Though the Hungarian election is only a week away, another threat is already manifesting for the EU’s elite: This time in Bulgaria, where left-wing populist and former President Rumen Radev wants to shut off the money tap to Ukraine, and his opponents want Brussels’ censorship machine to save them. Here we go again.

On April 19, Bulgarians will vote in the country’s eighth parliamentary election in five years. Called after the resignation of Rosen Zhelyazkov following street protests in November, the election pits centrist Boyko Borissov – a former prime minister – and his pro-EU GERB-SDS coalition against the emerging left-leaning Progressive Bulgaria coalition, headed by Radev.

Who is Bulgaria’s Rumen Radev?

Radev served as Bulgaria’s president from 2017 until his resignation this January. He frequently clashed with Borissov during the latter’s tenure as prime minister, accusing him of incompetence and corruption – allegations substantiated in 2020 when an image of Borissov lying half naked on a bed next to a pile of money and a handgun spread on social media.

The Radev-Borissov rivalry would not concern Brussels if Radev wasn’t a vocal opponent of the EU’s Ukraine policy. Radev has opposed the bloc’s “self-destructive” sanctions on Russia since 2022, views a Ukrainian victory as “impossible,” opposes military aid to Kiev, and has declared that “ending the war in Ukraine requires more diplomacy and negotiations with Russia.” For a country with four NATO military bases and a ten-year defense deal with Ukraine, the issue is critical for Kiev’s backers.

With two weeks to go, Progressive Bulgaria is leading Borrisov’s GERB-SDS by ten points, according to a polling aggregate compiled by Politico. Faced with this outbreak of popular democracy that challenges its fundamental policy positions, the Bulgarian establishment has called for EU reinforcements.

Is the EU meddling in the Bulgarian election?

Last week, caretaker Bulgarian Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov requested that the EU activate its ‘Rapid Response System’ (RRS), claiming that Russia is interfering against Borissov. Activated in Hungary last month, the RRS empowers EU-approved ‘fact-checkers’ to flag online content as ‘disinformation’ and request its removal from social media platforms such as TikTok and Meta.

Platforms that refuse to comply are liable to fines under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force in 2022. The EU has activated the RRS in five elections since 2024 – in France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and non-EU member Moldova – and in every case, an investigation by the US House Judiciary Committee this year found that fact-checkers “almost exclusively targeted” right-wing and populist candidates and organizations. “Moreover, the requirement that these fact-checkers be approved by the European Commission creates a clear structural incentive for the participants to censor Euroskeptic opinion and content,” the committee noted.

An EU spokesperson told Politico this week that it was ready to take action in Bulgaria, “in particular via the Rapid Alert System for real-time information exchanges.” Not to be confused with the Rapid Response System, the Rapid Alert System allows the EU to compile information about supposed ‘disinformation campaigns’, so that more severe measures, including the RRS, can then be taken.

How the EU is outsourcing its dirty work – again

Gyurov’s government is already preparing the proof the EU needs. Last week, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry set up a temporary unit to “counter disinformation and combat hybrid threats,” which will be “advised” by former Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev.

Grozev, whose allegations of Russian poisoning plots were considered too outlandish by even Vladimir Zelensky’s officials, is a wanted man in Russia over his role in encouraging Russian fighter pilots to defect to Ukraine with promises of money and EU citizenship.

According to the ministry, Grozev will “assist the organization with specific information exposing malicious influences,” which will then “be able to be addressed both at the national and European levels through mechanisms developed by the European Commission.”

If Grozev’s research is not enough, the Center for the Study of Democracy – an EU-funded think tank – has already published a report alleging that Bulgaria “faces sustained Russian information manipulation pressure,” and that certain “high-risk narrative pressure points” must be tackled.

Working hand in hand with the Bulgarian government, the EU is paying researchers to justify the use of its own censorship tools, in order to stifle legitimate political speech that harms its broader geopolitical agenda. This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following the Hungarian election. There, the activation of the RSS was justified by a report alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin had dispatched a team of “political technologists” to Budapest to rig the election for Orban. The report was published by an EU-funded opposition journalist, and quoted anonymous EU spies.

Tails are wagging dogs in the EU, and the “request” for Grozev’s involvement could easily be seen as another such case.

Will Rumen Radev get the Georgescu treatment?

Unlike in Hungary, the cards are stacked against Radev in Bulgaria. Whereas Viktor Orban has been in power for 16 years and appointed the justices who oversee election-related cases, Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria is a new party with no seats in parliament, facing a pro-EU incumbent with control of the judiciary. Radev experienced this firsthand last year, when as president, he attempted to hold a referendum on Bulgaria’s accession to the eurozone. Radev’s referendum proposal was dismissed by parliament and rejected by the country’s constitutional court. One of the judges who authored the ruling, Atanas Semov, previously received an award from the European Commission for his written work on the judicial system of the EU.

Radev’s situation is closer to that of Calin Georgescu, a right-wing populist who emerged from relative obscurity to win a shock first-round victory in neighboring Romania’s 2024 presidential election. The Romanian and EU authorities immediately declared that Russia had interfered in the election and had run a coordinated campaign on TikTok to help Georgescu win, and the election was annulled.

The day after the annulment, TikTok wrote to the European Commission stating that it had found no evidence of a Russian-linked campaign to support Georgescu, and that it had in fact been asked to censor pro-Georgescu content by the authorities in Bucharest. This content included “disrespectful” posts that “insult the [ruling] PSD party.” TikTok was ordered by the EU to tighten its “mitigation measures” before the vote was re-done in 2025. The platform complied, but was nevertheless punished by Brussels. For TikTok’s insolence, the European Commission opened legal proceedings against the platform for “a suspected breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in relation to TikTok’s obligation to properly assess and mitigate systemic risks linked to election integrity.”

TikTok and its ilk are already on notice in Bulgaria, and should Radev repeat Georgescu’s surprise victory, the Bulgarian government and the EU are already armed with all the ‘proof’ of Russian interference they need to bring the full weight of the legal system down upon him.

The bottom line

Regardless, the fact that the EU has already intervened in four elections since 2024, and has its thumb on the scales of another two at present, suggests that Brussels takes the populist threat to its authority seriously. It is becoming clear that the European Commission will invoke the specter of Russian interference any time a dissenting voice arises, whether on the left, like Radev, or the right, like Orban.

Brussels wields a toolbox full of hammers, and to the EU bureaucracy, every problem looks like a nail. With the bloc’s economy reeling and almost every pro-Brussels government under water in the approval tables, the question that will be answered in Hungary and Bulgaria, and in every EU election to come, is for how long the Brussels bureaucracy can keep forcing its will onto voters who clearly want an alternative.

When China and Vietnam sat down in Hanoi on March 16 for their first-ever ‘3+3’ strategic dialogue, it marked the launch of a new kind of coordination – one that goes beyond the usual playbook.

Not your usual security meeting

Most countries stick to the tried and tested ‘2+2’ format, bringing together foreign and defense officials. But China and Vietnam added a third pillar: Public security. This may sound technical, but it’s actually a big deal. It means the conversation now spans everything from military coordination to policing, cybersecurity, and internal stability – the full spectrum of what both governments consider ‘security’ in today’s world.

The inclusion of public security reflects a reality both Beijing and Hanoi recognize: Threats such as cybercrime, telecom fraud, online gambling networks, drug trafficking blur the line between domestic and international. Thus, the meeting focused heavily on practical cooperation, including joint efforts against telecom scams, better coordination on drug control, fugitive repatriation, and even asset recovery. There was also a push to improve information-sharing on data security, energy risks, and environmental concerns.

Why now?

The launch of the ‘3+3’ mechanism comes at a moment when the regional atmosphere is anything but calm. Tensions around Taiwan remain high, and Japan has been taking on a more assertive security posture. The broader strategic environment in East Asia is shifting, often in unpredictable ways.

Against this backdrop, China and Vietnam are choosing to deepen coordination rather than drift apart. This sends a clear signal: Even in a competitive environment, neighboring countries can prioritize stability and structured engagement.

It’s also a reminder that not every country in the region is eager to pick sides. For Vietnam in particular, maintaining a balanced approach is central to its foreign policy.

One of the more telling elements of the Hanoi meeting was Vietnam’s own framing of the relationship. Vietnamese officials openly described ties with China as a “top priority” and “objective necessity.”

Vietnam’s foreign policy is built on independence and diversification – but it also reflects a clear-eyed assessment of geography and economics. China is simply too important a neighbor to ignore or confront head-on.

For many of China’s neighbors, the conclusion is similar: Cooperation is the most workable path forward.

The China-Vietnam relationship often serves as a kind of test case for how China engages with Southeast Asia more broadly. In this sense, the ‘3+3’ mechanism is bigger than just the two countries involved.

It shows a model of engagement that emphasizes structured dialogue and expanding areas of cooperation, even when differences exist. And there are differences – especially in the South China Sea. But mechanisms like this help manage those tensions rather than letting them define the relationship.

The meeting also linked bilateral cooperation to wider frameworks like China-ASEAN cooperation, the Lancang-Mekong initiative, and even BRICS. This reflects a layered approach, where strong bilateral ties are built, then plugged into broader regional and global networks.

There’s another layer to this that shouldn’t be overlooked. By bringing public security into the equation, the ‘3+3’ format also touches on political system stability. Both China and Vietnam place a high premium on maintaining internal order and resisting external pressures that could destabilize their systems. The dialogue provides a platform to align on these concerns.

Moving forward despite disputes

Chinese officials have even linked this cooperation to the resilience and relevance of socialist governance models in today’s world, adding an ideological dimension to what might otherwise look like purely technical coordination.

It’s easy to focus on the forward momentum, but China-Vietnam relations haven’t always been smooth. The 1979 border war is a stark reminder that conflict between the two is not ancient history. There have also been periodic tensions in the South China Sea. These issues haven’t disappeared, but they are being managed.

Both sides have learned to compartmentalize, to keep disagreements from spilling over into the entire relationship. Trade, political dialogue, and now security cooperation continue to move forward even when disputes flare up.

In fact, economic ties have become one of the strongest stabilizers. China is Vietnam’s largest trading partner, and supply chains between the two are deeply intertwined. That creates incentives on both sides to keep the broader relationship on track.

So what does this new mechanism actually change?

First, it institutionalizes coordination across a wider range of issues. Instead of dealing with problems piecemeal, China and Vietnam now have a platform to address them in a more integrated way.

Second, it builds habits of communication. Regular contact between officials across diplomacy, defense, and public security reduces the risk of misunderstandings – especially in a tense regional environment.

Third, it sets a precedent. If the ‘3+3’ model proves effective, it could influence how other countries think about security cooperation. It’s not hard to imagine similar formats emerging elsewhere, especially as non-traditional security challenges keep growing.

At a time when global politics often feels like it’s drifting toward blocs and confrontation, the China-Vietnam ‘3+3’ dialogue offers a different angle, focusing on working with your neighbors instead of prioritizing alliances and containment.

Geography doesn’t change. China and Vietnam will remain neighbors, with all the opportunities and challenges this brings. The question is how they choose to handle this reality.

This doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing. History shows that relations can shift. But mechanisms like the ‘3+3’ increase the odds that differences can be handled without escalating into something more serious.

And in today’s environment, that alone makes this meeting worth paying attention to.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has requested $152 million from Congress to restore the Alcatraz prison. Democrats have slammed the plans as “lunacy” and vowed to block their implementation.

Originally a fortress sitting on the eponymous island in the San Francisco Bay, the correctional facility housed inmates from 1934 until 1963, when it was closed due to high operating costs. Among those held at Alcatraz were such notorious ​criminals as ⁠mobster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. The prison was considered one of the country’s most secure facilities, with no ⁠successful escapes officially recorded.

Presently, Alcatraz is a major tourist attraction in the region, run by the National Park Service.

In a request to Congress for the 2027 fiscal year published on Friday, the Trump administration proposed to “rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility,” requesting “$152 million to cover the first year of project costs.”

Trump first floated the idea in a post on Truth Social last May, writing: “When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

Several months later, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and former Attorney General Pam Bondi inspected the island, with the latter saying that the “terrific facility” could “hold illegal aliens.”

Commenting on the Trump administration’s latest funding request, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi wrote on X that the “proposal is absurd on its face and should be rejected outright.”

“I will work with my colleagues in the Congress to use every parliamentary and budgetary tactic available to block this lunacy,” she vowed.

Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, similarly accused Trump of seeking to destroy a “top tourist attraction to turn it back into a failed exorbitantly expensive prison.”

France is seeking to quadruple its stockpile of kamikaze drones and drastically expand missile arsenals by the end of the decade, Politico reported on Friday, citing a draft military planning law which describes the push as preparations for a “war economy.”

According to the 64-page-long document set to be presented by the government next week, French policymakers intend to focus on expanding their munitions arsenals rather than the armed forces themselves, while taking cues from the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts, which have been depleting Western arms stocks at an alarming rate.

In this vein, the stocks of loitering munitions such as kamikaze drones are set to grow by 400%, Safran-made AASM Hammer guided bombs by 240%, and Aster and Mica missiles by 30% by 2030, Politico reported.

The draft states the effort is being carried out “with a view to preparing for a 'war economy,” with investment channeled into “co-financing of priority production capacities.”

France does not plan to increase the size of its armed forces or acquire major additional equipment such as Rafale aircraft or frigates, the report says.

Paris has also apparently shelved the Eurodrone – a joint long-range reconnaissance program with Germany, Italy, and Spain – with no funds allocated to the much-delayed project. France is, however, considering studies into a successor to the Leclerc main battle tank, which has been in service since 1992, according to the report.

The plan is in line with a long-running push by French President Emmanuel Macron to make France and its European allies less dependent on American weapons and achieve “strategic autonomy.” Earlier this week, he stated that he did not want Paris “to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers.”

“We don’t want to depend on the dominance, let’s say on China, or we don’t want to be too much exposed to the unpredictability of the US,” he added.

Moscow has consistently criticized NATO military build-up, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accusing the bloc of “seriously preparing for war against Russia and, in fact, not even hiding it.” Russia has also dismissed NATO members’ claims that it could attack the bloc within several years as “nonsense” and fearmongering.

Two US military aircraft were shot down by Iranian fire on Friday, as the US and Israel continue their strikes on the Islamic Republic. The incident has set off a high-risk search-and-rescue mission deep inside Iranian territory, US media outlets report.

The losses occurred less than 48 hours after US President Donald Trump announced that Iran is “beaten and completely decimated” and has “no anti-aircraft equipment,” ramping up the stakes for the conflict, which is already unpopular at home. Iranian officials, meanwhile, have called the incident a “black day” for the US military, with Tehran scrambling to apprehend the crew members.

What happened?

On Friday, a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron – part of the 48th Fighter Wing, normally based in Suffolk, England – was shot down over central Iran while conducting combat operations, according to US media outlets.

The search for the second one continues. NBC News reported, citing sources, that US helicopters dispatched to rescue the person were hit by Iranian fire. According to the Washington Post, US personnel on board were injured, but both aircraft safely returned to their base.

Videos circulating on social media show what appears to be Iranian militia opening small arms fire on two US helicopters.

Footage of Iranian police firing small arms at a pair of USAF HH-60Ws searching for the downed F-15E crew earlier today. pic.twitter.com/9SwhyhY1Aw

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 3, 2026

In addition, an A-10 Thunderbolt II – a single-seat ground-attack aircraft – was struck by Iranian fire while supporting search-and-rescue efforts. The pilot managed to navigate the damaged plane out of Iranian airspace before ejecting over Kuwait, where he was subsequently recovered.

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 Alleged footage shows U.S. A-10 hit by Iranian air defenses.

The A-10 was literally built to survive anti-aircraft fire.

If Iran is bringing down the most survivable plane in the fleet, their air defenses aren't as "decimated" as advertised.pic.twitter.com/SWUWGgSdWi https://t.co/ZXRdXKgnNT

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 3, 2026

What does the US say?

The Pentagon and CENTCOM have yet to respond to requests from US media outlets to comment. The Pentagon, however, notified the House Armed Services Committee of the loss of the F-15E, according to The Hill.

Trump said the downing of the jet won’t affect peace negotiations with Iran – which Tehran insists are not taking place at all.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is “praying for the safe return of the crew aboard the fighter jet and all of those working to rescue them in these dangerous conditions.”

“It potentially represents a major escalation. If the missing crew member remains missing, huge political pressure in the United States to do anything to find that person.”

What does Iran say?

Iranian media initially identified the downed aircraft as an F-35 stealth fighter, though the claim was later refuted by US media and OSINT experts.

Iranian state TV has called on people to capture the surviving US crew, with the local authorities offering a reward of around $60,000 for anyone who hands over the American service members alive.

Bakhtiari tribes in Khuzestan headed into the mountains, rifles in hand, searching for the missing American F-15 jet pilot — saying:

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him.” pic.twitter.com/PH7pWWjbiQ

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 3, 2026

Footage circulating on social media shows what appears to be a group of local residents armed with rifles and carrying an Iranian flag heading out to the mountains for their own ‘rescue mission’, with another clip showing the aircraft debris.

Iran Publishes Debris It Says Is US F‑15E Strike Eagle Downed Over Iran

State media released images of wreckage, including a tail section linked to the USAF’s 494th Fighter Squadron, after claiming Iranian air defenses shot down a U.S. fighter jet; U.S. officials have not yet… pic.twitter.com/nmIgl0WhXr

— Washington Eye (@washington_EY) April 3, 2026

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the US, saying that “after defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”

Iranian media has also shared photos of a heavily damaged CH-47 helicopter in Kuwait, saying it was hit in a drone strike.

BREAKING: An Iranian drone struck a US Army CH-47 Chinook at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, severely damaging the aircraft. The Chinook is the US military’s primary heavy-lift helicopter, used to move troops, equipment and supplies across the Gulf. pic.twitter.com/Tmm6CiNX8e

— The Hormuz Letter (@HormuzLetter) April 4, 2026

Did the US lose planes in the Iran war before this incident?

Friday marked the first time during the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that Tehran has beyond reasonable doubt downed a manned US aircraft. However, America had already lost several jets.

On March 1, shortly after the start of the conflict, three F-15E Strike Eagles were shot down over Kuwait by Kuwaiti F/A-18 aircraft in what CENTCOM called an “apparent friendly fire incident.” All crew members ejected safely.

On March 19, a US F-35 fighter jet was hit by Iranian ground fire during a combat mission. The pilot, who suffered shrapnel wounds, managed to land the aircraft at a US air base in the region.

German men who remain abroad for more than three months without prior approval may start facing penalties under a military-related legal requirement, according to the Berliner Zeitung.

The rule obliges men between the ages of 17 and 45 to obtain permission before extended stays abroad. It came into force on January 1, 2026, but April is when the first three-month period expires and enforcement may begin, the outlet has said.

Germany is in the process of a massive military buildup, with plans to spend reportedly more than €500 billion (around $580 billion) on defense by 2029. German officials have set 2029 as the deadline for the armed forces to be “war-ready” for a potential conflict with Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any plans to attack NATO as “nonsense” and ridiculed Western politicians over such claims. In February Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia had “no reason” to attack the EU or NATO unless attacked first.

The new requirement, which was introduced under the Military Service Modernization Act and reportedly largely went unnoticed, previously applied only during a “state of tension” or a “state of defense,” defined as situations of heightened external threat or armed attack. Since the amendment took effect, it now applies at all times, including in peacetime. The Defense Ministry said the measure is intended to maintain a reliable registry of individuals eligible for military service.

Students staged protests in late March in German cities against Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s plans to expand military service. Demonstrators accused the government of preparing forced mobilization, with some chanting that “Merz should go to the front himself and risk his own life.”

The Defense Ministry said it is intended to keep track of individuals who may be abroad in case of emergency. The ministry reportedly described the consequences as “profound” and said further rules and procedures are still being developed.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on nations around the world to not become “vassals” of the US or China, following his public spat with US President Donald Trump over Iran and NATO.

During a trip to Seoul on Friday, Macron urged countries including South Korea, Japan, Brazil, India, Australia, and Canada to form a “coalition of independence” based on shared commitments to issues such as international law, democracy, and climate change.

“During decades, we had a so-called stability based on this international order and the few certainties we had. It’s up and down now. We should not just be passive in this new disorder. We have to build a new order,” Macron said in a speech at Yonsei University.

“Our objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers… We don’t want to depend on the dominance of, let’s say, China, (and) we don’t want to be too exposed to the unpredictability of the US,” he added.

“I don’t believe that we will fix the situation just by bombing or by military operations,” the French leader said, referring to past and present US interventions in the Middle East.

According to the New York Times, France joined Russia and China in opposing a UN Security Council resolution that would have authorized military action against Iran in Hormuz. The vote, originally scheduled for Friday, has been postponed.

Macron has significantly increased France’s defense spending in recent years, focusing on missile, drone, and submarine capabilities. Last month, he said France could extend its nuclear umbrella to protect Germany and other European countries.

Christian schools in Jerusalem are facing a growing crisis after Israel moved to restrict West Bank teachers from working in the city. The decision affects more than 200 educators across 15 historic institutions, raising fears that some schools could be forced to close due to a shortage of qualified local staff.

Church officials warn the move – which they consider politically motivated – could have wider consequences for the Christian presence in Jerusalem, while teachers say it threatens their livelihoods and ability to access the city.

The restrictions follow a 2025 bill targeting Palestinian educators trained in West Bank universities – a justification disputed by those affected.

RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij reports from Jerusalem:

The IDF has erected an Israeli flag beside a UN peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon, a move that could draw fire on peacekeepers, the body has warned.

The incident comes amid escalating exchanges between Israeli forces and Lebanon-based Hezbollah along the border, which have increasingly drawn UN troops into the line of fire. In recent days, three Indonesian members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were killed in two separate incidents and another peacekeeper was wounded by a stray bullet.

At a UN press briefing on Thursday, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said peacekeepers had demanded that the flag be removed after it was raised near a position by the village of Kfar Kila. He added that Israeli forces had expanded their incursions west of the UN-demarcated Blue Line, with tanks and clashes reported in Sector West.

The flag “undermines the perception of UNIFIL’s impartiality and risks drawing fire towards peacekeepers amid the ongoing clashes that we are seeing,” Dujarric told reporters, urging all parties to avoid any action that could further endanger the mission.

Kfar Kila is a Lebanese border village where Israeli forces have been operating amid clashes with Hezbollah, and is reportedly among the areas considered by the IDF for demolition as part of a proposed security zone targeting militant infrastructure.

This is a picture taken by a UN peacekeeper at their base in Lebanon, showing IDF soldiers raising an israeli flag, the day after they killed three UN peacekeepers and wounded others

Israel cannot continue to be treated as a full member of the UN. This’s what the UN Charter says pic.twitter.com/sYkAFoEcxW

— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) April 2, 2026

A photo purporting to show the flag was shared on X by Mohamad Safa, a Lebanese diplomat and UN civil society representative. He said the image, taken by a peacekeeper at a UN base in Lebanon, showed an Israeli flag raised by IDF soldiers, “the day after they killed three UN peacekeepers and wounded others.” 

Initial findings in a probe into the deaths of two of the Indonesians reportedly point to a roadside explosion that struck their convoy near the Lebanese town of Bani Haiyyan, while the third peacekeeper was killed when a projectile reportedly hit a UNIFIL base near the village of Aadchit al-Qusayr.

UNIFIL, established in 1978 following an Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, currently fields around 7,500 peacekeepers from dozens of countries. Under a Security Council decision adopted last year, its mandate is set to expire at the end of 2026, with a full withdrawal planned for 2027 when its positions will be handed over to Lebanese government forces.

Israel launched a military operation against Hezbollah in early March after the militant group carried out waves of strikes against the Jewish state in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli operation against Iran.

Lawmakers in Colorado have approved amendments to the state’s ban on “conversion therapy,” a practice aimed at changing an individual’s non-traditional sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

This comes despite a US Supreme Court ruling blocking enforcement of the state’s ban on such therapy on free-speech grounds.

Conversion therapy has long been criticized by medical experts and advocacy groups as ineffective and harmful – particularly for gay children of conservative parents seeking such intervention. Roughly half of US states, including Colorado since 2019, have banned the practice.

On Thursday, Colorado’s Democrat-led House passed a measure allowing people claiming harm from conversion therapy to sue therapists. The change mirrors legislation adopted in 2021 that removed time limits for bringing claims related to child sexual abuse.

State Representative Karen McCormick, who sponsored the bill and is the parent of a transgender child, said the amendment would give individuals more time to process trauma and come forward. “We don’t want them shut out of the legal system,” she said.

“Each American enjoys an inalienable right to speak his mind and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for finding truth,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority opinion. “Laws like Colorado’s, which suppress speech based on viewpoint, represent an egregious assault on both commitments.”

The Supreme Court's 8-1 decision, which included support from two liberal justices, does not affect existing restrictions on physical or medical interventions, such as electroconvulsive therapy, which remain regulated or prohibited in Colorado. Instead, the case will return to a lower court for further examination.

The EU has failed to offer any real solutions to the current energy crisis, Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said, arguing that Brussels is too late to start preparing for a supply shock.

The remarks came in response to EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen’s interview with the Financial Times on Friday in which he said that the US-Israeli war on Iran was likely to have “structural, long-lasting effects” on the bloc’s energy security. He added Brussels was preparing for “worst-case scenarios” and “looking at all possibilities,” including releasing strategic oil reserves and possibly rationing jet fuel or diesel.

“Still only warnings, NO REAL FIXES,” Dmitriev, who serves as President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, wrote on X on Friday.

“EU warns 15 YEARS TOO LATE it is not prepared for a ‘long-lasting energy shock.’ EU failed to diversify energy flows, guided by Russophobic, Green, and woke ideology,” he added.

🚨EU warns 15 YEARS TOO LATE it is not prepared for a “long-lasting energy shock.” EU failed to diversify energy flows, guided by Russophobic, Green, and woke ideology.

Still only warnings, NO REAL FIXES. Only ideas: limit price hikes at the pump to 1/day in 🇩🇪 & cut energy use. https://t.co/T3XWMvWo3l

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) April 3, 2026

The EU implemented a set of energy reforms in 2009–2011 aimed at accelerating the transition to renewable energy and diversifying away from single suppliers, such as Russia.

Brussels will also phase out Russian pipeline gas imports by autumn 2027. Russia still accounted for an estimated 13% of total EU gas imports in 2025, according to official data.

President Vladimir Putin warned last month that Russia may withdraw from the EU gas market and redirect its supplies to “emerging markets” without waiting for Brussels’ ban to take effect. The energy crisis in the EU is the result of the “misguided policies” pursued by the bloc over “many years,” Putin said.

The Iranian military has shot down a US F-35 fight jet over its territory, local media outlets, including Tasnim news agency, have claimed. US officials confirmed the loss of an F-15 jet and claimed that one pilot has been rescued.

