The decision by the United Arab Emirates to leave OPEC will further weaken the cartel of oil producers, whose power has been eroding over the years, Afshin Rattansi, host of Going Underground, has told RT.

The Emirati government announced the departure on Tuesday, citing plans to focus on “national interests” and the Gulf state’s “long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile.” The move comes amid uncertainty over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway crucial to global oil trade, which has remained largely closed to shipping since February due to the US-Israeli war with Iran.

“One has to realize that OPEC’s power has diminished. The glory days of (Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki) Yamani and 1973, when the Saudis and OPEC could exert geopolitical pressure, are long over,” Rattansi said.

“Russia and the United States are the top oil suppliers in the world,” Rattansi added.

He suggested that the UAE could align itself more closely with regional blocs such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as the Gulf monarchy has sought to maintain independence while under Western pressure to cut ties with Russia.

Watch the full interview here:

Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine Julie Davis will leave her post over disagreements with President Donald Trump regarding his waning support for the country, the Financial Times has reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The State Department has confirmed Davis’ departure but denied that she was leaving because of differences with the president.

“Ambassador Davis has been a steadfast proponent of the Trump administration’s efforts to bring about a durable peace between Russia and Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement on Tuesday. He added that Davis will depart Kiev in June.

Davis has served as chargé d’affaires in Ukraine since May 2025, following the resignation of her predecessor, former Ambassador Bridget Brink, who accused Trump of “appeasement” toward Russia.

Trump has angered many in Kiev and the EU by suggesting that Ukraine may have to make concessions to Russia, including potentially ceding territory. He also criticized Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, whom he once branded “a dictator” for refusing to hold elections.

The US mediated several rounds of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine throughout 2025, although they did not result in any breakthroughs. Trump also broke with the diplomatic boycott of Russia by hosting President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August 2025.

A federal grand jury has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for making threats against US President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

The DOJ alleges that “a reasonable recipient familiar with the circumstances” would interpret Comey’s May 2025 Instagram post, featuring seashells arranged in the sand to depict the numbers “86 47,” as “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the president of the United States.”

Critics argued that “86” is slang for eliminating someone, and that Comey’s post could be viewed as a call to kill Trump, who is serving as the 47th president.

Comey denied the allegations at the time, saying that he “didn’t realize some people associate those numbers with violence.” He deleted the seashell post shortly after the backlash.

Just James Comey causally calling for my dad to be murdered.

This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!! pic.twitter.com/4LUK6crHAT

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 15, 2025

“Threatening the life of the president of the United States is a grave violation of our nation’s laws,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “This country has witnessed violent incitement followed by deadly actions against President Trump and other elected officials,” he added.

Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 to 2017 under former President Barack Obama, has often criticized Trump, whom he compared to a mob boss in his memoirs. 

Last year, a federal grand jury indicted Comey for lying to Congress, a charge later dismissed by a judge.

More countries are “very likely” to withdraw from OPEC following the United Arab Emirates’ decision to leave the group, former UAE diplomat to the UN and World Trade Organization, Obaid Ahmed Al-Zaabi, told RT.

The Gulf nation announced its intent to leave the cartel and broader OPEC+, which brings together OPEC members and other key oil-producing countries, on Tuesday. The withdrawal is set to come into force on May 1.  

The UAE’s decision has been a “long time coming,” Al-Zaabi has said, arguing that the country has been “substantially” restricting its production while many other members of the groups have been limited by their output capacities.  

“The UAE is no longer entirely dependent on oil and hydrocarbons, and our economy is highly invested all over the world. The organization OPEC acted as a tax on global productivity, and it’s now in our interest to see the world as productive as possible. Also, it costs the UAE the most to impose OPEC,” the ex-diplomat argued.  

“It hardly seems in the UAE’s interest to collude with Iran on the oil price when we’re being directly struck by them,” he argued.

More countries are “very likely” to follow suit and leave the cartel, the ex-diplomat suggested.  

“The truth is very likely, because the more people that defect, the more costly it is to maintain the volume restriction. So if the UAE is serious and they no longer respect the limits, then there’s going to be no incentive for Kuwait and other countries to reduce their production,” he said.  

Watch the full video below:

The confrontation between the US, Israel, and Iran has reached a stage where military force has failed to achieve the aggressors’ goal, and diplomacy has not yet delivered a stable way out.

What Washington and West Jerusalem initially presented as a controlled campaign of pressure has turned into a strategic trap. Iran has not capitulated, its diplomatic channels have not collapsed, and the issue that the US and Israel hoped to settle through coercion has returned to the negotiating table in a far more complicated form.

They want Iran to place its nuclear program at the center of the talks from the very beginning. Tehran, after facing military pressure and open threats, insists that the first issue must be security. Iran wants guarantees that the war will not resume and that the region will not remain open to new American or Israeli military actions. Thus, Iran’s new proposal, reportedly delivered to the US through Pakistani intermediaries, suggests discussing the end of hostilities and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz first, while postponing the nuclear issue to a later stage.

If Washington refuses to engage, it risks prolonging a crisis around one of the world’s most sensitive maritime passages. If it accepts the sequence proposed by Tehran, it indirectly acknowledges that military pressure has not worked on Iran. If it demands that the nuclear aspect come first, it reinforces Iran’s argument that the US is not seeking de-escalation, but a mechanism of pressure that can be resumed whenever Washington finds it convenient.

Israel also faces its own constraints, being already stretched across several fronts. Lebanon remains unstable, the confrontation with Iran has not produced a decisive settlement, and domestic political pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains intense. Israeli military action can disrupt and escalate, but it cannot by itself produce a regional order in which Iran simply accepts Israeli demands.

Tehran’s diplomatic outreach

Iran, meanwhile, is far from isolated. On the contrary, it is using its diplomatic network actively and deliberately. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s travels to Pakistan, Oman, and then Russia show a coordinated effort to keep several channels open at once.

Pakistan is useful as a mediator because it has access to both sides of the conflict. It was expected to host a second round of US-Iran talks last week, yet the process did not move forward. Contacts have not stopped, but the parties cannot agree on the structure of the talks, because they do not agree on what the crisis is really about.

Lebanon is also part of Iran’s calculation. Israel continues to use force there despite the ceasefire framework, and this directly affects Tehran’s assessment of Israeli intentions. This shows that Israel may treat ceasefires as temporary pauses rather than binding commitments. This strengthens Tehran’s demand for guarantees. An agreement that stops attacks on Iran but allows continued military pressure on Lebanon would not create regional stability. This is why one of Iran’s reported demands concerns guarantees against further military action not only toward Iran, but also toward Lebanon. Israeli threats about renewed action against Iran only reinforce Tehran’s argument that guarantees must come before sensitive concessions. The more Israel threatens, the more Iran insists on guarantees. The more Iran insists on guarantees, the harder it becomes for Washington to present the talks as an Iranian retreat.

Araghchi goes to Russia

The Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Russia this week is an effort to bring Tehran’s assessment of the crisis directly to a power that still has working channels with all major sides of the conflict. 

Russia does not see Iran as an isolated actor that can be pressured into silence, nor does it see the crisis as a narrow American-Iranian dispute. At his meeting with Araghchi in St. Petersburg, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Moscow would do everything that serves the interests of Iran and the peoples of the region so that peace could be achieved as soon as possible. This specific wording presents Russia as a state trying to prevent the Middle East from sliding into a wider and more destructive war.

This is very important for Iran, which is facing not only military threats from the US and Israel, but also an attempt to shape the diplomatic environment around those threats. Washington and West Jerusalem would prefer Tehran to negotiate under pressure, with the nuclear issue placed at the center from the very beginning. By condemning the strikes on Iran and offering mediation, Russia helps prevent the crisis from being reduced to a one-sided ultimatum.

Araghchi’s trip is therefore a vital part of Iran’s broader diplomatic effort to prevent a repeat of American and Israeli aggression. Tehran is working through Pakistan, Oman and Russia, while trying to create a diplomatic shield around the central demand that any future settlement must begin with security guarantees. The message Araghchi likely brought to Moscow was that Tehran wants continued Russian diplomatic support, Russian involvement in preventing escalation, and Russian assistance in communicating with those regional actors that have influence over the wider balance of power.

Russia has spent years developing pragmatic and respectful ties with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman. These states do not want a major regional war, especially one that could threaten energy markets, maritime security and domestic stability. Iran understands that Russia can help stabilize this environment. Moscow does not need to replace Oman or Pakistan as a mediator. Its value lies in the fact that it can reinforce the idea that a sustainable settlement must take into account the security of all regional states, not only the preferences of the US and Israel.

A diplomatic crossroads

From Iran’s point of view, Russia is therefore a constructive partner and an important player on both the global and regional levels. Russia is not demanding that Iran begin talks by accepting American demands, and it does not condone Israel’s continued aggression in the region. Moscow’s public line is centered on ending the war and preventing further escalation. It is acting not just as a supporter of Tehran, but as a force for stability in the wider Middle East.

The coming phase of diplomacy will be decisive. If the US accepts the phased process Iran is pushing for, the crisis may move from military confrontation toward controlled bargaining. If it refuses, the region may remain suspended between ceasefire and renewed war. If Israel continues to strike Lebanon and threaten Iran, Tehran will have little reason to trust any arrangement that lacks guarantees. And if Russia, Oman, and Pakistan continue to mediate, Iran will retain the diplomatic depth it needs to resist isolation and keep the settlement process alive.

Israel has used access to water as a weapon and a form of “collective punishment” against Palestinians in Gaza, according to a report by international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Israel has rejected the claims as baseless.

The organization said in a report released Tuesday that Israel has “engineered” water scarcity in the strip, creating “conditions incompatible with human dignity and survival.” Access to water, sanitation and hygiene has been “severely undermined” since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza in October 2023, it stated.

The report highlights a sharp rise in water-shortage-related diseases, including diarrhea, skin infections, lice, and infected wounds. Additionally, the lack of clean water and sanitation is also worsening malnutrition and severely affecting mental health.

Gaza has no natural freshwater sources, relying instead on groundwater and seawater, both of which require treatment. Much of the infrastructure, including desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines, and sewage systems, has been rendered inoperable or inaccessible, according to MSF.

The minimum humanitarian threshold is about 15 liters of water per person per day, including 6 liters for drinking and 9 liters for domestic use. In Gaza, people are receiving this bare survival level at best, according to UNICEF, with many unable to access even the minimum amount of safe drinking water.

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) rejected the report in a series of posts on X on Tuesday, calling the claims “baseless” and “factually incorrect.” They said that Israel is facilitating, not restricting, water access, citing the operation of four supply lines, infrastructure repairs, and the provision of fuel and electricity for water systems. They accused MSF of biased reporting and operational shortcomings.

The United States will struggle to defend itself against advanced missile systems developed by China and Russia, senior Pentagon officials told lawmakers as they called for funding for the proposed Golden Dome missile defense program.

President Donald Trump unveiled the initiative shortly after taking office in January 2025, proposing a large-scale investment – potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade – to expand ground- and space-based capabilities.

The upgrade is urgently needed, as the US has “a very limited ground-based single layer homeland defense system that was specifically designed against a small scale rogue attack,” Assistant Secretary of War for Space Policy Marc Berkowitz said at a Senate armed services committee hearing on Monday.

The country would face serious issues against ballistic missiles and has “no defense against hypersonic weapons or cruise missiles today,” he stressed.

Michael Guetlein, who leads the Golden Dome program within the US Space Force, testified that both China and Russia are continuing to modernize and expand their missile arsenals.

He pointed to the deployment of hypersonic glide vehicles – warheads capable of maneuvering at high speeds within the atmosphere after launch – as well as Russia’s development of the nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile.

Moscow has said its investment in advanced strategic weapons was largely a response to the US withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty under President George W. Bush. Washington’s move was required to develop a national anti-ballistic missile system.

While the US has insisted that the shield was aimed at countering limited threats from countries such as North Korea or Iran, Russian officials have long warned it was undermining nuclear deterrence by enabling a potential decapitating first strike. In that scenario, Moscow argued, American missile interceptors could be used to neutralize a retaliatory strike by surviving Russian missiles.

The Golden Dome system is expected to cost around $175 billion over the next decade, according to initial estimates by the Trump administration, although Pentagon projections have since risen to roughly $185 billion and some analysts warn the final price could be substantially higher.

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of “unforgivable war crimes” over strikes on the eastern province of Kunar on Monday, which officials said left at least seven dead and over 70 wounded, and heavily damaged a local university.

Low-intensity clashes have been continuing on the Afghan-Pakistani border despite the two nations entering a formal truce in late March. The hostilities flared up on Monday, when, according to Afghan officials, the Pakistani military shelled multiple civilian sites across Kunar, including Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University.

Some 30 students and professors were wounded in the attack, and the institution itself sustained extensive damage. Seven people were killed and around 40 wounded across the provinces in repeated artillery and missile attacks, the authorities said.

The attacks constituted “unforgivable war crimes,” according to Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson of the Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021.

Pakistan and Afghanistan had engaged in fighting for weeks after Islamabad declared an “open war” on the Taliban in February. Pakistan attacked military and other sites deep inside the country, including the capital city of Kabul, while the Afghan authorities have repeatedly accused it of carrying out indiscriminate strikes on civilians.

While the two sides entered a truce late in March, low-intensity hostility has continued along the porous border between the two nations, which largely runs across remote regions. Islamabad has long accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering assorted militant groups that routinely conduct cross-border raids and terrorist attacks in the country. Kabul, however, has consistently denied such allegations.

Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank echoes attacks on Jews during the Holocaust and poses an “existential threat” to Israel, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo has said.

Israeli settlers live in communities built in the West Bank, a territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and which Palestinians seek as part of a future state. Successive Israeli governments have backed or tolerated the settlements for security, political, and religious reasons.

Pardo spoke to local media on Monday while touring Palestinian villages that have come under settler attacks in recent months.

”My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century,” Pardo said. “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish.”

His comments come amid a surge in settler violence across the West Bank, with groups carrying out repeated raids on Palestinian communities, torching homes and vehicles, vandalizing property and assaulting residents, according to witnesses and human rights organizations. In the latest incident, two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, were killed last week after gunmen opened fire near a school.

Pardo said the settlers behind the attacks, and the Israeli government’s failure to stop them, were creating the conditions for a future October 7-style assault from the West Bank, referring to the 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the attack. More than 72,000 Palestinians were killed and over 172,000 injured in Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The former Mossad chief warned that the violence unfolding in the West Bank could lead to a similar event, albeit in a different and potentially more severe form given the region’s complexity, adding that Israel was “sowing the seeds” for such an outcome.

Healthy life expectancy (HLE) in the UK has fallen by about two years to just over 60 for both men and women, making Britain one of only five wealthy nations where people live fewer years in good health, according to a new analysis by the Health Foundation charity.  

The findings, based on data from the Office for National Statistics between 2012–2014 and 2022–2024, show the measure dropped from 62.9 to 60.7 for men and from 63.7 to 60.9 for women.  

Of the 21 richest countries, the UK saw the second‑steepest decline in healthy life expectancy, with only the US faring worse. Britain has tumbled from 14th to 20th place in the international rankings. Denmark, Portugal and Spain have also seen their HLE plummet. 

According to the analysis, wealth inequality has become a major indicator for HLE, with data showing that those in the wealthiest 10% of areas could expect to have around 20 more years of good health than those in the poorest.  

In London’s upscale suburb of Richmond, healthy life expectancy for women was 70 years, while in the industrial northern port town of Hartlepool it is just 51 years. In more than 90% of areas in the UK, HLE now falls short of the state pension age of 66, and is below 55 in one out of ten areas. London was the only region where the measure improved.  

Andrew Mooney, the think‑tank’s principal data analyst, has warned of “a significant economic cost, with poor health driving people out of the workforce and locking young people out of education, employment and training.”   

The Health Foundation has called the findings a “watershed moment,” urging policymakers to treat public health as an economic priority.   

Russia’s healthy life expectancy, by comparison, reportedly stood at 63.4 years in 2024, slightly above Britain’s, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko. Overall life expectancy was between 73.5-74.2 years, according to 2025 data.  

The Kremlin has designated increasing life expectancy to 78 years by 2030 and to 81 years by 2036 as a national priority, along with establishing a faster growth in healthy life expectancy.

The US delegation headed by Vice President J.D. Vance lacked decision-making authority during talks with Iran earlier this month, Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi, who was part of Tehran’s negotiating team, has told RT’s Sanchez Effect.

Speaking with host Rick Sanchez on Monday, Marandi shared his observations of the April 11-12 negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan.

”Americans did not have the authority in negotiations. Vance did not have the authority to make decisions,” Marandi said. “He was constantly on the phone, making a dozen calls, including apparently to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

“A person who keeps making calls like that at the negotiating table obviously does not have the authority to decide,” he added.

The US delegation included Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and presidential adviser Jared Kushner – who is Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The Iranian side was led by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Marandi argued that Washington’s failure to reach a compromise stems in part from Trump being poorly informed and influenced by a Zionist lobby.

”He is deeply compromised; some of his decisions defy logic… The leaders in Washington believe their own propaganda,” he said.

Marandi suggested that other countries, including Russia, could step in to mediate. On Monday, Araghchi traveled to St. Petersburg to meet President Vladimir Putin as part of a regional tour to coordinate with allies amid the standoff with Washington and West Jerusalem.

Watch the full interview with Tehran University Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi on RT’s Sanchez Effect below.

Bangladesh’s Russian-backed nuclear power project has entered its final stage, with fuel loading into the first unit of the facility in Rooppur beginning on Tuesday.

Dhaka’s Ministry of Science and Technology said the next step will be for commercial electricity generation to begin gradually on a trial basis at the plant.

Located around 160 km from the capital, Dhaka, the Rooppur facility is Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant and the most expensive infrastructure project in the South Asian country’s history.

It is heavily backed by Russia, with Moscow financing $11.9 billion in state loans for the project, estimated to cost up to $12.80 billion.

The project is being implemented by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, and involves the construction of two units, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts.

Milestone Moment: Bangladesh Launches First Power Unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant — Built Together with Russia’s Rosatom pic.twitter.com/meYOQFcCEa

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 28, 2026

“Today, Bangladesh has joined the club of states that use peaceful nuclear energy as a reliable source of sustainable development,” Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev said. “For Rosatom, this project is another important step in the development of global nuclear power and in strengthening friendly relations with our foreign partners.”

The project, for which Russia is providing equipment, nuclear fuel, and engineering assistance, is expected to meet up to 12% of Bangladesh’s electricity demand.

The Russian ambassador to Dhaka, Aleksandr Khozin, told local media this reflects his country’s continued commitment to the project.

Moscow has also agreed to the long-term supply of nuclear fuel, technical maintenance, and the management of spent nuclear fuel.

Full-scale electricity generation and integration to the national power grid is expected to take approximately ten months

Bangladesh relies on imports for roughly 95% of its energy needs. Commissioning a single unit of the Rooppur plant is estimated to save approximately $1 billion annually in fuel imports, according to experts.

Dhaka expects to slash the country’s dependence on coal and gas generation and optimize the national energy balance with the launch of the Rooppur facility.

Coal and oil-fired power plants function for 25 to 30 years, while nuclear power plants operate for up to 60 years. The lifespan can be extended for another 30 years with proper maintenance and refurbishment.

Two proven cases of political interference by a Mossad-linked private intelligence firm should have set alarm bells ringing in Brussels. The EU’s silence reveals just how deeply the Israeli spy-tech nexus has penetrated the bloc.

This year alone, two cases of meddling by Black Cube, a private intelligence company staffed by former Mossad and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) agents, have taken place in the EU without so much as an acknowledgment from Brussels. RT covered these cases earlier in our ‘Wired for War’ series, but if you’re not familiar with the story, here’s a quick recap:

What did Israel’s cyber spies do?

Posing as foreign investors, Black Cube agents recorded their conversations with associates of President Nikos Christodoulides of Cyprus, and released the videos days after Cyprus assumed the EU’s rotating presidency in January. The videos, in which Christodoulides’s associates offered access to the president for cash, triggered multiple resignations and undermined Cyprus’ stint at the helm of the EU.

Another series of videos was released in Slovenia two months later, this time featuring associates of liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob discussing similar pay-to-play arrangements within his Svoboda party. The recordings are widely suspected to have been ordered by former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who met with Black Cube executives in Ljubljana in late December. Slovenia held parliamentary elections less than two weeks after the videos hit the internet, and Golob’s party managed to beat Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) by a margin of 0.67%.

How deep does Israeli interference in the EU go?

The EU has stayed completely silent on both cases. Even after the Slovenian government described Black Cube’s pre-election activities as “a clear hybrid threat against the European Union” and wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanding an investigation, the commission has not publicly acknowledged receiving the letter.

However, the commission’s silence is still baffling, especially given the fact that Black Cube has been active in Europe before; two of the company’s employees were convicted in Romania in 2016 for spying on the chief prosecutor of the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate, and the company was reportedly hired by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to collect dirt on opposition NGOs in 2017.

This lack of response is not unprecedented, however. According to investigative reporting, Pegasus spyware, developed by Israel’s NSO Group, has been used in nearly a dozen EU countries since 2016. Pegasus – which can be remotely installed on a target’s cell phone without the target having to click a suspicious link – was used by EU governments to spy on journalists and political opponents, by foreign powers to spy on EU leaders, and by unknown actors to spy on the European Commission itself.

Despite this, and despite the European Parliament urging the commission to “implement more rigorous control mechanisms” on software that “could impinge on the principles of democracy, good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights,” the commission did not act.

The commission likewise took no action when spyware developed by Israel’s Paragon Solutions was deployed in Cyprus, Denmark, and Italy; or when Predator malware – an analog of Pegasus developed by Israeli firm Cytrox – was used in Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Spain.

Brussels’ regulatory cuckoldry is exemplified at the ISS World exhibition, an annual trade fair that takes place in Prague every summer. Under the EU regulator’s nose, spyware, surveillance, and data-mining firms openly hawk their wares to private and state customers. The event’s leading sponsor is the same NSO Group whose spyware was used against the European Commission, and according to Politico, the ISS World exhibition is known within the industry as ‘The Wiretappers’ Ball’.

How Mossad went private

In the wake of the Pegasus scandal, the European Commission has left it up to individual states to draft their own laws and practices governing the use of spyware. Defenders of this position could make the case that Black Cube, NSO Group, Paragon Solutions, and their ilk are private companies, and are therefore mercenaries undeserving of the same attention as the supposed threat posed by Russia’s intelligence agencies.

Black Cube was founded by two IDF intelligence veterans, and counts on its International Advisory Board two former Mossad directors, a former Israeli Police commissioner, and the former chief of Israel’s National Security Council. One of NSO Group’s three founders served in both the IDF and Mossad. Cytrox received startup funding from Israel Aerospace Industries and was later bought out by a former IDF colonel. Paragon Solutions was founded by none other than former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, along with a former commander in the IDF’s Unit 8200 – a clandestine intelligence unit within the Israeli military. All four companies employ veterans of Unit 8200.

Within the world of espionage, it’s an old adage that there is “no such thing as a former agent.” As the activities of these companies suggest, Israel’s private intelligence sector often shares the same goals as the Israeli state.

How tech serves Israel’s interests

In Slovenia, Black Cube intervened against Golob, who has recognized the State of Palestine, banned the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and weighed joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Jansa, on the other hand, is a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has equated recognition of a Palestinian state with “supporting the terrorist organization Hamas.”

Israel’s Defense Ministry classifies spyware programs like Pegasus and Predator as weapons, meaning it has final say over who NSO Group, Cytrox, and their competitors can sell to. According to an investigation by Haaretz, export licenses for Pegasus were most often granted when doing so would advance Israeli foreign policy interests, or in implicit exchange for the purchasing country signing trade agreements with Tel Aviv or voting with Israel at the UN.

The pattern was repeated in Azerbaijan, Hungary, India, and multiple other countries – “historic” visits by Netanyahu were followed by purchases of Pegasus spyware, and the signing of trade accords with Israel.

The bottom line

The EU has been thoroughly penetrated by Israeli spy-tech companies which are staffed by Israeli intelligence veterans and working – often openly – to advance the interests of Israel. Responding appropriately would mean directly confronting the Israeli government – something the EU is extremely reluctant to do.

As for why this is, a clue can be found in Slovenia. Two weeks before the election in March, Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon told reporters that her government had been pressured into abandoning plans to join the ICJ genocide case against Israel. “Many of the country’s cyber defense systems are of Israeli origin,” she explained, adding that to join the lawsuit “would jeopardize Slovenia’s national security.”

Just like with Pegasus and Predator spy software, export licenses for all of these weapons systems are granted at the discretion of the Israeli Defense Ministry. Every Israeli missile sold is a lever that West Jerusalem can wield against Brussels.

This dependence goes a long way toward explaining why the European Commission would choose to look away and keep shouting about ‘Russian interference’ instead. However, allegations of Russian meddling serve the EU’s ends; the real and proven threat of Israeli interference leaves the bloc weaker, less sovereign, and less secure.

German tabloid Bild has published nude images of a Ukrainian woman allegedly linked to the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

According to media reports, the woman was part of a group of Ukrainian nationals suspected by German investigators of renting the yacht Andromeda to carry out the sophisticated underwater operation.

Claims about the woman’s past as an erotic model – identified under the alias ‘Freya’ – were first reported by Wall Street Journal chief European political correspondent Bojan Pancevski in his book on the Nord Stream attack. His account is partly based on interviews with individuals allegedly connected to the case.

The photos released by Bild include fully naked images said to show Freya, whose real name was previously reported as Valeria Chernyshova. One image shows her featured on a 2004 erotic magazine cover; another shows her on a sofa. Her face was obscured in both photos.

🖥🔈Do týmu, který odpálil Nord Stream, patřila také bývalá erotická modelka, ukrajinská profesionální potápěčka Freya, uvádí Bild.

Při plánování operace byla její erotická minulost použita k vytvoření legendy: „Při policejní kontrole museli říci, že natáčí podvodní porno.“

V… pic.twitter.com/FmfembX1b7

— Ing. Honza 🇨🇿👍🇺🇦👎 (@Honza4746) April 27, 2026

Russian officials have expressed skepticism about Western media narratives surrounding the investigation, suggesting that these reports attempt to attribute responsibility to rogue Ukrainian actors for what Moscow regards as an act of terrorism backed or potentially carried out by NATO.

NATO leaders could stop gathering annually due in part to the “drama” associated with US President Donald Trump, according to Reuters.

The US president is a vocal critic of the military bloc, calling it a “paper tiger” and describing fellow members as “free-loaders” who failed his latest test by refusing to assist the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. Trump has injected controversy into a number of summits since being elected president for the first time in 2016.

“Better to have fewer summits than bad summits,” a European diplomat told Reuters.

Last week, NATO’s de facto think tank, the Atlantic Council, suggested that less “high-profile summitry” would “dial down the drama.” The article also proposed four other ways to make the upcoming Türkiye summit a success – including having a military parade of the kind Trump is known to appreciate.

Trump ‘drama’ at NATO

At his first summit as president in 2017, Trump was filmed shoving Montenegro’s then-prime minister, Dusko Markovic, during a photo op.

During the leaders' photo shoot, then US President Donald Trump pushes Montenegrin Prime Minister Duško Marković aside to move to the front row.

New NATO Headquarters, Brussels | 25 May 2017 pic.twitter.com/AOI2Qg1yu3

— The Notorious (@camlibelive) March 9, 2026

In 2018, he unnerved member states by threatening to withdraw the US from the bloc – a pressure tactic that Trump has since repeatedly bragged about.

He left the 2019 summit early and called then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “two-faced” after Trudeau was caught on a hot mike complaining to other leaders about Trump’s behavior.

