Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has released a video it says shows the moment an alleged Iranian drone hit Terminal 1 at Kuwait International Airport on June 3.

The agency described the incident as a “brutal Iranian drone attack,” saying it caused loss of life, serious injuries, and extensive material damage.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry previously said at least one person had been killed when a projectile struck the terminal and other “vital facilities,” including diplomatic missions. Several others were injured, the ministry added, without giving a number.

اللحظات الأولى للاعتداء الإيراني الغاشم من قبل المسيرات الذي تعرض له مبنى الركاب T1 في مطار الكويت الدولي بتاريخ 3 يونيو 2026 وتسبب بخسائر بالأرواح وإصابات بشرية بليغة وأضرار مادية جسيمة

The first moments following the brutal Iranian drone attack on Terminal 1 (T1) at Kuwait… pic.twitter.com/eTzQoVXB4K

— الطيران المدني (@Kuwait_DGCA) June 3, 2026

Tehran has denied deliberately targeting the passenger terminal. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed earlier that the damage was likely caused by a US Patriot missile launched to defend an American base in Kuwait from Iranian strikes.

The incident followed an exchange of strikes between Washington and Tehran. The IRGC said it had launched attacks on US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, including the US Fifth Fleet headquarters, after American strikes on Qeshm Island.

The US Department of War claimed that Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait failed to hit their targets, saying two projectiles fell short or broke apart en route. Kuwait said its air defenses were responding to missile and drone attacks during the incident.

US President Donald Trump has confirmed reports that he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “f***ing crazy” during a heated phone conversation over Israel’s military operations in Lebanon.

Axios reported earlier this week that Trump had angrily urged Netanyahu to cancel planned strikes on Beirut, warning that further escalation could jeopardize ongoing US-Iran negotiations and a fragile regional ceasefire.

Speaking on the New York Post’s ‘Pod Force One’ podcast on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged using the language attributed to him.

”I did,” he said when asked whether he had called Netanyahu “f***ing crazy.” 

“I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon. At some point I said, ‘We gotta stop this. We gotta stop it.’” Trump added that he still had a “very good relationship” with the Israeli leader.

The US president also dismissed claims that Netanyahu had pushed him into the conflict with Iran, saying anyone making such accusations was “the enemy.”

Lebanese health authorities said on Wednesday that more than 3,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since early March. The escalation has drawn criticism from Tehran, which insists that the US-Iran ceasefire framework also covers Lebanon.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned on Tuesday that continued Israeli operations could derail diplomacy.

”If the Israeli aggression against Lebanon continues, we will not only halt the path of negotiations, but we will also be in direct confrontation with the enemy,” he wrote on X.

The tensions come as the eight-week-old ceasefire between Iran and the US faces renewed strain. US Central Command said it carried out “self-defense strikes” on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Wednesday, while the IRGC said it targeted US-linked assets in the Gulf in retaliation for recent American attacks. Kuwait International Airport was reportedly struck during the exchange.

Germany has failed to win a temporary seat on the UN Security Council for the first time, losing a General Assembly vote to Austria and Portugal. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called the outcome “a real disappointment,” after Berlin had won all six of its previous bids.

Portugal won 134 votes and Austria 131 in the contest for two seats allocated to the Western Europe and Others group, while Berlin received only 104 votes in a secret ballot on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe and Trinidad and Tobago were elected unopposed to seats reserved for Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively. Kyrgyzstan secured the Asia-Pacific seat after defeating the Philippines, meaning the five incoming elected members will replace Pakistan, Somalia, Greece, Denmark, and Panama for a two-year term beginning on January 1, 2027.

The vote was presided over by former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is serving as president of the UN General Assembly.

Austria Wins UN Security Council Seat for 2027–28, Defeating Germany. Watch how Austria celebrates #austria #unitednations #un #securitycouncil pic.twitter.com/qsr9im2YVq

— Markus Iser (@maecx) June 3, 2026

Germany’s failed bid marked a break from its previous Security Council campaigns, which were traditionally preceded by years of coordination within the Western group. In earlier races for the 1977–1978, 1987–1988, 1995–1996, 2003–2004, 2011–2012, and 2019–2020 terms, Berlin either ran unopposed or entered as a clear favorite, and chose to stay on the sidelines when facing serious competitors.

Berlin has also long sought a permanent seat on the Security Council, arguing that the body must be expanded to better reflect today’s political and economic realities, while also promoting itself as a major UN donor and supporter of multilateralism. Wadephul said last year that the council should include additional permanent and non-permanent seats, especially for underrepresented regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

African leaders have called for at least two permanent seats for the continent, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described Africa’s exclusion from permanent membership as “indefensible.”

India has also pushed for permanent membership, citing its population, economy, democratic system, and UN peacekeeping record. New Delhi has said it is “eminently suited” for a permanent seat, while using its Voice of Global South initiative to cast itself as a representative of developing nations in debates over global governance.

The Security Council has 15 members: five permanent veto-holders – Russia, China, the US, the UK, and France – and ten elected members, half of whom are replaced each year for staggered two-year terms.

Hundreds of people have gathered in Southampton to protest the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak and his treatment by the police in his final minutes. The protesters initially gathered outside the city center police station before moving closer to the home of his killer, Vickrum Singh Digwa.

The rally on Tuesday followed the release of police bodycam footage showing officers handcuffing the stabbing victim while ignoring his pleas for help after his murderer falsely accused the student of carrying out a racist attack. The footage revived debate over claims of unequal police treatment of different ethnic groups, also known as “two-tier policing,” and sparked a nationwide outrage.

The rally on Tuesday followed the release of police bodycam footage showing officers handcuffing the stabbing victim and failing to respond to his pleas for help after the suspect falsely accused him of carrying out a racist attack. The footage revived debate over claims of unequal police treatment of different ethnic groups – often described by critics as “two-tier policing” – and prompted widespread public anger.

Protests in Southhampton continue with police now protecting the home of Vickrum Digwa's family following the release of the horrific bodycam footage of Henry Nowak. pic.twitter.com/sHTGpXRvHZ

— Pacific Wire (@ChynoNews) June 2, 2026

The rally participants chanted Nowak’s name and “I can’t breathe” – the words he was saying while being arrested. Activist Tommy Robinson joined the protest, telling the crowd that the case was “about race.”

At some point, violence erupted. Videos that surfaced on social media showed the crowd pelting the riot police with various objects. Chairs, cans, flares, bricks, bins and an e-scooter were reportedly thrown at the officers, forcing them to retreat from some areas.

🇬🇧 Ingleses partem para cima da polícia que protegeu um muçulmano assassino.

As cenas da morte do estudante inglês Henry Nowak, esfaqueado por um muçulmano, enfureceram a população de Southhampton. pic.twitter.com/OJbY1KEucK

— Rafael Fontana (@RafaelFontana) June 3, 2026

The police responded by pushing back, including by hitting the protesters with riot shields. Eleven police officers as well as a police dog were injured in the clashes, according to reports. Two people were arrested over the incidents, with the police saying that the number of arrests will increase as they were reviewing footage from the scene.

Riot erupts in Southampton between police and protesters as Henry Nowak protest turns ugly. Full video on YT. #henrynowak #Southampton pic.twitter.com/ItfF9XNBIm

— Urban Pictures (@Urban_Pictures) June 3, 2026

Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the violence at the protest by calling it “disgraceful and completely unacceptable.” He also criticized Reform UK leader Nigel Farage for what he called an “unforgivable” response to Nowak’s murder. Farage had earlier called on the British public to respond to the incident with “pure, cold rage” and called it a proof of the “two-tier culture.”

The missile that smashed into Kuwait International Airport's Terminal 1 on Wednesday was not fired by Iran, but was a US patriot missile launched to defend Washington's regional military base from attack, Tehran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) has claimed.

The missile exchange followed an American attack on a tanker en route to Kharg Island but which Washington said was violating its unilaterally imposed blockade against the Islamic Republic.

 “Our investigation and research into the Kuwaiti passenger terminal attack shows that the IRGC’s air force did not fire at this target, and the destruction of the Kuwaiti airport passenger terminal was caused by an error in the American Patriot systems, which landed on this terminal after failing to intercept Iranian missiles,” an IRGC spokesman announced on Wednesday.

At least one person died as a missile struck the terminal and other “vital facilities,” according to Kuwait's foreign ministry, including diplomatic missions. Several people were also injured in the attacks, it added, without specifying the number.

A video obtained by RT purports to show the aftermath of the strike. A short clip appears to show the inside of a terminal building filled with smoke and dust. Pieces of debris can be seen lying on the floor with several fires visible, including on the roof.

The Foreign Ministry did not comment on the extent of the damage inflicted on the airport. It condemned what it called Iran’s “aggressive attacks” and blamed it for “increased escalation” and “heightened tension” in the Middle East. It also warned that Kuwait “reserves its full and inherent right” to respond.

The escalation comes almost 100 days into the conflict and nearly two months after the US and Iran reached a fragile ceasefire after over a month of active hostilities. Tehran halted negotiations with Washington earlier this week over the ongoing Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

Iran also restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy chokepoint, after the US-Israeli attack in February, while Washington began a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Burned villages. Families slaughtered in their homes. Women, children, and the elderly hacked to death with axes and pitchforks. Thousands of Jews beaten, tortured, and murdered during pogroms that accompanied the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. These are some of the atrocities associated with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – movements whose legacy remains one of the most divisive issues in Eastern Europe more than eighty years after World War II.

For decades, supporters of the OUN-UPA have portrayed its members as freedom fighters who resisted both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in pursuit of Ukrainian independence. Opponents, however, point to a different record: collaboration with the Third Reich, participation in anti-Jewish violence, and the mass killing of Polish civilians during the Volhynia massacres of 1943-1944, which Poland today officially recognizes as genocide.

Below, we’ll talk about the origins of modern Ukrainian nationalism, the motives behind the mass killings of Poles and Jews by underground nationalist forces, and the reasons why OUN-UIA leaders collaborated with Nazi Germany.

The ideology behind Ukrainian ‘heroes’

Ukrainian integral nationalism, which became the foundation of OUN-UIA ideology, owes much to the writings of Dmitry Dontsov. In the mid-1920s, he articulated a doctrine of Ukrainian nationalism that was heavily influenced by the fascist ideology of the time. 

In his 1926 work ‘Nationalism’, he proclaimed the principle of Social Darwinism in relations between nations: he stated that various peoples exist in a state of perpetual and merciless conflict, and the strong ones “expand” at the expense of the weak. He dismissed morality as a constraint, arguing that “the end justifies the means” – i.e., any form of violence could be justified in the name of national success, including the physical extermination of anyone not belonging to one’s “own” nation.

According to this doctrine, the Ukrainian nation was seen as an absolute value, superior to the lives of the individuals who inhabit the country. Dontsov’s ideal was a totalitarian movement where individual interests were entirely subordinate to the greatness of the nation. He envisioned the future Ukrainian state as monoethnic and imperial, encompassing all “ethnographic Ukrainian lands” and purged of outsiders, including Russians (seen as Ukraine’s eternal strategic and mystical enemies), Jews, and Poles.

Such a state would be governed by an order, a special “ruling caste” – an elite composed of the “best people” who would manifest maximum ruthlessness for the sake of the national idea. Dontsov explicitly stated that members of this elite “know neither mercy nor humanity... they are driven solely by a burning desire to maintain the integrity of the nation,” not tolerating anything foreign and dealing with enemies in a decisive manner.

He envisioned a strong national leadership capable of implementing the Ukrainian liberation policy in order to address urgent challenges. From this perspective, Dontsov believed that the leaders of fascist, totalitarian, and anti-communist states – most notably Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler – could serve as role models for Ukrainians.

Dontsov extolled fanaticism and amorality, asserting that the driving forces of nationalism should be will, strength, expansion, and violence, along with racism, fanaticism, mercilessness, and hatred.

It’s no surprise that such an ideology inherently permitted and justified political terror. Dontsov established close ties with the Ukrainian Military Organization and urged his comrades to abandon discussions with opponents and resort to radical actions for the sake of the nation.

“You will attain a Ukrainian state or perish in the struggle for it,”

proclaims the precept from Dontsov’s ‘Decalogue of the Ukrainian Nationalist’. In this manifesto, a “true patriot” is instructed to avenge fallen comrades and harbor hatred for the enemies of his nation.

In essence, Dontsov proclaimed violence a virtue. By the early 1920s, many of his followers, including members of the Ukrainian Military Organization, resorted to individual acts of terror against those they deemed agents of “anti-Ukrainian policies.”

The rise of the OUN

The Ukrainian Military Organization was a clandestine military group founded in 1920 by Colonel Evgeny Konovalets who spent over 10 years in exile and hoped to one day return and seize power in Ukraine.

The organization’s mission was to fight against Polish and Soviet authorities for Ukraine’s independence, employing tactics of terror and inciting a “revolutionary explosion among the Ukrainian people.”

In 1921, Stepan Fedak attempted to assassinate Polish Prime Minister Jozef Pilsudski by shooting the “dictator” of the Polish Republic. The operation failed (Pilsudski emerged unscathed) but it underscored the radicals’ willingness to take extreme measures.

Over the following years, Ukrainian nationalists continued their underground activities, including political assassinations and sabotage. In 1926, in Lviv, 19-year-old Roman Shukhevich, who would later lead the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, shot and killed Polish school supervisor Jan Sobinski. He was accused of persecuting Ukrainian students, and thus the nationalists believed he deserved death. Each year the number of victims of such violence grew by the dozens.

The organization founded by Konovalets was the largest and most radical of its time, but it wasn’t the only one. In 1929, the First Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists took place in Vienna, where various factions – including the Ukrainian Military Organization – came together to form a new entity: the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Led by Konovalets, the movement’s ideology was rooted in the principles set forth by Dontsov, elevating the cult of strength, blood, and national superiority to an absolute value.

During the 1930s, the OUN engaged in underground activities, particularly in Galicia. It was also during this period that Stepan Bandera emerged as a prominent figure among the nationalists. Young, ruthless, and determined, he quickly established himself as one of the recognized leaders of the OUN, gaining notoriety through violent acts against high-ranking Soviet and Polish officials.

In 1933, Bandera organized the high-profile assassination of Soviet diplomat Andrey Mailov, who worked at the Soviet consulate in Lviv. The assassin, Nikolay Lemik, shot the diplomat inside the consulate building. 

However, the OUN considered its real “triumph” the assassination of Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki in June 1934. Pieracki was the mastermind behind a campaign known as “pacification” which aimed to suppress the Ukrainian nationalist movement in Galicia. Bandera personally selected Grigory Matseiko to carry out the assassination. Matseiko fatally wounded Pieracki right on the street in Warsaw.

A Polish court sentenced Stepan Bandera to death for organizing the murder,  but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. During his trial, Bandera showed no remorse, and stated: “We know how to value our lives and those of others, but our idea is worth making millions of sacrifices for.”

Bandera’s imprisonment did not last long – he was released in 1939 after Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and quickly rejoined the nationalist movement.

By the late 1930s, after Konovalets was assassinated by Soviet intelligence agent Pavel Sudoplatov, the OUN splintered into factions of “moderates” and “radicals.” This division became apparent by 1940, as the organization split into the Melnik faction (led by Andrey Melnik) and the Bandera faction (led by Stepan Bandera).

Despite their differences, both factions remained committed to the ideas of integral nationalism and sought allies to combat their common enemies in Ukraine. Soon, they found such an ally in Nazi Germany.

Terror against Jews

Ukrainian nationalists placed their main hope in Adolf Hitler, with whom Konovalets met several times in the 1930s. They believed that with the support of the Nazis, they could finally build an independent state. As Dmitry Dontsov wrote at the time, “For us, the most important aspect of Hitlerism is its commitment to a decisive struggle against Marxism.”

The connections between the nationalists and the Nazis were so significant that in 1939, just a few weeks before WWII broke out, Andrey Melnik personally met with Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the Abwehr. As a result of these negotiations, the OUN received specific directives from the German command on gathering intelligence about the USSR and conducting subversive activities in Poland.

However, the collaboration with the Nazis did not distract the Ukrainian nationalists from what they considered more pressing tasks: eliminating ethnically foreign elements.

In a May 1941 directive, the OUN explicitly stated that Russians, Poles, and Jews were enemies of the Ukrainian nation and must be annihilated. 

In the early days of Nazi Germany’s war with the USSR in June 1941, nationalists called on people to take up arms and “destroy the enemy,” declaring:

“Muscovites, Hungarians, Jews – these are your enemies. Eliminate them!”

And words soon turned to actions. 

After German forces captured Lviv on June 30, 1941, Ukrainian nationalists unleashed a brutal pogrom against the city’s Jewish population. OUN militants, operating as part of the so-called Ukrainian People’s Militia and the Nachtigall Battalion, organized raids on Jewish residents. People were publicly beaten, tortured, and many were murdered right in the streets or executed after being tortured. Over the course of a few days, thousands of Jews were brutally killed. Similar atrocities occurred throughout the region; the occupying authorities encouraged anti-Semitic violence, which local nationalists eagerly participated in.

The OUN viewed Jews as “supporters of the Moscow-Bolshevik regime” and welcomed their extermination. Many members of the OUN later served in auxiliary police forces for the Nazis, actively participating in the Holocaust by herding Jewish people into ghettos and camps, escorting death marches to Babi Yar in Kiev, and personally executing prisoners.

Although later the UIA declared a fight against Germany, by early 1943 almost all Jews in Volynia and Galicia had been killed, with the active help of Ukrainian nationalists. Few managed to escape, and only a handful of people survived the war within the ranks of the UIA – these were mostly doctors or specialists who were tolerated for practical reasons.

Hunting for Poles

However, the primary targets of the ethnic cleansing efforts of the OUN-UIA were the Poles of Galicia and Volynia, whom the nationalists regarded as historical enemies and “occupiers” of Ukrainian lands that needed to be expelled or eliminated. Plans for these atrocities were devised long before the Volynian massacre: as early as 1938, the OUN’s internal doctrine outlined a project for an uprising aimed at “sweeping away every last Polish element” from Western Ukrainian territory.

This document cynically stated that

“Polish colonists are the hostile force against which the struggle must be ruthless, brutal, and zoological... Those Poles who resist will be destroyed in this fight, while the others must be forced to flee beyond the Vistula [river].”

The OUN demanded that no Poles remain on Ukrainian territory, seeking complete “national purity.” Moreover, the doctrine explicitly stated that “no methods should be considered too harsh... Poles, Russians, and Jews must be exterminated.”

These sinister plans began to be implemented in the spring of 1943 when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the military wing of the OUN) carried out the massive slaughter of the Polish population in Volynia.

The Volynian massacre of 1943 became one of the bloodiest crimes of WWII in Eastern Europe. UIA units and armed nationalist peasants attacked hundreds of Polish villages with the intent of physically annihilating all Poles living on “Ukrainian” land. Terror reached its peak in July 1943 during ‘Bloody Sunday’ on July 11, when dozens of settlements were simultaneously attacked by militants.

The methods of execution were unbelievably cruel. People were killed indiscriminately: women, the elderly, children, and infants; many were not just shot but hacked with axes, stabbed with pitchforks, or bludgeoned to death. The homes of Poles were burned to the ground, their property looted; entire villages vanished in flames and were reduced to charred ruins.

Historians estimate that 60,000-100,000 Poles were barbarically killed by the OUN-UIA in Volynia and the surrounding areas. Polish partisan groups later responded with retaliatory terror against Ukrainian villages; however, the initiative for the large-scale extermination of civilians belonged squarely to the Ukrainian nationalists. 

The modern Polish Sejm and historians classify the Volynian massacre as an act of genocide. Numerous accounts indicate that the slaughter was premeditated by the leadership of the OUN, which sought to realize Dontsov’s vision of a “monoethnic” state at any cost.

As a result of the actions of the OUN and UIA, Poles in Volynia and Eastern Galicia were virtually annihilated. Waves of refugees fled their homes to escape the violence. The ethnic landscape of the region was radically reshaped through mass terror tactics. Repression was not limited to Poles and Jews: UIA militants also targeted Ukrainians who refused to support them or were suspected of “disloyalty,” labeling them as traitors.

Nazi collaborators

The activities of Ukrainian nationalists extended beyond the extermination of Jews and Poles. Under the command of Roman Shukhevich, the head of the OUN military branch, two diversionary Abwehr battalions were formed – the Nachtigall Battalion and the Roland Battalion. These Ukrainian units became part of the Wehrmacht and, in June 1941, crossed the Soviet border dressed in German uniforms and under German command, invading the territory of the Ukrainian SSR alongside the Nazis.

Subsequently, the Germans formed the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 from the Nachtigall and Roland battalions. It was dispatched to Belarus to combat partisans. This battalion was also commanded by Roman Shukhevich, who would later become the supreme commander of the UIA.

In 1942, the soldiers under his command participated in punitive expeditions aimed at “pacifying” Belarusian villages suspected of aiding partisans (in other words, burning down entire settlements along with their inhabitants).

Throughout this period, the OUN hoped to reap political benefits from its alliance with the Nazis.

On June 30, 1941, immediately after capturing Lviv, Bandera’s followers, led by Yaroslav Stetsko, proclaimed the establishment of the Ukrainian State and formed a pro-German “government.” In its declaration of statehood, the OUN openly expressed the intention to collaborate with Nazi Germany, which “under the leadership of its Führer Adolf Hitler is creating a new order in Europe and assisting the Ukrainian people in liberating themselves from Moscow’s occupation.”

However, these expectations were soon dashed. Adolf Hitler had no intention of granting independence to Ukrainians or creating the proposed ethnocratic Ukrainian state stretching from the Carpathians to the Volga. By July 1941, the German authorities had arrested Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko, and several other OUN leaders for overstepping their authority.

Despite this, at the grassroots level, the OUN continued to serve the Third Reich. Hundreds of Ukrainian nationalists worked for the Nazi authorities, police forces, and auxiliary SS units. The Ukrainian police, which included OUN members, participated in guarding ghettos and conducting mass executions of Jews, as well as carrying out punitive operations against partisans and the civilian population.

Even after this shift, however, the UIA continued to unofficially collaborate with the German command – documents show instances of local ceasefires and agreements between the insurgents and the Wehrmacht during 1943-1944. Apparently, the common enemy – Soviet power – brought them closer together than any ideological differences.

***

None of this helped save the Bandera and Melnik movements, however. After defeating Nazi Germany, the USSR turned its attention to the Ukrainian nationalists, effectively blockading western Ukrainian regions. State security agents cleared area after area. By 1950, most of the rebel leaders had been either killed or captured (Roman Shukhevich was killed in 1950, and Vasily Kuk, the last leader of the Ukrainian nationalist underground, was arrested in 1954). All centers of resistance had been suppressed by 1956.

The few OUN figures who survived ended up in exile in the West. Stepan Bandera settled in Munich under the protection of Western intelligence services after the war; however, he was assassinated in 1959 by Soviet agent Bogdan Stashinsky using cyanide gas. Other prominent OUN members – Yaroslav Stetsko, Nikolai Lebed, and Stepan Lenkavsky – settled in Europe and North America, continuing their ideological work by publishing journals and books and lobbying for the “Ukrainian cause” during the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. Within the émigré community, the OUN and UIA gradually became symbols of anti-Soviet resistance, while their dark past was hushed up.

The murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak has sparked national outrage in the UK after police bodycam footage submitted to court showed officers arresting and handcuffing him as he lay dying, while his killer remained uncuffed after falsely claiming to be the victim of a racist attack.

The case has triggered protests, renewed accusations of two-tier policing, and an investigation into how British authorities handled the incident.

Who was Henry Nowak?

Nowak was an 18-year-old University of Southampton student from Chafford Hundred, east of London in Essex. He was walking back to his student accommodation on December 3, 2025, when he was attacked in Belmont Road.

Who killed Henry Nowak?

Vickrum Singh Digwa is a 23-year-old Sikh from Southampton who had no previous convictions before the murder. He lived with his family on St. Denys Road in Southampton and had been helping his brother with Deliveroo deliveries on the night of the attack.

Prosecutors, however, have described him as a man with a “weapons obsession.” A British court heard that he had trained with weapons since the age of 12, slept in a bedroom surrounded by weapons, and had frequently searched for weapons on his phone.

Police reportedly also found a cache of more than 20 weapons at Digwa’s family home, including flick knives, knuckledusters, swords, a machete, an extendable baton, an axe, and an air rifle.

The murder

On December 3, 2025, while en route to his accommodation in Southampton, Nowak encountered Digwa in Belmont Road.

Shortly before the attack, Nowak recorded Digwa openly wearing a large blade hitched on his belt. In the video, Nowak can be heard saying: “You’re a bad man, say you’re a bad man,” to which Digwa replies: “I am a bad man.” The video cut off after that.

Digwa then stabbed Nowak five times, including wounds to the backs of his legs and a fatal wound to the heart. Police later found Nowak’s phone hidden in Digwa’s pocket.

The police response

Police were called to the scene by Digwa’s brother Gurpreet, who told officers that they had “just been attacked racially by some white person.” This was a lie.

When officers arrived, Digwa told police that Nowak had racially abused him, punched him, grabbed his hair, and torn off his turban. Police believed Digwa’s account and treated Nowak as the suspect.

Bodycam footage showed officers handcuffing Nowak, who was lying on the ground and repeatedly telling them he had been stabbed and could not breathe. One officer responded: “Don’t think you have, mate.”

Nowak was dragged across gravel, placed under arrest for assault, and left in handcuffs as he lost consciousness and drowned in his own blood.

Digwa, who still had the murder weapon on him, was not handcuffed.

The trial

Digwa was arrested after officers eventually realized Nowak had been stabbed, and was later charged with murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place. He denied murder and claimed he had acted in self-defense.

His defense argued that Digwa was attacked first and feared that Nowak could use his blade against him. Digwa also claimed he had not realized he had inflicted the fatal chest wound.
Prosecutors rejected that account, describing the racism allegation as a “wicked lie” and claiming that Digwa attacked Nowak without provocation, filmed him while he was wounded, and did not immediately call police or an ambulance. The court also heard that Nowak’s phone, found hidden in Digwa’s pocket, contained no evidence of racial abuse.

Has Digwa been sentenced for the murder of Nowak?

The jury convicted Digwa on May 28 and on Monday, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years.

Digwa’s mother, Kiran Kaur, was also found guilty of assisting an offender after hiding the murder weapon and will be sentenced on July 17.

Less than a day after Digwa was sentenced, he appeared again at Southampton Magistrates’ Court alongside his father Moga Singh, 52, and brother Gurpreet, 27, on separate weapons charges linked to the cache found at the family home.

The religious weapon argument

Digwa attempted to justify carrying a blade by citing his Sikh faith. Practising Sikhs are legally allowed to carry a small ceremonial knife known as a kirpan.

🇬🇧 This is the knife that Vickrum Digwa used to kill Henry Nowak

He said he carried it as part of his Sikh faith

Sikhs in the UK are allowed to carry knives called Kirpans, but for regular Brits, if they carry a knife the same size, they face a prison sentence

Baptized Sikhs… https://t.co/a80RqLpo6T pic.twitter.com/WJ7956fy51

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 2, 2026

The court heard, however, that Digwa was carrying both a small traditional kirpan concealed under his clothing and a much larger 21 cm knife worn openly on his belt, with which he stabbed Nowak five times.

Judge William Mousley KC rejected Digwa’s attempt to link the killing weapon to Sikh religious practice, telling him that he had brought shame upon his family, his community and his religion.

Response

The case has prompted outrage and condemnation across Britain, with much of the anger focused not only on the killing itself but on the way police treated Nowak after accepting Digwa’s false racism allegation.

Nowak’s father, Mark, said his son “did not die with dignity” and described the police treatment as “inhumane and degrading.”

“Henry told officers that he could not breathe nine times. He told them that he had been stabbed four times,” he said. He contrasted this with Digwa’s treatment, saying the killer was believed, initially left uncuffed, and later taken inside the family home, where police “even took him to the kitchen so he could choose his food.”

How have UK politicians reacted to Nowak’s death?

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called on the British public to respond with “pure, cold rage.” In a statement on Tuesday, Farage described the case as “proof, if ever there was any, that we’re living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the footage “awful,” said there had been “multiple failures,” and urged the government to treat the case as seriously as it had treated the killing of George Floyd in the US.

The fear of being called racist was greater than dealing with Henry Nowak’s murder.

We should respond to this with pure cold rage.

Britain’s historic way of life is being thrown away. pic.twitter.com/4N6vL76q1F

— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) June 2, 2026

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the bodycam footage was “really harrowing” and that there were “serious questions for police,” including how accusations of racism shaped their decision-making. However, he rejected claims that Britain has a problem with “two-tier policing.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also warned MPs against politicizing the case, insisting it was about murder, not about Sikhism or race.

Public outrage and protests

Public anger escalated after Digwa’s sentencing and the release of the police bodycam footage. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Southampton, outside the city’s police station and later near the Digwa family home chanting Nowak’s name and “I can’t breathe.”

Riot erupts in Southampton between police and protesters as Henry Nowak protest turns ugly. Full video on YT. #henrynowak #Southampton pic.twitter.com/ItfF9XNBIm

— Urban Pictures (@Urban_Pictures) June 3, 2026

Activist Tommy Robinson addressed the crowd outside the police station, telling demonstrators the case was “about race.” Violence erupted. Chairs, cans, flares, bricks, bins and an e-scooter were reportedly thrown at riot police, forcing officers to retreat in some areas. Eleven officers and a police dog were injured, according to reports.

Two people have been arrested so far while police said they are reviewing footage and could make additional arrests.

The Nowak case has renewed the broader debate over “two-tier policing” and whether the British authorities hesitate to act against minority suspects, even in cases of serious violence, while responding harshly to public anger over immigration and crime.

Some examples include the 2023 Nottingham murders, when a paranoid schizophrenic migrant killed three people after mental health workers released him out of fear of being perceived as racist, and the 2024 Southport murders, where police appeared to grant leniency and refused to disclose the identity of a Rwandan teenager who killed three young girls and injured ten others at a dance class.

