France and Poland are preparing joint military exercises simulating conventional and nuclear strikes on Russia and Belarus, according to Polish media. Moscow has claimed that NATO will practice the blockade and seizure of Russia’s Kaliningrad Region at the same time. 

The Wirtualna Polska (WP) news outlet reported on Thursday, citing sources within the military, that the nuclear drills are set to take place “soon” over the Baltic Sea and northern Poland, and are meant to develop a “Polish-French military arm… outside of NATO bureaucracy” to deter supposed Russian aggression.  

Moscow has consistently dismissed the claims as nonsense, stressing it has no intention of attacking any foreign states and accusing NATO of openly preparing for a military confrontation.  

Under the scenarios, reportedly discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier this week, Polish F‑16 jets will conduct long‑range reconnaissance and target identification, and will strike “high‑value targets in the vicinity of St. Petersburg” using conventional JASSM‑ER cruise missiles.  

French Rafale B fighters, armed with ASMP missiles carrying nuclear warheads, will also fly from France to the Budapest‑Kaliningrad line and simulate nuclear strikes on targets in Russia and Belarus.  

Responding to the reported French-Polish nuclear drills, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that they “show Europe’s aspiration for further militarization and nuclearization” and warned that such steps “do not contribute to stability and predictability on the European continent.” 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko also said on Thursday that NATO’s UK-led Joint Expedition Forces (JEF) has been practicing scenarios of a naval blockade and seizure of Russia’s Kaliningrad Region and is “deliberately pursuing a path of increasing confrontation.” 

Meanwhile, the Finnish parliament took up a bill to allow the import and storage of nuclear weapons on the country’s territory. The move would overturn legal barriers that had banned such devices in the country since the 1980s.  

Moscow has warned that any deployment of nuclear weapons in Finland would be a direct threat to Russia and would trigger retaliatory measures.

Speaking exclusively to RT on Thursday, Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, warned that Finnish lawmakers would be making a “big mistake” if they voted in favor of the bill. The arrival of foreign nuclear weapons in the Nordic country would significantly undermine its own security, according to the senior Russian MP.

The relevant military installations on Finnish soil would inevitably end up on Russian strategic forces’ priority target list, Kartapolov predicted.

The US Department of Justice has settled a lawsuit brought by Carter Page, an aide to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, over secret surveillance by the FBI amid the Russiagate investigation.

Page filed the suit in 2020, claiming he was a victim of “unlawful spying.” The ex-aide also alleged a series of irregularities by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in their 2016 and 2017 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on him on suspicion of acting on Russia’s behalf.

During the 2016 election cycle, the FBI eavesdropped on members of Trump’s campaign in a controversial probe partially based on the so-called Steele dossier – a mix of allegations about Trump’s connections to Russia, funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and compiled by a former British intelligence officer.

Page has long denied having any improper ties to Russia and was never charged with any wrongdoing. The suit was repeatedly tossed out by lower courts and eventually made it to the Supreme Court. The Trump administration informed the court that it had reached a settlement with Page over his claims against the federal government.

In recent months, the Department of Justice has been dealing with a Biden-era backlog of suits filed by Russiagate victims, as well as probing former officials involved in the 2016 anti-Trump campaign.  

Late in March, the DOJ settled a lawsuit brought by Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to Trump, who argued he was unfairly targeted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Flynn reportedly agreed to a similar payout of approximately $1.2 million, a fraction of the $50 million he had originally sought. The DOJ described the Flynn settlement as “an important step” to correct a “historic injustice” linked to Russiagate-related prosecutions.

The Second Open Dialogue ‘The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth’ will be held at the National Centre RUSSIA in Moscow from April 27 to 29.

Participants can expect lectures by international experts, pitch sessions and idea presentations by essay authors, networking and exchange of experience, as well as discussions with participants from more than 40 countries around the world.

One of the speakers and jury members will be Moroccan researcher Younes Bennane, director of the Institute for Social and Media Studies. Last year, he presented a bold idea for a transcontinental corridor linking Asia and Africa via the Northern Sea Route, with its southern link centered on the Dakhla Atlantic port.

In 2026, his project has become even more ambitious: he is presenting an initiative to create a pan-African carbon exchange that would allow the continent to control its own environmental and economic resources.

”For me, participation in the Open Dialogue is a strategic opportunity to present this research to the professional community and to show that researchers from the Global South are capable of proposing solutions to the key problems of the 21st century,” Bennane said.

