What is the latest Ukraine corruption case about?

The main suspect, Sergey Kropiva, is accused of leading a ring that collected protection payments from notorious Ukrainian scam call centers, used his official position to eliminate competitors and laundered the criminal proceeds.

How many scam call centers are in Ukraine?

Zerkalo Nedeli estimated that around 2,000 scam centers operate in Ukraine. Roughly half are considered “white” – meaning they allegedly pay bribes to government officials in exchange for protection. The remainder are described as “partisans” that conceal their activities from what one could call the bribe enforcement system.

What kind of bribes are paid to run a scam center in Ukraine?

Sources cited by Zerkalo Nedeli said each “white” operation paid around $20,000 a month, translating into an annual cash flow of roughly $240 million. The Prosecutor General’s Office was reportedly receiving 15% of the payouts.

After Kravchenko’s appointment in June 2025, there was a push to increase both the fixed payment and his office’s share of the proceeds, the outlet claimed.

Who is protecting Ukraine’s scam centers?

NABU directly linked the new case to Zelenskys’ controversial and failed attempt to subordinate it and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) to his influence. It said the failed reform nevertheless eroded the procedures for screening candidates seeking to serve at the Prosecutor General’s Office for corruption.

Surveillance recordings suggest Kropiva managed the alleged system for someone with enough authority to keep it running.

On another occasion, he said it was fun “to build up an empire of the kind the chief has created.”

Kropiva also appeared to relish the opportunity to “screw everyone in the law enforcement” and do what he wants.

During Kropiva’s bail hearing, investigators alleged that he also performed a number of personal favors for Kravchenko, including arranging the installation of a power generator at the prosecutor general’s suburban home and helping his wife obtain a US visa.

Is Kropiva just a yes-man?

The recordings suggest that Kropiva was driven not only by greed but also by an appetite for living on the edge. He said he was not the kind of person to “live for the sake of living.”

“If you do it, do it with a bang,” he said of his life philosophy. “I love the best. If you f**k, f**k a queen; if you steal, steal a million.”

NABU says Kropiva’s alleged illegal activities date back to his time in the national police, which he joined in 2015. He started specializing in cybercrime during that stint.

Who else was involved?

One of the suspects, nicknamed “Muse” in NABU materials, appears to have been Kropiva’s proverbial queen.

The woman and members of her family allegedly participated in laundering the money.

In one conversation, she told her partner: “This all would be easier to do with my sister and [her] husband. It’s harder with mommy.”

Kropiva appeared willing to explain how the system worked and what he considered most important.

“The difference between financial results and demagoguery is very important, you see?” he told her.

At one point, he chastised “Muse” for displaying her wealth on Instagram. She responded by complaining that she would have to purge her account to conceal all the gifts he had given her.

She also said a $6,650 Messika necklace had a difficult lock but was light, unlike Cartier jewelry she had also tried on.

Who is the ‘Muse’?

Odessa resident Elizaveta Ivakhnenko appeared at bail hearings alongside Kropiva.

During her court appearance on Sunday, she reportedly wore a $3,400 Saint Laurent jacket, while on Monday she chose a garment sold by domestic Ukrainian brand Aura worth around $300.

According to Ukrainian media, Ivakhnenko has a background in law and took part last year in an EU-organized training course for Ukrainian prosecutors in Rome.

Are there other suspects?

NABU has identified four specific suspects. The other two are Kropiva’s driver and aide.

Ukrainian media reported that investigators searched the office of Deputy Prosecutor General Maria Vdovichenko as well as premises linked to Oleg Kiper, head of the Odessa regional military administration.

Did the ring co-opt other officials?

The surveillance materials suggest Kropiva’s extensive contacts in Ukrainian law enforcement were prepared to act on his requests, either as favors or for a price.

In one instance, he allegedly sought help inflicting “moral damage” on a person who had refused to repay a debt to one of his acquaintances.

Are the records the only proof of wrongdoing?

NABU also released video clips and photographs that it says support its allegations.

They include images of a safe filled with cash, footage allegedly showing people handing over bundles of banknotes as payments to Kropiva’s ring, and a photograph taken from social media showing Ivakhnenko and her female friends dressed for a night out.

The agency also cited various documents as proof of money laundering.

What’s the significance of the case?

Kravchenko has not been named as a suspect, but NABU’s presentation of the case places significant political pressure on the prosecutor general.

Zelensky’s faction used to be dominant, giving him an opportunity to get the parliament to rubber stamp his policies. However, the influence has significantly eroded, making whatever votes he can command more valuable.

Ukrainskaya Pravda reported in March that Zelensky could reliably count on only 110 to 120 votes, while securing support from other lawmakers allegedly requires bribes.

How deep is the systemic corruption in Ukraine?

Kiev and its Western backers have repeatedly claimed significant progress in rooting out graft. A string of recent scandals, however, suggests that fighting corruption is at odds with Zelensky’s own political power base.

Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, was accused in May of laundering money linked to a luxury development project that also involved Mindich – nicknamed “Zelensky’s wallet” by the press – former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, who is a personal friend of Zelensky, and a fourth partner believed to be the Ukrainian leader himself.

Is Zelensky personally corrupt?

Critics have argued that Zelensky is either dirty or has been spectacularly oblivious to wrongdoing committed under his nose.

As long as his claim to presidential office and its associated protections are not challenged, however, Zelensky cannot be formally prosecuted.

The Ukraine conflict has exposed a German establishment more willing to defend its commitments to Kiev than to consider their cost to Germany. Saxony-Anhalt has delivered its verdict: an overwhelming win for the AfD (Alternative for Germany).

Now the parties it defeated may try to preserve their power through the establishment’s political firewall, while the BSW (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance) must decide whether it will help restore political independence and relations with Russia or become the anti-Russian establishment’s last line of defense.

The war in Ukraine has posed a very basic question: whose interests should the German government serve? Kiev has its objectives. Germany has its own responsibilities, resources, and limits. The two cannot simply be declared identical. The AfD deserves credit for challenging this confusion. It has insisted that German interests are paramount and that Russia cannot be treated as a permanent enemy without serious costs to Europe. Its proposals include reducing financial and military assistance to pressure Kiev into peace negotiations, offering partial sanctions relief to encourage talks, and lifting sanctions fully once a peace agreement is reached. These are subjects for practical diplomacy. They recognize that Russia will remain a major European power whatever German ministers say about it, and that a durable settlement must be negotiated with Moscow. The AfD’s parliamentary proposal gives negotiations and the restoration of relations a place in policy that endless establishment declarations of “resolve” cannot supply.

The BSW’s opposition to arms deliveries to Ukraine and its demand for diplomacy give it substantial common ground with the AfD. This is one reason to welcome its presence in parliament. Thus, in Saxony-Anhalt, the immediate opportunity belongs to the AfD and BSW: together, they could turn their rejection of the present course into a governing coalition.

Saxony-Anhalt has now given that challenge political weight. The AfD won 43.8% and 39 seats. The CDU (Christian Democratic Union, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party) received 17.2% and 15 seats. The BSW entered parliament with 5.3% and five seats. Together, the AfD and BSW would hold 44 of the 83 seats, exceeding the 42 needed for a majority. The CDU, SPD (Social Democratic Party), Greens, and Left have only 39 between them. An alternative majority excluding the AfD would therefore require the BSW. The reported seat allocation presents the BSW with a clear choice: negotiate a change of government with the election winner or help its opponents keep it out.