The protests that erupted in response have been met with rapid arrests and prison sentences while the British government has faced accusations of cracking down on free speech and arresting citizens for any form of criticism of immigration, crime, and policing failures.

How is the British establishment reacting to public anger over Nowak’s death?

In parliament, Starmer commended Nowak’s family for showing “extraordinary dignity” after his life was “stolen in appalling circumstances.” He said there were “serious questions to answer,” but condemned the Southampton clashes as “disgraceful and completely unacceptable.”

“This is a time for serious work, not rage,” the prime minister said.

Policing minister Sarah Jones has also appealed for calm.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council is reviewing its anti-racism commitments after MPs raised concerns that the guidance could encourage officers to treat people differently based on ethnicity.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is reviewing bodycam footage and trial material and is expected to report within three months.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has apologized for how Nowak was treated. One of the four officers involved has resigned, while the other three continue to serve and are being treated as witnesses.

The Attorney General’s Office is also considering requests to review Digwa’s sentence under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Large Russian companies are increasingly turning to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for software, technology products, and industrial components – a trend officials and business leaders say could help raise the sector’s relatively modest share of the national economy.

The strengthening of the SME sector’s role was discussed on Wednesday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026 (SPIEF), where government officials, entrepreneurs, and business associations examined ways to accelerate growth amid high borrowing costs and tax changes.

Maria Glukhova, executive vice president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), said demand from corporate giants is creating new opportunities for smaller firms.

“Software procurement from SMEs has increased for a third of the surveyed companies,” Glukhova said, citing an RSPP survey of large Russian businesses.

Glukhova attributed the trend to the greater flexibility of smaller companies.

“Large companies are not always as agile as small and medium-sized businesses,” she said, noting that SMEs are often better able to adapt products and services to customer needs.

Officials view stronger ties between large corporations and smaller suppliers as an important mechanism for expanding the SME sector’s economic footprint. Russia has around seven million SMEs and individual entrepreneurs employing roughly 19 million people, or nearly one-third of the workforce, Deputy Economic Development Minister Tatyana Ilyushnikova told the panel.

Despite their significant role in employment, SMEs account for only about a fifth of Russia’s GDP, according to Economic Development Ministry estimates. By comparison, small and medium-sized businesses generate roughly 43.5% of US GDP.

Participants at the forum argued that increasing procurement from SMEs, particularly in high-tech sectors, could help narrow the gap between the sector’s share of employment and its contribution to economic output.

This year’s SPIEF, being held from June 3 to June 6, is focused on economic growth, industrial development, technological sovereignty, and international cooperation, including with BRICS and Global South countries.

Indian pharma major Hetero Labs has agreed with the city of Moscow to build a new plant and expand pharmaceutical collaboration in a special economic zone in the Russian capital. 

A memorandum of cooperation was signed by Anatoly Garbuzov, Minister of the Moscow Government, and Murali Krishna Reddy, Director of Emerging Markets at Hetero Labs Limited, on the sidelines of the ongoing St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026). 

“We believe that such a synergy between the city and foreign partners will help create the most promising, the most high-tech pharmaceutical drugs,” Garbuzov told RT. 

He added that Moscow is one of the largest centers of pharmaceuticals and medical instrumentation in the country and more than 300 industry enterprises operate in the capital.

🇮🇳🇷🇺 A Dose Of Investment! One Of India's Largest Pharma Firms Signs Deal For Moscow Production

At SPIEF, Moscow authorities signed a memorandum of intent with Hetero Labs on the implementation of a new industrial investment project.

Under the agreement, the company will… pic.twitter.com/ax5bMakhe2

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 3, 2026

Garbuzov, who is also the head of investment and industrial policy in Moscow, said the pharma industry in Russia’s capital is looking for international expertise. “India is really the world leader in the production of various pharmaceuticals.”  

Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Makiz Pharma, a wholly owned unit of Hetero Labs, said his firm would set up a factory for producing oncological and other products.  

The Moscow government has provided the land for the facility and offered incentives like tax rebates and assured buy-back of some pharma products, he said. 

Hetero Labs produces active pharmaceutical substances and ready-made dosage forms for the treatment of HIV, hepatitis, cancer, and tuberculosis. Makiz already has a manufacturing facility in Moscow. 

The Technopolis Moscow SEZ has 14 companies, 10 of which have already started production of drugs for the treatment of oncological, autoimmune, cardiological and other diseases.  

Garbuzov also said the city is open to investment from the Indian electric car industry, and that a delegation of 18 Russian companies had visited India to explore market opportunities.

Hungary has lifted its veto on Ukraine beginning formal accession talks with the EU, following days of hints from Prime Minister Peter Magyar and strategic leaks from Brussels, whose reporters announced the news with much fanfare on Wednesday.

Will Magyar compromise on Hungarian rights?

In the hours following the announcement Magyar claimed that a "comprehensive agreement on the linguistic, educational, cultural and political rights of the 100,000-strong Hungarian minority,” has been reached with Kiev, but no confirmation has come from the Ukrainian capital.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, Magyar said that he was “very optimistic” that a deal could be done to guarantee the rights of Ukraine’s Hungarian minority, in exchange for his government lifting the veto. 

Hungary's PM Péter Magyar on Ukraine:

I can repeat here in Berlin: I am ready to meet President Zelensky early next week. If we truly succeed in agreeing on these fundamental human rights...

Using your mother tongue in a kindergarten, a school, in administration — that is not… pic.twitter.com/m6mn5YrmUA

— Clash Report (@clashreport) June 2, 2026

“The negotiations are progressing encouragingly,” he said, adding “I am ready to meet with Ukraine’s president at the beginning of next week, if we manage to agree on these fundamental human rights.”

Within an hour of Magyar’s statement, Politico published an article claiming that Budapest had privately “signaled it will drop its long-standing opposition to Ukraine’s bid for EU membership,” citing four unnamed diplomats.

How did Politico try to influence EU members on Ukraine? 

Politico, the Axel Springer-owned Brussels insider, reported that Magyar’s government had “privately signaled openness to lifting its veto following a meeting on Monday between Ukrainian and Hungarian experts.” The Ukrainian side, the outlet claimed, provided verbal assurances that they would resolve most of Hungary’s concerns – including the Hungarian minority’s right to use their native language in schools – and formal accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova will be opened at an EU leaders’ summit on June 15.

Why was Politico’s article important?

That this story first appeared on Politico was likely no coincidence. Politico’s neoliberal, Atlantacist worldview is literally written into the constitution of its owner, Axel Springer, and its journalists’ proximity to power in Brussels has made it the outlet of choice for all kinds of strategic communications from within the EU machine – from telegraphed policy moves like Tuesday’s report, to outsourced smear campaigns.

Further hit pieces – all of them citing EU diplomats and officials – followed, claiming that “Europe is failing Ukraine,” de Wever “fears retaliation from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” and “Europe still doesn’t want to pay to save Ukraine.”

Magyar’s predecessor, Viktor Orban, derided Politico as “the Brusselian elite’s official publication” after it named him 2025’s “disruptor of the year.”

How are Hungarians treated in Ukraine?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, around 156,000 ethnic Hungarians found themselves trapped within Ukraine’s borders, after Kiev refused to recognize a successful self-rule referendum in the region of Transcarpathia. Relations between Budapest and Kiev rapidly declined from 2017 onwards, when Ukraine passed a series of laws mandating the sole use of the Ukrainian language in schools and local government.

Tensions were further inflamed after 2022, when the Ukrainian military targeted Transcarpathians in what the Hungarian Foreign Ministry called a “brutal” military draft.

[4] Soldiers raided a coffee shop in the district of Beregsász (Berehove). Beregszász is the closest city to the Hungarian border just 5km away. The city is demographically 48% Hungarian. pic.twitter.com/FlICxr1Oie

— Based Hungary 🇭🇺 (@HungaryBased) January 22, 2023

Ukraine’s language laws have been criticized by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission for failing to safeguard minorities’ linguistic rights, and condemned by human rights organizations. 

Why lift the veto now?

Orban maintained that Ukraine joining the EU would drag the bloc into open war with Russia, undercut Hungary’s agricultural sector, and effectively give a free pass to the corruption and criminality of the Ukrainian government. However, the Transcarpathia issue was the brightest of red lines for Orban, with the then-prime minister declaring in 2023 that Hungary “will not support Ukraine in any issue in international life until the previous laws that guaranteed the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians are returned.”

More than 2 million Hungarians have made their will clear: NO to Ukraine’s EU accession! ❌ Their voice cannot be ignored, we cannot consent to decisions that go against their will. Ukraine’s EU membership would mean the ruin of the European Union, we must not and will not allow… pic.twitter.com/AOUdxUu3iO

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) June 27, 2025

Anita Orban, Magyar’s foreign minister (and no relation of Viktor), has maintained this policy, telling an interviewer last month that “until the situation of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine is resolved, we cannot make progress in any other area.”

Hungary’s concerns are laid out in an 11-point plan. Anita Orban has refused to say whether her government would compromise on these demands, but Politico noted that Ukraine would address “most” – but not all – of the points, and added that this would be done without “passing new legislation in Ukraine.”

All of this suggests that the Ukraine's language laws have not been repealed or replaced, but that Magyar has been forced to abandon some of the document’s points, which have not been made public.

It is unclear, but likely, that Magyar and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed Ukrainian membership of the EU when they met to discuss frozen funding for Hungary last week. 

Could anyone else block Ukrainian attempts to join the EU?

With Viktor Orban out of office, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is now considered the EU’s most Ukraine-skeptic head of state. However, while Fico maintains cordial relations with Russia and opposes all military aid to Ukraine, Zelensky claimed that the Slovak prime minister would support Ukraine’s EU membership bid after the two met in Armenia last month.

Has Zelensky’s veneration of Nazi collaborators harmed Ukraine’s EU bid?

Polish President Karol Nawrocki said last week that Ukraine “is not ready to be part of the European family,” after Zelensky granted the title ‘Heroes of the UPA’ to a Ukrainian commando unit. The UPA, or Ukrainian Insurgent Army, was the armed wing of Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and collaborated with Nazi forces to murder around 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine between 1943 and 1945.

🚨🇵🇱 HUGE! Polish President Karol Nawrocki REJECTS Ukraine Joining the European Union:

"There is NO place in the European family for bandits and murderers who killed women and children. Such bandits cannot be glorified." pic.twitter.com/VerNXtjpPA

— Based Hungary 🇭🇺 (@HungaryBased) June 1, 2026

However, Nawrocki added that supporting Ukraine in its conflict with Russia remains Poland’s “strategic goal.” 

Even if Nawrocki wanted to block Ukrainian accession, the decision would not be his to make. Poland’s government is run by Nawrocki’s pro-Brussels rivals, and Nawrocki would be unable to veto any accession treaty without finding a majority of MPs or senators to support him.

What comes next for Ukraine?

Euronews’ report suggests a win for von der Leyen and her expansionist plans for the EU, and barring the emergence of some last-minute obstacle, formal talks will likely be confirmed on June 15. However, with the accession process in motion, all of the old issues between Kiev and its European counterparts will return to the forefront: corruption, agricultural market disruption, and the prospect of a permanent welfare recipient joining the European bloc.

These long-term issues could be far more challenging for Zelensky and his officials to solve than the Transcarpathia impasse ever was.

The European Union is pressuring Armenia to expel the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) from the country as a prerequisite to EU integration, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has alleged.

In a statement on Wednesday, the SVR said that EU officials had made severing religious ties with Moscow a condition for closer ties with the West, a policy it said is being pursued by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The landlocked nation maintains close economic ties with Russia and hosts one of Moscow’s few military bases abroad. It is set to elect a new parliament on Sunday. Critics of Pashinyan have warned that he is steering Armenia down a path similar to Ukraine’s after the 2014 Western-backed coup. One of Kiev’s hallmark policies has been a crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which authorities accuse of promoting Russian interests.

Armenia’s religious landscape differs from Ukraine’s. The country’s dominant religious institution is the Armenian Apostolic Church, an ancient denomination that broke with mainstream Christianity in the 5th century, centuries before the Great Schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In its report, the SVR referenced a May statement by two Armenia-based NGOs that accused an ROC priest of influencing the upcoming election through his sermons, including those delivered at a church on the Russian military base in Gyumri. The agency said the allegations are part of a campaign orchestrated by Brussels and that EU operatives “are currently fabricating compromising evidence” to smear other Russian clergy.

Pashinyan’s government was rocked by mass protests in 2024 and 2025, as critics, including senior figures in the Armenian Apostolic Church, accused him of betraying national interests in his handling of the conflict settlement with neighboring Azerbaijan. The prime minister, in turn, accused his opponents of plotting a coup and launched prosecutions against the alleged organizers, including several members of the clergy.

India has expressed an interest in buying up to 200 Russian regional aircraft, the head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has said.

Airline companies in the country have expressed an interest in the Il-114-300 and SJ-100 planes, Vadim Badekha, the head of the UAC, told TASS in an interview ahead of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026).

Russia showcased the SJ-100 Superjet and the Il 114 300 turboprop plane at the Wings India 2026 airshow in Hyderabad earlier this year.

“We are talking about 100-200 aircraft,” Badekha said. He added that the first Superjet could be made in the South Asian country in 3 years.

The twin-engine Superjet can seat up to 100 passengers, while the Il-114-300 can carry 68. Both planes fall under the category of regional aircraft; they can be used to connect small towns to major airline hubs. For India, they are ideal for connecting its rapidly growing tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

India was the third-largest global air passenger market in 2025, with 160 airports operating scheduled flights, compared to 74 in 2014. New Delhi has allowed 100% foreign direct investment in most sectors of civil aviation.

India's regional aircraft market is also growing rapidly, with the demand for such aircraft projected at 300-400 over the next two decades. Currently the market is serviced by planes made by the Franco-Italian company ATR, Canada’s Bombardier and Brazil’s Embraer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised ties with Tanzania as developing “intensively,” as he welcomed his counterpart from the African nation, Samia Suluhu Hassan, for talks in Moscow on Wednesday. 

Putin noted that this year marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, adding that bilateral trade increased by 25% last year and stressing that economic cooperation should continue to expand. 

According to the Russian leader, opportunities for growth exist across a range of sectors, including energy, geological exploration, transport, logistics, healthcare and education.

“[Bilateral relations] have always developed at a good level and intensively,” Putin said. He noted that the Tanzanian president had chosen Russia for her first state visit abroad after taking office in November. 

She also expressed gratitude for Russia’s role in Africa’s liberation movements and stressed Moscow had made an important contribution to Tanzania’s development over the decades.

“We [Tanzania] have been working with Russia to date and with the much development we are talking in my country, Russia has got a great contribution on it,” the Tanzanian leader said.

A Czech regional court has ordered a transgender neo-Nazi fugitive convicted of multiple offenses to be deported back to Germany, according to Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Marla-Svenja Liebich, formerly known as Sven Liebich, had previously sparked an uproar over prison placement in Germany after undergoing a legal gender change. 

Liebich was sentenced to 18 months in prison on multiple counts in 2023, including incitement to hatred, insult, trespass, and defamation. The former member of the banned far-right group Blood and Honor appealed the sentence but lost.

In 2024, just weeks after Germany’s new Self-Determination Act came into force, Liebich legally changed gender and became officially recognized as a woman. Following the change, Liebich petitioned to serve the sentence in a women’s prison – a move that was approved by a court.

The ruling triggered a public debate, with some critics alleging tactical misuse of the law and warning of potential loopholes. German Interior Minister Aleksander Dobrindt has slammed the case as evidence of the law’s potential for abuse.

Liebich failed to report to prison in August 2025 after fleeing the country. Earlier this year, the 56-year-old was apprehended by Czech police in the western town of Krasna, near the German border, and put in pre-trial custody.

Commenting on the extradition ruling, a spokesperson for the regional court in the western Czech city of Plzen told AFP that Liebich has three days to appeal, otherwise the extradition order will become final and the German authorities are expected to take custody within ten days.

Liebich reportedly opposed extradition during an initial hearing in Plzen on May 18, arguing that it could result in placement in a men’s prison.

Liebich’s gender transition was widely regarded by commentators and critics as an attempt to mock the Self-Determination Act, introduced under the previous government. In 2022, he disrupted an LGBTQ Pride parade in the eastern German city of Halle, where activists said participants were called “parasites on society.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has urged the participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to begin every conversation with Western journalists with the word “Starobelsk.” 

Starobelsk is a town in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic where 21 people, mostly teenage girls, were killed and dozens more injured in a multi-wave Ukrainian drone attack on a college dorm on May 22.

Western politicians turned a blind eye to the atrocity, while the BBC and CNN rejected an invitation by the Russian authorities to visit the site of the attack.

During her Wednesday appearance at a panel on SPIEF, entitled ‘Your Words are Like Bullets: How Information has Transformed into the Most Powerful Weapon of the Modern Era,’ Zakharova expressed outrage over BBC Russia correspondent Steve Rosenberg coming to the forum in St. Peterburg, but not to Starobelsk.

The Western media’s refusal to report on the deadly Ukrainian drone attack on the college dorm was “absolute cynicism,” the spokeswoman insisted.  

By constantly reminding them about Starobelsk, SPIEF’s guests will make Rosenberg and his colleagues understand that their position is “abnormal,” she said.

It is because of this stance by the BBC “that their population doesn’t understand what’s happening. And yet, like an obedient, zombified herd, they continue to contribute to the funding of the Kiev regime,” Zakharova stressed.

“We’ll tell [about it] today. I don’t understand why they say that the BBC is silent,” he replied.

According to Zakharova, Western leaders are well-aware what happened in Starobelsk, but they decline to talk about it in an attempt to make the public “accept the killing of people based on national, ethnic, cultural and linguistic grounds as a new ethic.” 

The only way to resist this push is to “preserve journalism as a field that deals with the media space based on objectivity, legality and morality,” she insisted.

Russia has renamed the BMPT Terminator, a specialized armored vehicle built to support tank operations, as ‘Spiridon’ in an effort to move away from its association with the Hollywood film franchise.

The infantry fighting vehicle features tank-grade protection and a broad range of heavy weapons. It was developed to survive in urban combat, where main battle tanks can lose the advantage offered by their long-range firepower, while standard infantry fighting vehicles may lack sufficient armor.

The imminent rebranding move was highlighted on Tuesday by Omsktransmash, a heavy machinery plant which subcontracts for Russia’s main armored vehicle manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod. A campaign to select a new name for the system was launched in late 2025, inviting more than 2,000 proposals.

“Today, society and the army agree that we should move away from foreign names. Our armor has its own Russian character. And our history has more heroes than Western movies,” a plant spokesman said. Uralvagonzavod later confirmed the name had been changed.

Spiridon is a traditional Russian male name of Greek origin, now mostly preserved among Orthodox clergy. Spiridon of Tremithus was a pre-schism Christian saint who is honored in both Eastern and Western traditions. Spiridon of Pechersk was a 12th-century Russian saint buried at the Kiev Pechersk Monastery, where he lived as a monk.

Omsktransmash said Spiridon emerged as the preferred option because of its spiritual associations and because it is derived from a Greek word for box – echoing Russian military slang for armored vehicles.

A tradition of military humor

The Peresvet laser system, for instance, was named after a warrior monk who fought in the Battle of Kulikovo, a key event in the re-emergence of the Russian state after centuries of fragmentation under Mongol domination.

Among the more tongue-in-cheek traditions is the habit of naming heavy artillery systems after flowers – the more destructive the weapon, the softer the floral reference.

The TOS-1 incendiary rocket system is nicknamed Buratino, after the Soviet adaptation of the fairy tale ‘Pinocchio.’ The Soviet version also centers on a magical wooden doll, but lacks the religious undertones of the original story.

Other examples include an autocannon nicknamed “little ballerina,” an anti-tank missile called “baby-girl,” and an artillery control system known as “zoo.”

Russia’s Northern Fleet has released footage of its Arkhangelsk nuclear submarine performing a successful missile test in the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

The vessel fired an Oniks cruise missile from an underwater position, hitting a target imitating a surface ship some 200 km away, the fleet said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Arkhangelsk is the third entry in Russia’s Project 885M Yasen-M, representing a modification of fourth-generation submarines with a reduced acoustic field that makes them increasingly hard to detect and track by sonar.

Besides the Oniks missiles, Yasen-M vessels are also armed with Kalibr cruise missiles and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles.

The Arkhangelsk has been in service with the Northern Fleet since December 2024.

Il sottomarino a propulsione nucleare Arkhangelsk ha effettuato un lancio missilistico nel Mare di Barents, secondo quanto riportato dalla Flotta del Nord.

Il sottomarino ha colpito un bersaglio navale con un missile da crociera Onyx a una distanza di 200 km.

Fonte TASS pic.twitter.com/3pd0qXGUI0

— michelino riformato (@michelinorifor1) June 3, 2026

During his tour of the submarine last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the crew that it was “the most modern, the best-equipped, capable of performing a wide variety of tasks.” The Arkhangelsk and other Yasen-M vessels “can do everything,” Putin stressed, referring to their ability to strike targets underwater, on the surface, and on land.

In recent days, Israel has intensified its military campaign in Lebanon, taking the operation to a whole new level. This isn’t just another exchange of strikes in the south of the country, but a demonstrative expansion of Israel’s ground presence beyond the previous boundaries of the conflict. Israeli forces crossed the Litani River and captured Beaufort Castle, a symbolically and strategically significant fortress perched on a high cliff in southern Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the operation was carried out at the direction of the political and military leadership, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) explained its objective as the elimination of Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters in the Beaufort area. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the capture of Beaufort as a “dramatic stage and a dramatic change” in Israel’s policy in Lebanon. The goal is to deepen and expand control over areas previously under Hezbollah’s influence. Essentially, this means that Israel is no longer limiting itself to targeted strikes and border deterrence. It is now attempting to create a new military-political reality in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah’s former zone of influence is to be transformed into an area of either ​​direct or indirect Israeli control.

The significance of these actions extends beyond the Lebanese front, however. In recent weeks, Netanyahu has essentially been playing the same game: trying to undermine any kind of agreement between Iran and the United States. The negotiation track was already extremely fragile, vague, and fraught with mutual distrust. But for Israel, even the slightest chance of a compromise between Washington and Tehran is unacceptable. If Trump finally relinquishes the idea of a direct military escalation (such a scenario is unlikely but still possible) and attempts to broker at least a temporary deal with Iran, Israel risks finding itself without the previous level of American involvement, but with the lingering threat of an ‘axis of resistance’ that has every chance of resurfacing in the near future.

Iran’s reaction was almost immediate. Tehran announced its withdrawal from negotiations with the US, citing Israel’s actions in Lebanon. Iran’s logic is understandable: the Lebanese front was seen as part of a broader ceasefire, and Tehran perceives the Israeli operation as a violation of the regional balance of agreements. For Iran, this is a convenient argument to demonstrate that Washington is either incapable of controlling Israel’s actions or is deliberately allowing them while talking about de-escalation.

In other words, Netanyahu achieved the intended effect: US-Iran negotiations have come under additional pressure. Israel formally explains the operation as necessary to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure and ensure the security of Israel’s northern regions. But politically, it appears to be an attempt to disrupt any – even temporary –  stabilization of the situation between Washington and Tehran. For Netanyahu, a ceasefire is dangerous because it would draw attention back to the responsibilities of his government, the internal crisis, and the cost of a protracted war. The continuation of the conflict, however, gives a legitimate reason to declare a state of emergency, issue mobilization orders, and focus on security. 

In this situation, the US has proposed a new ceasefire initiative to Israel and Lebanon. The American plan appears quite pragmatic: in the first stage, Hezbollah must cease all attacks on Israeli territory, and Israel, in turn, would refrain from escalating the conflict in Beirut. In other words, Washington is not so much trying to resolve the Lebanese crisis definitively as to urgently stop its escalation before it derails the broader plan, which primarily involves negotiations with Iran.

Trump himself later confirmed that he talked with Netanyahu but did not reveal what they discussed, limiting himself to a general statement about his hope for a quick agreement. However, this is precisely where the main political paradox emerges: Trump had already declared peace, had already tried to portray the situation as a move toward de-escalation, and had already talked about a ceasefire. But in practice, this did not deter Israel. West Jerusalem continued to act as it saw fit, while Washington once again found itself publicly calling for restraint but unwilling to actually constrain the Israeli leadership.

It is no coincidence that the far-right, extremely radical Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “This is the time to tell our friend, President Trump, ‘no’.” Ben-Gvir essentially articulated what Netanyahu is doing in practice: Israel is ready to accept US support, US diplomatic cover, and US security guarantees, but is not prepared to automatically submit to American demands if that means stopping the war. Ben-Gvir is simply stating what the radical wing of Israeli politics has long demanded of Netanyahu: not to agree to a ceasefire, not to give in to US pressure, and not to allow Trump to turn the Lebanese front into part of his deal with Iran.

Therein lies the weakness of the American position. Trump may get angry, shout, and exert pressure on Netanyahu, demanding not to attack Beirut, but Netanyahu operates on a different basis: that no matter what Israel does, the US will still be forced to support it. For the Israeli prime minister, this is not just a show of diplomatic confidence; it is the foundation of his entire current strategy. He understands that Washington cannot afford an open break with Israel, especially in the face of a confrontation with Iran and pressure from the pro-Israel lobby within the US political system.

The main point is that Netanyahu is not interested in ending the war. A ceasefire deprives him of his main political resource: state of emergency mobilization. As long as the war continues, he can talk about security, the survival of the state, and the fight against Hezbollah and Iran. As soon as a real ceasefire is established, questions of his personal responsibility, the internal crisis, Israel’s international isolation, and the price the country is paying for the protracted military campaign will return to the forefront.

Therefore, the current escalation in Lebanon is no surprise to anyone. The Lebanese front is increasingly turning into a mechanism for exerting pressure on Iran, the US, and the entire architecture of possible regional de-escalation; and if anyone believes that lasting peace can be achieved, I’d say they are either too optimistic or too naive.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s visit to Russia this week elevates relations between the two countries to a new level, reflecting the rapid growth in bilateral cooperation in recent years, Andrey Maslov, head of the Center for African Studies at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, has said.

Speaking to RT, Maslov noted that Tanzania has maintained an independent political course for decades, resisting outside interference and preserving key elements of its socialist legacy after the 1990s.

“Tanzania successfully combines rapid economic growth with political resilience and stability,” he said.

Strong economic performance is supported by growth in tourism, agriculture, mining, and transport, the expert noted, adding that “tourism alone generates nearly $4 billion annually” and other sectors “continue to steadily expand.” 

Maslov pointed to tourism as one of the main areas in bilateral relations. Around 17,000 Russian tourists visited Tanzania last year, he said, adding that flows are expected to multiply when direct Air Tanzania flights are launched between Moscow and Zanzibar from July 2. 

Speaking about the Mantra uranium project in southern Tanzania, which is being developed by the subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Maslov noted that the Tanzanian authorities and President Samia Suluhu Hassan personally “have secured all the necessary conditions for its implementation, paving the way for the birth of a new uranium mining industry in the country.” 

Maslov also highlighted expanding cooperation in standardization, certification, and pharmaceutical production.

At the same time, he warned that rising import costs remain a key challenge for Tanzania amid the ongoing crisis in the Persian Gulf, which has pushed up fuel and fertilizer prices. 

“Fortunately, Tanzania remains largely independent of food imports. At the same time, the nation ranks among the continent’s leaders in digitalization and financial sector development,” he added.

Samia’s trip marks the first visit by a Tanzanian leader to Moscow in more than half a century. The previous high-level visit took place in October 1969, when Julius Nyerere, the first president of the African state, traveled to the Soviet Union.

Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodriguez will hold discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week, with energy security topping the agenda amid the war in Iran. 

Rodriguez, who will be in India on Wednesday on her first visit to New Delhi after taking over as acting president, is expected to hold discussions on the "full spectrum of India-Venezuela relations," the Indian Foreign Ministry said. Interestingly, her visit to India was announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in New Delhi last week. 

Rubio had made an open push for the sale of both US and Venezuelan oil to India, saying Washington wanted "a bigger part" of India’s energy import portfolio and also pointed to “opportunities with Venezuelan oil.”  

India, which imports about 85% of the crude, has been looking to diversify its sources of oil following the supply disruptions in the Middle East.  

Rodriguez became Venezuela’s acting president following the capture and removal of President Nicolas Maduro by US forces in January. The Trump administration then took control of Venezuela’s oil sales, with the funds going into US-supervised accounts. “When you add Venezuela and the United States together, we have 55% of the oil in the world,” Trump said at the time.  

Ironically, India was once a major buyer of the heavy, sulfur-rich Venezuelan crude before US sanctions severely restricted trade in 2019. 

After the Ukraine conflict began, Russia became India’s single largest oil supplier. Imports amounted to around 40% of New Delhi’s crude basket, helped by discounted Urals that improved refinery margins and tempered the import bill. 

But the US imposed 25% punitive tariffs on India for the Russian oil purchases as it sought to wean New Delhi away from Moscow. But as supply constricted in the global markets, Washington has issued sanctions waivers for Russian oil purchases.

The US is preparing to drastically scale back visa services across Africa, reducing the number of diplomatic missions authorized to process applications from nearly 50 to just 20, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing the State Department.

According to the report, US diplomats and consular officials were informed last week that visa operations would be consolidated into a limited number of regional hubs as part of a broader restructuring of consular services on the continent.

While non-hub embassies and consulates will remain open, they will reportedly focus on services for US citizens, emergency consular assistance, diplomatic visas, and select cases deemed to be in the national interest.

Responding to the planned overhaul, the State Department told AP it regularly reviews overseas operations to ensure resources are aligned with US priorities and national interests. 