”We are observing their accelerated development, but now we are talking about a qualitatively different model: African states are striving for multiple sovereignty. This is no longer the logic that underpinned Africa’s post-colonial ties with Western countries,” Bennane added.

The dialogue’s program is built around four strategic tracks, which also structure the finalists’ work: “Investment in People: human capital development, education, demography”; “Investment in Technology: artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and smart cities”; “Investment in the Environment: human-centered territorial development, ecology, and the circular economy”; and “Investment in Connectivity: the future of trade, digital currencies, infrastructure, and logistics.”

More than 300 essays from around the world devoted to ideas for the development of the global economy made the Open Dialogue longlist.

Registration for the Open Dialogue is still open, and applications can be submitted on the official website.

Political hit-jobs in Cyprus and Slovenia are just the tip of an election interference iceberg in Europe, involving a dark nexus of Israeli spies, defense chiefs, and tech companies. The threat is real, but the EU is staying silent

Targeting the EU: Israeli spy firm’s open admission

A week after Cyprus assumed the EU’s rotating presidency in January, a video appeared on social media – from a relatively obscure account named 'Emily Thompson – showing President Nikos Christodoulides’s brother-in-law, a former energy minister, and a major construction magnate discussing influence-peddling arrangements between Christodoulides and foreign investors. Across a series of surreptitious recordings, the three also allege that Christodoulides took cash bribes during his 2023 campaign, and was taking cash to block EU sanctions against Russian business figures.

Can't even describe what I just received!
🚨 BREAKING BOMBSHELL VIDEO EXPOSES CYPRUS PRESIDENT'S SHADOW CASH MACHINE!
President Nikos Christodoulides allegedly SMASHED the €1M campaıgn fınance cap vıa a sneaky family network!
Brother-in-law Charalambos Charalambous (Director of… pic.twitter.com/B9YDR1Y3T3

— Emily Thompson (@EmilyTanalyst) January 8, 2026

Cypriot authorities immediately declared that the video bears all “the characteristics of organized Russian disinformation campaigns.” Anonymous EU diplomats told Euractiv that Brussels viewed Moscow as the prime suspect, and authorities in Nicosia said that they had reached out to the US and Israel for assistance in identifying the video’s source. AP and Euronews headlined likely Russian involvement.

The release of the video undermined Christodoulides – triggering the resignations of his most senior aide and his charity director wife – and put a black mark on Cyprus’ stint at the helm of the EU.

The ‘Videogate’ scandal simmered in the background until last week, when Black Cube, an Israeli private intelligence agency, admitted that it had recorded and edited the video. The company said that it had compiled the video on behalf of a private client – not a state actor – and that it “has cooperated with the Cypriot authorities and expresses confidence that they will establish the truth and bring those responsible to justice.”

What is Black Cube?

Founded in 2011 by “veterans of Israel’s elite intelligence units,” Black Cube describes itself as “the world’s leading human intelligence firm,” capable of finding “hard evidence otherwise impossible to obtain” in support of “high-profile litigations, arbitrations, and white-collar crime cases.”

The term ‘Human Intelligence’, or ‘HUMINT’, is key here. Unlike open-source intelligence (OSINT), which relies on uncovering publicly-available information, HUMINT is gathered through covert surveillance, interrogation, and the management of sources and informers through bribery, blackmail, or intimidation. It is the kind of illegal or quasi-legal tradecraft usually practiced by state intelligence agencies.

Black Cube co-founders Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus are veterans of this underworld. Zorella served in the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) military intelligence directorate, and Yanus was a strategic planning officer in the IDF. The company’s board is a who’s who of the Israeli intelligence and defense establishment, and includes:

• Meir Dagan (now deceased), former Mossad director

• Efraim Halevy, former Mossad director

• Yohanan Danino, former Israeli Police commissioner

• Major General Giora Eiland, former Israeli National Security Council chief

• Asher Tishler, dean of the College of Management Academic Studies, and consultant to the IDF

Black Cube’s client list is long and controversial. The company was hired by US President Donald Trump’s aides in 2018 to undermine the Iran Nuclear Deal; worked for then-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, to spy on his political opponents; and spied on journalists investigating NSO Group – another Mossad-linked Israeli tech company, best known for its ‘Pegasus’ spyware.

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein hired Black Cube in 2016 to silence and discredit numerous women accusing him of sexual abuse. Weinstein was encouraged to hire Black Cube by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein who co-founded Paragon Solutions, yet another spyware and surveillance company.

Israeli spy-tech infiltration of EU?