The AfD fell short of an absolute majority, but has still earned the strongest political claim to lead coalition negotiations, even though it has no automatic right to govern. The establishment’s firewall exists to prevent that claim from being tested through ordinary bargaining. Before demands are presented, before compromises are considered, before a common program is examined, the answer is already supposed to be no. The establishment then describes this refusal as a “defense of democracy.” It might more honestly describe it as a defense of its own exclusive right to supply the government.

No party is legally obliged to cooperate with the AfD. Equally, no party is entitled to escape criticism for refusing. The defenders of the firewall like to recite the first point as though it settles the second. It does not. Parties make choices, and voters are entitled to judge them. If the CDU can contemplate arrangements involving the Greens and the Left (both radical, socially destructive, and truly extremist), it must explain why differences in those directions can be managed while differences with the AfD prohibit even a discussion. Saying “we will not cooperate with the AfD because of the firewall” does not explain why cooperation would be wrong.

This is the practical meaning of the uniparty. The Greens and the Left openly advance the left-liberal agenda, the SPD supports it, and the CDU helps preserve it while calling itself conservative. Their campaign quarrels offer voters the illusion of choice without a real change of direction. When the AfD threatens to overturn that agenda, they unite to keep it out of government and call their cooperation “democratic responsibility.” Ministers can be replaced and coalition partners reshuffled, but the same political course survives. The firewall protects the established parties from the consequence elections should make possible: losing power to an opposition that intends to govern differently.

The firewall lets the established parties lose voters without losing power. Instead of defeating the AfD through better government and stronger arguments, they can gather enough coalition partners to keep it out. Parties rejected at the ballot box then present their survival in office as a “victory for democracy.” This gives force to the AfD’s accusation that opposition is welcome only while it cannot govern. Every additional party recruited to keep the AfD out makes the arrangement harder to disguise: the established parties are protecting their own hold on power.

The BSW should understand this danger better than most. It was founded to challenge policies that the established parties treated as beyond debate. It deserves sympathy for reopening arguments about war, economic interests, and the costs imposed on ordinary people. Its call for normal relations with Russia offers a necessary alternative to permanent confrontation, and its willingness to defend that position under political pressure deserves credit. However, if the BSW refuses to enter into a coalition with the AfD, it accepts an establishment veto over its own political freedom. It may still speak against the system, but the established parties will have allowed the BSW to criticize their policies while preventing it from forming a government that could change them.

Supporting individual AfD proposals is better than rejecting them on principle, but it can become an excuse for avoiding the real contest over power. The BSW could claim influence through occasional votes while leaving the government and its priorities in other hands. A government in Saxony-Anhalt cannot stop Germany’s weapons deliveries to Ukraine or negotiate peace with Russia; those decisions belong to the federal government. An AfD-BSW coalition would need an agreement on matters it could directly influence, such as schools, policing, and state spending. If it governed well, it would give voters concrete evidence that cooperation between the two parties can work. That would weaken the argument for keeping the AfD out of office. The established parties would then have to defend their record against an actual AfD-led government. The firewall spares them that comparison.

Russia and North Korea have opened the first road bridge across the Tumen River, linking Russia’s Primorye region directly with the neighboring country, Primorye Governor Oleg Kozhemyako has announced.

The new crossing over the river dividing the countries is expected to boost mutual trade and provide year-round transport.

Construction of the new bridge began in April 2025 under an agreement signed by Moscow and Pyongyang in 2024. Until now, the neighboring countries’ only direct land transport connection had been the Friendship railway bridge across the Tumen River.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his North Korean counterpart Pak Thae Song launched traffic across the bridge by video link. 

“The new route will ensure reliable and stable supplies of various products and will help expand trade and economic cooperation between our countries,” Kozhemyako wrote on Telegram on Monday.

Leading the first Russian convoy across the bridge was a piece of Soviet history – a restored red ZAZ-968M Zaporozhets once owned by Soviet officer Yakov Novichenko, after whom the crossing is named. His grandson Nikolay Shcherbitsky drove the 1980 car, which he had restored himself.

During a mass rally in Pyongyang in 1946, Novichenko shielded Kim Il Sung from a grenade thrown toward the platform where the Korean leader was standing. He survived despite severe injuries and the loss of his right hand, and was later awarded North Korea’s highest labor title.

A new Khasan road checkpoint has also been built next to the bridge. It has ten traffic lanes and is designed to process up to 300 vehicles and 2,850 people per day once it operates at full capacity, according to the Russian Transport Ministry. Russian officials say the new road link should cut transport costs and increase bilateral trade.

Eleven people were killed when an avalanche in the mountains of Russia’s Kabardino-Balkaria region struck during a security agency personnel training exercise, the regional Emergencies Ministry has reported, adding that six remain missing.

The avalanche swept through a temporary camp in the Bezengi Gorge on Sunday evening as participants were undergoing training on icy terrain, Russian Mountaineering Federation official Alexander Yakovenko told reporters on Monday. Civilian instructors were overseeing the exercises.

“This is not a classic ascent but specifically a training process,” Yakovenko said. “Participants set up a tent camp and go out for several days to practice techniques for moving across icy terrain and organizing belays. After training they were supposed to return to the permanent camp.”

The snow-and-ice mass came down from Mount Mizhirgi and struck both the camp and areas being used for training. The registered group comprised 33 people, although Yakovenko said only 15 were initially believed to have been in the immediate avalanche zone, with participants spread across different training sites.

He described an avalanche of such magnitude as exceptionally rare. According to him, a huge mass of snow and ice broke away high above the group, crashed onto the glacier and set off further movement below.

Eleven people have been confirmed dead and six others were injured and hospitalized, according to the Emergencies Ministry. Ten members of the group managed to descend without assistance, while rescuers are continuing to search for six others.

The search has been complicated by difficult mountain terrain, the size of the avalanche zone and the risk of further slides. The Emergencies Ministry said 56 personnel had been deployed to the operation, with rescue aircraft also involved when conditions allow.

Yakovenko said the participants and instructors had the required qualifications and described security agency training under Russian Mountaineering Federation programs as standard practice.

Polish protesters have accused Warsaw of whipping up anti-Russian hostility and dragging the country toward war as the government continues to arm Ukraine and deepen confrontation with Moscow.

Supporters of the Confederation of the Polish Crown party marched through Gniezno on Sunday behind a banner reading “Poland for Peace,” carrying Polish and party flags.

“They’re trying to turn Russophobia into our national sport. But we won’t give in,” activist Marta Czech told the crowd, urging “prudence” as tensions with Russia continue to rise.

Another speaker, Lukasz Pakulski, accused the authorities of frightening Poles with talk of tanks, nuclear weapons, and a wider conflict. “They are pushing us into war,” he said, declaring that “Poles stand for peace.”

The Crown is a traditionalist, Euroskeptic party founded by MEP Grzegorz Braun. It campaigns for tighter immigration controls, less power for Brussels, and Poland’s withdrawal from the EU, while opposing deeper Polish involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The protest comes as Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has continued to support Kiev, arguing that Ukraine’s security is inseparable from Poland’s own. Warsaw has provided around $6.8 billion in aid to Kiev since 2022, including more than $5 billion in military assistance. Poland also hosts around 961,000 Ukrainians under temporary protection.

However, public enthusiasm for the policy has been fading, with a July poll finding that 52% of Poles opposed accepting more Ukrainian refugees, while another survey showed 67% backed deporting unemployed Ukrainian men of military age.

Relations between Warsaw and Kiev have also recently deteriorated over historical grievances after Vladimir Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which Poland holds responsible for massacring up to 100,000 ethnic Poles during World War II.