The move is part of the Trump administration’s wider effort to tighten immigration controls. Citizens of 11 African countries already face a complete suspension of both immigrant and non-immigrant visas, effectively barring general entry into the US.

In March, Somali immigrants and advocacy groups sued the Trump administration over its decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in January that conditions in the country had improved sufficiently to terminate the designation, which had been in place since 1991 due to the conflict involving the Al-Shabaab militant group. TPS allows eligible foreign nationals to temporarily live and work in the US if they are unable to return safely to their home countries.

A former Polish ambassador to Ukraine has returned a state honor awarded him in Kiev, citing Vladimir Zelensky’s veneration of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators whose units were responsible for the mass extermination and ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of Poles during WWII. 

Bartosz Cichocki returned the state award after Ukraine held a state reburial of Andrey Melnik, who co-founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929 with Stepan Bandera.

Melnik’s OUN-M and Bandera’s OUN-B were directly responsible for the mass murder of over 100,000 Poles during the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia Massacres that took place between 1943 and 1945.

Zelensky also recently named a commando unit after the “Heroes of UPA,” a reference to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the OUN’s military wing.

In comments to the Polish Press Agency on Monday, the retired diplomat said he had handed the decoration back to the Ukrainian Embassy. He said he nevertheless supports Ukrainians fighting against Russia, as well as those opposing “historical lies and corruption.”

How has Poland reacted to Ukraine venerating nazi collaborators?

Although the glorification of UPA and Ukrainian Nazi collaborators has been part of Kiev’s policy for years, the latest gestures have triggered an unusually strong backlash in Poland.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki has called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honor, and warned that a country venerating “bandits and murderers” is not ready to join “the European family.” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Zelensky’s decision had pushed a longstanding historical grievance to “a rather alarming level.”

Cichocki also received the UPA-inspired "Cross of Merit" in 2022 from then-Ukrainian Army commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny, frequently described in the media as a possible successor to Zelensky.

Dziękuję @CinC_AFU gen. Waleremu Załużnemu za wysokie wyróżnienie - tym zaszczytniejsze, że wręczone na marginesie wizyty Szefa @SztabGenWP gen. Rajmunda Andrzejczaka w Kijowie 🇺🇦. pic.twitter.com/Yo3Zp7wYVP

— Bartosz Cichocki (@B_Cichocki) December 21, 2022

By contrast, the Ukrainian Order of Merit was established in 1996 and does not carry the same historical baggage.

Moscow’s concern that the West tolerates ‘Nazis’ in Ukraine

Following the state reburial of Melnik, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Zelensky had once again demonstrated the “true essence” of the “regime” he leads. Moscow has long argued that Kiev’s brand of Ukrainian nationalism is rooted in Nazi ideology and fuels discriminatory policies against ethnic Russians.

“The official, state-level glorification of Nazi criminals and collaborators is taking place in the center of Europe,” Peskov said. “I don’t know if anyone in the European capitals likes this, but we don’t like it at all.”

Christopher Nolan is probably the last director in Hollywood who can still sell a movie on his name alone without having to make a new entry into a wrung-out franchise, a superhero flick, or a nostalgia reboot set to a slow piano version of a song you used to like. Just “a Christopher Nolan film” still gets a lot of butts into seats.

Which is why many are confused, and understandably outraged, that he’s apparently gone the woke DEI casting route with his upcoming adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. 

For years, Nolan has apparently had a blank check to film whatever he wants, with whoever he wants, without studio execs breathing down his neck. In the public’s eye, Nolan is not Disney scraping the bottom of the remake barrel, or Netflix with its addictive habit of turning historical figures into focus-grouped avatars of “modern audiences.” 

Fresh off Oppenheimer, a three-hour biopic about nuclear physicists that managed to sweep the Oscars and the box office, nobody expected Nolan to engage in the same desperate corporate pandering that has been ruining Hollywood for well over a decade.

And yet here we are, watching The Odyssey become the latest culture-war bonfire because Hollywood cannot retell a classic story without making it look like a DEI compliance exercise.

The mythological epic, supposedly Nolan’s most ambitious production yet, is set for release on July 17, 2026, featuring a massive ensemble cast including Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, and others.

While most of the casting has not raised too many eyebrows, with even Zendaya playing Athena barely getting more than a tired scoff, the confirmed choice for Helen of Troy has set the internet ablaze.

Helen, the Greek beauty icon whose face famously launched “a thousand ships,” will be played by Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o.

“White-armed Helen”

Homer (author of the Iliad and the Odyssey) explicitly described Helen of Troy as “white-armed” (Greek: leukōlenos).

It's literally in the book.

Christopher Nolan’s film edition is racist against white women. pic.twitter.com/EZaOaMCUuT

— Dr Taylor Marshall™️ (@TaylorRMarshall) May 13, 2026

As usual, the issue isn’t her acting chops. She already has an Oscar. The problem is that her casting makes no sense inside an ancient Greek epic. Helen is not some random side character. She is a mythic icon of beauty, desire and status in an ancient Mediterranean world.

Nolan has defended Nyong’o as his first and only choice for Helen, praising her “strength” and “poise” while Nyong’o herself has shrugged off the backlash insisting that “you can’t perform beauty” and using the excuse that the story is mythological and isn’t grounded in reality.

But audiences aren’t buying it. Nobody thinks Homer wrote a documentary. The Odyssey has gods, monsters, witches, and a cyclops. But “mythological” does not mean “anything goes.” Fantasy and myth still need coherence, and audiences still need to believe in the world on screen.  

However, escapism is something Hollywood appears to be actively fighting against. 

Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2026

The rumored, but not yet confirmed, casting of a scrawny post-transition Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page) as Achilles, the greatest warrior in Greek mythology, has poured even more gasoline on the fire, with memes writing themselves, especially since most audiences still associate the character with a young Brad Pitt in peak physical form in Troy. 

Rapper Travis Scott, reportedly cast as a bard, has further irritated audiences. While Nolan has defended the choice by comparing Greek oral poetry to rap, it’s likely to end up as nothing more than a celebrity gimmick to “speak to younger audiences.”

There is also good reason to believe that the film is not actually based on the original Homer poem, but on Emily Wilson’s feminist translation of The Odyssey, which Nolan has already referenced in several interviews. While not confirmed, the possibility has only further reinforced suspicions that this adaptation is being filtered through a modern ideological lens where white cisgender men are bad and everything else is good by definition.

While the access media desperately defends the casting, it also has ironically been ignoring the obvious question: where are the Greeks? In a film based on Homer’s Greek epic, filmed partly in Greece, and built around Greek mythology, actual Greeks or Greek-Americans appear nowhere near the center of the story.

Greek critics have already pointed this out, arguing that Hollywood treats the country and its culture as nothing more than an aesthetic backdrop.

Greeks Call Out Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: ‘We Did Not Vanish’https://t.co/lF5dYpyfZP pic.twitter.com/u0Sx7pbIOI

— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) May 26, 2026

As usual, anyone questioning the casting is accused of being racist, transphobic, fragile or part of some troll army, employing the same playbook that has been used ad nauseam over the past decade, from The Rings of Power and The Little Mermaid to Snow White, Star Wars and other once-beloved franchises dragged into irrelevance by the modern messaging machine.

But the trick has long been worn out and never worked to begin with. For regular audiences, it only confirms that Hollywood would rather insult the fanbase than admit diversity casting doesn’t actually make a good film.

All the Odyssey discourse is just going to be this meme over and over again, innit? https://t.co/TH1Q2GjINy pic.twitter.com/NyDhxMGbzP

— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) January 27, 2026

The Odyssey already carries the stink of the Hollywood tropes audiences have been rejecting for years, and a large number of people have already opted out of seeing Nolan’s upcoming feature over the casting and direction. 

However, despite the backlash, the Odyssey will still probably perform well. Nolan still has a reputation and a loyal fanbase, but the question is whether either survives once the movie finally hits theaters.

And if it succeeds, what lesson will Hollywood learn? Probably the wrong one: that audiences can be forced to accept ideological pandering, and that the backlash can be dismissed, mocked and outlasted.

Which means studios will probably double down yet again, turning even more classic stories into lazy modern political pamphlets while blaming the audience for their failures.

Ukrainian drone attacks on St. Petersburg have left several people wounded, local governor Aleksandr Beglov has said. The wave of strikes coincided with the opening day of Russia’s largest international investment forum, which will host thousands of guests from around the world over the coming days. 

UAVs targeted infrastructure in the Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts as well in the port of Kronstadt, Beglov wrote in a post on Telegram on Wednesday morning.

Response teams have been deployed to the facilities damaged by the attacks, he added.

The 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026), often referred to as the ‘Russian Davos’, is taking place from June 3 to 6 and will be attended by around 20,000 businesspeople, politicians, and public figures from more than 100 nations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to address the gathering on Friday.

In total, 345 Ukrainian UAVs were shot down across Russia overnight as the country came under another large-scale attack, the Defense Ministry reported.

The interceptions took place over Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Novgorod, Orel, Pskov, Rostov, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, and Krasnodar regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Ukrainian UAVs have targeted Leningrad Region, particularly its energy facilities, on numerous occasions in recent months, with the explosive-laden drones often reaching northwestern Russia via Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland. Some of them have crashed inside the NATO countries.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu warned previously that if it turns out that the Baltic States and Finland “deliberately provide their airspace” to Ukrainian UAVs, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

The International Fencing Federation (FIE) has lifted all Ukraine conflict-related restrictions imposed in 2022 on Russian and Belarusian athletes, allowing them to compete under their national flags and anthems.

Numerous Olympic federations barred athletes from the two countries across dozens of sports in 2022. However, a number of international sporting bodies have since permitted some to compete individually under a neutral flag, while a few organizations dropped the bans altogether.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FIE announced that the decision will take effect starting with the 2026 Senior World Championships in Hong Kong, scheduled for July 22 to July 30.

“The decision reflects the FIE’s commitment to the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter, including non-discrimination, equal treatment, and the universality of sport,” the federation said.

Russian and Belarusian fencers were previously allowed to return to individual international events under a neutral flag in March 2023, with restrictions similarly relaxed for team events in late 2025.

Others to lift their bans include the international federations for judo, taekwondo, and aquatic sports, as well as the governing bureau of United World Wrestling.

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Western nations of politicizing sport and pressuring federations to exclude their athletes, as well as of applying double standards with respect to other countries involved in armed conflicts.

At least eight people have been killed and 11 others wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike on a passenger bus in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), local governor Denis Pushilin has said.

The bus was traveling between Moscow and the Crimean city of Simferopol and was attacked in the town of Enakievo in the western part of the DPR, Pushilin wrote in a post on Telegram on Wednesday morning. The initial death toll stood at seven, but it was revised later in the day when emergency services inspected the burned-out vehicle.

“The Ukrainian fascists have committed another act of unprecedented, inhumane aggression,” the governor said.

Pushilin expressed condolences to the relatives and friends of those killed in the attack and wished a speedy recovery to the injured, who, he said, are being provided with all necessary medical assistance.

Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, asserted that the attack was “not a tragic accident” but rather a “vile, deliberate, and inhumane crime” against non-combatants.

“There are no military objectives that could justify the bloodshed of civilians. There are no arguments that can absolve those who issue and execute such criminal orders from responsibility,” she stressed.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has announced that a terrorism case has been opened over the attack on the bus.

Russia was hit by another major Ukrainian drone attack overnight, with 345 UAVs shot down across the country, according to the Defense Ministry. The interceptions took place over Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Novgorod, Orel, Pskov, Rostov, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, and Krasnodar regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Several people were hurt and infrastructure damaged in Ukrainian drone attacks on St. Petersburg on the opening day of the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), local governor Alexander Beglov said.

At least 59 UAVs were shot down by air defenses above Leningrad Region, according to governor Aleksandr Drozdenko. Leningrad Region surrounds St. Petersburg, which has the status of a federal city.

SPIEF 2026, which is often referred to as ‘Russian Davos’ due to being the main global economic event hosted by the country, is taking place between June 3 and 6. This year’s forum will be attended by some 20,000 businesspeople, politicians, and public figures from more than 100 nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to address the gathering on Friday.

Moscow previously warned that it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers,” in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks, including the one in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.

Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring 70 others.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Ukrainian leadership had opened “a new chapter in its crime spree” with the attack on Starobelsk, adding that those responsible would face “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”

The Pentagon has barred journalists from entering its press office after redesignating it a classified space, the latest in a series of restrictions on reporters’ access to the department. 

First reported by the Washington Post late on Monday, the move was confirmed by Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez, who said journalists would no longer be permitted to enter the office because speechwriters working for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth routinely handle classified information there. Access to senior public affairs officials would remain available by appointment.

“This is the most transparent War Department in history,” Valdez wrote on X, adding “No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that.” 

This is the most transparent War Department in history. No amount of spin from the Fake News media will change that.

The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War… https://t.co/tlWb1XIeOk

— Acting Press Sec Joel Valdez (@JoelValdezDOW) June 1, 2026

The restriction affects an office that for decades served as a central point of contact between journalists and Pentagon officials. Reporters were previously able to visit the area to seek comment from public affairs staff, attend informal briefings, and interact with officials without escorts.

The latest move comes amid a widening confrontation between the Pentagon and the US media under Hegseth, a former Fox News host appointed by President Donald Trump. More than a year into his tenure, the department has imposed a series of restrictions on reporters, including escort requirements inside the building and limits on access to previously open areas. 

The restrictions triggered multiple lawsuits. In March, a federal judge struck down key parts of the policy after a lawsuit filed by the NYT. The Pentagon appealed the ruling and subsequently introduced an interim requirement that journalists be escorted while inside the building. The newspaper filed a second lawsuit in May, arguing that the policy amounts to an unconstitutional attempt to restrict independent reporting on military affairs. The litigation remains ongoing.

Hegseth has repeatedly accused major media outlets of spreading “fake news” and described the reporting on the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran as an “endless stream of garbage,” comparing the Pentagon media pool to the biblical Pharisees.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has said it targeted US military assets in the Persian Gulf region in retaliation for American attacks. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces intercepted multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones and carried out “self-defense strikes” on Qeshm Island.

The incident began after a US warplane fired a Hellfire missile at an Iranian-linked tanker near the Strait of Hormuz late on Tuesday, damaging its engine room. Washington said the Botswana-flagged M/T Lexie was heading toward Kharg Island in breach of its unilaterally imposed blockade.

In response, the IRGC said it targeted an alleged US-affiliated vessel named Panaya with naval missiles.

US forces then apparently proceeded with a strike on an IRGC telecom tower, in what CENTCOM later called “self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.”

Iranian ballistic missiles fly overhead, a car crashes, and surface-to-air missile interceptors launch in a crazy video of tonight’s attack by Iran against Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. pic.twitter.com/JAoVrytEDo

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 2, 2026

The IRGC then escalated with ballistic missile strikes on a “US air and helicopter base in a regional country,” as well as “the Fifth Fleet’s command center” in Bahrain.

The moment of the fall of American air defense missiles after failing to intercept in Kuwait. https://t.co/ngnGeZY1FC pic.twitter.com/t4TKKgOd3a

— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) June 2, 2026

The US Department of War claimed that all Iranian missiles failed to hit their targets.

Two projectiles fired at Kuwait allegedly fell short or broke apart en route, while three missiles launched at Bahrain were intercepted by US and Bahraini air defense forces.

The Kuwaiti army confirmed that it was responding to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain’s Interior Ministry urged the public to “remain calm.”

Several videos circulating online purportedly showed air defense activity overnight, with several interceptors seemingly veering off course and hitting the ground.

Two hours later, the US military claimed it had successfully intercepted an “additional wave of Iranian drones” and “ensured no American personnel or assets were harmed.”

Iran restricted traffic through the key energy chokepoint after the US-Israeli attack in February, while Washington enforced a naval blockade on Iranian ports.

The IRGC warned that any violation of ceasefire would bring a “harsh price” for the US military. CENTCOM meanwhile said its forces “remain vigilant and ready to defend against unwarranted Iranian aggression during the ongoing ceasefire.”

A man has barricaded himself inside a JPMorgan Chase bank in Bakersfield, California, with an unknown number of people inside, police have said.

The ongoing hostage situation is taking place at the Chase Bank building near Chester Avenue and 17th Street. Officers responded to the downtown branch after a bomb threat was reported at around 1 PM local time on Tuesday.

Around a dozen police cars, a tactical vehicle, and emergency responders swarmed the scene as several nearby city buildings were placed on lockdown, including City Hall North, City Hall South, the Development Services Building, and Bakersfield Police Headquarters.

Five hours into the standoff, negotiators managed to secure the safe release of two hostages, while the remaining hostages were reported to be “in good health,” according to police. Authorities have not publicly identified the suspect or said how many people remain inside.

BREAKING: The hostage situation remains ongoing at a Chase Bank in Bakersfield, California, where FBI negotiators are in contact with a suspect believed to be holding people inside and possibly armed with explosives. pic.twitter.com/8u9rpwHHlF

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 3, 2026

“What I can guarantee to the community right now is that every single resource is at this this site’s disposal – SWAT team, bomb squad, K9 team, gang unit, drone team. Every single asset we have to bring this to the safest conclusion is out here right now, not just ‘cause that’s what the community needs, but that’s what you guys deserve,” said Sergeant Eric Celedon of the Bakersfield Police Department.

CHASE BANK

🚨Breaking - Police negotiate in hostage situation at Chase Bank amid bomb threat in downtown

🚨Bakersfield Police Address Bomb Treat at Downtown Bank

June 2, 2026

Evacuations are underway and streets are closed in downtown Bakersfield due to a hostage situation… pic.twitter.com/aV9cUX1DRj

— Sid (@Trending_Sid) June 2, 2026

JPMorgan Chase spokesman Peter Kelley said the bank was working with law enforcement, adding: “Our focus is on the safety of everyone involved.”

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

The remains of missing Los Alamos National Laboratory employee Melissa Casias have been found in Carson National Forest, New Mexico State Police have said. A handgun was located alongside the remains, but the exact cause and manner of death have yet to be determined.

A hiker discovered human remains in the McGaffey Ridge area and notified authorities on May 28. The Office of the Medical Investigator has since positively identified the remains as those of Casias.

Casias worked as an administrative assistant at the key US nuclear research facility. She was reported missing on June 26, 2025, after she failed to arrive at work and did not return home after visiting her daughter, while her purse, identification, and cell phones were found left behind.

Another LANL employee, Anthony Chavez, 78, went missing in May 2025 and has not yet been found. Steven Garcia, 48, a government contractor at the Kansas City National Security Campus, which produces more than 80% of non-nuclear components for US nuclear weapons, similarly vanished from his Albuquerque home in August 2025, leaving behind his phone, wallet, and keys and taking only a handgun.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory materials official Monica Reza was reported missing in 2023, while two other JPL workers, Frank Maiwald and Michael Hicks, have died since 2023, with no cause of death made public and no foul play alleged. Retired Air Force Major General William McCasland went missing this February.

The House Oversight Committee requested briefings from the Department of Energy, the Department of War, the FBI, and NASA about scientists and other personnel connected to US nuclear secrets or rocket technology.

US President Donald Trump called the matter “pretty serious stuff,” but the authorities have so far not established any confirmed link among the cases.

For the first time in a long while, Belarus has again found itself at the center of the Ukraine conflict. For more than a month, Vladimir Zelensky has been warning Ukrainians about a supposed threat from the north. Minsk, he claims, is preparing to enter the war and he’s even threatened Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with either a pre-emptive strike or a kidnapping in the style of Nicolas Maduro.

The rhetoric has now reached the point where Zelensky has ordered preparations for the circular defense of cities in Ukraine’s northern regions, including Kiev itself. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has called Lukashenko for the first time since 2022, apparently to persuade him not to enter the conflict.

The problem is that nothing visible is happening on the Belarusian side of the border. There’s no mobilization and no unusual concentration of Belarusian forces and no redeployment of Russian units. The only recent event that could be stretched into a military signal was last week’s Russian-Belarusian nuclear exercise. But even that took place in the Osipovichi district, in the center of Belarus, and was more about strategic deterrence than any ground operation against Ukraine.

The more obvious question is why Lukashenko would want to join the military operation at all. Such a move would be wholly out of character for him and would run against the geopolitical role he has tried to carve out for Belarus.

Lukashenko has always sought to preserve room for maneuver and he kept doing so after 2020, when he became de facto persona non grata in the West, and even after the conflict escalated in 2022. In the Ukrainian crisis, Belarus has remained largely a passive observer and that arrangement has suited Moscow. For Russia, he’s a valuable diplomatic asset, not a military one.

Could the reverse be true? Perhaps Zelensky is preparing to strike Belarus first, overthrow Lukashenko and open a second front against Russia. His pointed invitation to the fugitive opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya gives this theory a certain surface logic, but the military reality makes it deeply implausible.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ last major offensive operation was the incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. To mount it, Kiev gathered around 30,000 troops, weakening its positions in Donbass and losing large areas there as a result. Even then, the operation failed to produce a decisive strategic outcome. A serious attack on Belarus would require far more resources. Since then, Ukraine’s army has weakened further and its present ceiling is local counter-attacks in Donbass, so it’s in no position to open a major new front.

Nor would it make strategic sense. Any escalation with Belarus would risk creating another 1,000-kilometer front stretching across Ukraine’s northern flank, with direct threats to Kiev. However odious the Kiev regime may be, it can’t fail to understand this.

The timing is telling. Zelensky began to raise the alarm just as relations between Minsk and Washington showed signs of thawing. In March, the US eased sanctions on Belarus and Washington spoke of reopening its embassy. There was even talk of a possible Lukashenko visit to America and a meeting with Donald Trump.

For Kiev, this is dangerous because Zelensky may fear that the eloquent Belarusian leader could charm Trump and persuade him to increase pressure on Ukraine to bring the conflict to an end. Lukashenko might also secure further sanctions relief, potentially turning Belarus into a hub for the transit of American goods to Russia.

From Kiev’s point of view, that scenario must be prevented. Hence the effort to present Minsk as an imminent threat, because if Belarus can be cast once again as Russia’s military accomplice rather than as a possible diplomatic channel, any US-Belarusian rapprochement becomes far harder to sustain.

In such conditions, inflating a new military threat is politically useful as it allows Zelensky to tell Ukrainians that the gravest crisis is still ahead, and that he remains the horse that cannot be changed midstream.

But the old ‘Russian card’ is wearing thin in the fifth year of hostilities. Ukrainians are tired, mobilized society is fraying, and endless emergency politics no longer works as it once did. So now Kiev is reaching for the ‘Belarus card’.

Will it work? Probably not. At most, it may buy Zelensky a little time, a little fear, and a little more room to maneuver, but as a strategy, it’s thin gruel. Or to put it more appropriately, it is worthy only of a carrot, and a dry one at that.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

Moscow has added five British nationals to its blacklist over London’s hostile actions, spread of disinformation, and the concentrated effort “to pump up the Kiev regime with weaponry,” the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

The ministry announced the move on Tuesday, urging London “to renounce aggressive anti-Russian steps, as well as its support for the [Vladimir] Zelensky regime.” The UK’s effort to prolong the Ukraine conflict no matter what leads only to “further civilian casualties” and ultimately the “destruction of Ukrainian statehood,” it said. 

The latest addition to Russia’s no-entry list includes journalists and experts involved in “disseminating slanderous fabrications and false information.” It also features two heads of “British security companies” that recruit personnel to prop up the Kiev regime under the guise of “implementing pseudo-humanitarian projects in Ukraine,” the ministry stated.

The sanctioned individuals are Catherine Belton and Richard Holmes, journalists with the Washington Post and The i Paper, respectively. The list also includes Alexander Browder, a self-styled corruption and money-laundering expert, described by the ministry as the author of a misleading report for the Henry Jackson Society think tank.

Russian diplomats said work on the blacklist, as well as other retaliatory measures, is bound to continue unless London abandons its hostile stance. 

“We warn that any efforts by British political elites to further fuel Russophobia, deliberately damage our country’s international reputation, and accelerate the anti-Russian sanctions will inevitably be met with a decisive response,” the ministry stated. 

London has emerged as a key backer of Kiev in the Ukraine conflict, actively seeking to derail attempts to resolve it through diplomacy and focusing on inflicting a defeat on Russia instead. The UK has been leading various initiatives to supply Ukrainian forces with increasingly sophisticated weaponry, and to rally additional foreign monetary and military support.

A Colombian mercenary captured by Russian forces after being wounded in combat has spoken with his family for the first time since his detention, describing his decision to fight for Ukraine as the worst mistake of his life.

William Andres Gallego Orozco’s relatives in Colombia learned he was alive after seeing an interview he gave to RT last month. Following the broadcast, family members reached out and contact was established, leading to an emotional video call.

RT correspondent Donald Courter looks back at Gallego Orozco’s capture, his previous interview about the realities faced by foreign fighters in Ukraine, and the reunion with his family after they learned of his whereabouts through RT’s reporting.

Gallego Orozco’s case reflects a broader trend of Colombian nationals joining Ukraine’s military. The South American country has become one of Kiev’s largest sources of foreign recruits as it seeks to offset manpower shortages on the battlefield. According to a February investigation by Ukrainian outlet NV, between 1,000 and 2,000 Colombians were serving with Ukrainian forces at the time, while up to 7,000 are believed to have passed through the country’s ranks since 2022.

The trend has drawn criticism from Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has argued that his country’s citizens are “dying for nothing” in a foreign conflict. Petro has repeatedly stressed that mercenary activity is illegal under Colombian law and accused recruiters of exploiting vulnerable people. Last October, he voiced concern over the treatment of Colombian fighters in Ukraine and urged those being used as “cannon fodder” to return home immediately.

Watch the video call between William Andres Gallego Orozco and his family in full below.

The militant group Hezbollah has released a video showing its kamikaze drones attacking Israeli soldiers in the immediate vicinity of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon.

The 900-year-old medieval fortress was seized by the Israeli military over the weekend, with West Jerusalem hailing it as a major achievement and vowing to push deeper into the country. The castle, a key vantage point in the area, housed an Israeli military base for two decades during the occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000.

The group released footage of its FPV drones operating in the area on Monday, a day after Israel captured the castle. According to media reports, there was no Hezbollah presence at the fortress, and no military equipment or weaponry was found at the site by the IDF.

The video features two FPV drones, one of which hits a building where Israeli servicemen were sheltering, while another UAV hits an IDF Humvee, parked tightly alongside two other soft military vehicles.

The latest round of hostilities between the IDF and Hezbollah, prompted by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, has been marked by a sharp increase in the latter’s use of FPV drones.

The FPV drone threat has apparently become a major challenge for the Israeli military, with only rudimentary measures against UAVs implemented thus far. Some armored vehicles used in the invasion have been spotted featuring sub-par anti-drone nettings and cages, while stationary nets have been observed in certain locations occupied by Israeli forces supposed to protect parked vehicles.  

On Tuesday, Israeli media reported, citing sources, that the IDF command had decided to scale down heavy vehicle presence in southern Lebanon and investigate nighttime FPV drone attacks.

In May, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan cemented Armenia’s geopolitical pivot away from Russia and toward the EU. At the beginning of the month, Yerevan hosted the 8th summit of the European Political Community. This was the first time that the event was held in a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

While the event itself may seem vague in terms of concrete outcomes, one thing is clear: it allowed EU countries to show political support for certain governments, while those governments demonstrated their loyalty to the bloc.

Just a few days after the summit, Pashinyan directly stated that “Armenia is not an ally of Russia on the issue of Ukraine.” It was already apparent to Russia that Armenia was not neutral on this matter and that it politically backed the Kiev regime. However, highlighting this point was necessary to reaffirm it’s allegiance to Brussels.

The recent European Political Community summit could have been another routine event organized by Brussels to dangle the carrot of ‘European prospects’ before nations aspiring to join the EU. However, it became more than that, turning into a platform for voicing sensitive threats to Russia. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky used the occasion to threaten a strike against Moscow ahead of its Victory Day parade, while French President Emmanuel Macron rhetorically questioned why there is still a Russian military base in Armenia.

Pashinyan must have realized that such statements would irritate Moscow, and could have made an effort to mitigate the fallout with the country that, at least rhetorically, he continues to call a ‘partner’. Nonetheless, he chose to ignore the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council held on May 29 in Astana, sending Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan in his place. Combined with other actions taken by Armenia’s leadership, this sends a strong political signal – not just to Russia, but to the entire EAEU, which, by the way, provides significant economic benefits to Yerevan.

It would be incorrect to say that relations between Moscow and Yerevan have only recently begun to deteriorate. Pashinyan’s pivot toward the EU has been evident for some time, particularly following October 2022, when the Armenian prime minister signed the Prague Statement, recognizing the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. 

This tied the borders of the two countries to the state boundaries established at the time of the USSR’s collapse, giving Azerbaijan sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh. In doing so, he fulfilled the wishes of European politicians who were eager to resolve the conflict. Pashinyan seemed to expect assistance from Europeans in defending Armenians in Karabakh, yet all he received were calls for a quick peace that demanded painful concessions from Armenians.

This step had additional consequences. Armenia has never legally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as its territory, but by signing the Prague Statement, Pashinyan questioned the mandate of Russian peacekeepers who had been in the region since 2020 and ensured adherence to the ceasefire between the parties. Consequently, the issue of the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh officially became an internal matter for Azerbaijan, which Baku acted upon by dissolving the unrecognized state.

In 2025, the Armenian parliament passed a law to initiate the process of joining the EU. Later, while in Washington, Pashinyan agreed to establish the so-called Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (T.R.I.P.P.), a transport corridor that would link Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhchivan via Armenian territory and would be under US oversight. Essentially, Pashinyan handed over control of this future route to external powers, further compromising Armenia’s sovereignty.