Zorella, Eiland, and two other Black Cube employees arrived in Ljubljana in late December, where they met with former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, according to a report by the 8 March Institute, a liberal Slovenian NGO. Jansa, a conservative, was running for election against liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob at the time.

The purpose of the visit became clear in early March, when – just like in Cyprus – a series of covertly-recorded audio and video files hit social media. They showed associates of Golob’s Svoboda party discussing penny-ante corruption within the Slovenian government with undercover Black Cube employees posing as foreign investors. The officials bragged about their influence over the media, their connections to Golob, and their ability to offer access to the prime minister for a fee.

Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) held the videos up as proof of corruption within Golob’s government, and the scandal almost won him the election. Ultimately, Svoboda beat SDS by a margin of only 0.67%.

Jansa initially denied, but later admitted to, meeting with Black Cube. He has not admitted to hiring the company, however. Slovenia’s Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA) has since determined that Black Cube “intended to discredit individuals politically, which may pose a threat to national security and influence democratic elections.” SOVA added that “this interference was most likely commissioned from within Slovenia,” but it is still not completely clear by whom.

Does Black Cube work for Israel?

Nobody has accused Israel of ordering Black Cube to intervene in the Cypriot election, but in this case, Netanyahu’s interests and the interests of the Cypriot opposition overlap.

Black Cube is one of many defense and intelligence startups filled with ‘former’ Israeli spooks and security chiefs. Although these companies are private, profit-making enterprises, their leaders are often more loyal to Israel than to the bottom line, as another example from Slovenia demonstrates.

Two weeks before the election, Golob’s government chose not to join the ICJ genocide case against Israel. Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon told reporters that the government had no other option: “Many of the country’s cyber defense systems are of Israeli origin,” she explained, adding that to join the lawsuit “would jeopardize Slovenia’s national security.”

Fajon confirmed that she had been pressured into making this decision. “It is clear that these pressures exist, we are all subjected to them by superpowers, and ultimately this must be taken into account when deciding,” she said.

We welcome the Slovenian government’s responsible decision not to join South Africa’s fabricated blood libel proceedings against Israel at the ICJ

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) March 20, 2026

It is unclear whether the continuation of Black Cube’s campaign against Golob was a part of the pressure campaign, or whether Fajon was threatened by the Israeli state or the companies responsible for the country’s cyber defense systems. Regardless, the message is clear: Israeli companies are willing to interfere in EU elections, and by relying on Israeli technology, EU countries are trading sovereignty for security – neither of which they will get.

What is the EU doing about Israeli interference?

However, when it comes to the activities of Black Cube in Cyprus and Slovenia, Brussels has stayed silent.

Slovenian authorities urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to probe the company’s work in the runup to last month’s election, arguing that “such interference by a foreign private company poses a clear hybrid threat against the European Union and its Member States,” according to a letter published by Politico.

The commission has not even publicly acknowledged receiving the letter.

Yet there are far more cases of Black Cube and its ilk interfering in European elections. RT will look at these cases in depth over our 'Wired for War' series and ask, why is the EU so willing to ignore blatant meddling happening within its own borders?

A draft enforcement squad in the Western Ukrainian region of Volyn has reportedly shoved an unwilling recruit off the roof of a private home where he was apparently trying to evade capture, according to local media and eyewitness footage circulating online.

The incident is said to have taken place in the village of Strymovka outside of Lutsk. Eyewitness videos depict a Territorial Recruitment Center officer demanding that a man on the roof of a single-story building get down of his own accord. The draft enforcer then addresses the onlookers who are shooting the video, saying: “Youths, we will get all of you who are filming – I’m telling you – we’ll come over to you, too… Put down your cameras!”

The conscription officer then leans a ladder against the porch roof while telling his colleague to “get the gun” and threatening to shoot the unwilling recruit in the legs.

In a separate video, the official is seen struggling with the man on the roof for some time before eventually pushing him to the ground and tumbling off the sloping surface himself. Two other draft enforcers quickly grab the man by the arms and legs and haul him away, apparently toward their vehicle waiting outside.

The Volyn Territorial Recruitment Center has confirmed that the press gang, together with police officers, was patrolling the area when they spotted a vehicle whose driver attempted to flee after seeing the officials, as quoted by local media. The authorities claimed that the man, who climbed up to the roof, then supposedly asked the draft enforcers to rescue him due to a “fear of heights.”

According to the regional Territorial Recruitment Center, the man ended up admitting to being a draft dodger and was subjected to a medical checkup in short order.