President Karol Nawrocki later stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor, while other politicians have called for an end to free weapons deliveries to Kiev.

Moscow has consistently accused Warsaw of deliberately stoking anti-Russian sentiment while supporting Kiev’s war effort.

Russian officials have also highlighted the Kiev-Warsaw UPA dispute, arguing that even one of Ukraine’s strongest backers can no longer ignore Kiev’s embrace of neo-Nazi ideology and glorification of figures linked to wartime atrocities.

Russia has ordered the German consulate in St. Petersburg to close in a widening diplomatic dispute with Berlin. The mission must cease operations by September 18, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Monday.

“Russia is withdrawing its consent for the German Consulate General in St. Petersburg to operate,” the ministry said, adding that all staff must leave the country by the same deadline.

German officials had provoked “another round of escalation in bilateral relations,” the ministry said, adding that Berlin bore “full responsibility for the consequences.”

The measures follow German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul’s September 1 announcement that Berlin would close Russia’s consulate in Bonn on September 18 and terminate an agreement governing the Russian House cultural center in Berlin.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had handed Germany’s head of mission in Moscow a formal notice on the closure of the St. Petersburg consulate.

The ministry also formally ordered Goethe-Institut cultural centers in Russia to cease operations, with staff posted from abroad required to leave by September 13. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had earlier said the centers would close in response to Berlin’s measures.

Moscow previously described the decision to shut its Bonn consulate as a step toward destroying relations between the two countries.

The latest Russian measures come as the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the regional election in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, finishing well ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU.

“We want to speak not only about India but also with India – that’s why now we are also available in Hindi,” RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said.

The new multimedia portal, RTHindi.com, goes live on September 7, offering text reports, news video and analysis in Hindi. The platform is aimed at an audience of more than 500 million across India, bringing it domestic and international news in a simple, accessible format with a fresh perspective that has long become RT’s trademark.

The new site features Hindi-language access to RT India television programming and other RT content including a geopolitical talk show hosted by former Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid and a weekly author’s program on Russian-Indian relations presented by RT India News Service head Runjhun Sharma.

“RT Hindi marks a new stage in India-Russia media ties. Hindi is spoken by hundreds of millions of people and the new platform, guided by its global slogan Question More, brings RT’s coverage directly to Hindi-speaking audiences”, Runjun Sharma said.

RT India was launched in December 2025 by RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who attended the ceremony during a state visit to New Delhi. Since then, RT India has built a newsroom of more than 100 journalists and production staff in the Delhi-NCR region, producing daily news bulletins, documentaries and interview programs for English-speaking audiences.

The international RT television network includes news channels in English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Serbian, and French, as well as the RTD documentary channel in Russian and English. RT also operates online portals in ten languages and the global multimedia agency RUPTLY, which supplies exclusive content to broadcasters worldwide. RT is available 24/7 to more than 950 million viewers in over 100 countries.

Russian diplomat Roman Babushkin has praised the launch of RT Hindi, the Indian language channel of RT India, calling it a “necessary” initiative.

In an interview with RT India Head of News Runjhun Sharma, the charge d’affaires at the Russian Embassy in New Delhi said – in flawless Hindi – that Indians will now be able to access unbiased and accurate information about Russia and the wider world in their own language. 

RT Hindi went live on September 7, nine months after RT India launched its English-language television channel. The platform will carry Indian news alongside international coverage and analysis for Hindi-speaking readers, with an emphasis on simple, accessible language and a broader international perspective. Its launch comes just days before New Delhi hosts the BRICS Summit.

Babushkin noted the long history of relations between the two countries, which predate India’s independence, saying India is “not merely a country, but a planet encompassing multiple languages and cultures.”

He also listed artificial intelligence, the Arctic, and space as priority areas for deeper bilateral cooperation, beyond the traditional pillars of defense and energy.

Sharma described the service as another “Bindi” (dot worn on the forehead by most Indian women) in India-Russia relations, saying it would help RT to reach hundreds of millions of Hindi speakers directly.

RT India debuted in December, when Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a state visit to New Delhi, joined RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan to formally launch the channel. Its Delhi-National Capital Region newsroom has since grown to more than 100 journalists and production staff.

On New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil despite pressure from Washington, Babushkin said Moscow and India “understand each other’s national interests very well,” adding that Russia is ready to provide what India needs.

“Friends do not try to pressure each other,” he said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said his African National Congress (ANC) party is considering Electoral Court action over alleged technical glitches that affected candidate-list submissions ahead of local elections in November.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has rejected the ANC’s claims, saying there were no reports of a non-functional system when nominations closed at 5pm on August 28.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the ANC’s door-to-door campaign in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, on Friday, Ramaphosa said the problems were linked to the interface with the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) candidate-capture system.

”There were some glitches, glitches with regard to just the interface with the IEC system. The candidates’ list was there for the whole country. They were submitted, and in regard to those areas there were some glitches,” Ramaphosa said.

The ANC has disputed claims that it failed to submit its nominations on time, maintaining that technical problems affected some of its remaining entries. The Commission has also said it will not reopen the system to allow parties or independent candidates to submit nominations after the deadline.

The IEC said 2,274 candidate names were captured on its online system but were not finally submitted by the 5pm deadline on August 28. The names were linked to 45 political parties, with 480 potential proportional representation candidates and 1,794 potential ward candidates among them. The IEC has said these candidates are not in contention because, although their details had been captured, they had not been formally submitted to the Commission by the deadline.

Ramaphosa described the system error as limited, saying its impact was “containable and manageable." He said several political parties had experienced problems, but the ANC was particularly affected because it was submitting a large number of candidates.

”I’m certain that a solution will be found. The Political Party Liaison Committee, as well as the IEC and the parties themselves, will be able to find a solution,” Ramaphosa said, adding that the ANC was exploring different avenues to resolve the dispute.

First published by IOL

Niger has accused French President Emmanuel Macron’s government of inciting and supporting a failed mutiny by soldiers in the capital, Niamey, late last month and threatened possible international legal proceedings.

The Council of Ministers made the allegation following a meeting chaired by Nigerien transitional leader Abdourahamane Tiani on Friday. It described the unrest as an operation with “international ramifications” sustained by a network of collaborators headed by the “French regime.”

The military-led government said “treacherous and renegade elements, promised the moon and the stars, were tasked with carrying out the unfulfilled ambitions of Macron and his cronies” to destabilize the country and undermine its efforts to assert sovereignty over its natural resources. It said “substantial documentation on this aggression has been compiled, and Niger reserves the right to initiate proceedings before international courts.”

Soldiers from the Special Intelligence Battalion launched a mutiny at Air Base 101, located within Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, on the night of August 28. The country’s Defense Ministry said they detained fellow soldiers and opened fire on sensitive sites before advancing on the presidential palace, but were repelled by the Presidential Guard. The authorities said loyalist forces, assisted by Russia’s Africa Corps, suppressed the uprising. Three Presidential Guard soldiers were killed during the clashes, according to an official press release.

Niger and its AES allies Burkina Faso and Mali have repeatedly accused France of seeking to destabilize their countries and supporting armed groups behind a deadly jihadist insurgency in the Sahel. Paris has denied the allegations.

The opposition right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party could join forces with the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) after its landslide election win in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, RT contributor Rachel Marsden has said.

The AfD won 43.8% of the vote in Sunday’s regional election, leaving German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) far behind in second place at 17.5%. However, the right-wing party claimed 39 out of 97 seats in the local legislature, falling short of a governing majority.