Throughout each stage of this rapprochement, Moscow repeatedly warned Yerevan that integrating into EU structures and markets contradicted Armenia’s participation in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

On May 21, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that Yerevan had no intention of leaving the EAEU. Pashinyan echoed this sentiment on May 28, stating that Armenia was not preparing to exit the union. Overall, it’s understandable why Armenian politicians are cautious about leaving the group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently elaborated on the advantages of the EAEU for Armenia. First and foremost, it gains access to a protected market encompassing the entire group of nations, which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan — this is a massive market encompassing a population of up to 186 million. Armenia enjoys duty-free trade with these countries, along with shared technical regulations and phytosanitary standards. The logistics established during the Soviet era have been further refined in the context of these nations’ independent development.

Additionally, Russia supplies natural gas to Armenia at a highly subsidized rate — around $150 per 1,000 cubic meters, compared to the European market price of €600. 

Putin also pointed out that Armenia has received significant investments totaling $4.9 billion, with 86% originating from Russia. In contrast, the EU has invested only a few hundred million euros over the past three years while trying to pull Yerevan into its sphere of influence. The EU has stated its intention to invest €2.5 billion in Armenia’s economy, which is considerably less than what Yerevan has already gained from its engagement with the EAEU.

The Armenian GDP could shrink 14% if Armenia loses access to the benefits of the EAEU.

Seemingly hoping to gain some advantage from the current situation, Pashinyan emphasized the need to make a concrete offer instead of resorting to threats. However, this was clearly a rhetorical move; the Armenian leader cannot fail to understand the preferences his country would lose in if it departs the EAEU, and that this, in itself, is Russia’s ‘offer’: benefits which are already in effect, unlike vague promises made by the EU. 

Another pressing issue is the status of Armenian citizens in Russia. Should relations between Yerevan and the EAEU sour, they would face the same requirements as other CIS nationals – such as needing work permits, navigating more complex procedures for obtaining legal status, and experiencing delayed access to compulsory health insurance. This is especially concerning given that remittances from labor migrants constitute a significant part of the income for thousands of households in Armenia.

In Ukraine’s footsteps but with a Moldovan twist

The situation in Armenia strikingly mirrors the developments in Ukraine, where the EU also forced a painful choice upon the government. The Armenian authorities have long followed a similar script, labeling the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as a threat to the country’s sovereignty, branding Russia as a party engaged in “hybrid warfare” against Armenia, and asserting that “Armenia is no longer a brother to Russia.”

On June 7, Armenia will hold parliamentary elections, and it seems unlikely that anyone can challenge Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party. The opposition remains fragmented, and surveys by Europe Elects show a surge in support for the ruling party – from 24% to 65% in just eight days. Yet back in April, Civil Contract’s ratings hadn’t even surpassed 25%.

This has largely been a result of intense pressure on opponents. Samvel Karapetyan, who attempted to defend the Armenian Church from state attacks, remains imprisoned. Other opposition leaders, including Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, and Gagik Tsarukyan, are also under pressure. We observed similar ‘European values’ during last year’s elections in Moldova.

Pashinyan appears increasingly unconcerned about his public image. During a meeting with voters, he told one woman to be grateful for not having had her head cracked open; he also expelled critics from rallies and referred to the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh as “runaway degenerates”. And all of this occurs as part of an electoral campaign meant to attract new supporters and unify the populace. Perhaps this is the ‘European perspective’ Pashinyan envisions for his citizens. 

The upcoming elections will show whether this resonates with voters. However, we may again remember the example of Moldova, where President Maia Sandu lost domestically but secured votes from the diaspora that allowed her to claim victory. 

Western countries have been quick to point the finger at Moscow over a recent drone incident in Romania while demonstrating little interest in a comprehensive investigation into it, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has said.
Multiple similar aerial incursions in the past, which were hastily assigned to Russia at first, eventually proved to be of Ukrainian origin, he noted.

Last Friday, an explosives-laden UAV crashed into an apartment block in the Romanian city of Galati near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people. Bucharest promptly claimed the drone originated from Russia and attempted to trigger NATO's article 4.

Speaking on Monday at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the Russian envoy suggested that Romania’s haste in convening it had been dictated by the West’s desire to create “yet another anti-Russian information wave.”
Nebenzia pointed to several inconsistencies in Bucharest’s version of events, noting that the Russian Geran 2 kamikaze drone, which, according to the Romanian authorities, hit the residential building, typically carries a payload of around 50 kilograms. A blast consistent with this amount of explosives would have inflicted far greater damage on the building than what was documented by the Romanian media.

The Russian representative also said that officials had initially alleged that the incident was a targeted attack, only for Romanian President Nicusor Dan to state a few hours later that the UAV had strayed from its intended route because of Ukrainian air defenses.

Alternative versions, including a potential provocation by Kiev, are not even being considered, the Russian diplomat stated, despite multiple Ukrainian UAVs having crashed in Latvia, Lithuania and Finland in recent months.

Nebenzia recounted a tragic incident in November 2022, which saw a missile kill two people in Poland. The West initially blamed Russia, only to acknowledge later that it was a Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile.

Moscow is ready to engage in an “objective and depoliticized” investigation with any relevant materials shared with Russia, Nebenzia said, echoing earlier remarks by President Vladimir Putin.

A Taiwanese institute has unveiled a new model of armed “robot dog” designed for coastal patrols, reconnaissance, and high-risk military missions. The machines were presented during an event in Taipei on Tuesday.

National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) demonstrated three weaponized quadruped robots walking, crouching, and navigating uneven terrain. The machines are said to be based on the Vision 60 platform developed by US firm Ghost Robotics.

The models include reconnaissance, combat, and LiDAR-equipped variants, and can be used for patrols, perimeter security, and target tracking in all-weather conditions. The robots weigh around 52kg and have a top speed of 2.5 meters per second.

Jen Kuo-Kuang, the deputy director of NCSIST’s Missile and Rocket Research Division, said the institute has already had preliminary contact with the Taiwanese military, which he said sees an urgent need for the robots in coastal surveillance, maritime patrols, and base perimeter security. 

Taipei has recently approved a special defense budget allocation of about $280 million for US arms purchases amid perennial tension with Beijing.

China considers Taiwan part of its sovereign territory – a position shared by the vast majority of countries, including Russia. Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly warned that while Beijing seeks peaceful reunification with Taiwan, it would not rule out the use of force to reclaim the island if provoked.

Chinese authorities have repeatedly condemned Taipei’s ties with Washington and continued US arms sales and military cooperation with the self-governing island, describing it as interference in China’s internal affairs.

US President Donald Trump recently described arms deliveries to Taiwan as “a very good negotiating chip” with China, while also saying he supports maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.

India has slammed the European Union (EU) for a joint statement it issued with Pakistan that mentioned Jammu and Kashmir, a deeply sensitive issue for New Delhi. 

The document issued by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas and Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Monday equated Jammu and Kashmir with the Ukraine conflict. It expressed support for the “peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy, in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter.” 

Kallas was in Islamabad for the eighth round of strategic dialogue between the country and the EU. 

On Tuesday, the Indian Foreign Ministry said New Delhi categorically rejected “unwarranted references” to its internal affairs. 

“The Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral and inalienable parts of India. Those who have no locus standi in such matters should refrain from making any comments on them,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. 

VIDEO | Delhi: Responding to a media query regarding the EU-Pakistan joint statement referring to Jammu and Kashmir, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) says, "Regarding the reference to Jammu and Kashmir, we would like to state that we categorically reject such… pic.twitter.com/QLHZumaVPP

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 2, 2026

India has repeatedly emphasized that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter and vehemently opposed any third-party involvement or mediation in its dispute with Pakistan. 

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three major wars over Kashmir, and India struck Pakistan last year following a terrorist attack in Pahalgam. 

In January, India raised its concerns to Polish Deputy Prime Minister Radoslaw Sikorski about his visit to Pakistan in October last year. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said New Delhi expects its partners to not help “fuel terrorism” in its neighborhood. 

Sikorski’s visit irked New Delhi as it came a few months after the India-Pakistan conflict in May 2025. Citing the EU’s sanctions on India’s trade and oil imports from Russia, Jaishankar said that “selective targeting of India is unfair and unjustified.” 

India and the EU finalized a trade deal in New Delhi in January, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen describing it as “the mother of all deals.”

The annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) will be held over June 3-6. In its nearly three decades of existence, this event has borne witness to fundamental global shifts – and it has shifted along with the world.

Founded with the aim of facilitating foreign investment in Russia, it became known as Russia’s Davos in the 2000s, when Western executives descended upon St. Petersburg in their private jets in the hopes of securing lucrative business deals. In recent years, SPIEF has a very different feel but it has remained one of Russia’s most important economic forums and is now a key platform for discussing the transformations taking place in the global economy.

This year’s event, as usual, will draw many in the upper echelons of Russia’s business and political elite, as well as foreign business and government representatives from across the globe. Famously dubbed by Alexander Pushkin a “window to Europe,” St. Petersburg is becoming a window to a new multipolar world.

History

SPIEF dates its origin back to 1997, when Russia was struggling through a chaotic and difficult transition to a market economy. Initially, the main goal of SPIEF was to attract foreign investment and project an image of being ready to do business in the post-Soviet world. Just over a year after the first SPIEF was held, Russia would default and plunge into a severe economic crisis.

However, the forum persevered, and as Russia’s economy expanded during the 2000s, Western banks, energy firms, consultancies, and industrial companies started showing up to SPIEF in droves. The event became one of the key stops on the global business calendar.

Russia’s current role in the vanguard of multipolarity has led many to assume that SPIEF has always been centered on Eurasia, BRICS, and the Global South. It wasn’t. Somebody striding through the forum halls around 2010-2013, for example, would have encountered major Wall Street banks and major European energy companies – and possibly European heads of state. Attendees in years past have included, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Jean-Claude Juncker, ex-IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein, and Exxon’s Rex Tillerson. This was a time when Russia was trying to position itself as a central player inside the existing global economic order.

There was traditionally a strong energy angle to SPIEF. Top Western oil and gas executives were a common sight in the midnight sun of St. Petersburg in June. Bankers and businessmen would mingle on the sidelines of the event, sometimes with serious propositions at stake.

Throughout the late 2000s and 2010s, SPIEF became a venue for announcing major energy and infrastructure agreements involving Russia, European states, China, and others. Even when deals were negotiated elsewhere, they were often unveiled at SPIEF because the event provided maximum visibility and prestige.

Over the years, the presidential address became one of the forum’s defining features. Analysts routinely scrutinize these speeches for policy signals.

The Western media has tended to mock the post-2022 SPIEF as passé and insular, with one former attendee telling The Guardian that an invitation to it is “totally toxic.” The lack of Western dignitaries is seen as a step down in prestige. Often left unremarked upon in these accounts is the collapse in popularity and trust in the West itself of the same Western elite that now shuns the forum.

Last year’s event, meanwhile, saw 24,200 participants and media representatives from 144 countries and territories, while over a thousand agreements were signed. The largest delegations came from Indonesia and China.

In the spotlight this year: AI

AI has become a significant area of focus for the Russian government. President Vladimir Putin has established a presidential commission devoted to the development of AI technologies to streamline state policy.

A senior executive at Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank and an innovation leader, recently told RT that “Russia has fertile soil for AI-linked business development.” The bank also released Russia’s first comprehensive guide on integrating artificial intelligence into the production cycle of digital companies.

Not surprisingly, AI is a prominent theme at this year’s SPIEF. In fact, 14 of the roundtable sessions scheduled explicitly mention AI in the title – and that’s only a surface analysis. AI will invariably come up in numerous other talks throughout the three-day event as well.

What is noteworthy is the extent to which the AI discussion has shifted in just a couple of years. For comparison, SPIEF in 2023, which came just months after ChatGPT burst into public consciousness, reflected much of the techno-optimism of the time. The official press release on Sberbank’s AI Journey at SPIEF 2023 displays a focus mostly on AI capability and how its capabilities can be best harnessed. The questions being asked were the same ones many countries were being asked at the time. Implicit was the notion that Russia catching up in an exciting new field.

A session entitled “The Struggle for Economic and Cognitive Influence in the AI Era” promises to address not so much AI as a technology, but, according to the program, “who controls the flow of information and the logic by which it is constructed in this new system” and “whose narratives are reproduced and scaled.”

In other words, this is a shift from asking what AI will deliver to asking what kind of environment AI is producing and who will control it. For Russia, as for a number of other countries, the concept of AI sovereignty has become a central concern. Russia is treating AI very much within the context of a larger state and even civilizational narrative.

What else is on the agenda

The overall theme for this year´s forum is: “Pragmatic Dialogue – The Path to a Stable Future.” A major point of focus is governance in a multipolar world. Whereas Davos might assume the current West-led globalization as the baseline and inquire how it could be better managed, SPIEF is looking to help build a new model of global development. Accordingly, much of the forum will not merely address the question of boosting economic growth, but will grapple with the institutional and technological foundations of a changing world order.

Several thematic blocks have been chosen: A Platform for Global Growth: Shaping a New Development Model, “Putting the People First: A New Development Paradigm”, “Raising the Quality of the Environment for Living and Growth”, “The Technologies Shaping the Future.”

This reflects something of a shift in how sovereignty is being understood. Traditionally associated with territory and borders, sovereignty is increasingly being discussed in the context of scaffolding: supply chains, payment systems, data infrastructure, artificial intelligence, media ecosystems, and technological standards. Many of the forum’s discussions begin from the assumption that countries will seek greater control over critical systems rather than rely exclusively on globally integrated networks.

Return of the West?

After the Ukraine conflict began in 2022, top-level Western representation largely disappeared, although the Western presence didn’t dry up entirely. Now, however, the winds seem to be shifting again.

This comes as numerous Western companies have begun to demonstrate an interest in returning to the Russian market. Several Western oil majors met with Russian industry representatives during an energy conference in Abu Dhabi last November, according to The Economist. Several American firms that had left Russia, including Apple and McDonald’s, have recently registered new Russian trademarks.

In an interview with Russia’s Channel 1 late last year, Putin said: “We have letters from American companies, letters they have sent us where they ask us not to forget about them. These are our former partners who left Russia not on their own will.”

The bottom line

The forum has always been able to change with the times, meeting a panoply of profound challenges throughout its 30-year history. This year, perhaps uniquely, the greatest challenge will not be geopolitical. While old dialogues are rekindled, the rooms of business leaders and politicians will certainly be examining how best to deploy AI, perhaps in a manner that will incubate the tech from the political and economic crisis management that the humans at St. Petersburg have always practiced. 

“I believe Europe should approach China not with fear and suspicion but with confidence and a serious, open-eyed willingness to cooperate,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić wrote in an opinion piece for the South China Morning Post, published on the first day of his late-May state visit to Beijing – a visit he described it as the most important trip of his political career.

At a time when many Western countries frame relations with Beijing through the lens of strategic rivalry, Belgrade has chosen a different path – one based on pragmatic engagement and mutual benefit.

During the visit, which took place from May 24 to 28, Chinese President Xi Jinping awarded Vučić the Order of Friendship, the highest honor China bestows on foreign nationals. The two countries adopted two joint political statements, while 23 intergovernmental agreements and 10 additional documents involving ministries, agencies, and companies were signed. The agreements reveal a focus shifting from infrastructure financing and heavy industry toward technological integration, industrial modernization, and long-term strategic cooperation.

With almost €1 billion in newly announced investments, Serbia and China are laying the foundations for a partnership increasingly centered on innovation rather than simply construction.

Serbia 2030 and the search for a new development model

For Belgrade, the visit was fundamentally about accelerating economic development and implementing Serbia 2030, a step-by-step national modernization strategy Vučić had unveiled in March. Over the past decade, China has played a central role in Serbia’s economic transformation through investments in transport infrastructure, energy, mining, and manufacturing.

Projects such as the acquisition and revitalization of the Smederevo steel plant and the Bor mining complex demonstrated how Chinese capital could rescue strategically important sectors while preserving jobs and industrial capacity. Investments in highways, railways, bridges and energy facilities will further strengthen Serbia’s economic foundations.

Vučić has repeatedly argued that Serbia must move beyond an economic model based primarily on low-cost labor and foreign direct investment. Instead, the country aims to develop domestic technological capabilities, higher-value production, and greater economic resilience. China is uniquely positioned to support that transition.

Unlike many Western financing mechanisms, which are often slower and accompanied by extensive political and regulatory conditionality, Chinese investment offers speed, flexibility, and a willingness to engage in large-scale strategic projects – just what a country pursuing rapid modernization needs.

The visit therefore marked not merely a continuation of existing cooperation but a qualitative shift toward sectors expected to define global competitiveness in the coming decades: artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, robotics, green energy, digital infrastructure, and high technology.

Building Europe’s next technology hub

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the new partnership is Serbia’s ambition to become a regional center for advanced technology and innovation.

One of the most high-profile projects currently under discussion involves cooperation with Chinese technology firms in the field of humanoid robotics. Earlier this year, Vučić revealed negotiations with the Chinese company AGIBOT regarding what could become Europe’s first service-robot manufacturing facility. The proposed investment would reportedly include not only a robotics factory but also data centers supporting artificial intelligence development and machine-learning training.

Such a project would align closely with Serbia’s broader ambition to establish itself as a hub for AI and supercomputing in Southeast Europe.

The government plans to double national data-center capacity to one gigawatt by 2035, expand state-operated digital infrastructure, and develop a Serbian-language artificial intelligence model. Chinese expertise, financing, and technology transfer could significantly accelerate these objectives.

At the same time, Serbia’s geographic position offers advantages for Chinese investors. Through its network of trade agreements, preferential access to European markets, relatively competitive production costs, and willingness to engage pragmatically with international partners, Serbia is emerging as a potential gateway through which Chinese capital, technology, and manufacturing can reach broader European markets.

Trade, energy, and the new industrial partnership

Economic ties between the two countries continue to deepen. The Serbia-China Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 2024, has become a crucial institutional mechanism for expanding bilateral commerce. By lowering tariffs and facilitating market access, it has encouraged greater economic exchange and opened opportunities for Serbian exports.

Nevertheless, Belgrade is aware that trade growth alone is insufficient. Serbia continues to run a significant trade deficit with China, reflecting a broader challenge facing many developing and middle-income economies. Serbian policymakers increasingly recognize the need to move beyond exporting raw materials and importing finished manufactured products.

That is one reason Chinese foreign direct investment, although still highly important, has become more selective. Following years of rapid expansion, Chinese investment flows into Serbia declined in 2025 – not because their partnership has weakened, but because Belgrade is now prioritizing investments in technology-intensive sectors instead of concentrating primarily on mining and heavy industry.

Energy represents another area where Chinese cooperation could prove decisive.

Chinese nuclear companies have already expressed an interest in the Serbian market, particularly regarding small modular reactors, a technology increasingly viewed worldwide as a practical path toward reliable low-carbon electricity generation. Discussions involving the China National Nuclear Corporation have reportedly explored possible future cooperation in this field.

If realized, such projects would represent one of the most significant technological leaps in modern Serbian history.

Defense partnership

Security and defense cooperation also featured prominently in the broader context of the visit. Serbia’s policy of military neutrality requires the diversification of partnerships and procurement sources, making China an increasingly important defense partner.

In recent years, Serbia became the first European country to operate several major Chinese defense systems, including HQ-22 medium-range air-defense missiles, HQ-17 short-range air-defense systems, and CH-92A and CH-95 unmanned aerial vehicles. Additional interest reportedly exists in the long-range HQ-9B surface-to-air missile system.

Defense cooperation extends beyond procurement. Serbian and Chinese engineers have already cooperated on the development of Serbia’s own Pegaz drone, demonstrating the potential for joint technological development rather than simple buyer-seller relationships. As Belgrade seeks to digitalize its armed forces and security institutions, opportunities for cooperation in artificial intelligence, unmanned systems, cybersecurity, surveillance technologies, and data analytics are likely to expand.

Critics often portray cooperation between China and smaller European states as a source of geopolitical tension.

For Belgrade, however, engagement with Beijing is not about replacing partnerships with Europe or other international actors. Serbian officials consistently emphasize that Chinese projects complement rather than substitute for cooperation with Western partners.

Serbia needs infrastructure, technology, energy security, industrial upgrading, and strategic investment. China possesses the capital, expertise, manufacturing capacity, and long-term planning horizon to help deliver them.

The results of Vučić’s May visit indicate that both sides recognize this convergence of interests.

The “ironclad friendship” frequently invoked by Chinese and Serbian leaders is often dismissed abroad as diplomatic rhetoric. Increasingly, however, it reflects a tangible reality. From artificial intelligence laboratories and robotics factories to satellites, nuclear energy, and advanced defense technologies, the partnership is moving into areas that will define economic and strategic power in the twenty-first century.

For Serbia, the objective is rapid modernization, economic resilience, and long-term stability. China sees Serbia as a trusted European partner, willing to pursue cooperation which is grounded in mutual respect and shared development.

In a world increasingly shaped by fragmentation and geopolitical suspicion, that may be the most important message emerging from Belgrade and Beijing: nations do not have to choose between sovereignty and cooperation. Mutual interests and tangible results can turn strategic partnerships into powerful instruments of modernization and long-term stability.

Armenian citizens will suffer significant economic damages should incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan implement his strategy of breaking trade with Russia in favor of integration with the EU, Russian Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said.

Armenians will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament. The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on the country’s geopolitical alignment, as Pashinyan claims the land-locked post-Soviet republic can benefit greatly from closer ties with the West. 

Volodin on Tuesday accused Pashinyan of misleading voters by downplaying the negative consequences of his proposal, reacting to the prime minister’s promise to compensate farmers from the state budget for any produce that spoils if they lose privileged access to the Russian market.

Armenia is one of five members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – alongside Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan – an economic organization that operates a single market and harmonizes regulations to facilitate trade, investment and other forms of economic cooperation. Yerevan has been previously warned that membership in the EAEU is incompatible with its EU aspirations.

“Apparently, Pashinyan has made a personal pledge to see Armenia join the EU… while trying to put the costs on the EAEU and Russia,” Volodin wrote. “Obviously, he does not care about the fate of the Armenian people and statehood. He cares about staying in power.”

“The price will be steep,” the official warned.

Volodin compared Armenia’s current trajectory to that of Ukraine, arguing that Kiev’s expectations of greater access to EU markets had failed to materialize and that the country’s agricultural exports had instead faced tariff quotas and other restrictions. He warned that Armenia could face similar risks.

Armenia remains heavily reliant on the Russian market. According to UN data, Russia accounted for nearly 24% of Armenian exports in 2024, making it the country’s second-largest export destination after the UAE. Statistics show that Armenia’s overall exports shrank by nearly 35% year on year in 2025, driven by a decline in Russia-related re-exports and reduced export opportunities amid instability in the Middle East.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pashinyan reportedly said the referendum on EU membership could only be held if his country formally applies to join the bloc or comes close to obtaining candidate status. Until then, “there will be no referendum,” he said, as quoted by Armenpress. The prime minister described the benefits of EAEU membership as “obvious,” but claimed that the regional organization should create new opportunities for Armenia.

India today operates within one of the most demanding geopolitical environments of the post-Cold War era. Two simultaneous and interconnected pressures are reshaping its foreign policy calculus: the accelerating economic and technological rivalry between the United States and China, and the cascading humanitarian and economic consequences of conflicts across the Middle East.

Rather than being paralyzed by these pressures, India has responded with a doctrine of principled multi-alignment, engaging deeply with multiple power centers while preserving its sovereign decision-making. Understanding how and why India has done this strategic balancing requires each pressure to be examined in turn.

India as a preferred alternative 

The structural decoupling of Western supply chains from China has placed India in an unusually advantageous position. The ‘China Plus One’ strategy, the drive by multinational firms to diversify manufacturing away from China, has directed significant investment toward India. Apple’s decision to shift substantial iPhone production to Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, Micron’s semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat, and GE’s agreement for jet engine co-production are just some of the concrete expressions of this shift.

The India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), launched in 2023, formalized cooperation across semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and space, a qualitative upgrade in bilateral technology ties.

India has actively shaped this opportunity through its Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which offers structured financial incentives across sectors including electronics, pharmaceuticals, and solar energy deliberately targeting the supply chain gaps left by de-risking from China.

The China relationship: Complexity without capitulation

Despite the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes which killed Indian soldiers and severely damaged bilateral trust, China has remained India’s largest source of goods imports. Bilateral trade has exceeded $100 billion annually, reflecting a structural interdependence in electronics, industrial machinery, and pharmaceutical precursors that cannot be unwound rapidly. India has responded not by accepting this vulnerability but by investing heavily in domestic manufacturing to substitute Chinese imports over time, with PLI schemes being the primary instrument.

Strategic autonomy in practice

India’s participation in the Quad alongside the United States, Japan, and Australia represents a meaningful strategic signal, yet India has been consistent that the Quad is not a military alliance and that it will not subordinate its defense decisions to any external partner. This posture is not evasion; it reflects a considered judgement that India’s security interests are served by flexible engagement rather than rigid treaty obligations.

India’s continued purchase of discounted Russian oil during the Ukraine conflict drew criticism from Washington and Brussels. However, India has maintained that energy security is a sovereign concern, particularly for a developing economy managing high import bills, and that India’s diplomatic channel with Moscow provides a useful avenue for advocating restraint, a role that rigidly aligned nations cannot play.

This same logic governs India’s simultaneous membership of BRICS, the SCO, the Quad, and the G20. Far from being contradictory, this positioning gives India access and influence across competing blocs – a diplomatic asset of growing strategic value.

Technology sovereignty and the digital divide

India’s exclusion of Huawei and ZTE from its 5G rollout was a consequential choice, effectively aligning India with the Western technology ecosystem at a moment when the world is bifurcating into rival digital architectures. India made this decision based on its own security assessment rather than external pressure, a distinction that matters for its credibility as an autonomous actor.

As AI governance frameworks emerge with the EU, the US, and China each advancing rival standard-setting architectures, India’s democratic credentials, large technology workforce, and proven digital public infrastructure (UPI, Aadhaar, DigiLocker, collectively studied globally as the ‘India Stack’) position it as a credible participant in shaping international norms rather than merely adopting them.

Humanitarian stakes and diplomatic balance

The Israel-Gaza war, which erupted in October 2023, placed India in a position of genuine difficulty. India initially expressed solidarity with Israel’s right to self-defense, reflecting substantive defense, counterterrorism, and agricultural ties built over decades. As civilian casualties mounted, India shifted to calling for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access, and abstained on several UN resolutions rather than explicitly condemning Israeli military operations.

This calibration was driven by real constraints: India’s Gulf Arab partners Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar – on whom India depends for energy and diaspora welfare – demanded a stronger humanitarian stance. Over 9 million Indian workers in GCC countries remit approximately $50 billion annually – India’s single largest remittance source. Alienating Gulf partners was not a diplomatic abstraction; it carried direct consequences for millions of Indian families.

The Red Sea disruption and naval assertiveness

The Houthi campaign against Red Sea shipping from late 2023 onward directly struck Indian economic interests. India is a major maritime trading nation, and rerouting shipments around the Cape of Good Hope added weeks to transit times and significantly increased freight costs; a damaging blow at a moment when India is positioning itself as a global manufacturing export hub.

India’s response was notable: the Indian Navy deployed warships in the Arabian Sea to escort merchant vessels, marking a shift toward proactive protection of sea lanes. This was not merely a tactical decision but a strategic signal; India is prepared to bear the costs of securing its maritime lifelines unilaterally, whenever necessary.

The Iran-Chabahar tension and the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor 

Iran presents India with a particularly layered challenge. The Chabahar port project in southeastern Iran is central to India’s overland connectivity strategy toward Afghanistan and Central Asia, a route that bypasses Pakistan entirely.

One of the most consequential developments in this period is the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), unveiled at India’s G20 presidency summit in New Delhi in September 2023. Backed by the US, EU, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and India, IMEC proposes rail and shipping links connecting South Asia, the Gulf, and Europe, an explicit alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The ongoing Middle East conflict has complicated IMEC’s near-term prospects, particularly given the critical role Saudi Arabia plays in the corridor. Nonetheless, the project represents India’s most ambitious connectivity vision and demonstrates its capacity to anchor major multilateral infrastructure frameworks.

The costs and rewards of strategic autonomy

India’s foreign policy response to these multiple geo-political and geo-economic pressures has been neither passive nor purely reactive. It has pursued technology partnerships with the West while managing economic interdependence with China; it has built naval capacity to protect Red Sea interests while balancing Arab and Israeli relationships; it has led the Global South through the G20 while maintaining ties with Russia.

Each of these choices carries costs such as strained relations with Western partners on Russia, trade vulnerability with China, and complexity in the Middle East. But collectively they reflect a strategy of building maximum leverage and minimum dependency, befitting a nation whose weight in global affairs is only set to grow. Strategic autonomy and multi-alignment are the doctrines of this new India.

The author will be speaking at the Valdai Club session, ’Shared Future, Universal Good: How to Manage Competition for Resources and Spaces’, at SPIEF 2026 on June 4, 2026.

A video showing Russians reacting without hostility to being addressed in Ukrainian on the street has gone viral on social media.

In the clip, filmed last week in the Ural city of Ekaterinburg, blogger Andrey Gorlivsky asks passersby in Ukrainian for directions to the musuem to legendary Russian actor, poet, songwriter and performer, Vladimir Vysotsky.

None of the those approached appeared surprised or offended by the use of Ukrainian, instead responding in Russian, and readily offering help.

The blogger also asked several Ekaterinburg residents how they were able to understand Ukrainian. One man said he has a Ukrainian friend, while another noted that the two languages share many similarities.

Viewers online have contrasted the footage with numerous videos from Ukraine showing disputes over the use of Russian. Despite Kiev’s ongoing efforts to reduce the language’s role in public life, it remains widely spoken across the country and is the primary language for millions.

The effort intensified after the escalation of the conflict in February 2022. Moscow has repeatedly cited the protection of Russian speakers and the restoration of their language rights among its key conditions for a peace settlement.

In December, the Ukrainian parliament stripped Russian of protections granted under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Earlier this year, Kiev also moved to establish a legal basis for a broad ban on Russian literature, paving the way for the removal of such books from circulation.