The practice, commonly known as “busification,” involves military-age men being captured on the streets, at their places of work, as well as in residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will and reportedly dispatched to the front almost immediately, after only cursory training.

AI developer Anthropic insists it has no backdoor or “kill switch” for its Claude AI once it is deployed in classified Pentagon military networks, according to a new court filing.

The US military and the tech firm found themselves embroiled in a policy dispute earlier this year, with the Pentagon insisting on using the system for “all lawful military purposes,” while the company stood by its AI safeguards related to mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons use.

The Pentagon ultimately ended its partnership with Anthropic, designating the tech firm a “supply chain risk,” a rare label typically reserved for entities linked to Washington’s foreign adversaries. The designation bars the company from not only working with the US government directly but also any other contractors from using its products as well.

In a new filing to a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, Anthropic disputed the key US administration claim that the firm still retained some degree of control over Claude AI once it was deployed to classified systems and effectively granted itself an “operational veto.” The firm said it has “no back door or remote kill switch,” while its “personnel cannot log into a department system to modify or disable a running model.”

Anthropic was formally designated a “supply-chain risk to national security” on February 27, while US President Donald Trump accused it of being run by “leftwing nut jobs.” The company challenged the label in court, with the legal battle yielding thus far mixed results.

Earlier this month, the DC court rejected Anthropic’s request for a pause on the supply chain risk designation. In a parallel case in California, however, a court sided with the company, temporarily blocking the administration decision. With the split decision, Anthropic remains barred from working with the Pentagon but can still continue its partnerships with other agencies while the legal battle goes on.

The Seychelles is facing a sharp drop in tourist arrivals amid the war in the Middle East, but hopes to offset losses with an increase in Russian visitors, President Patrick Herminie has said.

Speaking to RT, the head of the African state noted that the island nation has seen “the drastic reduction in tourism arrivals by 40%,” a downturn that is hitting the economy hard, as “tourism is the mainstay of our [Seychelles’] economy.”

He linked the decline to disruptions in regional air travel following the start of the conflict triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. Multiple countries across the Middle East have imposed airspace restrictions, forcing airlines to reroute or cancel flights, while airports in the region were also affected.

The disruption has been compounded by rising aviation fuel costs, driven by instability around the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil route. Amid a deepening fuel crisis, several African carriers have raised fares or introduced surcharges, including Kenya Airways, Air Mauritius, Ethiopian Airlines, and RwandAir.

At the same time, the president pointed to Russia as a growing and stable source of tourists, noting that Russians already account for more than 22% of arrivals.

The government is now preparing additional steps to boost this trend, including plans to strengthen its diplomatic presence. “We’ll be setting up an embassy here with a tourism ambassador so that we can know on hand what exactly must we do… to get more tourists from Russia to Seychelles,” he stated.

Moscow has also signaled an interest in expanding tourism ties. During a meeting with Herminie on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there is potential to further increase tourist flows from Russia to the Seychelles.

Following the talks, Russian authorities indicated they are ready to consider new flight connections, including a possible route linking Dar es Salaam, Victoria, and Moscow.

Watch the full interview.

Veteran German politician Sahra Wagenknecht has lashed out at Chancellor Friedrich Merz after a €90 billion ($106 billion) emergency loan to Ukraine, which Berlin had been actively promoting, was approved by the bloc.

On Thursday, the European Council announced that the interest-free loan has been finalized and that it will begin disbursements “as soon as possible” in the second quarter of 2026. A day earlier, EU ambassadors agreed the transfer of funds to Vladimir Zelensky’s government, just hours after Kiev resumed the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline.

The financial package had previously been vetoed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who rejected Ukrainian explanations about the pipeline being damaged in a Russian strike and insisted that Kiev halted oil supplies in January deliberately to influence the outcome of the election in Hungary. Orban’s Fidesz party ended up losing the April 12 vote to the pro-EU Tisza party led by Peter Magyar.

“Merz, who bears significant responsibility for this madness, has turned his own citizens into cash cows for Ukraine. A chancellor could hardly fail more miserably,” the politician, who served in the Bundestag for more than 15 years and founded the Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht party, wrote.

Merz repeatedly called for the loan to be swiftly issued to Ukraine to serve as “a signal from Europe to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”

Germany, which is the EU’s largest economy, has already provided almost €44 billion ($52 billion) to Kiev since the escalation between Russia and Ukraine in 2022. According to the current budget, Berlin’s aid to Zelensky’s government will be increased to around €11.5 billion ($13.7 billion) this year.