Speaking to RT on Monday, Marsden pointed out that Saxony-Anhalt is “one of the AFD’s strongest states. So, no, it’s not like Germany has suddenly undergone some kind of mass political conversion.”

The AfD and BWS might sit on the different sides of the political spectrum, but their positions overlap in many areas, especially when it comes to urging dialogue with Russia and resisting the growing influence of EU bureaucrats in Brussels, Marsden stressed.

“There’s also the possibility that the AfD would refuse to work with anybody in favor of just kind of rolling the dice and hoping that nobody can form a coalition government,” which would lead to a new election, giving the right-wing party another chance of calming enough votes to govern Saxony-Anhalt alone, she added.

Watch the full video below:

Indian IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) plans to build a $7.4 billion data center campus, exploiting the opportunities offered by the white-hot global demand for artificial intelligence as it seeks to move away from the traditional outsourcing model.

The 1-gigawatt (GW) facility will cater to AI companies and large cloud providers, known as hyperscalers, offering support for AI training, inference, and other advanced workloads, TCS said on Saturday.

TCS unit HyperVault will build the campus – expected to be among the country’s biggest – in the southern city of Hyderabad. The buildout will happen in phases, based on customer demand and technology requirements, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement. 

TCS CEO K. Krithivasan said the project is part of the company’s “infrastructure-to-intelligence” strategy.

“AI demand is increasingly becoming infrastructure demand,” Sohom Banerjee, a technology analyst at the think tank CUTS International, told RT. He said TCS’s move should be viewed as some IT companies “moving vertically down the AI stack.” 

Banerjee noted that while AI is putting pressure on parts of the IT consultants’ traditional business model, it is also simultaneously creating demand for a new layer of services around data centers, computing capacity, cloud platforms, AI models, and enterprise applications. 

Thousands of people gathered in Belgrade on Monday to pay their respects to former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic before his burial, which took place without formal state or military honors.

Supporters carrying Serbian flags and photographs of Mladic gathered outside the Church of St. Luke, where his coffin was displayed ahead of the funeral service. He was later buried beside his daughter at a nearby cemetery.

Mladic commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-1995 war that broke up Yugoslavia. In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted him of genocide for targeting Bosnian Muslims, Croats and other groups.

Mladic died in The Hague on August 27 at the age of 84 while serving a life sentence.

His remains were returned to Serbia last week on a government plane. Serbian soldiers carried the coffin from the aircraft, which was then escorted through Belgrade. A separate commemoration was held on Saturday at the House of the Serbian Army.

Despite the convictions, Mladic has remained a respected figure among some Serbs, who view him as a wartime defender of the Bosnian Serb population. Many also share longstanding complaints that international courts have treated crimes against Serbs differently from those committed by Serb forces during the Yugoslav wars.

Public tributes to Mladic have also spread to football stadiums. The normally fierce rivalry between Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) and Partizan Belgrade was set aside at the Serbian capital’s derby over the weekend as both sets of fans chanted Mladic’s name, before a giant tifo bearing his image was unveiled. Crvena Zvezda fans also chanted in Mladic’s honor during a Europa League match last month, prompting UEFA to fine the club €90,000 ($105,000). Bosnia’s FK Borac Banjaluka was also fined €39,500 over similar chants and other fan offenses.

🫡

🔴⚪️ #fkcz pic.twitter.com/n0IwG1NDTu

— FK Crvena zvezda (@crvenazvezdafk) September 6, 2026

Justice Minister Nenad Vujic had initially suggested that Mladic would receive state honors, however, the final funeral arrangements included no artillery salute, ceremonial military presence, or attendance by senior Serbian officials.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic rejected the criticism, arguing that Brussels had failed to identify any concrete act of “glorification” by the Serbian authorities, and called Kos’ statement “stupid, as usual.”

“I suppose we should ban people from showing up, ban the funeral,” he said.

Vucic had earlier said Serbia would help Mladic’s family arrange a “dignified” burial and criticized The Hague for refusing repeated Serbian requests to allow the former general to return home as his health deteriorated.

The president did not attend Monday’s funeral, citing a previously scheduled visit by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

India is reportedly working on a plan to equip the Indian Air Force’s workhorse Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets with advanced long-range Russian air-to-air missiles.

The Indian Defense Ministry is expected to consider a proposal to modify the Su-30MKI fleet to carry the Russian RVV BD air-to-air missiles, which can fly at hypersonic speeds and take out targets up to 300 kilometers away, ANI news agency reported. 

The RVV BD is the export version of the R-37M missile, one of the world’s longest-range air-to-air missiles. It is designed to shoot down tanker and early warning aircraft past enemy fighter escort from long range. The Defense Acquisition Council meeting on Monday is expected to take up the proposal, the report said, citing sources. 

The RVV BD is compatible with Russia’s advanced fifth-generation Su-57 fighter jet – which has already been offered to India.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit New Delhi later this week for the 18th summit of BRICS nations. A discussion on the possible sale of the Su-57 was on the agenda of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation held last month in Moscow.

The upgrades have taken on a new urgency as China has moved its J-20 fifth-generation aircraft next to the Indian border in Tibet, and is reportedly planning to transfer its J-35 fifth-generation fighters to Pakistan.

A defense acquisitions panel on Monday, chaired by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, cleared a slew of proposals worth $11.64 billion to enhance the “war-fighting capability” of the air force, and various systems for the navy and the army.

“This upgrade is going to be formidable,” retired Air Marshal Anil Chopra told RT India.

He said India has been diversifying its defense purchases, but also maintaining strategic autonomy, despite US sanctions.

The Indian Air Force operates about 258 Su-30MKI – an India-specific variant of the multi-role fighter aircraft – and state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is producing 12 more at its Nashik facility to replace those lost in accidents over the years.

The jets saw action during last year’s clash with Pakistan – which India code-named Operation Sindoor – covering Indian formations and firing Brahmos missiles at Pakistani airbases.

Iran will announce a new “restricted zone” for shipping outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days, high-ranking security official Mohsen Rezaei has said.

The US resumed strikes on Iranian targets last week, saying they were in response to Tehran hitting commercial ships in the key waterway. The Islamic Republic maintains that no vessel can pass through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for the shipment of some 20% of global oil, without its permission. Iran retaliated with a missile and drone barrage against US military facilities in the Gulf, while also firing at American warships, including an aircraft carrier.

In a televised interview on Sunday, Rezaei, who is the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran plans to place even wider curbs on shipping in the region.

The restricted area “will begin from the US Navy’s blockade line and extend into parts of the Persian Gulf,” stretching toward several key ports, he said.

Rezaei insisted that the Strait of Hormuz remains “completely closed and under the control of the armed forces” of Iran, describing US President Donald Trump’s claims that it’s open as a “big lie.”

More than a hundred vessels passed through the waterway on a daily basis before the US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February, but now the number has reduced to only seven or eight per day, the official said. Those vessels are transporting essential goods for the Islamic Republic, he added.

“The Americans are trying to smuggle five to six vessels through at great expense, but these ships are usually struck,” Rezaei stressed.

Iran isn’t sinking those ships because they are carrying oil and doing so would harm the environment, he stressed.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned in a post on X that Washington could target the Iranian oil tanker fleet in the Middle East or in the Indo-Pacific region. “It’s simple: if Iran shoots at US ships, we will destroy (and sink) their oil tankers,” he wrote.

Iranian Parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Sunday that further aggressive actions by the US will be met with “faster, heavier and more painful” retaliation by Tehran.

“The Americans have surely understood that the era of proportionate responses has come to an end and our recent strikes against aggressor bases was only a start,” Ghalibaf said.