EU lawmakers and state representatives have agreed in principle on new rules aimed at speeding up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers amid growing pressure across the bloc to curb illegal migration.

The agreement reached on Monday would allow EU countries to transfer rejected asylum seekers to third countries if they cannot be returned to their countries of origin. The regulation also introduces stricter rules for dealing with illegal migrants, especially those considered a security risk.

These include the possibility of home searches, welfare cuts, document confiscation, and extended detention periods which would be extended from six months to two and a half years. Entry bans would also be increased from five to ten years in most cases, with lifetime bans possible.

“For years, Europe sent the worst possible message: even if you had no right to stay, chances were high that nothing would happen. That era is ending. If you have no right to stay in Europe, you will have to leave,” French MEP Francois-Xavier Bellamy, who represented the European People’s Party in the negotiations, told Politico.

The deal still requires formal approval by EU governments and the European Parliament before it can enter into force.

The proposal was initially made by the European Commission last year in response to growing discontent with a decade-long influx of illegal migrants, which has remained one of Europe’s most divisive political issues since 2015 when roughly a million people entered the EU.

Despite Brussels and countries like Germany and Sweden initially embracing an open-door approach toward would-be asylum seekers, a number of EU states, including Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Greece, have since moved to tighten asylum rules and have been pushing for return hubs to be established outside the bloc.

Rights groups and left-wing lawmakers have criticized the new EU rules, warning that they could expand detention, increase raids and expose rejected asylum seekers to unsafe conditions outside EU territory.

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, on the other hand, has welcomed the deal, saying the bloc will have “more control over who can come to the EU, who can stay and who needs to leave.”

US President Donald Trump has tapped housing finance chief Bill Pulte to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the wake of Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation.

Trump announced Pulte’s appointment in a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, describing Pulte as someone with “deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America.”

As acting DNI, Pulte will coordinate the work of the US federal government’s 18 intelligence agencies, and will be responsible for producing Trump’s daily intelligence briefing. Pulte, however, has no national security experience, having sat on the board of his family’s residential construction firm before being appointed by Trump to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency and chair mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last year.

Pulte will continue to work in these roles while serving as acting DNI, Trump stated.

Gabbard, a vocal opponent of war with Iran, handed in her resignation amid speculation that she had been sidelined by Trump and his closest officials – among them Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth – while plans were drawn up to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January and attack Iran in February.

Less than two weeks before her resignation, Gabbard told the New York Post that she was investigating more than 120 US-funded biological laboratories worldwide, including more than 40 in Ukraine. Gabbard said that her probe would focus on whether these biolabs were conducting “dangerous gain-of-function research” to turn naturally occurring viruses into potential bioweapons – as the Russian military has claimed since 2022.

Little is known about Pulte’s views on the Russia/Ukraine conflict, or on the US’ war on Iran. He is considered a Trump loyalist, however, having led mortgage fraud investigations into New York Attorney General Letitia James, California Representative Eric Swalwell and Senator Adam Schiff, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, all Democrats whom Trump has accused of unfairly targeting him with legal proceedings.

Pulte also referred Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to the Department of Justice over alleged mortgage fraud last year, as Trump clashed with the Fed’s then-chairman, Jerome Powell, over his refusal to introduce steep interest rate cuts.

Protectionism is pushing the EU toward economic decline, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has told Bloomberg, arguing that barriers to investment between Europe, China and the US are hurting growth.

Vucic made the remarks on Tuesday shortly after returning from Beijing, where he secured more than $1 billion in Chinese investment pledges for his country.

Protectionism is “killing, in the end, Europe,” and there are “too many obstacles” complicating investment flows, the Serbian president said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Vucic also warned that Europe has become complacent in the face of growing global competition. “We all live nicely. We don’t see what’s happening around us,” he said, adding that productivity would be “the toughest and the biggest issue” facing the continent.

Vucic’s remarks come amid trade rows between the EU and both China and the US, including disputes with Beijing over electric vehicle tariffs and subsidies, and with the US over tariffs, market access and industrial policy.

Under Vucic, Serbia has become one of China’s closest partners in Europe. Chinese President Xi Jinping has described bilateral ties as an “ironclad friendship,” while a free trade agreement between the two countries entered into force in 2024. The partnership has helped strengthen Serbia’s economy, one of Europe’s faster-growing in recent years, according to the IMF and World Bank.

Belgrade has also maintained ties with Russia, rejecting EU pressure to impose sanctions on Moscow and support Ukraine. Roughly 80% of Serbia’s natural gas imports come from Russia.

Unlike Serbia, the EU has sought to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports and replace them with alternative suppliers following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, which contributed to an overall economic downturn.

Brussels has criticized Vucic’s close ties with both Beijing and Moscow, urging Serbia to make a “strategic choice” of direction.

Vucic has insisted, however, that joining the EU remains Belgrade’s long-term objective.

Americans are spending more on everything from groceries to gasoline because they are “optimistic” about the future, not because they are struggling with the rising cost of living, US President Donald Trump’s chief economic adviser has claimed – a view many economists dispute.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Kevin Hassett was asked why credit-card delinquencies have climbed to their highest level in 15 years as households increasingly rely on debt to make ends meet. Rather than pointing to financial strain, the director of the White House National Economic Council argued that Americans are “spending more on gas” and “on everything else, not just groceries but restaurants” – “a sign that you would see when people are optimistic about the future.”

Hassett said people usually spend less money when they are worried about “making rent” or their “job security.” Rising spending, according to him, reflects confidence rather than mounting pressure from the cost of living.

Do Trump adviser’s claims on US economy add up?

In reality, the numbers tell a less cheerful story. Economists who spoke to RT said the rise in spending appears to reflect higher prices and mounting pressure on household budgets rather than growing confidence about the future.

“Americans are paying more not because they are optimistic about the future, but because essential goods and services have become more expensive,” Nikolay Novik, deputy director of the Center for International Trade Studies at HSE University, told RT on Tuesday.

WATCH: Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett defends the Trump administration's economic record, says "core inflation isn't taking off, real incomes are soaring." pic.twitter.com/VM60rV8vuE

— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) May 31, 2026

“One of the signs of a crisis, or a pre-crisis environment, is when prices for basic goods rise faster than incomes,” Novik said. As real disposable incomes fall, “consumer sentiment deteriorates” and spending shifts toward necessities, he added.

“That is exactly what is happening in the United States,” Novik said, arguing that households are being forced to devote an ever-larger share of their budgets to mandatory expenses while cutting back on travel, education, major purchases, and savings.

Gas prices surged after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. JPMorgan data shows prices at the pump jumped 17.8% year-on-year in March. Spending at gas stations rose 12.8%, but Americans were paying more, not buying more. According to the bank, spending excluding fuel was growing more slowly than overall consumer spending for the first time since 2022.

Worse to come?

Grocery bills could be next. Americans are already paying more in supermarkets as tariffs, adverse weather, and a shrinking cattle herd push food prices higher. The latest US Department of Agriculture forecast projects grocery prices will climb 3.2% this year, signaling little relief for consumers already grappling with higher fuel costs.

“Inflation accelerated to 3.8% year-on-year in April, including higher energy prices, while low-cost imported goods are becoming harder to find because of tariff threats and supply-chain disruptions,” Bondarenko told RT. Expectations of faster inflation are also pushing consumers to buy now because “it may be more expensive later,” she added.

‘Stagnation rather than growth’

Looking at the bigger picture, the data points to stagnation rather than a boom.

The University of Michigan’s closely watched consumer sentiment index has fallen to levels rarely seen outside recessions. The gauge stood at 44.8 in May, down 10% from the previous month and more than 14% lower than a year earlier.

Real consumer spending growth slowed to 1.4% in the first quarter, its weakest pace in four years, while retail sales fell 0.2% in January, the sharpest decline in four years, according to US Commerce Department.

In such conditions, Novik concluded, Americans are spending more just to stand still.

A graft scheme has been exposed at Energoatom, a Ukrainian energy giant previously linked with an alleged extortion ring run by businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of Vladimir Zelensky. The alleged crimes were exposed by the same Western-backed anti-corruption agencies.

Mindich, dubbed “Zelensky’s wallet” by the media, fled the country last November shortly before the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) charged him and his associates with running a $100 million extortion scheme at Energoatom. Investigators alleged that contractors were forced by corrupt company management to pay kickbacks from their state contracts.

The newly alleged scheme revealed on Wednesday reportedly involved the theft of at least $3.8 million in public funds during the construction of critical infrastructure for the Tashlyk Pumped-Storage Power Plant in Nikolaev Region. The facility was originally conceived as a Soviet-era project and approved in 1981, but was later scaled back following the collapse of the USSR. Two of its turbines were commissioned in the mid-2000s, while a third was launched only in late 2021.

The anti-corruption agencies said that the de facto owner of several construction companies involved in the project and a former senior manager at Energoatom’s engineering branch had been charged with large-scale embezzlement.

Wartime money cow

Energoatom operates three Soviet-built nuclear power plants, as well as the Tashlyk facility and the Aleksandrovka hydroelectric power station – which complement the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant helping cover peak power grid loads.

While Ukraine and Russia have struck each other’s energy infrastructure during the conflict, nuclear and hydropower sites have largely been spared, as damage to such facilities could trigger major environmental disasters. With Ukraine’s overall generating capacity reduced, Energoatom remains a major source of revenue.

A big graft club in Kiev

The scandal sent shockwaves through the Ukrainian government, as Mindich’s alleged ring involved several senior officials, including a former energy minister, his former deputy who later replaced him in a cabinet reshuffle, and former Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov.

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, was forced to resign over suspected links to Mindich and has since been charged in a separate alleged money-laundering case connected to the financing of a luxury property development outside Kiev, reportedly owned by Yermak, Mindich, Chernyshov, and Zelensky.

The fugitive businessman’s other interests reportedly focused on the arms giant Fire Point. Leaked surveillance records suggest Minidich secretly ran the company, profiting from his influence on then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who still retains a senior security position in the government.

British police have released bodycam footage showing officers ignoring the dying pleas of an 18-year-old stabbing victim, after his attacker falsely claimed that he had been the victim of a racist attack.

Released on Monday, the footage shows officers handcuffing student Henry Nowak as he lay dying after being stabbed multiple times by 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa in Southampton last year.

Nowak told the officers five times that he had been stabbed, to which one officer replied “I don’t think you have, mate.” Nowak was handcuffed and dragged across gravel, as Digwa remained uncuffed, telling officers that Nowak had torn off his turban in a racially-motivated attack.

The officers ignored Nowak’s pleas to call an ambulance and informed him that he was under arrest for assault, as he lost consciousness and drowned in his own blood.

Digwa was found guilty of murder last week and sentenced on Monday to 21 years in prison. The court heard that he attacked Nowak with no provocation, with prosecutors calling his claim of racism “a wicked lie.” Digwa’s mother was also found guilty of assisting an offender by hiding the knife that Digwa used to kill Nowak.

Speaking after the sentence was handed down, Nowak’s father told reporters that his son “did not die with dignity. He did not die with the care he deserved. He lost consciousness before anyone believed him.”

“The way he was treated was inhumane and degrading,” he continued. “His murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed. He was not handcuffed when arrested… police even took him to the kitchen so he could choose his food. The contrast is unbearable.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called on the British people to respond with “pure, cold rage.” In a statement on Tuesday, Farage described the case as “proof, if ever there was any, that we’re living in a two-tier culture in this country where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities.”

We are living in two-tier Britain where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities. pic.twitter.com/e7EpE1kQrm

— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) June 2, 2026

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office described the case as “shocking and harrowing,” but insisted that “there’s no such thing as two-tier policing.”

The government’s Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is currently investigating the actions of the officers.

South Africa’s new vehicle market maintained its upward momentum in May, recording its strongest monthly sales performance since 2013, the country’s automotive industry association has said.

According to the Automotive Business Council, aggregate new vehicle sales increased by 12.8% year-on-year to 51,071 units. The result extended the market’s run of consecutive monthly growth and kept year-to-date sales firmly in positive territory.

Passenger car sales rose 16.3% to 36,871 units. Dealer sales accounted for 90.1% of total volumes, while the vehicle rental industry contributed 5.3%, indicating demand across multiple sales channels.

Despite the positive sales momentum, Sithole warned that affordability pressures are likely to remain a key consideration for households and businesses.

The South African Reserve Bank increased the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.00% at its May meeting, pushing the prime lending rate to 10.50%.

Sithole said higher monthly repayments could affect affordability, particularly for first-time buyers and smaller business operators, and encouraged consumers to fully understand the impact of interest rate changes before entering into finance agreements.

Fuel costs are also expected to place additional pressure on consumers. Petrol prices are set to increase from 4 June, driven by movements in global oil prices and the partial reversal of temporary fuel levy relief introduced in April.

While higher financing costs and fuel prices may weigh on demand, the vehicle market has shown resilience through a challenging economic period. Improved household and business confidence, ongoing vehicle replacement cycles and fleet renewal activity continue to support sales across segments.

First published by IOL

India and the US have begun another round of talks aimed at finalizing a trade deal, amid New Delhi’s concerns about tariff actions that could arise from an unfair-practices probe in Washington.

After months of negotiations, New Delhi and Washington are in the final stages of concluding a tranche of a trade agreement, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

A US delegation led by Assistant Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch is in New Delhi for discussions that will continue until June 4.

New Delhi’s reservations to the deal would be about “opening up agriculture without any constraints, without any limits,” Ajay Dua, a former commerce and industries secretary in India, told RT India. He also cited the issue of digital data protection, that is data gathered by foreign companies about India should be stored locally, which Western companies are resisting.

India is expected to seek shielding from Washington’s investigations of countries under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a law that grants the US broad authority to probe trade practices and impose retaliatory measures.

There is a sense of urgency to get the talks over the line as tariffs under Section 301 are expected to come into effect on July 24 – in place of the reciprocal tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump last year, The Indian Express reported.

Deal Breakers For Delhi: India Seeks Shield & Access In US Trade Talks

Negotiators are expected to push for preferential access to the US market and protection from potential penalties linked to Washington's Section 301 investigations during bilateral trade talks, according to… pic.twitter.com/f0KMdsKmme

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) June 2, 2026

Underscoring India’s concerns, the US on Tuesday slapped a 25% tariff on Brazil over trade practices it decided were unfair under Section 301. New Delhi is seeking to avoid the same playbook being used against it after a trade deal is signed.

Early last year, Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a goal to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. They outlined plans to negotiate the first tranche of a multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement by the fall of 2025.

However, Trump’s tariffs were deemed illegal by the US Supreme Court in February this year, effectively scuppering the agreement.

Amid the talks over an India-US trade deal, reports say New Delhi may review the broad contours of its trade pact with the UK. India is reportedly looking at reducing the tariff concessions on Scotch whisky and some other items over steel quotas and duties in the UK, the Times of India reported.

A plant owned by Fire Point, a Ukrainian defense company widely linked to a high-level corruption scheme involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, has been struck during a Russian raid, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

In a rare occurrence, the ministry provided a detailed list of Ukrainian defense industry enterprises that had been attacked as part of the latest wave of airstrikes on the country earlier on Tuesday.

A Fire Point facility, which produced parts for long-range attack UAVs and missiles, was hit in Dnepropetrovsk Region, it said in a statement.

Originally established as a film scouting agency linked to associates of Vladimir Zelensky, Fire Point was later exposed in leaked conversations involving members of the Ukrainian leader’s inner circle as a vehicle for siphoning off lucrative arms contracts.

Leaked recordings published by Ukrainian media since April suggested that businessman Timur Mindich – who is wanted in Ukraine over an alleged $100 million corruption scheme in the energy sector – effectively controlled Fire Point throughout 2025.

The tapes also indicated that Mindich enjoyed preferential treatment from then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who now serves as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that ten enterprises manufacturing weapons, inducing UAVs, have been attacked in Kiev. Three recruitment centers have also been hit in the Ukrainian capital, it added.

In the city of Zaporozhye, the Omelchenko machinery plant and the Motor Sich aircraft engine plant were targeted, the statement read.

The raid also targeted six military airfields in Cherkasy, Rovno, Zhytomir, Kirovograd, Khmelnytsky and Kiev Regions, it added.

According to the ministry, the large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine was carried out in response to Kiev’s terrorist attacks on civilians, including the one in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.

Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring dozens of others.

Israel has a clear interest in prolonging US hostilities with Iran and has been successfully sabotaging efforts to reach a peace agreement, Tehran-based Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi has told RT.

The political analyst was commenting on the latest escalation of Israeli military operations against Lebanon, including strikes on Beirut, which have triggered a new surge in tensions between Washington and Tehran and could bring negotiations to a permanent halt.

Tehran has said that continued Israeli violence effectively voids the fragile ceasefire with the US, which was announced in early April. US President Donald Trump later pushed Israel to declare a similar halt to hostilities in Lebanon.

According to Axios, Trump lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their most recent call for undermining his attempt to find an off-ramp from the conflict.

“Netanyahu is the boss. And not Netanyahu as an individual, but Netanyahu and the Zionists who support him, whether in Washington or in the Israeli regime,” Marandi said, describing how Tehran views the power balance between Iran’s two adversaries.

“Every time the negotiations seem to be getting somewhere, we see the Israeli regime and the Zionist lobby in the United States pushing back and forcing Trump to change his position and to flip-flop,” he added.

In addition to the escalation in Lebanon, the US-Iranian truce was also undermined by sporadic military operations by both sides, most of them related to American attempts to lift the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials have threatened to expand the disruption of traffic to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, another strategic waterway that could be threatened by Houthi forces in Yemen.

Watch the entire interview.

Ukraine launched explosive-laden drones towards Finland, triggering an alert that affected 1.8 million people, Helsingin Sanomat reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The incident took place on May 15 and set off a major security alert in the southern Finnish region of Uusimaa, which includes the country’s capital, Helsinki. The warning halted air traffic at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and triggered a lockdown order by the authorities.

Finnish officials did not initially disclose details of the alert, stating only that the drones could be approaching from Russia, creating the impression that the threat was linked to Moscow.

According to HS, however, the emergency measures were prompted by a warning from Ukraine, which said it had accidentally sent drones carrying explosives toward Finland.

The Finnish Defense Forces later said no violation of Finnish airspace had been detected. HS reported that it remains unclear why the drones never entered the country, noting that Russian air defenses may have shot them down en route.

The report has prompted criticism from Finnish lawmakers. Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee said they were not told that the warning came from Ukraine, which was essential information that should have been shared immediately.

Last month, Estonia shot down an alleged Ukrainian drone over its territory for the first time, while Latvia saw Ukrainian drones hit oil storage facilities near the Russian border, which ultimately led to the collapse of Prime Minister Evika Silina’s government.

Moscow has repeatedly accused NATO countries of quietly allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for attacks on targets in northwestern Russia, particularly energy infrastructure in Leningrad Region. Russian officials have also warned that Kiev could stage provocations involving drones to draw NATO deeper into the conflict.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo previously said he had told Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that Helsinki considers Ukrainian aircraft entering its airspace “unacceptable.” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has likewise urged Kiev to keep its drones away from Estonian territory and to “control their activities better.”

Hundreds of Kenyans gathered in the streets of the town of Nanyuki on Monday to protest a proposed US Ebola quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base. 

Video shows groups of young protesters marching toward the entrance of the air base while chanting anti-Ebola slogans. Demonstrators also blocked roads and set tires on fire. According to the BBC, two people were shot dead during the unrest. 

The demonstrations took place just days after Kenya’s High Court ordered a halt to the US-supported plan. The facility was intended to accommodate American citizens who may have been exposed to the virus, as part of an effort by the Trump administration to keep the disease out of the US. 

Washington’s announcement in parallel of a new Ebola aid plan, made as the outbreak continues to spread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), prompted a legal challenge from the Katiba Institute. According to the US Department of State, the US wants to allocate $13.5 million to strengthen Kenya’s readiness to respond to a potential outbreak. 

On Sunday, Kenyan Health Minister Aden Duale said that the planned quarantine facility was intended to serve “everyone” and would not have been reserved solely for US citizens. 

Meanwhile, healthcare experts in the US, including former officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), urged the US Congress on Monday to overturn the initiative. In a letter to lawmakers, the experts warned that the project presents “significant clinical, ethical, operational and legal challenges.” They said that establishing temporary quarantine and treatment facilities abroad while response efforts are already strained could set a “dangerous precedent.” 

On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reported that a total of 1,077 suspected cases and 246 probable deaths had been recorded since May 15, when DR Congo declared its 17th Ebola outbreak. The epidemic has been attributed to the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, for which there are currently no approved vaccines or targeted treatments available. 

The UK must prepare for the possibility of “taking the human out of the loop” using highly automated weapons systems, according to Al Carns, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for the armed forces.

Current British policy on automated weapons states that “there must be context-appropriate human involvement in weapons which identify, select and attack targets.” Carns, however, has argued that the rules may need to be loosened, claiming that countries hostile to Britain would not hesitate to deploy weapons capable of killing without human authorization.

“I always say there must be a human in the loop. But you must have the ability to take the human out of the loop when required, because our adversaries won’t care about having a human in the loop,” the MP and former commando told the Financial Times last week on the sidelines of a military drone event in Riga, Latvia.

The newspaper pointed to the US and Ukraine as examples of states already using AI for battlefield target acquisition, adding that Russia is believed to be doing the same.

Ukraine’s military, which uses Palantir technology for intelligence analysis, recently carried out a deliberate drone raid on a pedagogical college in Starobelsk, Russia, killing 21 people. Kiev denied involvement in the attack and claimed Moscow had somehow fabricated the incident.

In February, the British Ministry of Defense announced a legal review of rules governing uncrewed and autonomous weapons, saying the framework “must be updated to be fit for the current era of threat.”

Russia’s stated position on automated weapons and AI systems more broadly is that humans must remain responsible for final decisions.

“AI can advise, and the advice can even be better than anything a human can come up with on their own,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year. “But… the responsibility for the final decision must always fall on a particular person.”

Nepalese Prime Minister Balen Shah reignited a long-running border dispute between his country and its large southern neighbor India, adding fuel to the fire by saying the United Kingdom and China have to be at the talks.

Shah, who was elected last year following the massive ‘Gen Z’ protests against corruption that swept the country, said on Sunday, “Not only has India encroached on Nepal’s land, but Nepal has also encroached on India’s land in multiple places.”

He said that the disputes over Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kala Pani would be resolved through diplomatic dialogue.

While he sounded reconciliatory in calling for talks, he added that Kathmandu has spoken with not only India and China – whose Tibet region borders the disputed zone – about the issue but also with the UK government.

“Our view is that the UK should also take an interest, as the issue dates back to the period when the British left the region,” Shah said. Britain ruled India for nearly 200 years, until its independence in 1947, and is still bitterly remembered for its brutality and exploitation, particularly the partitioning of the territories under the Raj into India and Pakistan.

He said Shah’s statement should be seen as more positive than negative as it shows a shift in Nepal’s approach to the issue.

India had said earlier last month that it remains open to constructive interaction with Nepal on all issues in the bilateral relationship, including on resolving agreed-upon outstanding boundary issues through dialogue and diplomacy.

Meanwhile, media reports said that Rabi Lamichhane, the president of Shah’s Rashtriya Swatantra Party, will make a five-day official visit to India starting Monday at the invitation of its ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Russian wheat exports to Kenya have climbed 10% year-on-year this season, the Russian agriculture export agency Agroexport reported on Monday.

According to the agency, shipments reached around 1.4 million tons by late May, already surpassing the roughly 1.3 million tons delivered during the entire previous season. The current figure is second only to the record 1.7 million tons shipped in the 2023/24 season.

“Kenya remains one of the key markets for Russian wheat suppliers in Africa,” accounting for about 7% of the country’s grain exports to the continent, the agency reported.

The figures come amid broader growth in Russia’s agricultural trade with Africa. Last week, Agroexport adviser Alexander Yakuba said Russian agricultural exports to African countries have increased by 22% over the past five years, exceeding $5 billion in 2025.

Russian wheat exports to Egypt rose 19% this year, while supplies to Sudan jumped 78%. Shipments to Cameroon reached 137,000 tons worth $32 million in 2025, up 3.2 times year-on-year, while exports in the first four months of 2026 totaled 93,000 tons valued at more than $20.5 million, according to the agency.

Separately, analysts at railway operator Rusagrotrans have told Interfax that the leading importers of Russian wheat are the MENA countries, “where it is difficult to compete with Russia due to its logistical proximity to these markets.”

Russian forces have carried out a large-scale missile and drone strike against military-related targets in Ukraine in response to terrorist attacks by Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The overnight raid focused on defense industry facilities in the capital, Kiev, parts of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions still under Ukraine’s control, as well as in Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnitsky, and Sumy regions, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Fuel and transport infrastructure facilities used by Ukrainian forces and military airfields were also hit, it added.

Land- and sea-based precision weapons, including hypersonic missiles and drones, were deployed during the attack, the ministry said.

Multiple videos have been posted on social media, purporting to show explosions in various parts of Ukraine. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko confirmed partial blackouts in several districts of the capital during the raid.

Moscow previously warned it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” on Ukraine’s military infrastructure, including drone production facilities, command posts, and “decision-making centers,” in response to a terrorist attack in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic on May 22.

Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in the town of Starobelsk in several waves of drone attacks late at night while students were asleep, killing 21 people, mostly teenage girls, and injuring 70 others.

Speaking to RT, American journalist John Varoli has defended Russia’s strikes on Ukrainian targets as “legitimate” and fully “allowed by international law,” arguing that Moscow has “a right to dismantle any infrastructure that supports terrorism.” Varoli said “Russian punishment against the Kiev regime is going to continue” and “is going to intensify,” accusing Western nations of backing “a terrorist regime” in Ukraine.

Western intelligence agencies hacked the phones of Russian officials and other people with access to sensitive information, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

Devices belonging to Russian diplomats, politicians, high-ranking officers and journalists were allegedly compromised, allowing foreign spies to record everything around them and collect vast amounts of data, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The FSB said that its operatives uncovered “one of the largest operations involving the installation of malicious software on mobile devices.” The scheme had attempted to gather data through covert access to content and messaging, wiretapping of phone conversations, acoustic and video surveillance of the gadget’s surroundings, and through the collection of geolocation and contact data, it added.

“It appears that Western intelligence agencies assumed it would be easier and cheaper to mass hack cell phones than to recruit costly informants among holders of state secrets,” the agency noted.

The sheer volume of information gathered by Western spy agencies would have been impossible for humans to process just a few years ago, but AI is now being used to analyze it within minutes, it stressed.

According to the FSB, the investigation began in 2023 after experts at Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab detected unusual network activity on employees’ Apple devices.

A representative of Kaspersky Lab explained that those targeted by foreign intelligence had received an undetectable message via the standard Apple messaging app, which launched a spy program that quickly gained “complete control” of the phone.

Among other things, the malicious software could “start an audio recording for the next three hours, and it didn’t matter whether the phone had no connection or internet access. As soon as the phone regained connection, that audio recording would be sent to the attacker’s server,” he explained.

The US has been developing its cyber-espionage infrastructure for decades, particularly since the adoption of the Patriot Act in 2001. Introduced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the legislation gave American intelligence agencies broad powers to demand information from IT companies in the name of national security.

Britain’s use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers has come under renewed criticism after migrants housed at a historic four-star property were filmed relaxing in massage chairs.

The footage circulating online was reportedly filmed at the luxury Ramada Hotel in Solihull, near Birmingham – a 16th-century former coaching inn currently used under the British Home Office’s asylum housing scheme.

The 145-room hotel also includes a gym and en-suite rooms, according to the Daily Mail, which cited a source as saying the massage chairs had not been operational since the migrants moved into the building. The grounds include what is believed to be England’s oldest crown bowling green.

The footage drew criticism on social media, with one X user writing: “All on the taxpayer... We are paying for the comfort of people who simply don’t deserve it.” Another questioned government spending priorities, citing the growing number of Britons relying on food banks.

@dpaudits The oldest bowling green in the uk abandoned #immigration #solihull #ramada ♬ original sound - dpaudits

The debate comes amid growing concern over the cost of Britain’s asylum accommodation program. An October 2025 parliamentary report said the projected cost of housing asylum seekers has more than tripled to £15.3 billion ($21 billion), while accusing the Home Office of failing to recover tens of millions of pounds in excess profits from private contractors.

4-star hotel where illegal migrants sit back in expensive massage chairs.

Grade II listed Ramada Hotel in Solihull houses male 'guests' reclining in the chairs, which are worth thousands of pounds each.

Photos on the hotel’s website also show a well-stocked gym and rooms… pic.twitter.com/ScdscoBw1U

— Sedd (@SeddSezz) June 1, 2026

The UK is reportedly expected to spend around £2.1 billion on asylum accommodation and support this financial year, with hotel housing alone estimated to cost taxpayers roughly £5.5 million per day.

Numerous protests have been held across Britain in recent years over asylum hotels, including demonstrations at the Ramada. Immigration ranked among the public’s top concerns in 2025, with one in five Britons naming it as the country’s most pressing issue in a Gallup survey. Government figures show that more than 200,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats since 2018.

Multiple videos have been published on social media showing explosions rocking Kiev and other Ukrainian cities amid Russian airstrikes. The Defense Ministry in Moscow confirmed carrying out a major raid on military-related targets across Ukraine in response to terror attacks by Vladimir Zelensky’s government.

The first wave of blasts in the Ukrainian capital was heard at around 1:30 AM local time, followed by more explosions in early morning hours, according to Ukrainian officials and media.

In one clip, a powerful blast is followed by the lights going out, plunging much of Kiev into darkness.

Other footage captured the sounds of repeated secondary explosions. The exact locations and types of facilities hit are difficult to verify as Ukrainian authorities tightly restrict information about strike sites and penalize those who share footage of impacts, except when civilian infrastructure is affected.

Multiple blasts were also reported in parts of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye still under Ukrainian control, as well as in Sumy and Kharkov regions.