Photos and videos purporting to show the jet’s crash site, including pictures of the debris and an ejected pilot seat have been released. The images show what appears to be a tail fin and other parts of the aircraft with an inscription saying: “US Air Forces in Europe.”

According to The Guardian, the jet could be a part of the US Air Force’s 494th Squadron, based at Royal Air Force base in Lakenheath, UK.

American news outlet Axios reported, citing sources, that the downed jet was an F-15 and not the latest generation F-35. According to CBS, one of the jet’s two crew members was rescued, with search efforts ongoing.

Another enemy F-35 hit and downed by our #indigenous defence systems.

Iran is a force to be reckoned with.#Iran#F35#War pic.twitter.com/q1DhkTXrm3

— Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) April 3, 2026

Iranian media claimed that the US rescue effort failed. The operation involved at least two Black Hawk helicopters and a C-130 Hercules aircraft, Tasnim reported. At least one of the helicopters was reportedly damaged during the operation, with photos published on social media showing gray smoke coming from it.

According to Tasnim, the Iranian military likely captured the pilot, who ejected from the aircraft and landed in western Iran.

Who was looking for this? Turns out the ‘invisible’ seat wasn’t so invisible after all.

Of course, for security reasons, the fate of the pilot can’t be revealed… but isn’t it obvious?#F35#IRAN#War https://t.co/bEW5qqCyip pic.twitter.com/TLpefhxLbv

— Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) April 3, 2026

The US and Israel began a bombing campaign against Iran on February 28. Despite claims by US President Donald Trump that Tehran’s ability to strike back has been severely diminished, Iran has hit US bases throughout the Middle East.

One of Germany’s biggest and most iconic car manufacturers, Volkswagen (VW) and one of Israel’s most well-known arms manufacturers, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, part of the global Rafael Group, are planning to collaborate. If the project is realized, VW will convert one of its German factories in the historic city of Osnabrueck from making automobiles to producing components of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

There are good reasons why this has raised eyebrows. For one thing, it reflects not only VW’s growing problems, but those of Germany’s vital automobile sector and the German economy as a whole. As the Financial Times has noted, the VW-Rafael project would mark “the highest-profile example yet of the German car industry, where profits have plunged,” trying to save itself by entering the “booming defense sector.”

These plunging profits are due to many factors: Chinese competition; Germany’s failure to keep up with cutting-edge technology, communication infrastructure, and business practices; American sabotage by tariff warfare and filching German companies via subsidies; and last but not least, the horrendous energy costs that the entire EU has inflicted on itself by going to war – by Ukrainian proxy and sanctions – against Russia.

The shift to making things for the military, meanwhile, is just a small part of Germany’s breathtakingly misguided response: Namely, a policy of going into massive public debt – under a so-called conservative – to finance a bizarre form of military Keynesianism that is based on illusions (no, Russia is not about to attack), produces self-reinforcing Russophobia (which makes a return to normality even harder), and won’t work as an economic boost, as even the usually government-aligned Spiegel has admitted.

In short, like a prism, the Osnabrueck plan bundles together many of Germany’s worst – and self-inflicted – problems, and the single silliest idea of how to tackle them.

Yet, there is obviously a whole other dimension to the VW-Rafael project that is even worse: The plan also encapsulates Germany’s complicity with Israel’s crimes, an obstinate policy that is deeply immoral, has twisted Germany’s domestic politics and discourse toward cynical racism, censorship, and authoritarian restrictions on free speech (as a UN report has confirmed), and, moreover, is stupidly shortsighted as well, since it alienates most of the world, and in particular, its rising part in the Global South.

And yet there it is, so massive that its outlines will have to be sketched in just a few highlights.

Computers, clouds, and AI? IBM, Hewlett Packard, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft – to name only a few – are deeply and profitably involved not merely in doing business with Israel but with the specific business of population control, surveillance, and incarceration. That is, to be precise, the very sharp end of Israel’s apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinians. Apartheid is, of course, a UN-recognized atrocity crime (not just a specific, criminal stage in South Africa’s history). And not only the infernal Palantir but Microsoft as well – with its Azure and Nimbus systems – has directly helped the Israeli military while it carries out genocide.

Demolishing Palestinian homes, roads, wells, public buildings, and all vital infrastructure, in short, the material basis of life? Caterpillar, Hyundai as well as Doosan, and Volvo have all been at Israel’s service, including in the massive, systematic devastation of Gaza that has been part of Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign.

But then, Zionism doesn’t only destroy and displace. To be fair, it also builds – namely, illegal settlements on territories that are officially called ‘occupied’ but have in reality been de facto annexed by Israel in its ceaseless, aggressive drive for even more ‘Lebensraum’ in a ‘Greater Israel’ that has never even defined its borders.

And don’t let the Israeli Hasbara propaganda fool you: There is no room for debate here. In 2024, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the UN, unambiguously confirmed that the Israeli post-1967 occupations, including that of East Jerusalem as well as the exploitation of these territories’ resources, and all settlements – really colonies – there are illegal because of “Israel’s violations, through its policies and practices, of the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.” Israel must not only leave, as the court also made explicit, but provide “full reparations” to the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, making Israel obey the law – or basic moral precepts everyone else recognizes as binding intuitively (Don’t target children with snipers, for instance, or Don’t torture toddlers) – has always been a challenge, not least because of Washington’s criminal support for Israel’s criminal regime. None of this means the law does not apply.

But those companies helping Israel build its settlements and exploit the illegally held territories – such as the German Heidelberg Materials AG with its subsidiary Hanson Israel, Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles from Spain, real estate international Keller Williams RealtyLLC, and again, Caterpillar, Hyundai, and Volvo, are all also involved in a very serious crime.

But then again, maybe there’s less need to worry, as it turns out that Israeli technology – including that produced by Rafael – is not all it is cracked up to be. Consider merely that, as even the Zionist-aligned New York Times has to admit, Israeli missile defenses have not been doing well since Iran has been striking back in earnest against Israeli and American aggression. It is hard to assess the full damage in Israel because its regime practices a censorship blackout, but we know it has been taking bad hits. And then there are those famous Merkava tanks good at smashing through Gaza’s civilians but now being decimated in their invasion of Lebanon, by brave and clearly well-trained but much less well-armed Hezbollah fighters. Guess what company makes the Merkava’s anti-missile defense system? Yes, that would be Rafael. It seems Volkswagen and its Berlin backers have lost not only whatever sense of ethics they have ever had but also quality.

There is something special about the VW-Rafael deal-in-the-making. Obviously, there is the ugly irony of one of Nazi Germany’s main arms makers shifting back to its old business model. Then, while many companies and countries cultivate ties with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel and neglect their legal obligations to stop its crimes, Germany adds the very peculiar hypocrisy of shielding its intense complicity with Israel by abusing the memory of Germany’s own genocide of Europe’s Jews, the Holocaust. It is hard to imagine a greater moral and intellectual perversion.

If Germany had to learn one lesson from its genocides – the Holocaust and that of the Herero and Nama as well – then it was: This crime must never be committed. By no one. Not by Nazis, not by Zionists, either. And it cannot be done to anyone, not to Jews, not to Palestinians – even by Jews. Finally, no one must ever side with the perpetrators. No perpetrators, including Jewish ones.

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran, a conflict spanning the Middle East in which both sides are exchanging missile and drone strikes across multiple countries.

US President Donald Trump has given Iran 48 hours to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, threatening a major escalation. In a post on Truth Social, he said “time is running out” for Tehran and that “all Hell will reign down” if his demands are ignored. The ultimatum comes amid a sharp drop in maritime traffic through the key oil transit route.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has condemned the latest US-Israeli strike near the Bushehr nuclear power plant – the fourth since hostilities began – accusing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of “inaction” and warning of potential legal action. The projectile hit near the facility’s perimeter, killing a security guard and damaging an auxiliary building.

“Condemning the attack on Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities and ending inaction is the minimum expectation from the IAEA under its statutory responsibilities,” the agency said on X.

The IAEA earlier confirmed it had been informed of the incident and reported no rise in radiation levels. Director General Rafael Grossi expressed “deep concern,” warning nuclear sites “must never be attacked,” but did not directly condemn the US or Israel.

Meanwhile, a large-scale search is underway for a missing US pilot after an F-15E Strike Eagle was downed over Iran on Friday. Reports say one crew member was rescued by US special forces, while Iranian forces are also searching the mountainous Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad region. Iranian authorities earlier offered a reward for information leading to the pilot’s capture.

In addition, an A-10 Thunderbolt II was also hit by Iranian fire during search-and-rescue operations, though the pilot managed to exit Iranian airspace before ejecting over Kuwait, where he was recovered.

Here are the latest developments:

• Open-source analysts estimate US aircraft losses in the war exceed $2 billion, with replacement costs likely to be higher.

• Iran’s embassy in Vienna accused EU officials, including Kaja Kallas, of “hypocrisy” over the war.

• Tehran has reportedly allowed humanitarian shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

• India said its oil imports remain unaffected by the conflict.

• The US military’s top Catholic priest rebuked Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth for invoking religion to justify the war.

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

More than 100 US-based international law experts have warned that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes, citing violations of the UN Charter, attacks on civilian infrastructure, and alarming rhetoric from senior officials.

In an open letter published on Thursday by the Just Security policy journal, scholars from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other institutions stated that the unprovoked US-Israeli campaign against Iran which began in late February is “a clear violation of the United Nations Charter.”

They also stated that the conduct of US forces and statements by officials “raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes.”

The experts specifically highlighted President Donald Trump’s remarks last month that the US may conduct strikes on Iran “just for fun.” They also cited War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s March 2 statement that the US does not fight with “stupid rules of engagement,” and his declaration of “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” – a phrase that, under international law, can constitute a war crime.

The letter expressed particular concern over the February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children. The Pentagon has reportedly determined that US forces carried out the strike based on outdated intelligence but has yet to apologize.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said over 600 schools and educational facilities have been targeted, calling the Minab massacre part of “a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare.” Iran has accused the US and Israel of committing genocide.

Separately, John Mecklin, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the Doomsday Clock, described the war as “absolutely idiotic,” warning that “accidents, miscalculations, crazy stuff” happen in wars and a nuclear accident “can’t be ruled out” until the fighting stops.

Both the legal experts and Mecklin called for a return to diplomacy while noting that Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal has made a negotiated settlement extremely difficult.

Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has torn into his own party for embracing race and gender activism over “middle class values.” Can the Democrats row back the worst excesses of the woke era? And could Emanuel lead the party in 2028?

”We lost the plot,” Emanuel said on ‘The Fifth Column’ podcast this week. “We as Democrats nationally, from ‘Latinx,’ to defunding the police, to ‘police organizations are all racist,’ to bringing a set of cultural wars to our schools. We are on the losing side of those cultural wars. Full stop.”

“Nobody seems to be calling the whistle on this,” he continued. “You are worried about bathroom access and locker room access, why don’t you focus on classroom excellence?”

“We went from acceptance to advocacy. I remember fighting for Title IX,” he said, referring to the anti-discrimination law that mandated equal athletic opportunities in schools and colleges for women. “Why would you undercut the premise of Title IX with the ability of trans men [to play] in women’s sports?”

Rahm Emanuel on how and why the Democrats have "lost the plot."

Our members-only episode with Rahm Emanuel is available now on Substack. pic.twitter.com/5HALlSCBEj

— The Fifth Column 🖐 (@wethefifth) March 31, 2026

Emanuel is – or was – regarded as a standard-bearer within the Democratic Party. After three terms representing Illinois in the US Congress, he served as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2019, mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019, and US ambassador to Japan from 2022 to 2025.

He is the latest in a series of powerful Democratic figures to distance themselves from the worst excesses of the ‘woke’ era. Former Clinton strategist James Carville has called on fellow Democrats to abandon “performative woke politics” and embrace a “platform of pure economic rage.” Senator John Fetterman has declared that he is “not woke” and urged his party to toughen up on crime; liberal think tanks have pleaded with Democrats to stop using words that put “a wall between us and everyday people” – including ‘heteronormative’, ‘microaggression’, and ‘LGBTQIA+’.

Peak woke

The Democratic Party’s woke turn reached its apex in 2024. That year, President Joe Biden proclaimed Easter Sunday ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’, Planned Parenthood offered free abortions and vasectomies from a van parked outside the the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and Kamala Harris defended her record of promising taxpayer-funded sex changes to prisoners and illegal immigrants.

🚨NEW AD ALERT🚨

Crazy liberal Kamala Harris is for They/Them not for YOU pic.twitter.com/vYN5mi1R1g

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) October 5, 2024

Current President and then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign capitalized on this, running ads featuring Harris advocating for late-term abortion and transgender athletes in women’s sports. In one TV spot, images of cross-dressing White House officials Richard ‘Rachel’ Levine and Sam Britton flashed across the screen, as a voiceover told voters: “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

Voters agreed, handing Trump all seven swing states and the first popular vote victory for a Republican candidate since 2004. Crucial to this victory were the votes of young white males, a demographic ignored and condescended to by Harris’ party.

Will the Democrats return to the center?

Emanuel believes that in order to win again, Democrats have to return to the cultural center. “Every one of our most successful electoral presidents anchored themselves in what I call ‘middle class values,’” he told ‘The Fifth Column’. “Values that are universally, at least in this country, ascribed to.”

Chief among these competitors is California Governor Gavin Newsom. While Newsom has repudiated some of the party’s woke dogmas – referring to the victory of a transgender triple-jumper in a high school championship last year as “deeply unfair” – he has also defended his decision to offer ‘sanctuary’ to illegal immigrants in California, created a government department to explore paying reparations to descendants of slavery, and permitted children to travel to California to receive sex change operations that would be illegal in their home states.

Newsom has not announced his candidacy yet, but is currently the second-favorite to take the nomination, behind Harris. Should Emanuel enter the race, however, it is unclear whether the Democratic base actually wants a more centrist candidate.

Emanuel has been described as a “vocal Zionist,” at a time when Democrats in the US sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis by a 65% to 17% margin. He is also an economic liberal, at a time when self-professed ‘democratic socialist’ Zohran Mamdani handily defeated centrist Andrew Cuomo in last year’s New York mayoral election. Emanuel cut funding to Chicago schools to build a new police academy, while Mamdani accused the NYPD of racism and proposed defunding the department.

To close this gap, the party will have to tackle the legacy of an ideology it embraced and operationalized, through which it scapegoated and canceled skeptics, ruined careers and lives, and distracted Americans from an enormous decline in their material and existential circumstances. Emmanuel’s confession that they “lost the plot,” while reeking of political opportunism, may have highlighted an issue that could split his party’s base into cliques and clans, as the ideology he and his peers in the White House espoused did to a generation.

Over half of US federal judges (60%) are using at least one AI tool in their judicial work, a recent Northwestern University study suggests. The research is based on responses from 112 federal judges, drawn from a random sample of 502 federal bankruptcy, magistrate, district court, and appellate court officials.

The use of AI in courtrooms has recently drawn attention for fabricated citations and other errors that have undermined confidence in some filings. The survey published earlier this week shows that these tools are now being adopted not just by lawyers, but also by federal judges.

The survey found that 60% of judges use AI at least occasionally for tasks such as reviewing documents, conducting legal research, and drafting or editing documents. Around 22% use it daily or weekly. Legal research was the most common (30%), followed by reviewing documents (16%).

Around one in three judges said they permit or encourage AI in their chambers, while 20% formally prohibit it. More than 45% reported that they have not received AI training from the court administration.

While judges acknowledge the risks of AI, experts warn that its unreliability could undermine judicial authority.

“Judges make decisions that are very important to people and resolve significant disputes,” Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said. “They cannot gamble with a technology that is not fully understood and is known to hallucinate.”

US courts have recently warned and sanctioned attorneys over AI-generated content. In March, New York judges urged verification of AI citations after several briefs included fabricated cases. Bloomberg reported in December that AI-hallucinated citations are a growing problem, and the previous month, several lawyers were fined for filings containing hundreds of false AI-generated citations.

Concerns are rising worldwide over the impact of AI on work, the labor market, and people’s mental and physical health. AI often produces false or misleading information, and experts warn that relying on it for life-and-death decisions is especially dangerous, raising questions about safety, accountability, and societal effects.

Iran is a victim of illegal aggression by the US and Israel, prominent American economist Jeffrey Sachs has told RT’s Sanchez Effect, rejecting Washington’s claims that Tehran was seeking a nuclear weapon.

Speaking with host Rick Sanchez on Thursday, Sachs lambasted US President Donald Trump’s speech the day before, in which the American leader justified Operation Epic Fury as a necessary response to Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.

”Iran is not a guilty party in this, it’s the victim of aggression,” Sachs said, calling the operation devastating, illegal, and ineffective.

He pointed to repeated statements by Iran’s religious leadership opposing nuclear weapons.

”The supreme leader famously, unless someone is living in a cave for the past 20 years, said ‘No’ to the weapons,” he said, referring to a religious ruling from the early 2000s.

However, in 2018, during his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA. Washington and Tehran restarted negotiations last year, although Trump later claimed Tehran had “rejected every opportunity” to reach a deal.

According to Sachs, the US president “has ripped up the agreement which absolutely prevented Iran from having a nuclear weapon that they didn’t even want.”

Watch the full video below:

The Iran war has ushered in the “end of American Empire”, conservative host Tucker Carlson has argued, suggesting that US President Donald Trump’s call for allies to secure the Strait of Hormuz proved that Washington could no longer function as the world’s policeman.

Speaking on his podcast on Thursday, Carlson commented on Trump’s remarks in which the president threatened to bomb Iran into the “stone age” without providing an exact timeline for a ceasefire while urging other countries to “take the lead” in unblocking the Strait of Hormuz – a strategic chokepoint which accounts for around 20% of global oil trade.

Washington’s NATO allies, however, have been reluctant to step in following US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Carlson argued that “the nation that forces the peace is the nation in charge,” adding that “the country that forces order on the Persian Gulf, that opens the Strait of Hormuz, is the nation that runs the world by definition.”

He argued that even if the US were to completely destroy Iran as a cohesive nation, the remaining warlords would have no difficulties in disrupting the maritime route by laying mines, using cheap drones, or even just by threatening to do so, meaning that the hostilities would have to end in a diplomatic settlement with Tehran sooner or later.

”What’s happening in Iran is the end of American empire as we understand it. And that’s sad. Empire’s dying. But it’s not the end of the United States,” he added.

Carlson acknowledged that the transition would bring “a lot of suffering and sadness,” but noted that it also carried the promise of a US that could turn its attention to the Western hemisphere, also rich in resources and vital for America’s stability, without the need to occupy “countries you’ve never been to.”

Carlson, generally supportive of Trump, has been a vocal critic of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, prompting the US president to claim that the journalist “has lost his way” and is not really part of the MAGA movement.

The EU will not reverse its ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, even as Brussels prepares for a “long-lasting” energy shock that could force member states to ration fuel, Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has said. 

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jorgensen warned that “this will be a long crisis” and “energy prices will be higher for a very long time” due to the supply disruptions caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran and the near‑total closure of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on Gulf energy infrastructure. 

Jorgensen acknowledged the situation is now more serious than at the start of the crisis, and while the EU is “not yet in a supply security crisis,” Brussels is “preparing for the worst‑case scenarios,” including rationing of critical products such as jet fuel and diesel, and could release more oil from strategic reserves “if the situation becomes more critical.”  

However, no matter how bad things get, Jorgensen insisted there would be no change to EU legislation aimed at ending Russian LNG by the end of 2026, instead preferring the much more expensive alternatives from the US “and other partners.” The EU has also ruled to outlaw Russian pipeline gas imports by Autumn 2027. 

Moscow has echoed that message. Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev predicted that “Europe and Britain will beg for Russian energy” as the crisis deepens, warning that oil could spike to $150‑200 a barrel.  

The conflict has disrupted global supply chains and thrown energy markets into turmoil. As of Thursday, the price of crude has risen to around $111 per barrel, while the price of gas in the EU has spiked to around €50 ($58) per MWh, a 56% increase from February.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has dismissed reports that President Donald Trump fired former AG Pam Bondi over her botched handling of the Epstein files.

Blanche made the remarks on Fox News on Thursday, hours after Trump announced that Bondi, who had served since early 2025, was out. The president called her a “Great American Patriot” but offered no explanation for the dismissal.

“I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was – that anything that happened to her – had anything to do with the Epstein files,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding the late sex offender’s ties to powerful figures.

Blanche also rejected reports that Trump believed Bondi had tipped off Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell about an FBI plan to release files on an alleged Chinese spy with whom the lawmaker had ties a decade earlier. Swalwell has also denied the allegation.

The Epstein saga became the hallmark of Bondi’s tenure, with the former AG tasked with delivering on Trump’s campaign promise to release the potentially explosive files. In February 2025, she publicly claimed that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

However, a DOJ memo released in July concluded that investigators had found “no incriminating ‘client list,’” causing major public backlash, which was only exacerbated by Trump’s own attempts to downplay the scandal.

While the DOJ released several large batches of Epstein-related documents, they were heavily redacted and yielded little new information. The department also faced criticism over reports that some victims’ identities were exposed while alleged perpetrators remained shielded.

In February, as Bondi was grilled in Congress by lawmakers from both parties, she delivered what were widely seen as sketchy and dodgy responses – at one point deflecting a question on Epstein by declaring that “the Dow is over 50,000 right now.”

Even some Trump allies blasted Bondi over the Epstein files. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said she “completely whiffed” on the matter and that there is no use in pretending otherwise.

Around half of Iran’s missile launchers and kamikaze drones remain intact despite a month of US-Israeli strikes, CNN reports, citing a military intelligence assessment.

The report, published on Friday, says Iran still possesses a considerable stockpile of missiles, citing three sources familiar with classified findings. Earlier reporting by Reuters also indicated that Tehran’s capabilities may be less degraded than publicly stated by US officials.

CNN claimed that some Iranian weapons could currently be inaccessible, as US and Israeli strikes have targeted the entrances of a tunnel network used to conceal them, which Tehran had built in preparation for bombings.

In addition, Iran is believed to retain much of its short-range cruise missile arsenal positioned along the coastline. It also claims to have “hundreds, if not thousands” of small vessels and surface drones, which could be deployed against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively restricted passage for unauthorized vessels through the chokepoint as part of a broader strategy to increase economic pressure on US allies and global markets.

A Reuters report last week cited US intelligence as saying only around one-third of Iran’s long-range missiles and drones had been verifiably destroyed. Israeli military officials, however, estimated that 70% of Iran’s launch capacity had been “neutralized.”

US President Donald Trump and senior Pentagon officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, continue to claim that Operation Epic Fury is achieving significant success, with long-range launches reportedly reduced by 90% since the operation began in late February.

Responding to questions about the intelligence assessments, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNN that “anonymous sources desperately want to attack President Trump” and question the operation’s achievements.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, the service’s top uniformed officer, in a lingering row over promotion linked to race and gender, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Hegseth also reportedly dismissed two other generals in a purge which is feared to be undermining the US war on Iran.

Sources familiar with the matter told the paper that Hegseth ordered George, a 61-year-old veteran who served both in Iraq and Afghanistan, to retire immediately, describing the move as rooted not in policy disagreements but in the secretary’s “long-running grievance with the army and its leadership” and a troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll.

Hegseth did not give the reason for the dismissal, but previously vowed to cleanse the department of “woke” culture and fight the practice of promotions based on race and gender quotas.

According to the NYT, George and Driscoll pushed back, citing the officers’ “long records of exemplary service.” About two weeks before his firing, George had reportedly sought a meeting with Hegseth to discuss the removals and what he viewed as unnecessary interference in army personnel decisions – a request Hegseth declined.

George had also served as senior military assistant to then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin under the Biden administration.

NYT sources also noted that George and Driscoll had formed a “tight partnership,” with Hegseth reportedly at odds with the latter.

“Hegseth can’t fire Driscoll,” an unnamed administration official told the Washington Post. “So he’s going to make his life hell.”

Hegseth also fired Gen. David Hodne, who headed the US Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the chief of chaplains, the WaPo reported. No official reason was given for any of the firings.

George’s term was not due to end until 2027. According to the NYT, as army chief, he had spearheaded initiatives aimed at fielding new drone technologies and AI-powered targeting systems while opposing a new light tank program, arguing it was too vulnerable to cheap UAVs. Gen. Christopher LaNeve – once Hegseth’s top military aide – is expected to serve as acting army chief of staff.

US President Donald Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was accused of mishandling the release of files related to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Both Democrats and Republicans have accused Bondi, a longtime Trump loyalist, of attempting to conceal some emails and photographs from Epstein’s estate. Over the years, Epstein cultivated friendships with high-profile figures, including Trump.

Bondi’s Justice Department was also accused of covering up the circumstances of Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, which was ruled a suicide.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump thanked Bondi for doing “a tremendous job” fighting violent crime. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector,” Trump wrote.

Todd Blanche, a former lawyer for Trump and Bondi’s deputy, will succeed her as acting attorney general.

“Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime,” Bondi wrote on X.

Over the next month I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 2, 2026

In 2025, Bondi came under fire after the DOJ released a trove of files on the Epstein case that contained little new information and denied that the billionaire had kept a client list of individuals to whom he allegedly trafficked women. The DOJ later released millions of emails and images after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025.

Inaccurate media reporting on the latest statements by the defense team in Charlie Kirk’s murder case shows that there is a real risk of “poisoning the jury” and affecting the trial, legal commentator and former lawyer David Freiheit has told RT.

Earlier this week, several outlets reported, citing the lawyers representing Tyler Robinson – the man accused of killing Kirk – that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body to a rifle found at the scene.

According to Freiheit, some of those reports, such as the one by the Daily Mail, were inaccurate. “The headline was overtly misleading,” he said, adding that the British media outlet said “it did not match, whereas in reality… the ATF or the reports [said] that they couldn't match it based on the fragments, which is not uncommon in these types of incidents.” 

“There's a real concern in this particular case about what they call poisoning the jury,” the former lawyer stated, adding that information provided to the media, whether it is accurate or not, could “ferment… conspiracy theories” and eventually affect the trial.

Freiheit also stated that some questions surrounding the murder do need to be answered. The list of such issues includes a possibility of other people on social media possessing “advance knowledge” about the attack and the reasons for a “lapse” in the campus security that allegedly allowed the suspected assassin to take up a position on an unguarded roof, according the former lawyer.

Watch the full interview here:

The EU is facing a looming energy crisis and the only way to survive is to lift sanctions on Russian oil and gas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on X on Thursday.

He was replying to an earlier post by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who lamented the outcomes of years of EU policy, without seeming to be able to understand its consequences. Tusk bemoaned a “massive energy crisis in Europe,” threat of the US pulling out of NATO, the reported redirection of American arms supplies from Ukraine to the Middle East, as well as Washington easing sanctions on Russian energy supplies.