.@JustinTrudeau, @EmmanuelMacron, @BorisJohnson and other VIPs shared a few words at a Buckingham Palace reception Tuesday. No one mentions @realDonaldTrump by name, but they seem to be discussing his lengthy impromptu press conferences from earlier in the day. (Video: Host Pool) pic.twitter.com/dVgj48rpOP

— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) December 3, 2019

Last year, Trump forced other NATO nations to pledge 5% of their GDP to defense spending. The target is partially fiction, since only 3.5% is required in direct military spending, while the extra 1.5% is “defense-related” and can include, for example, a project for a bridge linking Sicily with the Italian mainland.

Drama beyond Trump

Other leaders have also contributed to turning NATO gatherings into spectacles. French President Emmanuel Macron infamously described the bloc as “brain-dead” ahead of the 70th anniversary meeting in London – the same that Trump stormed out of.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has been a recent fixture, ever eager to berate weapons donors for offering insufficient support for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. The Vilnius summit of 2023 produced a stark reminder of how lonely a Western proxy can be, with a photo of Zelensky in his military-style clothing seemingly lost among the guests in formal attire.

Result of #Nato summit in Vilnius in one photo. No comments needed. pic.twitter.com/I3L0sXp2ru

— Igor Lopatonok (@lopatonok) July 11, 2023

NATO has held annual summits since 2021 plus two emergency meetings over the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The leaders convened just 12 times from the organization’s creation in 1949 to 1991, the year the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

RT’s Social Well-Being Index, an innovative way to measure national health, captures something many of the world’s most cited rankings often miss – whether a society is actually functioning well as a society, experts believe

Built around six indicators – total fertility rate, life expectancy, infant mortality, number of homicides, income inequality and education levels – the Social Well-Being Index, or SWI, is intended as an alternative to familiar measures such as GDP rankings and the UN’s Human Development Index. Its creators argue that while older frameworks are useful for assessing individual development or economic output, they often fail to show whether a nation is cohesive, secure and sustainable over the long term.

Former British MP George Galloway offered the strongest endorsement, arguing that existing measures can badly misrepresent a country’s true condition. “The pre-existing indexes are completely inadequate,” he said, adding that they “tell not just an incomplete story, but a story that is false.”

That criticism goes to the heart of the new index’s appeal. Traditional measures such as GDP and even broader composite indicators like the HDI can reward wealth, consumption and personal attainment without asking whether the surrounding society is healthy. In Galloway’s view, that is a major blind spot. “The current indexes don’t tell you that story,” he said, describing how someone may appear prosperous on paper while living amid “potential violence, and mass unhappiness and misery.”

The SWI tries to correct for that by focusing less on isolated individual outcomes and more on the overall environment in which people live. Homicides, inequality and demographic sustainability are treated as core indicators of whether a society is stable and likely to reproduce itself over time.

Matthew Ehret, director of the Rising Tide Foundation, called this approach “a breath of fresh air” after what he described as decades of narrow Western economic thinking. The problem with ranking countries by GDP, Ehret argued, is not just that it is incomplete, but that it often confuses harmful activity with real progress. “GDP generally fails to address what is real value and what is fake value,” he said, pointing to criminal, speculative or socially corrosive activity that can still inflate national output figures.

Economist Santosh Mehrotra, a visiting professor, of the Centre for Development at the UK’s University of Bath, knows the Human Development Index well, having previously worked closely with such metrics. He describes the SWI as “definitely an improvement upon GDP or GDP per capita.”  He also noted that the index does share some DNA with older composite measures. Life expectancy and education, for example, overlap with HDI-style thinking, and the index uses a familiar min-max method to combine its components.

But Mehrotra says one particularly notable innovation is the attempt to capture social cohesion through violence. “What is sort of most striking is the use of the homicide rate as an indicator of social well-being,” he said. “I like that.”

The number of homicides is more than a crime statistic. It can serve as a blunt but revealing measure of whether people trust institutions, whether daily life is secure, and whether social conflict has become normalized. In that sense, the SWI’s inclusion of homicide moves it closer to questions ordinary citizens often care about most: Can families raise children safely? Do communities function? Does the future feel livable?

The fertility component is likewise central to the index’s philosophy. Unlike measures that treat population change as secondary, the SWI interprets demographic sustainability as a sign of national confidence and continuity. Supporters say that makes the ranking especially relevant in an era when many advanced economies face aging populations and shrinking birth rates.

Matthew Ehret welcomed that emphasis directly, saying the index challenges the assumption that population growth is inherently negative. “I appreciate that you don’t believe that,” he said, referring to the idea that demographic growth can reflect social confidence, productive capacity and belief in the future.

Professor Mehrotra, while more measured, agreed that demographic sustainability is “of course very important,” especially for countries facing rapid aging, including parts of Europe and East Asia.

That theme was echoed in reflections on China shared by John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), and a China Forum expert. He described the country as a place of enormous gains but also sharp internal contrasts, warning that broad national averages can hide important divides. “GDP doesn’t say it all,” he said. “It’s a nuanced picture here.”

Professor Gong also stressed that development should be judged by more than the pace of economic expansion. China, the expert said, increasingly speaks in terms of “high quality growth,” including “access to education, income inequality” and other factors beyond GDP alone. “We really do need to look at social development from a more comprehensive perspective,” he said.

That does not mean the SWI is beyond criticism. Professor Mehrotra pointed out that there are “many similarities” between the new index and older frameworks, particularly the HDI, and suggested there are “ways of improving” it further. He also argued that important issues such as climate adaptation and mitigation might eventually deserve inclusion. And Professor Gong warned that any average-based index can flatten the lived reality of very large, internally diverse countries.

Those are substantial points, but they do not undermine the central case made by all four interviews: that nations should not be judged primarily by how much they produce, or even by how well selected individuals perform on human development metrics, if the larger society is fractured or demographically unsound.

Indeed, one of the most politically provocative implications of the SWI is that some wealthy Western countries may rank worse than expected. George Galloway said such results would not be surprising, arguing that many once-dominant European societies are now “increasingly unhappy, increasingly divided, and increasingly poor.” Professor Gong made a similar point about the US, linking economic pressure, family instability, disillusionment and social decline.

Whether one agrees with all of those judgments or not, the SWI’s significance lies in forcing them onto the table. It asks a harder question than many older rankings do: not simply whether people are richer, but whether their society is secure, cohesive, educates its young, protects infant life, limits violence, narrows destructive inequality and believes enough in its own future to raise the next generation.

For supporters, that is precisely why the new index matters. It does not replace every existing measure, but it may illuminate what many of them have long left in shadow.

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 69 people for “expressing sympathy” with Iranian retaliatory strikes on the Gulf state, the Interior Ministry has announced. The monarchy, ruled by a Sunni dynasty, has for years been wary of potential Iranian influence on the Shiite majority.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said the revocation applied to those who “glorified Iran’s sinful, hostile acts” as well as their families by dependency. It described all 69 people as being of “non-Bahraini origin,” adding that the authorities were “continuing to study and review” who deserves citizenship.

The move, the ministry added, was carried out under royal directives from King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and based on a national law article allowing citizenship to be withdrawn from anyone deemed to have caused “harm to the interests of the Kingdom or acting in a manner that contradicts the duty of loyalty to it.”

He noted that no information had been provided on whether those affected were arrested or whether they hold another nationality. Alwadaei suggested that the revocation was coordinated with neighboring Kuwait, which has revoked citizenship from at least 2,000 people since the start of the war.

The development follows Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes on Bahrain – which hosts an American military base – in response to earlier US and Israeli attacks. Bahrain said Iranian missile attacks targeted the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Manama, with Tehran describing it as a legitimate target.

The crackdown is a sign of a rift within Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled monarchy which has a majority Shiite Muslim population and saw pro-Iran demonstrations early in the conflict. The Bahraini government has also been wary of a potential Iranian-backed ‘fifth column’ and has long accused Tehran of using Shiite ties to foment internal unrest.

In the 2010s, Iran consistently condemned the arrests of Shiite opposition figures in Bahrain, though in 2024 ties showed signs of improvement – a trend which was derailed by the US-Israeli strikes.

Two trains have collided on the outskirts of Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing 15 people, all women.

The crash occurred on Monday when a long-distance train struck the rear carriage of a stationary commuter train at Bekasi Timur station. The carriage was reserved for women, a common feature on Indonesian trains aimed at preventing harassment.  

The emergency teams completed the evacuation of victims from a damaged commuter car on Tuesday, state railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia said. A total of 84 people were injured and hospitalized, while the bodies of the victims were transferred for identification.

Mohammad Syafii, head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said the evacuation was a “delicate process” due to crushed train cars and trapped passengers. “There are no further casualties,” he said, adding that specialist teams were deployed to clear debris and reach victims.  

Emergency responders worked through the night to free survivors pinned under twisted metal. Before separating the trains, rescuers used angle grinders to cut through mangled metal to reach survivors, RT footage from the scene showed, with emergency teams working to free people trapped in the wreckage.  

Preliminary findings suggest the crash sequence may have begun when a commuter train struck a stalled taxi on the tracks, forcing it to stop and leaving it exposed to an oncoming long-distance train, authorities said. The exact cause remains under investigation by police and the National Transportation Safety Committee.  

Rail accidents remain a concern in Indonesia, where aging infrastructure and heavy usage have contributed to past incidents.

US First Lady Melania Trump has called on ABC to fire late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel over a sketch in which he referred to her as “an expectant widow” – just two days before a gunfire scare at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

In a sketch on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’, the comedian, dressed in a tuxedo, pretended to deliver a comedy routine for the White House dinner. Noting Melania in the audience, he said, “Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

The event at the Washington Hilton two nights later was cut short when Cole Allen, 31, a California teacher armed with guns and knives, tried to enter the ballroom where the dinner was held. The Secret Service intercepted him and security personnel opened fire to neutralize the threat.

Jimmy Kimmel's mock Correspondents' Dinner sketch included a joke about Melania Trump looking like an "expected widow" before a third assassination attempt on President Trump.

Why does ABC continue to platform this radical lunatic?pic.twitter.com/yfOiUWxg7E

— Media Research Center (@theMRC) April 27, 2026

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” Melania wrote in a post on X on Monday, calling the comedian “a coward” and urging ABC to fire him.

“His words are corrosive and deepen the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate… Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand.”

Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.

People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to…

— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 27, 2026

Trump also condemned Kimmel’s ill-timed joke after it resurfaced following the incident, describing his words as a “despicable call to violence” and “something far beyond the pale,” in a Truth Social post, while demanding Kimmel be “immediately fired.”

pic.twitter.com/ypj5RACM52

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 27, 2026

Kimmel was unrepentant. In his most recent show on Monday night, he defended his remarks, describing them as a “light roast joke” of the first couple’s age difference and “not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination.” He added that he has been “very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence,” and called Melania’s post demanding his firing a “Twitter vomit storm.”

Jimmy Kimmel addresses calls for him to be fired by First Lady Melania and President Donald Trump, claims his “expectant widow joke” was about their age difference, not assassination.

Regardless of his intent, he was joking about the President dying and Melania being happy about… pic.twitter.com/2FQ0bOjwGN

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 28, 2026

Kimmel said he was sorry the Trumps and others in attendance had to go through a “scary” and “traumatic” experience at the White House dinner, but insisted that he, Melania, and Trump all have the right to free speech.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused Iran of using the Strait of Hormuz as an “economic nuclear weapon,” stressing that Washington will not accept the reopening of the waterway on Tehran’s terms or postponing talks on its nuclear program.

According to Axios and several other outlets, Iran has passed a new offer to Washington, which includes a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, while deferring nuclear negotiations to a later stage.

Speaking on Fox News on Monday, Rubio was skeptical of the latest overture. “If what they mean by opening the straits is, ‘Yes, the straits are open, as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we’ll blow you up, and you pay us’ – that’s not opening the straits,” he said.

On Tehran’s nuclear program, Rubio stressed a hardline stance. “Suffice it to say that the nuclear question is the reason why we’re in this in the first place,” he said.

Rubio also dismissed the idea that the Islamic Republic has any true moderates among its leadership, stating, “they’re all hardliners in Iran.” “There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future if this radical clerical regime remains in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon… That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.” 

The White House confirmed US President Donald Trump had reviewed Iran’s offer. Multiple people briefed on the discussions told the New York Times that the president was not satisfied, and a US official suggested accepting it could appear to deny Trump a victory, given his repeated insistence that Iran’s nuclear program should be dismantled.

Tehran has said it does not seek to acquire nuclear weapons and refused US demands to surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and dismantle its nuclear program.

The US lacks a coherent negotiation strategy and is being “humiliated” by Iran, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday.

Merz made the remarks as the vital Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most shipping, driving up global energy prices.

“The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected, and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” Merz said during a visit to a school in Marsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia.

“The problem with conflicts like this is always that you don’t just have to get in – you also have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq,” the chancellor said, according to Deutsche Welle.

Merz argued that “an entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, particularly by the so-called Revolutionary Guards.”

The New York Times and Reuters, citing US officials, reported on Monday that President Donald Trump was not satisfied with Iran’s most recent proposal to reopen the strait and end the conflict. On Sunday, the president canceled his envoys’ trip to Pakistan for talks with Iran, arguing that he has “all the cards.”

The US and Israel began a bombing campaign against Iran on February 28, with the stated goal of dismantling Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. However, despite intense airstrikes, the allies have been unable to stop Iran from launching missiles and drones at Israel and US bases in the region. Trump has also failed to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran closed to “hostile” shipping.

UK officials have pushed to bar journalists from a meeting between King Charles III and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, out of concern over potentially embarrassing incidents, The Guardian reported on Tuesday, citing people involved in planning the monarch’s trip to Washington.

According to the newspaper, the White House agreed that the meeting between the two leaders should be held off camera to avoid what it described as “potential humiliation.” Trump and Charles will pose for photographs but will not be filmed “talking about anything substantive.”

UK officials reportedly want to avoid a “Zelensky-style clash,” referring to the infamous White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in February 2025, which ended in a shouting match in front of the press.

Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance publicly berated Zelensky, accusing him of being ungrateful for the aid his country received under the previous administration. Relations between Trump and Zelensky were eventually repaired after several European leaders reportedly advised Zelensky on how to handle himself with the president.

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived in the US on Monday and posed for photographs with Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the U.K. at the South Portico of the White House | Monday, April 27, 2026. pic.twitter.com/eLrNqpwN0D

— Office of the First Lady (@FirstLadyOffice) April 27, 2026

The visit comes two days after a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC. The suspect, identified as Cole Thomas Allen, allegedly tried to rush toward the ballroom where Trump was seated, but was tackled by Secret Service agents.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has rebuked his Ukrainian counterpart on social media, saying Kiev has not provided evidence that Israel is buying “stolen” grain from Russia.

On Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga condemned Israel for facilitating what he called Russia’s “illegal trade in stolen Ukrainian grain.”

Ukrainian media earlier reported that the cargo vessel Panormitis, carrying grain from Russia’s new regions, was approaching the Israeli port of Haifa.

“It is difficult to understand Israel’s lack of an appropriate response to Ukraine’s legitimate request regarding the previous vessel that delivered stolen goods to Haifa,” Sibiga wrote on X, adding that the Israeli ambassador was summoned to the ministry on Tuesday morning.

In a rebuke to Sibiga, Saar wrote on X that “diplomatic relations, especially between friendly nations, are not conducted on Twitter or in the media.”

Relations between the countries are tense, as Ukraine has criticized Israel for not imposing sanctions on Russia or cutting ties. Reuters, citing a Ukrainian diplomatic source, reported that Kiev would “reserve the right to deploy a full suite of diplomatic and international legal responses” if the ship is allowed to dock in Israel.

Ukraine considers five regions, including Kherson and Zaporozhye, which joined Russia following referendums in 2022, to be occupied territory. Russia has insisted that, for a lasting peace settlement, Ukraine must recognize its new borders.

Ukraine may have to accept territorial losses in a future peace deal with Russia to keep its EU membership hopes alive, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday.

Moscow has maintained that for a lasting peace, Kiev must pull its soldiers from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, as well as recognize Russia’s new territories, including Crimea. All of the regions overwhelmingly voted to join the Russian Federation from 2014 to 2022.

“Hopefully, there will eventually be a peace treaty with Russia. Then, possibly, part of Ukraine’s territory will no longer be Ukrainian,” Merz said during a speech in Marsberg, as cited by the DPA.

For Vladimir Zelensky to push through a referendum for such a decision, he could tell Ukrainians: “I have opened the path to Europe for you,” he said.

“Zelensky had the idea of joining the EU on January 1, 2027. This will not work. Even January 1, 2028 is unrealistic,” the German chancellor said.

Zelensky has for months demanded that Brussels give Ukraine a “clear date” for joining the EU. He has also consistently rejected accepting territorial losses.

However, the economic bloc’s accession criteria demand that prospective members have no unresolved border disputes with their neighbors.

Estonian President Alar Karis has said the EU should be prepared for talks with Russia in case the Ukraine conflict ends suddenly, media outlets have reported. 

The remarks, made in an interview with the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat and published on Monday, come after four years during which the EU has refused to engage in dialogue with Moscow.  

The Estonian president also dismissed claims that Russia could attack the Baltic state, arguing that they are driven by those seeking to harm Estonia or by outsiders projecting their own insecurity. “Perhaps they themselves are afraid of becoming potential targets,” he suggested.  

“Are we ready if the war ends today or tomorrow?” Karis said, adding that the EU should appoint a special envoy to reopen diplomatic channels with Russia.  

“Preparations should already be under way,” he said, arguing that in any future talks major powers in the bloc should not make decisions over the heads of smaller members. Since Estonia and Finland have “jointly invested in Ukraine,” they “must have the opportunity to have a say,” Karis insisted. 

Estonia, a NATO and EU member bordering Russia, has been a staunch supporter of Kiev since the escalation of the conflict in 2022.  

Last week, the European Commission announced that the bloc had formally approved a €90 billion ($105 billion) emergency loan for Ukraine for 2026-2027, backed by joint EU borrowing. The controversial measure, which had been the focus of a months-long standoff with Hungary, was approved shortly after Budapest lifted its veto, following the election win of pro-EU politician Peter Magyar. 

Moscow has consistently dismissed Western claims that it poses a threat, calling them “nonsense” and “fearmongering” used to justify rising military spending, including the EU’s €800 billion “ReArm Europe” plan and NATO members’ pledge to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that although Moscow has no hostile intent, if European nations “prepare to attack Russia,” it would respond with “all available means.”

The armed suspect who allegedly tried to storm past security at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday has been charged with the attempted assassination of US President Donald Trump.

Cole Allen, 31, a teacher from California, was allegedly armed with a 12 gauge pump action shotgun, a .38-caliber semi-automatic pistol and three knives when he was arrested after his attempt to rush the high-end event on Saturday, Assistant US Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine told a federal court in Washington on Monday.

Federal prosecutors have charged Allen with attempted assassination of the president, interstate transportation of weapons, and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime.

The suspect did not have to enter a plea at this time.

US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ordered detention for Allen while the case moves forward. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday, when it will be determined whether he is eligible for pretrial release.

Allen’s preliminary hearing was set for May 11.

“This man was a floor above the ballroom, with hundreds of federal agents between him and the president of the US,” he said in a press conference after the court hearing.

When asked whether the investigation has determined who shot a Secret Service agent during Allen’s alleged assassination attempt, Blanche declined to answer directly, stressing that the evidence is still being studied.

“It appears… that there were five shots that law enforcement fired,” he said. “We believe, as the complaint lays out, that the defendant fired the shotgun… But as far as getting into exacting ballistics, I’m not going to do that today.”

In a manifesto Allen purportedly wrote, first published by the New York Post, the suspect said he was aiming to kill administration officials, with the “highest-ranking” target being Trump, whom he called “a pedophile, rapist, and traitor.”

The German state of Saxony has been revoking and denying firearms licenses to members and supporters of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party under a secret decree, Berliner Zeitung has claimed.

Saxony’s Interior Ministry confirmed the existence of the measure, issued last July, but declined to publish it, describing it as an “internal document,” the outlet reported on Sunday.

An opinion poll earlier this month suggests the party would prevail with 27% of the vote if elections were held now. The AfD has campaigned on an anti-immigration platform and opposed Berlin’s sanctions on Russia and support for Ukraine.

The party’s Saxony branch was designated a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization in December 2023 by regional intelligence authorities, which serves as the basis for the decree. The party challenged the designation, but in January 2025 a higher court rejected the appeal. The issue reached the national level last May, when Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) applied the same label to the AfD as a whole.

The decree effectively reverses the burden of proof, requiring AfD members and supporters to demonstrate their reliability under firearms law. According to the document cited by the outlet, simply having no criminal record is insufficient, with individuals expected to show clear distancing from the party’s positions.

The decree has prompted a parliamentary inquiry led by independent Saxony lawmaker Matthias Berger, who is seeking details on how many firearms licenses have been revoked, how often decisions were based solely on political “support” for a party, and how broadly the directive is being applied in practice.

A response to Berger’s inquiry is still pending.

Two-thirds of Germans want to see migrants’ access to social benefits restricted, a poll commissioned by public broadcaster WDR has found.

Around 66% of respondents said migrants should only receive full benefits after working in Germany for an extended period, the outlet reported on Monday. The survey, conducted by Infratest dimap research institute earlier this month, interviewed 2,084 people aged 16 and over across the country.

Germany hosts the largest migrant population in the EU; 15% of its residents are foreign nationals born abroad, according to official statistics, and around 70% of the migrants are employed.

Foreign nationals account for 47% of recipients of ‘Burgergeld’, Germany’s main welfare scheme for people unable to support themselves through work, which pays around €563 per month plus housing and utilities. WDR noted that eligibility rules vary depending on the person’s origin and the type of benefit.

The employment rate among working-age Ukrainians is around 34%, though the number has been steadily increasing since 2022.

By contrast, Syrians, another major non-EU group, numbering about 936,000, initially receive asylum-seeker benefits before transitioning to full welfare after their asylum applications are approved. The employment rate among Syrians is around 42-47% overall, rising to 60% among those who arrived in 2015 and 2016.

The US seizure of a cargo vessel bound for Iran has put patients’ lives at risk, as it was carrying essential medical supplies, a senior Iranian Red Crescent (IRCS) official has told RT.

The US Central Command has reported forcing 38 ships to redirect and seizing several tankers and cargo vessels.

According to Razieh Alishvandi, Director for International Affairs at the IRCS, the Iranian-flagged vessel Touska, which was seized by the US Navy on April 19, was transporting eight containers of raw materials for a company linked to the organization.

“Part of this ship’s cargo consisted of raw materials for consumables used in dialysis filters,” she told RT on Monday. “This obviously puts patients’ lives at risk, because without those raw materials human lives are in danger.”

Watch the full interview.

Germany should reintroduce compulsory military service in order to increase the size of its armed forces, Markus Soder, the leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), has said.

Berlin has sparked nationwide protests after introducing a voluntary service model, effective from January 1. Critics warn it could pave the way for restoring conscription, which was suspended in 2011 under then Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“For us it’s clear: if the Bundeswehr is to become Europe’s largest army, military service is unavoidable,” Soder told Bild in an interview on Sunday.

“With volunteers alone we won’t achieve the necessary security our country needs,” the leader of the SCU, which is part of Chancellor Freidrich Merz’s ruling coaliton, said, insisting that compulsory military service “needs to come as soon as possible.”

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany has ramped up recruitment, aiming to grow the Bundeswehr from about 186,000 troops to 260,000, plus 200,000 reservists by the mid-2030s, citing an alleged “Russian threat.”

Earlier this month, the head of the European Defense Agency (EDA), Andre Denk, suggested that compulsory military service could be reinstated in the EU. He also said that his home country of Germany would likely go down this path eventually.

Croatia, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Poland, and the UK have all either reintroduced conscription, increased intake, or raised age limits for military service and reservists.

The Kremlin has consistently slammed the West’s “reckless militarization” and cited NATO’s expansion toward Russia’s borders as one of the causes of the Ukraine conflict.

The US and Canadian government mints have for years sourced coin gold from mines controlled by Colombia’s Clan del Golfo drug cartel, despite vowing that all the precious metal is extracted on domestic soil, according to an investigation by the New York Times.

The US Mint says its coins are produced “to connect to the founding principles of our nation,” and federal law requires its gold to be sourced domestically. However, the process is “based on a lie,” the NYT wrote.

The newspaper said it traced hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of foreign gold entering the Mint’s supply chain. Some of the metal was second-hand and of unknown origin, while some came from countries such as Colombia and Nicaragua, where parts of the gold industry are controlled by criminal groups.

The NYT said that the illegal operation is being carried out with such cavalier disregard of the authorities that some workers were seen extracting gold on the premises of a military base.

Then, the Colombian gold is shipped to Dillon Gage, a Texas-based refiner and one of the main suppliers of the US Mint. The company blends it with American gold, effectively laundering it, the investigation claims. The US Mint does not check the origins of the gold, the NYT added.

When asked about the sourcing, the Mint initially told the NYT that “its gold came entirely from the United States, as the law requires.” However, when presented with the findings, the body backpedaled, saying that the US was its “primary” source of the metal.

The supply chain then extends further north to Canada, the paper said. While the US Mint did not verify the origin of the gold, its Canadian counterpart had vetting procedures in place but continued procurement nonetheless, according to the NYT.

Canadian officials described the gold as “North American,” arguing that the designation reflects the fact that it is mixed in Texas. This classification means the authorities are not required to verify the original source of the metal and instead rely on US checks, the report said.

The NYT added that even if the Canadian Mint did not follow its own guidelines, “it would face no legal consequences” because tinkering with the “North American” designation is not a crime.

The investigation comes as gold has been on an extended record-breaking rally in recent years, largely due to aggressive central bank buying, US Federal Reserve rate cuts, and geopolitical tensions.

Hey kids, do you suffer from nightmares about being abducted by aliens? Worried that the fort you make out of your pillows and bedsheets won’t protect you? Well, good news: when you grow up, you can get a job as Belgian defense minister and blow €50 million on your efforts.

Bad news for Belgians, though. The aliens haven’t picked your country as their landing pad. Not yet, at least. But this is the second time in my lifetime alone that the Belgian government has pulled out the heavy artillery because they saw UFOs. The latest instance was last fall. Drones, they said. If not aliens, then Russians. Because what else could it be? Either way, it was apparently a nice pretext for blowing €50 million in a hurry on weapons.

But now the defense minister, Theo Francken, is squirming in a parliamentary defense committee hot seat, trying to defend the spending spree. He evoked hundreds of sightings, adding that “many colleagues thought that we urgently needed to buy things, that we needed to take action, and that we certainly also needed to have material and that it could not take years. That it was urgent now and that it was actually scandalous that we had nothing.” You had nothing, alright. But the scandal isn’t that. It’s that you acted on that nothing by pelting it with cash.

Francken explained that Belgian military intelligence claimed that 42 of 250 drone sightings were the real deal. Any receipts? Of course not. But there’s “no other plausible explanation than a drone,” he added.

Blah blah blah. Where did the €50 million go, pal? And why wasn’t such a massive contract even put to public bidding?

So now the defense minister is like, okay, look, turns out that the sightings were just of a helicopter. Operated by the Belgian police.

Oh, look! An “other plausible explanation,” the likes of which he literally just said doesn’t exist. But even if it was a helicopter, it was still looking for a drone, he says. Not that he can show it to you.

But so what? Minor detail. It’s not like the aliens aren’t coming SOMEDAY. And also Putin in 2030, as we keep hearing from European officials. So better to blow that cash now on a screwup and be ready for the eventuality. Who could regret doing that? Not this guy, apparently. Not like he’s personally paying for it.

Last fall, Francken was saying that the UFOs could be spy drones trying to peep on American nuclear weapons at Belgium’s Klein Brogel air base. Spy drones, huh? I guess that was supposed to explain why they were also said to have been loitering around airports, too. To the point of having to close them. All the hallmarks of a great secret spy op: draw global attention to yourself and make a scene. But that’s how spying works in the movies. And this guy seems to think that he’s a main character in one.