Later on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its bombardment targeted defense industry facilities, fuel and transport infrastructure facilities used by Ukrainian forces, and military airfields across the country.

Land- and sea-based precision weapons, including hypersonic missiles and drones, were deployed during the attack, it said.

The attack on the Starobelsk college dormitory, conducted in several waves late at night while students were sleeping inside, left 21 people dead, mainly teenage girls.

With the Starobelsk massacre, “the Kiev leadership has decided to open a new chapter in its crime spree, to add a new dimension to the conflict as a whole,” President Vladimir Putin said on Monday, adding that the perpetrators will suffer a “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon, Axios reported on Monday, citing two American officials and a third source briefed on the call.

Trump allegedly accused Netanyahu of endangering US negotiations with Iran and demanded that Israel halt a planned strike on Beirut, in what Axios described as one of the worst calls between the two leaders since Trump returned to office.

“You’re f***ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” one official summarized Trump’s remarks to Netanyahu. A second source briefed on the call said Trump was “pissed” and yelled at Netanyahu: “What the f*** are you doing?”

The US president reportedly emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself, but raised concerns that Netanyahu had escalated in a disproportionate way in recent days, with mounting civilian casualties and whole buildings razed to target individual Hezbollah commanders.

Tehran has threatened to abandon talks with the US, since a memorandum being negotiated with Washington explicitly calls for an end to the hostilities in Lebanon. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said he had spoken with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and warned that Tehran’s response could go beyond halting negotiations.

“If the Israeli aggression against Lebanon continues, we will not only stop the negotiation track, but we will be in direct confrontation with the enemy,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

Netanyahu said he told Trump that Israel would strike Beirut if Hezbollah did not stop attacking his country.

“Our position remains the same,” Netanyahu wrote, vowing to continue operations in southern Lebanon “as planned.”

Russia has urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide an adequate response and take practical steps over Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and the nearby city of Energodar, according to Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev.

Likhachev held an “extraordinary unscheduled” phone call with the IAEA leadership and Director General Rafael Grossi on Monday to discuss the “inadequacy” of the watchdog’s reaction after a Ukrainian fiber-optics-guided drone struck the machine hall of ZNPP’s sixth power unit, puncturing a hole in the building on Saturday.

The Rosatom chief described the strike as the “first targeted attack on an operating nuclear power unit in human history,” saying that Russia expects a clear response from the IAEA, including “indications of both the perpetrators and the reasons for all these strikes.”

The IAEA, which has its experts deployed at the ZNPP, acknowledged damage “consistent with the impact of a drone,” but once again stopped short of blaming Ukraine. Grossi called the strike “a serious incident that endangered key nuclear safety principles.”

“The silence, absence of assessments and personification of risks is essentially a green light for further escalation,” Likhachev told journalists after the call. “Radiation knows no borders and does not recognize passports. In this sense, any nuclear incident poses a threat to a number of countries and this threat will last for many years.”

In recent months, Kiev has also increasingly targeted infrastructure linked to the plant and in Energodar, including kindergartens, schools, roads, transport enterprises, and vehicles carrying supplies for the community, according to the Rosatom chief.

Face-to-face contacts with the IAEA will continue this week, Likhachev added. Interdepartmental consultations involving the Russian Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, Rostekhnadzor, Rosatom, and IAEA leaders are scheduled for early July.

At least 20 protesters have been arrested outside an immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, after they violated a newly imposed curfew, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said.

The arrests took place on Sunday night at the Delaney Hall facility, following days of escalating confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement.

Officers moved in after the crowd failed to disperse. Police fired tear gas and detained the activists gathered outside the detention center following a 9:00 PM curfew, media reports said.

Don’t be this guy. pic.twitter.com/jEIrBmsG88

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 1, 2026

“If you riot, you will face the consequences,” DHS said on X on Sunday, adding there would be “ZERO tolerance for rioters.” The agency also released footage showing protesters being escorted onto sheriff’s department buses, including one video of officers dragging a man from a barricade line captioned: “Don’t be this guy.”

Delaney Hall has been the epicenter of demonstrations since late May, when lawyers for detainees said a hunger strike had begun over conditions inside the facility. Those being kept there have told human rights groups they were served expired food, denied adequate medical care and subjected to abuse by authorities. The unrest intensified after Democratic officials, including New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, accused operators of subjecting the immigrants to inhumane conditions and limiting access to visitors.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka accused ICE of escalating tensions at Delaney Hall, saying the use of “riot gear, flash bangs, tear gas, and similar tactics against lawfully assembled protesters is wrong and clearly untenable.” He said the demonstrations were aimed at drawing attention to “inhumane conditions” inside the detention center.

A sweeping immigration enforcement campaign launched by Trump shortly after taking office has led to thousands of arrests nationwide. The administration has defended the crackdown as an effort to remove what it calls “the worst of the worst” criminals from the US. Public support for the campaign has weakened in recent months, with many Americans saying DHS tactics have become overly aggressive and, in some cases, resulted in violence and deaths.

In Russia-US relations, a tradition has emerged of coining catchy phrases to describe periods of rapprochement between Washington and Moscow. For example, the French term ‘détente’ (easing) was used to describe the situational compromises between the Soviet Union and the US at the height of the Cold War. And then there’s the infamous blunder by the US delegation at the 2009 Geneva talks, when a symbolic red button was presented to the Russian delegation with the word ‘peregruzka’ (overload) instead of ‘perezagruzka’ (reset) printed on it, thus ushering in the so-called ‘reset’ era at the time of the Obama administration. After US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the first US-Russia summit to be held in years, a new term emerged: the ‘Spirit of Anchorage’, which became a sort of political meme characterizing the interaction between the White House and the Kremlin.

Despite the varied interpretations expressed in the official statements of the two parties and the complex nature of the dialogue between Moscow and Washington, the essence of the agreements can be boiled down to a few main points:

Firstly, US sanctions are to be lifted and comprehensive bilateral relations developed (in politics, economics, culture, etc.) following the resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

Secondly, on the part of Russia, Moscow is to renounce claims to the territories of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions in their entirety, while the conflict is to be frozen along the front lines. On the part of Ukraine, Kiev is to recognize all the territories controlled by Russia as Russian, including Crimea, and withdraw its troops from Donbass. 

Thirdly, Ukraine’s neutral, non-nuclear status is to be solidified. While pursuing EU membership, Ukraine will need to address disputes with various minorities (Russian speakers, Rusyns, etc.). This should create conditions for a new Eurasian security framework and eliminate issues in relations between the EU/NATO and Russia.

To implement the compromises agreed upon in Anchorage, however, several factors must be addressed. The primary obstacle is the regime of Vladimir Zelensky. After Zelensky’s presidential term ended in 2024, he de facto usurped power under the pretext of giving the Ukrainian government extraordinary powers to consolidate the nation against an external threat. If he were to withdraw Ukrainian troops from Donbass and sign a peace agreement, Zelensky would create the necessary conditions for elections, which he would likely lose due to public fatigue from four years of war.

Moreover, any potential presidential candidate (such as Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny or Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, etc.) has every chance of winning by promoting the thesis that the current authorities are to blame for the fact that a peace deal was not signed earlier. After all, a similar peace agreement could have been signed as early as April 2022, minimizing military and civilian casualties. 

Instead, taking advantage of the voluntary withdrawal of Russian troops from Kiev and Sumy regions and prompted by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s argument that it was impossible to sign an agreement “with a gun to one’s head,” Zelensky not only withdrew from dialogue with Russia but also passed a law prohibiting anyone from negotiating with Russia’s current government. Thus, the current leadership in Kiev has deprived itself of the political and legal tools to find a formula for resolving the conflict.

Caught between Scylla and Charybdis – i.e., Russia, with which relations have continued to deteriorate since the mid-2010s, and the US, where Donald Trump’s rise to power has placed the tensions over tariffs and the ownership of Greenland at the center of relations – current European politicians (from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer) have set out to torpedo the peace agreements. Their aim was not so much to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia but rather to preserve Ukraine as a sort of military and diplomatic battering ram against Russia. Kiev was to be used as a pretext to continue the militarization of European economies against the backdrop of the ongoing relocation of civilian industries to other jurisdictions (China, the USA, etc.).

However, as the US intensified its diplomatic engagement in the Ukraine conflict, Europe found itself marginalized and left out of the negotiation process, including the bilateral Russia-Ukraine talks (which resumed in the spring and summer of 2025) and the trilateral talks facilitated by the US (in early 2026). In light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements on May 9 about the imminent conclusion of Russia’s Special Military Operation, Europe sought to find a way back into the negotiation process by appointing a special envoy to Moscow.

Europe’s diplomatic passivity reflects growing frustration within Donald Trump’s team. Prospects for resolving the Ukraine crisis are becoming increasingly murky as attention has shifted to another regional conflict – the war with Iran. The 40-day war against Tehran created a fundamentally different strategic landscape for the US, and finding a compromise with the Islamic Republic became a higher priority than continuing mediation between Moscow and Kiev.

After the operation in which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was kidnapped on January 3, 2026, Trump tried the same strategy in Iran but found himself ensnared in an asymmetric conflict. Despite significant military superiority over Iran and the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the US was not able to undermine Tehran’s resilience. Instead, these actions led to a cascade of unforeseen consequences.

Few in the White House could have anticipated that the unprovoked aggression launched by the US against Iran on February 28, 2026, would lead to Iranian strikes on US military bases and civilian infrastructure in the Gulf Arab nations, as well as a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has triggered one of the most severe energy crises since the 1970s. As a result, gas prices in the US have surged, and the crisis is becoming the main argument against the Republicans during the upcoming midterm elections in November. If the ruling party loses its majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Democrats will likely use the remaining two years before the next presidential election to pursue the impeachment of Trump, potentially paralyzing any of the current administration’s foreign policy initiatives.

In light of this, it’s important to take US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (the son of Cuban émigrés who fled communist persecution, by the way) seriously when he claims that the US is distancing itself from the Ukraine conflict. Practically speaking, this means that the ‘Spirit of Anchorage’ is more dead than alive. This sentiment has been echoed by several high-ranking officials in Russia, including Vladimir Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and is further illustrated by the recent hostile actions of the US, such as refusal to grant a visa to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov to attend the US General Assembly meeting in New York.

However, if there’s one lesson to be learned from the behavior of this US president, it’s that even when the spirit of cooperation seems to have faded, Donald Trump can summon it back at any moment, provided he has the political will to do so.

Moscow has accused France and the UK of engaging in “piracy” after French and British naval forces intercepted and diverted a cargo ship sailing from Russia’s Murmansk to Cameroon in international waters.

The vessel, the Tagor, was stopped on Sunday, more than 400 nautical miles off the coast of Brittany, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. French authorities claim the ship was operating under a “false” flag.

In a statement on Tueday, Zakharova said the Russian Embassy in Paris has demanded full information concerning the circumstances of the detention, warning that the operation violated international maritime law. She also stated that Moscow is taking measures to protect Russian crew members aboard the vessel.

The spokeswoman rejected France’s justification for the operation, which cited Article 110 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The provision allows warships to board and inspect vessels on the high seas under limited circumstances, including when a ship is suspected of having no nationality.

However, international maritime law does not permit a warship to compel a vessel to alter course and escort it from international waters to a national port, according to Moscow.

Zakharova also dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron’s insinuation that the ship was violating “international sanctions,” arguing that only restrictions approved by the UN Security Council qualify as international sanctions. Unilateral measures imposed by European states cannot be considered international under law, she said.

The spokeswoman accused European governments of selectively interpreting legal norms to suit their interests, while cautioning that attempts to enforce sanctions in areas governed by freedom of navigation could have broader consequences for global shipping.

She added that many vessels operating in the interests of European countries sail under so-called flags of convenience, cautioning that extending such enforcement practices to the high seas could prove costly for international maritime trade.

Unelected European Commission President ‘Queen’ Ursula von der Leyen was in Lithuania a few days ago to come up with a plan to tackle Ukrainian drones that risk regime changing European allies. The strategy? Blame Russia – the political equivalent of a universal remote to change the channel from one’s own incompetence. Not only does Russia get to be held responsible for its own stray drones, but also for Kiev’s.

So why Lithuania? Well, its president, Gitanas Nauseda, has been making proclamations about how his country won’t be used for military ops or have its sovereignty violated by drones or anything else. Okay, but what if it’s just the doing of a Ukrainian with shaky stick control – like a teenager with one hand on the gamepad and the other buried in a bag of Doritos? Except that it’s setting off national emergencies. That’s cool, right?

Meanwhile, over in Estonia, the defense ministry has already been going on about how they expect Ukraine to get its droning skills up to par so that these things don’t keep wandering into Estonian airspace. But Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur is being super philosophical about all these incursions into his country’s own airspace... and Latvia’s... and Lithuania’s, while sounding like he’s dealing with a kid who’s learning not to scribble on the walls. With regards to the Ukrainians, he said he just needs to figure out “what exactly it means and what they themselves had in mind by it.”

Right, because maybe this is just their way of expressing themselves. A few days ago, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrey Sibiga admitted that this was happening in a social media post, which blamed Russia for knocking the drones off course.

I’m sure the Latvian prime minister will be psyched to hear that... Oops, I mean the FORMER Latvian PM who felt compelled to resign while detonating his defense minister’s career on the way out after Ukrainian drones started hitting his country. “The measure of public and my trust in Defense Minister Andris Sprüds has been exhausted. The Latgale drone incident was the last straw,” said now former Latvian PM Evika Silina.

Looks like an attempt by Ukraine to bring full regime change to its good Baltic pal, Latvia.

Next up: Finland? In mid-May, Helsinki airport briefly closed due to a drone before reopening. Residents were instructed to stay home. Then the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, comes out and says that it’s alright to crawl back out from under the beds. Turns out it was just some fake news... spread en masse by Finland. The drone wasn’t delivering Putin. Not yet, at least. But maybe soon. Before 2030 for sure, in any case – as they keep saying.

As you might imagine, people really loved the Finnish authorities for interrupting their day to conduct a test run for when Putin decides to crash land via drone and ruin everyone’s afternoon sauna. Turns out that it’s actually Ukrainian drones that have been veering into Finland since at least March, according to multiple reports.

But now Queen Ursula is saying that it’s Russia that’s messing with Ukrainian drones and sending them into Baltic and Finnish airspace. If that was really the case – that Russia could predict the exact trajectory of multiple Ukrainian drones to the point of being able to simultaneously calculate the precise deflection vectors needed to push them all off course in real time with no advance warning – then why wouldn’t Russia be doing that with the Ukrainian drones that are striking Russian assets? That’s the question asked by French electronic warfare expert Olivier Dujardin, who adds that the odds of this capability actually existing is basically zero. Nonetheless, Queen Ursula and the leaders of the Baltic states appear to believe Moscow is using this alleged technology strictly to mess with them, rather than to help itself.

Ursula’s big on combating disinformation except when it comes to scratching past the surface of an inconvenient narrative that might actually force the EU to take a step closer to peace or dispel the stories they keep telling themselves.

So, basically, they’ve chalked it up to believing this fairy tale about Russia making Ukrainians suck at navigating drones, forcing them to constantly veer into Baltic airspace en masse. And now – what do you know –  here’s the foreign minister of one of those same Baltic countries, Lithuania, who apparently feels so empowered by this EU fake news that he’s rattling sabers over the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

“We have to show the Russians that ⁠we’re capable of penetrating the small fortress they’ve built in Kaliningrad. NATO has the capability, if necessary, to raze Russian air defences and missile bases there to the ground,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said recently.

Really sounds like he’s game for peace there. The EU has this guy all riled up and psyched about war... like a puppy gets with walkies. They keep talking about fighting Russia, and he wants them to open the front door already and let the dogs of war off the leash.

Ursula now claims the EU has wanted peace from day one, but at the same time seems keen to leverage any ridiculous pretext to avoid it – even when a more rigorous examination of the facts would best serve the interests of any détente – something they seem intent on avoiding.

Looks like the EU is about as adept at navigating the road to peace as Ukraine is at directing drones.

Defense tech contractor Anduril is currently valued at $61 billion, with plans to expand and go public. But it’s a valuation that depends on its founder’s ability to hawk vaporware to the Pentagon, and to talk the US to the edge of a cataclysmic war with China.

Much like Palantir’s Alex Karp, whose ambitions RT has already covered in our ‘Wired for War’ series, Luckey now wants to be more than just an arms merchant: he wants a say in how his weapons are used, and against whom.

Anduril and the coming war on China

Speaking at West Point in May, Luckey told future US military officers that China plans to “take Taiwan,” and if successful, “they’re immediately going to hop over to Okinawa, and/or part of the Philippines, maybe part of Vietnam as well.” Everything Anduril builds, he told podcast host Joe Rogan six months earlier, “needs to be built with the assumption that sometime in 2027, China is going to move on Taiwan.”

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey says if China takes Taiwan, next targets will be Philippines, Vietnam or Japan

Xi will dig up some ancient tributary story and use it to claim Okinawa. We saw Chinese media already pushing a Ryukyu independence story

That’s the real domino effect pic.twitter.com/FCtM26kLCx

— David Walpiri (@DWalpiri) May 27, 2026

Luckey’s assumption is based on a creative interpretation of a 2022 CIA report, which claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to build a military capable of seizing the island by 2027. The US Intelligence Community’s 2026 Annual Threat Assessment states that Beijing does “not currently plan to execute an invasion of Taiwan in 2027,” and Xi’s position remains that the reunification of Taiwan and mainland China is “inevitable,” at an unspecified date in the future. 

Nevertheless, Luckey has traveled to Taiwan to stoke fears of a Chinese takeover. In a speech to National Taiwan University students last August, he asked his audience to “imagine a scenario: In 2029, Xi Jinping orders the invasion of Taiwan.”

“But after years of preparation…Taiwan is ready. Thousands of AI-powered drones spring toward the incoming Chinese fleet. Autonomous submarine systems and surface craft emerge from the sea to protect the island. Mass-producible missiles crowd the skies over Taiwan, stopping hundreds of Chinese fighter jets. The day is won.”

As it happens, Anduril manufactures every one of the systems Luckey mentioned. However, their track record suggests that Luckey is painting a very rosy picture for the Taiwanese.

Do Anduril’s weapons work?

Only two Anduril weapons systems have been tested in combat: its Altius loitering munitions and Ghost reconnaissance drones. Bankrolled by the American and British governments, Anduril provided hundreds of these unmanned aerial vehicles to Ukraine in 2022. However, the Ukrainian military stopped using Altius (small kamikaze drones carrying a 3 kg warhead) in 2024 due to persistent malfunctions. Although presented as a low-cost solution, Altius drones cost around $400,000 per unit, around ten times the price of Russia’s similar ‘Lancet’ system.

Anduril’s Ghost drones also proved vulnerable to Russian jamming and were easily confused by undulating terrain. Both Altius and Ghost UAVs failed spectacularly during demonstrations for the US military last year, as did almost every major Anduril project to date.

A fleet of unmanned attack boats running on Anduril’s ‘Lattice’ operating system refused to take commands and shut themselves down during an exercise in California last May; an anti-drone interceptor crashed in Oregon that August and caused a 22-acre fire; and the company’s flagship project, an AI-powered unmanned fighter jet named the YFQ-44A Fury, has suffered persistent delays due to mechanical failures and has been beaten to first flight by General Atomics’ YFQ-42 Dark Merlin.

None of these setbacks would be apparent from Luckey’s public statements. “Our autonomous weapons have destroyed hundreds of millions worth of Russia’s war machine,” he claimed last year, long after Ukraine rejected the Altius and Ghost systems. Two months later, Luckey confirmed the delivery of a batch of Altius drones to Taiwan, describing the sale as “an enormously consequential moment for Anduril and for the free world.” In a social media post, Anduril claimed that the US military has “consistently praised” Ghost’s reliability, despite a service member labelling the project a “clusterf**k” to Reuters.

War as a subscription service

Anduril intends to iron out these kinks, scale up production, and drive down costs to undercut legacy contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics. But this goal presents another problem: mass-produced, low-cost weapons are only profitable if they are constantly consumed and replaced. Legacy contractors can sell big-ticket items like fighter jets and intercontinental ballistic missiles during peacetime, but Anduril’s future is tied to the likelihood of a major regional or world war. Luckey’s hawkishness on China makes sense, therefore, as a business strategy.

Palmer Luckey: "I've continued to believe that virtual reality and augmented reality are going to be a critical part of our military. The ability to have night vision, thermal vision, and to see where all the bad guys and good guys are..."pic.twitter.com/VLDcrD0LKx

— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) March 26, 2026

The Pentagon is betting big on the promise of Lattice and EagleEye, handing Anduril $159 million last year to develop a prototype headset, and $967 million in 2020 to develop Lattice. However, when it comes to selling software-as-a-service to the Pentagon, Anduril is competing with established players: Palantir’s ‘Gotham’ is already in use by multiple US defense and intelligence agencies; ShieldAI’s ‘Hivemind’ has been tapped to guide the Pentagon’s ‘LUCAS’ attack drones; and Saronic’s ‘Echelon’ has been selected by the US Navy to pilot its unmanned naval attack craft.

Compared to its competitors, Lattice has come up short. “We cannot control who sees what, we cannot see what users are doing, and we cannot verify that the software itself is secure,” an internal US Army memo concluded after the platform was tested last September. After the fleet of attack boats running on Lattice became uncontrollable in California, a US Navy report highlighted “continuous operational security violations, safety violations” and mistakes by Anduril that, if left uncorrected, would present an “extreme risk to force and potential for loss of life.”

Palmer Luckey’s big break

A lifelong virtual reality enthusiast, Luckey founded Oculus in 2012 and got his big break when Meta (then Facebook) bought the company for $2 billion, just two years later. Luckey sold Oculus without ever releasing a commercial product, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ended up pumping five times the sale price into it and other VR products as his misguided ‘Metaverse’ project floundered. As of January, Meta’s ‘Reality Labs’ VR division has posted $80 billion in operating losses since 2020.

According to publicly available figures, the Pentagon has spent $145 billion on this modernization drive to date. 

Anduril’s Indo-Pacific gamble

With its essentially unlimited budget, the US military has always been a sugar daddy for scammers and snake-oil salesmen, and it is inevitable that some of this money will be wasted on companies that overpromise and under-deliver. 

What’s more dangerous, however, is that this money will flow to companies willing to say and do whatever it takes to ensure that their products – effective or not – get used on the battlefield, either in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, or in a devastating world war in the Indo-Pacific.

Luckey has said that he wants the US to stop acting as the world’s policeman and become the “world’s gun store” instead. He also maintains that defense contractors should function as extensions of the American government, and has pledged to align his arms sales with Washington’s foreign policy goals. Based on Palmer’s own words, Beijing likely heard his comments on Taiwan not only as a sales pitch, but as a statement of intent. The cost of miscalculation could be huge.

The Israeli military is targeting rescue workers in and around the city of Nabatieh as it expands its offensive into southern Lebanon, RT correspondent Ali Rida Sbeity reported from the ground on Monday.

The reporter traveled through the city, accompanying first responders as they searched for survivors amid the rubble left behind by Israeli strikes. Rescue teams “have been targeted a few times in the area,” resulting in a number of fatalities, according to Sbeity.

Moreover, Al-Najda Al-Shaabiya Hospital – one of the few medical facilities still operating in the area – came under Israeli attack over the weekend, the RT journalist reported, while noting that the situation in Nabatieh is escalating by the hour.

On Sunday, West Jerusalem announced that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had captured Beaufort Castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, which is situated at a key vantage point in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military had previously used the medieval Crusader fortress as a base before withdrawing from the country in 2000.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he has ordered the IDF to “deepen and expand our hold in places” that were supposedly under the control of Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

The development coincided with an intensification in Israeli aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon in recent days.

Israel’s ongoing offensive in the neighboring country is a spillover from the broader Middle East conflict triggered by the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

On Monday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that the Islamic Republic was halting “negotiations and exchange of messages” with the US until Israel stops its military operations in Lebanon and in Gaza.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, more than 3,200 people have been killed and nearly 10,000 injured since early March.

Last month, the Lebanese Health Ministry accused the IDF of deliberately targeting medics during airstrikes on the country, with the UN previously estimating that at least 103 Lebanese medical workers have been killed and 230 injured during the current conflict.

All the perpetrators behind the deadly drone attack on the college dorm in the Russian town of Starobelsk must suffer a “well-deserved and inevitable punishment,” President Vladimir Putin has said.

The attack on the college, located in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), was launched on May 22, when multiple drones hit a dormitory in several waves late at night, while students were sleeping inside. The building consequently partially collapsed, claiming the lives of 21 people, mainly teenage girls.

On Monday, Russia’s president held a meeting with multiple senior officials, including Aleksander Bastrykin, the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, as well as Prosecutor General Aleksander Gutsan and Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the LPR. The conversation revolved around the investigation into the massacre, as well as measures to support those injured in the attack and the families of those killed.

Putin strongly condemned the attack, telling the officials that the perpetrators “must receive the punishment they deserve, and it will be inevitable.” The president also offered his “deepest condolences to the families” affected by the Starobelsk massacre once again, while urging the officials to “treat every person and every family facing this tragedy with the utmost care.”

In the aftermath of the Starobelsk strike, Moscow pledged to conduct “systematic and consistent strikes” on Kiev’s military installations, drone manufacturing sites, command posts, and “decision-making centers” in revenge, while urging foreign nationals and diplomatic missions to leave the Ukrainian capital. 

Kiev has denied responsibility for the incident, with various officials providing conflicting accounts on the massacre, ranging from claims the dorm was actually a command post of the elite Rubicon drone unit to flat dismissal of the attack as a “fake story” by Moscow.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar has threatened legal action against the country’s president, demanding that the official, who was elected under his predecessor Viktor Orban, step down from office.

Magyar, whose Tisza party beat Orban’s Fidesz by a wide margin in the April general elections, has been seeking to remove key figures appointed during the 16-year rule of the former prime minister.

President Tamas Sulyok, who was elected by lawmakers in early 2024, has become the latest target for the ongoing purge, with Magyar accusing him of failing to represent “national unity” and serving the interests of Orban’s party.

“I have told the president that if he maintains his stance and does not resign, I will inform ...the lawmakers of Tisza about our legislative proposals today, and we will immediately start the necessary procedures,” Magyar said on Monday.

The president has refused to step down, and Fidesz has accused Magyar of issuing an “unlawful ultimatum.” Sulyok’s mandate runs until 2029, and Orban’s party insists he can’t be removed from office under the current legislation. Magyar, however, has threatened to use his party’s two-thirds parliamentary majority to alter the country’s constitution, introducing legislation to make it possible.

While the president holds a largely ceremonial role in Hungary, he still has the means to potentially disrupt Magyar’s effort to dismantle the legacy of Orban. The presidency can send bills back to the parliament for reconsideration, as well as refer them to the nation’s Constitutional Court for legal evaluation.

Sulyok served as president of the Hungarian Constitutional Court from 2016 until 2024, and served prior to that as its vice president.

Russia’s military pact with Afghanistan’s Taliban government stems from a pragmatic geopolitical approach to regional security, a policy expert has told RT India.

Moscow and the Taliban government signed a military cooperation pact last week, boosting a regional alliance aimed at strengthening Russia’s influence in Central Asia.

The deal was finalized during an international security forum in Moscow after a meeting between Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu and Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob.

“Since the Taliban is in charge of power in Afghanistan… it is our duty to collaborate with them so as to contribute to regional security, to global security, to counter-terrorism,” Gleb Makarevich, Research Fellow of the Center of the Indo-Pacific Region, the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, told RT India.

He said Russia seeks to improve ties with the current Afghan government to “invest in regional security in broader terms.” Central Asia is a region of utmost interest for Russia, Makarevich pointed out.

“We are talking more about pragmatism because there are a lot of Soviet munitions and Russian munitions left in Afghanistan,” he said, noting that the Taliban is seeking assistance in repairing those arms and to collaborate in the defense sector.

Makarevich asserted that Moscow’s approach is to seek regional solutions to problems originating in these theaters, while acknowledging that Russia can’t resolve all those issues.

Myanmar has vowed not to allow its territory to be used against neighboring India’s security interests.

President Min Aung Hlaing, who is in New Delhi on his first foreign tour, held comprehensive discussions with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

President Hlaing’s statement is important in light of India’s March arrest of a group of seven foreigners, including six Ukrainian mercenaries, who were allegedly training and supplying weapons to insurgents in Myanmar.

The insurgents had crossed into Myanmar and back through India’s eastern border in India’s northeastern state of Mizoram. The region around this border is a hotbed of insurgent activity, according to Indian military experts. These groups were reportedly in touch with insurgent groups in India too.

Modi told Hlaing that New Delhi remains Myanmar’s “trusted neighbor, a reliable partner, and steadfast first responder in times of crisis” in line with India’s Neighbourhood-First policy. He reaffirmed India’s readiness to support peace and dialogue with Myanmar, India’s foreign ministry said in a post on X.

PM @narendramodi held wide-ranging discussions with President U Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar on further deepening India-Myanmar bilateral ties.

Anchored in the enduring historical and people-to-people relationship, both sides agreed to advance 🇮🇳-🇲🇲 partnership for peace,… pic.twitter.com/kYt5cPl7NE

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) June 1, 2026

The two leaders held talks on issues such as trade, defense, security, and border management and agreed to enhance cooperation.

Both sides stressed the need to prevent activities detrimental to each other’s security interests within their respective territories. India shares a 1,020-mile border with Myanmar and a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.

Cross-border immigration and the consequent demographic changes have increased socio-political tension in much of eastern and northeastern India.

With regard to concerns raised by rights groups about Myanmar’s military-backed government, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, “History has shown that disengagement doesn’t give us any results that are better than engagement.”

Hlaing’s previous visit to India was in 2019, when he served as Myanmar’s military chief.