“It all looks like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s dream plan,” Tusk claimed.

In his response, Orban urged Tusk to worry about his own country and people, rather than Putin.

Instead of warmongering, love and save your country, Donald!

Kremlin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev chimed in, calling Orban “one of the few voices of wisdom and reason in Europe.”

“He understands the severity of the upcoming energy and economic crisis and, unlike EU bureaucrats, knows what needs to be done to minimize the damage,” he replied in an X post.

Dmitriev has been sounding the alarm about the looming energy crisis since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February.

The bloc’s Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has warned member states to prepare for a prolonged fuel disruption. The consequences would outlast the Iran conflict “because energy infrastructure in the region has been ruined by war,” he told reporters after a meeting of energy ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.

NASA launched its first crewed lunar flight in more than 50 years on Wednesday, as the Artemis II mission began with liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission comes at the dawning of a new age of competition in space.

What is Artemis II?

Artemis II is the second mission in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to land humans on the surface of the Moon in 2028, and establish a permanent base on the lunar surface in the 2030s. Artemis II is the first crewed mission in the program, and takes place four years after Artemis I – an uncrewed mission which tested the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule.

Who is flying Artemis II?

Artemis II will see American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, orbit the Earth, circle the Moon, and then return to Earth at a record re-entry speed of 40,000 kph (25,000 mph). At one point in the mission, the crew will be further from Earth than humans have ever been, surpassing the record of 400,171 km (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

Was the Artemis II launch successful?

A NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket roared into motion at 6:35 PM on Wednesday, accelerating the Orion craft to around 27,360 kph (17,000 mph) within eight minutes of flight. A technical error with the rocket’s Flight Termination System (FTS) threatened to delay the launch, but NASA technicians were able to resolve the problem with an hour to spare.

The FTS system allows flight engineers to trigger the rocket’s self-destruction in the event that it veers off course and threatens lives on the ground.

When will Artemis II reach the Moon?

The spacecraft will spend 24 hours in high-Earth orbit – around 74,000 km (46,000 miles) above the planet’s surface – conducting systems tests before Orion’s own engines will fire on Thursday evening, setting the craft on a trajectory for the Moon.

Orion will enter the Moon’s gravitational sphere on Monday, and will begin its lunar flyby later that day. During this phase of the mission, the Artemis II crew will become the first humans to lay eyes on the far side of the Moon, which always faces away from Earth. The Moon’s gravity will then sling Orion directly back toward Earth, and after reentry, the crew capsule will separate from the spacecraft for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10.

Why is NASA returning to the Moon now?

Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17, in which astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt walked on the surface of the Moon. The Apollo missions took place at the height of the Cold War, with the US spending 4% of its federal budget on NASA during the 1960s in a bid to land on the Moon before the USSR. After the first successful lunar landing in 1969, however, the agency’s budget contracted amid waning public interest and economic turmoil.

What disasters have befallen NASA’s space program?

Following the 1969 Moon landing, a series of tragedies further curtailed the US space program. NASA’s Challenger space shuttle disintegrated less than two minutes into its tenth flight in January 1986, killing all seven crew members on board. The disaster was broadcast live on CNN: Images of the craft exploding in a mid-air fireball and silence from mission control witnessed by millions of Americans.

An inquest found that faulty rubber O-rings caused Challenger’s rocket booster to leak hot gases, which ignited the booster’s remaining propellant.

Tragedy struck again in 2003 when another space shuttle, the Columbia, disintegrated during re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. Columbia’s fate was decided during launch, when a piece of insulating foam broke loose and punctured heat-shielding tiles on the craft’s wing. This damage caused the wing to break apart during re-entry.

Who restarted the US lunar mission program?

An executive order signed by Trump last December declared that “superiority in space is a measure of national vision and willpower.” Trump echoed this language following the successful launch of Artemis II, writing on social media that “we are winning in space, on Earth, and wherever possible – economically, militarily, and now beyond the stars.”

Was the Artemis program delayed?

The Artemis program has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. The Artemis I mission – before it was named as such by Trump – was initially set to take place in 2016, before the date was pushed back to 2021, and then 2022. When Trump unveiled plans to send humans back to the Moon, he originally set a landing date of 2024, which has since slipped back to 2028.

Combined, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft have cost more than $44 billion to develop. As of last year, the SLS project was six years behind schedule and $6 billion over initial cost estimates, while Orion has cost $3.2 billion more than originally projected. A 2021 report by the Government Accountability Office placed the entire cost of the Artemis program at $93 billion up to fiscal year 2025, and the cost of a single SLS/Orion launch at $4.1 billion.

Who is competing with the US in the space race?

NASA is competing with Russia’s Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which are working on establishing a joint lunar base by 2035.

Furthermore, the US and China have both created space-focused branches of their militaries – the US Space Force and PLA Aerospace Force. Both have tested anti-satellite missiles, both have declared space a warfighting domain, and both are developing space-based missile interceptors and the means to overcome them.

As was the case during the Cold War, competition between Washington and Beijing has split the world into rival blocs. Some 61 countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a set of non-binding rules governing the exploration and commercial exploitation of the Moon and Mars. Russia and China have both condemned the accords, with Moscow describing them as a “blatant attempt to create international space law that favors the United States.” 

Along with Russia and China, 11 other countries including Serbia and South Africa, are taking part in the development of the ILRS.

Can the Moon be mined for resources?

In November 2015, the US Congress passed a bill allowing American companies to own and sell materials they extract from the Moon or other celestial bodies. The Artemis Accords explicitly permit the “safe and sustainable” extraction of resources from the Moon.

The Moon contains substantial deposits of rare-earth elements and Helium-3, an isotope with the potential to power future fusion reactors. These deposits have piqued the interest of commercial space exploration firms. Astrolab and Interlune plan to jointly extract Helium-3 from the Moon by 2029, and have already signed contracts with the US Department of Energy to sell the gas.

According to a research paper published last year, 6,500 craters on the Moon’s surface could contain platinum, palladium, and rhodium worth more than a trillion dollars.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at NATO and key European leaders, deepening tensions within the bloc over the war against Iran. According to the Financial Times, Washington has also threatened to curb weapons supplies to Ukraine to pressure European countries into involvement in the war in the Middle East.

At a White House Easter lunch on Wednesday, Trump described NATO as a “paper tiger” and voiced frustration that other bloc members have not joined the US-Israeli war on Iran. He said he had sought European backing as a test of their reliability, which they failed to prove and that the US could leave the bloc over the issue.

“I learned about NATO. NATO won’t be there if we ever have the big one,” Trump said.

Trump also recounted conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Both leaders declined to commit forces to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint which Iran effectively took under control in retaliation for the US-Israeli offensive launched in late February.

[ 🇺🇸 ÉTATS-UNIS | 🇫🇷 FRANCE ]

🔸Donald Trump sur Emmanuel Macron :

💬 « Sa femme le traite extrêmement mal. »

* Rires dans la salle *

« Il ne s’est toujours par remis de cette droite dans la figure ! » pic.twitter.com/HtdB7G3UID

— Little Think Tank (@L_ThinkTank) April 1, 2026

Macron, Trump remarked, is “still recovering from the right to the jaw” from his wife – referring to a familial quarrel caught on camera last May. Starmer, he added, has “two old broken down aircraft carriers” at his disposal that he cannot deploy unless his cabinet agrees.

NATO-sponsored Ukraine arms reportedly in peril

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Trump has warned behind closed doors he could suspend deliveries of US-made weapons purchased by Ukraine’s Western backers for Kiev’s forces. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte pushed for a joint statement on March 19 committing to future efforts to safeguard maritime routes in response, sources told the outlet, describing Trump as “rather hysterical.”

The Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), introduced in July 2025 after Trump declined to fund Ukraine aid directly, allows European states to purchase US arms for Kiev. Among the most critical items are Patriot interceptor missiles, which are now in especially high demand due to the Middle East crisis.

Trump linked the two conflicts on Wednesday, arguing that the US “gave so much away to Ukraine” and is now facing a shortage of munitions. But at least the Europeans are “good for paying” for American arms, he added.

NEW - Trump: "We didn't have to go into Ukraine. Ukraine's thousands of miles away across the ocean, but we helped them." pic.twitter.com/ERGcLnWEth

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 1, 2026

The Washington Post has reported that the administration is considering redirecting NATO funds from the PURL program to meet the Pentagon’s immediate needs.

Democrats have filed a lawsuit seeking to block US President Donald Trump’s latest executive order restricting mail-in voting, arguing that the Constitution gives states and Congress – not the president – the authority to decide voter eligibility for mail ballots. 

Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and restrict mail-in voting. The measure directs federal agencies to compile state-by-state voter rolls and requires the US Postal Service to send ballots only to those included. It also instructs the Department of Homeland Security to build databases of US citizens eligible to vote in each state.

The move has triggered swift backlash, with critics framing the order as both a legal overreach and a continuation of Trump’s long-running attacks on voting by mail, a method widely used by Americans.  

“President Trump has repeatedly tried to rewrite election rules for partisan advantage,” the lawsuit said.  

“We don’t need decrees from Washington, D.C.,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said. “We’ll see you in court.”  

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said the state would also move swiftly to challenge the measure, adding: “The President wants to limit which Americans can participate in our democracy. California will see him in court.”  

The lawsuit opens a second round of legal fights over the president’s authority to influence election rules. Trump’s opponents prevailed in an earlier case last year, persuading multiple federal judges to block his initial executive order on grounds that it was likely unconstitutional.  

Mail-in voting in the US dates back to the 1860s. Several states, including Oregon, Washington and Colorado, now conduct elections almost entirely by mail, while others widely offer no-excuse absentee voting.   

Trump has repeatedly targeted the system since 2020, claiming widespread fraud. Earlier this year, he claimed that America’s elections are “rigged”, “stolen” and a global “laughingstock.” Trump’s executive order comes ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, which will determine whether the Republicans retain control of Congress.

The Strait of Hormuz will not return to the status quo enjoyed before the US-Israeli war against Iran, a security official has told RT.

The waterway, through which around 20% of seaborne crude oil trade passes, remains effectively closed due to the fighting during the past month. The deadlock has caused economic strains for many countries – including the US, where gas prices surpassed $4 per gallon earlier this week.

The Iranian official said in an interview with RT on Thursday that the “conditions in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war status quo.”

At the moment, transit through the waterway “remains operational,” but ships “are subject to the approval of the Iranian side and require the flag state of the vessel to establish contact with Tehran,” he said, adding: “To date, no vessel belonging to the enemy or its partners has been granted permission to pass,” referring to the US, Israel, and their allies.

He also urged the international media “to ignore the disinformation campaigns by the US-Israeli side and [US President Donald] Trump personally.”

“Iranian regulation and control over the Strait continues and will persist,” he told RT.

In an address to the nation on Thursday, Trump suggested that countries that depend on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz should “build up some delayed courage… and just take it.” He added that the waterway could “open up naturally” after the war ends, without providing details.

Earlier this week, the Iranian parliament approved a “new regime,” according to which Tehran will collect payment from ships going through the strait.

US President Donald Trump has publicly mocked his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron’s relationship with his wife, Brigitte, sparking outrage in France.

Trump made the remarks during a private White House lunch on Wednesday, the feed from which may have been accidentally posted online. Trump was heard complaining about France’s refusal to join the US-Israeli war against Iran, before saying Brigitte Macron treats her husband “extremely badly” and claiming that the French president is “still recovering from the right to the jaw.” 

The quip was referring to a widely circulated May 2025 video that appeared to show Brigitte Macron pushing her husband’s face aboard a plane after landing in Hanoi. Macron later dismissed the incident as the couple “bickering and joking.”

Trump’s comments, which drew laughter from the audience at the White House, were vehemently condemned in France. Macron told reporters that the remarks were “neither elegant, nor appropriate,” and did not “deserve a response.” French politicians across party lines also denounced Trump for ridiculing a fellow head of state. 

Trump mocks Macron again:

I called up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly and he’s still recovering from the right to the jaw. pic.twitter.com/bEJgfKaVRg

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 1, 2026

National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet called the remarks “beneath contempt,” adding that “people are dying on the battlefield, yet the US president is laughing and mocking others.” Manuel Bompard of the far-left France Unbowed party also said that despite his own differences with Macron, “I cannot tolerate Donald Trump speaking about Macron and his wife in that manner.”

Trump has responded by branding NATO a “paper tiger” and threatening to pull the US out of the bloc. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also signaled that Washington may “re-examine” its NATO membership after the war.

Trump’s mockery of Macron comes amid a history of scandals surrounding his wife Brigitte. In January, a Paris court convicted ten people for online harassment over conspiracy theories falsely claiming the French first lady is transgender. Separately, she sparked a scandal in December by referring to feminist protesters as “stupid b***hes” in a leaked backstage video, prompting a wave of criticism from activists and politicians.

The US has removed the sanctions on interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The move was announced on Wednesday and marks a significant policy shift as Washington builds closer ties with Caracas after kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

US President Donald Trump previously warned Rodriguez that she could face an even higher price than Maduro if she did not comply with the administration’s conditions. However, he later changed his rhetoric and called relations with her “very good.” Trump said last month that the US  “formally recognized” the interim government.

In March, Reuters cited four people familiar with the matter as saying that the Trump administration was quietly building a legal case against Rodriguez. Federal prosecutors reportedly put together corruption and money laundering charges, and told the interim president that she was at risk of prosecution.

Rodriguez and other Maduro allies were sanctioned by the Treasury in 2018 following Maduro’s reelection, which the US and other countries said was rigged. At the time, Washington claimed that she helped Maduro maintain power.

The sanctions included freezing her assets in the US, banning American individuals and companies from conducting business with her, and blocking her access to the US financial system. Her international dealings and travel were also restricted, effectively isolating Rodriguez from global financial and economic networks.

Rodriguez initially declared that no “foreign agent” would control Venezuela, and demanded that Maduro and his wife be freed. However, she has since moved to align with the administration’s demands, including opening the country’s oil sector to American companies and cooperating on security.

As a result, Washington has imposed control over Venezuelan crude exports, with the proceeds deposited into restricted US Treasury-run accounts rather than going directly to the Venezuelan state. The country holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves – around one-fifth of the total.

Last month, Rodriguez agreed to sell around $100 million in physical gold to the US, with the proceeds similarly controlled by Washington. In January, she also agreed to free more than 400 detainees who the US considers political prisoners.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has denied claims that he told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that up to 80% of Syrians living in Germany could be convinced to return home within three years.

Merz cited the figure and timeline on Monday during a joint press conference with al-Sharaa, a former jihadist commander who seized power in 2024 after overthrowing the previous government. Following criticism, including from within his own political camp, Merz claimed on Tuesday that the estimate had originated from al-Sharaa.

Speaking later that day at an event hosted by the London-based think tank Chatham House, al-Sharaa dismissed the claim as “exaggerated” and said it did not reflect his position. He emphasized that any repatriation effort would depend heavily on Syria’s economic recovery.

Al-Sharaa said that higher return rates would require substantial investment from Western countries, including Germany, into Syria’s reconstruction.

‘Not wise’ for government to voice specific figures

Migration remains a hot-button political issue across Western Europe. Recent polling indicates a widespread desire for stricter controls and reduced numbers. A major 2025 YouGov survey found that between 64% and 82% of respondents in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain oppose a large increase in new migrants.

Merz’s remarks on Syrian repatriations were broadly deemed unrealistic and irresponsible. Anke Rehlinger, deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is part of the governing coalition, said it was “not a wise idea” to announce “specific figures for specific timeframes” that the public is likely to take as a policy goal.

Daniel Thym, a migration expert interviewed by Handelsblatt, described the 80% return rate as “likely unattainable,” given that only a few thousand Syrians have so far agreed to go home in exchange for financial incentives offered by the German government.

What about Ukrainian refugees in the EU? 

Millions of Syrian fled as the Arab Spring gripped the country, plunging it into a catastrophic civil war that sparked a major migration wave towards the EU in 2014-15. Around 1 million Syrians ultimately settled in Germany, encouraged by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's open arms policy, which has been largely retained by her successors despite increasingly becoming a political liability.

In 2022, a comparable number of Ukrainians received protection in Germany. The prospects for this cohort to return home remains similarly unclear.

Only about 10–15% of the roughly 6.5 million Ukrainians currently residing in Europe are expected to go back, even if the war ends, Vasily Voskoboynik, head of a Ukrainian labor and migration organization, estimated in a recent interview. He also warned that as many as 1.5 million Ukrainian residents could instead seek work abroad once travel restrictions linked to martial law are lifted.

Several tour guides in Nepal ran a fake helicopter rescue racket to defraud insurance companies in Australia and the UK, the Kathmandu Post has reported. 

Investigations by the paper revealed that the guides first staged a medical emergency, called in a helicopter, and checked tourists into a hospital.

An insurance claim was then filed, which made it difficult for the foreign insurers, mostly operating from Australia and the UK, to verify incidents that purportedly happened at altitudes of 3,000 meters above sea level in remote Himalayan locations, according to the report.

The newspaper first published an investigative report in 2019 about the alleged scam. While Nepalese authorities did not immediately act on the allegations, in 2025 the Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) reopened the case and found that the practice is widespread.

Nepal charges 32 in fake rescue scam

Fake helicopter rescues and inflated hospital bills used to claim insurance payouts, investigators say.https://t.co/q9mA2YlUaZ —by @gauravpkh

— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) March 23, 2026

The CIB probe revealed two methods the guides used to fake an emergency, according to the report.

The first involved tourists who did not want to trek back down from high-altitude points. After an Everest Base Camp trek, which can take up to two weeks on foot, the scammers convinced tourists unwilling to trek back to pretend to be sick. They were then ferried back in a helicopter.

In the second method, guides exploited mild and common symptoms of altitude sickness, and then told the tourists that only an immediate evacuation could save their lives.

The guides also ferried multiple tourists in a single chopper, while supplying separate invoices to each passenger’s insurance company, portraying it as a dedicated flight, inflating claims of $4,000 to as high as $12,000, the report said.

Medical officers acting in concert with scammers prepared discharge summaries using the digital signatures of senior doctors, while creating fake hospital admission records.

Official investigators found that 4,782 foreign patients were treated across local hospitals between 2022 and 2025 in the scam. Some hospitals that received millions linked to the scam have also been identified, according to the report.

On March 12, the CIB charged 32 people with offenses against the state and arrested nine of them. The other suspects are believed to be on the run.

Iran has accused the US and Israel of genocide over the “deliberate” targeting of schools and education facilities in strikes on the country.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said more than 600 schools and educational facilities across Iran have been targeted in US-Israeli attacks over the past month, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab where more than 160 children were killed.

”This is not an isolated act of cruelty – it is part of a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare against Iran,” he wrote. “The term ‘war crime’ falls far short of adequately describing these atrocities. Given the explicit rhetoric of hostility toward Iranians (as a nation) expressed by US/Israeli officials, these crimes amount to genocide.”

The US-Israeli war on Iran began with massive strikes on urban centers on February 28, including the bombing of the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, which killed at least 175 people, more than 160 of them children. American and Israeli officials initially offered conflicting denials and explanations, with US President Donald Trump even suggesting the attack was “done by Iran.”

This is not an isolated act of cruelty—it is part of a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare against Iran.
In the past 33 days, aggressors have deliberately targeted over 600 schools and educational centers, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in #Minab and the…

— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) April 1, 2026

However, the Pentagon has opened a probe, and reports claim investigators have already confirmed the US carried out the strike using “outdated targeting data” that misclassified the school as part of a nearby military compound.

While the strike in Lamerd drew scant global attention, the atrocity in Minab has sparked condemnation. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the US and Israel of “cruelty, cynicism, and dehumanization.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez both declared solidarity with the victims of the “massacre.” However, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UN Security Council (UNSC) both failed to adopt formal resolutions condemning the atrocity.

The US and Israel have maintained an air offensive on Iran for over a month, killing more than 1,340 people, according to official data. Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and US bases in the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump has called the war on Iran an investment in the future of American children as he delivered his first address to the nation since the start of the conflict a month ago.

In his speech on Wednesday, Trump claimed that Washington was never looking for regime change in Tehran, with its goals being the destruction of Iran’s navy and air force, and denying it the ability to create a nuclear weapon. “These core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he insisted.

During the 32 days of fighting since the US and Israel launched their attack, Iran “has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat… This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said.

The fighting would continue “over the next two to three weeks” until the US goals are “fully achieved,” he added.

Trump again warned the authorities in Tehran that “if there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz applauded Trump’s address, saying that the president was “exactly right tonight.”

The US military operation “is an investment in the future of our children and our grandchildren. We are on the cusp of ending Iran’s nuclear blackmail – that makes America much, much safer,” he wrote on X.

Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and not aimed at obtaining a weapon. Earlier this week, high-ranking Iranian MP Alaeddin Borujerdi said the country’s parliament is looking into the possibility of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, arguing that participation in the 1968 accord became pointless after the US-Israeli attack.

Iran has continued to strike Israel and US military facilities in the Persian Gulf, while rejecting talks with Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted on Wednesday that the war will go on until “the aggressor” is punished and Tehran receives full compensation.

India’s massive condom industry is facing major disruptions due to material shortages and soaring production costs linked to the ongoing war in the Middle East, local media reports, citing manufacturers.

India produces over 6 billion condoms annually in a high-volume, low-margin market worth $860 million. The sector relies heavily on supplies of silicone oil and ammonia, which stabilize raw latex.

Since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to most ships in response to US and Israeli airstrikes, supply chains for petrochemical-based materials have been disrupted, leading to a “huge shortage” of silicone oil and a projected 40-50% price surge for ammonia, according to industry officials quoted by the Indian Express.

India produced 6.4 billion condoms in 2024, accounting for nearly 17% of global output, according to IndexBox data.

The oil crisis has also prompted hikes in aviation fuel prices for airlines, India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said on Wednesday. Fuel prices are expected to double to a record $2,224 as of April 1, it said, adding that domestic carriers will face a staggered increase, while foreign companies will have to pay the full market price.

US President Donald Trump has urged countries that buy oil from the Middle East to unblock the Strait of Hormuz by force unless Iran reopens the vital shipping route to all vessels.

He made the appeal in his first address to the nation on Wednesday, after weeks of chastising NATO members for refusing to send warships to the region and join the US and Israel in their war efforts.

“To those countries that can’t get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran… build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait and just take it. Protect it,” Trump said. He argued that securing the strait would be easy, saying the US had “decimated” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and “dramatically curtailed” its drone and missile capabilities.

Trump:

The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage.

They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it.

They can do it easily. pic.twitter.com/Smm8xEhY92

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 2, 2026

In his address, Trump vowed to intensify airstrikes over the next two to three weeks, suggesting the war would continue if Iran refuses to accept his demands.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has triggered a global energy shock that Washington has struggled to contain, sending oil prices surging and pushing fuel costs sharply higher for consumers worldwide. The conflict has effectively choked flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for roughly one-fifth of global oil supply.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed this week that he had been receiving messages from Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, but denied that the countries were holding talks behind the scenes.

Iranian officials have said that Tehran would end the conflict on its own terms and accused the US of sabotaging previous negotiations.

NASA launched Artemis II, its first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years, on Wednesday.

After a brief delay due to technical issues, a rocket carrying NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As part of their ten-day journey, the astronauts will circle the Moon and return to Earth in an Orion capsule. It is the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Orion is set to circle the Moon on April 6. The astronauts will travel farther from Earth than any humans in history, surpassing the record of 400,171 km (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13, according to ScienceAlert.

Poland will not relocate its American-made Patriot air defense missile systems to the Middle East to help the US intercept attacks from Iran, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said.

Despite US President Donald Trump claiming that the Pentagon has an “unlimited” stockpile of weapons, the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28 has failed to thwart Iran’s ability to strike American bases in the region.

On Tuesday, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that the US had requested that Warsaw lend at least two of its Patriot systems, along with PAC-3 MSE missiles previously sold to Poland, for the war with Iran.

“Our Patriot batteries and their armament are used to protect Polish airspace and NATO’s eastern flank. Nothing is changing in this regard, and we are not planning to relocate them anywhere,” Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X on Tuesday.

Seven US service members have been killed and nearly 350 wounded in Iranian strikes since the conflict began. Iranian missiles and drones have damaged or destroyed several expensive US radars and an E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control aircraft, according to satellite imagery and on-scene footage.

Trump has admonished NATO members in Europe for refusing to send warships to help the US secure the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to withdraw from the military bloc, which he described as a “paper tiger.” One of the most vocal opponents of the Iran war is Spain, which has refused to allow the US to use its airspace and joint bases for attacks on Iran.

The French government has lashed out at right-wing mayors who have stripped European Union flags from town halls following their election wins. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot condemned the acts as a “betrayal,” framing them as an erosion of freedom and democracy.

The controversy follows municipal elections last month in which Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) won in dozens of small and mid-sized French towns, more than tripling its mayoral and council positions since the last vote.

In a symbolic gesture, some newly elected RN mayors began their mandates by removing EU flags from town halls. In at least two instances, the mayors removed the flag themselves and posted footage on social media. One of them said that the only “worthy” flag is the blue-white-red French standard.

“This is a betrayal of who we are,” Barrot wrote on X on Tuesday. “This [EU] flag is the flag of a possible hope; it is the flag of freedom, justice, and democracy,” he argued.

Led by veteran politician Marine Le Pen and party president Jordan Bardella, the Euroskeptic RN is France’s largest opposition party, holding a plurality of seats in parliament.

Dehors les drapeaux européens à la mairie !

Place aux drapeaux français 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/QqoymNwUCm

— Christophe Barthès (@BarthesChristop) March 29, 2026

The party has long argued EU policies undermine French sovereignty, particularly on borders, migration, and economic rules. It advocates stricter immigration and asylum policies, prioritizing French citizens in social benefits, and reforms that would give national law primacy over EU rules.

The RN previously called for a referendum on France leaving the EU, with ‘Frexit’ a central issue in its 2017 campaign, but has since abandoned that position.

Bye bye 👋🇪🇺#rassemblementnational #Canohes pic.twitter.com/yPIfVDVw80

— Carla Muti (@muti_carla) March 30, 2026

In the 2026 municipal elections, RN candidates campaigned on security, fiscal management, and local identity, often under the slogan “a safer and better-managed city.”

🇫🇷 Bonne semaine à tous ! #CagnesSurMer pic.twitter.com/YGP71XEjyX

— Bryan Masson (@MassonBryan) March 30, 2026

A three-time presidential candidate who reached the run-off in 2017 and 2022, Le Pen was sidelined last year after a French court convicted her of misusing EU funds. She denies wrongdoing.

Her protege, Bardella, remains a leading figure in opinion polls ahead of the 2027 presidential race.

The BBC has been embroiled in yet another scandal involving child sexual abuse allegations against one of its top presenters.