The last time this kind of hysteria happened was amid the Cold War’s denouement between the Soviet Union and the West, in 1989-1990. But they didn’t blame Russians back then. Maybe everyone had already blown enough cash on weapons. Unlike today. Which would explain why, on the back of this latest UFO wave reboot, Francken started fantasizing about creating a whole new department and filling it with toys: detection, jamming, and drone-destruction systems. He also said that NATO “will flatten Moscow” if it ever attacked. Sounds like a reasonable guy who should be given blank checks. Even better if they’re from the public treasury.

So now the Belgian TV show says that this purchase is being looked into by the prosecutor general’s office and implicitly laid out an open invitation for other countries that may have blown cash on this hype to do the same.

In any case, the Belgian public already knew that their government was a hot mess on UFOs 35 years ago. After months of watching mysterious lights drift around, they finally scrambled a couple of F-16s to investigate. But instead of locking onto a UFO, they almost shot each other down in the process.

This new sequel also plays out just like a Hollywood production. One in which the Belgians fund a €50 million prop department budget and the aliens never even make a cameo.

Beijing has barred seven EU-based entities from receiving Chinese dual-use goods, citing their involvement in arms trade with Taiwan.

The companies listed by China’s Commerce Ministry on Friday include German radar manufacturer Hensoldt, Belgian firearms producers FN Browning Group and its subsidiary FN Herstal, as well as four Czech entities: Omnipol, Excalibur Army, SpaceKnow, and the Czech Aeronautical Research and Testing Institute.

Dual-use items are goods that can serve both civilian and military purposes, including drone components and high-purity rare earth materials. China has increasingly relied on export controls to restrict access to such goods for nations it considers military threats, including the US and Japan. Under Chinese export rules, buyers are prohibited from transferring dual-use products to defense firms blacklisted by the government.

The newly sanctioned companies are the first EU-based entities to face restrictions from Beijing over weapons trade with Taiwan. A Commerce Ministry spokesperson said that law-abiding customers “with integrity have absolutely no need to worry” about supplies.

Sanctions tit-for-tat?

The measure was introduced a day after the EU approved its latest round of anti-Russian sanctions, which targeted 27 entities from mainland China or Hong Kong. The Commerce Ministry said Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed” Brussels’ move, and warned that it would take “necessary measures” to protect Chinese interests.

Beijing has long criticized the use of unilateral sanctions by the West, but has increasingly turned to trade restrictions amid ongoing tensions with the US, particularly since the escalation of trade disputes under President Donald Trump.

China remains highly sensitive to military cooperation with Taiwan, a self-governed Chinese island that for decades served as a US foothold in the region, viewing such contracts as a challenge to its sovereignty and support for separatist forces.

Global supply chain risks have intensified since late February, when disruptions caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran significantly reduced traffic from the Persian Gulf. Importers of key commodities – including oil, natural gas, fertilizers, helium, and aluminum – are now reassessing sourcing and production strategies amid growing economic uncertainty.

US President Donald Trump has signaled support for a proposal to rename Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), endorsing a suggestion shared on social media that would change the agency’s acronym to NICE.

The comment comes as the agency struggles with its public image in the wake of a sweeping immigration enforcement campaign that has led to thousands of arrests across the US. Public support for the crackdown has declined as most Americans say the tactics pursued by federal agents go too far, having turned violent and, in some cases, deadly.

Trump reposted a message on his Truth Social platform from a supporter suggesting that ICE be renamed “National Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” which would change the agency’s acronym to NICE. The change would compel media outlets to refer to federal officers as “NICE agents all day everyday,” framing the agency in more positive terms, the post added.

The fatal shootings involving ICE agents in Minnesota have become a major flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement following the Trump administration’s launch of a hardline agenda on immigration and election integrity. The incidents, which occurred during ICE operations, triggered widespread public outrage and sparked mass rallies across the country. Protesters have called for an end to aggressive enforcement tactics and demanded greater oversight of federal immigration authorities.

In February, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons stated that the agency is tracking about 1.6 million people in the US with final deportation orders, including around 800,000 who have criminal convictions.

Nevertheless, public support for the crackdown continued to decline, according to a recent Ipsos poll conducted at the time. About 58% of Americans say deportations are going too far, while 62% oppose ICE tactics.

Former Israeli Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have formed a unified party in a bid to oust Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in elections later this year.

Right-wing Bennett and centrist Lapid on Sunday confirmed the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid, into a single list titled ‘Together, Led by Bennett’, which they described as an effort to consolidate the opposition and improve its chances in the vote, which must be held no later than the end of October. 

Bennett told reporters that joining forces was “the most Zionist and patriotic act we have ever done, for the sake of our country,” adding that “the era of division is over.” Lapid said: “We are standing here together for the sake of our children. The State of Israel must change direction.”

That alliance included the Arab party Ra’am, led by Mansour Abbas, marking the first time a party representing Israel’s Palestinian minority joined a governing coalition. Netanyahu returned to power after winning the November 2022 election.

The new partnership will run as a unified list without formally merging their parties, and both have said they would seek to form a government only with Zionist opposition parties, excluding Arab factions. Bennett also said his government would advance a universal conscription law, halt funding for draft evasion, and introduce an eight-year term limit for a prime minister.

A recent Maariv poll showed Bennett’s party tied with Netanyahu’s Likud at 24 Knesset seats, while Yesh Atid has been polling at around six to seven seats.

The International Criminal Court issued warrants for Netanyahu in 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

At home, Netanyahu is facing a long-running corruption trial. Charged with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three cases, he denies wrongdoing, calling the case a political witch hunt. The trial resumed this week after a pause during the Iran war, with no resolution in sight. President Isaac Herzog has indicated that any pardon would only be considered after plea deal efforts are exhausted.

Police in Northern Ireland have foiled a suspected car bomb attack, evacuating residents moments before an explosion outside a station in Dunmurry, southwest of Belfast. The authorities suspect the New Irish Republican Army (New IRA), a dissident republican splinter group, was behind the blast.

The incident occurred late on Saturday, when a hijacked vehicle carrying a gas cylinder device was parked outside the station. At a press conference on Sunday, PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the perpetrators forced a delivery driver to take the car to the site and abandon it. Officers spotted the vehicle, deemed it suspicious, raised the alarm, and rushed to evacuate nearby homes.

“A number of residents, including two babies, were being taken to safety by officers when the device exploded, engulfing the vehicle in flames and sending debris in all directions,” he said, calling it a “cowardly attack.”

Early reports, including reporting from the Belfast Telegraph, indicate that a car bomb was detonated outside a police station in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland today. Reports claim that, like other recent incidents in the past year, a stolen car was used in the incident. Law… pic.twitter.com/JWVbPlAdHf

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 25, 2026

No injuries were reported, which police said was “nothing short of miraculous,” though the blast caused significant damage. The incident is being treated as “attempted murder,” with a counterterrorism unit leading the investigation.

The New IRA is designated a terrorist organization in the UK and is considered the most active dissident republican group in Northern Ireland. Formed in 2012 from factions rejecting the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, it seeks to end British rule and achieve a united Ireland through armed struggle.

Asked whether the terror threat level in Northern Ireland – currently “substantial” – should be reassessed following Saturday’s incident, Singleton declined to give a direct answer but said the attack “reminds us of the murderous intent and capability” of militant groups, stressing the need for vigilance.

I utterly condemn last night’s attack on Dunmurry police station.

My thoughts are with the local community, and with the PSNI officers who work every day to keep people safe. I urge anyone with information to come forward.

Those responsible will be brought to justice.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 26, 2026

His government has maintained a zero-tolerance stance on the New IRA and stepped up efforts to curb its funding, including asset-freezing orders targeting suspected money laundering. Last month, Starmer and Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin agreed to establish a joint task force to monitor dissident groups and cross-border crime.

European military spending helped to propel global defense expenditure to a record high of almost $3 trillion in 2025 despite the US decreasing its outlay, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released on Monday.

Worldwide military expenditure rose 2.9% in real terms last year to reach $2.887 trillion, marking the 11th consecutive annual increase and lifting the global military burden to 2.5% of GDP, the report said. SIRPI experts explained the trend by citing several ongoing conflicts and persisting geopolitical tensions.

The entire European continent accounted for the largest regional increase, with spending rising 14% to $864 billion. SIPRI linked the surge to the Ukraine conflict, a standoff with Russia, and “the ongoing pursuit of European self-reliance alongside increasing pressure from the United States to strengthen burden sharing within the alliance.”

US military expenditure fell 7.5% to $954 billion, with SIPRI linking a surprise decline to the Trump administration’s refusal to approve new assistance packages to Ukraine, in contrast to previous years when $127 billion in direct military support had been authorized.

The US, however, has continued deliveries via the NATO-coordinated PURL program, with other Western countries footing the bill.

Last week, Pentagon officials also said that US President Donald Trump was advocating a military budget of $1.5 trillion to provide funds for the new Golden Dome missile system, AI capabilities, and a new class of battleships.

SIPRI noted Russia’s defense expenditure grew 5.9% to $190 billion, while Ukraine increased spending by 20% to $84.1 billion, equivalent to 40% of GDP, becoming the seventh-largest military spender in the world.

Elsewhere, China increased military spending by 7.4% to $336 billion, while Japan’s expenditure rose 9.7% to $62.2 billion, and Taiwan’s by 14% to $18.2 billion.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned what it described as reckless militarization by the EU, adding that it is aimed at Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also suggested that European propaganda seeks to turn Russia into a “model external enemy” to divert attention from internal crises.

The Russian junior group in rhythmic gymnastics will not be able to take part in the 2026 European Cup. The reason is unrelated to sporting results, injuries, or any decision by the athletes to withdraw.

Participation became impossible because of prolonged administrative procedures connected with obtaining neutral status, followed by a refusal of registration by European Gymnastics. Young athletes who followed every rule were left out because of bureaucratic hurdles put up by different organizations that failed to coordinate.

The Russian Gymnastics Federation submitted documents for neutral status starting March 25, with additional names added through early April. They didn’t sit back and wait for a reply either – they sent repeated requests asking World Gymnastics to speed things up, including direct outreach to its president. Still, approvals came in pieces. Some athletes received clearance on April 14, others not until April 22. Only on April 23 were they finally added to the anti-doping testing pool, which is required to compete.

By then, it was already too late – registration deadlines for the European Cup had passed, and the draw had taken place on April 11. Once that happened, European Gymnastics said it could not add the Russian group.

No one involved can seriously claim this was about sporting merit. The athletes weren’t injured, they didn’t withdraw, and they weren’t disqualified. They were simply stuck waiting for one body to finish its procedures while another stuck to its deadlines. That gap shut them out.

It’s hard to treat that as a minor oversight. If a key procedural option exists but isn’t communicated in time, then a process that is supposed to be neutral becomes baselessly opaque. And when that opacity determines who gets to compete, it stops being a technical detail.

All of this sits awkwardly next to the IOC’s position from December 2025, when the organization stated that young athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports should no longer face restrictions in access to international competitions. It also said athletes have a fundamental right to compete without political pressure.

And it’s true that the athletes faced no formal ban – because none was needed. Exclusion was achieved through delays, missed windows and disconnected procedures – a confluence of mishaps that looks just a bit too convenient to be a complete coincidence.

Federations control the actual entry points into competitions, and even as the IOC asks for better accessibility, they still have the power to shut out Russian juniors – they just have to drag their feet a bit, forget to mention a crucial workaround, or fail to coordinate at a key juncture.

Meanwhile, European Gymnastics followed its own schedule. Once the draw was done, that was it – no adjustments, no exceptions. From a procedural standpoint, that may be consistent. From the athletes’ perspective, it meant their fate had been decided before their paperwork was even finished.

Months of preparation, training camps, routines, expectations of an international start – all of it ended because two organizations’ timelines didn’t match. The athletes had no way to influence either side – they met the requirements and submitted all the paperwork.

And now, they are not allowed to compete. The reasons behind it are anything but simple, but they point in the same direction. A system that talks about openness while operating through opaque and fragmented procedures doesn’t just fall short – it blocks the very people it claims to support. And if this is how things continue to work, similar situations will happen again.

The US is mistaken to believe that it has the most leverage in the war against Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said, as indirect talks between Tehran and Washington remain stalled.

The two sides disagree over which can outlast the other in the standoff triggered by the US-Israeli attack in late February. Pakistan-mediated negotiations have so far failed to produce a breakthrough.

“We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us, or they can call us,” US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “We are not sending people to travel 18 hours to [Islamabad].”

Araghchi, who visited Pakistan and Oman over the weekend before traveling to Russia, pushed back in a post on X, arguing that Trump does not hold the upper hand and outlining possible escalation scenarios.

Stalled talks and reported new framework

In response to the US-Israeli strikes, Iran partially closed the strategic Strait of Hormuz and has threatened shipping through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait via its Houthi allies in Yemen. The Trump administration, in turn, announced a blockade of the Persian Gulf targeting Iranian oil exports and warned it could destroy Iran’s entire “civilization.”

In his Fox interview, Trump claimed Iran cannot significantly reduce oil output and will soon run out of storage capacity, risking explosions “from within” its oil infrastructure – something he argued gives Washington leverage.

Violence in Lebanon adding strain

The fragile US-Iran ceasefire remains under strain, partly due to ongoing Israeli strikes in Lebanon, which were expected to halt under the broader truce as well as a separate bilateral ceasefire extended last Friday.

During a cabinet meeting over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah – a Lebanese armed group aligned with Tehran – of “undermining the ceasefire” and announced further military action to “preempt immediate and emerging threats.”

Israel aims to establish control over large areas of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported at least 14 deaths from Israeli strikes on Saturday. According to Beirut, more than 2,500 people have been killed and over 7,700 injured since Israel escalated hostilities with Lebanon amid the wider conflict with Iran.

Iran has made the US a new proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war – postponing nuclear negotiations to a later stage to break the deadlock in the high-stakes talks, Axios reports, citing sources.

An unnamed US official and two other sources familiar with the matter told the outlet that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned the plan during back-to-back visits to Islamabad, informing the Pakistani, Egyptian, Turkish, and Qatari mediators that Iran’s leadership has no internal consensus on how to address Washington’s nuclear demands.

The US has insisted that Iran dismantle its nuclear program and hand over all of its enriched uranium.

The proposal, which was delivered to the White House via Pakistani intermediaries, reportedly focuses on extending the ceasefire or even ending the war, as well as lifting the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint accounting for 20% of the world’s seaborne oil trade. Nuclear talks would not start until the blockade is lifted, according to the reported plan.

According to Al-Mayadeen, Tehran has floated a three-stage framework: End the hostilities and secure binding guarantees against renewed attacks on Iran and Lebanon; establish a new legal regime for managing the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Oman; and in the third stage, address the nuclear issue.

The new offer comes after US-Iran talks in Islamabad, which started after the sides announced a tentative ceasefire, failed to produce a breakthrough. On Saturday, hopes for diplomacy dimmed as Trump canceled a trip to the Pakistani capital by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, saying, “You’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing.”

According to media reports, Iran has insisted on guarantees of US non-aggression, lifting all the sanctions, control over the Strait of Hormuz, and recognition of Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment – dismissing US and Israeli accusations that it is seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Hezbollah drones have killed an IDF soldier and targeted a helicopter sent to airlift wounded troops, as Israel ordered the forced evacuation of seven more towns in southern Lebanon.

An Israeli unit operating in the occupied Lebanese border town of Taybeh came under attack on Sunday. The strike killed a 19-year-old soldier, identified as Sergeant Idan Fooks, and wounded six others, including four seriously, according to the IDF.

When a helicopter was dispatched to airlift the wounded, two additional drones were launched toward the troops, according to footage circulating online. The IDF said one of the drones was intercepted, while another exploded near the forces and the aircraft without causing further casualties.

Must watch: extraordinary footage shows a Hezbollah drone striking just meters away from an IDF helicopter in southern Lebanon while wounded troops were being evacuated from a separate incident. Earlier, an Israeli soldier was killed in a similar drone attack despite the… pic.twitter.com/oScbX9FHHB

— גיא עזריאל Guy Azriel (@GuyAz) April 26, 2026

Despite a US-mediated ceasefire that began on April 16 and was extended until mid-May, Israeli troops have continued military operations north of the Litani River, expanding a ‘buffer zone’ that stretches around 10 km into Lebanon.

On Sunday, Israel said it launched “artillery and aerial strikes” targeting Hezbollah operatives and sites it claimed were used “to advance attacks against IDF soldiers.” Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the attacks killed 14 people, including two women and two children, and wounded 37, marking the deadliest day since the ceasefire began.

Hezbollah rejected the accusation, saying its operations were a “legitimate response” to the Israeli invasion of the country.

At least 2,294 people have been killed and 7,544 wounded, including 100 medics and healthcare workers, since the fighting began on March 2, according to a cumulative toll released by Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Russia, where he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials to discuss the Middle East conflict amid stalled talks with the US.

The Iranian delegation’s plane landed in St. Petersburg at around 5:30 AM local time on Monday. Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said Araghchi would hold consultations with Russian officials on “the current status of talks, the ceasefire, and developments around the conflict” with the US and Israel.

The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier confirmed Araghchi’s visit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin has a meeting with the Iranian diplomat on his schedule.

The trip marks the final leg of Araghchi’s regional tour of Pakistan, Oman, and Russia, which he has described as an effort to “closely coordinate” with partners amid the standoff with Washington and West Jerusalem.

In Pakistan, he shared Tehran’s position on a “workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran,” adding that it remains to be seen whether the US is “truly serious about diplomacy.”

US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, were reportedly on standby to fly to Pakistan for potential negotiations over the weekend, but Tehran rejected direct talks with US representatives during Araghchi’s tour.

However, Araghchi reportedly handed Pakistan, which is acting as mediator, a document intended for Washington outside the formal negotiating process. The document outlines Iran’s “red lines,” including issues related to Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear energy program.

The US president further raised the stakes by saying he ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boats found laying mines in the waterway. Tehran considers the blockade a direct breach of the ceasefire and has argued that any talks are pointless as long as it remains in place and Israel continues its attacks against Lebanon.

The armed man who breached security at a press dinner attended by US President Donald Trump detailed his motives in a manifesto, naming US officials as targets “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”

The attacker, identified as 31-year-old California teacher Cole Allen, sent a note to relatives around ten minutes before Saturday’s attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, according to the New York Post, which first published the text.

In the 1,052-word manifesto, signed Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen, the suspect described himself as a “half-black, half-white” American citizen and framed his actions as a matter of personal responsibility to hold the government accountable.

Referring repeatedly to his supposed Christian faith, the gunman went on to address anticipated criticism of his actions with a list of “rebuttals.”

“Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration,” Allen wrote, in apparent reference to grievances including strikes on Venezuela-linked boats, the US attack on an Iranian girls’ school, immigration enforcement, and the Jeffrey Epstein case.

.@POTUS on the White House Correspondents' Dinner gunman: "I read a manifesto. He's radicalized. He was a Christian—a believer—and then he became an anti-Christian ... he was probably a pretty sick guy." pic.twitter.com/AzmSukHOV8

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 26, 2026

Trump described the suspect as a “sick man” who “hated Christians,” while dismissing the accusations, in an interview with CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’.

“I read the manifesto. He’s radicalized. He was a Christian, a believer, and then he became an anti-Christian… he was probably a pretty sick guy,” Trump said.

.@POTUS SLAMS @60Minutes: "You should be ashamed of yourself, reading that — because I'm not any of those things." pic.twitter.com/QWxqoUFUaF

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 26, 2026

Allen, a Torrance-based tutor and mechanical engineering graduate who also worked as a game developer, had no prior criminal record and is believed to have acted alone, according to investigators. Officials said he had legally purchased firearms, trained regularly at a shooting range, and traveled from Los Angeles to Washington by train before checking into the Hilton. His sister reportedly told investigators that he had spoken about doing something to fix the world.

A small plane crash near Minneapolis, Minnesota killed North Dakota state lawmaker Liz Conmy, 67, and the pilot on Saturday, AP reports, citing the local authorities.

The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed that a Beechcraft BE33 crashed shortly after departing Crystal Airport on Saturday, with two people aboard.

“Liz served her state and community with care and compassion,” North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong said in a statement. We are “saddened by this tragic loss and offer our deepest condolences to her family, friends and fellow legislators,” he added.

Security camera footage circulating on social media purportedly shows the moment the plane crashed into a wooded area before blowing up into a blazing fireball, setting trees and grass on fire.

Conmy’s North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party, an affiliate of the Democratic Party, said in a social media post that her death was “a profound loss to the state.”

The US National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the cause of the crash.

Germany has signed €111 billion ($130 billion) worth of weapons contracts since 2022. However, the Defense Ministry cannot say how many have actually been delivered or put into service, Der Spiegel reports.

In February 2022, then Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded to the escalation of the Ukraine conflict by declaring a ‘Zeitenwende’ (turning point) and unveiling a €100 billion plan to modernize the German armed forces by 2028. Berlin has also been a key backer of Kiev, providing the government of Vladimir Zelensky with €44 billion ($52 billion) in military and financial aid during the conflict with Russia.

Der Spiegel reported on Sunday, citing Defense Ministry data, that 47,000 procurement contracts have been signed since Scholz’s declaration. The figure was released in response to an inquiry by a politician from The Left party, Dietmar Bartsch, it added.

The ministry declined to say how many of the contracts had been completed or how much of the equipment had been delivered as of March 1, 2026, the outlet said.

“An automated, centralized evaluation of all procurement projects in line with the request is not possible,” it said in response.

Bartsch criticized the response, saying “more than 47,000 arms contracts in four years, worth around €111 billion – that’s over 30 contracts per day.” 

The fact that the Defense Ministry didn’t release the figures on its own and that it “can’t even quantify how many projects have actually been completed and put into service is a warning sign,” he argued.

The lack of oversight increases the risk that billions in taxpayer money or loans could be wasted on delayed or unsuitable projects, Bartsch said.

Germany has been investing heavily in its military despite the country’s economy continuing to deteriorate. Earlier this week, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche cut the previous growth forecast for this year in half, saying that GDP is expected to rise just 0.5%.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned about the “danger of EU militarization,” which is happening “very fast and frenetically.” 

“The Americans are actively promoting those processes” in order to absolve themselves of the responsibility for the security on the continent and make Europeans bankroll the Ukraine conflict on their own, Lavrov said.

The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has hit a new popularity record and would win a hypothetical election with 28% of the vote, according to a Bild/INSA poll published on Saturday.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic bloc (CDU/CSU) would receive 24%, falling behind the right-wing party by one percentage point compared with earlier polls, according to the survey. The ruling coalition partner Social Democrats (SPD) maintained a 14% approval rating.

About 11% of the vote would go to parties that would fail to reach the threshold to enter parliament, Bild wrote, adding that this means a governing majority would require at least a 45% share of the remaining vote.

The survey, which was conducted over April 20-24, involved 1,203 respondents who were asked how they would vote if a federal election were held on Sunday.

Approval ratings for Merz’s coalition have steadily declined since it came to power last May. Critics have accused the chancellor of failing to reverse the decline of the German economy, which saw only 0.3% growth in 2025 and endured a recession in 2023 and 2024.

Last week, Merz was rated Europe’s most unpopular leader, with a 76% disapproval rating, according to the US-based opinion research institute Morning Consult.

Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has awarded North Korean troops, who helped liberate Russia’s Kursk Region from Ukrainian forces, with the Order of Courage during his visit to Pyongyang.

Last year, North Korean soldiers, acting under the June 2024 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang, joined the Russian operation to repel a large-scale Ukrainian incursion into the border region. They also participated in mine-clearing activities in the area.

During a ceremony on Sunday, Belousov said that it was “a truly special day in the record of the Russian-Korean military brotherhood.”

The North Korean troops who fought in Kursk Region are “the true heroes of our time, the elite of the Korean armed forces, their pride and their tower of strength,” he stressed.

“I express my deepest gratitude on behalf of the entire Russian people and personally for the assistance that they had provided,” the minister added.

Pyongyang’s servicemen received the Order of Courage, introduced in Russia in 1994 to recognize selfless acts of courage and valor, on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin, he noted.

Later in the day, Belousov and Russian Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin attended the opening of a museum and memorial dedicated to the North Korean soldiers, who helped liberate the Kursk Region.

The minister also held talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, discussing further intensification of military ties between the two countries.

There is desire in both Russia and North Korea to develop defense cooperation on “a sustainable, long-term basis,” he said.

Belousov told Kim that Moscow is “ready to sign a Russian-Korean Military Cooperation Plan for the 2027-2031 period this year.”

The midterms are still seven months away, and the Republicans must contend with an American voter whose mood has noticeably changed.

After regaining the White House in 2024, President Donald Trump – seeking revenge after being “cheated” of the presidency in the 2020 election – confidently declared victory. His approval numbers never looked better and the Republicans controlled Congress. Meanwhile, the Democrats looked dazed and confused as they struggled to make sense of their loss. Yes, Trump appeared invincible. But that was yesterday.

Trump is certainly aware of the curse that has haunted incumbent leaders for decades which says that they have a high chance of losing the midterms (for the uninitiated, midterm elections are the general elections that are held near the midpoint of a president’s four-year term of office). This curse has held true for even popular two-term leaders like Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. To put it bluntly, the numbers do not look very promising for the Republicans at this stage of the game.

According to the latest data, Donald Trump’s approval rating is 33%, which is the lowest in his second term. This drop is due to several factors, including fears over the Iran war, immigration, inflation and his handling of other various issues, with 62% of Americans reporting disapproval of his job performance. This lack of enthusiasm for the US leader will have a knock-on effect in the midterm elections.

More vexing for Republicans, the latest polls indicate they could lose not just the House but the Senate as well – a scenario that seemed virtually impossible just months ago. Presently, almost 40 House seats are considered to be ‘up in the air.’ Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to regain control of the House. As for the Senate, states once considered solidly Republican – like Iowa, Ohio and Texas – are now too close to call. Historically, the party controlling the White House loses an average of 22 House seats in the midterms.

Up next was the Iran war, a foreign policy flop that flies in the face of the ‘America First’ credo that has animated Trump’s rise to power. Not only does the war contradict Republican ideology, it has alienated many NATO allies in the process. Back home, while many Americans would be hard-pressed to locate Iran on a map, they need no special guidance to tell them where gasoline prices stand – at about $3.45 per gallon on average.

As far as the distracted and overworked American is concerned, Washington can continue to wage wars wherever and whenever it wants, just so it does not put a dent in their wallet. Trump clearly understands this and that is why he is desperate to get out of Iran as soon as possible. Meanwhile, while Trump has focused his attention overseas in Iran and Ukraine, MAGA ideologues are frustrated as the unemployment rate has climbed to 4.7% over the past 12 months.

It’s important to note that the political reversal being experienced by the Republicans has little to do with Democratic strength. It’s easy to forget that Democrats remain deeply unpopular with the American voter – their net favorability stands at -20 points, according to surveys.

The simple explanation to understand the crisis at this juncture is that voters are penalizing the Republicans. They are furious about rising prices, the faltering on the Epstein files, the harsh anti-migrant tactics and the foreign misadventures.

A large fire broke out at a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in west England on Sunday morning. In recent months, it was used by the US to launch operations against Iran, and was recently the target of anti-war protests.

According to the Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, crews were called to RAF Fairford shortly after midnight on Sunday.

“The fire involved a single-story industrial storage building. It was brought under control safely and there were no casualties,” the service said in a statement.

Videos circulating on social media show a large blaze above warehouse buildings visible from the street, with an enormous plume of smoke rising up into the night sky.

Major fire reported at RAF Fairford overnight, a British airbase hosting a sizeable forward-deployed contingent of USAF bombers for Iran strikes.

The fire reportedly gutted a commissary building. pic.twitter.com/cveufpjC1t

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 26, 2026

RAF Fairford houses USAF B52 and B1 bombers, and serves as a key European operations center for Washington. Hundreds of anti-war protesters rallied outside the base on Saturday, demanding that the UK shut down military facilities used in the war on Iran.