The approval of the package by Brussels is “another step towards the complete loss of sovereignty by the European capitals,” Shoigu stated.

The number of billionaires worldwide is expected to climb to nearly 4,000 by 2031, rising about 25% from current levels as the pace of wealth creation accelerates, according to global property consultancy Knight Frank.

There are currently 3,110 billionaires globally, and the figure is projected to rise by about 25% to 3,915 over the next five years, the firm said in a report on Thursday.

Liam Bailey, the estate agent’s head of research, said wealth among billionaires and millionaires had been “supercharged” by profits in the technology sector, particularly artificial intelligence.

“The ability to scale a business has never been higher,” he said. “That has fed into the ability to make big fortunes quickly, supercharged by tech and AI.”

Saudi Arabia is expected to see the fastest growth in billionaire numbers, more than doubling to 65 by 2031 from 23 in this year, the research found. Poland’s billionaire population is also forecast to more than double to 29 from 13, while Sweden is set to see an 81% increase to 58 from 32.

Russia also remains a major center of billionaire wealth, with Forbes counting 155 billionaires in 2026, up from the previous year, and their combined fortunes rising to a record of roughly $696 billion, driven largely by gains in commodities and metals.

The number of multimillionaires is also rising rapidly, with those worth at least $30 million increasing to 713,626 globally from 551,435 in 2021 – an addition of more than 160,000 people in five years, Knight Frank said, highlighting the strong pace of wealth creation led by the US and driven in part by growth in China and India.

The outlook comes amid widening global inequality, with the World Inequality Report 2026 showing that fewer than 60,000 people – about 0.001% of the world’s population – hold three times as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity.

Russian forces deployed in Mali have rescued two employees of a Russian geological exploration company who had been held hostage in the Sahel for nearly two years, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Tuesday.

According to an official statement, the freed captives – Russian citizen Oleg Greta, 64, and Ukrainian national Yuri Yurov, 56 – were abducted by the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), in 2024 in Niger’s Tillaberi region.

“As a result of a special operation conducted by the Africa Corps in the Republic of Mali, employees of a Russian geological exploration company captured in July 2024 in Niger by the terrorist group… were freed,” the Russian Defense Ministry wrote in its Telegram channel.

The ministry said both men were found in poor health and suffering from severe physical exhaustion following their detention. After initial medical checks at an Africa Corps facility, they are to be flown to Moscow for further treatment and rehabilitation, it added.

The African Corps – a unit of the Russian Defense Ministry – replaced the private military company (PMC) Wagner Group, which officially withdrew from the Sahel in June 2025.

Ukraine has also faced accusations of providing intelligence and supplying kamikaze drones to the terrorist groups behind the deadly insurgency in Mali.

Earlier this month, Abdul Niang, a senior Malian media executive, told RT that defense cooperation with Russia has helped Mali and its AES allies strengthen their armed forces, reclaim strategic ground, and intensify operations against jihadist groups.

A French soldier who was gravely wounded in an attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon last week has succumbed to his wounds, President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Another French peacekeeper was killed in the incident and two more were injured; their patrol came under small-arms fire in the village of Ghandourieh in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In a post on X on Wednesday, Macron said that one of the wounded troops, Chief Corporal Anicet Girardin, who had been evacuated to France a day earlier, had died.

The president expressed his condolences to Girardin’s relatives and to the families of the other servicemen injured in the attack, which he blamed on the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said in a statement on Saturday that it “denies any connection to the incident,” calling for “caution in making judgments and assigning responsibilities” pending an investigation by the Lebanese military.

More than 2,300 people have been killed and over 1.2 million have been displaced due to the fighting on the ground and IDF airstrikes in Lebanon, according to the authorities in Beirut.

A total of three French troops have lost their lives in the current Middle East conflict. One soldier also died and several more were wounded in a drone strike on a French-Kurdish base in northern Iraq in mid-March.

At the moment, some 700 French troops are deployed in Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL, which includes 7,505 peacekeepers from 47 nations.

What makes a prosperous nation?

The West has one answer: money.

For decades, Western institutions have measured things like GDP, sustainability and ‘human development’ to show which countries are doing well in the world.

But do these things indicate what is truly important for humans as a species and a society? Heavily skewed towards individual consumerism, they downplay tradition and paint the growth of human population as a problem – to the point where family is seen as an atavism and ‘child-free’ appears to be the lifestyle of the progressive future.