On Monday, the British state broadcaster confirmed that it fired the star of its Radio 2 breakfast show, Scott Mills, “following allegations about his personal conduct.” It did not elaborate further.

According to Sky News, the BBC presenter was being probed over past allegations of sexually abusing a child under the age of 16 – the UK’s age of consent.

The Metropolitan Police had initially launched an investigation in December 2016 relating to “allegations of serious sexual offenses against a teenage boy,” the news channel reported on Tuesday, citing law enforcement.

The alleged crimes reportedly took place between 1997 and 2000.

“As part of these inquiries, a man who was in his 40s at the time of the interview, was questioned by police under caution in July 2018,” Sky News cited the police force as saying, adding that the probe was eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.

Savile allegedly abused as many as 450 victims – most of them children or young people – over the course of five decades. His alleged crimes shook the UK following his death in 2011, prompting an unprecedented investigation into how the BBC handled the issue.

The European Commission has announced a new financial aid package for the cash-strapped Ukrainian government using the revenue generated from frozen Russian assets. The sum of €1.4 billion ($1.63 billion) would largely be spent on covering Kiev’s debts to its Western backers, the statement said.

Ukraine’s Western supporters froze $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The majority is held at the Belgian-based Euroclear depository. In late 2023, the EU decided it could tap the annual revenues generated by the assets by declaring them ‘windfall profits’ that do not count as part of the foreign sovereign assets it could not legally confiscate.

Russia has said it considers any use of its frozen assets to be theft. It also warned it could retaliate by seizing €200 billion in Western assets held in Russia, but has so far refrained from doing so.

The announcement comes as Ukraine faces a massive budget shortfall, with a projected deficit of around $53 billion for 2025-28 and a forecasted 18.4% deficit in the 2026 budget. El Pais reported in October 2025 that the Ukrainian government could run out of money as early as this month.

In December, the Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in a Moscow court seeking $232 billion in compensation for frozen assets and lost profits.

The regulator additionally announced that it could expand its lawsuit over frozen assets beyond the Belgian-based depository to include European banks that also hold its funds.

The leaders of the UK and Australia have told their citizens to cut fuel consumption and prepare for months of hardship as a result of the US-Israeli war with Iran. But UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, couldn’t bring themselves to name who’s responsible.

Starmer and Albanese delivered a pair of seemingly coordinated addresses to their nations on Wednesday. “The economic shocks caused by [the Iran war] will be with us for months,” Albanese said, telling Australians to switch to public transport if possible, and promising to cut fuel taxes and prepare for the possibility that “the global situation gets worse and our fuel supplies are seriously disrupted.”

“Australia is not an active participant in this war,” he claimed, despite his government being the first in the world to back the US and Israel’s opening strikes on Iran on February 28.

Starmer struck a similar tone, declaring that “this is not our war,” but warning that “the impact of this war will affect the future of our country.” The British prime minister promised that “no matter how fierce this storm is, we are well placed to weather it,” and vowed to help “reopen” the Strait of Hormuz.

How bad is the energy crisis?

The US-Israeli war with Iran has triggered the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s, if not in history. Around 40% of the world’s oil comes from the Middle East. Nearly a third of the world’s seaborne crude oil transits the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway less than 40 km wide at its narrowest point, which through a combination of Iranian attacks on tankers and hesitance by Western insurers, is de facto closed to maritime traffic.

As a result, Brent oil prices – which serve as a barometer for 80% of the world’s crude oil – have sat above $100 per barrel for three weeks, while gas prices have surged 60% in the EU and more than 100% in the UK. While the crisis is global, its effects are particularly acute in the EU, UK, and Australia, all of which have sanctioned Russian oil and gas, shutting themselves off from a potential lifeline amid the crisis.

The EU once relied on Russia for 45% of its gas imports, before switching to more expensive American and Qatari supplies after 2022. With no date in sight for the resumption of Qatari imports, and with inflation spiking across Europe, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned last week that “we are facing a real shock…probably beyond what we can imagine at the moment.”

Are Starmer and Albanese pressuring the US?

The Strait of Hormuz was open to maritime traffic until the US and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran in the middle of nuclear talks. However, neither Starmer nor Albanese mentioned the US or Israel in their speeches. Instead, both the UK and Australia issued a joint statement – along with 32 other US allies in Europe and the Gulf – blaming the closure of the strait squarely on “Iran’s actions.”

“We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping,” the statement reads, accusing Tehran of posing “a threat to international peace and security.”

Furthermore, Albanese has sent surveillance aircraft, stocks of air-to-air missiles, and military personnel to the UAE, while Starmer has allowed the US to use the British-American air base on Diego Garcia to attack Iran. Despite aiding the US in a war that Starmer claims is “not ours,” the British PM has been publicly humiliated by US President Donald Trump. Starmer’s decision to grant access to Diego Garcia took “too long,” Trump complained last month, adding that he was “greatly disappointed” in his ally. 

What does the crisis look like for ordinary people?

The most immediate signs of an energy crisis are felt at the pumps, where rising fuel prices foreshadow increasing costs of everything else dependent on oil: namely food, consumer goods, and the means of transporting them.

In Russia, where export controls have been introduced to protect Russian consumers, Gasoline prices currently sit at around $0.83 per liter, down from $0.87 in February.

What is Trump doing to resolve the crisis?

Trump has said fuel prices will fall once the conflict ends, predicting on Tuesday that military operations could cease in “two to three weeks.” However, his messaging on Iran so far has swung between claims that peace is imminent, and threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” until Tehran capitulates – each abrupt shift in tone seemingly timed to calm energy markets.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump claimed that “Iran's new regime president… has just asked the United States of America for a ceasefire.” Trump added that he would grant Tehran a ceasefire once the Strait of Hormuz “is open, free, and clear.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed Trump’s claim as “false” and “baseless.”

Trump is due to discuss Iran in a speech to the nation later on Wednesday. It is unclear whether his address will signal escalation or deescalation. However, the Pentagon announced the deployment of another aircraft carrier – the USS George H.W. Bush – to the Middle East on Tuesday, and with plans reportedly being drawn up for a ground invasion of Iran, the conflict and resulting energy crisis may drag on significantly longer.

The war’s second ‘ring of fire’ is no longer forming around Iran. It is already there. What we are witnessing is not a limited clash between a state under pressure and its immediate enemies, but the gradual emergence of a wider regional confrontation in which Tehran’s allied forces are moving from symbolic solidarity to practical engagement.

In Lebanon, Iraq, and now once again in Yemen, groups aligned with Iran are opening new fronts and making any American or Israeli campaign far more difficult to execute. If Iran cannot stop pressure by matching superior military power plane for plane or missile for missile, it can still answer by stretching the battlefield across time and space.

That is the real significance of the current escalation. Wars are easiest to sell and easiest to sustain when they look concentrated, technically manageable, and politically clean. They become much harder to continue when every strike produces another zone of instability, when every advance prompts retaliation, and when every promise of decisive success runs into a new and costly complication.

Iran and the forces loyal to it understand this perfectly well. Their goal is not necessarily to win a spectacular conventional victory over Israel or the US. They are trying to deprive their adversaries of a quick result, to turn military superiority into strategic over-extension, and to make the price of escalation rise with every passing week.

Israel is getting mired in Lebanon

Lebanon has become the clearest example of this dynamic. Israel entered the confrontation with Hezbollah expecting that greater firepower, harsher pressure, and deeper incursions would eventually impose a new reality in the south of the country. But so far the campaign has not produced the kind of result Israeli leaders would need in order to claim genuine success. Israeli officials are still speaking openly about expanding operations and about the need for a broad security zone in southern Lebanon. That does not sound like a completed military mission. It sounds like a campaign still searching for a workable outcome.

Israel remains capable of inflicting enormous damage on Lebanon. It can devastate border villages and infrastructure, and force large numbers of people from their homes. But the ability to destroy is not the same as the ability to impose control. A military campaign can appear overwhelming on television and still fail to neutralize the armed force it was meant to break. Hezbollah remains capable of hitting Israeli territory, and that single fact tells us that the war in Lebanon has not been resolved in Israel’s favor.

Israel is also suffering losses, not only in military terms but in political and psychological terms. Reports of fallen soldiers and continuing battlefield casualties show that Hezbollah is still able to turn southern Lebanon into a dangerous combat zone for the Israeli army. This is important because Israel’s military doctrine relies heavily on speed, on offensive initiative, and on the demonstration of dominance. A campaign that drags on, consumes manpower, exposes soldiers to attrition, and leaves northern Israel under continuing threat is not simply unfinished. It becomes strategically corrosive. It undermines the image of effortless superiority on which deterrence partly depends.

Hezbollah continues to create an environment in which Israeli ground operations are costly, risky, and politically burdensome. Israel may seize or enter territory, but it still has not demonstrated that it can transform that presence into a stable and secure military arrangement. As long as Hezbollah keeps imposing losses on Israel, the campaign remains strategically incomplete.

Hezbollah is demonstrating to the entire pro-Iranian regional camp that Israel can be denied a clean military outcome. That message matters in Iraq, in Yemen, and in every arena where forces aligned with Tehran are watching closely. Every week in which Hezbollah continues to strike back weakens the notion that Israel and the US can simply pummel the region into submission through superior firepower. That perception encourages allied groups to escalate because it suggests that resistance is not futile and that prolonged confrontation can produce strategic leverage, even against a stronger opponent.

Iraqi fighters activate

Iraq is the second arena where this logic is becoming visible. For years, Washington tried to handle pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq through a familiar formula of pressure, selective strikes, deterrent warnings, and political bargaining. That formula is now under severe strain. The Iraqi factions loyal to Iran are again attacking Western interests and American-linked facilities, and their posture is hardening as the regional crisis grows. Any American move toward direct ground involvement against Iran would not remain confined to Iranian territory. It would immediately activate the Iraqi theatre in a much more serious way.

That possibility is now being discussed with increasing seriousness because Iraqi armed groups are presenting themselves as a reserve force that could mobilize in Iran’s favor if the war enters a more dangerous phase. This is not yet a mass transnational deployment on a scale that would determine the outcome of a large war by itself. But that is not the most important issue. The key point is that the Iraqi arena is being prepared politically, organizationally, and psychologically as an extension of the Iranian front. If Washington were to attempt a ground operation against Iran, it would face not one battlefield but several at once.

Washington appears to have assumed that by concentrating military pressure on Iran, it could either isolate Tehran or intimidate its regional allies into caution. But the opposite dynamic is taking shape. Pressure on the center is activating the periphery. Iran’s allies do not need to defeat the US or Israel in direct set-piece battles – only to ensure that no front can be fully closed, no rear area can be treated as safe, and no military plan can be presented as limited and controllable. That alone is enough to alter the political mathematics of war.

The Iraqi dimension is especially dangerous because it sits at the intersection of military operations, internal state weakness, and competing sovereignties. Iraq is not a sealed theatre. It is a country in which militias, parties, foreign forces, and state institutions coexist uneasily. Any renewed cycle of attacks on Western targets can therefore produce consequences far beyond the immediate strike. It can reignite internal tensions, weaken already fragile governance, increase pressure on the Iraqi government, and deepen the long-running struggle over whether Iraq is a sovereign balancing state or a contested zone inside a larger regional conflict. Once that process begins to accelerate, it becomes very difficult to contain.

Yet the most strategically explosive development may be the renewed role of Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in Yemen. For nearly a month, the movement was relatively restrained in this specific phase of escalation. That relative quiet led some observers to believe that Yemen might remain a secondary theatre while events centered on Iran, Lebanon, and the Gulf. But this reading now looks premature. Ansar Allah has signaled a return to direct action against Israel, and even more importantly, it has once again raised the specter of pressure on maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

That threat cannot be dismissed as rhetorical theater. Bab el-Mandeb is one of the great chokepoints of the global economy. It connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, which means it is part of the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia through the Suez Canal. If this corridor becomes unsafe on a sustained basis, the consequences extend far beyond the region. Shipping companies reroute. Insurance premiums surge. Delivery times lengthen. Fuel costs rise. Supply chains absorb new friction. The shock travels outward through freight markets, commodity prices, and industrial planning. In the modern world, a narrow stretch of water can become a multiplier of global instability.

This is why even the threat of closure is almost as bad as closure itself. Markets do not wait patiently for a waterway to be blocked in definite terms before reacting. They respond to risk. If Ansar Allah signals that ships tied to Israel or to its supporters may face attack, and if the movement demonstrates that this threat is credible, then the commercial effect begins long before a formal blockade exists. Some carriers will avoid the route. Others will demand sharply higher rates. Naval escorts may become more common. A military problem turns into a commercial one, and a commercial problem soon becomes a macroeconomic one.

A serious disruption in Bab el-Mandeb would also hit the Gulf states in complicated ways. On the surface, high oil prices often appear beneficial for energy exporters. But in wartime the picture is much less straightforward. Gulf monarchies depend not only on price levels but also on predictable flows, secure shipping, investor confidence, infrastructure safety, and the broader perception that the region remains a viable center for trade and finance. A war that pushes up energy prices while simultaneously making maritime transit less secure can produce gains on one side and losses on the other. It can raise revenue while also raising risk. It can improve the price per barrel while damaging the political and logistical environment needed to move that barrel efficiently.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular would face a difficult balancing act. Both states have tried to reduce their exposure to open-ended regional wars while preserving close security relationships with Washington. But a wider confrontation involving Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Israel would undermine that balancing strategy. Even if they avoid direct military participation, they remain physically embedded in the conflict zone. Their ports, export routes, desalination infrastructure, airports, and industrial facilities exist within missile and drone range of hostile actors. In other words, geography limits neutrality. The Gulf states can try to hedge politically, but they cannot fully hedge physically.

The effects on the global economy could be severe if this pattern continues. The most obvious risk is a combined shock to energy and logistics. If pressure on the Strait of Hormuz coincides with renewed disruption in Bab el-Mandeb, the world economy would face stress on two of its most sensitive arteries at once. Oil prices would rise not simply because of lost supply, but because of fear, insurance costs, and the scarcity premium that always appears when multiple chokepoints are threatened simultaneously. Gas markets would become more nervous. Shipping costs would climb. Import-dependent economies would feel the squeeze first, especially poorer countries already vulnerable to debt, inflation, and food insecurity.

This is how regional wars become global economic events. They do not need to shut every route completely or destroy every refinery to trigger wider consequences. They only need to make enough critical routes uncertain at the same time. Once uncertainty spreads across energy and transport, it feeds into everything else: Freight becomes more expensive, manufacturing inputs arrive later, food prices rise through transport and fertilizer costs, central banks face renewed inflation pressure and governments face budget strain. Political instability follows economic stress, especially in countries where societies are already exhausted by previous shocks.

Have the US and Israel miscalculated?

All of this points to a broader conclusion. The conflict is expanding because the forces aligned with Iran are deliberately making it expand. Their strategy is not based on rapid decision or spectacular breakthrough. It is based on the controlled multiplication of pressure points. Hezbollah keeps the northern Israeli front unstable. Iraqi factions raise the cost of any deeper American military involvement. Ansar Allah threatens one of the world’s most important maritime corridors. Iran itself remains the central actor, but it does not need to act alone in a linear and isolated fashion. Its allies provide strategic depth, geographical spread, and the ability to transform one war into several interconnected confrontations.

From this perspective, American planners appear to have miscalculated. They may have believed that forceful pressure would narrow Iran’s options and restore deterrence. Instead, it risks producing the opposite result. Rather than isolating Iran, escalation is drawing its allied forces more tightly into the conflict. Rather than shortening the crisis, it is lengthening it. Rather than concentrating the battlefield, it is fragmenting it across the region. That is a dangerous trajectory, because a dispersed war is often harder to win than a concentrated one. It taxes logistics, political patience, alliance cohesion, and public confidence all at once.

What happens next will depend on whether the US and Israel continue to believe that greater military pressure can still produce strategic clarity. That belief now looks increasingly questionable. The longer the war continues without a decisive and stable outcome in Lebanon, the more confidence Hezbollah and its allies will gain. The more American assets are threatened in Iraq, the more difficult it becomes to present deeper intervention as manageable. The more Ansar Allah raises the cost of shipping through Bab el-Mandeb, the more the conflict escapes the boundaries of local war and enters the realm of global economic disruption.

That is the central lesson of the present moment. Military superiority does not automatically translate into political success, especially in a region where allied non-state actors can open multiple fronts with relative flexibility. The US and Israel retain enormous destructive capacity. But destruction is not the same thing as control, and control is not the same thing as victory.

In that sense, the strategic initiative is no longer defined only by who can strike harder. It is increasingly defined by who can force the other side to fight on too many maps at once. Iran and the forces loyal to it appear determined to do exactly that. They are trying to stretch the conflict in time, to stretch it across geography, and to erode the ability of their adversaries to maintain focus. For now, that strategy is working far better than many in the US and Israel.

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US-Israeli war against Iran and the wider regional escalation, marked by ongoing missile and drone exchanges.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to step up strikes on Iran, saying Iranian power plants could be targeted next. The announcement came just hours after US forces hit the country’s tallest highway bridge linking Tehran and Karaj, rendering it inoperable.

“Our Military… hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants! New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done fast!”

Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari responded, warning of immediate retaliation if Washington follows through.

The video featured footage of the Stargate UAE project, a major AI infrastructure hub under construction in Abu Dhabi, part of a US-backed initiative led by OpenAI. Zolfaghari said Iran would “do whatever it takes” to defend its interests, suggesting these projects could become targets.

Earlier, Iran said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed “in the long term” to US and Israeli ships. Trump urged Tehran to “make a deal before it is too late.” Iranian officials have denied they are seeking a ceasefire or engaging in talks.

Latest developments:

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said strikes on civilian infrastructure, including bridges, would not force Iran to surrender, calling them a sign of “defeat and moral collapse.”

• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned US-Israeli strikes on Iranian health facilities, citing over 20 verified attacks since March 1 and at least nine deaths.

• US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George.

• The IRGC claims it shot down a second US F-35 over central Iran.

• The UN Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a proposal authorizing “all necessary means” to secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz, effectively allowing the use of force against perceived threats to shipping.

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

The husband of former US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem allegedly led a double life as a cross-dressing fetishist who spent thousands of dollars on online models and shared photos of himself in exaggerated feminine attire, according to a Daily Mail investigation.

Kristi Noem, often called ‘ICE Barbie’ online over her glamorous appearance, led the DHS from early 2025 until her removal in early March and was in charge of the Trump administration’s controversial nationwide crackdown on illegal migration, overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that her husband, Bryon Noem, an insurance executive, used the alias ‘Jason Jackson’ to communicate with women involved in the ‘bimbofication’ scene – a subculture centered on exaggeratedly feminine Barbie doll aesthetics.

Reviewing hundreds of messages and images, the Mail said Bryon Noem sent at least $25,000 via Cash App and PayPal, lavished praise on the models’ surgically enhanced bodies, and shared selfies in which he appeared wearing tight pink shorts, crop tops, and what looked like balloons or prosthetics to mimic large breasts.

Secret double life of Kristi Noem's crossdressing husband Bryon: The pouting 'busty bimbo' photos and trove of explicit messages https://t.co/4GvCcfPK9j

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) March 31, 2026

In one exchange, he reportedly wrote: “you turn me into a girl.” In another, he also appeared to acknowledge his wife’s rumored affair with longtime Trump operative Corey Lewandowski, telling a model: “I know. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

The revelations have prompted warnings from former intelligence officials who said the behavior could have exposed Kristi Noem, who oversaw sensitive national security operations until her firing last month, to blackmail. 

“If a media organization can find this out, you can assume with a high degree of confidence that a hostile intelligence service knows this as well,” former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos told the Mail.

A representative for Kristi Noem told the New York Post she was “devastated” and that “the family was blindsided by this.” The couple, which has been married since 1992, have three adult children.

Asked about the reports, US President Donald Trump said he “feels badly for the family.”

Kristi Noem was removed from her position at the DHS amid mounting controversies, including criticism over her immigration enforcement tactics and two fatal shootings by federal agents. She has since been named special envoy for the ‘Shield of the Americas’ initiative.

Polls ahead of the Hungarian elections point to an opposition victory, but players behind the scenes expect Prime Minister Viktor Orban to come out on top. Others say it’s a scenario ripe for a Kiev-style ‘color revolution’.

However, Politico has also reported that “many” EU leaders secretly believe an Orban victory is “likely.” Hungarian EU Affairs Minister Janos Boka thinks that the disparity between public surveys and private sentiment is no accident, and that by skewing polls, Magyar and his allies in Brussels are “building the narrative that if they lose the election, then this is an illegitimate result.”

Notorious intervention hawk Michael Weiss put Boka’s worries into words last week. “If Orban tries to steal this – and he almost certainly will – it’ll be Euromaidan on steroids in an EU/NATO country. Watch closely, America,” he warned in a post on X.

If Orban tries to steal this — and he almost certainly will — it’ll be Euromaidan on steroids in an EU/NATO country. Watch closely, America…. https://t.co/F62x0oSo47

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 25, 2026

Weiss, who previously ran a Ukraine regime change outfit he claimed was journalism, was referring to the post-election coup that toppled a democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2014. Orchestrated by the US, the Maidan/Euromaidan coup set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

However, there are some fundamental points war hawks in armchairs would like you not to notice; differences between Budapest and Kiev that would make forced regime change a far more difficult prospect if Orban wins.

How the US masterminded Maidan

Presented by Western media as a popular uprising, the ‘Maidan’ revolution was a creation of the US State Department and run out of a very compliant US embassy. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a State Department sub-agency, pumped around $14 million into Ukrainian activist groups from 2011 to 2014, the US embassy funded pro-Maidan media outlets, and between 1991 and 2014, the US funnelled a total of $5 billion into “democracy-building programs in Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said in 2014.

The NED boasted in a 2015 report that US-funded organizations “played important roles in the peaceful protests in Kiev.” By the time the report had been published, the “peaceful protests” had descended into a bloodbath, with Western-funded far-right militias massacring nearly 100 pro-Western protesters in a false-flag operation, and pro-Western neo-Nazis burning 46 anti-Maidan protesters alive at the Trade Unions House in Odessa. Awkward questions for the neocons, neolibs, and the righteous.

Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland promised military aid and a billion-dollar loan to opposition politicians, and famously handed out cookies to pro-Western activists in Kiev. Together with US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, she helped choose the government that would replace Yanukovich’s. When asked by an obsequious Pyatt in a 2014 phone call if the Europeans might disagree with her choice of candidate, the notorious hawk infamously declared “f**k the EU.”

Now the US backs Orban

The situation in Hungary is radically different. US President Donald Trump is a staunch ally of Orban, and has endorsed the Hungarian PM’s reelection campaign, while Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled to make a high-profile trip to Budapest just days before the April 12 election.  

Furthermore, the US embassy in Budapest has been cleared of ideologues – among them President Joe Biden’s ambassador, David Pressman – and the NED and USAID have both been gutted by Trump. Put simply, the US has stripped back its regime-change machinery in Hungary, and has a keen interest in an Orban victory.

Could the Europeans trigger a Hungarian Maidan?

Nuland and the Americans may have been in the driver’s seat in 2014, but the Maidan coup was also backed by the EU, UK, and the panoply of civil society and activist groups funded by the likes of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

The EU and UK are committed to arming and funding Ukraine, and therefore both have a vested interest in Orban’s removal. Under Orban, Hungary has used its EU veto powers to delay every package of energy sanctions imposed on Russia by the bloc, opposes Ukraine’s accession to NATO, refuses to supply arms to Kiev, and is currently, along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic, vetoing a €90 billion EU loan package for Kiev.

As RT outlined in the first installment of our ‘Battle for Hungary’ series, the EU has already brought the full weight of its online censorship machinery to bear on Hungary ahead of the election, and plans to keep speech restrictions in place for a week after the vote. However, the bloc’s ability to pressure Orban directly is already nearly exhausted. The EU has withheld funds equal to 3.5% of Hungary’s GDP since 2022 over Orban’s refusal to accept non-European migrants, his banning of LGBT propaganda, and alleged judicial independence concerns – all without triggering meaningful popular unrest in Hungary. Should Orban win, the last remaining tool in the EU’s arsenal is to strip Hungary of its veto rights, an idea already floated by Sweden, Lithuania, and a host of unnamed “EU diplomats” interviewed by Politico earlier this month.

The UK has played a more low-key pre-election game than the EU. However, British Ambassador Justin McKenzie Smith held a closed-doors meeting with pro-Western activists and journalists in Budapest on March 4. The event was organized in conjunction with Political Capital, a think tank funded by the European Commission, Soros, and the NED.

British journalist Catherine Belton attended the event, and three weeks later ‘broke’ a story revealing contacts between Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. As RT explored earlier in this series, Hungarian opposition journalist Szabolcs Panyi collaborated with EU intelligence agents to obtain this information by wiretapping Szijjarto.

Szijjarto does not deny speaking to Lavrov, maintaining that such diplomatic outreach is part of his job. The real scandal, he insists, “is that a Hungarian journalist is colluding with foreign secret services in order to wiretap a member of the Hungarian government.”

Can Soros stoke a revolution?

Soros’ Open Society Foundations played a pivotal role in fomenting the Maidan coup, or in its own words “supporting civil society.” Around 2014, the Hungarian-born financier’s work in Ukraine included providing legal aid to pro-Western protesters, funding pro-Western media, and financing anti-government think-tanks.

“I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of [the USSR],” Soros told CNN in 2014. “And the foundation has been functioning ever since. And it played an important part in events now.” 

Soros’ influence in his native Hungary has been severely curtailed by Orban. Hungary criminalized the provision of aid to illegal immigrants in a 2018 law named the ‘Stop Soros’ act. This law effectively forced Open Society Foundations to cease operations in Hungary, and forced Soros’ Central European University out of the country. However, at least 153 organizations in or dealing with Hungary were still in receipt of Soros’ money as of last year, according to the Center for Fundamental Rights, a conservative think tank.

Soros is therefore still capable of exerting some influence on Hungary, however diminished and indirect that influence may be nowadays.

Hungary in 2026 is not Ukraine in 2014. Orban’s opponents have no support from the US, and the EU’s anti-Orban rhetoric and funding freezes failed to prevent his victories in the 2018 and 2022 elections. Moreover, Brussels is extremely unlikely to instigate or incite post-election violence in one of its own member states. Meanwhile, the UK’s involvement has thus far been limited to encouraging anti-Orban propaganda.

Still, the Maidan playbook is not the only blueprint for regime change and election interference. The EU used its same censorship tools to stifle support for Euroskeptic candidate Calin Georgescu in Romania’s 2024 election: when Georgescu won a shock victory anyway, the country’s pro-EU judiciary simply overturned the result.