🚨 BREAKING: Major Fire at RAF Fairford No Link to Protest
A large fire broke out early Sunday morning April 26 2026 in the Fairford area. Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue crews are at the scene of a commercial building blaze with heavy smoke reported.
Social media images suggest… pic.twitter.com/sjnFs7EQl6

— Cat Brown 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🚜🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇮🇪 (@MrsBr0wn_82) April 26, 2026

However, last week, a deliberate attack on a US military plane took place in neighboring Ireland.

A man was arrested after he intruded into Shannon Airport and damaged a US Air Force C-130 Hercules with a hatchet. He was arrested and charged with criminal damage, according to local law enforcement. No motive has yet been announced.

US green card applicants could be rejected for criticizing Israel and taking part in pro-Palestinian protests, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing internal Department of Homeland Security training materials. The guidance is reportedly part of the administration’s broader effort to vet applicants for ‘anti-American’ and ‘anti-Semitic’ views.

In instructions to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reviewed by the newspaper, the administration treats participation in pro-Palestinian protests and public criticism of Israel as “overwhelmingly negative” factors when deciding on permanent residency applications.

According to the document, immigration officers have been instructed to deny applicants found to have a history of “endorsing, promoting or supporting anti-American views” or “antisemitic terrorism, ideologies or groups.”

The materials include criticism of Israel as a potentially disqualifying factor, citing social media posts declaring “Stop Israeli terror in Palestine” and showing the Israeli flag crossed out as examples of questionable speech. They also reference images depicting a map of Israel with the country’s name crossed out and replaced with ‘Palestine’ as anti-Semitic.

Immigration officers are also instructed to “focus particularly on aliens who engaged in on-campus anti-American and antisemitic activities,” including those who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at universities following the 2023 Hamas attack against Israel.

According to the White House spokeswoman, as cited by the NYT, the policies have “nothing to do with free speech” but are meant to protect “American institutions, the safety of citizens, national security and the freedoms of the US.”

Last August, the USCIS said immigrants applying for benefits such as green cards would be screened for “anti-American” behavior, including whether they have supported or expressed views linked to anti-American or terrorist groups, including those tied to anti-Semitic terrorism.

CNN reported at the time, citing a State Department official, that over 6,000 student visas had been revoked since the beginning of 2025. Earlier this year, the WSJ reported that in 2025, the number of people leaving the US exceeded those entering, marking the first net outflow since 1935.

Wounded Lebanese journalist Zeinab Faraj has described the Israeli strike that killed her colleague Amal Khalil, prompting Beirut to accuse West Jerusalem of war crimes.

In an interview filmed from her hospital bed, Faraj broke down in tears as she recounted the ordeal and her final moments with Khalil.

On Wednesday, Khalil and Faraj were driving through the southern village of al-Tiri when an Israeli drone struck a car ahead of them.

“Completely silently, a missile hit that car. Amal screamed and abruptly turned to the side of the road. We got out of the car and covered under an entrance of some garage,” Faraj told Lebanese Al-Afdal News. Adding that Israeli aircraft were circling overhead along with drones before another missile struck Khalil’s car. Khalil was wounded by shrapnel, and as the vehicle caught fire, her back began burning as she shielded Faraj.

“She told me: ‘Zeinab, I’m burning!’ I grabbed her by her jacket and pulled her toward me,” she recalled. “I couldn’t endure it anymore, I was starting to burn too… I broke the garage door, and Amal and I started crawling inside.”

Colleagues said both were wearing gear clearly marked as press. Emergency workers pulled Faraj, who was seriously wounded, from the rubble, but efforts to reach Khalil were delayed after Israeli forces reportedly fired on rescue teams. Her body was recovered hours later.

The strike came despite a ceasefire reached earlier this month, with Israeli military still operating in occupied parts of southern Lebanon and reserving the right to attack what it labels threats.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of the “deliberate and consistent targeting of journalists” to “conceal the truth of its aggressive acts against Lebanon,” while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the attack a “war crime.”

The Israel Defense Forces denied targeting journalists or rescue workers and said that the incident was under review.

Khalil is the ninth journalist killed by Israel in Lebanon since US-Israeli strikes on Iran reignited the conflict, according to Lebanese authorities. Previously, a March 28 IDF strike on a marked press car killed Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib, whom Israel claimed was a Hezbollah operative without evidence. RT correspondent Steve Sweeney and cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity were also targeted on March 19, but survived with minor injuries.

Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar has appointed the country’s “first LGBT activist” as education minister, according to local media.

The Tisza Party leader, who defeated Viktor Orban’s Fidesz earlier this month, unveiled 12 cabinet ministers in a Facebook post on Friday as he prepares to form a new government.

Judit Lannert was named minister of education and child care affairs, despite expectations that Rita Rubovszky, the headmistress of a Cistercian Catholic school, would take the role. Lannert is known as a critic of the previous government, with the media noting her use of LGBTQ-themed colors on social media during debates over constitutional amendments under Orban.

The move came a day after a proposal to launch an LGBTQ-themed TV channel was submitted to Hungary’s media regulator, according to Magyar Nemzet.

At the time, Orban said the legislation ensured that parents retain authority over their children’s sexual education, calling it a defense of national sovereignty against Western liberal influence.

Nine days after Orban’s election defeat, the European Court of Justice ruled that the reforms violate EU law, ordering Hungary to roll back the restrictions on promoting homosexuality and gender transition in the media for minors. The court said the measures “stigmatize and marginalize LGBTQ individuals” and violate human dignity and freedom of expression.

“Now the Brusselian empire strikes back,” he added, vowing that his party would not “give up the fight for the soul of Europe.”

Finnish Finance Minister Riikka Purra has warned of growing pressure on the country’s public finances. The warning comes just days after the government unveiled a multi-year fiscal plan that combines increased military aid to Ukraine with domestic spending cuts.

The government’s fiscal plan for 2027–2030 was presented earlier this week. It includes cuts of €240 million to social and healthcare spending but €300 million in increased military support for Ukraine.

“The state of public finances is extremely difficult, and the debt-to-GDP ratio is approaching 90%,” Purra said in an interview with the outlet Yle on Saturday.

“We’ve been hit not only by external shocks,” she highlighted, adding that the nation struggles with high unemployment, near-zero economic growth and an aging population.”

The fiscal plan agreed by the government sets out public spending cuts and changes to household costs in welfare and healthcare. Planned savings include higher customer fees across the healthcare system, covering specialist examinations, surgeries, outpatient visits, health center and dental care services, as well as charges for storing deceased persons and determining cause of death.

Finland joined NATO in April 2023, following escalation of the Ukraine conflict. According to World Bank data, the country spent around 1.3–1.7% of GDP on defense prior to accession. Helsinki has since increased its defense budget, with plans to raise spending to 3.2% by 2030, bringing the nation closer to NATO’s target of 3.5% by 2035.

Finnish officials have repeatedly echoed other NATO members in claiming that Moscow remains a “permanent threat” to EU members, while increasing defense spending to counter it. Finland shares a 1,300km (800-mile) border with Russia.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected the claims, accusing the West of fueling Russophobia to justify a military buildup and also to divert attention from domestic problems.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s recent diplomatic activity in the Middle East is an attempt to find new political and financial oxygen at a moment when his usual supporters are becoming less reliable. For several years, the Ukrainian leadership built its strategy on the assumption that the US and Europe would continue to provide weapons, money, intelligence, and diplomatic protection for as long as necessary. But now, American support is increasingly politicized, European societies are visibly tired of the Ukraine issue, and the situation on the battlefield continues to demand more soldiers and equipment.

A defenseless ‘defense provider’

The Ukrainian authorities are trying to present their military experience as a product that can be sold to wealthy Middle Eastern actors. Kiev is trying to turn the destruction it has experienced, and the lessons it has learned on the battlefield, into a diplomatic and commercial asset.

At first glance, this makes perfect sense – defending themselves against missiles, drones and attacks on drones, and attacks on energy infrastructure is exactly what the oil-rich Middle East nations are concerned about right now. Ukraine has faced Iranian-made drones and Russian missile attacks and is now peddling itself as a laboratory of modern war, a country that has supposedly learned how to resist the very threats that now worry parts of the region.

This is where the obvious contradiction comes in: Ukraine presents itself as a provider of security expertise while it remains dependent on foreign systems for its own defense. Kiev talks about protecting others, yet it continues to ask the West for air defense systems, interceptors, artillery shells, financing, and technical assistance. A state that cannot fully protect its own skies without outside help will struggle to convince wealthy regional powers that it can become a serious security provider for them.

The deeper problem for Zelensky is political. Wherever Ukraine goes in the Middle East, it will not be able to force the region to worsen its attitude toward Russia. Not by ten percent, not even by one percent in any meaningful strategic sense. The countries of the region do not view Moscow through the emotional and ideological lens promoted by Kiev and many Western capitals. For them, Russia is one of the predictable and important centers of power in the international system, with which many of them have developed long-standing strategic, energy, military, and diplomatic relations.

This is especially true for the Gulf. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and other regional actors will not sacrifice their partnerships with Russia to fulfill Ukraine’s demands. They see Moscow as a vital partner in energy markets, security balances, diplomatic mediation, and global multipolar politics. Russia is also important because it is not perceived in the region as a power that constantly lectures others about internal affairs while imposing political conditions. Many Middle Eastern states remember the Western pressure, interventions, regime-change experiments, sanctions, occupations, and destructive political engineering they have experienced over the past decades, and in a broader historical sense, over centuries.

Zelensky and his team appear to believe that the Middle East can be approached in the same way as the US and EU. They seem to expect that emotional appeals to ‘values’, coupled with promises of future partnership, will produce large-scale political and financial support. But this is a serious misunderstanding of the region. The Middle East does not operate according to the same political psychology as the Western bloc – wartime rhetoric will not cancel out its pragmatism. They will listen, bargain, sign limited agreements when useful, and take advantage of opportunities, but they will not transform themselves into a new rear base for Ukraine.

Contrast this with Europe, where many elites have tied their own political survival to the Ukrainian project and declared that Ukraine’s struggle is also Europe’s struggle. Trapped by this rhetoric, they have little choice but to prolong the conflict with Russia at Ukraine’s expense. To this end, the Europeans are willing to supply Kiev with weapons, money, and intelligence – in effect, to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.

That won’t fly in the Middle East. Regional states do not want to pay for a war that does not serve their core national priorities. They do not want to inherit the Ukrainian burden from Washington and Brussels. They are not keen to become instruments of another geopolitical campaign designed elsewhere.

Zelensky tried – and failed – before

Kiev was already disappointed after 2022 when the Middle East refused to follow the Western sanctions campaign against Russia. Ukrainian officials expected the world to divide neatly into supporters and opponents of Moscow. The Middle East refused this binary choice. It maintained diplomatic flexibility, preserving relations with Russia and pursuing its own energy and trade interests.

Now Kiev comes asking for money and cooperation from the same countries that turned it down back then. It will criticize regional actors when they refuse to support Western sanctions, but court them when it needs financing. It wants to be treated as a strategic partner, yet its main argument is that it needs support because its current supporters are no longer enough.

The March and April visits to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Türkiye, and Syria therefore look like a tour of necessity. Zelensky is trying to collect political points and convince wealthy states that Ukraine can be useful. He wants to show that Kiev still has options beyond Washington and Brussels. But in reality, Ukraine is looking for money because the war is consuming resources faster than its traditional sponsors can comfortably provide them.

Kiev needs funding not only for weapons, but also for salaries, pensions, logistics, energy repairs, reconstruction, and the basic functioning of the state. The longer the war continues, the more dependent Ukraine becomes on outside support. At the same time, losses at the front and pressure on manpower make the conflict even more expensive. The Ukrainian authorities cannot openly admit that their previous support model is weakening, because this would damage morale and bargaining power. But the turn to the Middle Eastern for replacement, or at least supplementary, resources is a clear indication of where things stand.

The Gulf states are not naive. They will not buy Ukrainian offers without calculating the strategic costs. And if the cost is additional exposure to Iran, complicated relations with Russia, or getting dragged into a Western-designed confrontation, the cost might be too high.

This is not how Zelensky is used to being treated in Western capitals. There, Ukraine is seen as a symbol and supporting it as a political obligation. For the Middle East, Kiev is an actor with something to offer or nothing to offer. Utility will always supersede sympathy. If Kiev can provide a useful service, it may receive a deal. If not, it will receive polite words and little more.

In the end, the most Ukraine can hope for is selective cooperation. It may receive contracts, consultations, limited investments, participation in discussions on food security, drones, infrastructure, and reconstruction. But the Gulf will never become a new financial engine for the war.

Israeli police have seized a Hungarian flag from a protester, citing similarities to the Palestinian flag, which could “cause provocation,” Haaretz reports.

Although both flags feature red, white, and green, they are visually distinct. The Hungarian flag is a horizontal tricolor, while Palestine’s has four colors, including a black stripe and a red triangle.

According to the report published on Saturday, the incident occurred during an anti-government demonstration at Karkur Junction in northern Israel last week.

The protester was waving the Hungarian flag when he noticed a policewoman watching him.

“Three out of the four colors of the Palestinian flag also appear in the Hungarian flag, so I told her it was a Hungarian flag,” he said, as quoted by Haaretz.

“When I explained to him that it was the Hungarian flag, he said, ‘You might understand that, but others don’t,’” the protester said, adding that it was returned to him after the demonstration ended.

Police legal guidance issued in 2024 prohibits the confiscation of protest signs, even if they are critical or provocative.

Earlier this month, officers reportedly confiscated and broke a sign reading “Two states for two peoples – Israel and Palestine,” detaining the protester on suspicion of incitement. An officer was quoted as saying: “I’ve filled my quota for tonight.”

The police have not provided a substantive response to Haaretz, stating only that the complaint would be addressed by the “relevant authorities.”

Syria is set to launch the first trials of prominent figures from the ousted government of former President Bashar Assad, the country’s Justice Ministry has announced.

In a post on X, the ministry said proceedings would begin with cases tied to Daraa – where the protest movement that later spiraled into a regional proxy war began.

A conflict that ostensibly broke out following deadly attacks on protesters by police, rapidly became a flaming regional war in which half a million people were killed and some 13 million more displaced. The country was effectively rendered into religious fiefdoms run by a heavily armed mosaic of jihadist militias drilled in warfare in Libya and often Gulf trained while neighbor Turkey also invaded from the North.

Key to the opposition forces' aims was the vilification of the Assad family and the effective dismantling of the Syrian security state.

A Moscow- and Ankara-brokered truce in 2020 put an end to major fighting for nearly four years. But in late 2024, a rebel coalition led by jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Al-Qaeda offshoot, launched a swift 11-day offensive that toppled Assad, installing a transitional government under HTS chief Ahmed al-Sharaa, which has since sought to reassert control over a country fractured by war and foreign intervention, including by the US.

وزير العدل الدكتور مظهر الويس على منصة اكس:

قاعة محكمة الجنايات في دمشق، بعد استكمال تجهيزها وإنهاء الإجراءات القضائية، تتهيأ للحظة التي طال انتظارها من قبل الضحايا: انطلاق المحاكمات العلنية الأسبوع القادم لأزلام النظام البائد ومجرميه، ضمن مسار العدالة الانتقالية، وبما يكفل… pic.twitter.com/v8Rannl6EG

— وزارة العدل السورية (@SyrMOf) April 25, 2026

The new authorities have arrested numerous Assad-era officials accused of crimes against civilians during the civil war and pledged to put them on trial as part of efforts to unify the country and restore public trust.

Media reports citing officials say trials will begin on Sunday with Assad’s cousin, Atif Najib, former political security chief in Daraa, who is widely blamed for the crackdown that sparked the civil war. Proceedings are also expected to include Wassim al-Assad, another cousin accused of drug trafficking and leading a paramilitary group linked to extrajudicial killings and the suppression of protesters, and Amjad Youssef, a former military intelligence major accused of overseeing the execution of at least 288 civilians in Damascus’ Tadamon district in 2013.

Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said he will not take his seat in the new parliament after Fidesz’s election defeat, announcing that he will focus on reorganizing the country’s “patriotic movement.”

Orban said in a video statement on Saturday that the parliamentary mandate he won as head of the Fidesz-KDNP list “is in fact the parliamentary mandate of Fidesz,” and that he has therefore decided to “give it back.”

“I am now needed not in parliament, but in the reorganization of the patriotic movement,” he said.

The move comes less than two weeks after Orban’s long-dominant Fidesz party was crushed by Peter Magyar’s Tisza party, which won 141 of the 199 seats in Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election.

Keep calm and continue. We will renew and protect our patriotic community. 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/swrswGKlAR

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) April 25, 2026

Orban said Fidesz’s parliamentary faction would be “radically transformed” and that Gergely Gulyas would lead the new group when it forms on Monday. He also said the party would hold a national assembly next week and bring forward its “renewal congress” to June.

Orban struck a tone of defiance rather than retreat, telling supporters that “this camp has remained Hungary’s most united and cohesive political community.”

The election loss marked the sharpest reversal of Orban’s career and is expected to reshape Hungary’s relations with the EU and US, as well as Russia and Ukraine.

Just weeks after the election, Kiev restarted the flow of Russian oil through the supposedly damaged pipeline. Budapest swiftly lifted its veto, and the EU formally approved €90 billion ($105 billion) in emergency funding for Ukraine for 2026-27 and adopted its 20th package of sanctions on Russia earlier this week.

US President Donald Trump has shared grainy security footage of an armed man trying to run through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, where Trump and other senior officials were attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Footage shared by Trump on Truth Social shows the suspect bolting past a security barricade as Secret Service agents run toward him. The president also posted several photos of the man, who the authorities identified as a 30-year-old California resident.

“A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons, and he was taken down by some very brave members of the Secret Service,” Trump said at the White House hours after he was rushed off stage.

“One officer was shot, but was saved by the fact that he was wearing, obviously, a very good bulletproof vest,” Trump said, adding that the officer is “doing great.”

LIVE UPDATES: Trump rushed off stage after shooting (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Alexander Kareevsky: Western Europe is becoming increasingly drawn into the war in Ukraine. Statements are already being made by our officials. Meanwhile, the news reports regarding EU’s preparations for war are raising more and more questions. How should we respond to this? To give an example, I’ll mention the news that the Germans have already produced 5,000 drones based on Ukrainian designs. It’s laughable to hear that, what Ukrainian designs? It is clear that the German defense industry is directly working on drones that are striking our territory. And do you remember the ‘Taurus’ affair? The Germans have made a clever move: they do not formally supply such weapons, and now they have apparently decided to harass us with drones, of which they are producing more and more. In time, defending against drones will become increasingly difficult. Of course, sooner or later a countermeasure will be found, but for now we can see that drones are far more dangerous than missiles, for instance. Although, of course, it depends on how they’re used. Nevertheless, the issue remains very complex, and the brazenness with which EU leaders behave, clearly feeling completely immune from punishment, suggests that a response is needed.

We have already responded. Sergey Shoigu, in particular, stated that there are legitimate targets on EU territory, and that the Ministry of Defense has published a list of the locations where these drones are being manufactured. And indeed, in response, European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper has already stated, and I quote: “The European Commission has no evidence of the Russian Federation’s claims.” In other words, in their view, we are apparently fabricating attacks on our cities, on our infrastructure, including civilian infrastructure, including strategic civilian infrastructure, and so on. And the countries that reported this, Finland and the Baltic states, are pretending they know nothing. Before that, let me remind you once more: they themselves said that “we saw something flying past here. We didn’t... It wasn’t heading our way, it was flying off somewhere else.” In other words, they’re playing dumb. And what are we to do about this? How can we make these Western Europeans see reason? Is there such a way, and at what level of confrontation are we actually at right now?

There’s still a great deal of news coming out of the Persian Gulf. It seems as though there is, and I emphasize this word, a certain easing of tensions, as they used to say in Soviet times. Moreover, there are a great many recent statements being made by Trump himself. It seems the Iranian side is also making a statement about opening the Strait of Hormuz. Incidentally, share prices are rising on this news and so on. But, in short, this is the situation at the moment; this is the picture that is currently emerging. Let’s return to Europe and, of course, discuss Iran.

As for the Western Europeans, the EU elites, they are utterly bankrupt. They have no grounds whatsoever to remain in power: no moral, political or economic grounds, they have failed on every front. They are whipping up military hysteria to divert attention from their own problems, but are also preparing for war. And this must be taken seriously. Let me remind you that, over the last five hundred years, Europe has generally been the source of all humanity’s major misfortunes, including most wars, including the two world wars. Therefore, we must not let our guard down.

It is important to realize that a world war has begun. It is being waged in Europe, largely by Western Europeans, whilst the United States of America, together with Israel, has begun to destabilize southern Eurasia.

So, we need to be absolutely clear that this is the situation we find ourselves in. What should the EU do? America is a separate matter, it simply needs to be firmly restrained and steered away from this situation. The EU must finally realize that it will be destroyed if the aggression continues. And the sooner it realizes this, the fewer of our people will die.

Therefore, it seems to me that the time will come when President [Vladimir Putin] must appoint a commander-in-chief in the theater of operations with the authority to use any type of weapon, and even the duty to do so, and incorporate into military doctrine a provision stating that, should war be waged against us, and it has been waged by an enemy that surpasses us in demographic and economic terms, we would have to use nuclear weapons. Naturally, not immediately. First, we can strike the targets indicated by our Ministry of Defense, or others. Most likely, these will be symbolic targets or communication hubs, which will be hit with conventional munitions. If they do not stop, we will have to move to a higher level.

These Western Europeans must be stopped; they have gone mad yet again. Moreover, if we do not stop them now, the situation will be worse in a few years’ time, because the level of anti-Russian propaganda is already exceeding that of Hitler’s era. And, consequently, the population is succumbing to it.

That’s why we must put a firm stop to the EU now. I would prefer this to be done without the use of nuclear weapons, and certainly without a massive strike; after all, Europe is part of our soul, our culture. But we must understand that Western Europe is the embodiment of all the major evils afflicting humanity and Russia. And it must be stopped. It has gone mad.

Alexander Kareevsky: Sergey Alexandrovich, you know, if we get down to specifics – because you’ve been talking about this for a long time, and rightly so, and the events unfolding confirm what you’ve been saying, namely that the EU will become even more brazen. It is clear that there are many proposals on how to ensure that they stop behaving the way they are behaving. Dmitry Medvedev has already stated that there are legitimate targets in Western Europe and so on. The list published by our Ministry of Defense. Let’s be honest: this is our last attempt to bring them to their senses, so to speak, to scare them, so that they make a decision. But even now, when I speak to my colleagues, everyone says: ‘What is this, another red line? If they wanted to, they would have struck long ago’. What do you say to that?

Sergey Karaganov: We have hoped for reconciliation for far too long; there was, and perhaps still is, a very strong pro-European sentiment in our society and among our elite, although I must emphasize that, in the current circumstances, pro-European sentiment and Western-leaning attitudes are a sign of foolishness and moral duplicity. So, we now need to act decisively, realizing that the EU must be stopped. If it is not stopped, there will be a major war, which will lead to the destruction of Europe anyway, but we do not need to lose our best people and risk our cities for the sake of the EU. It must be stopped. It has broken free from its chains once again, as has happened many times in history.

Let me repeat: we need to appoint a commander-in-chief in the theater of operations with the authority and responsibility to use nuclear weapons should Europe refuse to retreat or even surrender. We will soon be in a position to issue them an ultimatum if they continue to behave in this manner. This is a serious matter. It may be possible to reach an agreement with the Americans at some point; there are still sensible people there. In Western Europe, there are no such people left. Naturally, they exist on a normal, human level, but there are fewer and fewer of them, and they are being pushed aside. The EU’s elites are mad; they have completely degenerated intellectually. And on top of that, they are not afraid of us. We need them to truly fear us; we need to instill terror in them.

I think we will need to take tougher action: cut cables, and begin testing nuclear weapons, amongst other things. If that doesn’t help, we’ll have to strike targets in Western Europe, with the warning that if they continue, the next waves of strikes will be nuclear. Forget the nonsense that a nuclear war cannot be won, it can be won.

Alexander Kareevsky: Mr. Karaganov, you always speak your mind frankly, especially on live television. There is a great deal of talk going on among us ordinary people at the moment. We can see that at the top, part of the elite is precisely that pro-European, pro-Western crowd and so on, the Anglophiles and all the rest who have always been in Russia: we’ve always had Westernizers, Slavophiles and so on. And very many of this upper echelon of our elite want to keep things as they were before, to go back to Courchevel and so on. Perhaps we need to sort things out internally ourselves. And who is our enemy? It’s clear that the enemy is the Kiev regime; the lads are fighting them, it’s all clear. But we ourselves say that there is someone behind it. And who is that? We understand clearly: if it is the EU, then why are we selling gas, oil and everything else there? If it is not the enemy, and it is theoretically possible to come to an agreement with it, then that is a different policy. Perhaps we need to sort ourselves out: who are we and what do we want in the end? As a rule, the people support the president’s actions. But, in my opinion, not everyone in the elite does.

Sergey Karaganov: I repeat: under the current circumstances, pro-European sentiment is a sign of mental weakness, moral corruption and treason. It is ‘Vlasovism’. [this means treasonous – editor] We must treat people who are trying to negotiate with Europe once again in precisely this way. They must be driven out, by gentle means where possible, from our minds and from our ranks. And if gentle means fail, then harsh measures will have to be applied. I repeat: we are once again facing the threat of a major war. We must prevent it. The war has already begun. If we do not stop it now, and, unfortunately, we have been dithering for four years, things will only get worse. There will be more weapons, there may be new nuclear weapons, and there will be new swarms of drones. There will be an even more brutalized elite and an even more indoctrinated population. We forget that the propaganda in Western Europe today, particularly in North-Western Europe, regarding Russia is as bad as, or even worse than, Hitler’s propaganda during the Great Patriotic War, that is, the Second World War. We must take this as seriously as possible. The EU must be stopped. If we do not stop it, we will have to destroy it. We would prefer not to do this, because, after all, Europe is part of our culture.

Alexander Kareevsky: Mr Karaganov, that’s why I was smiling when you spoke: you seem a little kinder towards Europe today than usual. I wonder what’s behind that?

Sergey Karaganov: I’m kinder?

Alexander Kareevsky: Today, yes. You said: ‘Part of our soul lies there’. You didn’t used to say that.

Sergey Karaganov: I said it because I’ve been deeply engaged with this issue. We do, after all, have a presence there. If it weren’t for the European influence, we wouldn’t have Karamzin, we wouldn’t have Pushkin, we wouldn’t have Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Tolstoy, or even Dostoevsky, who as you know, was rather skeptical about Europe. Fair enough. So, Europe is the source of all evils, especially for Russia, both moral and military. Five hundred years of monstrous history, and even more, dating back to the time of Alexander Nevsky. We must put an end to our European history, and those who are eager to return to Europe, to their mansions or their capital, must be removed from our elite or expelled. However, some of them have already fled thanks to the military operation in Ukraine. But it is not worth continuing it indefinitely and wasting our best men on trying to persuade Western Europe to see reason. We must start striking back.

Alexander Kareevsky: Well,we keep trying to persuade Europe, appealing to whatever sense of reason they might have, and so on, but so far with very little success.

Alexander Kareevsky: People will object to you as follows. The Western Europeans keep saying: ‘It was you who started the war in Ukraine, and once you’ve ended it, we’ll be friends again, and everything will be wonderful; it’s not our fault. You were the first to start it’. What do you say to that?

Sergey Karaganov: The United States, by the way, we mustn’t forget about them either, and the EU began their aggression against Russia back when we wanted to become part of Europe and part of the West. That was in the mid-1990s, when they decided to expand NATO. I wrote and spoke about it – you probably still remember – that this would inevitably lead, sooner or later, to war. And they went ahead with it deliberately, consciously provoking us. We put up with it for far too long. That was our mistake. We cannot put up with it any longer. We must understand that, I repeat once again, if we have to put an end to North-Western Europe, it is a terrible choice, but it is a choice necessary for the whole of humanity. This ulcer must either be treated with medicine in some way, or simply cut out.