Such views are very clearly filtered through the prism of the modern liberal West – so much so that they serve as soft-power tool for promoting Western ‘values’. If your country scores high on a Western index of well-being or development, it doesn’t really mean it’s ‘doing well’ by itself – it simply means it is aligned with a certain world-view.

The emerging new multipolar world order needs new benchmarks, which is why RT is introducing the Social Well-Being Index – a new and unique way to measure the status of nations, which takes into account the most fundamental and objective criteria of societal health to create a deeper understanding of global development trends.

Why we need the Social Well-Being Index

In recent years, the topic of the sustainability of nations has emerged from the oblivion into which it had sunk decades earlier, during the era of the confrontation between capitalist and socialist world systems. While Marxism-Leninism didn’t view nations as actors in historical processes, the main alternative to the communist ideology of the USSR and China was Western liberal universalism that emerged in the latter half of the 20th century.

Western capitalist elites won the ideological battle by presenting mass consumption as the solution to social well-being. Emerging victorious, the West dictated the terms of globalization. However, it soon became clear that globalized capitalism, like the global communist movement before it, did not ensure national sovereignty or the sustainability of nations, since this limited the power and profits of the globalist elite.

The influence of this elite is maintained not only through the dollar and NATO’s military strength but also through intellectual dominance—i.e., the promotion of “correct” concepts when it comes to the challenges and goals of human development. This led to the establishment of a binary development paradigm (“Sustainable Development” + “Human Development”), which imposed a universal “environmental” and “humanitarian” agenda on all countries while largely ignoring the sustainability of nations.

The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN shortly after the collapse of the USSR and the Soviet bloc stemmed from the Limits to Growth report published by the Club of Rome. Along with ecological and social responsibility, it promoted the need to reduce the human footprint, presenting population growth in the Global South as a catastrophic “demographic explosion” and recommending population control as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Simultaneously, “green investing” mechanisms were employed to restrain developing nations and reinforce the dominance of the post-industrial West.

In turn, the Oxford concept interpreted human development as individual well-being and freedom of self-expression. Grounded in this concept, the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) which measures income, life expectancy, and education levels, highlights the inverse correlation between these “human development” indicators and birth rates in different countries. This reinforced the perception that large populations are underdeveloped and hinder both the sustainable progress of humanity and the “human development” of individuals in each country. There was only one notable exception, which we will discuss later.

At first glance, it looks like the HDI evaluates countries, but in fact it evaluates and compares average individuals rather than nations, ethnic groups, or communities within which the Homo sapiens has always existed. This approach implies that human society is merely a collection of rational individuals, and that individuals are primary and society is secondary. By turning individualism into a methodological principle, the HDI not only showcases the West’s economic leadership but also emphasizes its “humanitarian” superiority, thus becoming another tool of global Westernization.

The Western idea of globalization has gained considerable traction beyond the “golden billion” partly because it claimed to promote the spread of Western models of prosperity and individual self-expression. The proliferation and maximization of what has come to be regarded as human well-being and development have led to the following results.

In the West and among those nations that embraced Western individualistic values and consumerist ideals, rising living standards and education levels resulted in a dramatic decline in birth rates, leading to the shrinking and aging of the population. These trends have become so pronounced that they now appear irreversible.

Against the overall demographic decline of the modern world, the country that particularly stands out is the US. It is now the third largest world country in terms of population which keeps growing because of immigration. Apparently, the US isn’t eager to get a taste of its own medicine and implement population control.

However, America’s once-mighty “melting pot” is struggling to cope with the influx of immigrants, and the mass migration of poor, diverse peoples poses a major challenge for the country. In Western Europe, the situation is even more critical – immigrants from different cultures, who were supposed to fill gaps in the labor market left by the declining native population, have only exacerbated the systemic crisis.

This modern “migration period” is intensifying the internal crisis of the Western civilization, which, without any wars or disasters, has encountered unprecedented desocialization. We are witnessing the dismantling of nearly all established social structures, including the family unit, which has long served as the foundation of human society.

Meanwhile, the commonly accepted “human development” and “quality of life” indexes, utilized by international organizations and national governments, fail to recognize these alarming trends and either consciously or unconsciously overlook the fundamental paradox of modern human development: that the cult of maximizing individual well-being and self-expression is undermining human society.