Brussels should not count on any help from the Hungarian legal system, however. Orban has been in power for 16 years, created the Supreme Administrative Court that handles election-related cases, and appointed its chief justices. Even if Magyar were to win, his Tisza party would need a two-thirds majority to overhaul this system.

All of this being the case, a post-election coup is likely out of the question in Hungary, should Orban win a fifth consecutive term in office. Before the election, however, all manner of spy games and influence campaigns are already underway.

AI giant Anthropic has mistakenly published its own top secret internal code, triggering a viral wave of github rewrites and inflicting potentially catastrophic commercial damage on the Amazon-backed business model.

The developer of the Claude chatbot described the incident as a release issue “caused by human error, not a security breach,” according to US technology news website VentureBeat on Tuesday.

Anthropic was designated a “risk to national security” by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in February after disagreements with the Pentagon over the use of its artificial intelligence systems.

The code spread rapidly online, with versions of the code being placed on code-sharing platform GitHub and replicated thousands of times within hours, according to Ars Technica and The Verge. Anthropic moved to remove the material and issued takedown notices, but the material had already been widely copied and circulated, the reports said.

According to VentureBeat, by exposing the “blueprints” of Claude Code, the leak may have given “bad actors” a “road map” to bypassing security checks or tricking the tool into running hidden commands or accessing data without the user’s knowledge.

A separate data leak reported in February exposed internal materials revealing details of Anthropic’s unreleased model, known as Claude Mythos, after thousands of draft documents were left accessible in a public data cache.

The United Arab Emirates is getting ready to become the first Gulf nation to commit its military to the US-Israeli war against Iran, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing Arab officials.

Since the start of the conflict a month ago, the UAE has been hit by some 2,500 Iranian missiles and drones, more than any other country in the region, including Israel. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed due to the fighting, the country’s oil output has been reduced by more than half, while stock markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have lost around $120 billion in value.

The Emirates wants the Strait of Hormuz unblocked for oil trade so badly that it is ready to assist the US militarily in doing so, the WSJ said in an article on Tuesday.

The nation’s diplomats have privately urged Washington to form a military coalition with European and Asian countries to take control of the waterway, the sources said.

The leadership in Abu Dhabi is currently “actively” looking at ways in which the country could contribute militarily to securing the waterway, including through mine clearing and other support activities, they said.

The Gulf state also wants the US to occupy the islands in the strait, including Abu Musa, which have been under Iran’s control for a half-century, but are claimed by the UAE, the Arab officials added.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington could withdraw from the conflict in two to three weeks and “will not have anything to do with” what happens in the Strait of Hormuz after that. Unblocking the waterway, through which 20% of seaborne oil trade passes, will be a task for “whoever uses the strait,” he insisted.

US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has refused to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to NATO’s collective defense, pointing to the bloc’s refusal to assist or participate in the American-Israeli war on Iran. 

Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday, Hegseth stated that the future of US involvement in NATO will ultimately be decided by President Donald Trump, but noted that many issues with the bloc have been “laid bare” in the Iran conflict. 

“A lot has been shown to the world about what our allies would be willing to do for the US when we undertake an effort of this scope on behalf of the free world,” Hegseth said. He argued that Iranian missiles did not pose a threat to the US, but to its “allies and others,” who responded to Washington’s request for assistance with “questions, or roadblocks, or hesitations.” 

“The President is pointing out that you don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,” Hegseth said.

In an interview with the Telegraph published on Wednesday, Trump himself confirmed that he is strongly considering pulling the US out of NATO if it fails to join the war against Iran, labelling the bloc a “paper tiger.”

A number of NATO states have opposed the unprovoked war being waged on Iran by the US and Israel, with several members, including France and Spain, openly refusing to participate in the operation or allow Washington to use their bases or airspace for attacks.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at bloc members for their reluctance, branding them “cowards” on social media and claiming that NATO was “a one-way street” and that the US “no longer ‘need[s]’, or desire[s], the NATO countries’ assistance.”

RT has looked into how Iran has used cheap, AI-generated clips to mock US President Donald Trump and the American military, countering the multibillion-dollar US media machine during the conflict in the Middle East.

Videos by Tehran address the latest developments in the war, warning that US troops will face “hell” if Washington launches a ground operation, making fun of Trump’s fear of the ‘No Kings’ protests and reiterating the Iranian narrative that the US president ordered the attack on February 28 to distract the public from the Epstein files.

In the US, the effort to convince the population that the war against Tehran makes sense is spearheaded by the empire of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which includes the likes of Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

It targets different audiences with tailored narratives, adopting a measured tone for educated elites, while not shying away from making bogus claims – such as suggesting that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is gay – or relying on slogans such as “short-term pain for long-term gain” when addressing everyday people.

Iran has presented a video utilizing extraordinary AI technology. "Come on over, Americans—we're waiting for you; hell is ready for you!"—a superb visual presentation.#IranWar‌ #IranRevolution2026‌ pic.twitter.com/dHQ7KxLf4w

— Sagar Times সাগর টাইমস (@sagartimeslive) March 31, 2026

The Iranian approach, however, appears to be more effective, with its often-bizarre AI-generated clips going viral and sometimes being shared by the mainstream media outlets themselves. At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have plummeted to around 36%, with around 60% of Americans saying that the US military action against Iran has gone too far, according to Ipsos polls.

Wake up babe, a new Iran trolling movie just dropped pic.twitter.com/b3qRbEyI7y

— Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) March 30, 2026

Israel’s Defense Ministry has announced retaliatory steps against France after US President Donald Trump openly criticized the European NATO member for refusing to allow access to its airspace for arms shipments being delivered to the Middle East.

Posting on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump described the French decision as “very unhelpful” to the US-Israeli war on Iran, adding that Washington “will remember” the move. France’s restriction on facilitating weapons transfers to Israel came alongside a broader embargo on arms sales to West Jerusalem introduced more than a year ago.

Israeli Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram stated in a Channel 12 interview on Tuesday that he and Defense Minister Israel Katz aim to curb reliance on foreign arms suppliers, especially from countries such as France that Israel does not view as “friendly.”

Macron ally diverts to Lebanon

According to Ynet, Alice Rufo – a deputy to French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin and a reported close ally of President Emmanuel Macron – had been scheduled to visit Israel on Sunday.

Reports differ on the sequence of events, with some suggesting France’s airspace denial came after Rufo’s visit was scrapped by West Jerusalem. Sources cited by Reuters indicated this marked the first time Paris had refused access to an Israel-bound arms shipment since the regime change campaign against Iran was launched over a month ago.

Mounting diplomatic fallout

Macron introduced the arms embargo on Israel in late 2024 as part of a broader effort to pressure West Jerusalem over its military action in Gaza. Israeli defense firms have also been barred from showcasing products at French arms exhibitions.

Although France continues to export certain dual-use goods to Israel, volumes have declined significantly. A parliamentary report in 2025 noted that such exports – which require case-by-case approval – totaled €76.5 million ($88.6 million) in 2024, representing a 60% drop compared to the previous year.

Israel ‘turned its back’ on Macron’s conciliatory moves

Israel has “turned its back” on Macron despite a series of recent French efforts to ease tensions, Le Figaro has said.

In November, Israeli companies were permitted to showcase their goods at the Milipol internal security exhibition in Paris. The following month, France signaled it would not join other European countries in boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s participation.

However, Israel appears uninterested in rapprochement, Le Figaro argued. It noted that even before the latest dispute, West Jerusalem had dismissed French objections to its planned military incursion into Lebanon, a former French mandate territory.

Trump urges allies to ‘take’ Iranian oil

Over the past several days, the Trump administration has indicated that the US campaign against Iran could conclude within two weeks. Some analysts, however, suggest the messaging may be a strategic distraction as the Pentagon has moved thousands of marines and airborne forces to the Middle East in preparation for a possible face-saving yet risky ground operation.

Rufo, the French junior minister, remarked on Wednesday that NATO was designed as an organization protecting the Euro-Atlantic area and “not intended to carry out an operation in the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that such a deployment would be against international law. She appeared to be responding to Trump’s latest suggestion that the US could pull out of the bloc, made in an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

In a separate Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said nations such as the UK that face fuel shortages but decline to support the US and Israel should either buy American oil or “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”

The outcome of the war with Iran will determine America’s capabilities on the world stage for years to come. That is what makes the current conflict in West Asia so consequential, far beyond the region itself.

US policy toward Iran has become increasingly erratic. Rather than focus on the president’s shifting rhetoric, it is more useful to examine the logic underpinning the confrontation. Washington appears to have convinced itself that the moment is right to act decisively against Tehran, exploiting what it perceives as a window of vulnerability.

The objective, viewed in isolation, has a certain cold rationality. A single, well-executed strike could, in theory, achieve several long-standing goals at once: settle the historical grievance of the 1979 embassy crisis, remove a regime seen as hostile to Israel, gain leverage over key energy resources and transport routes, and weaken emerging Eurasian integration projects. Advisers appear to have presented this as a rare opportunity. The president accepted the argument.

But such ambitions rest on a fundamental miscalculation. Iran is not Iraq in 2003, nor Afghanistan in 2001. Its military capabilities are far more substantial than those of any adversary the United States has confronted directly in recent decades. It is a large, resilient state with deep strategic depth and a capacity to inflict serious disruption on global trade and energy flows.

This last point is critical. Iran’s geographic position gives it leverage that few countries possess. Even limited escalation could threaten shipping routes and economic stability far beyond the Middle East, directly affecting the interests of the United States and its allies. That reality alone complicates any attempt at a quick, clean victory.

The original assumption appears to have been that Iran would capitulate quickly. What that capitulation would look like was never entirely clear: regime collapse, coerced compliance along the lines of Venezuela, or a negotiated settlement sharply limiting Tehran’s power. In any case, a prolonged conflict was not part of the plan.

Now that the conflict has dragged on, a more fundamental question has emerged: what exactly constitutes success?

This dilemma reflects a broader shift in American foreign policy. “America First” is often interpreted as isolationism or restraint. In practice, it has meant something else entirely, the pursuit of US objectives without responsibility and, ideally, without cost. The underlying principle is simple: achieve maximum benefit while minimizing commitments.

For a time, this approach appeared to work. In his first year, Donald Trump managed to pressure partners into accepting American terms, often by leveraging overwhelming economic power. But that strategy depends on the absence of meaningful resistance. It becomes far more dangerous when applied to a situation that cannot be controlled.

Creating a major geopolitical crisis and expecting others to absorb the consequences while Washington extracts advantages is a different proposition altogether. It risks destabilizing not just adversaries, but the entire system in which the United States itself operates.

This shift carries profound implications. A hegemon that no longer seeks to provide stability must rely more heavily on coercion. But coercion, to be effective, requires credibility. The dominant power must demonstrate clearly that it can impose its will when necessary.

Iran has become the test case.

The United States has, in effect, chosen this challenge for itself. The stakes are therefore exceptionally high. A failure to achieve a decisive outcome would not simply be another setback, it would call into question Washington’s ability to act as a global power under the new rules it is attempting to establish.

This is what distinguishes the current conflict from previous campaigns. Iraq and Afghanistan ended without clear victories, but they were fought under a different strategic paradigm. Today’s confrontation is more openly transactional, more explicitly about power projection, and less constrained by legal or ideological considerations.

That makes defining victory both more urgent and more difficult. In a war of choice, the criteria for success are not fixed in advance. Yet certain outcomes would clearly fall short. It is difficult to imagine, for example, that any operation could be considered successful if Iran retains effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint of global significance.

The longer the conflict continues without a clear resolution, the more the pressure on Washington will grow. Ambiguity is not an option for a power seeking to redefine its role in the international system.

The conclusion is stark. The United States now needs a decisive victory. The alternative, a drawn-out conflict with no clear outcome, would undermine its position not only in the Middle East, but globally.

At the same time, the likelihood of a negotiated settlement appears low. The demands on both sides remain too far apart. That leaves escalation as the most probable path forward.

The risks are obvious. But for Washington, the cost of failure may be even greater.

This article was first published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and was translated and edited by the RT team 

Lebanon has asked the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut to hand over a suspected Israeli Mossad agent, according to Lebanese security chief Hassan Choukeir, who alleged that the suspect was involved in bombing and assassination plots.

According to AFP, a Syrian-Palestinian national who also holds a Ukrainian passport was detained by the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah in September 2025 after parking a motorbike rigged with explosives on a road leading to Beirut airport through the city’s southern suburbs.

“After checking his name and photograph, we became aware that he is wanted by the Lebanese judiciary,” Choukeir told AFP. The embassy did not respond to the French media outlet’s request for comment.

Ukraine is among a number of European countries which support the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran. Vladimir Zelensky has offered to help the US and Gulf states hosting American bases intercept Iranian drones and secure the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has warned that it would consider Ukraine a legitimate target if it intervenes in the Middle East.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has hit back at his Croatian counterpart, Zoran Milanovic, who canceled an upcoming regional summit and accused Belgrade of hostile rhetoric.

On Monday, Milanovic announced that he was canceling this year’s Brdo-Brijuni meeting, an annual summit of Balkan countries, which was to take place in Croatia next month. In a statement on his website, Milanovic argued that “the political statements and actions” of Vucic “disrupt interstate relations, and threaten peace and stability in the Southeast European region.” He added that Vucic’s visit to Croatia was “not possible.”

Speaking to the Tanjug news agency later that day, the Serbian leader responded, saying: “He is absolutely right, I don’t belong there.”

“As for the statements and what Zoran Milanovic is referring to, I am not his lackey,” Vucic said. “Croatia should not feel any danger from Serbia, but they won’t silence us and won’t dictate what we can say.”

Milanovic dismissed Vucic’s claims at the time as “silly,” and denied that cooperation between Croatia, a NATO member, and Albania and Kosovo could be considered a military alliance.

In 1999, NATO carried out a bombing campaign in Serbia in support of ethnic Albanian insurgents in Kosovo. In 2008, the Albanian-led authorities in Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade, which has been recognized by most Western states, but not by countries such as Russia and China.

Serbia’s relations with the Western-backed government in Kosovo remain tense and have led to occasional military standoffs, as Belgrade has accused the Albanian-led authorities of persecuting ethnic Serbs.

By this time, we are all familiar with the image of some harried schoolteacher attempting to maintain control over a classroom where the majority of students are transfixed by their smartphones instead of the dusty chalkboard. The dangers of social media for the minds of young and old alike has already been well-documented, and the amount of time that students spend on their handheld devices is increasing with each new study conducted.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tracked the real-time phone habits of middle and high schoolers and found something that should disturb every teacher and parent. Phone usage appeared during every single hour of the school day, and not a single student in the study went the entire school day without using their mobile phone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the students who used their phones most often also showed noticeably less self-control.

Published in JAMA Network Open, this new study monitored the phone habits of 79 students aged 11 to 18 over two consecutive weeks and found the average teen racks up more than two full hours of screen time during school time alone. That’s approximately one-third of their total daily phone use – and over a quarter of the entire school day! But the more disturbing discovery wasn’t how long students were on their phones. The alarming factor was how often the students were reaching for their devices, and how that nervous, knee-jerk habit appears to be linked to concentration levels.

Like infants reaching out for their favorite security blanket, students reached for their phones an average of 64 times during the school day, and those who grabbed their devices most often scored worse on a standard test that measured concentration and self-control. The study shows a link not just between phones and distraction, but between compulsive phone use and the kind of mental discipline adolescents need to learn and develop.

“They’re missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one’s life.”

To say that smartphones have become a pervasive feature of adolescents’ daily lives would be a gross understatement. More than 95% of American teens reported access to a handheld device and nearly half described themselves as “almost constantly” online as of 2024. The authors of the study aim to determine how this omnipresent force, which acts just like a drug for its millions of users, shapes adolescent development, “particularly in contexts such as school that are designed to foster sustained attention, academic engagement, and social growth.”

The authors of the study wrote: “Developmental theories of self-regulation suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to distraction, given ongoing maturation of prefrontal cognitive control systems alongside sensitivity to rewarding social information. The constant availability of smartphones therefore will increase social media distraction during school hours, creating unique challenges for adolescents’ ability to regulate attention and maintain focus on academic tasks.”

In other words, teachers face greater obstacles than ever before when it comes to controlling their classrooms. Needless to say, teachers should not be required to compete against smartphones in the classroom. Across the study, phone use was monitored during every hour of the school day, from 8 AM until the final bell at 3 PM. On average, screen time increased progressively from about 16 minutes at 8 AM. to more than 22 minutes by 2 PM. One particularly distracted student racked up more than five hours of phone use during school across the study period.

Did all of this screen time negatively influence the ability of students to concentrate? To find out, researchers tested the high school student’s concentration using a go/no-go task, a standard exercise in which participants are instructed to activate a button in response to one image but hold back when they see another. This test measures a person’s ability to override an automatic impulse, a key attribute of self-control. Among those examined, students who picked up their phones more often during school performed worse.

The results of the study will assist school administrators and parents in the ongoing debate as to whether or not smartphones should be banned from school. Some nations, meanwhile, have gone further. Australia has banned children under 16 from registering on social media and Malaysia introduced a similar ban in January. The European Parliament is openly discussing following the example of these two countries.

Perhaps we should end here with a quote by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who allegedly said his children were not allowed to use smartphones and computers, “because it takes two weeks to become an advanced user, but a childhood spent staring at screens costs something far more valuable: time for real development.”

US President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy is often dismissed as chaotic or erratic. In reality, it reflects a deeper shift that is unlikely to disappear when he leaves office. Beneath the surface lies a consistent worldview, one shaped by populism and nationalism, that’s steadily gaining ground, both within the United States and globally.

This shift is already reshaping long-standing institutions. Nowhere is this more visible than in Washington’s relationship with its European allies.

For decades, US foreign policy rested on a simple premise: alliances, above all NATO, were the foundation of American power and influence. That consensus held across party lines for nearly 80 years. Today, it’s breaking down.

Trump is not merely skeptical of alliances, he openly questions their value. His reaction to the refusal of European allies to support US and Israeli military action against Iran was telling. Writing on Truth Social, he described NATO as a “paper tiger” and accused American allies of cowardice. “Everyone agrees with us, but they don’t want to help. And we, as the United States, must remember this,” he said.

The message is blunt: if allies don’t act when Washington calls, then their status as allies is called into question.

There are growing signs of this shift: sharper rhetoric, fewer high-level engagements, and plans to reduce the American role within NATO’s command system. This is no longer just political theater.

Even when constrained by Congress, as in the decision to block a rapid reduction of US troops in Europe, the administration has adjusted tactics rather than abandoning its objective. The restriction on cutting troop levels below 76,000 slows the process, but doesn’t change its direction. The broader aim remains clear: shifting responsibility onto Europe.

A key element of this strategy is the gradual transfer of operational control. Reforms to NATO’s integrated command structure are already underway. Soon, all three of the alliance’s operational commands will be led by Europeans. This marks a significant step towards transforming NATO into a European-led organization.

If the United States relinquishes its central role in force planning and command, the consequences will be profound. NATO may remain intact in form, but its substance will change. Washington will no longer lead the alliance in the way it once did.

This isn’t simply a matter of one president’s preferences. Trump reflects a broader shift in American public opinion.

Don’t mistake it for isolationism. The recent strikes on Iran demonstrate that Washington remains willing to use force when it chooses. The change is more subtle, and more consequential.

The United States no longer wants to be bound by obligations.

Alliances and institutions that once defined American leadership are now seen as constraints. The emerging model is one of leadership without commitments: the ability to act freely, without being tied to the interests or expectations of partners.

That is a fundamentally different approach to international relations. It leaves NATO in an uncertain position, still formally intact, but increasingly hollowed out.

In time, the alliance may survive. But it will no longer be the same organization that defined the transatlantic relationship for generations.

And it’s far from clear that Europe is ready for what comes next.

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

Israeli lawmakers led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have been filmed cheering and rejoicing at the passing of a controversial death penalty bill. Rights groups, foreign nations, and even the UN warned that the newly adopted legislation is discriminatory and would disproportionally target Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Under the law that was passed 62-47 in the Knesset on Tuesday, Palestinians found guilty of deadly terrorist attacks aimed at “ending Israel’s existence” would be executed by hanging. In the occupied West Bank, military courts would rule on such cases. In Israel, they are to be processed under the criminal law. Sentences are to be carried out within 90 days of the ruling, with no right of clemency. Judges can only switch death penalty with life imprisonment under some unspecified “special circumstances.”

Ben-Gvir, who is seen in a video released by the Knesset producing a bottle of alcohol in the chamber, lauded the development as a “day of justice for the victims and a day of deterrence for our enemies.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appeared at the Tuesday parliament session in person to vote for the law but did not take part in the celebrations.

“Such laws and measures will not break the will of the Palestinian people or undermine their steadfastness,” the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated.

The law has drawn criticism and condemnation from rights groups, foreign nations and the UN. Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Australia issued a joint statement on Monday expressing “deep concern” over the “de facto discriminatory nature” of the legislation and urged West Jerusalem to abandon its plans.

Israel abolished death penalty for murder in 1954. The only execution carried out in the Jewish state was that of a Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann on genocide charges in 1962.

Ukraine’s delay of an EU inspection of the Druzhba oil pipeline for nearly two weeks is “not smart,” unnamed diplomatic sources have told Euractiv. Kiev had earlier agreed to allow the bloc’s experts to check the conduits for alleged damage.

The Soviet-era pipeline has been used to deliver Russian crude through Ukrainian territory to Hungary and Slovakia. Kiev claims the pipeline was damaged in Russian strikes – something that Moscow denies. Budapest has also rejected Kiev’s claims, arguing that the Ukrainian authorities deliberately halted the flow for political reasons.

Earlier in March, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that Kiev would allow an EU-funded inspection of the pipeline. According to Euractiv, the team is still waiting for a green light from Kiev to go to the site despite being in Ukraine for weeks.

“We don’t have a clear picture of what the Ukrainian play here is,” an EU diplomat told the media outlet. Other sources contacted by Euractiv called Kiev’s actions “unclear” and “not smart.”

“The only way out of this stalemate is to check the situation on the ground and see there what the truth is,” the diplomat stated. Last week, Bratislava also said that it would veto the next round of Russia sanctions, as well as derail any attempts to simplify Kiev’s potential accession to the EU if the pipeline issue is not resolved.

In mid-March, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky stated he was opposing the resumption of Russian oil shipments, and accused Brussels of “blackmail” over the inspection. Moscow retorted earlier this month that it was Kiev that subjected Hungary and Slovakia to “energy blackmail,” warning that Ukraine’s aggressive stance threatens the energy security of the bloc.

Investigators could not match the bullet that killed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk to the rifle used by his alleged assassin, lawyers for the suspect have claimed. The accused killer’s defense team is using this fact to push for a delayed trial.

Tyler Robinson’s lawyers said in a recent court filing that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body to a rifle found at the scene, citing an internal report by the agency.

The full ATF report has not been made public, but Robinson’s lawyers cited excerpts from the document in a request to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. The 22-year-old suspect’s legal team stated that they need more time to review the bullet analysis, and to analyze the DNA of multiple other people found at the crime scene.

Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was shot in the neck and killed almost instantly at an event on a Utah college campus last September. His death sent shockwaves through the US, with President Donald Trump posthumously awarding Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and describing the conservative icon as “a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation.”

Prosecutors have said that DNA matching Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, but the case has nevertheless spawned multiple conspiracy theories – including the widely spread claim that Kirk was killed for turning on TPUSA’s pro-Israel donors and opposing US strikes on Iran.

Every firearm leaves a unique imprint on a bullet as the projectile leaves the barrel. When enough fragments are found in good condition, ballistic analysts can match the projectile to the weapon with almost 100% confidence. Robinson’s lawyers suggested in the filings that they may point to the lack of a match in an attempt to dismiss charges against their client.

US President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of troops to the Middle East and said he wants to seize Iran’s foremost crude export hub, Kharg Island, to “take the oil.” However, such an assault promises heavy losses and a logistics quagmire for Washington, according to former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik.

In an interview with RT on Tuesday, the military-political expert said that Trump wants to cement a “win” in his war on Iran to claw back some domestic support.

“They have to show a win, because right now, they can’t sell this war,” he said. Only 30% of Americans support the war, despite the usual tendency to “rally around the flag” during a conflict, even an “unpopular” one, he added. “[Support is at] 30% and falling. They don’t know what to do.”

Krapivnik expressed skepticism that Trump’s generals would be “willing to tell him the truth” about potential casualties.

The approach: 200 kilometers of open water

Thousands of US paratroopers, marines, and special forces soldiers have reportedly been deployed to the Middle East as Washington considers seizing the key oil hub, which handles most of Iran’s crude exports.

US forces could go by sea, but will “more likely” approach from the air, he said.

Their main options include C-130 transport planes, “which are relatively slow-flying large aircraft,” helicopters, or V-22 Ospreys, “which can carry only 22 troops apiece,” Krapivnik said. The notoriously unreliable vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft has earned the nickname ‘widow maker,’ having led to 30 deaths before it even entered active service in 2007.

“Getting there, they’re going to take casualties. They’re going to be losses in aircraft,” Krapivnik said, stressing that the Iranians are “dug in and waiting to defend” the largely flat island. Any approaching aircraft would face Iranian man-portable air defense missiles, which “could easily take these planes out,” he added.

Once disembarked, US forces will face the task of fighting through Kharg Island and clearing the remaining industrial and residential buildings in its northern areas.

“They’d have to clear the city, every building… They’re gonna have casualties, and a lot of casualties,” Krapivnik said.

All the while, US forces would face constant strikes from Iranian missiles, Shahed-type UAVs, and FPV drones, as the island lies 36.5 kilometers (23 miles) from mainland Iran, Krapivnik said.

Any crude the US could seize would only be local reserves, given that Tehran would simply shut off its oil pipeline to the island, he added.

A logistics nightmare

In Iran’s 45 degrees Celsius climate, a soldier in combat would need three to four liters of water a day, he stressed.

“If you drop 2,000 guys on there, you need 8,000 liters of water every single day… never mind food, ammunition… never mind how you’re going to evacuate the wounded,” he said.

Watch the full video below:

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the wider turmoil across the Middle East, which continues to be affected by missile and drone strikes from both sides.

As the war on Iran entered day 32, missiles struck an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar as well as Kuwait’s airport on Wednesday, while US and Israeli airstrikes relentlessly pounded Tehran. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has announced that he’s nearly ready to end the war.

Trump claimed that Iran’s president wanted a ceasefire ahead of his speech to the American people, scheduled for Wednesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, however, had earlier stated that the US suggestions for halting the conflict contain “largely excessive, unrealistic, and unreasonable demands,” contradicting Trump’s earlier claims that Iran had agreed to “most of” the requests on the list.

Trump also suggested that the US is considering leaving NATO over what he cast as its lackluster military support for the Iran war.