Alexander Kareevsky: You’re talking about Western Europe. But look at how the people of Hungary have been brainwashed. They want to live like they do in Western Europe, you see? Even though migrants are raping their own people in the underpasses, they say: ‘Bear with it, it might just blow over’, as they said in our film. They’ve reformatted their minds very quickly. And it seems to me that’s how it is everywhere in Europe. And they’re trying to push us in that direction too. Do you want it to be like that over there? Life there is brilliant.

Sergey Karaganov: Like what? It’s our misfortune that we think life there is brilliant. Life there is getting worse and worse. Of course, the Western Europeans are very angry with us, because we once, in the ‘50s, ‘60s and beyond, deprived them of their military superiority, and it was on this foundation that their ability to impose their culture, their political interests, colonialism, racism and, most importantly, to plunder the whole world was built. We undermined that foundation. That is why the Western European elites, perhaps not the entire population realizes this, hate us with a passion. And they are brainwashing their own people. Remember how our predecessors used to say: ‘Germany is a cultured country’. How could they? Well, now the Europeans are being turned into German fascists. That is why we need to stop them before they, having gone wild, plunge into a major, truly major war. They are waging war against us.

Sergey Karaganov: Yes. And declare a European theater of war.

We are not at war in Ukraine against the unfortunate, deceived Ukrainian people, even though there are a staggering number of people there who have been deceived and brainwashed. We are at war there against the collective West, and above all against Europe. We must bring this home to ourselves, understand it, acknowledge it, and stop pinning our hopes on ridiculous and foolish notions.

We don’t need a Europe like that. All the more so because the Europe we once loved is long gone. That was the Europe of the Renaissance, the Europe of great poets and great thinkers. Over the last few decades, it has degenerated. I assure you. I too was once a Europhile and even one of the founders of the Institute of Europe. When I got involved with it, I realized things were in a bad way.

Alexander Kareevsky: You know, I would advise our Europhiles in high offices to read Thomas Mann, his novel ‘The Magic Mountain’. It is a very long novel, it is true, and it contains several reflections by a Jesuit and a Freemason. Thomas Mann was an anti-fascist; he was not a fervent Russophobe. But through one of the main characters, he shows how they see us. That was a novel from 1924, dear friends. They have never regarded us as their equals, and they still do not.

Sergey Karaganov: Listen, that is our problem. How can we regard these (though there are decent people among them) morally corrupt individuals and bastards as our equals? It is ridiculous when we say that they treat us badly. Their elites are turning themselves into subhumans. Therefore, we must treat them accordingly. And to say that we are equals is humiliating for us. We are a great country, a great culture – incidentally, a culture that has continued and developed the finest traditions of European humanism. Look, we are at war in Ukraine, but we have no fierce anti-Ukrainian propaganda, even though, in principle, there ought to be some during a war. So, we’ve kept the best of Europe for ourselves. There’s nothing left of it there. That’s why we need to cut ourselves off from it, and if that doesn’t work, then destroy it.

Sergey Karaganov: We have forgotten that Europe is the embodiment of all humanity’s greatest evils: colonialism, racism, the most vile ideologies, and mass genocides across the globe. Not only the genocide of Jews and Russians, Soviets, but in Africa, and in India, and all over the world, peoples and entire continents were destroyed. So, we must understand that this is a plague from which we must isolate ourselves as far as possible. And if we cannot isolate ourselves, it must be destroyed.

Alexander Kareevsky: Is there still a chance after all? From your answer, I gathered that there isn’t. But I would still like to call once more for some sort of resolution. Hope dies last. And yet there are certain twists and turns, I don’t know, in the Persian Gulf with America, or something else,  so might this major war in Europe be pushed back significantly after all? In my view, countries aren’t ready to fight right now: neither they nor we. But this lack of readiness doesn’t determine or rule out this war. Is there still hope that all this will be postponed for the time being? Because at the moment, the feeling is that war will be here tomorrow.

Sergey Karaganov: And things will get worse. We need to act now; we should have acted yesterday and the day before. I’ve spoken about this. We even discussed it with you later. We’ve waited too long, hoped for too long, and been swayed by our Europhiles for too long. I’ve already said who they are now. So, I repeat: part of Europe, when it falls apart, I hope it does not perish under our nuclear strikes, although a significant part of it deserves it, part of this Europe, I think, will return to a normal life and to human values. This is southern Europe: Spain, Italy, Greece. This is a significant part of Central Europe. And we must isolate ourselves from the rest as from the plague, from contagion. Or destroy it. God forbid, because innocent people will perish after all. That is why I would very much like us to take decisive action to prevent a truly major nuclear war in Europe.

Alexander Kareevsky: I really would not want the situation to develop in this way. On the other hand, from what you’ve said – we’ve been talking for so long – it seems there is no way out.

Sergey Karaganov: And there shouldn’t be a way out. We must take a firm stand against the EU; if necessary, we must punish it. I repeat: we will gain nothing good from Europe anymore. We did gain something from it at one time. Although I would remind you that we did not receive Christianity from Europe, nor did we receive Islam from Europe, and there is a great deal else that we did not receive from Europe.

US President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other senior officials were rushed from the room by the security detail after several shots were fired at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The scramble came after an armed suspect – later identified as 31-year-old California-based teacher Cole Tomas Allen – attempted to break through a Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton hotel.

The suspect and security exchanged fire, after which he was apprehended. One Secret Service agent was hit by a bullet, but avoided major injury due to his ballistic vest, according to media reports.

Trump praised the Secret Service for doing a “fantastic job,” adding that “they acted quickly and bravely” and all officials were safe. He also described the presidency as a “dangerous profession,” saying “no country is immune” to political violence.

This live feed is over.

A massive roadside blast tore through a bus and other vehicles on Colombia’s Pan-American Highway on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and leaving more than a dozen others wounded in what the authorities called a terrorist attack.

The explosion struck the El Tunel sector in Cajibio, Cauca, blowing a huge crater into one of the country’s most important transport corridors and scattering wreckage across the road.

Videos from the scene show a bus completely torn apart; its engine was propelled with such force that it landed on another bus. Other vehicles traveling along the road at the time were also damaged.

Early official statements put the toll at seven dead and at least 17 injured, but later reporting said several of the wounded died from their injuries, pushing the death toll to 12, mostly local civilians and indigenous people traveling on the bus.

Fue activado un artefacto explosivo en la vía Panamericana, en el sector de El Túnel, Cajibío, en un ataque indiscriminado contra la población civil que, de manera preliminar, deja 7 civiles muertos y más de 20 heridos de gravedad. Es una tragedia que nos desgarra como… pic.twitter.com/4BQ0r6CnUc

— OCTAVIO GUZMÁN (@OctavioGuzmanGu) April 25, 2026

Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the attack on dissident factions of the former FARC guerrilla movement operating under Ivan Mordisco. In a post on X, Petro called the perpetrators “terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers,” demanding a worldwide manhunt against what he described as a narcoterrorist structure.

🇨🇴 | URGENTE: Se reporta atentado terrorista en el suroccidente de Colombia en la Vía Panamericana, al suroeste del país, y que ha dejado al menos 7 muertos y más de 20 heridos. pic.twitter.com/j1g6UUTewa

— Alerta News 24 (@AlertaNews24) April 25, 2026

The bombing came amid at least 26 incidents in just two days across Colombia’s southwest, including attacks on police stations, military units, radar facilities, and infrastructure.

Siete personas perdieron la vida tras un at3ntado con un cilindro b0mba en una carretera de Colombia. La 3xplos1ón ocurrió en el sector El Túnel, afectando a un bus y otros vehículos. Videos difundidos en redes sociales evidencian la magnitud de los daños
📌Manténgase informado… pic.twitter.com/NfWLFIMjZU

— EL DEBER (@grupoeldeber) April 25, 2026

Petro and regional officials described the violence as part of a wider escalation in Cauca, a department long contested by armed groups fighting over cocaine routes, illegal mining, and territorial control.

Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez convened emergency security meetings and announced a reward for information leading to those responsible. Local leaders condemned the bombing as an indiscriminate strike on civilians designed to spread mass fear ahead of Colombia’s May 31 presidential election.

The EU will have to provide more money to Ukraine next year on top of the newly approved €90 billion ($105 billion), the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing diplomatic sources.

On Thursday, Brussels announced that the interest-free loan to Kiev has been finalized and that it will begin disbursements “as soon as possible” in the second quarter of 2026. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the development as “a good day for Ukraine and Europe.”

The approval came less than two weeks after the party of longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been vetoing the transfer of funds for months due to an energy dispute with Ukraine, suffered a defeat in the parliamentary election.

The WSJ reported in an article on Friday that the EU’s hopes that the money transfer will allow it to sustain Ukraine during the conflict with Russia until 2028 were likely in vain.

Diplomats who spoke to the outlet warned that the money allocated by Brussels “may not be enough.”

Ukraine requires an extra €19 billion to cover its budget next year, meaning that the EU could be forced to seek a new multi-billion loan in 12 months, the diplomats stressed.

European Council head Antonio Costa said that Ukraine would only need to pay back the money after it receives reparations from Russia following the conclusion of conflict. Moscow has repeatedly rejected such a scenario, saying that it's “detached from reality.”

Russian MP, Dmitry Belik, who sits on the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, told RIA Novosti that Costa understands perfectly well that Brussels is never getting its money back.

US President Donald Trump has abruptly canceled a trip by special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan. Tehran, however, denied that any talks were scheduled in the first place.

This decision comes just a day after the trip was promoted as a potential opportunity to revitalize negotiations with Iran.

“Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership’. Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

When asked by Axios if this means he plans to resume the war, Trump responded, “No. It doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.”

Talking to reporters later on Saturday, Trump asserted that Iran “offered a lot but not enough.” He also claimed to have received a more favorable proposal from Tehran just minutes after the cancellation, stating it came “immediately, when I canceled it, within 10 minutes.”

The sudden reversal highlights the confusion surrounding the administration’s recent diplomatic efforts and Trump’s frustration with negotiations not producing quick results.

The US president further raised the stakes by saying he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boats found laying mines in the waterway. Tehran considers the blockade a direct breach of the ceasefire and has argued that any talks are pointless as long as it remains in place.

Hundreds of people gathered in central Madrid on Saturday to protest against the US-Israeli war against Iran, the conflict in Gaza, and the presence of NATO bases in Spain.

Reuters reported the day before that Washington is considering kicking Spain out of NATO for withholding access to military installations after the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February. However, a NATO official told the BBC that the bloc has no provisions for this type of expulsion.

Saturday’s demonstration was organized by the Spanish 'Stop the War' platform, which said simultaneous protests took place in more than 200 locations around the country.

Attendees shouted slogans and waved placards saying “We must stop the war in the Middle East,” “All people lose every war,” and “Trump ruins democracy.” They also protested against US NATO bases in the country, according to El Mundo and AP.

The rally was attended by local municipal officials and MEPs from the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE), some of whom gave speeches at the event, the newspaper reported.

US President Donald Trump fired his navy secretary after he failed to deliver a plan to build a new class of battleship on a “nearly impossible timeline,” the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing senior defense and administration officials.

In December, the US president unveiled plans for a futuristic new warship that would be armed with multiple cutting-edge weapons like laser combat systems, railguns, and hypersonic missiles. It would be called the Trump-class and anchor a new “Golden Fleet,” he said.

Then Navy Secretary John Phelan, also speaking at the announcement, promised “the largest, deadliest and most versatile and best-looking warship anywhere.”

According to the Times, the billionaire investor turned naval administrator was to deliver the first battleship, expected to cost around $17 billion, by 2028.

On Wednesday, Trump fired Phelan after he “struggled to come up with a plan to deliver the ships on the nearly impossible timeline that Mr. Trump has demanded,” the newspaper wrote.

When Phelan realized this, he came to Trump suggesting that Washington approach European shipyards for help to meet the president’s timeline, the Times wrote. The president reportedly rejected this, having previously insisted that the vessel be built in the US with American steel.

Phelan’s ouster was accelerated by his “enemies in the Pentagon,” including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and his deputy Stephen Feinberg, according to the Times. Hegseth felt the billionaire had bypassed the chain of command too much by exploiting his personal relationship with Trump, Axios wrote on Wednesday.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer program, once intended to produce dozens of advanced stealth ships, was cut to just three vessels after costs rose sharply and technical issues emerged. The entire program cost US taxpayers around $24.5 billion, according to a 2018 GAO review.

Last week, a fire aboard the USS Zumwalt injured at least three sailors, USNI has reported. The extent of the damage to the vessel is still being determined, it wrote.

Special operations can fail for many reasons – from a tragic accident to a lack of information or a hasty decision. And the costs of such mistakes range from the sullen faces of officials and predatory reporters at the door, to the worst outcome – hundreds of victims. There is an old proverb that all intelligence agents should be taught: “For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost.”

The moral is that the smallest omissions can lead to fatal consequences. But the most common reason why military operations fail – the phrase that should be etched above the gates of hell – might well be the motto, “That’s good enough.” Plans based on the assumption that the enemy is deaf, blind, and stupid fail time and time again, yet intelligence agencies continue to build their strategies upon this shaky foundation. 

One of the textbook examples of such a failure was the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. This CIA-initiated attempt to swiftly eliminate the communist regime in Cuba turned into a bloody disaster on the battlefield and a complete political failure.

On January 1, 1959, socialist rebels led by Fidel Castro overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. The subsequent reality of life in Cuba proved difficult, and opinions on Castro’s rule were decidedly mixed. However, in 1959, the revolution signified liberation from a hated, deeply corrupt, brutal dictatorship that treated its citizens with disdain. Few mourned the departure of Batista, who fled the country with $300 million.

Initially, Castro didn’t intend to engage in a hostile confrontation with the West. However, his reforms took on a distinctly socialist character. He casually confiscated assets belonging to American and other Western citizens and nationalized land, industries, and enterprises. The Cuban Electric Company owned by an American holding company was seized, as was property belonging to the United Fruit Company, an American agricultural giant.

Under Batista, the United States had dominated the Cuban economy and owned nearly all industries. Politically, the American ambassador wielded as much, if not more, power than the official leader of Cuba. The island effectively functioned as a colony; the companies owned everything but bore no responsibility for anything. Batista, ruling the country with their blessing and support, cared only for his own comfort and wealth, and even collaborated directly with the mafia and engaged in gambling enterprises.

By the time relations between the US and Cuba soured completely, Castro had nationalized over 500 American private companies.

Astute US politicians recognized the underlying issues; in a speech addressing the Cuban crisis, John F. Kennedy bluntly acknowledged that the puppet regime had driven Cubans to the brink. The primary cause of the Cuban revolution, he argued, was the dictator and his cohorts, whose actions ricocheted back against the US as the nation that had armed and politically supported Batista.

Castro frequently reminded the public of Washington’s dark role in the affair, but the United States could not restore relations with Cuba after the widespread confiscation of American assets.

Castro’s attempts to establish relations with the US failed. Then US President Dwight Eisenhower refused to meet with him, while then Vice President Richard Nixon seemed more interested in testing the waters than seriously negotiating with Castro. 

Meanwhile, the US had a track record of orchestrating coups in countries it deemed unfriendly. For example, in 1954, with help from United Fruit, a coup was carried out in Guatemala; following it, a dictatorship was established there. A similar strategy was being considered for Cuba.

Initially, the Americans sought to weaken Cuba through a trade embargo that began with oil and later expanded to sugar. In response, Castro initiated yet another wave of expropriations of American-owned businesses. The Eisenhower administration retaliated by banning all exports to Cuba. In turn, Castro nationalized everything he could, offering compensation in the form of Cuban bonds.

At the same time, a secret struggle between intelligence services unfolded, which quickly turned brutal. In March 1960, the cargo ship La Coubre, carrying weapons and ammunition purchased from Belgium, exploded in Havana’s port, causing massive casualties. The explosion occurred inside the ship and is believed to have been an act of sabotage. Unsurprisingly, Castro blamed the US for this incident, and the CIA’s involvement remains plausible. In effect, these actions pushed Cuba to align with the USSR, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev eagerly offered support to Cuba.

As tensions mounted, it became clear that backing from Moscow would be essential. Cuba was already subjected to bombings from light aircraft piloted by Cuban exiles. They flew out of Florida and targeted Cuban plantations and businesses. However, the US didn’t intend to stop at that. 

CIA Director Allen Dulles began planning for Castro’s physical elimination and the overthrow of the Cuban government. His deputy, CIA officer Richard Bissell, took on the direct management of the operation aimed at replacing Castro with a “more acceptable” regime. The details were being developed by the same team that had orchestrated the Guatemalan coup.

One key condition set by Eisenhower was “plausible deniability” – concealing America’s role in the operation.

The Americans had supporters in Cuba. First of all, there were plenty of people who had lost power and wealth due to Batista’s ousting. While Batista’s regime was undoubtedly mob-infested, the mafia was largely made up of officials and businessmen interested in regaining their status and fortunes. One such figure was Félix Rodríguez, who would later become a legendary CIA agent and one of the key participants in Che Guevara’s capture and execution. Rodríguez was the nephew of one of Batista’s ministers, and his father had been a landowner whose property Castro had seized.

Then, there were people who had supported the Cuban revolution but turned against Castro after witnessing how things had unfolded after the revolution. Disillusioned when Castro canceled elections and began political purges, many who had initially backed the revolution were now outraged. They argued that Castro had betrayed the original democratic goals of the revolution. One such figure was Manuel Artime, who participated in Castro’s uprising but quickly fell out with the leader, deeming Cuba’s leftward shift too extreme.

Brigade 2506: a proxy army of ambition, poor training, and illusion

Nevertheless, Americans managed to assemble a combat unit made up of Cuban exiles, named Brigade 2506.

The number 2056 referred to one of the fighters who had died in an accident during training. Manuel Artime was regarded as the political leader of the group, while Pepe San Roman headed the military unit. San Roman was an intriguing character – a professional soldier trained in the US who had commanded a company against Castro’s rebels but became disillusioned with Batista’s regime and was arrested for plotting to assassinate the dictator. After the revolution, he was released and joined the new armed forces. However, he helped the former officers of Batista’s army flee Cuba, and eventually had to escape from the new authorities.

Brigade 2506 trained at a camp near Miami, and additional training facilities were later opened. According to the initial plan, the exiles were supposed to launch a guerrilla war in Cuba to destabilize Castro’s regime. However, it was soon decided that a classic amphibious assault would be a more reliable method to topple the government.

Brigade 2506 had many issues. Of the 1,500 members, only about 135 were experienced soldiers; most members (brigadistas) received little to no proper training despite having ample time to prepare. Structurally, the Brigade was organized as light infantry, and was primarily armed with rifles and carbines, along with machine guns, mortars, hand grenades, and recoilless rifles. Their most formidable weapons were five Walker Bulldog light tanks. Moreover, they had 16 WWII-era bombers for support, and several transport planes. All equipment and armaments were, of course, supplied by the United States.

To obscure US involvement in the invasion, efforts were made to avoid using weapons unique to the US army. For similar reasons, the CIA rented landing vessels from a private shipping company owned by a Cuban. Even the soldiers were fed a story about a wealthy Cuban supposedly orchestrating the operation, but this clumsy deception fooled no one.

The plan Kennedy couldn’t stop

In the meantime, elections were held in the US, resulting in the victory of the energetic and charismatic John F. Kennedy, who ‘inherited’ the planned operation. As Eisenhower handed over power to Kennedy, he convinced the new president of the operation’s viability. They agreed that restoring Batista was not the goal; instead, they hoped a strong leader would emerge who would personally confront Castro. José Miro Cardona was envisioned as a good candidate for this role. Cardona was also a revolutionary – though notably, not a communist – and after serving as Prime Minister of Cuba and ambassador to Spain, he had fled to the United States.

The mission was named Operation Pluto. The US chose the Bay of Pigs, located on Cuba’s southern coast (southeast of Havana) as the landing site. Several factors influenced this decision. The area was sparsely populated, surrounded by forests and swamps, and had an airstrip. The troops were supposed to land at three dispersed locations. 

In reality, the plan had many flaws. About 1,500 men were supposed to land in separate groups that wouldn’t be able to support each other quickly if needed. The distance between Playa Larga, the northernmost landing point, and Playa Girón was 30 kilometers, with another eight kilometers to the third point to the east. The challenging terrain favored those who knew how to survive, maneuver, and fight in it.

Castro’s army included many partisans – soldiers and commanders who had fought against Batista, but in the brigade of exiles, only about 15% were experienced soldiers. Moreover, the brigade’s leadership didn’t have experience commanding so many troops in combat. San Román had some military experience, but only as a company commander. Moreover, rumors about the brigade were already circulating, so the element of surprise was lost.

Meanwhile, the CIA was full of unwarranted optimism. It believed that within days, volunteers from all over Cuba would flock to join the Brigade. Cardona seemed to have been intoxicated by his own propaganda, insisting that thousands of new recruits would join the military unit. The CIA officers clung to this belief not because it was true, but because they wanted it to be true. 

Castro was notified about the recruitment of exiles into the brigade and formed a new Cuban army. Though it lacked training and equipment, the Soviet Union helped with the latter, supplying firearms and vehicles. While these were WWII-era tanks and self-propelled guns, they could still become formidable weapons in skilled hands. The USSR also sent military advisors to bolster Castro’s forces – a group of aging Spanish leftists who had fled to the USSR after the Spanish Civil War. These weathered veterans of both the Spanish Civil War and WWII were also valuable because they spoke both Spanish and Russian. Furthermore, the USSR provided Cuba with intelligence data. Lastly, Castro had his own network of informants in Miami, and some details had even leaked to the press. So the Cubans were well-prepared.

Chaos on the beaches

The assault began early in the morning on April 15, 1961. The Brigade’s bombers targeted Cuban airfields, but the impact was limited. In a bizarre twist, the CIA even managed to stage a comedy: one plane was deliberately slightly damaged by CIA personnel while on the ground; then it flew to Miami and requested an emergency landing. The pilot used a fictitious name and claimed to have deserted from the Cuban Air Force.

On April 17, the operation began for real. The plan to land at the farthest eastern beach was abandoned, and the forces landed at two points – Playa Larga in the north and Playa Girón in the southeast.

At Playa Girón, a Cuban militia patrol spotted people in the water. Assuming these were fishermen in need of help, the patrol approached them. The “fishermen” opened fire, killing one of the militia members. This was the first victim of ground combat. Meanwhile, at Playa Larga, the landing force exchanged gunfire with local militias, killing them; however, the latter managed to alert the others about the invasion. The landing operation was slow; boats transporting the troops from the ships to shore encountered coral reefs. Coincidentally, something “unusual” was spotted along the shore before the operation, but the stains on aerial photographs were mistaken for seaweed. Now, that very “seaweed” trapped the landing craft.

The paratroopers fared even worse. Some parachutists landed in swamps. Some of their ammunition and gear sank into the mire. Others managed to land and took fire control over several roads that could be used by the advancing troops. However, the critical question remained: would the soldiers stay loyal to Castro, and would Cubans join Brigade 2506?

It turned out that Castro had little to worry about. He had already arrested everyone suspected of disloyalty, while the majority of people rallied around his banner. The idea of fighting against their government alongside the CIA did not sit well with the Cuban people.

By morning, Cuban planes attacked The Houston (the transport ship used by the exiles), forcing it aground on the western shore of the bay. This part of the landing force lost most of its weapons and ammunition and could not take part in further action. Meanwhile, Cuban aviation struck a supply transport vessel loaded with munitions, food, medical supplies, and fuel. The explosives detonated, completely destroying the ship.

Among the lost equipment was a relay station; as a result, communications between the two landing zones and the paratroopers were disrupted. Unified command of the operation was no longer possible. As the invaders struggled to unload their cargo, the Cubans mobilized reinforcements toward Playa Larga. A fierce battle raged in the air as Cuban forces shot down several invading bombers. Despite facing losses, the exiles had no choice but to pull the ships further out to sea. Two vessels attempted to flee from Cuban shores. One ship was forced to turn back when CIA operatives burst into the engine room and assaulted the crew, while the other successfully escaped.

The situation was in a state of uncertain balance. Castro had already taken decisive action, launching vigorous attacks against the invading forces. Now, it was only a matter of time before the brigadistas ran out of ammunition. Late in the evening, Soviet T-34 tanks launched an assault on Playa Larga. One T-34 tank was hit, but that was it. The soldiers and militia did not halt their advance during the night, but only intensified efforts. Members of the Brigade attempted to pit their light tanks against Castro’s T-34s. Although they later reported numerous destroyed tanks and many Cuban soldiers lost in the fighting, only one burned-out Cuban T-34 tank was actually photographed, while another was found in a ditch, seemingly damaged by a mechanical failure or a track loss.

In addition to the tanks, Castro had artillery supplied by the USSR. The 122mm towed guns may not have looked as impressive as the tanks, but they delivered overwhelming firepower, consistently pressuring the invaders who lacked the means to counterattack.

The relentless pressure began to pay off: after a night of fighting, the brigadistas started retreating from Playa Larga toward Playa Girón.

The invaders’ biggest loss was a transport plane carrying ammunition and fuel, which was shot down during the day. San Román decided to hold his position on the shore, hoping for the Americans to arrive. But they never came. Kennedy received a clear message from Khrushchev indicating that the USSR would not allow American forces to intervene in Cuba. Although the Soviet leader didn’t explicitly mention “war,” Kennedy understood the implication, and the Americans chose not to get involved.

The invaders’ aviation remained active and managed to bomb a column of Cuban troops heading to Playa Girón. However, this was their last ‘success’. The Americans deployed CIA pilots in an attempt to support the invasion, but two planes were shot down, resulting in the deaths of four Americans. By April 19, the Cubans had forced the brigadistas to retreat to the beaches. 

San Román tried to flee into the forests surrounding Playa Girón. Some soldiers from the brigade managed to swim to American ships, but the overwhelming majority remained on the beaches, where they surrendered in the following days.

In total, Brigade 2506 suffered at least 114 fatalities, while the Cubans lost 176 men. Additionally, four Americans were killed. A total of 1,202 exiles were captured, including San Román, who surrendered to the militia on April 25, and Manuel Artemio, the political leader of the group, who emerged from the swamps and laid down his arms on May 2. The paratroopers that remained in the rear and the landing force that disembarked from The Houston were quickly captured. The brigadistas and the Americans claimed enormous Cuban losses, inflating figures to several thousand casualties, but these were clearly exaggerations intended to soften the blow of defeat.

Uncle Sam found himself knee-deep in blood and mud. The alliance with the USSR had become Cuba’s only option, and was the direct result of US policy in Cuba. The accounts of the prisoners confirmed that the US had played a dirty game and suffered a spectacular defeat. Che Guevara even taunted Kennedy by sending him a letter: “Thanks for Playa Girón. Before the invasion, the revolution was weak. Now it’s stronger than ever.”

Soon after, the US assessed what went wrong. Of course, Kennedy wouldn’t publicly hold himself accountable, so the blame fell on the CIA leadership. Allen Dulles, along with his deputy Richard Bissell and a couple of lower-ranking officers, were forced to resign.

Before long, Cuba would find itself at the center of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which nearly plunged the world into nuclear war.

Relations between Cuba and the US remain hostile to this day.

The operation in Cuba failed on every level. The whole plan hinged on the idea that the invasion would trigger a rebellion against Castro, which was a blatant case of wishful thinking. The brigade was poorly trained, and the complex task of a sea landing proved nearly impossible for it. The CIA, responsible for planning the operation, was not competent enough to develop military combat strategies. The concept of “plausible deniability” severely limited American support for the invasion, especially in dealing with the Cuban air force. Moreover, some specific decisions were highly questionable: the brigade stood no chance of defeating a large army in open combat, yet there was no backup plan in place. As a result, the brigade directly confronted the Cuban military and, predictably, was utterly defeated.