Right-wing protesters have clashed with police in the British city of Portsmouth as they tried to prevent a group of newly arrived migrants from being processed, videos from the scene show.

A small boat which departed Normandy in France with some 140 asylum seekers aboard was intercepted by the UK authorities in the English Channel and escorted to Portsmouth, British media reported on Sunday.

The news prompted hundreds of anti-immigrant activists to head to the city in Hampshire in south-eastern England. The demonstrators blocked roads in the area in an attempt to prevent buses from delivering the migrants to a Home Office processing center in the village of Manston in Kent.

The protesters, many of whom were dressed in black and wore face masks, chanted: “Stop the boats” and “Send them back.”

Footage from the scene captured minor scuffles between the activists and police armed with riot shields. The demonstrators were also filmed throwing objects at the officers.

Riot police clash with protestors in Portsmouth after small boat arrival. Shot for @PA pic.twitter.com/JavKFpfVVa

— Jamie Lashmar (@jamie_lashmar) September 6, 2026

Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, who recently founded the Patriot Platform group, said in a live stream from the scene that “we will not accept this anymore.”

BREAKING:

The police and anti-migration activists are facing off with each other in the sea near Portsmouth.

After the police started splashing water on the activists, they responded with the same measure. The activists are there to block illegal migrants from being disembarked…

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 6, 2026

“This is no longer an option to tell us that the boat numbers are down. This isn’t about the numbers being down… this is about understanding that this has to come to an end now,” Thomas, who is an associate of prominent British right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, said of the flow of migrants from the other side of the channel.

🚨 LIVE FROM EASTNEY, PORTSMOUTH

Police have attempted to gain ground on patriots by reversing vehicles into them.

One man decided to lay down to try and stop them.

Pepper spray is being used by police.

🎥 @WesleyWinterYT https://t.co/6U358pa0iZ pic.twitter.com/Y1gSIk46rJ

— The Nationalist GB (@TheNatGB) September 6, 2026

The demonstrators said they intended to continue blocking the roads all night, but ended the rally at around 3 AM local time after police obtained a dispersal order and warned that officers would begin making arrests, according to The Guardian.

Police start attacking people & end up hitting an elderly man . Portsmouth 👇 pic.twitter.com/1VXq3xxegS

— 🤍𝕁𝕆🤍 (@jomickane) September 6, 2026

A British government spokesperson said that “we condemn the intimidating and thuggish behavior we are seeing tonight. The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder.”

Some 33,000 people, mostly adult men, arrived in the UK in small boats between July 2025 and 2026, making up around 88% of all illegal migrants entering the country, according to government data. During the same period in 2024 and 2025, the number of asylum seekers crossing the channel stood at 41,000.

A YouGov poll published in August showed that 69% of Britons believe immigration over the past decade has been too high, while 43% said it had been mostly bad for the country, up from 33% in 2016.

The UN General Assembly has adopted a nonbinding resolution promoting world maps that show Africa at its true relative size, following longstanding objections that the 16th-century Mercator projection makes the continent appear disproportionately small.

The “Correct the Map” resolution, sponsored by Togo on behalf of the African Group, passed on Friday by 164 votes. The US voted against it, while Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine abstained.

The measure encourages governments, schools, publishers, international institutions, and digital platforms to use Equal Earth or other equal-area projections when comparing the size of countries and continents. It neither bans Mercator nor establishes a single official UN map. The resolution also states that it does not affect international borders or territorial claims.

Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said correcting the map would restore an accurate understanding of the continent’s true dimensions. “A more faithful representation can help better cover Africa’s real wealth and potential, particularly in global economy and commercial dynamics,” Dussey told reporters.

Created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, the old projection preserves angles and was designed for maritime navigation. However, it increasingly enlarges landmasses closer to the poles. Greenland consequently appears comparable in size to Africa, although the continent is about 14 times larger.

The vote followed the launch of the Correct the Map campaign by Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa in April 2025. The initiative described Mercator’s continued dominance as “cartographic colonialism,” arguing that making Africa appear smaller influences education, identity, and perceptions of the continent’s global importance. Those wider social effects remain an argument advanced by campaigners rather than a feature of the projection itself.

Washington said the resolution “mocks the work and purpose” of the UN and promotes an “ideological agenda.” Ukraine objected to maps on the Equal Earth website depicting Crimea as politically separate from the rest of the country.

Russia also backed the measure, saying the widespread use of Mercator maps had entrenched a misleading perception of Africa’s size. Deputy Permanent Representative Maria Zabolotskaya said the resolution sought to “correct a long-entrenched disproportion” associated with the “heavy historical legacy of colonialism,” under which Africa’s “place and significance were diminished.”

#CorrectTheMap

The maps we use shape the way we see the world.

For centuries, the Mercator projection has distorted the true size of continents, making Africa appear far smaller than it is. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.

Led by the African Union… pic.twitter.com/j8DvTmfUn8

— Diplomatie Togolaise (@DiplomatieTogo) September 3, 2026

The defense firm owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has signed an agreement with Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL) to supply locally made ammunition for AK-203 assault rifles.

Under the deal, Adani Defence will supply 7.62 mm ammunition to IRRPL, which is making the Russian-designed rifles for the Indian armed forces at a facility in Korwa in the northern Uttar Pradesh state.

“Adani Defence will supply the small-caliber ammunition required for the AK-203 programme for five years, providing an Indian source of supply,” reports cited the company as saying. The ammunition will be made at Adani Defence’s facility in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where the company already produces small-caliber rounds. 

The financial terms of the deal, the number of rounds to be supplied and the delivery schedule were not disclosed.

Gautam Adani became Asia’s richest man in June, ahead of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son. He hails from Gujarat, the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and has businesses in energy, transport, infrastructure, defense, and minerals and mining. A US court recently dismissed a criminal case against Adani brought by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden.

The German government’s increasingly hostile stance toward Russia, mounting economic problems, and concerns over migration have helped propel the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to a historic election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Professor Vladislav Belov, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Center for German Studies, has told RT.

The AfD won 43.8% of the vote, more than doubling its result from the previous state election, according to official preliminary results. It is set to hold 39 of the state parliament’s 97 seats, falling short of the 49 required for an absolute majority.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has led Saxony-Anhalt’s coalition government since 2021, finished a distant second with 17.2% and 15 seats. Sven Schulze, the party’s lead candidate and outgoing regional head, conceded defeat and congratulated the AfD on its success.

Speaking shortly after polls closed on Sunday, Belov recalled his earlier assessment that the anti-Russian positions adopted by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt would benefit the AfD among certain groups of voters.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), founded in 2024, entered the Saxony-Anhalt parliament for the first time after securing 5.3% of the vote.

Belov argued that the campaign had been unusually dominated by federal issues, despite voters formally electing a state parliament.

“For the first time, the AfD presented itself not merely as a protest party but as a party with governing competence,” he said, identifying migration, education, and Saxony-Anhalt’s economic and political situation as key campaign issues that other parties had failed to address.

The predominantly rural state is also home to a sizeable chemical industry that has been affected by higher energy costs since Germany abandoned inexpensive Russian pipeline gas. Unemployment stood at 8.1% in July, compared with 6.4% nationwide.

Belov attributed the Greens’ result to tactical mobilization rather than voter support for their policies. He described the ‘Taktisch Wählen’ initiative, which used door-to-door canvassing and an online tool to encourage support for the SPD or Greens in order to block an AfD majority, as “scandalous.”