Here are the latest developments: 

• US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has claimed that “regime change in Iran has occurred,” telling reporters that “if Iran is not willing, then the US War Department will continue with even more intensity.” 
  
  
• Echoing Trump’s criticism of NATO members, Hegseth remarked that “you don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them.”
  
  
• Iran and the US are engaged in “exchanges of messages” but are not holding any talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi has said.
  
  
• The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is slated to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two US officials said, as quoted by Associated Press. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors. It comes as thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving in the Middle East, according to two other US officials.

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

Hey, good news! The EU has found a new source of desperately needed gas amid the current energy crunch. The bad news? It’s in the US. So it will serve America, first. With Europe getting any sloppy seconds that Daddy Trump feels like overcharging it for when he isn’t threatening to invade.

It’ll be the French energy multinational, TotalEnergies, serving it up to the US like a waiter at a Montmartre bistro, forced to smile and bow while the guest pockets the silverware.

Even better? The company wasn’t even supposed to be over there doing that. They had planned to be building offshore windfarms. But instead, Trump’s Department of the Interior now says that they made a deal with the French company to spend roughly a billion dollars investing in American gas operations in exchange for getting about the same amount of cash back for agreeing to say goodbye to its green wind dreams in the US.

Team Trump calls it an “innovative agreement driven by President Donald J. Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda.” But the CEO of the European company is making the cucking sound like a big win.

“TotalEnergies is pleased to sign this settlement agreements with the DOI and to support the Administration’s Energy Policy. Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, while adjusting his knee pads, before continuing to service Trump via official US government press release.

“Furthermore, these agreements, under which we will reinvest the refunded lease fees to finance the construction of the 29 Mt Rio Grande LNG plant and the development of our oil and gas activities, allows us to support the development of US gas production and export.”

Well, good riddance to – er, I mean, so much for Europe’s green dreams, I guess. But at least it means they’ll get easier access to more desperately needed LNG, right? Since they’re the ones doing the heavy lifting. Not without securing a trade agreement on America’s terms, they won’t. Which is why they’re aiming to ratify a trade agreement with their tormentor.

Brussels had been concerned about the agreement that was struck with Trump back in 2025, named the Turnberry Agreement after the US president’s Scottish golf resort where it all went down. The deal was about tariffs. Specifically, it gave a huge break to the US with ZERO tariffs on some of its exports to the EU, while slapping a 15-percent tariff on EU imports to the US. Another master stroke of cuckoldry.

And yet Trump still won’t stop talking about how the EU is constantly stiffing America on trade. Which explains why the EU has been dragging its feet on ratifying it, worried that maybe it was putting too many eggs in a very unstable basket. Something that the US warned it against doing with Russia, being only too happy to step up to offer a costlier overdependency on itself instead.

The EU is doing the exact same with green energy, turning its back on nuclear power before its beloved green renewables were even ready for prime time. Which also went about as well as you might expect from these central planning geniuses. Calling it a screwup, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced the need to yank another €200 million from taxpayers to “support investment in innovative nuclear technologies.” The same ones they’d been busy vilifying until recently.

Hard up for gas, struggling to reverse course on nuclear – and now Trump is bribing them with their own money to forget about wind and invest in American gas. All that’s left now is to just hope that it’s enough for Daddy to not withhold the gas produced by their investment from them.

About the only thing they still have going for them is that the EU member states haven’t yet officially ratified the deal to totally sell themselves out. One can hope, right?

“A deal is a deal and we should stick to the Turnberry joint statement,” said EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

Whoops, okay. Well, maybe not.

Wait. What’s going on over here in this other back room?

The German industrial city of Osnabrück is grappling with the idea that its embattled Volkswagen factory could be saved – but only if it switches from making cars to producing components for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, reports the Financial Times.

Similarly, EU leaders have publicly wallowed in wishy-washiness when it comes to US-Israeli aggression in the Middle East. “Strategic ambiguity,” is what they call it. Which is cuckspeak for “talking out of both sides of my mouth.” But the Wall Street Journal has outed Europe for playing a key role in refueling and supporting the same US operations which they purport to denounce. So instead of acting to match their own words, they let Washington have its way, and then tell their own citizens that European governments will have to come up with a plan to pay for all the cost of living damage that is beyond their control.

Please, won’t someone please help Europe off its knees, already? It’s getting to the point where it risks entirely forgetting how to stand up.

The Finnish Supreme Court has found Christian Democrat MP and former cabinet minister Paivi Rasanen guilty of “insulting homosexuals” in a 2004 church pamphlet, in which she described gays as having a developmental disorder.

The conviction of the 66-year-old politician is based on a pamphlet titled ‘Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity’. A guilty verdict was also handed down to Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who was involved in publishing the text.

Rasanen was fined €1,800 ($2,100), while Pohjola received a €1,100 ($1,300) fine. The court also ordered the defendants to remove parts of the text that it ruled unlawful from the internet.

According to the ruling, the pamphlet insulted homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation. In the publication, Rasanen argued that homosexuality constitutes a “developmental disorder.” The court stated that such claims amounted to incitement against a group.

The MP was acquitted on a second charge related to a 2019 tweet in which she accused the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland of “elevating shame and sin” for becoming an official partner of a gay pride parade.

Rasanen, a medical doctor, served as Finland’s minister of the interior between 2011 and 2015. She said she was shocked by the ruling and announced plans to consult lawyers about an appeal.

“I am taking legal advice on a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This is not about my free speech alone, but that of every person in Finland,” Rasanen added. “A positive ruling would help to prevent other innocent people from experiencing the same ordeal for simply sharing their beliefs.”

The US-based Alliance Defending Freedom International, which represented Rasanen throughout the case, called the conviction “an outrageous example of state censorship.”

Moscow will not supply oil to countries backing an “anti-market” price cap scheme, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has said, as demand for crude rises amid the Middle East conflict.

Western countries backing Ukraine, including the G7 members and Australia, said they would phase out Russian oil and gas imports following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
These countries cut purchases and forced Russia to sell crude at a discount to global benchmarks under a price cap system, currently set at about $44 per barrel.

However, in recent weeks this trend has partially reversed: Russia’s Urals crude has been sold to India and other buyers at a premium, with Urals DAP West Coast India prices exceeding $121.5 per barrel on March 19, 2026, and trading about $3.9 per barrel above Dated Brent, compared to a discount of around $12 per barrel in early March.

Energy prices surged after the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, prompting retaliatory attacks across the region. The crisis has led to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply. Iran has effectively blocked transit for ships from non-friendly nations, sending oil prices up nearly 50% to almost $120 per barrel earlier this month.

Amid the price spike, the US temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil loaded onto tankers before March 12, with a license allowing its sale until April 11. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move could bring Russia about $2 billion in budget revenues.

Several Asian countries have already moved to secure Russian crude after Washington eased the restrictions. Nations including Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam have signaled an interest in buying Russian oil, while major importers India and China have continued to snap up available cargoes under the waiver.

The breakaway region of Kosovo has approved sending troops to Gaza as part of a force proposed by US President Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’, its prime minister, Albin Kurti, announced on Monday. 

Speaking in a televised meeting, Kurti stated that Kosovo is “ready to participate and help the people of Gaza, because we ourselves have been and are beneficiaries of international forces since 1999.” 

The Albanian-separatist state, a product of the NATO-backed war on Yugoslavia that included the bombing of Belgrade, controversially declared independence in 2008, despite concern from many nations about the precedent set. 

Kosovo remains unrecognized by over 90 UN member states, including Serbia, Russia, China, India, Spain, and Greece. Meanwhile, former Kosovo president and insurrection leader Hashim Thaci has been accused of war crimes and is awaiting a verdict from The Hague while facing a separate trial for obstruction of justice. 

The ‘International Stabilization Force’ (ISF), was envisioned in a UN Security Council resolution passed last November in support of Trump’s 20‑point plan for postwar Gaza. It has since become part of Trump’s broader Board of Peace established in January to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction and the implementation of the ceasefire. 

The ISF’s stated mission includes training a new Palestinian police force, securing the borders, maintaining security, protecting humanitarian operations, and helping demilitarize the enclave. 

Other countries, such as Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE, have been in talks about contributing, while major Western powers, including Germany, France, and the UK, have declined to join the board or the force. 

Russia has said it is studying an invitation to join Trump’s Board of Peace, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has noted that the initiative now seems irrelevant given US aggression in the Middle East. China has declined, citing its commitment to a UN‑centered international system. 

Despite a ceasefire reached between Hamas and Israel last October, violence in Gaza has persisted. Israeli forces have killed at least 680 Palestinians since the truce began, according to local health officials, raising the overall death toll since October 2023 to more than 72,000, the majority women and children.

The leaked phone conversation between Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov was insignificant, the EU nation's top diplomat has said.

Szijjarto reacted on Tuesday to the publication of the call, which he claimed had been intercepted by “foreign intelligence services.” The 94-second recording was released by the Polish outlet FrontStory, which attempted to present it as evidence of the minister “acting on behalf of the Kremlin.”

The audio captures Szijjarto and Lavrov discussing EU sanctions imposed on the sister of businessman Alisher Usmanov, as well as efforts by Hungary and Slovakia to have her removed from the blacklist. Writing on X, Szijjarto said the recording essentially reflects the Hungarian government’s publicly stated view that Western “sanctions are a failure, causing more harm to the EU than to Russia.”

“Hungary will never agree to sanction [by targeting] individuals or companies essential for our energy security, for achieving peace, or those with no reason to be on a sanctions list,” Szijjarto added.

Allegations of foreign surveillance of the minister’s communications had previously triggered an investigation in Hungary of journalist Szabolcs Panyi. In an audio recording published earlier this month by a Hungarian conservative outlet, Panyi claimed ties to the Brussels-aligned opposition Tisza party and said he had provided Szijjarto’s phone number to a foreign intelligence agency.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party is heading into a general election in mid-April, with polls indicating a possible loss of its majority. His campaign has centered on opposition to what he describes as diktat from Brussels. Orban has warned that his political rivals would pursue policies harmful to Hungary’s national interests, including bankrolling the Ukrainian government and backing the country’s bids to join the EU and NATO.

The Polish outlet is part of a broader media ecosystem connected to US and Western European grant-distributing organizations. It works under the umbrella of VSquare, alongside with Panyi’s Direkt36 publication. FrontStory deputy editor-in-chief Anna Gielewska is a co-founder of VSquare. Its reporter Anastasia Morozova – a regular VSquare contributor like Panyi – previously worked for the Ukrainian branch of Radio Free Europe, a CIA-founded US government propaganda network.

An Iranian strike that reportedly destroyed a depot of Ukrainian anti-drone systems in Dubai served as a “slap in the face” to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, a Middle East expert has told RT.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Navy and Aerospace Division reportedly hit the depot while targeting US military sites in Dubai. Ukraine, however, has denied that the reported incident took place.

Farhad Ibragimov, a Middle East expert at Russia’s Financial University, said that the strike should be seen as a clear signal from Tehran to Kiev and its backers that Ukrainian assets would be “legitimate targets” if Kiev was involved in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The warning was Iran’s way of responding to Ukraine’s involvement “in deeds, not words,” he suggested, adding that Tehran “would be prepared to declare war on the Kiev regime if it does not back down.”

According to Ibragimov, Iranian officials see Zelensky as a figure they should not “stand on ceremony” with and believe he must be addressed in a language he understands.

Since the start of the current Middle East conflict, Kiev has moved to deepen its involvement by supplying the Gulf states with technology and expertise to counter drones, drawing on its battlefield experience against Iranian-designed systems, according to media reports.

Earlier this month, he said 201 Ukrainian military experts specializing in counter-drone operations were deployed in the Middle East and the Gulf region, and that another 34 were ready to be sent. He added that the specialists were dispatched at the request of Kiev’s backers, including the US.

Middle Eastern governments are “not so naive” as to “follow Zelensky’s lead,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said, warning that cooperation with Kiev could prove a “catastrophic miscalculation.”

Earlier, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Zelensky’s tour of Middle Eastern countries as “surreal” and suggested he should instead “go to the cartels.”

Footage has emerged online showing a man wearing clothing resembling a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uniform being attacked in Honolulu, Hawaii. The incident took place during the ‘No Kings’ protests against US President Donald Trump’s policies, which kicked off nationwide over the weekend.

Protesters took to the streets across all 50 US states on Saturday to oppose the Trump administration’s agenda, including the flagging economy, rising cost of living, conflict with Iran, and immigration enforcement tactics.

A video circulating online from a No Kings protest in Honolulu shows several people violently assaulting a man who was wearing clothing resembling an ICE outfit, repeatedly striking him in the head and knocking him to the ground before others intervene.

According to Honolulu police, the incident occurred on Saturday night. A 15‑year‑old has been arrested on a second‑degree assault charge in connection with the attack, though the authorities have not confirmed whether the man was an actual ICE agent.

Organizers estimated that at least 8 million participants took part in more than 3,300 events nationwide in the latest No Kings protests, making it one of the largest single‑day protest movements in recent years. Earlier rounds of the protests gathered over 5 people in June last year and 7 in October last year.

The largest of the protests took place in New York, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Washington, Reuters reported on Saturday. However, more than 40% of the demonstrations were reportedly held outside major cities.

The main event was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which became a focal point of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration crackdown after federal agents fatally shot two US citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – in the city in January. Crowds of protesters later rallied to demand the removal of federal immigration agents and voiced opposition to the enforcement actions.

Restoring free shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, currently blockaded by Iran, is not among American military objectives, according to statements by US officials and media reports. Instead, Washington has indicated it expects other nations to tackle the issue.

Tehran throttled maritime traffic through the key waterway in retaliation for the US-Israeli attack aimed at toppling the Iranian government, launched over a month ago. Reduced flows of hydrocarbons and other essential commodities from the Persian Gulf have pushed global prices higher, raising the risk of significant economic disruption.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the idea that Iran would continue to take tolls from ships it allows through the strait, but said that securing free transit was not part of Washington’s war objectives. The US is focused on degrading Iranian military capabilities and is “well on our way or ahead of schedule,” Rubio claimed.

“When this operation is over, it will be open, and it will be open one way or another,” he added. Should Iran insist on its terms, “a coalition of nations from around the world and the region, with the participation of the United States, will make sure that it [the Strait of Hormuz] is open.”

NATO’s war after all?

Previously non-involved nations have refused to deploy their militaries to help the US unblock the Strait of Hormuz. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said of Trump’s call for participation: “It is not our war; we did not start it.”

The US leader responded by threatening to call off US support of Ukraine, saying Kiev’s conflict with Russia “isn’t my war.” After taking office, Trump refused to donate weapons to Kiev, forcing European nations to pay for them, while continuing to share crucial intelligence with Ukrainian military commanders.

US risks losing more than China in oil crisis

Rubio insisted that “very little of American energy comes through the Straits of Hormuz” and that Washington’s opposition to the Iranian claim is principled rather than pragmatic. If the precedent is set of a nation seizing an international trade route, “the Chinese could do it in the South China Sea” while the US could make claims of its own, he warned.

Washington’s assumption that, as an energy exporter, the US is largely insulated from the economic blowback of the Middle East crisis was challenged this week by Goldman Sachs. The Chinese economy “appears better positioned amid oil supply shock than its global peers,” strategist Kinger Lau wrote on Monday.

This is pretty ironic: Goldman Sachs estimates that the US economy will be *twice* more affected (negatively) than the Chinese economy by the oil supply shock.

"The Chinese economy appears better positioned amid the oil supply shock than its global peers [...] Due to the oil… pic.twitter.com/619wH1oiNM

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) March 30, 2026

Beijing has boosted the share of non-fossil energy sources in its mix from 26% a decade ago to 40% now, the analysis said. It also possesses large strategic reserves and diversified import routes, including from Russia, Australia, and Malaysia. US economic growth could be impacted twice as much as China’s, the note predicted.

The US struck a school and sports hall in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd with a ballistic missile previously untested in combat, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing its own analysis of footage and weapons experts.

The attack occurred during the first wave of US and Israeli strikes on February 28 – the same day an American missile destroyed a girls’ elementary school in the Iranian city of Minab, killing 175 people, most of them children. According to Iranian officials, at least 21 people were killed in Lamerd.

The NYT said the damage from the strike is consistent with the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), which explodes above its targets, dispersing small tungsten pellets. The weapon completed its prototype phase only last year, according to the Pentagon.

The NYT said that, since the missile is new, it is more difficult to assess whether the PrSM strikes were “intentional” or stemmed from a design flaw or faulty intelligence.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by US and Israeli strikes in Iran, according to official data. Although US President Donald Trump has refused to admit responsibility for the attack on the school in Minab, the Pentagon has opened an investigation into the incident.

The vast majority of Syrian migrants currently residing in Germany should return to their home country over the next three years, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.

The influx of asylum seekers from war-torn Syria to the European Union peaked in 2014–2015, with Germany being one of the top destinations thanks to the welcoming policies of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nearly a million Syrians are now living in the country, according to estimates.

German authorities have since gradually tightened asylum laws following a string of terrorist attacks and pressure from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is now the second-largest force in the Bundestag.

“We therefore need a reliable return option… especially and first and foremost for those who abuse our hospitality,” the chancellor said, adding that skilled Syrians would “bring valuable experience to the reconstruction of their homeland.”

When pressed by a journalist for details, Merz said that “over the next three years… around 80% of the Syrians currently residing in Germany should return to their home country.”

According to the BBC, al-Sharaa said his government was working with Germany on a “circular migration model” that would “enable Syrians to contribute to the reconstruction of their homeland without giving up the stability and lives they have built here, for those who wish to stay.”

Despite al-Sharaa’s pledge to promote an inclusive society, his rule has been marred by renewed sectarian violence, including massacres of Christians, Alawites, and Kurds.

The war in Syria began with anti-government protests in 2011 and evolved into a multi-sided conflict; the jihadist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), controlled large parts of eastern Syria from 2014 to 2017.

Al-Sharaa’s group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which ultimately gained control of Syria, originated as Jabhat al-Nusra in 2012, a local offshoot of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. In 2016-2017, it publicly broke ties with Al-Qaeda and merged with several other smaller Islamist factions to form HTS.

Spain has closed its airspace to aircraft linked to the US-Israeli war on Iran, deepening a rift with Washington over the month-long conflict sweeping the Middle East.

On Monday, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that aircraft taking part in operations against Iran will not be allowed to operate in the country’s airspace, including US jets based in other NATO countries such as the UK or France.

Madrid had already barred the use of the jointly operated Rota and Moron de la Frontera bases in southern Spain for strike missions.

Robles told reporters that Spain would not “participate in or contribute to a war that was initiated unilaterally and against international law,” echoing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who branded the US-Israeli campaign an “illegal, reckless and unjust war.”

Madrid’s decision, first reported by El Pais, is the most significant public break with Washington by a major Western ally since the 2003 Iraq invasion, when Spain allowed US use of its territory despite domestic opposition, the newspaper wrote.

Spain has been among the most outspoken EU countries in opposing the Iran war, withdrawing its ambassador from Israel and downgrading diplomatic relations. Sanchez has repeatedly urged an end to hostilities, warning last week that it could have “much worse” consequences than the campaign in Iraq.

Spain’s defiance has drawn criticism from US President Donald Trump, who has threatened trade measures and recalled Madrid’s failure to meet NATO’s 5% defense spending target.

While closing its airspace and bases for missions against Iran, Spain says it remains committed to its broader NATO obligations and continues cooperation within the military alliance and the EU on other security issues. US military aircraft can still use Spain’s facilities under existing bilateral agreements for logistics and support for some 80,000 American troops based in Europe.

The nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the United States Navy and the only vessel in its class, is presently anchored in Croatia’s port of Split for repairs ‌and maintenance. Media reports have indicated the ship is there to stay, since repairs after a major “laundry fire” and prolonged deployment could take between 12 and 14 months.

Delivered years behind schedule in May 2017, the Ford was by far the most expensive American warship ever constructed, costing $13.2 billion. The latest prolonged deployment of the ship began on June 24 and included combat operations during the US raid on Venezuela to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro, as well as in the ongoing US-Israeli attack on Iran.

The supercarrier ended up hastily withdrawn from the Middle East theater in mid-March, having suffered a supposedly non-combat-related fire. The ship briefly moored at Crete for damage assessment before heading to Croatia for maintenance. 

Laundry fire?

The deployment exceeded 260 days and ranks as one of the longest carrier patrols since the Vietnam War, ending on March 12 shortly after the ship transited the Suez Canal and entered the Red Sea. According to official statements from US Central Command, it was then that the vessel “experienced a fire that originated in the ship’s main laundry spaces.”  

“The cause of the fire was not combat-related and is contained. There is no damage to the ship’s propulsion plant, and the aircraft carrier remains fully operational. Two sailors are currently receiving medical treatment for non-life-threatening injuries and are in stable condition,” CENTCOM stated at the time.

Western media reports indicated the fire raged on board for some 30 hours before being extinguished – longer than the devastating 1967 USS Forrestal carrier fire, which burned for about 24 hours. If true, it raises questions about the state of supposedly sophisticated firefighting systems on the Ford, particularly given that the Forrestal fire was aggravated by explosions of munitions stored on the flight deck and burning fuel seeping into compartments.

More than 600 out of nearly 4,500 sailors, tech personnel, and pilots lost their bunks in the fire, ending up forced to sleep on tables and floors, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous crewmembers. Moreover, the crew has been unable to do laundry since the fire, which reportedly ended up being airlifted to other ships for washing.

Damage assessment 

Upon arrival in Crete last weekend, the aircraft carrier appeared to show no superficial signs of damage, apart from looking heavily weathered from its prolonged deployment all over the globe.  

The ship’s flight deck, however, appeared to be abnormally crowded with aircraft, potentially indicating issues with internal hangars and aircraft-lifting mechanisms.

A recent assessment from the Pentagon testing office indicated that the military was somewhat aware of deeper problems with the Ford class, but even nine years after the vessel was commissioned, it still had “insufficient data” to determine its “operational suitability.”  

The report also raised concerns about the reliability of key systems, including the radar, jet aircraft launch and recovery systems, and its lifting mechanisms for aircraft and munitions, as well as the general ability of the vessel to continue operations in case of combat damage. The assessment also noted that the ship was short at least 159 bunks to properly accommodate the crew, with the issue potentially getting even more severe should more aircraft be added to the carrier’s air wing. The lack of sleeping space could negatively affect the morale of the crew on lengthy deployments, the testing office noted.  

Plumbing woes

Prior to the Red Sea fire, the most notorious technical issue with the Ford was its faulty toilet system, with repeated fecal overflow reported on board the state-of-the-art carrier.

Numerous photos and videos believed to be taken on board the ship and circulating online show toilets overflowing with fecal matter, murky waters spreading across compartments and unlucky sailors on latrine duty attempting to clean up the mess.  

The issue with the toilets, said to affect some 600 units on the ship, has persisted for years. A 2020 report from the General Accountability Office indicated the faulty system required “onerous” extra daily maintenance to unclog narrow pipes while each “acid flush” of the system needed when it ended up clogged completely incurred an additional $400,000 in costs instead of being eco-friendly and cost-effective.

Broader implications for the US Navy?

The maiden vessel of the older series, the USS Nimitz, is presumably on its last deployment, since it is scheduled to be decommissioned next year and replaced by the Ford-class USS John F. Kennedy. Given the repeated delays and apparent issues with the Ford-class, however, the decommissioning could be postponed. 

Another Nimitz-class ship, the USS John C. Stennis, is likely to spend most of the year in port. The carrier has been undergoing its mid-life Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) since 2021, a years-long process costing billions of dollars. The Stennis was originally scheduled to undergo its RCOH by August last year, but the deadline was missed and extended by 14 months.

Iran does not currently need negotiations but remains a “rational player” that is “not looking for war,” Tehran’s ambassador to Russia, Kazem Jalali, has said. Speaking on RT’s Sanchez Effect, Jalali said Iran has “never denied peace talks” but insisted there must be “proper conditions” before any dialogue can begin with the US.

The Iranian diplomat dismissed US President Donald Trump’s claims that Tehran is negotiating with Washington, calling them “completely false.” He noted that Iranian officials have repeatedly denied any talks, adding that, as some Americans have sarcastically written, Trump is “almost sitting in front of a mirror negotiating with himself.”

Jalali argued that Washington is talking up negotiations to undermine Iran’s internal unity and “control energy prices,” while at the same time Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are “planning how to strike Iran.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted on Monday that talks between the US and Iran “are continuing and going well.” Speaking to reporters, Leavitt claimed that what’s being said publicly is “much different than what’s being communicated to us privately.”  

Jalali outlined Tehran’s minimum conditions for talks as a “sustainable peace” to start negotiations, clear identification and punishment of the aggressor, and compensation for wartime damage, saying that some losses, such as the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “cannot be compensated.”

The ambassador also told RT that Israel had informed Russian President Vladimir Putin it did not intend to attack Iran but then “didn’t keep its word,” and accused Washington of striking Iran twice during previous negotiation rounds.

Watch the full interview below: 

Four masked thieves stole several valuable paintings from a museum in Italy earlier this month, local authorities have reported.

The haul includes ‘Fish’ by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, ‘Odalisque on the Terrace’ by Henri Matisse, and Paul Cezanne’s ‘Still Life with Cherries’, with the works estimated to be worth around $10 million, according to Italian media.

On Monday, Italian police said the intruders forced entry into the villa housing the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma on the night of March 22. Museum representatives told local outlets the heist lasted less than three minutes and appeared highly coordinated.

Investigators believe the group accessed the grounds through a rear gate before prying open the entrance door with a crowbar, fleeing shortly before officers arrived at the scene.

The brazen raid adds to a string of high-profile art thefts across Europe, highlighting the persistent vulnerabilities of museums.

French police arrested four suspects by late November, though the stolen jewelry has yet to be recovered.

Following the incident, Louvre director Laurence des Cars resigned, calling his decision an “act of responsibility.”

Speaking to France Inter on Monday, newly appointed Culture Minister Catherine Pegard said plans for a major renovation of the museum would be revised to place greater emphasis on security.

The current conflict between Iran and Israel isn’t a classic war driven by strict geopolitical interests. Certainly, the rivalry between the two countries is very well known and everybody focuses on the Strait of Hormuz and the dramatic economic consequences of its disruption.  Of course, a lot of people rightly observed the timing: this sudden turn of events has been perfect to bury the Epstein scandal under Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iranian (and even Israeli) rubble. But aren’t these considerations purely temporary?

The conflict initiated by Israel (and into which it drew the US, as Joe Kent explained when he gave his resignation as director of US counterterrorism) can be seen as a completely irrational religious and eschatological adventure driven by Hebraic mythology. Let’s try to take a look at three of its main pillars.