Special military operations are always a gamble. However, the more elements left to chance, the higher the likelihood that, instead of victory, the ‘knights of cloak and dagger’ will face unforeseen disgrace.

The US rescue operation inside Iran earlier this month was actually a botched attempt by Washington to seize Tehran’s enriched uranium, geostrategic analyst Christopher Helali has said.

He gave an exclusive interview to RT on Saturday from a site outside the city of Isfahan where the Iranian authorities displayed the wreckage of American aircraft destroyed in the area on April 3-5.

Washington confirmed the loss of two MC-130J Hercules transport planes, four MH-6 Little Bird helicopters, an A-10 Thunderbolt and an MQ-9 Reaper drone during what US President Donald Trump called “one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History” to recover the pilot of an F-15E Strike Eagle, which had been downed by Iran.

Helali insisted that the rescue mission was just a cover up for “an enrichment uranium extraction operation by the US special forces.”

“The scale of destruction of all of the equipment left behind showed that this was a major operation – probably weeks and months in planning – and clearly it absolutely failed,” he said.

He filmed himself with the debris of the US aircraft, which he said included “multiple parts of different MC-130s… and the Little Birds – those small helicopters that are used in special operations.”

Judging by the footage, the display attracted thousands of visitors, who carried Iranian national flags and chanted anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans.

“The people have gathered here to celebrate the defeat of the US in this operation and overall Iran’s victory so far in this ongoing war of aggression,” Helali said.

Among those who gathered, “the feeling is one of energy, one of resilience, one of dignity, and clearly the people are coming out in full force to show their support for their country,” he stressed.

US allies are no longer sure that Washington is a “reliable” partner, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Speaking during an informal summit in Athens on Friday alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Macron was asked whether Europe was “becoming a bit irrelevant” given the various conflicts around the globe, including the war against Iran.

“Everybody sees that the number one power, the US, could be an ally for certain countries, but this ally is not so much certain... and nobody is totally sure if this alliance is reliable,” the French president said, arguing that this makes the EU appear as a more stable alternative.

“We used to live in an international order, and this international order is jeopardized by the two big powers,” he added.

The growing divide between European NATO nations and Washington has worsened since the US and Israeli attacked Iran in late February, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticizing bloc members over their reluctance to join the war.

Washington is trying to shift the burden of “containing Russia” onto its allies in Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week. The broader Western goal is to “preserve and renew their hegemony,” but as their relative power on the international stage declines, internal frictions in the West are intensifying, he added.

American economist Jeffrey Sachs has sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that US President Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran was heavily influenced by what he described as Netanyahu’s “fanatical” and misguided agenda.

Trump has repeatedly faced criticism, both domestically and internationally, for pursuing policies widely seen as closely aligned with Israeli interests across both his first and current presidential terms. Analysts and political opponents have often pointed to a broader shift in US foreign policy that allegedly favors the agenda of the Jewish State under Netanyahu.

“Trump’s decision basically led by Netanyahu,” Sachs told US conservative journalist and podcaster Tucker Carlson.

In a video interview published on Friday, the economist noted that Netanyahu has an agenda, stressing that the US president bought into what Sachs called the Israeli prime minister’s wrong understanding of the world.

“His agenda, in my mind, is fanatical and wrong, and has been mistaken for 30 years, and has cost America a fortune,” Sachs said. “I think the man is a disaster, I think he has the wrong framework of the world, just a wrong understanding.”

The comment comes as Trump extended the ceasefire with Tehran indefinitely on Tuesday to allow time for a potential deal, while keeping an American naval blockade of Iranian ports in place.

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

Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, have framed the conflict as Trump betraying his “America First” agenda in favor of “Israel First.”

Last week, Carlson slammed Trump’s Middle East policies, claiming that the president’s true religion is “Israelism” rather than Christianity. Trump’s former supporter argued that the US had launched the war against Iran “on behalf of Israel” and “at the instigation of Israel.”

Hungary's incoming prime minister, Peter Magyar, has picked a blind lawyer to become the cabinet minister responsible for DEI affairs as part of a sweeping government overhaul following Viktor Orban’s election defeat.

Magyar made the announcement on X on Friday, naming Vilmos Katai-Nemeth, 52, alongside transport pick David Vitezy. “For the first time in Hungary’s history, a blind Hungarian citizen… will lead the Ministry of Social and Family Affairs – including responsibility for accessibility and equal opportunities,” he wrote.

Katai-Nemeth has struggled with vision problems since childhood and lost his sight at 16 due to a hereditary retinal atrophy disease. However, he went on to qualify as a lawyer, and is a practicing attorney. He also earned a black belt in aikido – the first blind master in this disciple in the world – and has developed a self-defense system for the visually impaired.

In his new capacity, Katai-Nemeth will be working on improving healthcare access, child protection reform, and equal opportunities.

Some local media reports, however, have sounded skepticism over the appointee, pointing to his limited political experience and lack of familiarity with government machinery. According to Hungarian Conservative, a local media outlet, there is a possibility that Katai-Nemeth’s role will be reduced to that of a “figurehead,” with Bodis Krisztina, a veteran social policy expert and Magyar’s advisor, holding much more real power.

During his campaign, Magyar – who is generally considered a conservative – vowed to rebuild relations with the EU, but avoided open advocacy of LGBTQ rights, saying only that he wants a country where “no one is stigmatized for thinking or loving differently than the majority.”

However, earlier this week, the EU’s top court found Hungary’s 2021 ‘child protection’ law – which banned portrayals of homosexuality and gender reassignment in children’s media – “illegal.”

Later, Hungarian authorities received a request to register the first-ever LGBTQ-themed television channel in the country, reportedly dubbed Rainbow TV.

Two British fighter jets that scrambled from a Romanian air base received a green light to shoot down Russian drones flying not far from the border with the NATO country, Romania’s Defense Ministry has said. Romanian and UK officials have stressed that the warplanes never entered Ukraine’s airspace, or opened fire on Russian UAVs.

In a statement on Saturday, the Romanian Defense Ministry said that RAF Eurofighter Typhoon jets deployed at the 86th Air Base in Fetesti lifted off at 2 AM and established radar contact with a target 1.5 km from Reni, a Ukrainian port town on the bank of the Danube, barely a stone’s throw from Romanian soil.

“The pilots had authorization to engage the drones,” the ministry said, adding that multiple explosions were subsequently reported in Reni.

“Because that specific target did not breach the Romanian airspace, it could not be fired upon. The mission remained one of surveillance, deterrence, and readiness to respond if required,” the Romanian Defense Ministry stressed.

Officials in Bucharest also reported that a falling object in the area of Galati – a Romanian city directly across the Danube from Ukraine, adding that drone fragments damaged an outbuilding and an electricity pole, with no casualties.

Romanian officials subsequently accused Russia of “irresponsible” actions and the “lack of respect for the norms of international law and endanger[ing] not only the safety of Romanian citizens, but also the collective security of NATO.”

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the Danube River has emerged as an important logistical route between Kiev and its European backers, with media reports suggesting the artery could be used for weapons deliveries.

Moscow has consistently condemned Western assistance to Ukraine, saying that NATO members are directly involved in hostilities. However, in September 2025, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia “never attacks civilian facilities” and “never directs our drones and missiles at states located in Europe and NATO Alliance countries.”

Major US networks have turned a blind eye to an explosive undercover video in which a senior Pentagon official spoke about Ukraine’s rampant corruption and civilian casualties resulting from the war on Iran, O’Keefe Media Group journalist Michael Casey has told RT.

Speaking to RT on Friday, Casey weighed in on footage that O’Keefe Media Group released earlier this week, apparently showing Andrew Hugg, a Pentagon nuclear safety officer, revealing secrets to a woman he met on a dating app.

The official was recorded confirming that US airstrikes did cause collateral child casualties in Iran, discussing nerve agents stored in Maryland, and alleging that Ukrainian officials had pocketed US taxpayer funds going back to the Obama administration.

Casey underscored the fact, saying that he was “surprised” by the lack of reporting on the subject. “Why have CNN, NBC, ABC not covered the story? I think they’re afraid of James O’Keefe, if you want the truth. They’re scared of being his next target.” 

Casey also noted that it was “baffling” that a senior Pentagon official had spilled the beans on “very sensitive things regarding American foreign policy” to a complete stranger. “That opens the question: who else is he talking to? And it’s a very big national security issue,” he said, pointing to Hugg’s scramble to erase his digital footprint as a de facto admission of wrongdoing.

The journalist also singled out Hugg’s claims about the Ukraine corruption, saying that while they were “the most interesting parts of the exposé,” they were also “one of the least surprising.”

“It sounds like millions of taxpayer dollars dating back to the Obama administration were misused and taken into by Ukrainian oligarchs… Many people, specifically on the right, have for years been blowing the whistle, saying that money is being misused in Ukraine. Far too often, it has been dismissed as conspiracies,” he said.

O’Keefe Media Group was founded by controversial journalist James O’Keefe, whose modus operandi is to send undercover reporters on dates with their targets in order to record candid conversations. His former organization, Project Veritas, however, was repeatedly accused by critics of selectively editing footage to further a conservative agenda.

Four decades after a failed experiment in Soviet Ukraine led to a world-shaking radiation disaster and made Chernobyl infamous, the psychological safeguards protecting nuclear facilities from military action are weaker than ever.

In March and April of 2026, bombs landed near the Busher Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Iran. Russia’s Zaporozye NPP was deliberately firebombed by Ukrainian troops in 2024, as part of Kiev’s attempts to prevent Moscow from operating the contested facility. The Chernobyl wreck itself was targeted by a mystery projectile on the eve of a key international security event in 2025.

Nuclear weapons are so destructive that only an existential crisis should warrant their deployment. The taboo against nukes has been tested on several occasions since the technology’s iconic status was established by the US bombing of Imperial Japan, – including off the coast of Cuba in 1962, in the Middle East in 1954 and again in 1973. Each time, nerves held.

Nuclear facilities, particularly power plants with their large hot reactors and on-site storage of spent fuel, borrow some of that aura to become almost untouchable, as radiation fallout is strongly associated with both the weapons and technological disasters.

How to bomb a nuclear reactor

Attacking Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant risks “another Chernobyl,” a senior official in Tehran warned, after airstrikes killed 10 people, including a German engineer involved in the project on the Persian Gulf coast. The year was 1987, and the attacker was Saddam Hussein – no longer a ‘good guy’ in the eyes of the Western public, but still fighting the ‘bad guys’.

Tehran’s invocation of the then-recent Soviet nuclear catastrophe was an exaggeration. The Bushehr facility was still under construction when Iraqis targeted it six times, beginning in 1984. An attempt to deter Baghdad by reportedly bringing in a small amount of nuclear fuel didn’t work.

In 1980, at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Tehran bombed the under-construction Osiraq nuclear reactor at the Tuwaitha research center near Baghdad. The Israelis struck the French-provided project a year later. So did the Americans during the 1991 Gulf War – allegedly weeks before it would finally go online.

In 2007, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria. Years later, the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, confirmed that suspicions were correct and the clandestine facility was still being built when it was obliterated.

The pattern of preemptive attacks was upheld by non-state actors. Rodney Wilkinson, a South African fencing champion and anti-apartheid activist, carried out the bombing of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station just before it went online in 1982, taking care to ensure that there would be zero casualties and no radiation leaks.

Turning Back the Clock to: 1982. Rodney Wilkinson planted four bombs at the Koeberg nuclear power plant north of Capetown, South Africa. #WorldHistory pic.twitter.com/UtrU6rD7Ym

— History Then (@then_history) December 19, 2020

In major conflicts between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed powers, there were no military strikes on nuclear facilities. In short, the conventional wisdom has long been: you don’t risk another Chernobyl.

Ukraine throws rules out of the window

Like many other norms, respect for the IAEA’s seven pillars of nuclear safety seriously eroded during the Ukraine conflict. Russian forces took over the Zaporozhye NPP on March 3, 2022 during a lighting offensive. The site has since become the focus of a PR war built around a string of attacks in the plant’s vicinity.

Ukraine’s story about the military action has morphed over the years. First it claimed Russia kept heavy weapons at the nuclear site, making it a legitimate target. Then Russia was accused of conducting false flag operations to discredit Ukraine. After the IAEA dispatched an observer mission in September 2022, Kiev claimed Moscow was thwarting inspector rotations – though provocations stopped in 2025, after the international agency decided against travelling through territory controlled by Kiev. 

Arguably the most serious incident took place in August 2024, when incendiary drones caused a major fire at one of the Zaporozye plant’s cooling towers. Kiev claimed it was Russian self-sabotage, which just happened to virtually coincide with the launch of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region.

Ascribing logic-defying economic masochism to Moscow is a trope of pro-Kiev messaging. The 2022 blasts that destroyed the Nord Stream gas pipelines were initially framed in the media as Russia putting pressure on Germany by blowing up its own infrastructure. Now the only mystery remaining about that attack is whether Ukraine carried it out alone, with assistance from some NATO nations –  such as Poland or the US – or simply created a distraction so that the West could claim plausible deniability.

Chernobyl propaganda dud

An even more emblematic example of brinkmanship serving Ukrainian interests came in February 2025, when Kiev accused Russia of flying a single kamikaze drone into the shelter covering the Chernobyl plant’s contaminated site.

The incident took place on the eve of the Munich Security Conference. But in Germany, US Vice President J.D. Vance stole the spotlight that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky was undoubtedly hoping to get. Vance shocked the audience with his speech roasting perceived Western European degradation and casting doubt on America’s protection of NATO allies.

Consequently, the Chernobyl incident caused barely a ripple in media coverage and left an ugly tear in the New Safe Confinement – the shelter constructed in the 2010s with mostly foreign funding.

US and Israel tear down the window, the wall, the building

In a field where Zelensky merely played fast and loose, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swung like a wrecking ball.

In 2024, the two leaders teamed up to strike Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, claiming the 12-day bombing campaign ended Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. This year, Iran was somehow supposedly again weeks away from building the bomb and had to be attacked again.

As the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster approaches, the world has yet to learn how much economic damage the Iran War will cause it. But it has already dealt a blow to nuclear non-proliferation.

The 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) guarantees signatories the right to, and support for, the peaceful use of nuclear technology in exchange for accepting the IAEA’s controls to prevent weaponization. Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea all rejected the deal in order to acquire nuclear weapons, secretly or openly. 

Washington declares that there is no NPT deal for Iran, period. The religious prohibition of nuclear weapons by Israel-assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, now seems like a fig leaf.

Trump’s threat to annihilate all Iranian power plants unless it concedes defeat – potentially including Bushehr, now fully operational – may never materialize. A commando raid deep into Iran to capture “nuclear dust” – Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that it has no intention to give up – remains in question either.

But what is beyond doubt is that the risk of a major radiological incident is at the moment higher than ever. That’s the inevitable cost of nuclear brinkmanship.

Tehran has denied that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s trip to Islamabad will include new talks with Washington, pushing back on reports that US President Donald Trump is dispatching envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to restart negotiations.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a post on X early Saturday morning that “no meeting is planned to take place between Iran and the US” during the visit and that Tehran’s views would instead be conveyed to Pakistan.

Araghchi himself said he was embarking on a “timely tour” of Islamabad, Muscat, and Moscow in order to “closely coordinate” with partners on bilateral issues and consult on regional developments. Iranian state media said the three-leg trip is part of Tehran’s ongoing diplomatic effort to secure an end to US-Israeli aggression.

Embarking on timely tour of Islamabad, Muscat, and Moscow.

Purpose of my visits is to closely coordinate with our partners on bilateral matters and consult on regional developments.

Our neighbors are our priority.

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 24, 2026

The denial came after the White House announced that Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would travel to Islamabad for a new round of talks, while Vice President J.D. Vance would remain on “standby” and could still be dispatched if negotiations progress far enough to justify his involvement.

Washington indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran earlier this week, expecting a “unified” proposal from Tehran while keeping the US blockade of Iranian ports in place. The standoff around the Strait of Hormuz has rattled global markets, pushing Brent crude above $100 per barrel, while Trump has made clear that there is no firm timeline for ending the war.

Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, told RT that Iran is not seeking war but is ready to respond, insisting the country remains open to diplomacy if Washington abandons its bullying. Iranian officials, including Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have previously accused the US of trying to turn negotiations into “a table of surrender” after failing to achieve victory on the battlefield.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he has undergone treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, admitting that he delayed publication of the medical report for two months during the war with Iran.

According to Netanyahu’s annual medical report published on Friday, the tumor was found at a “very early stage,” with no spread or metastases, and the problem has now been fully treated. Hadassah Hospital oncology chief Aharon Popovtser said follow-up imaging and blood tests showed that “the disease has disappeared.”

Netanyahu said he had asked for the information to be withheld from the public so it would not be released “at the height of the war” against Iran and fuel what he called “more false propaganda against Israel.”

“You already know me. When I’m given information in time about a potential danger, I want to address it immediately. This is true on the national level and also on the personal level,” he wrote in a post on X.

The 76-year-old leader previously underwent surgery for an enlarged benign prostate in 2024 and had since been under routine monitoring, during which the tumor was discovered. It remains unclear exactly when the treatment took place, and his office said the rest of the medical report showed him to be in good health.

אומרים שאני מה? צפו >> pic.twitter.com/ijHPkM3ZHZ

— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 15, 2026

The disclosure comes after weeks of speculation about Netanyahu’s health after he missed multiple consecutive security cabinet meetings during the early phase of the US-Israel war with Iran.

In March, he released a bizarre video of himself waving his hands during a visit to a Jerusalem cafe in an apparent effort to quash rumors that recent videos of his public appearances were AI-generated.

The US will re-adopt the use of firing squads, electrocution, and gas asphyxiation for executing criminals convicted of the worst federal offenses, the Justice Department said in a statement on Friday.

The department said it is “readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration,” and expanding it to include “additional manners of execution,” and “streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.”

After returning to office last January, Trump said he would direct the DOJ to “vigorously pursue” the death penalty to protect Americans from “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.”

The decision reverses the approach taken by former President Joe Biden, whose administration paused federal executions. In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 people on federal death row, converting them to life without parole and leaving only three federal inmates still facing execution.

The United States is currently the only country in the Americas that actively carries out executions, while more than two-thirds of the world’s countries have now abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

Russia retains the death penalty in law but has observed a moratorium on executions since 1996. A recent poll found that nearly half of Russians now favor bringing it back, but lawmakers have argued that doing so would be legally impossible because the ban was imposed by the Constitutional Court, whose decisions cannot be overturned.

Welcome to America’s next public health crisis, which is being underwritten by big business and ignored by the US government.

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) has been around since the end of the 18th century and is used in a variety of products, including whipped cream canisters and car engines, to give them an extra power boost. It is also popularly known as ‘laughing gas,’ which dentists administer to their patients for pain relief. In the 19th century, laughing gas parties were popular among the middle and upper classes.

Late 20th century drug culture rediscovered nitrous oxide, in the form of ‘whippets’ (from whipped-cream chargers) and laughing gas balloons. However, only lately has nitrous oxide, marketed under the name of ‘Galaxy Gas,’ exploded in popularity among today’s youth in search of a cheap buzz.

Although ostensibly marketed as a culinary product, Galaxy Gas is sold in colorful bottles with alluring flavors, such as Mango Smoothie, Strawberry Cream and Vanilla Cupcake.

Meanwhile, the product (Galaxy Gas is just one of dozens of brands selling nitrous oxide) has been popularized on social media, where influencers on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have led millions of teens astray in search of a quick and affordable jolt of euphoria.

Various brands of nitrous oxide canisters can easily be bought online from major marketplaces including Walmart, Amazon and eBay. Though most companies require purchasers to be over 18 to order them, they’ve still found their way into the hands of many teens (Following reports of abuse, Galaxy Gas has paused direct sales from their website and is facing regulatory action due to health risks).

Across the US, more than 25 million people over the age of 12 may have tried inhalants, according to a survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And data shows adolescents from 12-17 more commonly use whippets than those who are 18 and older.

In February 2023, Ellen Mercer, 24, died in a British hospital two weeks after she was left bedbound by burning her legs with a nitrous oxide canister. According to the coroner’s report, Mercer’s death was caused by her substance abuse and a blood clot. The young woman, clearly addicted to the inhalant, was said to have inhaled two to three “big bottles” of the gas per day.

Meg Caldwell is another individual who lost her life due to her addiction to Galaxy Gas. Caldwell began inhaling the gas during the pandemic. With everyone locked down and little to do, it seemed that a few harmless hits of nitrous oxide wouldn’t hurt. According to the young woman’s family, her addiction quickly spiraled out of control and wrecked her life. She died at the age of 23 of an overdose in a parking lot outside of a smoke shop where she purchased the gas. The Caldwell family has filed a lawsuit against Galaxy Gas and several other companies, alleging that they marketed the substance for recreational use while disguising it as a culinary product.

One reason the inhalation of Galaxy Gas has become so dangerous is people are inhaling the gas directly from the nozzle of the bottle.

“In medical use, nitrous oxide is given in conjunction with a pretty high flow of oxygen,” says Dr. Bryan Baskin, Co-Director of Operations of the Cleveland Clinic’s Emergency Services. “That helps to keep people safe from some of the dangerous effects of the gas. People using it recreationally aren’t taking those precautions. They’re just getting straight shots of it, which can be harmful, particularly with repeated use.”

The nitrous oxide that enters your body starves the brain of oxygen, creating a dizzy, heady feeling that can last anywhere from a few seconds to five minutes. The user takes a hit, enjoys the feeling, and then wants more of the same, leading to abuse of the product. Chasing the high again and again deprives the brain and other organs of the oxygen they need for normal bodily function. At the very least, users may lose consciousness while inhaling the gas, thereby sustaining physical injuries like concussions. But there are other worse side effects.

Long-term users of nitrous oxide report major nerve problems, impaired memory, loss of concentration and loss of coordination. The brain and spinal column could become inflamed, leading to cases of full-blown paralysis. 

So what is the US government doing about the problem? Sadly, almost nothing. The level of regulation of nitrous oxide in the US is shockingly bad. There’s no official FDA certification; there’s no mandatory purity tests to ensure no contaminants of even more harmful substances; there are no size limits on the canisters; there are no import controls for cheaper, less regulated variants from other countries like China; there’s no guaranteed standardization of manufacturing or the content inside of these bottles. There literally could be anything inside, like heavy metal residue or hydrocarbons. In other words, a sticker saying it’s safe doesn’t make it safe. The same way that putting a ‘do not inhale’ warning on a canister won’t stop people from doing it. 

Even the bottles themselves are dangerous. Keep in mind, these are pressurized metal canisters, weighing up to two or more kilos. Effectively pipe bombs that people can get a buzz from. Due to the pressure inside of the canisters, manufacturing defects, heat or poor handling can result in explosive decompression. A loosely fitting valve or a poorly fitted seal on the canister could mean the difference between life and death.

Perhaps worst of all is how the product, with its playful packaging, is targeted at a younger audience that is less able to differentiate between what is healthy for them and what is potentially fatal.

It’s time for the US government to get involved and crack down on the peddlers of this dangerous product before it kills anyone else.

The European Union made a “big strategic mistake” by severing all communication with Russia after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama told Politico in an interview published on Friday.

The bloc intensified its sanctions pressure and cut off diplomatic engagement with Moscow in 2022, moving to back Kiev with hundreds of billions of dollars in financial and military aid.

“Europe has to be always, always, always talking to everyone,” Rama told Politico at the Delphi Economic Forum in Greece, arguing that the EU shot itself in the foot when it “cut every channel with Russia.”

The “more we postpone it, the less we’ll have a say at the end, because Russia – however this war ends – Russia is not going anywhere,” he said, adding that he was being frank because his country has no “dependence on Russia.”

However, three rounds of negotiations have so far failed to bear fruit, with Ukraine rejecting key Russian demands. Both Moscow and Kiev have admitted that the talks are effectively frozen due to Washington’s preoccupation with the war on Iran.

The EU has already “completely discredited itself” as a mediator, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month, rejecting French and British plans to deploy troops in Ukraine as part of security guarantees for Kiev.

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, European leaders deliberately make demands that they know are “utterly unacceptable to Russia” in order to sabotage US peace efforts and blame the collapse of the talks on Moscow.

A newly announced extension of the Lebanon ceasefire has been described by Israel’s UN envoy as “not 100%.” RT’s correspondent in Beirut, Steve Sweeney, says the remarks by Ambassador Danny Danon reflect the situation on the ground, with monitors recording repeated violations by West Jerusalem. 

The 10‑day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, initially announced by US President Donald Trump last week, was extended by another three weeks on Thursday. 

According to Sweeney, Israeli forces have used the lull to occupy swathes of southern Lebanon and impose a Gaza‑style “yellow zone” covering around 55 towns and villages where residents are barred from returning. He described the area as “in effect a kill zone,” pointing to reports that troops have been told to open fire on anyone entering and to the destruction of homes, hospitals, ambulances, schools, and other civilian infrastructure since the escalation in March, which has left nearly 2,500 people dead. 

While the three‑week extension may offer some relief to Beirut after weeks of bombardment and Trump “seems to think he could work a longer‑term peace deal,” for people on the ground – particularly in southern Lebanon – “it seems a very distant hope,” Sweeney says. 

Watch the full report from Beirut below.

The jury of the Venice Biennale, an annual international cultural exhibition, will not give awards to artists from countries whose leaders are facing charges of crimes against humanity, according to a statement issued on Thursday.

It affects Russia and Israel, whose leaders are subject to International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants, something both countries have rejected.

The five-member jury announced the decision despite the event’s stated policy of non-exclusion. One member, Marta Kuzma, professor at the Yale School of Art, is of Ukrainian descent.

The move effectively introduces a separate criterion within the event, creating a divide between the Biennale’s institutional stance and the position taken by its own judges.

Although the statement does not explicitly mention Russia and Israel, it says the “jury will refrain from considering those countries whose leaders are currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

An ICC arrest warrant was issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 over alleged deportations of Ukrainian children. Moscow, which does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction, has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

It comes as the European Commission said it was slashing a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant to the event over Russia’s participation. The Biennale has welcomed Russia back for the first time in four years despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, saying the exhibition is “an open institution” that “rejects any form of exclusion or censorship of art.”

However, the jury criteria are tied specifically to ICC charges, which are not uniformly applied across all conflicts.

US President Donald Trump has threatened lethal force against any Iranian boats suspected of laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming that Washington now has “total control” over the key waterway until Tehran agrees to a deal. 

The warning comes amid a maritime standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial transit route that accounts for approximately 20% of global oil and gas flows. Traffic has largely come to a standstill following the US-Israeli campaign against Iran and Tehran’s subsequent retaliation. 

Despite the fragile ceasefire that Trump extended indefinitely earlier this week, the US has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports.

“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat … that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a social media post late on Thursday, adding that US mine-sweeping operations are ongoing.

Trump claimed the US has “total control” over the strait. “No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is ‘Sealed up Tight,’ until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!” he wrote.

Tehran has pushed back, saying it has “the right” to act in the waterway if its national security is threatened and making the lifting of US restrictions a condition for resuming talks. 

Tensions in the strait have escalated following recent maritime incidents. This week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released footage showing the interception of two container ships in the waterway, while US forces have reported stopping and redirecting multiple vessels they described as suspected of violating sanctions.

The Hormuz disruption has rattled global markets, pushing Brent crude above $100 per barrel. International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol warned of “the biggest energy security threat in history,” while aid groups flagged risks to global food security as fertilizer and agricultural supply chains are hit. 

Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, told RT that Iran is not seeking war but is ready to respond, insisting the country remains open to diplomacy despite the escalation.

The British Foreign Office has closed a special unit that had been keeping a record of breaches of international law by Israel in the Gaza Strip, The Guardian has reported.

The shutdown happened despite UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper saying in a speech earlier in April that support for international law is a “core British value” and that it would be the focus of the department under her leadership.

The termination of the operations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) cell also means that funding will be cut for the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project run by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), The Guardian said in an article on Thursday.