US backroom diplomacy on Ukraine cannot achieve peace without Washington accepting that it is no longer the world’s sole superpower, economist and public policy scholar Jeffrey Sachs has told RT.

The comments follow separate closed-door talks held by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev over the weekend. Details of the proposals exchanged during the meetings have not been made public.

“The US still has a grandiose idea that it is the world’s hegemon and the sole superpower, and it is not. Clearly, we are in a multi-polar world,” Sachs told RT in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

Sachs argued that a peace settlement requires taking Russia’s security interests into account and abandoning the expansionist foreign policy the US has pursued for more than 30 years.

“It seems to be psychologically very difficult” for Washington to openly accept that “basic reality,” he argued, saying this is why it resorts to “backroom negotiations” and secrecy that ultimately produce no tangible results.

Sachs also described the situation in Ukraine as an “endgame situation,” arguing that Kiev is in a desperate position militarily, socially, and politically.

Watch the exclusive interview with economist Jeffrey Sachs in full below.

Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement in military procurement in 2024 alone, the New York Times has reported, citing confidential government audits and court records.

Seven of the country’s ten largest military contractors continued to receive new orders despite fraud investigations, previous failures to deliver, or the arrest of executives on corruption charges, the paper wrote on Sunday, describing the pattern as a “persistent phenomenon.”

Auditors also identified 18 companies awarded contracts despite earlier defaults, six of which had failed to fulfill a single deal.

Defense industry fraud is “a longstanding tradition” in Ukraine, American anti-corruption expert James Wasserstrom has told the NYT. “Anything that isn’t nailed down in Ukraine will be stolen,” he said.

The audits also found that cheaper offers were sometimes bypassed. In one tender, Kiev reportedly bought Turkish-made munitions for multiple-launch rocket systems through a Czech intermediary for around $5,100 each despite the manufacturer offering them directly for roughly $4,200.

The losses accumulated as Vladimir Zelensky repeatedly appealed to Western governments for more weapons, warning of critical shortages on the battlefield. In April 2024, he said Kiev was in “dire need” of increased support and pressed its backers to deliver promised arms and ammunition.

The report comes amid a series of high-profile graft investigations involving top Ukrainian officials and figures close to Zelensky. In August, the Ukrainian leader sacked the deputy head of his office, Irina Mudraya, while other recent corruption probes have implicated former ministers, diplomats and senior officials.

Former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, meanwhile, accused the government of “systemic corruption” following his dismissal in July. Fedorov, who had sought to overhaul military procurement, has claimed that entrenched defense-industry interests resisted his reforms and has since called for wartime elections.

Moscow has long argued that the scandals are evidence of systemic corruption in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier this year that corruption “permeates the entire Ukrainian power structure, including Zelensky’s inner circle and Zelensky himself.”

At least 25 people, mostly schoolchildren and teenagers, have died after a bus fell into a ravine on Cabo Verde’s island of Fogo. The deadly crash prompted the authorities of the archipelago nation to declare a two-day mourning period.

The accident occurred on Saturday, when the bus, carrying children on a field trip, plumetted off a cliff while en route to the village of Cha das Caldeiras. The village, known for its unique wines, is located within the large crater of the active Pico do Fogo volcano.

The annual trip was set up by a private individual. The organizer, who is believed to have been behind the wheel, was killed in the crash. Most of the 32 people aboard the bus were killed in the accident, while others received injuries of varying severity.

“I am heartbroken. This is an irreparable loss, a part of the future that is being said goodbye to: the overwhelming majority of the victims are young people and teenagers,” The country’s president, Jose Maria Pereira Neves, said in a Facebook post.

The president, alongside other top officials, attended the funeral of some 18 victims of the crash on Sunday, while other deceased were buried in a separate ceremony earlier in the day. The country’s authorities are investigating the accident.

Five people have been killed and several others injured after a cargo plane overran a runway and crashed near Miami International Airport, authorities have said.

The FAA identified the aircraft as a Boeing 767 operated for Amazon by 21 Air. It had arrived in Florida from San Juan, Puerto Rico, at around 2 PM on Sunday.

The crash prompted “a full ground stop” at the airport while first responders assessed the scene, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

“Units arrived to find an airplane that had caught fire as a result of this crash, with heavy flames and smoke showing,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said on X. “Firefighters are working on extinguishing the fire and assessing patients.”

Videos circulating online appear to show the aircraft travelling beyond the runway and crossing a road before coming to rest near a parking area. Other footage shows flames engulfing its right side as thick black smoke rises from the wreckage. The right wing appears severely damaged.

Plane crashes at miami international airport.
Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo plane on fire with heavy black smoke after overshooting the runway at Miami International Airport. pic.twitter.com/FXFAvsROlw

— Indian🇮🇳 (@singh31919) September 6, 2026

NBC Miami reported, citing a source, that the two pilots were taken to Jackson South Medical Center, while three other people were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Their conditions remain unknown.

CCTV footage showing the Prime Air B-767 crash today in Miami.

pic.twitter.com/qu1DStuEhT

— Francisco Cunha - ✈️ Aviation et al (@OnDisasters) September 6, 2026

One of the airport’s four runways reopened at around 4:15pm, followed by a second approximately 30 minutes later. Officials nevertheless warned passengers to expect continued disruption.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team to Miami to lead the investigation, with the FAA also examining the crash.

A US federal magistrate judge has ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to disclose the names of those who had created a now-defunct fund for victims of politically-motivated prosecution. The lawsuit was filed by multiple plaintiffs, backed by a Soros-funded NGO.

Critics have argued that the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund was designed to funnel taxpayer money to certain Trump supporters who claim they were unfairly investigated by the Justice Department, including those prosecuted over the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021.

On Friday, Judge Ivan D. Davis granted a request that the identities of the masterminds behind the fund be revealed to the plaintiffs and their attorneys, noting that this information must not be made public at this stage.

The DOJ has insisted that the names of those people are “irrelevant” to the case and, moreover, constitute confidential attorney-client discussions or government officials’ deliberations. The Department has also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.

Providing legal support for the lawsuit is the Democracy Forward Foundation – a nonprofit organization that professes to advance “democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education, and regulatory engagement.” In May, it was named among the recipients of a five-year $300 million grant from billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), according to Inside Philanthropy.

The DOJ announced the creation of the fund in May as a part of a settlement agreement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Under it, Trump and several members of his family, along with the Trump Organization, agreed to drop their lawsuit over a leak of their tax returns. In exchange, the Anti-Weaponization Fund was to be established to provide redress to “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the time.

However, faced with criticisms from both Democratic and Republican members of Congress, Blanche declared the fund “dead” in August.

A US munition likely landed a direct hit on a wedding in Iran last week after it veered off its designated target, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing a person familiar with the operation.

The incident occurred in Kuhestak, Hormozgan Province, amid a new wave of airstrikes unleashed by the US on Iran on Tuesday. One of the munitions hit a residential home with a wedding party underway, killing at least five and wounding nearly 70. The Iranian authorities said the victims were three women and two children aged four and 16.

The explosion at the party was highly likely a result of a direct hit by a US munition, according to the WaPo. The US Navy dropped six glide bombs at a communications tower in the town, with all but one striking the designated target. The stray munition missed the tower, reportedly hitting the house located around 135 meters (440 feet) away. The comms tower was the only designated target within the town during the Tuesday strikes, the source told the WaPo, ruling out any prospects the home was attacked intentionally or mixed with some other target.

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

The attack on the wedding party has become the latest in the string of civilian mass-casualty incidents that occurred amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. 