The humanitarian paradox seen above appears to be universal, affecting nearly all countries in today’s globalized world, and particularly the most “advanced” nations, which form the “core” of the modern world system. To illustrate this point, let’s consider some of the wealthiest and most developed Western countries – specifically the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and Australia – which top the UN Human Development Index. Now, let’s take a closer look at the statistics on murder rates (number of homicides per 100,000 people) and birth rates (total fertility rate) in these supposedly prosperous societies.

The commonly held belief that highly developed Western countries represent a model of social well-being does not reflect reality. The “golden billion” is grappling with deep issues that can no longer be masked by high living standards; in fact, these problems often emerge as the darker side of consumerism. This shows the heavy price paid for prioritizing individual comfort and hedonism as the ultimate goals of human existence. Meanwhile, desocialization trends which are emerging in the West, such as the dissolution of the family and the shift towards child-free lifestyles, are presented as the pinnacle of progress. These ideas are spread through globalization and can be even more destructive in nations undergoing “modernization” than in the West.

In this context, countries that strive to build a new world order urgently need an effective strategic framework to assess the genuine well-being of nations for the purpose of planning and evaluating sustainable development.

The Social Well-Being Index is a tool for measuring and comparing the well-being of historically established human communities: localities, peoples, and nations. In defining human well-being and measuring it, we imply the following fundamental principles.

The highest good for any person is life itself. This fact is universally acknowledged by all religions, civilizations, and cultures. Thus, human well-being as such first of all supposes procreation, or the production of new life. Consequently, any indicators of human development that fail to consider this aspect cannot accurately assess human well-being.

While the production of offspring is an essential part of human well-being, it is not sufficient in itself. Human existence from birth until death inevitably involves suffering. If life itself is the supreme good, then other things that ensure well-being are essentially means of alleviating suffering. Therefore, human well-being implies not only producing new life, but also organizing life in such a way as to help alleviate suffering. What does this mean? To reduce human suffering means to minimize life threatening situations and eliminate extreme forms of human oppression.

It is important to emphasize that procreation and the organization of human life are socially conditioned, which leads us back to Aristotle’s classical definition of humans as social beings. Consequently, human well-being can only be understood in social terms. When the concepts of “social well-being” and “human well-being” are not used interchangeably, the former serves as a broader category that characterizes humanity as Homo sapiens existing within historically and geographically defined societies.

The methodology of the Social Well-Being Index can be summarized in the following key points:

The production of offspring. Biologically, viability is a vital condition for the sustainable development of human communities, and this is ensured by the reproduction of the population. The key indicator of this is the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) – the average number of children born to a woman throughout her lifetime. This must be at least 2.1 to avoid depopulation.

For communities that do not face a danger of overpopulation or a depletion of resources, an optimal TFR is around 3.0. This figure indicates balanced population growth, with the next generation one and a half times larger than the previous one. A stable economy can support overall prosperity at such a demographic growth rate. A TFR above 4.0 is currently typical for the poorest countries of Africa, where economic growth cannot keep up with demographic expansion.

For Russia, given its demographic, geo-economic, and geopolitical realities, a TFR of 3.0 indicates sustainable development, whereas a TFR of 2.1 or lower poses an existential threat.

A TFR index below 2.1 not only signals a declining population but also shows that the idea of the family unit – which naturally produces new life and serves as the fundamental structure of society which teaches the basics of moral social behavior – is in danger. Therefore, the preservation of the family is essential for the reproduction of human society – both in terms of population and civilization. An important indicator of the condition of the family structure in society is the ratio of households comprised of couples with children.

The lack of relevant statistics in many countries prevents us from using the ‘family’ indicator when calculating the global Social Well-Being Index. However, given the significance of assessing the state of the family – especially for nations undergoing a “second demographic transition” – we will conduct ongoing monitoring and use this indicator to compare the situation in different countries and in the regions of Russia where such data is available.

The preservation of life. In order to minimize threats to human life, the natural right to life must be ingrained in the public consciousness, and certain institutional guarantees must ensure this right. This includes accessible and effective healthcare, public safety, and the promotion of a healthy, social lifestyle. These conditions create a culture of life preservation, which can be measured by means of three indicators: low infant mortality rates, high average life expectancy, and low mortality rates from external causes.

Infant mortality rates reflect not only the effectiveness of the healthcare system but also cultural standards, lifestyle choices, and parental responsibility. The key statistical measure is the infant mortality rate (IMR) – the number of deaths of children under the age of one per 1,000 live births.

A crucial indicator of a country’s well-being is the longevity of its residents. Life expectancy at birth serves as the primary measure for comparing countries and calculating the Social Well-Being Index. In many highly developed and prosperous nations, average life expectancy remains stable at 85 years, which apparently represents the maximum human life expectancy at this point.