British officials have been warned that because of this, the Foreign Office will lose access to a database of 26,000 verified violations by Israel put together by the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project, the report read.

The closure of the IHL appears to be driven by the UK cabinet’s decision to reduce the overseas aid budget to 0.3% of GDP, The Guardian noted.

The advocacy manager at Campaign Against Arms Trade, Katie Fallon, told the paper that the shutdown was aimed at making sure that the British government could “obscure unimaginable violations and crimes committed against the most vulnerable people in conflict and sustain arms sales at any cost.”

Over 72,000 people have been killed and over 172,000 wounded by Israel’s airstrikes and ground campaign in Gaza so far, according to figures from the Palestinian health authorities.

Israel is waiting for a go-ahead from the US to resume the campaign against Iran and bomb the Islamic Republic back to “the Stone Age,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has stated.

The message comes after US President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire with Tehran indefinitely on Tuesday to allow time for a potential deal, while keeping American naval blockade of Iranian ports in place.

”Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran,” Katz said on Thursday. “We are awaiting a green light from the United States… to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty… and to return Iran to the Dark Age and the Stone Age” by destroying its key energy facilities and economic infrastructure, he said.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several members of his family were killed on the first day of the Israeli-US campaign. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was appointed as his successor.

In the days leading up to the attack on February 28 there were indirect talks and reports of extended rounds of discussion between the US and Iranian delegations in Oman. Oman’s foreign minister even suggested that peace was within reach and that diplomacy should be allowed to do its work.

The “Stone Age” rhetoric was first used by Trump on April 1, roughly five weeks into the fighting. At the time, he warned that US forces would “hit [Iran] extremely hard” and could “bring them back to the Stone Ages” within “two to three weeks” if Tehran refused US demands, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing to a deal imposing stricter limits on its nuclear activities.

Tehran has rejected the demands, refusing to stop nuclear enrichment, which it says it needs for civilian purposes, including energy production and medical applications.

The US is allegedly weighing unprecedented measures to punish NATO members it believes failed to support its war against Iran, Reuters reported on Friday, citing an internal Pentagon email. The options are said to include the possible suspension of Spain from the bloc, according to the outlet.

The document, reportedly circulating at high levels in the Department of War, expresses deep frustration with European NATO members who denied the US access to their bases and airspace during the war that started in late February, an American official familiar with the document told Reuters.

Among the measures under consideration are suspending “difficult” countries from key positions within the bloc, as well as temporarily revoking Spain’s NATO membership. While admitting that such a move would have a limited impact on US military operations, the Pentagon email argues it would carry significant symbolic weight.

However, a NATO official has stressed to the BBC that no provisions for member states to be suspended or expelled from the bloc actually exist. The only way a country can leave is by voluntarily invoking Article 13, which requires one year’s formal “notice of denunciation.”

Commenting on the Reuters report, Sanchez brushed aside the threat, stating he was “absolutely not worried” about being suspended from the bloc, stressing that Spain is “a reliable member within NATO.”

Another option reportedly being considered by Washington is reviewing US diplomatic support for the UK’s claim to the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), which have long been disputed with Argentina. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer initially refused to join the US-Israeli war on Iran, although the UK later allowed “defensive missions” from its bases in the region.

Since the launch of the unprovoked attack on Iran, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed NATO members to join the campaign and help secure the vital Strait of Hormuz. 

When Spain and other European nations refused, Trump denounced NATO as a “paper tiger” and warned that the US could withdraw from the bloc.

French television channel M6 has aired a report comparing two unlawfully installed Christian crosses to an act of neo-Nazi vandalism, drawing sharp criticism, according to Tribune Chretienne.

The controversy followed a Wednesday broadcast in which sociologist Erwan Lecoeur drew parallels between the crosses and the work of right-wing vandals. The symbols of Jesus’s resurrection featuring the message “Ave Christus Rex” (“Hail Christ the King”) were recently installed on the Baou de Saint-Jeannet hill near Nice.

Lecoeur cited nearby graffiti reading “Nice is Germany,” a slogan associated with far-right groups and Nazism during World War II, framing the crosses as part of a broader ideological symbol system.

Critics said the parallel was unacceptable, arguing that the Christian cross is a religious symbol, while such slogans are tied to extremist ideology.

“Since when has the cross been a Nazi symbol?” French outlet Tribune Chretienne asked, condemning what it called an “indefensible media amalgam.” The outlet added that “confusing the two… amounts to trivializing one and denaturing the other: it is a true intellectual profanation.”

The crosses appeared in recent weeks on the hill, which is located within a protected natural area where unauthorized structures are prohibited. One was removed by authorities, while the other was later cut down, prompting a public debate over the legality of their installation under French secularism laws governing the use of religious symbols in public spaces.

Local reactions have been divided, with some residents describing the installation as provocative, while others have condemned the destruction of the cross as vandalism.

Similar controversies have surfaced in France in recent years involving perceived links between Christian traditions and Nazi imagery. In 2025, a France Televisions report suggesting a connection between Christmas markets and Nazism drew backlash and was withdrawn, according to Tribune Chretienne.

Historians have documented how the Nazi regime sought to appropriate Christian symbols, a legacy that continues to fuel debate.

A lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has said that he was detained by police for wearing a kippah with the Israeli and Palestinian flags on it.

Alex Sinclair said in a post on Facebook on Thursday that he had been sporting the kippah for 20 years due to “a messy ambivalence of my Jewish-Zionist identity” and it was never a problem.

But a few days ago, a man approached him at a cafe in his hometown of Modi’in in central Israel, telling him that his skullcap was illegal and that he was going to call the police, he wrote.

Officers arrived some five minutes later. “They immediately tell me that my kippah is against the law and that they are going to confiscate it,” Sinclair recalled.

The lecturer said he refused to give up his head covering as it “meant so much” to him and he ended up being detained. He was swiftly released, but the police tried holding on to the kippah.

When he demanded it back, a female officer returned it to him only after cutting the Palestinian flag out of the head covering, the educator wrote. The symbol is not illegal under Israeli law.

זו המדינה שאנחנו חיים בה: ד"ר אלכס סינקלר ישב בבית קפה במודיעין. לקוחה אחרת הבחינה שעל הכיפה שלו יש דגלי ישראל ופלסטין ביחד, סמל לשלום, והזמינה את המשטרה. המשטרה הגיעה והודיעה לו ש"הכיפה שלו נגד החוק". משסירב להסירה, נקלחה הכיפה בכוח, והוחזרה לו אחרי שדגל פלסטין נגזר ממנה. זהו. pic.twitter.com/cqCik3dUov

— Alon-Lee Green - ألون-لي جرين - אלון-לי גרין 🟣 (@AlonLeeGreen) April 23, 2026

"It’s hard not to say that this is the kind of thing that fascist regimes do,” Sinclair stressed, adding that he is “worried and anxious and frankly devastated that this is the direction that Israel is moving in.”

The police confirmed that they had briefly detained a man for wearing a Palestinian flag, but refrained from further comments.

Since Israel started its military operation in Gaza in response to a deadly incursion by Hamas in October 2023, the powers of the police to enforce public order have been vastly extended, with multiple incidents of officers removing and seizing Palestinian flags being reported.

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

Once the Nazis were done, quite a few people started scratching their heads. Obviously one thing to baffle any sane observer was the sheer enormity of their crimes, accomplished, moreover, with frenetic, really start-upish drive and ambition in a mere 12 years: World War? Check. Genocides? Check. Bad hairstyle? Check.

But then, there also was another puzzle: How could their self-besotted visionary-in-chief, hobby philosopher (with a bent to sinister German stuff), and obviously mentally less-than-stable wannabe genius of a leader have gotten a whole nation of, apparently, reasonably educated people to go along? And not just go along, but go along to the very, very bitter end.

That question was all the more disturbing in view of the fact that Adolf Hitler had not been shy about displaying his insanity and extremely bad intentions well before conservative elites installed him in power in 1933. Hitler’s book-length – indeed two-volume – manifesto of German fascism (AKA Nazism) Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and 1926, sold more than 12 million copies and was translated into over a dozen languages.

Those ready to brave its pathological me-me-me-and-HISTORY narcissism, daft hodge-podge ramblings about the better and the lesser parts of humanity, and brownshirt-bro bombast could not say that the future Leader had been concealing where he intended to lead Germany and, really, the world.

Indeed, Hitler’s manifesto could have served as an all-alarms-howling, bright-red-lights-flashing-everywhere, get-the-straitjackets-now warning. The main points of Nazi Germany’s evil to come were all there, laid out in general but with stunning honesty: empire building with industrial-strength brutality, extermination or at least slavery for those considered inferior and superfluous, and last but not least, eternal primacy of one master country, to be achieved and maintained by all and any means, because that country – in Hitler’s case Germany – was defined as superior to all others and called upon to lead the world, forever.

It is one of those bitter ironies of history that Alex Karp, CEO of the very peculiar software company Palantir, who regularly refers to his Jewish family background and what it would have meant for him under the Nazis, has recently released a manifesto that also should serve as a warning to the rest of us. A summary of his longer tract ‘The Technological Republic’ (co-authored with Nicholas Zamiska) the 22-point X post has provoked a great backlash.

These are not overreactions. Karp’s Palantir Manifesto really is an astonishingly open exploration of a very sick mind’s vision for the future of humanity, arguing, in effect, for an open-ended AI arms race, bringing back German and Japanese militarism, racism masked as realism about cultural backwardness (as it happens, also a Nazi “Kulturträger” move, which Karp should have heard about in his German years), and, last but not least, letting our brilliant billionaires and new elites in general off the hook when they mess up. How unselfish.

It is also painfully, criminally badly written in a style that combines mock-Oswald Spengler Götterdämmerung kitsch (“The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public.”) with sheer non-sequitur inanity (Why, again, can’t we have economic growth and security without any of that “ruling class decadence”?).

There are passages that read like young Jordan Peterson – age 15 and on too much Diet Coke – trying to be deep, really, really deep for the first time: “Those who look to the political arena to nourish their soul and sense of self, who rely too heavily on their internal life finding expression in people they may never meet, will be left disappointed” and “our society has grown too eager to hasten, and is often gleeful at, the demise of its enemies. The vanquishing of an opponent is a moment to pause, not rejoice.”

After the inimitable practice of America’s war idiot-in-chief Don Tzu of Hormuz, Alex and his Palantir friends are giving us their I Ching of the tech dim. Lucky us: So much American primacy and then we get Silicon Valley meta, too!

Yet farcical as Karp’s manifesto is, it is, of course, a deadly serious matter. After all, we live in a world where Palantir has already risen to far too much power. Founded as a CIA spin-off after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and backed by totally normal “transhumanist” and Antichrist-obsessive Peter Thiel, Palantir has grown into a bloody monster, combining, in true fascist style, the logics of efficiency and extermination with its software tools, such as Gotham, Foundry, or Maven, while mass-spying on everything and everyone it can, and systematically embedding itself in international business and government to become – or appear – indispensable.

But Palantir never rests. While deeply and proudly involved in genocidal slaughters and imperialist warfare, it also subverts peacetime societies pervasively. In Britain, for instance, a backlash has set in against the state’s reckless handing over of police powers and extremely sensitive data (for instance, in the spheres of finance and health) to the American CIA-offshoot gone rogue. In Germany, Palantir systems are used for policing in at least three of its federal states, Hesse, North-Rhine Westphalia, and Bavaria. In the US, Palantir has, of course, already so deeply invaded the state that it does not only help it fight its criminal wars abroad but also, for instance, terrorize its migrants and some non-migrants, too, at home.

Indeed, Palantir is so evil that even its own employees are beginning to wonder if they might, actually, be the bad guys. Hint: Yes, you are.

For the rest of us, that is, almost all of us on this planet afflicted by Silicon Valley: It’s time to believe them when they tell us to our faces that they are coming for us. Palantir is a clear and present danger. Its CEO is an extremely dangerous maniac, its mission is subversion, surveillance, and violence, and its only Achilles heel may be that old nemesis of the wicked: hubris. The sort of hubris that makes you announce your horrible aims in a manifesto we should call Alex Karp’s Mein AI.

A US Army Green Beret has been arrested on charges that he used classified information from the operation to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to place high-stakes bets on prediction markets already rocked by billions of dollars in suspiciously timed wagers during the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Prosecutors say Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke wagered some $32,000 on Polymarket and pocketed more than $400,000 by betting on Maduro’s removal from power, using insider knowledge from his role in planning and executing the January raid.

According to the Justice Department, Van Dyke faces charges including wire fraud, commodities fraud, and unlawful use of government information. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a parallel complaint, while Polymarket said it flagged the suspicious activity itself and cooperated with investigators.

During the US-Israeli war on Iran, prediction and traditional financial markets saw a flood of suspiciously well-timed bets tied to airstrikes, ceasefires, unexpected statements, and diplomatic twists.

Traders placed more than $1 billion in “perfectly timed” wagers, including an $850,000 bet just before US strikes on Iran and roughly $950 million in oil futures hours before US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, according to The Guardian. That announcement alone generated more than 413 million bets and over $100 million in wagers across prediction markets in just a few days, according to AP.

Reporter: There are also bets being placed on the Iran conflict. People suspect there is insider trading happening. Are you concerned?

Trump: Unfortunately, the whole world has become somewhat of a casino. I don't like it conceptually. It is what it is. pic.twitter.com/t1OPOUWHub

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 23, 2026

Scrutiny has also fallen on the Trump family’s links to the industry over potential conflicts of interest. The New York Times reported in January that Donald Trump Jr. had advisory ties to Polymarket and rival firm Kalshi, and had an investment in the former through his venture firm, 1789 Capital.

Trump himself downplayed the betting frenzy on Thursday, saying he was “not happy with any of that stuff” but adding that “the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”

Iran is not seeking war, but it is ready to keep fighting, Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, has told RT in an exclusive interview, arguing that the Islamic Republic has never been the side to abandon diplomacy despite repeated stabs in the back.

“The general policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is that if the other side is willing to negotiate, we will negotiate. If they want war, we will fight,” Jalali told RT on Thursday.

The ambassador stressed that Tehran has never “betrayed” or left the negotiating table, which is exactly what Washington did in February and earlier under US President Donald Trump.

“In the record of the US President, there was the tearing up of the JCPOA, and there have been two attacks against us while talks were ongoing,” he said.

“If they want to continue this trend, it is natural that the Islamic Republic of Iran will fight. But if they intend to negotiate, we are ready for systematic negotiations with strong guarantees to establish lasting peace and to preserve and protect Iran’s rights and compensate for our losses,” he added.

Tehran has pushed back hard on that narrative. In a coordinated show of unity on Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf published near-identical statements declaring that there are no “hardliners” or “moderates” in Iran, only “Iranians and revolutionaries.” They vowed that the country’s “ironclad unity” would make the aggressor regret its actions.

The standoff continues around the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has tightened its grip on global shipping and the US has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, intercepting or turning away at least 30 vessels.

Trump further raised the stakes on Thursday by saying he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boats allegedly laying mines in the waterway. Tehran considers the blockade a direct breach of the ceasefire and has argued that any talks are pointless as long as it remains in place.

US President Donald Trump has said that he would like to see his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Miami, but expressed doubt that he would actually come.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the White House intends to invite Putin to the G20 summit in December, while a senior administration official said Russia would be welcome at both ministerial meetings and the leaders’ summit.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin said there was already an invitation for Russia to participate “at the highest level,” but it is too early to say who will attend. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov likewise said Moscow will decide closer to the date who will represent Russia.

“I’m of the opinion that you talk to everybody. I’m not one of these guys who [says] ‘Oh, let’s not talk to him,’” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “If you’re a smart person, if you have control over your emotions… I’m somebody that believes in talking.”

“I don’t know that he’s coming. I doubt he’d come, to be honest with you,” he added.

The summit is scheduled for December 14-15 in Miami, with Trump set to host it at his Doral golf resort. Putin has not attended a G20 summit in person since 2019, initially because of the pandemic and later amid the fallout from the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Moscow, however, has little interest in the old G8 logic Trump keeps invoking. Peskov previously said the G8 “has lost its relevance” for Russia, while the G7 looks “bleak” and “ineffective” compared to the G20. He has also argued that the G7 no longer reflects the real balance of the global economy, whereas the G20 includes the major growth centers and “better reflects the economic locomotives of the world.”

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at a reporter who asked whether his threats to destroy Iranian civilization meant he was ready to use a nuclear weapon, dismissing the question as “stupid.”

The exchange took place at the White House on Thursday, where a journalist recalled Trump’s April 7 warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Tehran did not accept his terms, a remark widely condemned as apocalyptic and potentially genocidal.

“Why would a stupid question like that be asked? Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we’ve totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it? No, I wouldn’t use it,” Trump said, adding that a “nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”

.@POTUS to Jim Acosta's girlfriend (@ElizLanders) when she asks one of the dumbest questions ever — if he'd use a nuclear weapon on Iran:

"Why would a stupid question like that be asked?... No, I wouldn't use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody." pic.twitter.com/U235920fwD

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 23, 2026

The US president used the occasion to once again boast about the scale of American military damage inflicted on Iran, while suggesting that any rearmament by Tehran during the ceasefire could be knocked out in “about one day” if necessary. He also said he could make a deal immediately, but wanted one that was “everlasting.”

Washington indefinitely extended the ceasefire earlier this week, expecting a “unified” proposal from Tehran, while keeping the US blockade of Iranian ports in place, even as follow-up talks with the Islamic Republic stalled and tensions persisted around the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump has made clear there is no firm timeline for ending the war, telling Fox News on Wednesday that there was “no time frame,” and urging critics not to “rush” him again on Thursday.

“They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation,” Ghalibaf wrote on X on Thursday.

David Wilcock, a self-styled American UFO researcher and a prominent paranormal content creator and author, has been found dead in what has been ruled a suicide.

The incident happened days after US President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into a string of mysterious deaths and disappearances of nearly a dozen American scientists starting in 2023. The researchers had access to some of the nation’s most closely guarded nuclear and space secrets.

In a statement on Monday, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office reported that at approximately 10:44 AM, a person called 911. The dispatcher suspected that the caller “was experiencing a mental health crisis.” When deputies reached the residence northeast of the town of Nederland, they encountered an armed man, who “used the weapon on himself” within minutes of their arrival, the statement said.

On Wednesday, the Office of the Boulder County Coroner identified the 53-year-old victim as David Wilcock.

He was a vocal member of the so-called disclosure movement, whose adherents believe that the US government is withholding information from the public regarding UFOs and aliens.

Wilcock had hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and Facebook and authored a number of books, including such bestsellers as ‘The Source Field Investigations’ and ‘The Synchronicity Key’.

“I want you all to know how much I love and appreciate you,” Wilcock wrote.

His suspected suicide came amid increased public scrutiny into the deaths and disappearances of at least ten US scientists and researchers over the past few years. The puzzling circumstances surrounding their cases have spawned online speculation ranging from foreign espionage to a government cover-up of classified UFO research.

Speaking to reporters last Thursday, Trump announced that he had instructed the authorities to look into what he described as “pretty serious stuff.”

An unknown applicant has reportedly filed to register the first-ever LGBTQ-themed TV channel in Hungary.

It comes just two days after the EU Court of Justice struck down a law passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban restricting or banning the “promotion” of homosexuality and gender change in media accessible to children. The 2021 legislation was found in violation of the values the EU is supposedly built upon, and the court ordered Budapest to repeal the law or face further action, including financial penalties.  

Shortly after the ruling was made public, an unknown entity filed an application to register the first LGBTQ-themed channel in the country, Hungarian outlet Media1 reported on Thursday, citing sources. The project, Rainbow TV, aims to reach a wider audience and will include a variety of content such as cultural programming, arts, music, culinary segments, talk shows, and interviews.

The EU court ruling came less than ten days after Orban suffered a decisive election defeat to his former ally and longtime rival Peter Magyar. The incoming PM has campaigned on mending ties with Brussels and securing more than €16 billion ($19 billion) of bloc funding for the country, withheld under Orban over allegations of corruption and rule-of-law issues. 

The incoming government will have to weigh the costs of a rapprochement with the EU and the risk of irking the country’s conservatives if it repeals the LGBTQ propaganda law. While Magyar largely kept quiet about sexual minority issues during his campaign, he pledged to shape Hungary into a country “where no one is stigmatized for thinking differently than the majority or loving differently than the majority.”

Born out of the need for safety, Israel today finds itself navigating a reality defined by recurring conflict and persistent insecurity. As another Independence Day has passed, for West Jerusalem the sense of permanence it was meant to symbolize remains elusive. Military strength has grown, yet lasting security continues to slip out of reach.

Herzl’s promise, Israel’s reality

"Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvelous potency,” Theodor Herzl wrote in 1896 in The Jewish State, imagining a place where Jews would finally be safe.

”We should there form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. The sanctuaries of Christendom would be safeguarded by assigning to them an extra-territorial status, such as is well known to the law of nations.

We should form a guard of honor about these sanctuaries, answering for the fulfilment of this duty with our existence,” Herzl added, outlining not only a refuge for Jews but a broader civilizational mission.

In Herzl’s formulation, a Jewish state in Palestine would serve as both sanctuary and frontier – protecting its people while embedding itself within a wider moral and political order. Security, in this sense, was not meant to come at the expense of others, but to align with a system of guarantees extending beyond Judaism itself.

Yet the deeper aspiration – a stable and secure order consistent with the ideals its founders articulated – remains elusive. Israel today operates in a condition of permanent insecurity, shaped by recurring wars, threats, and cycles of violence that have defined its history. The shock of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel reinforced a sense that even overwhelming military power cannot fully prevent catastrophe.

At the same time, the broader vision Herzl sketched – of safeguarding not only Jewish life but also the sanctuaries of others – sits uneasily with recent realities. After more than two years of continuous military operations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, which have claimed far more civilian lives than those of the Hamas and Hezbollah operatives Israel set out to eliminate, that ideal appears increasingly strained. 

This year, Israeli authorities blocked Jerusalem’s Catholic cardinal from observing Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, prompting international outcry. In a separate incident, an Israeli soldier was reported to have destroyed a statue depicting the crucifixion of Jesus in a Catholic village in southern Lebanon. Episodes like these, whatever their immediate context, complicate the idea of Israel as a neutral guardian of a wider religious and civilizational space.

Embedded in Herzl’s vision was also a particular idea of Jerusalem: not merely a contested city, but a space where competing claims would be mediated through guarantees – including special protections for religious sites. That idea sits uneasily with the city’s modern political reality. Much of the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem, viewing it instead as part of the territory of a future Palestinian state, while Israel considers the area annexed and has, over decades, consolidated its control through policies ranging from land expropriation to restrictive urban planning for Palestinian residents.

This year, that gap between vision and reality is especially hard to ignore. Israel enters Yom Ha’atzmaut amid war, with the trauma of the October 7 Hamas attack still shaping public life. Fireworks and ceremonies go ahead, but they do so alongside sirens, military operations, and the unresolved question of what security actually means.

For years before October 7, 2023, it appears, Israeli decision-makers operated under a working assumption: that Hamas was neither willing nor capable of launching a large-scale, coordinated attack on Israel’s territory. The group was treated as a contained threat – dangerous, but ultimately deterred, constrained by Israel’s military superiority, surveillance systems, and the tight control imposed on the Gaza Strip.

That assumption proved catastrophically wrong. The scale and coordination of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel exposed not only operational failures but also a broader conceptual one: the belief that a long-term status quo of blockade, fragmentation, and intermittent force could remain stable.

Warning signs, in retrospect, were not entirely absent. Israeli officials had reportedly obtained elements of Hamas’s battle plan more than a year before the attack, yet dismissed it as aspirational and too complex to execute. At the same time, internal accounts cited by the Jerusalem Post suggest that an intelligence analyst – a non-commissioned officer in Unit 8200, known publicly as “V” – repeatedly warned of the scope and seriousness of Hamas’s preparations, only to have those warnings disregarded by her superiors as unrealistic. 

According to the New York Times, more than a year before it happened, Israeli officials even obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the terrorist attack that outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people. Taken together, these accounts point not simply to a failure of intelligence collection, but to a failure of interpretation – a tendency to see what fit existing assumptions rather than what was actually unfolding.

Even after the attack, vulnerabilities within Israel’s security system have continued to surface. In May 2024 – seven months after October 7 – individuals posing as infiltrators were reportedly able to access an Israeli military base and collect sensitive information using false identities, highlighting persistent gaps despite the country’s emphasis on control and surveillance.

More strikingly, similar concerns have emerged at the structural level. This January, a major security breach exposed thousands of classified Israeli military documents online, according to the Haaretz. The leak, which included sensitive operational details, maps of military facilities, and even the full names of active-duty personnel – including air force pilots – remained accessible for nearly a week after being flagged. Some of the files were stored without any authentication, and search engines had indexed parts of the archive, making them easily discoverable. Military censors reportedly classified the exposed material as “life-threatening,” yet the delay in addressing the breach underscored systemic weaknesses that stand in tension with Israel’s image as a highly controlled security state.

In the aftermath, Israel’s response has been defined by an overwhelming reliance on military force, framed explicitly as an effort to prevent another October 7. The stated objective is clear: dismantle Hamas’s capabilities to the point where it can no longer pose a threat. Yet nearly two years into sustained operations in Gaza and Lebanon, the results suggest a far more ambiguous outcome.

On the ground, the war has produced extensive destruction and a severe humanitarian crisis. But beyond its immediate human cost, it has also failed to resolve the central strategic question: what comes next? Six months into a fragile ceasefire, the second phase of a US-backed peace framework remains effectively stalled. Key provisions – including a mutual and sustained halt to hostilities – have not been fully implemented. Israeli forces continue to maintain a significant presence in Gaza, controlling large portions of the territory and expanding what has been described as a buffer zone along its eastern edge.

At the same time, the political architecture meant to replace ongoing conflict remains undefined. Plans for a transitional Palestinian administration have not materialized, and proposals for an international stabilization force remain vague, with no clear commitments from potential participants. The question of governance – who will ultimately control Gaza – remains unanswered.

Central to this uncertainty is the issue of disarming Hamas. Israeli military assessments suggest that the group retains a substantial arsenal, including thousands of rockets of varying ranges. While there have been indications that Hamas might be willing to transfer some of these weapons to a Palestinian administrative body under international supervision, the framework for such a process is unclear. The proposed mechanisms do not specify who would receive the weapons, how compliance would be verified, or what guarantees would be offered in return.

Hamas has signaled that it is unwilling to disarm without credible assurances that Israel would uphold earlier commitments, including a lasting ceasefire and an end to restrictions on Gaza. Israel, in turn, continues to prioritize military pressure as its primary tool, viewing political concessions as secondary to security concerns.

This dynamic, in which military logic consistently outweighs political resolution, was not entirely unforeseen – Russian analysts had identified it earlier. Writing in the summer of 2024, Dmitry Maryasis, head of the Israel department at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, argued that for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political allies, who have remained in power for much of the period since 2009, Hamas has functioned as a “convenient partner.”

In this interpretation, Hamas’s refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist makes it possible to sustain the argument that a negotiated settlement is unattainable – since part of the territory of a potential Palestinian state is governed by an organization Israel defines as extremist. At the same time, rocket fire from Gaza provides a rationale for military responses, channeling the pressures of a security-oriented political and military establishment.

The ongoing rivalry between Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization further fragments the Palestinian political landscape, allowing Israeli policymakers to argue that internal Palestinian divisions must be resolved before any meaningful negotiations can take place.

More importantly, public sentiment among Palestinians suggests that the organization’s political position may not have been fundamentally weakened. Surveys conducted in the Palestinian territories in 2024 and 2025 indicate that a significant majority of respondents – around 81% – view the suffering caused by the blockade of Gaza as justification for Hamas’s actions on October 7. When asked about political preferences, the largest share – roughly 35% – express support for Hamas, with indications that this support has grown over time.