Amalek

In the Book of Exodus, Amalek is the name of the founder of a nation of the same name, who attacks the Children of Israel after they leave Egypt. Apparently for no specific reason. Consequently, the Amalekites are considered as the staunchest and most persistent enemy of Israel and Jehovah gave a clear order.

Deuteronomy 25:17-19: “Don’t forget what Amalek did to you on the road after you left Egypt, how he attacked you when you were tired, barely able to put one foot in front of another, mercilessly cut off your stragglers, and had no regard for God. When God, your God, gives you rest from all the enemies that surround you in the inheritance-land God, your God, is giving you to possess, you are to wipe the name of Amalek from off the Earth. Don’t forget!”

At this stage, it’s even beyond genocide. One could say that it’s just biblical mythology. But in October 2023 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked the Amalek story when the IDF went into Gaza, and once again in March 2026 concerning Iran: “We read in this week’s Torah portion, ‘Remember what Amalek did to you.’ We remember – and we act.” Nothing could be clearer.

Esther

Then we have to move on to the Book of Esther.

The thing is, the Israelis did wipe out the Amalekites – except one. And his descendant, Haman, became grand vizier at the court of the Persian Empire (based in the Iranian plateau). Esther is a Jewish orphan adopted by her cousin Mordecai, who also holds a position at the court. She becomes the King’s new Queen. And here we go again, Haman (that is, Amalek) wants to get rid of the Jews. Exterminate all of them. For no other apparent reason than because Mordecai refused to bow down to him. Mordecai urges Esther to convince the King to foil Haman’s plot. The King gets mad at Haman, and eventually the course of events is reversed and the Jewish population is able to exterminate its enemies in the Persian Empire. That’s what Jewish people celebrate annually during the Purim holiday.

One can only think about the level of contemporary Iran infiltration by Israeli secret services. Otherwise, Israel wouldn’t have been able to act so effectively against Tehran.

Gog and Magog

Next, the Book of Ezekiel.

The Prophet Ezekiel had some visions. One of them is that ‘Gog and Magog’ will attack the rebuilt state of Israel but eventually will be destroyed by Jehovah. Consequently, we know the idea, a new temple will be built, the ‘Messiah’ will appear, and Israel will reign supreme. As to what are exactly ‘Gog and Magog’, the pilpul is literally endless. But according to the Book of Revelation, they are supposed to be a coalition of hostile pagan nations going against the Israelites.

We see here the biblical pattern: a coalition of countries with various beliefs in an existential fight against Israel. This is, of course, an extremely simplistic conception: a final battle between Gog and Magog (i.e. Iran, China, and Russia) and Biblical Israel (i.e. Zionist Israelis and Americans). However, the Chinese are highly pragmatic, and a lot of Russian Jews live in Israel, so Beijing and Moscow won’t act against Israel directly. But the Israelis and American Zionists seem to be convinced by this mythological interpretation. Just remember that Pete Hegseth, the incumbent American Secretary of War has been calling every step of the creation of the state of Israel a “miracle.” Or think about Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, who was saying in an interview with Tucker Carlson concerning Israelis and the Middle-East: “It would be fine if they took it all.”

Western mainstream media constantly call Iran a “theocracy” and Israel the “only democracy in the Middle-East.” But as current geopolitical events mirrored by biblical stories show, the US-Israel side is moved by a religious vision with three goals: the foundation of Greater Israel (from the Nile to the Euphrates), the reconstruction of the temple, and the coming of the Messiah. Because, even if a large chunk of the Torah (let alone the Talmud) looks more like a political project than like a religious textbook, Israel is indeed a theocracy in disguise. Therefore, even if Iran should prevail in the current conflict, the Israelis will keep looking at other nations not fully supporting them as Gog and Magog.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend a gas supply contract with Serbia amid the worsening global energy crisis due to the war in the Middle East, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced after his phone call with Putin on Monday.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has sent global gas and oil prices skyrocketing as shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint, have dwindled.

Serbia, which has historically maintained close ties with Russia, has consistently resisted EU pressure to join sanctions or to cut energy ties with Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.

The conversation between Putin and Vucic focused mainly on the “strategic partnership” between the two nations, most notably with respect to energy supplies, the Kremlin confirmed. The Serbian president reportedly expressed gratitude for the continuation of “stable gas deliveries” from Russia.

After the call, Vucic told Serbian media that Putin had agreed to a three-month prolongation of a gas contract that was due to expire March 31. According to the Serbian president, Belgrade secured favorable terms, with prices far lower than in most of Europe.

Russian school teams have topped recent global contests in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and one of the people behind the effort says the formula blends strong math, early training, and disciplined preparation. Ekaterina Protsko – a member of the councils of international Olympiads in AI and cybersecurity, and head of admissions and the Olympiad track at Russia’s Central University – outlined how the pipeline works.

Central University is a STEM-focused university that centers on IT, data science, business analytics and design. Under its coordination, Russia’s national teams won the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence (IOAI) in 2024 and 2025, and the International Cybersecurity Olympiad (ICO) in 2025.

Protsko credits a strong school-based mathematics culture and free extracurricular Olympiad clubs for building depth.

Training also mirrors international formats. Russian Olympiads are largely individual, while global contests include team rounds. Central University, she says, bakes collaboration into preparation and shields coaches from red tape so they can focus on talent development. The university runs dedicated coaching, administrative, and international support teams.

“To get into an international Olympiad, you have to know people in industry and in the international Olympiad community, be able to negotiate with them, and defend your rights – the rights of the team and the country. At the same time, you need to develop a selection system and make sure people hear about us,” she said.

Recognition now extends beyond medals. Protsko notes that national teams from CIS, BRICS, and European countries approach Central University experts for methodological support.

“We see this from Central University students at Olympiads: our undergraduates are in no way inferior and are sometimes even stronger than students from leading foreign universities. We invest a great deal in education because we want talented students to stay in Russia,” she said.

The university offers grants, access to research labs, flexible schedules, and Olympiad clubs in cybersecurity, AI, economics, and software development, with biotechnology and design clubs planned. Participation is open even to students without prior Olympiad experience. “We want the opportunity to compete at the student level not only for Olympiad winners and medalists, but also for those who, for various reasons, did not have the chance to take part in such school competitions,” Protsko noted.

The demand for exorcisms in the US has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to a significant increase in the number of priests trained to perform the ritual, a leading Catholic exorcist has revealed. 

Speaking to the New York Post, Father Chad Ripperger of the Archdiocese of Denver stated that the Catholic Church currently has around 150 priests in the US who can perform exorcisms. In 2020, there were only about 20 priests trained in the practice, marking a whopping 650% increase in just a few years.

However, Ripperger argued that the phenomenon reflects a rise in human sinfulness and occult involvement rather than an increase in demonic activity.

“The demons are empowered as more and more people commit evil deeds,” the priest said, pointing to voluntary engagement in Satanism or witchcraft as a key factor making individuals susceptible to demonic influence. At the same time, he noted that only “about 10% of cases are as dramatic as portrayed in Hollywood.”

The surge in demands for exorcisms has become so pronounced that Pope Leo XIV convened a summit of the world’s most senior exorcists at the Vatican earlier this month. At the meeting, the International Association of Exorcists warned the pontiff of a global rise in “occultism, esotericism, and Satanism” and called for every diocese worldwide to have trained exorcists. 

More than 300 exorcists gathered last year for the 15th International Conference of Exorcists, reflecting what participants describe as a coordinated and expanding international ministry.

The trend has not been limited to the US. In Russia, the occult services market has recently ballooned to an estimated $24 billion annually, with Russians spending as much on “sorcerers” and fortune-tellers as on groceries. 

Newly-elected Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah has launched an anti-corruption clampdown just days after being sworn in as the Himalayan country’s head of government.

On Monday, Nepal’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it has begun investigating the assets of four former prime ministers: K.P. Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Oli, along with former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, were arrested in pre-dawn raids on Saturday after a commission recommended that several officials be prosecuted for failing to stop security forces from opening fire on demonstrators during last year’s ‘Gen Z’ protests.

After the violent uprising left 77 dead and more than 2,000 injured, the nation’s parliament was dissolved.

Kathmandu also said it would rehabilitate and provide job opportunities to people affected by last year’s protests.

Under the 100-day plan, the new government said it would ban politics in universities and reform the school and education system.

The new government has also said it will implement a digital ID project.

In January, Nepal’s former Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali told RT India that external deep state forces were instrumental in instigating the September 2025 violence in Nepal that led to the ouster of the Oli government.

”Those elements who were actively engaged with the deep state, who used the cross-border misinformation and disinformation to instigate the violence, they were active,” he said.

The Grayzone website has cited leaked documents that reveal that the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars tutoring young Nepalese to stage the protests, in order to neutralize Chinese and Indian influence over Kathmandu.

Kuwait has accused Iran of carrying out a “heinous attack” on one of its combined power and desalination plants on Sunday. Like much of the Middle East, the nation depends heavily on industrial production to meet its freshwater needs.

What happened?

The purported Iranian strike killed one worker – an Indian national – and caused extensive damage to a service building, according to Fatima Abbas Jawhar Hayat, spokeswoman for Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity, Water, and Renewable Energy.

The authorities have not disclosed which facility was struck or whether electricity or water production has been disrupted. The spokeswoman said emergency teams are still assessing the damage and urged residents to ignore speculation.

NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System detected multiple heat signatures indicating fires at the Sabiya West thermal power plant in Kuwait.

Earlier today, Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity said an Iranian attack targeted a service building at one of the country’s… https://t.co/GrLmg5hMyh pic.twitter.com/2IBxyoj3Mq

— Egypt's Intel Observer (@EGYOSINT) March 30, 2026

Tehran has not responded to the accusations. However, Iranian media reported a fire at the Sabiya Power Plant detected by NASA satellites, mistakenly identifying it as the Doha West facility – another combined power and desalination plant located roughly 50 km away.

How crucial is the Sabiya facility?

Kuwait operates six government-owned thermal plants that produce both electricity and desalinated water.

The Sabiya plant, launched in 1998 and expanded multiple times, with the most recent upgrade announced last year, generates about 5,300 megawatts of electricity per hour and produces roughly 340,000 cubic meters of water daily, according to official data.

For comparison, the country’s largest single water producer, the Al-Zour South plant, has a capacity of about 670,000 cubic meters per day.

When did the Middle East become dependent on desalination?

Water scarcity is a defining challenge across the region, but Kuwait is particularly constrained. According to UN data, it has access to just 4 cubic meters of naturally renewable freshwater per person annually – compared to 296 cubic meters in relatively water-rich Oman.

Modern living standards require around 1,700 cubic meters per person each year, accounting for all needs from quenching thirst to growing food.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries began heavily investing in desalination after the 1979 oil crisis created a significant surplus of wealth. While thermal desalination remains important, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) – which uses membranes to remove salt – has become the dominant technology.

Today, more than 3,400 desalination plants operate across the Gulf, producing over 22 million cubic meters of water daily – about one-third of global capacity, according to a study published in Nature Clean Water in January.

Have water facilities been targeted before?

The region’s reliance on desalination, combined with limited water storage – especially in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar – makes these systems highly sensitive to disruption. Major damage can quickly escalate into a humanitarian emergency.

Iran has also accused the US of striking its desalination plant on Qeshm Island, saying the attack threatened water supplies for 30 villages. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called it a precedent and “a dangerous move with grave consequences.”

The following day, Bahrain reported that an Iranian drone hit one of its desalination sites, though water production was not affected.

The incidents coincided with a major emergency in Tehran after Israeli strikes hit oil storage sites. Residents in the Iranian capital reported breathing difficulties due to toxic smoke, while environmental groups also raised concerns about potential groundwater contamination.

What about earlier conflicts?

During the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi forces damaged Kuwaiti water facilities before being driven out by US-led forces. Offshore oil spills – believed to have been deliberate – also threatened filtration desalination intake systems, which are more vulnerable to pollutants than their thermal counterparts. Kuwait was forced to impose water rationing and import supplies.

In Yemen, Saudi-led military operations in the 2010s included strikes on desalination facilities. Meanwhile, Iran-aligned Houthi forces targeted Saudi plants with missile attacks in 2019 and 2022.

More recently, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following the 2023 Hamas attack caused widespread damage to civilian infrastructure, including desalination systems.

The US has been in “serious” discussions with a “new and more reasonable” Iranian government, President Donald Trump has claimed. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he also threatened to obliterate Iran’s critical energy infrastructure if no deal is “shortly reached.”

Trump claimed in his social media post on Monday that “great progress” had been made in negotiations, at the same time warning Tehran of more destruction should the Strait of Hormuz not be “immediately” reopened.

Should that not happen, the US would opt to “completely obliterate[e] all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island,” Trump claimed. Washington would also consider striking other critical infrastructure, including “all desalination plants,” he added.

While Trump has claimed Washington and Tehran have been meeting “directly and indirectly,” Iran has insisted contact has been ongoing only through intermediaries. According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, Tehran regards the proposals it has received from the US as “unrealistic, illogical and excessive,” and ultimately “highly unreasonable.” 

Last weekend, Trump vowed to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants, starting with “the biggest one first,” unless Tehran restored navigation in the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

At the time, Iran threatened to retaliate by striking power-generating assets across West Asia. It also pointed out that while it has over 400 such facilities scattered across the country, more than half of Israel’s power output is generated by five major plants.

The US president called off the attack two days after the announcement, claiming that the two sides had held “very good and productive conversations” over a “complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.” Iranian officials suggested that Trump had “backed down” after Iran’s “firm warning” that it would retaliate against strikes on its power grid.

US President Donald Trump is considering a military operation to seize the enriched uranium held at Iranian nuclear sites, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing sources. 

No decision has been made, but Trump remains “generally open” to the option while weighing the risks to US troops, the report said on Sunday. At least 13 US service members have been killed and about 200 wounded since the Iran conflict began in late February.

Before US and Israeli strikes in June 2025, Iran was believed to hold more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to 60% and nearly 200 kg at 20%, which can be further enriched to weapons-grade levels. Most of the material is located at underground facilities in Isfahan and Natanz, according to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.

Military experts, however, say any such operation would be complex and high-risk, likely taking weeks and involving coordinated actions across many dispersed sites. US forces would need to secure the facilities under potential missile and drone fire before specialist teams extract the uranium, stored in dozens of cylinders that would require transport in protected casks.

The report follows Iran’s rejection last week of a proposed US roadmap that called for dismantling its nuclear program, curbing missile activity and ending support for regional allies, with Tehran saying any deal must include “concrete guarantees” and not be dictated by Washington.

The US has long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran denies, saying its program is purely peaceful, with the claim serving as a central pretext for the conflict.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump said he would like to take control of Iran’s oil. 

“To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran,” Trump said, dismissing critics in the US as “stupid people.”

He added that he was not ruling out the possibility of US forces seizing the key export hub of Kharg Island.

US prosecutors have “nothing” on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was abducted by US commandos in early January and indicted on several charges related to drug trafficking and weapons possession, National Assembly deputy and his son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, has exclusively told RT.

A member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, he said his father’s defense team has presented “innovative arguments” during the ongoing trial.

“There is no evidence that Nicolas Maduro and [his wife] Cilia Flores committed crimes,” he stressed, insisting that the process is politically motivated.

The Venezuelan president and his spouse face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the United States. Both entered a not guilty plea.

The US had long accused Maduro of having links to drug cartels and helping to flood America with narcotics, while refusing to recognize him as a legitimate leader and offering a $50 million bounty for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Last month, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who assumed power following the US intervention, emphasized that Maduro remains Venezuela’s legitimate head of state despite his capture.

Speaking in January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov characterized Maduro’s abduction by US special forces as a “flagrant violation of international law.”

The diplomat said at the time that that assessment was shared by the overwhelming “global majority,” including the Global South and East.

The Yemeni-based Houthi movement on Saturday announced its formal entry into the conflict in the Middle East. The group has proclaimed its full support for Iran and other “resistance” factions across the region faced with US-Israeli aggression. 

The group condemned the “atrocities” committed by the US, Israel, and their allies in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, and Gaza, pledging to begin military operations against the aggressors. The Houthis have also warned any third nations against joining the attacks on Iran, as well as against using the Red Sea for taking hostile actions against the country. 

RT looks into the group’s long record of armed conflict and its warfighting capabilities.

Who are the Houthis?

The group, known officially as Ansar Allah, emerged as a Zaydi (Fiver Shia) revivalist movement in northern Yemen in the mid-1990s. The country was ruled by Zaydi imams for over 1,000 years before they were ousted in the 1962 republican revolution. Since then, Yemen has been plagued by repeated civil conflicts between the Zaydi-dominated north and Sunni-majority south.

Ansar Allah, founded by Yemeni politician and Zaydi religious leader Hussein al-Houthi, has long been regarded as part of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’, having adopted a strong anti-Israeli and anti-US stance in the early 2000s. At the time, the group coined its notable slogan, the Sarkha, which reads, “God is great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.” The slogan, stylized as a vertical red and green banner, is commonly displayed at Houthi mass rallies, utilized in propaganda, and used as a war cry.

The group eventually found itself at odds with then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a longtime North Yemen leader, who managed to defeat the southern secessionists and reunify the country in the early 1990s. While the Houthis were wary of Saleh, a Zaydi himself, over his close cooperation with Saudi-backed hardline Sunni Islamists, the president regarded them as a threat to his rule and alleged the group sought to establish a new Imamate.

Two decades of continuous conflict

The tensions between Saleh and Ansar Allah devolved into an open conflict in 2004, prompted by the government’s attempts to arrest the movement’s leader, with civil strife and, ultimately, a full-blown civil war plaguing Yemen ever since. During the string of conflicts, Ansar Allah has shown a remarkable resilience and ability to hold out against numerically and technologically superior foes – and win against them. 

Aggravated by foreign intervention, the conflict in Yemen continued to escalate after the group moved to oust Saleh’s successor, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and took over the country’s capital city of Sanaa in 2014. Hadi, who had served as vice president under Saleh for over two decades, enjoyed broad support among the Gulf states but was opposed by both Houthis and re-emerged southern secessionists.

Ansar Allah found itself in conflict with multiple opponents, including a broad Saudi-led coalition seeking to reinstate the internationally recognized Hadi government; southern secessionists backed by the UAE; as well as Sunni jihadist groups, including local offshoots of Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The situation in Yemen has been further aggravated by sporadic bombing campaigns by the US and its allies staged under the pretext of fighting jihadist groups, as well as in response to the Houthi attacks on Israel amid the war in Gaza. 

Following the Sanaa takeover, the group ended up temporarily aligned with its former arch-rival, ex-President Saleh, and remnants of the country’s military still loyal to him. The alliance ended in late 2017, when Saleh attempted to break ranks with the Houthis, expressing readiness to cooperate with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Week-long clashes in the capital resulted in a decisive Houthi victory despite initial successes of the insurrection and heavy coalition bombing in its support, with the ex-president ambushed by the militants and killed.

Ansar Allah ultimately managed to fight the coalition and its other adversaries to a standstill, winning the largest battle of the war in 2018 and holding the only major port under its control, Al Hudaydah, against a large-scale offensive of pro-Hadi forces. The movement’s stance was further reinforced by a campaign of long-range strikes against Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and military installations.

The fighting eventually waned amid a series of UN-brokered truces, with Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah entering a ceasefire in early 2022, which still stands. Yemen remains split roughly along the lines it had fractured before, with the Houthis controlling territories housing between 70 and 80% of the country’s estimated population of at least 34.7 million.

Long-range strike capabilities 

Ansar Allah is known to possess considerable long-range strike capabilities, including ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as assorted kamikaze drones. While the bulk of the munitions in the group’s inventory are believed in the West to be of Iranian origin, the Houthis have repeatedly claimed to operate domestically designed and built weaponry.

The extent of damage inflicted by the Houthis on Israel over the past two-and-a-half years is debatable, largely due to a lack of independently verifiable evidence. Israel has imposed strict censorship on publicizing footage of anti-aircraft defense work and damage on the ground. 

Long-range strikes carried out by the Houthis at the height of the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen, however, have proven that the group’s weaponry is capable of penetrating the most sophisticated anti-air defenses and inflicting damage on the ground. 

In September 2019, for instance, Ansar Allah launched successful attacks against Saudi oil facilities, inflicting heavy damage on an Aramco factory in Abqaiq, the world’s largest crude processing plant. 

Bab-el-Mandeb blockade looms?

While the Houthis’ capabilities to inflict damage on Iran’s enemies are still to be seen, the group likely retains great naval interdiction potential. Amid the Gaza war, the Houthis have waged a campaign against shipping linked to Israel and its allies in the Red Sea, particularly in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden, the southern maritime gateway to the Suez Canal.

The group has targeted around a hundred cargo ships in the waterway since November 2023, damaging at least 40 vessels and sinking four. The campaign has caused disruptions to global traffic, with numerous ships diverted from the Suez Canal to sail around Africa, incurring higher costs and delaying deliveries by weeks.

Ansar Allah has used a vast arsenal of different weapons during its maritime campaign, including anti-ship and ballistic missiles and aerial and water kamikaze drones, and even attacked some of the vessels up close from speedboats. The Houthis suspended their activities in October last year after a shaky US-brokered ceasefire was implemented in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

The group could now potentially resume its attacks on international shipping in the waterway after entering the war in support of Iran. With traffic through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, the potential development seems certain to drive oil and commodity prices even higher, as well as have a broader impact on the global economy.

Israel has allowed limited access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem following widespread international criticism over blocking access to Christianity’s holiest site.

On Sunday, Israeli police prevented senior Catholic clergy from entering the church to hold a private Palm Sunday Mass at the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was crucified. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa had to celebrate Mass in the nearby St. Savior’s Monastery instead.

The move marked the first such disruption in centuries during a holiday that marks the start of Holy Week on the Western Christian Church calendar and commemorates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

The Latin Patriarchate said the decision impeded freedom of worship and violated the status quo in Jerusalem, calling it “a manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure.”

Shortly thereafter, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that he had “instructed the relevant authorities that Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch, be granted full and immediate access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,” adding that the measures were imposed due to security concerns over Iranian retaliatory strikes.

“Even though I understand this concern, as soon as I learned about the incident with Cardinal Pizzaballa, I instructed the authorities to enable the Patriarch to hold services as he wishes,” he wrote.

Early on Monday, Israeli police confirmed they had approved a “limited prayer framework” for the church in consultation with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Details of the arrangement are expected to be finalized after further discussions with church representatives, police said.

Jerusalem’s major holy sites have been subject to restrictions amid the ongoing conflict, following the ongoing Israeli and US attack launched on Iran on February 28, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Restrictions on worship in Jerusalem drew criticism from Western governments, including the United States, France, and Italy, with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee calling them “an unfortunate overreach.”

The Russian Orthodox Church also previously voiced concern over the restrictions at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the Holy Fire ceremony, a major Orthodox event, is held annually on Holy Saturday by the Eastern Christian Church calendar. This year it falls on April 11.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have exchanged heavy fire in border areas, days after they agreed to a temporary pause in fighting, Reuters has reported.

The clashes took place on Sunday in areas between Afghanistan’s Kunar province and Pakistan’s Bajur district, the news agency said, citing officials from both countries.

On Sunday, Islamabad hosted the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye to discuss de-escalation in the Middle East as the US and Israel continue to wage war on Iran.

Both Afghanistan and Pakistan used heavy weapons and artillery during the clashes, according to the report.  

“Some minor violations took place from the Afghan side and we responded to it in the same sector,” a Pakistani official told the news agency.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have engaged in fighting for weeks after Islamabad declared an “open war” in February. Pakistan has struck military and other facilities deep inside Afghanistan, including the capital, Kabul.

Islamabad has long accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering armed groups that conduct cross-border raids and terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a mosque in Islamabad in February that killed more than 30 people. Kabul has denied the allegations.

Last week, Afghanistan accused Pakistan of carrying out an airstrike on Kabul’s 2,000-bed Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital that killed at least 400 people. 

Islamabad partly attributes the strain in its relationship with Kabul to the latter’s increasing engagement with Pakistan’s longtime rival, India.

China has said it is directly mediating a ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

“The MFA special envoy on Afghan affairs has been shuttling between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said last week. “China’s embassies have been in close communication with both sides as well,” he added.

US President Donald Trump is not ruling out the possibility of American forces seizing Iran’s key energy export hub on Kharg Island in order to take control of the Islamic Republic’s oil exports, he said in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday.

Trump claimed his “preference” would be for Washington to control Tehran’s oil industry and exports indefinitely, as it did in Venezuela following a military raid in January.

“To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” Trump said.

“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump added, noting that such a move would also mean US forces would have to “be there for a while.”

Iran has also reportedly reinforced Kharg Island’s defenses with mines, man-portable air-defense systems, and FPV drone units, although Trump dismissed the possibility that Tehran could put up a fierce fight.

“I don’t think they have any defense. We could take it [Kharg Island] very easily,” he claimed.

Following the US military raid on Venezuela that kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro and installed a friendlier government in Caracas, Trump vowed to control the country’s oil industry “indefinitely.”

Washington has imposed control over Venezuelan crude exports, with proceeds deposited into restricted US Treasury-run accounts rather than going directly to the Venezuelan state. The country’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has also agreed to sell some $100 million worth of physical gold to the US, with the proceeds similarly controlled by Washington.

A Russian tanker has arrived in Cuba to deliver a humanitarian oil shipment amid a months-long US blockade that has led to severe fuel shortages and recurring power cuts across the island.

Russia’s Energy Ministry reported that the Anatoly Kolodkin, carrying 100,000 tons of crude oil, has docked at the port of Matanzas and now waits to be unloaded.

Despite US Coast Guard ships being present in the region, “the Trump administration did not order those vessels to act,” an official familiar with the matter told the New York Times.

“Barring orders instructing it otherwise, the Coast Guard planned to let the tanker reach Cuba as of Sunday afternoon,” the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs on countries exporting fuel to Cuba. However, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, he confirmed that Washington had allowed the Russian tanker through on humanitarian grounds.

“We don’t mind having somebody get a boat load because they need to survive,” he said. “I’d prefer letting it in, whether it’s Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling.”

Trump, however, added that he still expects Havana to “fail soon,” saying the US would be there to “help it out.”

The Caribbean nation has faced severe fuel shortages and power cuts in recent months after Venezuela, once Havana’s closest ally, halted oil shipments following pressure from Washington.

Multiple international fuel deliveries have been disrupted, vessels linked to Havana have struggled to secure supplies, and some have been turned away or intercepted – with at least one escorted away from Cuban waters, according to ship-tracking data.

Earlier this month, Havana agreed to enter talks with Washington in a bid to defuse tensions and avert a humanitarian crisis. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed that negotiations were ongoing and aimed at “finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences we have between the two nations.”

Trump, however, has not abandoned his stated intention to take over the island “one way or another.” On Friday, he said Cuba could be “next” following what he described as successful US military operations in Venezuela and Iran.