On the opening day of the US-Israeli war on Iran, US forces hit an elementary school in Minab, killing 175 people, predominantly young girls. At least 21 civilians, roughly a third of whom were children, were killed in Lamerd that day. Tehran has repeatedly accused the US of committing war crimes throughout the conflict, reporting some 3,000 civilian casualties since it began late in February.

Diplomatic efforts to end an acute and bloody armed conflict should always be welcomed and the persistence of Donald Trump’s administration, which has pursued this goal for more than a year and a half, also deserves recognition, even if the results so far can hardly be called outstanding.

At the very least, the White House remains the only actor in the West both attempting to change the situation and possessing significant leverage over it. Trump and his closest associates probably do genuinely want the war to end as its continuation distracts Washington from foreign policy priorities they regard as more important. But why, then, does Trump’s diplomatic initiative keep going round in circles, with each new attempt ending in another disappointment?

Trump and his principal envoys tend to approach the conflict as an extraordinarily difficult but essentially technical problem, as a puzzle to be solved in isolation from the wider international system. This reflects the worldview of the current White House, where international affairs are a collection of practical problems to be resolved in ways that strengthen America’s position, preferably with some commercial benefit attached. Given the professional backgrounds of the president and his two principal intermediaries, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, this is hardly surprising.

Such an approach can be useful as an instrument, but it becomes less useful when it substitutes for an understanding of the processes that produced the conflict in the first place and, to use the Russian formulation, its root causes. Any durable settlement requires some understanding of what must change in relations between the major powers if similar confrontations are to be avoided.

Yet American and NATO policy towards Ukraine wasn’t created by one administration or a handful of officials in Washington and Brussels, rather it developed over decades from a particular conception of Western strategic interests. The crisis that entered its most acute phase in 2022 was, from Moscow’s perspective, the culmination of processes underway since the end of the Cold War.

This helps explain why Washington continues to underestimate how much the outcome matters to the principal participants. For both Russia and Ukraine, too much is at stake for the conflict to be settled through the kind of transaction Trump instinctively favors, given their interests are obviously opposed, but both regard the outcome as fateful. Western Europe, having invested heavily in Ukraine’s cause, also has a direct political stake in the result, so every new attempt by Washington’s two brokers therefore encounters the same obstacle in that none of the parties sees this as simply another deal.

Transferring the financial burden, political responsibility and risks to the Western Europeans while continuing to dictate the terms requires a degree of obedience from junior partners that Washington can no longer guarantee. EU governments and Kiev have also learnt how to deal with this unconventional president and when they can’t persuade him, they have become increasingly adept at circumventing his pressure.

The one American instrument against which there would be little defence is a complete cessation of military support, but Trump is unlikely to take that step, even if he were personally inclined to do so because facilitating an outright Russian victory isn’t his objective. He may care less than his predecessor about the precise shape of the eventual settlement, but a complete Ukrainian defeat would be another matter. Nor would abandoning Ukraine enjoy much support across the American political establishment, where there is virtually no constituency for a fundamental rapprochement with Russia.

The White House therefore doesn’t envisage the radical change in American policy that would be necessary to transform the conflict, but without one, events tend to return to their previous course as a prolonged and extremely fierce confrontation whose duration nobody can confidently predict.

Friends and business associates may establish contacts and discover areas in which compromise is conceivable, but they don’t themselves make peace. The shuttle diplomacy of a presidential son-in-law and a trusted business partner may eventually serve as a catalyst for serious negotiations, however, if that moment comes, the settlement will have to be negotiated by officials and institutions possessing state legitimacy and the power to implement what they sign. Personal connections can open the door, but they can’t, by themselves, end a war.

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

Tokyo has demanded that Russia demolish a newly unveiled monument commemorating the 1945 Soviet victory over Imperial Japan and the end of World War II, claiming it offends the “feelings of the Japanese people.” Moscow, however, has dismissed the demand, equating it to telling “the Sun not to shine.”

The monument was unveiled in the Russian far-eastern city of Khabarovsk on Friday. The centerpiece of the memorial is a 15-meter statue of a Soviet soldier crushing a border stone engraved with the Imperial chrysanthemum crest of Japan with the butt of his rifle. The monument was created on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with its design beating seven other projects in a contest.

The stone is “an exact replica of the boundary stone Japan erected on Sakhalin, seizing half of it after the Russo-Japanese War” in the early 20th century, Nikolay Ovsiyenko, deputy head of the presidential office on humanitarian affairs, said. “This isn’t just a symbol of the imperial house, as our neighbors insist – it’s also a symbol of militaristic Japan, which committed monstrous crimes during World War II,” Ovsiyenko added during the unveiling ceremony.

The display has caused a meltdown in Tokyo, with multiple top officials demanding the removal of the monument. “Through diplomatic channels, we have strongly requested the Russian side to cease the installation and remove it,” Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said, adding that he found it “extremely regrettable that the Russian side has not responded to Japan’s request as of the present moment.”

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also went to lengths about the Russian monument, calling the depiction of the destruction of the Imperial crest “completely unacceptable.” The crest “is widely recognized as a symbol of Japan,” and presenting it in such fashion offends the “feelings of the Japanese people,” Takaichi claimed.

Moscow provided an official reaction to the Japanese demands on Sunday, when Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova firmly rejected any prospects of demolishing the monument or somehow altering it to appease Tokyo. 

Last month, Putin made his first-ever visit to the Russia Kuril archipelago, which is partially claimed by Japan. The visit was vigorously protested by Tokyo, with Takaichi calling Putin’s trip “absolutely unacceptable” and saying it “hurts the feelings of the Japanese people.”

At the time, Moscow brushed off the Japanese protests, pointing out the Kuril Islands are Russian territory and the country’s president is fully within his rights to visit them as he pleases. Tokyo’s territorial demands have remained a persistent issue in its ties with Moscow for decades, ultimately preventing the Soviet Union and modern Russia from reaching a formal post-WWII settlement with Japan.

The opposition right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has won Sunday’s regional election in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote, the local election commission has said. The AfD is set to claim 39 out of 97 seats in the local legislature, falling short of a governing majority.

The vote was marked by a record turnout of 78%, the highest since the reunification of Germany in 1990.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party finished in a poor second, securing just over 17.2% of the vote and 15 seats, according to official preliminary results.

AfD lead candidate in the state, Ulrich Siegmund, said the party has “written history” and that the outcome of the vote would “shake all of Germany.”

“We are going to get our country back, and we are starting with Saxony-Anhalt,” he said.

AfD co-chair Alice Weidel earlier did not rule out forming a coalition government in the region, including with Merz’s Christian Democrats, should the right-wing party fail to secure an absolute majority.

After the exit polls gave victory to the AfD, Sven Schulze, the CDU lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt and the outgoing regional head, conceded defeat, congratulating the opponents on their electoral success.

“That’s democracy,” Schulze said, adding that voters have sent a clear message which must be heeded, both at the regional and federal levels, as quoted by German media.

Schulze attributed his party’s poor showing to the unpopular policies pursued by the federal coalition government, which is comprised of the CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). 

SPD co-leader and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil similarly spoke of a “signal to Berlin,” insisting, however, on the continuation of the so-called ‘firewall’ policy, under which all major parties refuse to cooperate with the AfD.

According to preliminary results, the SPD has finished third with 9.3% of the vote, followed by the Greens and the Left Party with 8.9% and 8.6%, respectively. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has also narrowly secured the spot in the legislature with 5.3%.

Over the past several months, opinion polls have consistently shown that the AfD is the most popular party nationwide, enjoying the support of 28% of respondents.