Türkiye’s domestic political landscape has entered a phase in which judicial decisions, intra-party struggles and strategic calculations by the authorities are becoming increasingly intertwined.

The arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul from the center-left opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), in 2025 and the subsequent court decision to remove Ozgur Ozel from the leadership of the CHP and transfer control of the party back to its previous leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu represent two connected episodes within a broader political process. They suggest that the Turkish political system is preparing for a period of heightened uncertainty, in which future elections will be seen not merely as a routine electoral procedure, but as a contest over whether the system which has been shaped over the past two decades will be preserved or revised.

A rival in Istanbul

Imamoglu was detained on March 19, 2025 on charges of corruption and abuse of office, and was later arrested. The timing was especially significant, since the CHP was preparing to name its candidate for a future presidential race, and Imamoglu was widely viewed as the most likely figure to be nominated. By that moment, his political weight had already moved far beyond municipal politics. After his victory in Istanbul, he had become one of the most recognizable figures in the opposition and a potential national rival to Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Istanbul has always been exceptionally important in Turkish politics, being the country’s economic center, a symbol of political legitimacy and the place where Erdogan’s own national career first took shape. The rise of Imamoglu therefore meant the emergence of an opposition figure capable of weaponizing urban discontent, the demand for economic normalization and expectations of institutional renewal. His arrest moved political competition from the sphere of electoral rivalry into the sphere of legal and administrative control.

Destabilizing the opposition

The current court decision regarding Ozgur Ozel should be seen as a continuation of the same strategy. The judicial removal of Ozel from the leadership of the CHP (over alleged issues regarding the legitimacy of the party congress and procedural violations) and the transfer of control to Kemal Kilicdaroglu effectively sets the country’s main opposition force back to its previous configuration.

Ozel took over the CHP after Kilicdaroglu’s defeat in the 2023 presidential election and became a symbol of the party’s attempt at renewal. Under his leadership, the party achieved major gains in the 2024 municipal elections, demonstrating that the opposition could not only criticize the government, but also expand its electoral base. The return of Kilicdaroglu objectively alters the balance inside the opposition, damaging its ability to preserve mobilization before the next electoral cycle.

A restrained analysis of this situation requires attention not only to the interests of the authorities, but also to the bigger picture of a state operating in a complex external and internal environment. Judging by its recent steps, the Turkish leadership is seeking to preserve control over a political direction it considers strategically important. Over the past two decades, Türkiye has significantly transformed its position in the international system. It has become a more autonomous regional actor, strengthened its defense industry, expanded its military presence in neighboring regions and used foreign policy more actively as an instrument of national positioning.

For the current leadership, a change of power would mean the risk of revising the entire trajectory built under Erdogan. This includes the presidential system, foreign policy autonomy, the defense industry, policy in the Eastern Mediterranean, and relations with Russia, the West, the Middle East and the Caucasus. The authorities therefore seek to minimize the possibility of a sharp political turn at a time when the regional environment is becoming increasingly unstable.

The best defense

One of the central elements of this course is the emphasis on strengthening the country’s defense capability. Türkiye has consistently developed its own production of drones, naval platforms, armored vehicles, missile systems and other components of the defense industry. For Ankara, military modernization is a matter of sovereignty. The less dependent the country is on external suppliers, the greater its room for independent decision-making. In this sense, the defense industry has become part of the political philosophy of contemporary Türkiye, where security, technological independence and foreign policy autonomy are treated as interconnected elements.

This is also reflected in the Blue Homeland doctrine – the idea of unquestionable Turkish sovereignty over islands in the Aegean Sea. The intensification of disputes with Greece over these islands, maritime zones and jurisdiction reflects Ankara’s desire to consolidate its interests in areas it considers critical for security and future influence. The intention to legally formalize claims over more than 150 islands and islets fits into a broader trend in which Türkiye seeks not simply to react to regional changes, but to fix its position in advance through legal and military-political instruments.

All of the above means the recent actions of the Turkish authorities can be interpreted as an attempt to preserve governability during a period of several overlapping crises. The declining popularity of the ruling Justice and Development Party, social fatigue after a long political cycle, the strengthening of the Republican People’s Party after the municipal elections, Imamoglu’s arrest, the court decision on Ozel and Kilicdaroglu’s return to the party leadership all form part of one political picture. The authorities are trying to prevent the opposition from entering future elections with a unified structure, a popular candidate and a renewed leadership.

Hardening to the breaking point

The Turkish authorities’ strategy, however, contains an internal contradiction. The more the state seeks to control the political field, the stronger the question of institutional trust becomes. While some do see these steps as efforts to preserve stability and protect a strategic course, others see them as simply shutting out political competition. This divergence will define the next stage of Turkish politics.

The next elections in Turkiye will decide who controls the overall direction of the state. If the opposition comes to power, it will face a difficult task. It will have to address economic problems, restore trust in institutions, recalibrate relations with the West and preserve the degree of strategic autonomy that has already become part of a new Turkish consensus. A complete rejection of defense autonomy, active regional policy and the defense of maritime interests is unlikely, because these directions have long moved beyond Erdogan’s party agenda.

The current situation surrounding Imamoglu, Ozel and Kilicdaroglu therefore reveals a transformation of the Turkish political system. The authorities are trying to preserve the chosen course and retain control over its continuation, while the opposition is trying to prove that it can offer renewal without weakening the state or reducing Türkiye’s international weight. Between these two approaches lies the central conflict of contemporary Turkish politics. It is not only about who wins the next election, but about what direction the Turkish state will take under conditions of growing regional instability.

Russia has launched this year’s LNG shipment season (NSR), with its nuclear powered icebreakers clearing paths through Arctic ice to keep the Northern Sea Route open for energy exports.

Russia operates the world’s largest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. These massive ships support rapid Arctic development and maintain shipping along the NSR – the shortest sea link between Europe and the Asia Pacific, which is faster than traditional routes via the Suez and Panama canals.

An RT crew boarded Russia’s Yamal – one of the world’s most powerful nuclear icebreakers – for a rare look at how the crew lives and works for weeks at a time. Aboard this floating behemoth, a canteen serving four hot meals a day, a fully equipped gym, a sports court, a sauna, a swimming pool, and a Soviet era library help sailors unwind after long shifts. “Every corner of the ship is designed to keep you sharp, fit, and safe,” RT correspondent Anastasia Volodina reports. 

The General Court of the European Union has registered a Central Bank of Russia lawsuit against the European Parliament and the EU Council over the bloc’s €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine.

The filing contests an EU mechanism adopted in February that allows proceeds from frozen Russian sovereign assets held in Europe to be used to repay a joint loan to Kiev, the central bank said.

Kiev’s Western backers froze about $300 billion in Russian sovereign state assets after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Moscow has repeatedly said any use of its frozen assets would amount to theft.

The Bank of Russia said the scheme amounts to “an illegal and disguised form of using assets as collateral for a loan,” arguing that it effectively legitimizes the expropriation of sovereign assets.

According to the regulator, the mechanism violates EU law, property rights, and the international legal principle of sovereign immunity afforded to states and central banks.

The Bank of Russia separately challenged that decision before the EU’s General Court in February. In that case, it argued that the asset-freeze regime infringes property rights, the right to effective judicial protection, and the sovereign immunity protections recognized under international law and EU legislation.

The regulator also claimed the measure was adopted through “serious procedural violations,” arguing that it should have required unanimous approval by EU member states rather than a qualified-majority vote.

The Bank of Russia is also locked in a legal dispute with Euroclear, the Belgium-based depository that holds the bulk of Russia’s frozen assets. Last month, Moscow's arbitration court awarded the regulator $230 billion in damages. Euroclear has pledged to appeal.

Democrat-led US states are considering imposing a 100% tax on payouts by a $1.8 billion fund set up by US President Donald Trump for victims of attempts to weaponize the legal and political system against them.

Trump and his allies have long claimed to have been subjected to politically motivated investigations and prosecutions during the Biden administration, including the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the probe into his supposed ties with Moscow, and other criminal cases.

Trump’s team has presented the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ as part of a broader effort to compensate people allegedly mistreated by the federal government.

However, critics have described Trump’s proposal as a “slush fund,” with Colorado Senator Michael Bennet calling it a “corrupt theft of taxpayer dollars” in an interview with the Washington Post on Sunday.

A US federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s administration from setting up the fund on Friday.

What is the fund?

The ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ is a $1.776 billion pool of federal money intended to compensate people who claim they were victims of government lawfare and were targeted for political, personal, or ideological reasons.

The Justice Department (DOJ) created it earlier this month as part of a settlement ending Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records. The sum is a symbolic reference to 1776, the year of the US Declaration of Independence.

History of ‘lawfare’ against Trump

The announcement of the fund comes after years of Trump describing the criminal investigations against him and his supporters as politically motivated “weaponization” of the justice system, which was a central theme of his 2024 presidential campaign.

Examples cited by Trump’s camp include the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago over classified documents, the years-long investigation into the now-debunked Russia collusion, prosecutions related to the January 6 Capitol riot, and the leak of Trump’s tax records by former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn.

The administration has also pointed to cases involving lesser-known Trump supporters like 70-year-old former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, who was imprisoned in 2024 over an attempt to uncover evidence of voter fraud.

Vice President J.D. Vance has said it would be “reasonable” for Peters to “get some compensation” from the Anti-Weaponization Fund, arguing that her sentence was “completely disproportionate.”

Who decides who gets paid?

The fund would be overseen by a five-member commission. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s defense attorney, is expected to appoint most of its members.

The commission will be able to authorize payments to claimants who show they were illegally targeted by the federal government, issue apologies, or request more information from claimants and federal agencies.

The DOJ has said there are no partisan restrictions on eligibility. A senior administration official told the New York Post that anyone can apply, including Democrats, January 6 defendants, or even former US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

Why are critics angry?

Opponents have described the arrangement as a taxpayer-funded “slush fund” that could benefit Trump allies, including people connected to the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol.

Some Republicans have also objected. North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said it would be “absurd” if someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted guilt and was convicted was subsequently pardoned and then received taxpayer-funded compensation.

The viral ‘QAnon Shaman’ Jacob Angeli-Chansley, who was one of the Trump supporters involved in the Capitol Hill riots, has also come out against the fund, stating he would not take “a dime of that blood money” after becoming disenchanted with the president over his handling of the Epstein Files, attack on Iran and support for Israel.

Blue states threaten to tax everything

While Democrats remain a minority in Congress and have limited power to block the program, some state-level officials have been looking for ways to prevent residents from keeping payouts.

California Assembly Budget Committee Chair Jesse Gabriel said Democrats are planning to include a tax on the payments in the state budget. “That money belongs to taxpayers, and we’re going to make sure it stays with taxpayers,” he told the Washington Post on Sunday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has endorsed the idea, saying it is “an action we look forward to taking.” Lawmakers in New York and Wisconsin are also working on bills targeting any payments from the fund.

“If you’re a New Yorker and you take from this illegal slush fund, New York state will tax 100% of it,” New York Assembly member Alex Bores said in a video posted on X. “If you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad, we’re taking it.”

The DOJ has criticized the state proposals, accusing blue-state governors of “flaunting their love of lawfare.”

What does the Trump side say?

The DOJ has defended the fund, saying it “remains extremely confident” in its legality.

Supporters also argue the fund is not unprecedented, pointing to the existing DOJ Judgment Fund, which has long been used to settle claims against the federal government, and stating that the program is “just a rebranding of an existing legal settlement fund Congress authorized decades ago.”

What is the current status of the fund?

On Friday, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema temporarily blocked the Trump administration from setting up or operating the fund while she considers additional legal arguments. The order will remain in effect at least until June 12.

The South African Department of Home Affairs has dismissed as fraudulent a notice circulating on social media that falsely claims residents of Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State province, can receive rewards of up to R5,000 ($300) for reporting undocumented foreign nationals.

The notice, dated May 26, 2026, was addressed to “all citizens and residents of Bloemfontein” and purported to have been issued by immigration authorities. It claimed members of the public could qualify for monetary rewards for information leading to the identification, location or apprehension of undocumented migrants.

However, Home Affairs has categorically denied the authenticity of the document.

“The notice currently circulating is fraudulent and did not originate from the Department of Home Affairs,” the department said in a post on X. 

FAKE NEWS ALERT: The notice currently circulating is fraudulent and did not originate from the Department of Home Affairs. Neither the Department nor the Minister of Home Affairs offers monetary rewards to members of the public for reporting undocumented foreign nationals.

We… pic.twitter.com/HCWjviKABF

— HomeAffairsSA 🇿🇦 (@HomeAffairsSA) May 29, 2026

It further clarified that neither the department nor the Minister of Home Affairs offers monetary rewards to members of the public for reporting undocumented foreign nationals.

“We encourage the public to verify information through official channels before sharing it. Let us all play our part in promoting accurate information, responsible engagement, and respect for the rule of law,” Home Affairs said.

The fake notice has emerged amid ongoing national discussions around immigration enforcement and undocumented migration, issues that have frequently generated heated debate on social media platforms.

The department warned that the circulation of false information can fuel public confusion and undermine trust in official government communications.

Home Affairs has advised the public to rely on its verified communication platforms for official announcements and updates.

First published by IOL

Ukraine and its neighboring EU countries would be the first to suffer if Kiev’s continued attacks result in an incident at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), Aleksey Likhachev, CEO of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has said.

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has been targeted by Ukraine on multiple occasions since Russia took control of the facility in March 2022. On Saturday, a fiber-optics-guided drone struck the machine hall of ZNPP’s sixth power unit, puncturing a hole in the building. According to Rosatom, this was Kiev’s first “deliberate attack” on the station’s main equipment.

Ukrainian authorities have denied any involvement in the incident. Vladimir Zelensky said in April that the only way for Russia to guarantee security at the plant was to hand it over to Kiev.

Likhachev told journalists on Monday that “any explosion, any fire [at the plant] guarantees a loss of both power and water supplies to the reactor unit. And that is a precursor to a nuclear incident.”

“Ukraine and neighboring Western states are the first to be at serious risk” if this happens, the Rosatom chief added.

According to Likhachev, his conversation about the events at the ZNPP with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi later in the day will also serve as “an address to the leaders of European countries.”

“This whole radiation situation doesn’t respect national borders. By playing with fire and allowing the escalation of tensions around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the leaders of European countries are clearly putting their people, their cities and their territories under a direct threat,” he noted.

Ethiopians began voting on Monday as the country launched its seventh general election, with voters electing members of the federal parliament and nine regional state councils. 

Polling stations opened at 6 AM nationwide, with long queues forming early as citizens headed to cast their votes, local news agency ENA reported.

More than 54 million people are registered to vote in the election. Over 10,000 candidates from 42 political parties, including the ruling Prosperity Party led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, are contesting seats at the federal and regional levels, with voting taking place at roughly 52,000 polling stations across the country.

Voting is not being held in the Tigray region due to ongoing instability following the 2021-2022 conflict, while polling in eight constituencies in Amhara has been suspended because of security concerns related to the Fano armed group.

#Ethiopia The process has officially started - Uhuru Kenyatta Head of the African Union Election Observation Missio pic.twitter.com/SUs2qnMhkI

— Mohamed N Jama Hawd And Reserve Area (@Mahamed81443729) June 1, 2026

Some opposition figures have questioned the competitiveness of the election. Merera Gudina, a veteran opposition politician and leader of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), told the BBC that his party was participating only “symbolically” and primarily to avoid losing its legal registration. Mistreselasie Tamrat, secretary of the Coalition for Ethiopian Unity (CEU), said opposition parties had been unable to campaign effectively in the Amhara and Oromia regions due to a lack of what he called “enabling conditions.”

Ethiopia is a parliamentary republic, meaning the composition of the federal parliament will determine the formation of the next government and the selection of the prime minister. Speaking to African Initiative news agency, Andrey Khrenkov, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the most likely outcome is the preservation of the dominant position of Abiy’s ruling Prosperity Party.

The Armenian government is forcing the country onto the same anti-Russian path taken by Ukraine, former President Robert Kocharyan has warned ahead of upcoming elections.

In Sunday’s vote, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party will seek a mandate to pursue closer integration with the European Union – a course that could ultimately lead to a break with Russia.

Pashinyan’s party is facing a divided opposition field that includes three major players: Strong Armenia, launched earlier this year by businessman Samvel Karapetyan; the Armenia Alliance, led by former President Kocharyan; and Prosperous Armenia, headed by businessman Gagik Tsarukyan.

While the opposition groups differ over how the landlocked post-Soviet nation’s problems should be addressed, they all blame the current leadership for causing them.

Armenia, he argued, “should stop playing on the differences of great powers and provoking them, putting its own people in harm’s way.”

Yerevan facing either-or choice

Pashinyan, who came to power following street protests in 2018, has presided over a string of crises, including border clashes and a proxy war with neighboring Azerbaijan, an influx of refugees from the now-defunct self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, major protests that he suppressed by accusing critics from the Armenian Apostolic Church of plotting a coup, and a broader economic slowdown.

The prime minister has also accused Russia of failing Armenia in its confrontation with Azerbaijan and has claimed that deeper integration with the EU, along with transit revenues, would deliver a significant economic boost.

Asked about calls to put Armenia’s geopolitical course to a referendum, a proposal voiced by the EES last week, Pashinyan said holding a vote before the choice becomes unavoidable would be “illogical.” Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the approach to the Bolshevik government’s attempt to unilaterally withdraw from World War I without signing a formal peace treaty with Germany.

Leo Trotsky’s formula, often summarized as “no peace, no war, and disband the army,” backfired badly, forcing Soviet Russia to accept the highly unfavorable Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with a country that was later defeated by the Entente powers.

Misleading polls

Without a single consolidated opposition force, Pashinyan appears positioned for a landslide victory, Euronews claimed on Sunday, citing opinion polls. The outlet pointed to a survey by the pollster Breavis, in which 65% of respondents said they planned to vote for the ruling party.

Armenia, Breavis poll:

KP~EPP|~S&D: 65% (+41)
Mer dzevov-*: 12% (+3)
HD/ARF-S&D: 6% (+3)
MPA-*: 4% (+3)
BHK-*: 2% (-1)
DOK-*: 2% (n.a.)
MT-*: 2% (+1)
BDE-*: 2% (n.a.)

+/- vs. 03-13 February 2026

Fieldwork: 05-11 May 2026
Sample size: 1,551

➤ https://t.co/ImUIujL15i pic.twitter.com/SzL4v5va8M

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) May 30, 2026

However, responses from 51% of those surveyed were excluded because they refused to answer, said they had not yet decided, intended to spoil their ballot, or planned to skip the election altogether.

Pashinyan has taken leave from his duties as prime minister to campaign, and some of his appearances have cast him in an unfavorable light, showing him as short-tempered and thin-skinned. “Be glad your head is not smashed in at the closest toilet,” he told a woman who accused him of betraying national interests.

🇦🇲 Pashinyan shouts down woman who accused him of destroying Armenian statehood at campaign rally

During yet another pre-election event, the Armenian PM lost his composure at a woman in the crowd who accused him of dismantling Armenian statehood.

She stated that the Armenian… pic.twitter.com/aBKEeBOQpR

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 18, 2026

When a head of government makes such threats, opinion polls are likely to produce distorted results.

Iran has halted negotiations with the US over the ongoing Israeli offensive in Lebanon, moving to block maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim news agency has reported, citing sources.

Israel has intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon in recent days, against what it describes as sites used by the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military has pushed deeper into the country’s south, seizing Beaufort Castle, a 900-year-old Crusader fortress and a key vantage point in the region.

While Iran made an end to the war in Lebanon a condition for its Pakistani-mediated negotiations with the US, the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have continued despite a supposed ceasefire announced in mid-April.

In response to the escalation in Lebanon, Tehran is stopping the “negotiations and exchange of messages through a mediator,” according to Tasnim. Iran has reportedly demanded an “immediate cessation of hostilities” in the country, as well as in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, making it a condition for continuing the contacts with the US.

Tehran and its regional allied groups have also expressed readiness to seal off the Strait of Hormuz, as well as to “activate other fronts,” including disrupting maritime traffic in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, according to the agency.

Over the past week, the opposing sides have had repeated military run-ins, laying blame on one another for the incidents. US Central Command said on Monday that it had conducted “measured and deliberate strikes” on Saturday and Sunday in response to “aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters.” Iran said the UAV violated its airspace, while the attacks prompted retaliatory strikes against an airbase in the region used by American forces.

Russia is preparing to host the 12th annual Primakov Readings International Forum, one of the country’s leading platforms for discussion of global politics and the world economy. The event, themed ‘World Without Rules: Power Game?’, will take place in Moscow on June 23–24, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Leninsky Prospect Hotel, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of IMEMO.

The forum is expected to bring together senior Russian officials, including presidential aide Yury Ushakov, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, alongside leading Russian and international experts in international security, global politics, and economics, as well as diplomats, politicians, and representatives of public organizations.

According to organizers, the program will focus on some of the most pressing challenges in international affairs. Key themes will include the global fallout from regional conflicts, the domestic drivers of US foreign policy, the Middle East conflict and its дальнейшая evolution, scenarios for a new world order, risks to global trade and investment, Eurasian security during Russia’s chairmanship of the CSTO, and AI-driven international competition alongside a new round of military-technological rivalry.

Special attention will be given to prospects for de-escalation in the Middle East, the possible creation of a new regional security architecture, and the role of non-Western countries in stabilizing the region. Participants are also expected to discuss the consequences of the termination of the New START treaty, the risk of a broader collapse of the arms-control system, and the impact of emerging military technologies on strategic stability as the arms race accelerates.

“Both in Russia and globally, the liberal ‘rules-based’ world order has faced harsh and fair criticism. In 2022–2026 it ultimately faded into history,” said Aleksandr Dynkin, president of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “We are witnessing a breakdown: there is an obvious fragmentation of the global political and economic architecture, and an almost complete dictatorship of force in international security backed by states’ combined economic and military power, ignoring international law and its institutions.”

Dynkin said that under these conditions, the importance of the remaining “anchors of stability” is growing, along with the demand for strengthening international institutions that can serve as alternatives to Western-led ones. He named Russia-China and Russia-India ties among such anchors, and pointed to BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and ASEAN as key institutions shaping this process.

The event is expected to bring together around 50 experts from 20 countries, including China, India, the US, Iran, the UK, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.

Organized by IMEMO together with the Evgeny Primakov Center for International Cooperation, the forum continues the legacy of Evgeny Primakov, the statesman and scholar after whom it is named. First launched in 2015, the Primakov Readings have become an annual gathering of leading specialists in international relations and the global economy.

Media representatives can apply for accreditation via the official website of the Primakov Readings forum.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has condemned the French seizure of an oil tanker in international waters as “borderline piracy.” Paris had hailed the move as the enforcement of anti-Russian sanctions.

The crude oil tanker Tagor was boarded by French commandos in the Atlantic, with support from the UK and other countries, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday while presenting footage of the raid.

Macron claimed the vessel posed environmental and safety risks and was engaged in the “circumvention of international sanctions,” referring to restrictions adopted by a number of Western countries targeting Russian foreign trade. The measures were imposed without a UN mandate following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Peskov rejected Macron’s claim that French forces had acted in accordance with international law. He said Russia would “draw on this negative experience” when adjusting the “measures we take to ensure the safety of our shipments.”

La Marine nationale a arraisonné hier matin un nouveau pétrolier sous sanctions internationales en provenance de Russie : le Tagor. Notre détermination est constante et totale.

Cette intervention a été effectuée en Atlantique, en haute mer,… pic.twitter.com/zxEslYjbUE

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 1, 2026

Western raids and Ukrainian bombs

Kiev’s Western backers have accused Russia of using a so-called ‘shadow fleet’ to conceal and maintain international trade flows that they seek to restrict in order to weaken Moscow and aid Ukraine.

Last month, an LNG tanker that had arrived at Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga from Antwerp was found to have been fitted with limpet mines. Moscow said the discovery had prevented what it described as a Ukrainian attempt to trigger a major explosion near the port’s export terminal.

The British backseat driver

According to public maritime tracking data, the Tagor sails under the flag of Madagascar and had previously visited an oil terminal near the northern Russian port of Murmansk. The vessel stopped transmitting transponder data more than a week ago while sailing off the Norwegian coast. Macron did not disclose what role Britain played in the capture of the Tagor.

France carried out a similar operation in March, when its navy intercepted the Deyna, an oil tanker Paris alleged was part of ‘Russian shadow fleet,’ as it sailed through the Mediterranean after having departed Murmansk. The ship was released in mid-April after its owner paid a fine to French authorities over paperwork irregularities.

The Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has said it carried out a retaliatory strike on an air base used by the US after American forces attacked targets in southern Iran over the weekend.

The latest exchange has further strained a fragile ceasefire reached in April after more than a month of fighting triggered by US and Israeli attacks on Iran. Washington and Tehran are currently attempting to negotiate a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would extend the truce for another 60 days and restart talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Monday that it had conducted “measured and deliberate strikes” on Saturday and Sunday “in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a US MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters.” It accused Tehran of “unwarranted… aggression during the ongoing ceasefire.”

Iran announced the downing of the UAV on Sunday, saying it was hit due to violations of the country’s airspace over the Persian Gulf.

Later in the day, the IRGC said it had responded to what it described as an American strike on a communications tower on the Islamic Republic’s Sirik Island.

The Iranian military “targeted the air base, from which the [US] attack originated, and the predetermined targets were destroyed,” it said in a statement.

The statement did not identify the location of the targeted base, although Kuwait’s KUNA news agency earlier reported that the Gulf nation’s air defenses had intercepted incoming missiles and drones.

The IRGC warned “that if the aggression is repeated, the response will be completely different” and that the US would be to blame.

Tehran has been making changes to a draft MOU after reports of US President Donald Trump sending a tougher proposal to Iran on Sunday, Tasnim news agency reported. The exchanges on the text of an MOU “are ongoing, with both parties regularly proposing amendments,” the agency’s source said.

As China doubles down on its economic presence in Africa, the relationship is entering a new phase that goes beyond bricks and mortar.

The Beijing Action Plan 2025-2027 includes support for 30 infrastructure connectivity projects across Africa, while countries such as Kenya and Uganda are already reviving Chinese-backed transport links, such as the Standard Gauge Railway extension and the Rironi-Mau Summit highway toward the Uganda border.

For analysts watching the continent’s financial future, these developments matter not only because they move goods but also because they may create the commercial architecture for a parallel payment system built around China’s Digital RMB (digital yuan/e-CNY), potentially giving African economies a faster, less dollar-dependent way to trade.

The Western-dominated global payments system, centered on SWIFT and intermediary banks, has long been criticized for high transaction costs, delays, and vulnerability to geopolitical pressure. But as China expands its digital cross-border payment system while deepening ties with Africa, analysts say the platform could mark a significant shift in how the continent moves money across borders.

Michael Owuor, a development and transnational organized crimes expert based in Nairobi, observes that for many countries in Africa, China’s digital yuan is “slowly redefining traditional geo-commerce relationships by providing alternative financial platforms for trade.”

“For African economies, this new cross-border platform has the potential to accelerate regional and continental trade systems, reduce exposure to Western-controlled financial systems and politically engineered economic sanctions, and strengthen financial inclusion that the continent has been yearning for,” said Owour, who works at the Global Centre for Policy and Strategy (GLOCEPS), a think-tank based in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to Owuor, for Africa, a region that is deeply integrated into China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is increasingly reliant on digital financial solutions, the digital yuan offers diverse opportunities.

“This platform is part of China’s broader push to make it easier for global businesses and consumers to transact directly in yuan without defaulting to reserve currencies like the US dollar,” Owuor told RT.

Faster and cheaper

Owuor notes that the grounding of China’s digital yuan in blockchain technology can make cross-border settlements faster, cheaper, and more transparent.

“Digital RMB’s blockchain-driven architecture reduces cross-border settlement times to mere seconds, unlike traditional SWIFT transactions, which often take 3-5 business days and involve multiple intermediary banks. This results in high fees at each stage of payment processing and delays in executing transactions,” Owuor told RT.

The digital RMB platforms cut settlement times to near real-time and can reduce costs by 40-60% or more.

Further, Owuor argues that its efficiency is particularly transformative for developing economies where cross-border payment delays and high costs have long hindered trade, investment, and capital transfer.

“The embedded smart contracts in this system automatically enforce regulatory requirements, reduce risks of fraud, and enhance transparency,” he adds.

Joseph Kimotho, a Nairobi-based independent consultant and development finance specialist, argues that punitive economic actions by the Trump administration towards Global South countries have “inadvertently spurred demand for alternative financial platforms”.

“It is no secret that there is growing skepticism towards the US dollar’s dominance in global trade. Washington’s weaponization of the tariff policy as a tool for economic and political sanctions makes the Digital RMB a promising and welcoming option,” Kimotho told RT.

Kimotho suggests that China’s payment system offers an alternative, particularly for countries “seeking to insulate themselves from US sanctions and dollar dependency” while securing their presence in international trade.

“This is likely to inform action by central banks in the Global South to hold the yuan as part of their foreign reserves,” he supposes.

‘Africa must guard against over-reliance on a single currency’

Isaac Shinyekwa, head of trade and regional integration at the Kampala-based Economic Policy Research Centre, notes the entry of digital Yuan into Africa could catalyze its integration with continental payment infrastructures, such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement Systems (PAPPS).

“The entrenchment of PAPPS in regional and continental trade, coupled with strategic collaboration with the RMB cross-border payment platform, could enable African nations to bypass SWIFT for intra-regional transactions while reducing costs and delays,” he told RT.

Shinyekwa adds that efficient cross-border payment systems are imperative for the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to create a single market of 1.3 billion people.

“The Digital RMB’s speed and low cost could facilitate faster capital movement and thus boost intra-African trade. The adoption of it by Africa could accelerate regional integration, reduce exposure to US sanctions, and enhance financial inclusion and commerce,” Shinyekwa said.