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US‑Israeli war on Iran and the wider chaos across the Middle East and beyond that the unprovoked attack has caused. Overnight, there were reports of significant strikes both on Tehran and Israel, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accusing US‑Israeli “war criminals” of bombing civilian targets, including pharmaceutical plants.  

Meanwhile, in Dubai there are reports of loud explosions and a strike on a Kuwaiti tanker, sending US gas prices higher. Oil has slipped by almost 1% on global markets, while Russia has doubled down on its refusal to sell oil and gas to “unfriendly” nations.

The Pentagon held its sixth press briefing since the conflict began over a month ago, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine appearing before journalists on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Monday that “a coalition of nations” would secure the Strait of Hormuz by force while Iran’s ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali spoke to RT’s Sanchez Effect and dismissed US President Donald Trump’s claims that Tehran is negotiating with Washington, saying that US and Israeli officials are “planning how to strike Iran” rather than seeking peace.

Trump has also claimed that his goal of regime change in Iran was achieved by killing the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in the initial strikes on February 28. 

“The one regime was decimated, destroyed, they’re all dead. The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime – we’re dealing with different people than anybody’s dealt with before... it truly is regime change… you can’t do much better than that,” Trump said.

The new leadership in Iran is “very reasonable,” he said, claiming that he feels that a deal with Tehran could be reached “soon.”

• The average US gasoline price rose to $4 per gallon on Tuesday, the highest level since 2022. Pump prices are now above levels seen at any point during President Donald Trump’s two terms. Oil prices edged higher, while Asian markets traded lower.
  
  
• A fully loaded Kuwaiti tanker in waters off Dubai was struck in an Iranian drone attack. Explosions were heard across Tehran after Israel’s military said it carried out multiple waves of strikes on targets in the Iranian capital. In central Israel, cars caught fire after being hit by falling missile fragments.
  
  
• Iran’s Tabriz Petrochemical Company has been struck in a US-Israeli attack, according to media reports.
   
• Trump remains “generally open to the idea” of launching a special operations raid on Iranian nuclear sites to seize some 450 kg of enriched uranium believed to be stored there, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources. The US president also told the Financial Times that he was not ruling out the possibility of seizing Iran’s key export hub, Kharg Island, in order to take control of Tehran’s oil exports.
   
• The IDF and Iranian forces have continued to exchange strikes, with videos capturing a major blaze erupting at an oil refinery in Israeli city of Haifa after one of the attacks. 

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

As the military-political confrontation between Russia and the West enters a new phase, attention is gradually shifting south and south-east. Discussions about Moscow’s policy in the South Caucasus and Central Asia are becoming more frequent, even if a definitive resolution to current tensions remains distant. In this context, it is worth asking whether the so-called ‘Great Game’ could return to Eurasia in some form.

Historically, both regions have been seen as relatively calm. Russia’s principal adversaries either lacked strong interests there or were unable to sustain a physical presence that Moscow would consider a serious threat. For much of the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and right up until the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, the states of Central Asia and the South Caucasus existed in what could be described as a favorable international environment. They faced internal challenges, certainly, but were largely spared from direct involvement in great-power rivalry.

Even today, these regions remain far removed from the principal theaters of global confrontation. When the world considers the possibility of serious conflict between nuclear powers, attention is directed towards Europe, East Asia, or increasingly the Middle East. Central Asia, often described as the “soft underbelly” of Russia or China, does not feature prominently in such calculations.

This is not to say that developments there are irrelevant. The South Caucasus, in particular, lies uncomfortably close to the Middle East, where Israel is seeking a more assertive regional role. Turkey too remains active, though the long-term trajectory of its ambitions is uncertain. Central Asia, for its part, has moved beyond the immediate aftermath of the Soviet collapse. Its political elites have stabilized their systems and are pursuing independent paths of development. The region is not without risks, but these stem primarily from domestic governance challenges rather than external pressure.

Nonetheless, a growing chorus of voices, particularly outside the region, now suggests that Central Asia could become the next arena for competition between Russia, China, the United States, and a range of secondary actors, including Turkey and the European Union. The argument is straightforward: as technology and economic cooperation become instruments of geopolitical rivalry, previously peripheral regions are being drawn into the contest.

Yet alongside these developments, something else has re-emerged: a set of old myths and narratives dating back to an era of Western dominance in global affairs. Chief among them is the notion of a renewed ‘Great Game’, a strategic contest between Russia and external powers for influence in Central Asia.

This idea has considerable rhetorical appeal, but little analytical value.

The original ‘Great Game’ was largely a product of the 19th century, when the Russian and British empires expanded their spheres of influence across Eurasia. Its mythology was shaped as much by imagination as by reality, popularized by a British agent whose dramatic fate in Bukhara in 1842 gave the concept a lasting aura. In practice, the rivalry between St. Petersburg and London in the region was limited. Both powers were primarily concerned with their positions in Europe, and Central Asia served more as a peripheral theater than a decisive front.

Russia ultimately resolved the issue in its own way, incorporating the region into its empire and eliminating the buffer zone that had sustained British anxieties. Britain, constrained by resources and strategic priorities elsewhere, offered little resistance. The ‘Great Game’, such as it was, proved short-lived.

There is little reason to believe that such dynamics can be reproduced today.

Moreover, the governments of Central Asia have demonstrated, in recent years, a degree of resilience and competence that distinguishes them from the fragile states that became arenas of proxy competition during the Arab Spring. They have maintained political control and achieved a measure of economic progress. Comparisons with Libya or Syria are misplaced.

Second, the economic value of Central Asia is frequently overstated. While the region offers opportunities, it is not a decisive prize in global economic terms. Much of the enthusiasm surrounding it reflects broader geopolitical narratives rather than concrete realities. Should tensions in Eastern Europe or the Pacific stabilize, the perceived importance of Central Asia could quickly diminish.

For Russia, this has clear implications. Rather than engaging in an illusory struggle for influence, Moscow’s interests are better served by respecting the sovereignty of its partners and building substantive economic ties. The countries of the region are not objects of competition, but actors in their own right, capable of pursuing balanced and independent policies.

The revival of the ‘Great Game’ is therefore more a reflection of intellectual inertia than of geopolitical necessity. It is a convenient metaphor, but a misleading one.

Eurasia is not returning to the 19th century. And Russia would do well to avoid behaving as though it is.

The White House was briefly renamed ‘Epstein Island’ for some Google Pixel phone users, the Washington Post has reported.

The term is used to refer to the Caribbean island of Little St. James, which had been owned by the late convicted pedophile Jeffry Epstein. According to the prosecutors, it served as the venue for sex trafficking and other abuses involving some high-profile figures in business and politics.

WaPo said in an article on Saturday that when its journalist tried calling the White House switchboard earlier this week, the name on screen indicated that they were contacting “Epstein Island.”

Only users of Google’s Pixel phones experienced the issue. For those calling the presidential residence from other Android phones and iPhones, no name was displayed, the report read.

The user behind it has been identified and blocked from making further edits because his actions violated Google’s policies, Flegal said.

The White House’s name has been restored on the mapping platform, he added.

The US Department of Justice released the final batch of over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images relating to Epstein’s case in January. The details of the Wall Street financier’s dealings with some of the most powerful people in the US and UK have only worsened the scandal.

US President Donald Trump had ordered the agency to release the files in November, following intense pressure from the lawmakers and his own supporters. The documents mention Trump’s name over 5,000 times, but without any indication of criminal activity. However, they have been heavily redacted, leaving many critics unconvinced.

A poll from the left-wing Zeteo website earlier this month found that 52% of those surveyed believed that Trump launched the ongoing war against Iran in order to distract the public from the Epstein files.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has said the EU “needs urgent repair” and criticized self-defeating energy and migration policies imposed on member states by unelected bureaucrats as well as a growing ideological slant within the bloc.

A poll by Eurobazooka late last year indicated that 25% of Polish respondents favored a ‘Polexit,’ with another 6% unsure, making the country a major hotspot of Euroscepticism. National daily Gazeta Wyborcza noted at the time that as recently as 2022, around 92% of Poles favored remaining in the EU.

In recent years, Polish conservatives have increasingly accused the bloc of imposing liberal social norms regarding issues such as LGBT rights, gender policy, and judicial reforms on their predominantly Catholic country.

Addressing a mostly Republican US audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas on Sunday, Nawrocki said that “powerful [EU] bureaucrats [are] making decisions that go against common sense.” He cited the bloc’s “energy policies that move too fast with no regard for economic reality and energy security” as well as “migration policies that fail to protect borders and social cohesion.”

“There are moves to centralize decision-making, sidelining nations and democratic accountability,” the Polish president lamented.

In a post on X earlier this month, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed that there was “a real threat” that his country could leave the EU after President Nawrocki vetoed legislation that would have let Warsaw draw nearly €44 billion ($50 billion) in low-interest EU defense loans.

The government eventually authorized its defense and finance ministers to sign the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) agreement directly, bypassing the veto.

Tusk, who previously served as the president of the European Council, accused the right-wing opposition and Nawrocki personally of siding with Russia, US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, and European Eurosceptic factions led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in seeking to “smash the EU.”

Ukraine has confirmed that two of its drones crashed in Finland on Sunday and has issued a formal apology, claiming the UAVs hadn’t been sent to the Nordic country deliberately.

The incident was first reported by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who ventured that the drones were launched as part of Kiev’s ongoing attacks on neighboring Russia’s Leningrad Region.

Later in the day, in an X post of his own, Finnish President Alexander Stubb revealed that “one of the drones has been confirmed to be Ukrainian in origin.” The NATO country’s air force had previously identified it as an AN196 model used by Kiev’s military.

Stubb emphasized that while “there is no military threat to Finland… the authorities maintain readiness to react to future incidents.” No casualties were reported as a result of the incident.

On Monday, the press secretary of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, Georgy Tikhiy, stated that Kiev has “offered its apologies to the Finnish side for the incident.”

“We can confidently say that no Ukrainian drones were ever sent toward Finland,” Tikhiy added, suggesting the UAVs had likely veered off-course due to Russian electronic warfare systems.

According to the Nordic country’s Defense Ministry, “several small, slow-flying, low-flying objects were observed in Finnish airspace over the sea and in southeastern Finland on Sunday morning.”

F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets were deployed to monitor the drones, but did not use suppressive fire so as to avoid collateral damage, according to Yle News.

The Defense Ministry stated that the UAVs eventually crashed near the city of Kouvola, roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of the Russian border.

On Wednesday, an unusually large number of drones were downed over Leningrad Region, with the raid resulting in a blaze in the port area of Ust-Luga, which is home to a major gas-processing complex as well as Europe’s largest oil terminal specializing in the transshipment of petroleum products from rail to sea tankers.

There were no injuries among civilians in the region, according to the authorities.

Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, a Ukrainian UAV hit the chimney of the Auvere Power Plant in northeastern Estonia, Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal reported.

At around the same time, another Ukrainian drone impacted neighboring Latvia, the country’s Defense Ministry stated.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene had said early in the week that a UAV launched from Ukraine went astray and crashed in the south of the Baltic nation on Monday. According to the Baltic nation’s Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas, the drone went undetected by NATO radar because it was “flying at an altitude of less than 300 meters.”

Last September, after more than a dozen drones were reported crossing into Poland, Russia accused Ukraine of deliberately sending UAVs into NATO territory as part of a false flag attack, apparently with a view to pitting the Western military bloc directly against Russia.

After one month of war against Iran, one conclusion stands out more clearly than anything declared in all the press briefings: Neither the US nor Israel entered this confrontation with a plan for a long war.

The campaign was conceived as a short and brutal episode, a shock operation designed to break Iran’s will, force Tehran back to the table on humiliating terms, or in the most ambitious fantasies circulating around Donald Trump’s political circle, trigger internal collapse and perhaps even regime change. Israel’s aim was somewhat different, though complementary. It wanted to inflict the maximum possible damage on Iran’s military and strategic infrastructure, weaken it for years, and reshape the regional balance through force. Yet in the first month of fighting, the central assumption behind both approaches began to collapse. Instead of folding and getting coerced into submission, Iran resisted like a state fighting for survival.

What doesn’t kill Iran makes it stronger

American planners appear to have imagined a limited punitive maneuver lasting perhaps a week or two. The logic was familiar and, from their point of view, elegant. Strike hard, generate fear, disrupt command structures, raise the economic cost, and create a moment in which Iran’s leadership would face a stark choice between capitulation and disaster. Some in the Trump camp seem to have believed that Iran’s political system was brittle enough to crack under pressure. That assumption now looks less like strategy and more like projection. Washington entered the war expecting quick leverage rather than a drawn out contest of endurance.

Israel, for its part, appears to have approached the opening phase with fewer illusions about diplomacy and more determination to degrade Iran by force. The strategic instinct in West Jerusalem was not primarily to negotiate with Tehran from a position of strength, but to use the cover of an American-backed offensive to hit as much as possible and to push Iran backward in military, technological, and geopolitical terms. In that sense, Israel’s goals were harsher and more concrete. But even here the first month exposed a contradiction. A state can damage Iran. It can kill, disrupt, sabotage, and bomb. Yet weakening Iran is not the same thing as breaking Iran. A campaign that hurts but does not decisively cripple can still end by strengthening Tehran politically, morally, and strategically if the attacked state manages to survive, retaliate, and turn endurance into legitimacy.

At the same time, the Iranian authorities received an important internal political opportunity. External aggression almost always reshapes the internal mood of a country under attack, and Iran was no exception. Whatever grievances, divisions, and frustrations existed inside Iranian society before the war, the assault by the US and Israel gave Tehran a chance to consolidate the population around the state, the flag, and the idea of national survival. In moments like these, even a government facing criticism can reposition itself as the defender of the nation against foreign violence. This does not erase internal tensions, nor does it magically solve Iran’s domestic problems. But it does give the leadership room to invoke patriotism, sacrifice, and resistance in a way that would have been much harder under normal circumstances. For the Iranian state, this may prove to be one of the most important political effects of the war.

From that point on, what was supposed to be an operation of intimidation started looking like a reputational trap for the US. Washington still possesses overwhelming destructive capacity, but power is never measured by firepower alone. It is also measured by political clarity, by the realism of objectives, by the ability to shape outcomes without self harm, and by the credibility of the order one claims to defend. In the first month of this war, the US damaged all four. It entered with rhetoric of strength and has already found itself talking about pauses, mediation channels, indirect messages, and deadlines extended under pressure. That does not look like a superpower dictating terms. It looks like a superpower discovering that coercion is easier to launch than to conclude.

The world is paying the price

The economic consequences alone make the operation look strategically self-defeating. A war of this kind does not remain confined to military maps. It spreads into oil prices, shipping insurance, central bank caution, inflationary pressure, food costs, investor panic, and political unrest in countries far from the battlefield. What may have been sold in Washington as a limited geopolitical shock has instead begun to resemble an accelerant poured onto an already unstable world economy. In that sense, one of the most likely long-term effects is not simply turbulence in the Middle East, but the deepening risk of global recession. And if recession does take shape, the US will have contributed to it not as a passive observer of chaos, but as one of its principal producers. There is a profound irony in that. Washington launched this war claiming security and strength, yet may end up exporting insecurity on a global scale while weakening its own economic room for maneuver.

The second major consequence is geopolitical, and in the long run, potentially even more serious. This war is speeding up the fragmentation of the international system. It is another lesson to the world that dependence on American guarantees comes with growing uncertainty, ideological volatility, and sudden unilateralism. Allies are reminded that the US can launch a major war and then demand solidarity after the fact. Partners are reminded that American decision making can be shaped by electoral instincts, media theatrics, and the inflated confidence of officials who confuse disruption with strategy. Neutral states are reminded that in moments of crisis, sovereignty and hedging matter more than alignment slogans. This is how multipolarity grows in practice: through repeated demonstrations that the old center can no longer discipline events without destabilizing them.

The war has also exposed how thin the cohesion in the ‘collective West’ has become. America’s traditional allies did not rally in the way Washington expected. European governments showed skepticism, irritation, and in some cases outright distance. Alliance fatigue is showing under pressure. NATO still exists, still spends, still coordinates. But politically and psychologically, the old image of a fully unified Western bloc has taken another blow.

Credibility in alliance systems is cumulative. It is built over decades and can be weakened shock by shock. Every episode in which Washington acts first and consults later, every outburst that treats partners as instruments rather than political actors, every demand for obedience without strategic explanation erodes trust a little further. A military alliance can survive such erosion for a while, especially when members still fear common adversaries. But the political soul of an alliance is harder to repair than its budget lines. The first month of war with Iran has widened the emotional and strategic distance between the US and parts of Europe, and it has done so at a time when Western institutions were already carrying the weight of internal contradictions. The collective West is now far less collective than it claims to be, and this conflict has only made that clearer.

The war is changing the Gulf – and Iran itself

For the Gulf states, the conflict opens the door to a new era as well. Their security conceptions were built for decades around managed dependence on the American umbrella combined with ambitious social and economic transformation at home. That model now looks less stable. The Gulf monarchies face a harsh reality. They remain exposed to Iranian retaliation, exposed to disruption in shipping lanes, exposed to energy shocks, and exposed to the possibility that Washington may act decisively but not predictably. In any case, the old assumption that American power automatically equals regional order has been weakened. For Gulf elites, this means security doctrine and development strategy can no longer be treated as separate spheres. They are becoming one and the same question. The region is entering a new era in which old formulas of protection, growth, and political balance will have to be revised.

Iran’s position is more paradoxical. Militarily, it has suffered. Economically, it remains under crushing pressure. The damage inside the country is real and severe. Yet politics is not an accounting sheet of destruction alone. Much depends on how the current phase ends. If Tehran were eventually forced into humiliating concessions, the present gains in image and positioning could evaporate. But at this stage, Iran has undeniably improved its international positioning in one crucial sense. It has shown that it can answer Washington and endure under immense pressure. Across much of the non-Western world, and in large segments of global public opinion that are deeply suspicious of American interventionism, Iran is increasingly seen less as the caricature of official Western messaging and more as a state defending itself against aggression by the US and Israel. Survival under assault can be politically transformative.

There is also a broader symbolic effect. For years, the dominant assumption in many Western capitals was that Iran could be boxed in, isolated, intimidated, and gradually bent into strategic submission. The first month of war has not validated that worldview. Instead, it has reminded observers that middle powers under extreme pressure can still generate strategic surprises when they are internally organized around endurance, asymmetry, and political patience. Iran did not have to win conventionally in order to alter the meaning of the conflict. It only had to deny the rapid political result that the aggressors were hoping for. And by doing so, it shifted the psychological terrain of the war.

Israel, meanwhile, may be the only actor that can claim a short-term political gain, though even that gain is narrow and dangerous. The immediate beneficiaries appear to be the Israeli far-right currently in power. For them, war expands room for ideological hardening, securitized politics, and the argument that maximal force is the only language the region understands. A prolonged confrontation with Iran also helps keep domestic political dynamics inside an emergency frame, where dissent can be marginalized and radical agendas can travel further than they otherwise might. But this is not the same as a strategic Israeli victory. It is a political gain for a particular faction, not necessarily a stable gain for the Israeli state over time. A region pushed deeper into permanent war is not a region that guarantees long-term safety, even for the side that presently feels ascendant.

The losses are strategic

If one looks at the ledger after a month, then the paradox becomes stark. The country with the greatest military weight may also be the one that has lost the most strategically. The US has absorbed reputational damage, intensified doubts about its judgment, strained allied confidence, worsened global economic instability, and accelerated the very multipolar drift it has long tried to slow. Israel has achieved a harder regional environment and a temporary opening for its most hardline political forces. Iran has paid heavily, but it has also demonstrated resilience, strengthened its narrative of resistance, and improved its international positioning in the eyes of many who now see it as a country under attack rather than a rogue state to be punished. The Gulf states have been pushed toward strategic revision. Europe has been reminded that transatlantic solidarity now has sharp limits. The West, in other words, is still armed, still wealthy, still institutionally significant, but it is no longer politically seamless.

This is why the first month of the war should not be read only through maps of strikes, casualty counts, and tactical moves. Its deeper meaning lies elsewhere. It has revealed the bankruptcy of a familiar illusion in American foreign policy, the illusion that one can use violence as a short demonstration, compel strategic capitulation, and walk away before the political consequences mature. That script worked badly even in a simpler world. In a fragmented world, an inflation prone world, an energy anxious world, and a world increasingly tired of unilateral American shocks, it works worse still. Iran understood the confrontation as a struggle over existence. Washington treated it too long as a maneuver. History tends to punish that kind of asymmetry in seriousness.

And yet one thing is clear even through that fog. Nearly everyone involved senses that the catastrophe is widening. The war is no longer perceived as a contained clash with neat limits. It is increasingly seen as a chain reaction whose radius keeps expanding politically, militarily, economically, and psychologically. The fear now is not only of more destruction, more displacement, and more regional destabilization. It is also of the point at which escalation crosses into something far darker, including the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe. That fear may still sound extreme to some, but the fact that it is now being spoken aloud at all tells us how dangerous this conflict has become.

The most sobering conclusion is therefore also the simplest. Instead of restoring American authority, a month of war has exposed its limits. Instead of reuniting the Western camp, it has shown how divided and conditional that camp has become. Instead of solving the Iranian question, it has made clear that Iran cannot be dealt with as a mere tactical object. And instead of making the world safer, it has made it more fragmented, more suspicious, more expensive, and more unstable.

A key US Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control aircraft has been “100% destroyed” in an Iranian missile and drone strike on the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said.

The spy plane was hit along with several other US jets during Friday’s attack on the installation, located some 96 km (60 miles) southeast of Riyadh, the IRGC said in a statement on Sunday. The Saudi base was targeted “in response to hostile actions of the US terrorist army,” it read.

Up to six ballistic missiles and 29 UAVs were used, leaving at least 15 US troops wounded, including five in serious condition, according to AP.

Air & Space Forces Magazine, a US publication, reported the destruction of an AWACS aircraft at the Prince Sultan Air Base on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The same day, OSINTdefender, an open-source intelligence monitor, published photos on X it claimed captured the damage done to the spy plane.

Pictures show the total loss of 81-0005, an E-3G “Sentry” Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) Aircraft with the U.S. Air Force’s 552nd Air Control Wing based out of Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, following yesterday’s Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack on Prince… pic.twitter.com/NNnILybnrU

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 29, 2026

It appeared to have been struck in its rear section where its distinctive rotating radar dome is located.

Meanwhile, Iranian broadcaster PressTV released satellite images purporting to show the destruction of several planes at the Saudi base.

US Central Command declined to comment on the loss of an E-3 when approached by the media.

Boeing produced around 70 E-3 Sentry aircraft between 1977 and 1992, with 16 of them reportedly still in service with the US Air Force. The planes are designed to provide all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications, and – despite their age –remain crucial for American military operations.

An E-3 Sentry costs around $270 million to manufacture, but an E-7 Wedgetail, which the Pentagon sees as a replacement for the older spy plane, is priced at more than $700 million.

Yemen’s Houthi armed forces announced their formal entry into the conflict in the Middle East, firing several missiles at Israel.

The group, which controls the Yemeni capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north, has stayed out of the action since the US and Israel first attacked Tehran on February 28.

But on Saturday, Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree issued a statement, declaring support for Tehran and other “resistance” factions in the region.

The group is compelled to begin military operations against the US, Israel and their allies due to ongoing escalation, attacks on infrastructure, and “atrocities” committed in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and the Gaza Strip, he said.

Several hours later, the Houthis said that they had launched “a salvo of ballistic missiles towards sensitive Israeli military sites,” timing the attack with the operations carried out by Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The group said they will continue its strikes “until the aggression against all resistance fronts ceases.”

Israel reported shooting down four missiles coming from Yemen on Saturday.

When asked about the Houthi attack, Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said that West Jerusalem is “preparing for a multifront war.”

Over the past two-and-a-half years, the Houthis have launched more than 130 ballistic missiles and dozens of drones at Israel, killing one person and wounding several others, according to the Times of Israel.

The Yemeni fighters said they were acting in support of the Palestinians in Gaza after West Jerusalem launched its military operation targeting the enclave in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas incursion into Israel.

The group also disrupted shipping in the Red Sea, targeting around a hundred Israeli-linked vessels in the Gulf of Aden and sinking two of them.

A possible intensification of the Houthi strikes on shipping could further increase oil prices and destabilize “all of maritime security,” senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, Ahmed Nagi, warned. “The impact would not be limited to the energy market,” he said.

With the Strait of Hormuz being effectively closed as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Saudi Arabia has redirected its oil trade to the Red Sea, sending millions of crude daily through the 32-km-wide (20-mile-wide) Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

When the Houthis targeted vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb in 2024 and 2025, shipping companies were forced to change routes and send them around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, which led to delays and significantly increased costs.

Thousands across the US have joined “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump, blaming him for the flagging economy, rising cost of living and the conflict with Iran.

The demonstrations mark the third nationwide round of the “No Kings” movement, which launched nationwide protests in June 2025. The rallies are being held under the slogan “No king, no crown, we will not back down.”

On Saturday, crowds gathered across major cities, suburbs, and smaller communities, singing, chanting, and holding placards, with organizers saying at least half of the rallies took place in Republican strongholds.

“The rallies are a place for everybody to come and exercise their rights as Americans in a patriotic and safe way,” Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, which started the “No Kings” movement last year, told CNN.

🚨 BIG BREAKING :

🔥HOLY SMOKES: 7 million Americans in the streets TODAY. 3,000 cities. Every state. One message.

No Kings......

This is one of the largest demonstrations in American history.

Larger than the Women’s March.
Larger than the Vietnam protests.
Larger than any… pic.twitter.com/aL0l6vjH5V

— Global Report Now (@GlobalReportNow) March 28, 2026

Organizers said the protests are not centered on a single demand and reflect broad opposition to Trump administration policies. Demonstrators carried signs highlighting issues including immigration enforcement, elections, diversity, and the war with Iran.

One placard in Atlanta read: “We can’t afford the war or the gas.”

🚨 NEWS ALERT: “No Kings” protesters gathered at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, forming a large message on the sand that read “TRUMP MUST GO NOW!”

The demonstration is part of a wider wave of nationwide protests against Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/jSNIgEU7ED

— Today’s News (@TodaysNewsco) March 29, 2026

Large marches were reported in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Texas, protests took place in Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth. Demonstrators in Boynton Beach, Florida, were described by local officials as “very enthusiastic.”

US Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the crowd, warning of what he called “an unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history.”

“We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy,” he said. “In America, we the people will rule.”

Rock legend Bruce Springsteen, who performed at the rally, described Minnesota as “an inspiration to the entire country,” while Governor Tim Walz criticized federal immigration policy.

A White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, dismissed the demonstrations as “Trump derangement therapy sessions,” saying only reporters paid to cover them were interested in attending.