Having the largest opposition faction in the Bundestag, the party campaigns on an anti-immigration platform and is also highly critical of the German government’s support for Ukraine, as well as sanctions against Russia.

An INSA poll published by Bild in late August indicated that support for Germany’s governing Christian Democratic CDU/CSU bloc had fallen to 20%, with some 78% of respondents dissatisfied with Merz’s coalition government.

There are grounds for cautious optimism following Saturday’s talks between US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl and ex-White House aide Steve Gill have told RT.

Trump’s son-in-law and the US special envoy likely presented concrete and well-developed ideas on ending the Ukraine conflict to the Russian leadership, Kneissl and Gill surmised.

According to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov, the talks, which lasted over three hours and included formal discussions as well as an informal exchange over lunch, were “substantive, constructive, extremely candid and trusting.” Aside from the Ukraine conflict, the two sides are understood to have discussed economic cooperation and potential “major, mutually beneficial Russian-American projects.”

Speaking to RT on Sunday, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said that “there is apparently something materializing because these two persons would not come without anything in their hands.” She also claimed that “trust is there” between Moscow and Washington, citing “this ongoing direct communication on a high-ranking political level.”

Kneissl also pointed to the previously unannounced visit to the Russian capital by CIA Director John Ratcliffe last Tuesday, during which he met with Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin.

On Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov likewise said that Saturday’s negotiations were indicative of an “atmosphere of trust” between Russia and the US.

Conservative media host Steve Gill, who served in the office of the US Trade Representative under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, concurred with Kneissl, saying that he was “optimistic that the meeting took as long as it did.”

He told RT that the trip Witkoff and Kushner made to Moscow was likely preceded by considerable preparatory work, with Trump’s envoys plausibly bringing a substantive proposal to the Russian capital.

“The fact that it took three hours to kind of work through those details and now they’re heading to Ukraine leaves me at least optimistic that hopefully some progress was made today,” Gill concluded.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff has expressed optimism about Washington’s renewed efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict following talks in both Moscow and Kiev, saying the Trump administration hopes to find a diplomatic solution.

Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev on Sunday, a day after holding more than three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. Sunday’s trip marked the US envoys’ first official visit to the Ukrainian capital as part of Washington’s peace efforts.

Witkoff said on Sunday that he “felt good” about the discussions in both capitals and that Washington hopes diplomacy can bring an end to the conflict. He also suggested that direct talks involving all three sides could take place soon, pointing to “a trilateral that we’re hopeful will be announced in short order.”

According to Ushakov, the American envoys presented several ideas on possible paths toward a settlement, while Putin reiterated Moscow’s readiness to continue working with Washington to seek a political and diplomatic solution. The Russian leader also stressed that any lasting agreement would have to address what Moscow describes as the root causes of the conflict.

According to an Axios source familiar with the meetings, during the talks in Kiev on Sunday Zelensky discussed Ukrainian preparations for continuing the war through the winter, while Kushner and Witkoff stressed they want a breakthrough before then.

A White House official also told Axios the Moscow discussions were substantive, saying the two sides had discussed plans for the next steps that are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has earlier thanked Trump for his efforts to help resolve the conflict, saying the US president continued seeking a settlement despite the difficulty of the situation. Putin also reiterated Moscow’s commitment to refrain from strikes on Kiev during a three-day period beginning at midnight on September 5, intended to allow the US envoys to travel safely to the Ukrainian capital.

It’s impossible to fully understand the legacy of American feminist icon Gloria Steinem without mentioning Russia.

Steinem – who fought her entire life to promote the radical concept that women should be able to choose whatever kind of life they want – passed away peacefully at her New York home last week at the age of 92. Judging by all the hair-pulling going on over her involvement with the CIA, you’d think that she had been tasked with planting exploding cigars on Fidel Castro.

But here’s what actually happened. Fresh out of Smith College in her early 20s, she took off to India to report for two years for a murky “fellowship,” capturing a newly independent country experimenting with Gandhian social reform, where women were actively collaborating to find their place.

When she returned home, she wanted to keep the party going and spread the same kind of enlightened ideals. She asked around about funding. Shockingly, corporations weren’t interested. But THE Corporation was.

The CIA was willing to fork over some cash, but it would involve setting up a think-tank: the Independent Research Service. She could load up a flight with liberal-minded young American students and professionals who were psyched about leftist ideals – but not too psyched – and take them over to the Soviet-organized World Youth Festivals in Helsinki and Vienna as an option to Communism. In exchange, she just had to produce some deliverables with her observations.

But what does any of this have to do with her lifelong fight for women’s rights and equality? Lots, actually.

Right around the same time as Steinem was being paid by the CIA to take Americans to the festivals, the agency published a report expressing its concern over the use of peace, brotherhood, and social progress to attract non-Communists from around the world to these festivals.

It cited a 1956 Moscow Radio broadcast: “The World Festival which is to be convened in Moscow” will “greet the festival of youth and peace with new labor achievements… Let us show our foreign contemporaries the results of the inspired creative labor of the Soviet people, the wealth of our socialist motherland, and everything of which the Soviet people are proud.”

One of those things of which Soviet society was very proud was the leading role of women in the workforce. In the wake of WWII’s losses, it was an inevitability that women were going to be stepping up as a matter of pragmatic reality.

The Committee of Soviet Women (KSZh) leveraged the 1957 Moscow festival to establish relationships with women from the developing world. The committee’s later reports indicate that women from Africa and South Asia were interested in the Soviet model, including such things as childcare provisions and female workforce participation, according to diplomatic historians.

Soviet archives say that visitors encountered Soviet institutions and it prompted them to think about “new possibilities for their societies.” The status of women was specifically one of the areas around which Soviet hosts and foreign visitors developed solidarity.

At the 1957 Moscow World Youth Festival, the Soviet Union made the social position of women part of its international cultural diplomacy. They were presented as educated, socially active participants in Soviet public life.

And surely it’s just another coincidence that President John F. Kennedy established the President’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt – or that JFK himself had been impressed by women in important positions in the USSR, according to his own brother, the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

Steinem’s Playboy Bunny exposé showing the exploitation of women in Hugh Hefner’s “gentlemen’s” clubs came just a year after one of the festivals, in 1963. The same year that the USSR was also sending a woman to space, while America was sending women to get butt-slapped by some pervert for a paycheck.

Don’t think that the CIA noticed or really cared that much about what women were doing in the workforce at home and abroad? They were actually kind of obsessed with it. To the point of collecting for their files a 1965 congressional report pointing out how women were everywhere in the Soviet workforce, and that “the party and Government have succeeded in altering social custom and public attitudes toward the employment of women.”

In 1963, the CIA found that “by 1959 about 80 percent of Soviet physicians and almost 75 percent of teachers, economists, and planners were women,” in a report concerned with Soviet leadership potential.

In 1974, three years after Steinem had nationally launched the political women’s issue magazine, ‘Ms.’, and become synonymous with the women’s liberation movement, Washington’s Rand Corporation think tank was still churning out research on women’s roles in science and technology in the USSR vs. America.

The Soviets had already understood the value of putting women to work, educating them, and showcasing them as evidence of social progress to the rest of the world. Hardly surprising that it wasn’t long before Washington understood the competitive value of offering its own version.

Steinem entered the American establishment’s Cold War contest with Russia over competing models of modernity at precisely the moment when the status of women had become part of that ideological battlefield.

At the perfect time, she waltzed in through a door that was just begging to be opened by the American establishment. One that had already been flung wide open by Soviet men and women.