“It is imperative to carefully navigate regulatory, technical, and geopolitical challenges and opportunities, including users’ and country data rights. Africa must guard against over-reliance on a single currency or system, thus avoiding new forms of financial dependency,” Owuor concludes.

India has signed an agreement to supply BrahMos cruise missiles to Vietnam, Defense Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh has confirmed.

A similar deal with Indonesia is in the final stages, Singh said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore over the weekend.

“My understanding is that with both Indonesia and with Vietnam, the deal is in the final stages… in fact, for Vietnam, I understand that it has already been signed, probably not publicly announced, but it’s already been signed,” Singh said.

Vietnamese President To Lam was in India on an official visit early last month.

Vietnam has become the second Southeast Asian nation to induct the supersonic cruise missiles into its arsenal. Last year, the Philippines became the first third-party customer for the BrahMos system, taking delivery of an initial batch in April under a $375 million agreement signed in 2023.

The BrahMos, named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, is among the fastest supersonic cruise missiles in the world. It was jointly developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya rocket design bureau, which produces the Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles.

Originally capped at a range of 180 miles, the BrahMos has since been upgraded for greater reach, increasing its strategic value and drawing heightened interest from Southeast Asian countries amid shifting regional security dynamics.

The missile, which can be launched from ships, submarines, land, and air-based systems, was first unveiled at the MAKS-2001 airshow in Moscow.

Backed by the Indian and Russian governments, BrahMos is reportedly in advanced talks with Indonesia for a deal valued at $200 million to $350 million.

The next phase of the BrahMos project could involve the joint development of a missile system based on Russia’s Zircon hypersonic missile.

BrahMos Aerospace posted record revenue in the last fiscal year, the DRDO has said.

Indian scientists may have discovered new evidence of subsurface ice on the Moon, potentially paving the way for more lunar landings.

Scientists from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Physical Research Laboratory have analyzed data from the Chandrayaan-2 mission and found radar signatures consistent with buried ice inside four “doubly shadowed craters” in the moon’s south polar region, the Indian Express reported.

These are extremely cold regions of the lunar surface, as they never receive direct sunlight, making them ideal for preserving water ice. Temperatures in these spots could drop to around 25 Kelvin, or -248.15C.

The data is from an imaging instrument on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter that studies the lunar surface. The findings, which were made using advanced radar polarimetric analysis, were published in the journal npj Space Exploration on May 6.

Water ice on the Moon is considered one of the most valuable resources by lunar missions, as scientists see scope for converting it to drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel, according to the Indian Express report.

The probable presence of the subsurface ice may result in more expeditions to the Moon’s south pole.

ISRO has received approvals to develop its Next Generation Launch Vehicles (NGLV), which can be used in its future lunar missions.

Ghana’s parliament has approved legislation introducing prison terms of up to five years for individuals who promote, sponsor, or advocate LGBTQ activities, while also banning the funding of related groups and initiatives.

The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, also known as the Anti-Gay Bill, would also impose prison terms of up to three years for people engaging in same-sex relations, as well as sentences ranging from three to five years for those found to be promoting, sponsoring, or deliberately supporting LGBTQ activities. The legislation, which was approved on Friday, is expected to be signed into law by Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama.

Parliament first passed the bill in February 2024 and forwarded it to then-President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for assent, but the legislation ultimately did not become law.

The legislation has also drawn condemnation from abroad. In 2024, the US said it was “deeply troubled” by the decision, which “would threaten all Ghanaians’ constitutionally protected freedoms of speech, press, and assembly.”

Ghana’s move follows similar developments elsewhere in Africa. In April, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed a law tightening penalties for same-sex relations and criminalizing the promotion and financing of homosexuality. The legislation has been criticized by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk as “harmful.” It increases prison terms for what authorities describe as “unnatural acts” from one-to-five years to five-to-ten years, and raises maximum fines to 10 million CFA francs (around $17,680).

In 2023, a similar law was passed in Uganda, making it illegal to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. In response, Washington imposed travel restrictions on officials from the East African country and expelled it from a duty-free program.

President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan last week was an important moment in bilateral relations. It gives us the opportunity to think more broadly about the current state of Russia’s relations with those former Soviet republics that remain most friendly towards us.

This is especially necessary now, as elections approach in Armenia and its leadership speaks openly about moving closer to the European Union. Once again, we hear the familiar claim that Russia is “losing” the post-Soviet space. The argument is not new and it’s supported, in different ways, by the open desire of some neighboring states to strengthen cooperation with the West, and by the less visible but steadily growing presence of Western corporations, NGOs and political actors in countries near Russia.

But we should begin with a simple fact. Against the background of the geopolitical catastrophe of 1991, Russia has retained, and continues to retain, considerable influence over its immediate neighborhood.

There are two reasons for this. First, Russia’s size, economy, culture and geography make it a natural center of attraction for states that don’t make hostility to Moscow the organizing principle of their existence. Even Georgia, after bitter experience, has learned that the West is not always capable of helping those it encourages.

Second, most of our neighbors are themselves acting with a degree of statesmanship in that they may maneuver and diversify their foreign relations, but they’re not usually seeking to sever ties with Russia. The established states of the former USSR pursue pragmatic policies and understand the value of their special relationship with Moscow and, in recent years, Russia has also found new ways to ensure that those who benefit from cooperation outnumber those who profit from conflict.

Kazakhstan remains one of the countries with which Russia has the closest and most trusting relations and this was confirmed during Putin’s visit. Kazakhstan’s president, along with the leader of Uzbekistan, attended the May 9 celebrations in Moscow, and cooperation between our countries extends far beyond economics or routine social contacts.

At the same time, Kazakhstan is building relations not only with Russia but also with our adversaries, and while this doesn’t mean Astana wants to distance itself from Moscow, it does mean Kazakhstan must remain part of the global economy on which its export revenues depend. What matters is that it is confidently seeking ways to avoid harming its cooperation with Russia.

A recent example is revealing. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Justice announced that it would not comply with a ruling by the International Financial Centre in Astana upholding a Swiss arbitration decision in the case brought by Ukraine’s Naftogaz against Russia’s Gazprom for more than $1.4 billion. This is precisely the kind of practical behavior that matters more than loud declarations

Armenia presents a more difficult case. The country’s defeat in its confrontation with Azerbaijan has produced deep moral exhaustion and a desire for peace almost at any price. The political forces now in power are exploiting these feelings and trying to convince society that rapprochement with the West is the key to a peaceful future.

The deeper point is that even the best diplomacy cannot always overcome the objective consequences of social development in neighboring states. We understand how profoundly Russian society has changed in recent years and we shouldn’t forget that our neighbors are also undergoing internal transformations.

New generations are coming of age and often they are more nationalistic, partly because they have less direct experience of international engagement and of the shared Soviet past. New elites want to displace older establishments that historically had closer ties with Moscow while longstanding economic problems remain unresolved, often because these states simply lack the resources to solve them.

In Armenia, many young people support the current government not because they hate Russia, but because they see the “European choice” as a route to personal self-fulfillment in the West. Often they are disappointed with their own country and Russia cannot realistically absorb everyone who wants a different future.

Ukraine is another case altogether and the reason for the tragic turn of events there wasn’t primarily a mistake in Russian policy, but the failure of the Ukrainian people to build durable statehood, combined with a systemic Russophobia that had been developing since Soviet times. Georgia’s turn away from a disastrous course after 2012 wasn’t the result of Russian pressure or assistance, but of the Georgian elite and society recognizing their own circumstances. Finland’s anti-Russian shift after 2022, meanwhile, was the product of an internal crisis made irreversible by its entry into the European Union’s political and economic system.

Most importantly, we must think long term because history doesn’t end with tomorrow’s statement from Brussels or Donald Trump’s next social media post. Russia’s relations with its neighbors move in cycles and the setbacks we are seeing now will eventually be followed by a return to a more favorable trajectory.

We often admire the ability of the United States to influence other countries, but what Russia should learn most from the Americans is their historical optimism and not their pressure tactics. Even in Latin America, the region closest to the US, Washington’s influence has never been absolute and look at how Venezuela has been governed since 1999 by forces openly unfriendly to America. Cuba has remained outside American control for decades and Nicaragua returned Daniel Ortega, an old friend of the USSR, to power after years of pro-American rule.

None of this led Washington to conclude that history was over or that every unfriendly turn was irreversible. Russia should adopt the same patience. The Soviet Union weakened itself partly through excessive spending on its external presence. We must not repeat that mistake, because for a military superpower, the most dangerous enemy is often itself.

Russia’s own socio-economic stability is more important than events in the post-Soviet space or anywhere else. This doesn’t mean retreating from our neighbors and, on the contrary, we should strengthen ties through trade and human contact, and we shouldn’t treat every ebb and flow in these relations as a tragedy.

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

Israeli attacks in Lebanon are killing civilians and must end, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has said, after the Jewish state stepped up military activity against its northern neighbor.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has intensified airstrikes in recent days and moved deeper into Lebanese territory despite the ceasefire agreed in mid-April after more than a month of fighting.

On Sunday, Israeli troops seized Beaufort Castle, a 900-year-old Crusader fortress, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military “to expand its ground maneuver” against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Netanyahu’s order could further complicate indirect talks between the US and Iran, with peace in Lebanon being among Tehran’s key demands for prolonging the truce with Washington.

In a post on X on Monday, Cooper said Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon “has killed and displaced civilians, destroyed infrastructure, and eroded space for diplomacy. It must end.”

“All sides must respect the ceasefire and engage with negotiations in good faith,” the foreign secretary said.

German Foreign Minister Johannes Wadephul said in a statement on Sunday that the Israeli advances are a “cause for serious concern,” warning that they could “exacerbate the already tense situation and trigger new waves of displacement within Lebanon.”

At least 12 civilians were killed by IDF strikes in Lebanon on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.

Data from the Lebanese authorities suggests that more than 3,400 people have been killed, around 10,000 wounded, and over 1.6 million displaced in the country since Israel launched its military operation against Hezbollah in early March, just days after the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with both Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun by phone over the weekend in an attempt to push through a new proposal for a “gradual de-escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah. “This would create space for gradual de-escalation and an effective cessation of hostilities,” Rubio said.

As a first step, Rubio’s plan calls for Hezbollah to halt drone attacks on Israel, with the IDF refraining from escalating operations in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in return, a source said.

US conservative political commentator Candace Owens has brushed off criticism of her recent visit to Russia, after posting photos from what she described as an “unbelievably beautiful” Moscow.

Owens described the trip to her 6 million YouTube subscribers as a “family vacation.” Some fellow commentators criticized the visit, with Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro labeling it an act of “ideological subversion.”

“I’m starting to understand why the talking heads panic and shout and lie about ‘Russian collusion’ when they learn an American with a platform is traveling here,” Owens wrote on X on Sunday, sharing a photo of herself on Red Square.

“It is genuinely shocking how clean, beautiful and orderly this city is. It is so far removed from media depictions,” she added.

Uh-oh @LauraLoomer… 😱
Подкаст-авиакомпания снова отличилась!

Cc: Baron Coleman pic.twitter.com/RlECM2K4sa

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 31, 2026

Owens also shared photos from a theater and a church.

“I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting this,” she wrote.

I’m not sure what I was expecting but I wasn’t expecting this.
Moscow is an unbelievably beautiful city. pic.twitter.com/q35ZthjxxK

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) May 31, 2026

Republicans and Democrats alike, along with numerous media figures, similarly criticized journalist Tucker Carlson for traveling to Moscow twice in 2024 to record interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Carlson said he found Moscow to be “so much nicer” than cities in the United States and argued that American media coverage of Russia and the Ukraine conflict was heavily biased. He dismissed his critics as “professional liars.”

Owens later broke with US President Donald Trump over his support for Israel. Following the launch of her own show on YouTube, the popular podcaster drew criticism for controversial statements, including suggestions that Israel could have been involved in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, filed a defamation lawsuit against Owens after she suggested that France’s first lady was born a man.

The UK authorities have denied The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur entry into the country days ahead of two events where he was due to speak – apparently over his repeated criticism of Israel. Uygur’s nephew, Hasan Piker, who is a left-wing political streamer in his own right, has said his British visa has also been revoked “at the behest of Israel.”

On multiple occasions over the past few years, pro-Palestinian activists have accused the UK’s Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer of suppressing anything deemed too critical of Israel.

In a Monday X post, Uygur wrote that he’d been “banned from the UK… for criticizing Israel.”

“Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!” The Young Turks host added.

According to The Times, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood cancelled Uygur’s electronic travel authorization (ETA) last week.

The US host and left-wing political commentator had been scheduled to appear at the SXSW festival in London on Thursday, as well as at an event in Oxford the following day.

Uygur’s nephew, Piker, had also been booked to speak at the SXSW event in the British capital. Commenting on the entry bans, he wrote on X that the “West is betraying ‘liberal values’ for a genocidal fascist foreign government.”

Both Uygur and Piker have repeatedly described Israel’s military campaign in Gaza against Hamas as “genocide.”

UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski accused the UK’s Labour government of “doing everything possible to silence criticism of the Israeli Government.”

Earlier this month, a UK court convicted four members of the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action over a 2024 raid on an Israeli-linked defense facility in Bristol, with sentencing expected in mid-June.

The British government has been widely criticized for its use of anti-terror legislation to strangle reporting on the case. The activist group itself was proscribed as a terrorist entity last July.

Meanwhile, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was expelled from the party in 2024 over alleged failure to address anti-Semitism, has expressed support for Palestine Action.

The US military has been covertly guiding vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing officials familiar with the matter.

Iran closed the vital waterway, which previously handled around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, to ships from “hostile countries” in response to the US and Israeli airstrikes launched on February 28. Tehran later said that vessels from third countries could pass if they paid a toll and complied with military instructions.

In April, US President Donald Trump announced ‘Project Freedom’, aimed at escorting stranded merchant ships from neutral countries. He publicly suspended the initiative less than 48 hours later, reportedly after Saudi Arabia refused to allow US forces to fly through its airspace or use Prince Sultan Air Base.

According to the Times, US Central Command (CENTCOM) has coordinated the passage of around 70 commercial vessels through the waterway over the past three weeks. An official told the newspaper that most of the vessels had turned off their transponders to avoid detection by Iranian forces. The ships reportedly used a shipping lane closer to the Omani coast.

Tens of thousands of sailors aboard between 1,600 and 2,000 vessels, including oil and gas tankers, remain stranded in the Persian Gulf.

In April, the US imposed a blockade on Iranian ports and has since intercepted more than 100 cargo ships. On Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that 28 vessels had passed through the strait over the previous 24 hours after obtaining permission.

Pro-Trump lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella secured a narrow lead over left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday.

With votes counted from more than 99% of polling stations, de la Espriella received 43.72% of the vote, while Cepeda secured 40.92%. Conservative candidate Paloma Valencia came third with 6.92%. The runoff will take place on June 21.

Colombia has historically been the United States’ most important ally in the region in terms of security cooperation and counternarcotics efforts.

The US is Colombia’s largest trading partner, and the country shares a long border with neighboring Venezuela.

Relations between Washington and Bogota deteriorated significantly in recent years under outgoing President Gustavo Petro, who criticized US President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies and military strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats. The two leaders frequently traded insults on social media and in public statements.

Petro, Colombia’s first left-wing president, is constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term and has endorsed Cepeda.

The candidate has praised Trump’s “cultural battle against wokeism” and vowed to uphold traditional gender norms.

De la Espriella welcomed Trump’s return to the White House and backed the US commando raid in Caracas earlier this year, during which American forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“It has been revealed how USAID and woke populism fueled the leftward shift in countries like Colombia… To guarantee a fair race, it is urgent that your father’s administration puts Petro in his place,” de la Espriella wrote on X in January in response to a post by Donald Trump Jr.

Cepeda, the son of a Communist senator killed in 1994 by state-linked paramilitaries, has opposed Trump’s interventionism and condemned his threats against Petro.

“We are neither a colony nor a protectorate of the United States. We will not submit to any form of imperial or authoritarian domination,” Cepeda wrote on X in January.

In an interview with Jacobin shortly after Maduro’s abduction, Cepeda denounced Trump’s attempts to revive the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which treats Latin America and the Caribbean as an exclusive sphere of US influence.

“We are a zone of peace. And we do not accept foreign interference. That is how governments and peoples must align,” he said.

With much of the world’s attention on the still unresolved conflict between the US and Iran, the average consumer of news may be forgiven if they had forgotten that the US had, on January 3 of this year, launched a mini-invasion of Venezuela which resulted in the death of scores of people, including a number of Cuban security personnel, and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

The US justified this action by noting that Maduro was, in its books, a fugitive from justice, having been previously indicted in a US Federal Court on narcotics trafficking charges. The ease with which the US orchestrated the collapse of the Maduro regime and facilitated the transfer of power to a more than compliant vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, helped the administration of US President Donald Trump project an aura of invincibility when it came to the implementation of what the president and his advisors were calling the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, their take on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine which declared the Western Hemisphere to be the exclusive domain of the US.

Little more than a week later, on January 11, President Trump posted on his Truth Social account what amounted to a direct threat against the government of Cuba. “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela,” the president wrote, stating that there had been a direct relationship between Venezuelan economic support to Cuba and Cuban security support to Venezuela. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the world (by far), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA—ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!”

The president then set off a firestorm of speculation on American social media when, responding to a joking post that was made on X late the week prior stating that said, “Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba,” he wrote in response “sounds good to me!”

Regime change in Cuba, it seemed, was on the cards.

An invasion of Cuba was no longer a top Trump administration policy.

Almost overnight, this calculus changed. On May 21, Marco Rubio declared that Cuba was “one of the leading sponsors of terrorism in the entire region.” His comments came the same day that the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against former Cuban President Raul Castro. In one day, the Trump administration had reconstructed the pathway toward military action by the US against Cuba, mirroring the regime change justifications that had been cobbled together before the January 3 assault on Caracas that led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro and the collapse of his regime. These actions coincided with the arrival of a US carrier battlegroup off the shores of Cuba.

Rubio’s painting Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism carries zero intellectual weight or factual predicate, coming as it does on the heels of a concerted effort undertaken by the Biden administration to remove that designation from Cuba because there was no longer any basis for such a claim. But the fact is that similar shortcomings existed regarding the legality of the claims made by the US against Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration, however, is not appealing to international law, but rather a narrow domestic political constituency for whom the flimsiest legal foundation for action against Cuba would suffice. But the designation as a state sponsor of terrorism holds even more importance, given that it directly mirrors the runway to military action constructed by the US in the lead-up to the decision to bomb Iran in February of this year. The bottom line is that the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for a military invasion of Cuba, the imposition of an even more stringent campaign of economic strangulation, or both.

The impetus for such action rests not with any inherent threat posed by Cuba and its government to the US, but rather the need for the Trump administration to be able to chalk up a ‘win’ on its national security scoreboard following its embarrassing setback with Iran.

The real threat to Trump comes if the Republicans lose control of the Senate, especially by a margin significant enough to rase the specter of conviction, which at least 60 of 100 Senators must vote in favor of. Here is where President Trump is making a huge miscalculation when it comes to the issue of Cuba and domestic American politics. Trump is taking guidance from his Secretary of State/National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio – a man who has a lifetime of anti-Cuban angst built up inside him which colors his worldview.

Both Rubio and Trump understand the realities associated with Florida politics, and the important role played by Florida’s large Cuban diaspora in shaping presidential politics. But the midterms are not a national election. Midterm elections generally respond to a different political barometer, one where the needle is moved by local political issues generally defined by the state of the local economy. National issues generally run secondary, and in the grand scheme of things, the Cuban vote in Florida doesn’t change the national calculus when counting House and Senate seats on election night. Moreover, Rubio and Trump would do well to study the 1992 presidential campaign, which saw the incumbent, George H. W. Bush, enter the race with a massive lead driven in part by the impressive military victory the US achieved over Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. Bush’s challenger, Bill Clinton, stumbled when he tried to match Bush’s foreign policy credentials, resulting in his campaign manager, James Carvelle, posting a yellow sticky note on the door leading into the campaign ‘war room’ which read simply, “It’s the economy, stupid!”

Bush had promised no new taxes and yet failed to deliver on that promise. The economic downturn which resulted from this mistake provided the momentum Clinton needed to come from behind and defeat Bush in November 1992.

It’s the economy, stupid.

But the fact is Trump and Rubio may not be able to deliver the expected victory in any event. Cuba is not Venezuela, and the CIA may lack the ability to replicate the purchased betrayal of Maduro among the Venezuelan political, military and economic elites. Is not something many Cuba watchers believes can be pulled off in this island nation. Fulton Armstrong, a former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America who one time worked in a covert fashion as a CIA officer operating on Cuban soil, recently authored a memorandum on behalf of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) where he noted that the “US-driven ‘regime collapse’ and occupation or imposition of a government of our choosing [in Cuba] will fail badly. The same people who keep ‘57 Chevrolets on the road with a coat hanger will wreak havoc against a foreign-imposed regime,” adding “US coercion against Cuba hasn’t worked for more than six decades.”

Marco Rubio may yet convince Donald Trump to invade Cuba. But rather than the icing on a rejuvenated foreign and national security policy that helps preserve the Republican Party’s hold on the US Congress, and as such keeps Trump’s policies, domestic and foreign, viable for the next two years, a Cuban invasion will more than likely produce a debacle which, when piled on the failure in Iran, will mark the end of the Trump era once and for all.

The Vienna Festival cancelled a scheduled appearance of US-German tech mogul Peter Thiel after facing mounting criticism from its sponsors and a mass exodus of other participants.

The co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, widely known for his controversial right-wing and “transhumanist” views, was expected to participate in a discussion titled ‘Armageddon and the Antichrist? From Theology to Realpolitik.’ This year, the Festival declared itself the “Republic of Gods,” advertising itself as a “space of radical criticism and new beginnings.”

The scheduled panel immediately drew controversy, with some seeing it as an opportunity to debate Thiel’s controversial ideas, while others argued the entrepreneur’s apocalyptic worldview should not receive a platform at all. His scheduled appearance has been criticized by the Vienna city authorities, which sponsor the festival.

“The invitation to Peter Thiel is quite rightly causing great discontent among the public,” Vienna’s City Councillor for Culture, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, told Der Standard newspaper.

“Not at any cost: I take the critical voices very seriously. Out of my responsibility for the overall program, I unfortunately had to decide against the planned event with Peter Thiel, although I found it extremely compelling and thematically consistent within the framework of the Republic of Gods. However, insisting on the event would run counter to my appreciation of our artistic program and everyone involved in it,” Artistic Director Milo Rau said in a statement.

Thiel’s public speeches have repeatedly sparked controversy. Back in March, he held a series of invitation-only lectures on the Antichrist in Rome at a secret location near the Vatican. Some media reports even claimed that the event would be held in the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University – the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV. The institution rushed to deny any links to the event, while other Vatican-linked officials criticized Thiel’s activities as well.

American artist Kanye West has said his debut concert in Türkiye attracted 118,000 fans, making it the largest stadium performance ever. The show was the first stop on his first European tour since 2014 and came as several planned appearances in EU countries were canceled over his past anti-Semitic remarks and other controversies.

West, who is also known as Ye, also claimed the concert at Atatürk Olympic Stadium on Saturday generated some $100 million in tourism revenue for Istanbul.

Ye performs “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” in Turkey for the biggest ticketed concert crowd of his career so far 🇹🇷🔥 pic.twitter.com/5wVpHsIM4v

— Kurrco (@Kurrco) May 30, 2026

West has faced widespread criticism over anti-Semitic remarks and references to Nazi Germany in his lyrics and social media posts. An apology published in the Wall Street Journal in January, in which West attributed some of his past statements to untreated bipolar disorder, did little to ease the backlash.

However, fans from the US, the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, and several Middle Eastern countries converged on Istanbul for the show, according to local media.

🇹🇷 I got to watch in Ye perform in Istanbul, Türkiye tonight pic.twitter.com/WTEermbmoa

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinkle) May 30, 2026

“I just want to tell y’all, we just broke the record, 118,000, largest stadium performance of all time,” West told the attendees.

The Istanbul performance came as several of West’s planned European appearances faced setbacks.

Kanye West, İstanbul konseri bilinçli olarak Kurban Bayramına denk getirildiyse akıllıca olmuş.

118.000 kişiyle tüm zamanların stadyum performans rekorunun kırıldığı konser ve Andrea Bocelli için binlerce kişi yurtdışından geldi.

Efektif bir zamanlama… pic.twitter.com/Y0NbCjM4Lr

— Nejat Özonay (@NejatOzonay) May 30, 2026

Authorities in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia announced on Saturday that West´s July concert had been canceled following objections from local anti-fascist groups and members of the Jewish community.

Last month, a stadium director in Poland said his June 19 show “will not take place due to formal and legal reasons.”

The rapper also announced the postponement of a June 11 performance in Marseille, France. The UK barred Ye from entering the country earlier this year.

Culture wars will never be the same again. 

Military narratives are often promoted through entertainment and popular culture. Typically, this is done by newspapers, film studios, or influencers who support one side of a conflict in exchange for payment and/or political favor. 

For example, ‘Top Gun’ is a pretty universally beloved film. However, its creators openly admit that they collaborated closely with the US Air Force, essentially producing propaganda content. It’s also common for well-known musicians and comedians to perform on military bases. 

The US-Iran conflict has taken cultural warfare to a whole new level, however. For the first time ever, official government agencies have started speaking not just in populist rhetoric but in memes. And suddenly, one of the most populist governments in the world found itself losing the cultural battle to one of the world’s most conservative and unpopular regimes. 

Search and destroy with Lego animations

Before the war in Iran, the Trump administration sometimes resorted to memes – but not when it came to discussing conflicts. The first shift occurred after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, when Trump posted a video featuring American bombers set to the song ‘Bomb Iran’. 

Some viewers liked the video, and the Trump administration understood that this format was effective for engaging the audience. Shortly after the first American strikes against Iran in March, the official White House account on X shared a video of bombings set to a remix of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Free Bird’.

STRIKE. 💥🦅 pic.twitter.com/XMzNNtlT63

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

Reactions were mixed, to say the least.

Other attempts to ‘memeify’ the bombings also fell flat. The juxtaposition of pop music with jokes accompanying footage of missile strikes might generate shock value for niche bloggers, but not official government accounts. 

In response, Iran launched a powerful social media campaign, using the accounts of its embassies abroad. These posts were written in English and targeted an international audience. 

The Iranian authorities had two main objectives on the SMM front: to garner sympathy worldwide and to weaken support for the war within the US.

To achieve the first goal, Iran highlighted the darkest consequences of the conflict, particularly focusing on the tragic deaths of Iranian schoolgirls due to a US missile strike in Minab.

The post isn’t accompanied by a photo of destruction, but rather an AI-generated image. And there’s a reason for that. This makes it easier to share the post without the risk of scaring people away with graphic content. Even those who mock AI slop end up boosting its reach.  

Other posts ridiculed the senselessness of the war for Americans and Israel’s influence.

Iranian embassies also responded to Trump’s public threats with memes. For instance, when Trump demanded that the Strait of Hormuz be opened and warned of escalating the conflict, Iran fired back using a popular template from the anime ‘Tomorrow’s Joe’.

Moreover, Iran took a page out of Trump’s playbook and never admitted defeat, always claiming victory. Even in the face of significant losses, it maintained a winner’s rhetoric, emphasizing the issues faced by the American government and military.

The day the ceasefire was announced, Iranian embassies announced Iran’s victory over the US. 

The posts proved to be very popular. However, government memes alone weren’t enough – embassies and other official entities still had to maintain a ‘professional’ tone, and by default, the public saw them as serving the interests of politicians. To address this, Iranian propaganda began to collaborate with a formally ‘independent’ group called Explosive Media. Their videos featuring Lego figures depicting the Iranian military defeating American and Israeli forces racked up millions of views.

The group creates content tailored for an Iranian audience:

As well as English-language content for Americans and other Western viewers:

The group chose the Lego format for a reason. “Lego is a universal language,” a member of Explosive Media said. “It conveys messages easily, it’s playful, it doesn’t require extreme realism, yet it can include astonishing detail.” Also, it allows the group to publish content on any platform without being blocked for graphic content. 

The Iranian meme offensive mostly doesn’t resort to deepfakes. Iranians use generative AI primarily to mock Americans, not to pass off parodies as truth. The only significant misinformation campaigns involving deepfakes were attempts to convince the world that Netanyahu was dead, and the footage of explosions in Iran. The latter circulated mostly in Indian social media circles, contained mixed messages, and may have been spread by the US or a third party.

Another aspect of Iran’s meme warfare is the blurred line between state-sponsored content and content produced by enthusiasts. Both Trump’s opponents in the US and the Iranian authorities criticize the close alliance between Israel and the US, Trump’s impulsive behavior, and the reluctance of the American government to admit its mistakes.

Moreover, because memes circulate anonymously and are frequently modified, even those initially created by the government can come across as the work of ordinary people.

The Great Iranian Meme War may not be over yet, but it has already taught the world two important lessons.

Firstly, the underdog can now relatively easily win a culture war. Iranian anti-American memes rack up millions of views, likes, and shares, regularly making headlines in major media outlets. They resonate with people in Russia, Europe, Asia, and around the world. 

To be fair, these memes owe much of their impact to the global unpopularity of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Everyone loves to make fun of unpopular politicians, especially when they become aggressors. 

However, just couple of months ago, few could have imagined that the leadership of the conservative Islamic Republic would start speaking the language of Gen Z online. And yet it did.

Secondly, independent opinions online are becoming increasingly rare. The internet has long ceased to be a space free from politics. Some might argue that it never was free of propaganda. However, governments are now openly venturing into areas that were once considered entertainment for teenagers. 

Rebellious comedy formats and an anti-establishment rhetoric, once considered the domain of the opposition, are now being used by government officials. Politicians are gradually mastering guerrilla marketing tactics, spreading their narratives through viral social media channels. As a result, any irreverent joke can end up becoming part of a government information campaign.