Israel’s approach results in a stalemate that is both political and strategic. A ceasefire exists in form but not in substance. Negotiations continue but produce no decisive outcomes. Reconstruction is discussed but remains largely theoretical, contingent on conditions that have yet to be met.

Making Lebanon pay the price  

Lebanon is far from being the only challenge Israel faces, but it is undeniably one of the most dangerous and persistently unresolved. Unlike Gaza, where Israel confronts a territorially contained adversary, Lebanon represents a far more complex and deeply embedded threat, one that Israel has struggled to address for decades without achieving a lasting solution.

The last major full-scale confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, the 2006 war, ended with a fragile international arrangement. The United Nations called for a cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and, crucially, the disarming of Hezbollah.

In practice, however, these provisions were never fully implemented. Hezbollah did not disarm. On the contrary, it expanded its military capabilities significantly, transforming itself from a guerrilla force into what many analysts now describe as a hybrid army. By 2024, the group was believed to possess tens of thousands of fighters and an arsenal of more than 130,000 rockets, many of them capable of reaching deep into Israeli territory. Many of these weapons were reportedly stored within civilian infrastructure, further complicating any military response. 

Israel changed its approach after October 7, focusing on degrading Hezbollah’s capabilities through targeted operations instead of negotiating. However, tactical success has not translated into strategic resolution. Hezbollah remains intact, and is still deeply embedded within the country’s political and social system. It holds seats in parliament, operates hospitals and schools, and exercises de facto control over large parts of southern Lebanon. At the same time, it maintains close ties to Iran, functioning as a central component of what Tehran describes as its “axis of resistance.”

The current situation reflects this unresolved tension. A ten-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, announced by US President Donald Trump and implemented last week, has only temporarily halted direct hostilities. The main problem remains unchanged: the Lebanese government has no power over Hezbollah, yet the latter is not a part of negotiations. 

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced across Lebanon, and many of them may have grown critical of Hezbollah. Yet they found themselves displaced, bereaved, and impoverished all the same. This is why the simple frame of “Israel versus Hezbollah” obscures so much: Hezbollah is not Lebanon, but too often it is Lebanon that is being made to pay the price.

The graves of independence

On the eve of Israel’s Independence Day, the country marks Yom HaZikaron – a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. The sequencing is deliberate. It is meant to remind the country that independence was not given, but paid for in a continuous struggle for survival.

Ceremonies at military cemeteries, including the one on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, are not only acts of mourning but also reaffirmations of the state’s founding narrative: that security must be defended, often at a high cost.

This year, that cost has become harder to ignore in purely symbolic terms. Israeli media reports suggest that the military cemetery on Mount Herzl is nearing full capacity, strained by a sharp rise in casualties since October 7. According to Ministry of Defense data, more than 1,200 Israeli soldiers’ remains have been transferred since the start of the war, with hundreds buried at Mount Herzl alone. Emergency measures have already been approved to expand burial space, with new areas being prepared to accommodate the growing number of graves.

While it’s hard to question the importance of remembrance, the proximity of memory and celebration also invites a more difficult reflection: not only on what has been paid, but on whether the price continues to rise – and why.

Israel has achieved some of its immediate military objectives in the current cycle of conflict. Iran, its most formidable regional adversary, has been weakened by the war with Israel and the US, and Hezbollah’s capabilities have been significantly degraded. Yet even these gains remain partial and unstable. A comprehensive and durable peace framework, including those between the US and Iran, has yet to materialize. Across Gaza, Lebanon, and the broader region, the underlying political questions remain unresolved.

More than a century ago, Theodor Herzl imagined a state that would guarantee safety to a people long denied it, where vulnerability would be replaced by sovereignty and stability. Israel has, undeniably, achieved independence. It has built a powerful state capable of defending itself in ways its founders could scarcely have imagined.

But independence alone does not resolve the question Herzl sought to answer. As Israel marks another anniversary under the leadership of Netanyahu, it faces a different challenge: whether its current strategy brings it closer to lasting security, or to another catastrophe.

The US Department of Justice has settled a lawsuit brought by Carter Page, an aide to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, over secret surveillance by the FBI amid the Russiagate investigation.

Page filed the suit in 2020, claiming he was a victim of “unlawful spying.” The ex-aide also alleged a series of irregularities by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in their 2016 and 2017 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on him on suspicion of acting on Russia’s behalf.

During the 2016 election cycle, the FBI eavesdropped on members of Trump’s campaign in a controversial probe partially based on the so-called Steele dossier – a mix of allegations about Trump’s connections to Russia, funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and compiled by a former British intelligence officer.

Page has long denied having any improper ties to Russia and was never charged with any wrongdoing. The suit was repeatedly tossed out by lower courts and eventually made it to the Supreme Court. The Trump administration informed the court that it had reached a settlement with Page over his claims against the federal government.

In recent months, the Department of Justice has been dealing with a Biden-era backlog of suits filed by Russiagate victims, as well as probing former officials involved in the 2016 anti-Trump campaign.  

Late in March, the DOJ settled a lawsuit brought by Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to Trump, who argued he was unfairly targeted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Flynn reportedly agreed to a similar payout of approximately $1.2 million, a fraction of the $50 million he had originally sought. The DOJ described the Flynn settlement as “an important step” to correct a “historic injustice” linked to Russiagate-related prosecutions.

Political hit-jobs in Cyprus and Slovenia are just the tip of an election interference iceberg in Europe, involving a dark nexus of Israeli spies, defense chiefs, and tech companies. The threat is real, but the EU is staying silent

Targeting the EU: Israeli spy firm’s open admission

A week after Cyprus assumed the EU’s rotating presidency in January, a video appeared on social media – from a relatively obscure account named 'Emily Thompson – showing President Nikos Christodoulides’s brother-in-law, a former energy minister, and a major construction magnate discussing influence-peddling arrangements between Christodoulides and foreign investors. Across a series of surreptitious recordings, the three also allege that Christodoulides took cash bribes during his 2023 campaign, and was taking cash to block EU sanctions against Russian business figures.

Can't even describe what I just received!
🚨 BREAKING BOMBSHELL VIDEO EXPOSES CYPRUS PRESIDENT'S SHADOW CASH MACHINE!
President Nikos Christodoulides allegedly SMASHED the €1M campaıgn fınance cap vıa a sneaky family network!
Brother-in-law Charalambos Charalambous (Director of… pic.twitter.com/B9YDR1Y3T3

— Emily Thompson (@EmilyTanalyst) January 8, 2026

Cypriot authorities immediately declared that the video bears all “the characteristics of organized Russian disinformation campaigns.” Anonymous EU diplomats told Euractiv that Brussels viewed Moscow as the prime suspect, and authorities in Nicosia said that they had reached out to the US and Israel for assistance in identifying the video’s source. AP and Euronews headlined likely Russian involvement.

The release of the video undermined Christodoulides – triggering the resignations of his most senior aide and his charity director wife – and put a black mark on Cyprus’ stint at the helm of the EU.

The ‘Videogate’ scandal simmered in the background until last week, when Black Cube, an Israeli private intelligence agency, admitted that it had recorded and edited the video. The company said that it had compiled the video on behalf of a private client – not a state actor – and that it “has cooperated with the Cypriot authorities and expresses confidence that they will establish the truth and bring those responsible to justice.”

What is Black Cube?

Founded in 2011 by “veterans of Israel’s elite intelligence units,” Black Cube describes itself as “the world’s leading human intelligence firm,” capable of finding “hard evidence otherwise impossible to obtain” in support of “high-profile litigations, arbitrations, and white-collar crime cases.”

The term ‘Human Intelligence’, or ‘HUMINT’, is key here. Unlike open-source intelligence (OSINT), which relies on uncovering publicly-available information, HUMINT is gathered through covert surveillance, interrogation, and the management of sources and informers through bribery, blackmail, or intimidation. It is the kind of illegal or quasi-legal tradecraft usually practiced by state intelligence agencies.

Black Cube co-founders Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus are veterans of this underworld. Zorella served in the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) military intelligence directorate, and Yanus was a strategic planning officer in the IDF. The company’s board is a who’s who of the Israeli intelligence and defense establishment, and includes:

• Meir Dagan (now deceased), former Mossad director

• Efraim Halevy, former Mossad director

• Yohanan Danino, former Israeli Police commissioner

• Major General Giora Eiland, former Israeli National Security Council chief

• Asher Tishler, dean of the College of Management Academic Studies, and consultant to the IDF

Black Cube’s client list is long and controversial. The company was hired by US President Donald Trump’s aides in 2018 to undermine the Iran Nuclear Deal; worked for then-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, to spy on his political opponents; and spied on journalists investigating NSO Group – another Mossad-linked Israeli tech company, best known for its ‘Pegasus’ spyware.

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein hired Black Cube in 2016 to silence and discredit numerous women accusing him of sexual abuse. Weinstein was encouraged to hire Black Cube by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein who co-founded Paragon Solutions, yet another spyware and surveillance company.

Israeli spy-tech infiltration of EU?

Zorella, Eiland, and two other Black Cube employees arrived in Ljubljana in late December, where they met with former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, according to a report by the 8 March Institute, a liberal Slovenian NGO. Jansa, a conservative, was running for election against liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob at the time.

The purpose of the visit became clear in early March, when – just like in Cyprus – a series of covertly-recorded audio and video files hit social media. They showed associates of Golob’s Svoboda party discussing penny-ante corruption within the Slovenian government with undercover Black Cube employees posing as foreign investors. The officials bragged about their influence over the media, their connections to Golob, and their ability to offer access to the prime minister for a fee.

Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) held the videos up as proof of corruption within Golob’s government, and the scandal almost won him the election. Ultimately, Svoboda beat SDS by a margin of only 0.67%.

Jansa initially denied, but later admitted to, meeting with Black Cube. He has not admitted to hiring the company, however. Slovenia’s Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA) has since determined that Black Cube “intended to discredit individuals politically, which may pose a threat to national security and influence democratic elections.” SOVA added that “this interference was most likely commissioned from within Slovenia,” but it is still not completely clear by whom.

Does Black Cube work for Israel?

Nobody has accused Israel of ordering Black Cube to intervene in the Cypriot election, but in this case, Netanyahu’s interests and the interests of the Cypriot opposition overlap.

Black Cube is one of many defense and intelligence startups filled with ‘former’ Israeli spooks and security chiefs. Although these companies are private, profit-making enterprises, their leaders are often more loyal to Israel than to the bottom line, as another example from Slovenia demonstrates.

Two weeks before the election, Golob’s government chose not to join the ICJ genocide case against Israel. Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon told reporters that the government had no other option: “Many of the country’s cyber defense systems are of Israeli origin,” she explained, adding that to join the lawsuit “would jeopardize Slovenia’s national security.”

Fajon confirmed that she had been pressured into making this decision. “It is clear that these pressures exist, we are all subjected to them by superpowers, and ultimately this must be taken into account when deciding,” she said.

We welcome the Slovenian government’s responsible decision not to join South Africa’s fabricated blood libel proceedings against Israel at the ICJ

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) March 20, 2026

It is unclear whether the continuation of Black Cube’s campaign against Golob was a part of the pressure campaign, or whether Fajon was threatened by the Israeli state or the companies responsible for the country’s cyber defense systems. Regardless, the message is clear: Israeli companies are willing to interfere in EU elections, and by relying on Israeli technology, EU countries are trading sovereignty for security – neither of which they will get.

What is the EU doing about Israeli interference?

However, when it comes to the activities of Black Cube in Cyprus and Slovenia, Brussels has stayed silent.

Slovenian authorities urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to probe the company’s work in the runup to last month’s election, arguing that “such interference by a foreign private company poses a clear hybrid threat against the European Union and its Member States,” according to a letter published by Politico.

The commission has not even publicly acknowledged receiving the letter.

Yet there are far more cases of Black Cube and its ilk interfering in European elections. RT will look at these cases in depth over our 'Wired for War' series and ask, why is the EU so willing to ignore blatant meddling happening within its own borders?

AI developer Anthropic insists it has no backdoor or “kill switch” for its Claude AI once it is deployed in classified Pentagon military networks, according to a new court filing.

The US military and the tech firm found themselves embroiled in a policy dispute earlier this year, with the Pentagon insisting on using the system for “all lawful military purposes,” while the company stood by its AI safeguards related to mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons use.

The Pentagon ultimately ended its partnership with Anthropic, designating the tech firm a “supply chain risk,” a rare label typically reserved for entities linked to Washington’s foreign adversaries. The designation bars the company from not only working with the US government directly but also any other contractors from using its products as well.

In a new filing to a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, Anthropic disputed the key US administration claim that the firm still retained some degree of control over Claude AI once it was deployed to classified systems and effectively granted itself an “operational veto.” The firm said it has “no back door or remote kill switch,” while its “personnel cannot log into a department system to modify or disable a running model.”

Anthropic was formally designated a “supply-chain risk to national security” on February 27, while US President Donald Trump accused it of being run by “leftwing nut jobs.” The company challenged the label in court, with the legal battle yielding thus far mixed results.

Earlier this month, the DC court rejected Anthropic’s request for a pause on the supply chain risk designation. In a parallel case in California, however, a court sided with the company, temporarily blocking the administration decision. With the split decision, Anthropic remains barred from working with the Pentagon but can still continue its partnerships with other agencies while the legal battle goes on.

Veteran German politician Sahra Wagenknecht has lashed out at Chancellor Friedrich Merz after a €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan to Ukraine, which Berlin had been actively promoting, was approved by the bloc.

On Thursday, the European Council announced that the interest-free loan has been finalized and that it will begin disbursements “as soon as possible” in the second quarter of 2026. A day earlier, EU ambassadors agreed the transfer of funds to Vladimir Zelensky’s government, just hours after Kiev resumed the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline.

The financial package had previously been vetoed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who rejected Ukrainian explanations about the pipeline being damaged in a Russian strike and insisted that Kiev halted oil supplies in January deliberately to influence the outcome of the election in Hungary. Orban’s Fidesz party ended up losing the April 12 vote to the pro-EU Tisza party led by Peter Magyar.

“Merz, who bears significant responsibility for this madness, has turned his own citizens into cash cows for Ukraine. A chancellor could hardly fail more miserably,” the politician, who served in the Bundestag for more than 15 years and founded the Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht party, wrote.

Merz repeatedly called for the loan to be swiftly issued to Ukraine to serve as “a signal from Europe to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”

Germany, which is the EU’s largest economy, has already provided almost €44 billion ($52 billion) to Kiev since the escalation between Russia and Ukraine in 2022. According to the current budget, Berlin’s aid to Zelensky’s government will be increased to around €11.5 billion ($13.7 billion) this year.

The approval of the package by Brussels is “another step towards the complete loss of sovereignty by the European capitals,” Shoigu stated.

A French soldier who was gravely wounded in an attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon last week has succumbed to his wounds, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Another French peacekeeper was killed in the incident and two more were injured; their patrol came under small-arms fire in the village of Ghandourieh in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In a post on X on Wednesday, Macron said that one of the wounded troops, Chief Corporal Anicet Girardin, who had been evacuated to France a day earlier, had died.

The president expressed his condolences to Girardin’s relatives and to the families of the other servicemen injured in the attack, which he blamed on the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said in a statement on Saturday that it “denies any connection to the incident,” calling for “caution in making judgments and assigning responsibilities” pending an investigation by the Lebanese military.

More than 2,300 people have been killed and over 1.2 million have been displaced due to the fighting on the ground and IDF airstrikes in Lebanon, according to the authorities in Beirut.

A total of three French troops have lost their lives in the current Middle East conflict. One soldier also died and several more were wounded in a drone strike on a French-Kurdish base in northern Iraq in mid-March.

At the moment, some 700 French troops are deployed in Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL, which includes 7,505 peacekeepers from 47 nations.

What makes a prosperous nation?

The West has one answer: money.

For decades, Western institutions have measured things like GDP, sustainability and ‘human development’ to show which countries are doing well in the world.

But do these things indicate what is truly important for humans as a species and a society? Heavily skewed towards individual consumerism, they downplay tradition and paint the growth of human population as a problem – to the point where family is seen as an atavism and ‘child-free’ appears to be the lifestyle of the progressive future.

Such views are very clearly filtered through the prism of the modern liberal West – so much so that they serve as soft-power tool for promoting Western ‘values’. If your country scores high on a Western index of well-being or development, it doesn’t really mean it’s ‘doing well’ by itself – it simply means it is aligned with a certain world-view.

The emerging new multipolar world order needs new benchmarks, which is why RT is introducing the Social Well-Being Index – a new and unique way to measure the status of nations, which takes into account the most fundamental and objective criteria of societal health to create a deeper understanding of global development trends.

Why we need the Social Well-Being Index

In recent years, the topic of the sustainability of nations has emerged from the oblivion into which it had sunk decades earlier, during the era of the confrontation between capitalist and socialist world systems. While Marxism-Leninism didn’t view nations as actors in historical processes, the main alternative to the communist ideology of the USSR and China was Western liberal universalism that emerged in the latter half of the 20th century.

Western capitalist elites won the ideological battle by presenting mass consumption as the solution to social well-being. Emerging victorious, the West dictated the terms of globalization. However, it soon became clear that globalized capitalism, like the global communist movement before it, did not ensure national sovereignty or the sustainability of nations, since this limited the power and profits of the globalist elite.

The influence of this elite is maintained not only through the dollar and NATO’s military strength but also through intellectual dominance—i.e., the promotion of “correct” concepts when it comes to the challenges and goals of human development. This led to the establishment of a binary development paradigm (“Sustainable Development” + “Human Development”), which imposed a universal “environmental” and “humanitarian” agenda on all countries while largely ignoring the sustainability of nations.

The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN shortly after the collapse of the USSR and the Soviet bloc stemmed from the Limits to Growth report published by the Club of Rome. Along with ecological and social responsibility, it promoted the need to reduce the human footprint, presenting population growth in the Global South as a catastrophic “demographic explosion” and recommending population control as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Simultaneously, “green investing” mechanisms were employed to restrain developing nations and reinforce the dominance of the post-industrial West.

At first glance, it looks like the HDI evaluates countries, but in fact it evaluates and compares average individuals rather than nations, ethnic groups, or communities within which the Homo sapiens has always existed. This approach implies that human society is merely a collection of rational individuals, and that individuals are primary and society is secondary. By turning individualism into a methodological principle, the HDI not only showcases the West’s economic leadership but also emphasizes its “humanitarian” superiority, thus becoming another tool of global Westernization.

The Western idea of globalization has gained considerable traction beyond the “golden billion” partly because it claimed to promote the spread of Western models of prosperity and individual self-expression. The proliferation and maximization of what has come to be regarded as human well-being and development have led to the following results.

In the West and among those nations that embraced Western individualistic values and consumerist ideals, rising living standards and education levels resulted in a dramatic decline in birth rates, leading to the shrinking and aging of the population. These trends have become so pronounced that they now appear irreversible.

Against the overall demographic decline of the modern world, the country that particularly stands out is the US. It is now the third largest world country in terms of population which keeps growing because of immigration. Apparently, the US isn’t eager to get a taste of its own medicine and implement population control.

However, America’s once-mighty “melting pot” is struggling to cope with the influx of immigrants, and the mass migration of poor, diverse peoples poses a major challenge for the country. In Western Europe, the situation is even more critical – immigrants from different cultures, who were supposed to fill gaps in the labor market left by the declining native population, have only exacerbated the systemic crisis.

This modern “migration period” is intensifying the internal crisis of the Western civilization, which, without any wars or disasters, has encountered unprecedented desocialization. We are witnessing the dismantling of nearly all established social structures, including the family unit, which has long served as the foundation of human society.

Meanwhile, the commonly accepted “human development” and “quality of life” indexes, utilized by international organizations and national governments, fail to recognize these alarming trends and either consciously or unconsciously overlook the fundamental paradox of modern human development: that the cult of maximizing individual well-being and self-expression is undermining human society.

The humanitarian paradox seen above appears to be universal, affecting nearly all countries in today’s globalized world, and particularly the most “advanced” nations, which form the “core” of the modern world system. To illustrate this point, let’s consider some of the wealthiest and most developed Western countries – specifically the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and Australia – which top the UN Human Development Index. Now, let’s take a closer look at the statistics on murder rates (number of homicides per 100,000 people) and birth rates (total fertility rate) in these supposedly prosperous societies.

The commonly held belief that highly developed Western countries represent a model of social well-being does not reflect reality. The “golden billion” is grappling with deep issues that can no longer be masked by high living standards; in fact, these problems often emerge as the darker side of consumerism. This shows the heavy price paid for prioritizing individual comfort and hedonism as the ultimate goals of human existence. Meanwhile, desocialization trends which are emerging in the West, such as the dissolution of the family and the shift towards child-free lifestyles, are presented as the pinnacle of progress. These ideas are spread through globalization and can be even more destructive in nations undergoing “modernization” than in the West.

In this context, countries that strive to build a new world order urgently need an effective strategic framework to assess the genuine well-being of nations for the purpose of planning and evaluating sustainable development.

What the Social Well-Being Index measures

The Social Well-Being Index is a tool for measuring and comparing the well-being of historically established human communities: localities, peoples, and nations. In defining human well-being and measuring it, we imply the following fundamental principles.

The highest good for any person is life itself. This fact is universally acknowledged by all religions, civilizations, and cultures. Thus, human well-being as such first of all supposes procreation, or the production of new life. Consequently, any indicators of human development that fail to consider this aspect cannot accurately assess human well-being.

While the production of offspring is an essential part of human well-being, it is not sufficient in itself. Human existence from birth until death inevitably involves suffering. If life itself is the supreme good, then other things that ensure well-being are essentially means of alleviating suffering. Therefore, human well-being implies not only producing new life, but also organizing life in such a way as to help alleviate suffering. What does this mean? To reduce human suffering means to minimize life threatening situations and eliminate extreme forms of human oppression.

The methodology of the Social Well-Being Index can be summarized in the following key points:

The production of offspring. Biologically, viability is a vital condition for the sustainable development of human communities, and this is ensured by the reproduction of the population. The key indicator of this is the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) – the average number of children born to a woman throughout her lifetime. This must be at least 2.1 to avoid depopulation.

For communities that do not face a danger of overpopulation or a depletion of resources, an optimal TFR is around 3.0. This figure indicates balanced population growth, with the next generation one and a half times larger than the previous one. A stable economy can support overall prosperity at such a demographic growth rate. A TFR above 4.0 is currently typical for the poorest countries of Africa, where economic growth cannot keep up with demographic expansion.

For Russia, given its demographic, geo-economic, and geopolitical realities, a TFR of 3.0 indicates sustainable development, whereas a TFR of 2.1 or lower poses an existential threat.

A TFR index below 2.1 not only signals a declining population but also shows that the idea of the family unit – which naturally produces new life and serves as the fundamental structure of society which teaches the basics of moral social behavior – is in danger. Therefore, the preservation of the family is essential for the reproduction of human society – both in terms of population and civilization. An important indicator of the condition of the family structure in society is the ratio of households comprised of couples with children.

The lack of relevant statistics in many countries prevents us from using the ‘family’ indicator when calculating the global Social Well-Being Index. However, given the significance of assessing the state of the family – especially for nations undergoing a “second demographic transition” – we will conduct ongoing monitoring and use this indicator to compare the situation in different countries and in the regions of Russia where such data is available.

The preservation of life. In order to minimize threats to human life, the natural right to life must be ingrained in the public consciousness, and certain institutional guarantees must ensure this right. This includes accessible and effective healthcare, public safety, and the promotion of a healthy, social lifestyle. These conditions create a culture of life preservation, which can be measured by means of three indicators: low infant mortality rates, high average life expectancy, and low mortality rates from external causes.

Infant mortality rates reflect not only the effectiveness of the healthcare system but also cultural standards, lifestyle choices, and parental responsibility. The key statistical measure is the infant mortality rate (IMR) – the number of deaths of children under the age of one per 1,000 live births.

A crucial indicator of a country’s well-being is the longevity of its residents. Life expectancy at birth serves as the primary measure for comparing countries and calculating the Social Well-Being Index. In many highly developed and prosperous nations, average life expectancy remains stable at 85 years, which apparently represents the maximum human life expectancy at this point.

Another crucial indicator of a culture of life preservation is the mortality rate from external causes (MEC). This refers to premature deaths resulting from socially determined factors such as homicides, suicides, traffic accidents, poisonings, and various infrastructure and technical accidents. These causes, along with the overall rate of premature mortality, reflect the safety of the social environment which is determined by the effectiveness of governmental institutions, social discipline, mutual respect, and solidarity. Conversely, the lack of such safety is driven by social alienation and hostility.

Regrettably, many countries don’t have adequate MEC statistics. Therefore, to calculate the Social Well-Being Index we focused on the homicide rate per 100,000 people. Homicide is one of the most severe crimes, and the number of premeditated murders is a major indicator of societal distress.

In our view, addressing poverty to preserve social unity and health requires not only the eradication of extreme poverty that leaves individuals on the brink of survival but even more importantly, the reduction of the widening gap between the rich and the poor, which serves as a social catalyst for oppression. In order to determine and compare income inequality, which largely determines social unity, we employed the Decile Dispersion Ratio which presents the ratio of the average income of the richest 10 percent of the population by that of the poorest 10 percent.

Children’s education can be assessed through statistics on the enrollment of children in secondary education institutions, derived from national censuses and surveys that reflect the percentage of individuals who have completed secondary education or higher. While this data is far from perfect, it shows education levels in different countries and the corresponding trends.

The Social Well-Being Index has been calculated using the following methodology. First, individual indexes for each country were calculated for each of the following: Birth Rate (BR), Infant Mortality (IMR), Life Expectancy (LE), Homicide Rate (HR), Income Inequality (II), and Children’s Education (CE).

Each index was calculated using the formula: (N-min)/(max-min)*100, where N represents the indicator’s value, max is the upper threshold, and min is the lower threshold. The upper threshold indicates the goal that society should strive for to achieve well-being, while the lower threshold serves as a point of reference that should be avoided as social development progresses.

Threshold values are typically determined based on the maximum and minimum values of each country’s or region’s respective indicators in the current era of human development (i.e. since the start of the 21st century). In cases where negative indicators are extremely high and difficult to verify (such as homicide rates or the income ratios between the top and bottom deciles of the population), the lower threshold is set at double the global average.

Thus, if a country’s or region’s indicator is close to or equal to the minimum, its index will approach zero; conversely, if it is near the maximum, the index will be close to 100. Similar to the methodology used for calculating the Human Development Index, if a country or region exceeds the upper threshold, its social well-being index will still be 100.

Then, the overall Social Well-Being Index (SWB Index) is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the six individual indicators:

SWB Index = (BR Index + IMR Index + LE Index + HR Index + II Index + CE Index) / 6

The Social Well-Being Index has been calculated for 146 countries for which relevant statistics are available.

What the Social Well-Being Index shows

At first glance, the ranking of countries based on the Social Well-Being Index might come as a surprise. It significantly differs from GDP per capita rankings, which reflect the material prosperity of nations, and from the Human Development Index (HDI) which considers not only income but also longevity and education levels.

Interestingly, there is no major distinction between the GDP per capita rankings and the HDI rankings. The most notable difference between GDP and “human development” occurs only in certain non-Western countries like Qatar, Kuwait, and Brunei, where wealth is heavily dependent on hydrocarbon extraction. Other top performers in the GDP per capita rating tend to score well on the HDI too, and vice versa. This supposedly reinforces the notion that Western and Westernized nations consistently emerge as global leaders in development – a point that proponents of the HDI set out to prove in the first place

The Social Well-Being Index, which takes into account the production of offspring and ranks nations based on their success in preserving human life, providing children with a complete secondary education, and reducing income inequality, paints a very different picture of the world – one that gives a richer, more nuanced and dynamic idea of global development.

To take a more detailed look at RT's Social Well-Being Index, complete with all the statistics, analytical articles, and real-time monitoring of relevant trends from around the world, check out the dedicated website, available in English and in Russian. You can also find a pinned link to it at the very top of our website's front page.