Another crucial indicator of a culture of life preservation is the mortality rate from external causes (MEC). This refers to premature deaths resulting from socially determined factors such as homicides, suicides, traffic accidents, poisonings, and various infrastructure and technical accidents. These causes, along with the overall rate of premature mortality, reflect the safety of the social environment which is determined by the effectiveness of governmental institutions, social discipline, mutual respect, and solidarity. Conversely, the lack of such safety is driven by social alienation and hostility.

Regrettably, many countries don’t have adequate MEC statistics. Therefore, to calculate the Social Well-Being Index we focused on the homicide rate per 100,000 people. Homicide is one of the most severe crimes, and the number of premeditated murders is a major indicator of societal distress.

Minimization of social oppression. Numerous factors contribute to social oppression, but two stand out in particular: stagnant poverty and the lack of access to education. Stagnant poverty leads to the degradation of human dignity and social disintegration. Meanwhile, limited educational opportunities in childhood exacerbate inequality, entrench social segregation, and prevent children from getting equal and fair opportunities in life. To minimize social oppression, stagnant poverty must be eliminated and children must have free access to education.

In our view, addressing poverty to preserve social unity and health requires not only the eradication of extreme poverty that leaves individuals on the brink of survival but even more importantly, the reduction of the widening gap between the rich and the poor, which serves as a social catalyst for oppression. In order to determine and compare income inequality, which largely determines social unity, we employed the Decile Dispersion Ratio which presents the ratio of the average income of the richest 10 percent of the population by that of the poorest 10 percent.

Children’s education can be assessed through statistics on the enrollment of children in secondary education institutions, derived from national censuses and surveys that reflect the percentage of individuals who have completed secondary education or higher. While this data is far from perfect, it shows education levels in different countries and the corresponding trends.

The Social Well-Being Index has been calculated using the following methodology. First, individual indexes for each country were calculated for each of the following: Birth Rate (BR), Infant Mortality (IMR), Life Expectancy (LE), Homicide Rate (HR), Income Inequality (II), and Children’s Education (CE).

Each index was calculated using the formula: (N-min)/(max-min)*100, where N represents the indicator’s value, max is the upper threshold, and min is the lower threshold. The upper threshold indicates the goal that society should strive for to achieve well-being, while the lower threshold serves as a point of reference that should be avoided as social development progresses.

Threshold values are typically determined based on the maximum and minimum values of each country’s or region’s respective indicators in the current era of human development (i.e. since the start of the 21st century). In cases where negative indicators are extremely high and difficult to verify (such as homicide rates or the income ratios between the top and bottom deciles of the population), the lower threshold is set at double the global average.

Thus, if a country’s or region’s indicator is close to or equal to the minimum, its index will approach zero; conversely, if it is near the maximum, the index will be close to 100. Similar to the methodology used for calculating the Human Development Index, if a country or region exceeds the upper threshold, its social well-being index will still be 100.

Then, the overall Social Well-Being Index (SWB Index) is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the six individual indicators:

SWB Index = (BR Index + IMR Index + LE Index + HR Index + II Index + CE Index) / 6

The Social Well-Being Index has been calculated for 146 countries for which relevant statistics are available.

At first glance, the ranking of countries based on the Social Well-Being Index might come as a surprise. It significantly differs from GDP per capita rankings, which reflect the material prosperity of nations, and from the Human Development Index (HDI) which considers not only income but also longevity and education levels.

Interestingly, there is no major distinction between the GDP per capita rankings and the HDI rankings. The most notable difference between GDP and “human development” occurs only in certain non-Western countries like Qatar, Kuwait, and Brunei, where wealth is heavily dependent on hydrocarbon extraction. Other top performers in the GDP per capita rating tend to score well on the HDI too, and vice versa. This supposedly reinforces the notion that Western and Westernized nations consistently emerge as global leaders in development – a point that proponents of the HDI set out to prove in the first place

The Social Well-Being Index, which takes into account the production of offspring and ranks nations based on their success in preserving human life, providing children with a complete secondary education, and reducing income inequality, paints a very different picture of the world – one that gives a richer, more nuanced and dynamic idea of global development.

To take a more detailed look at RT's Social Well-Being Index, complete with all the statistics, analytical articles, and real-time monitoring of relevant trends from around the world, check out the dedicated website, available in English and in Russian. You can also find a pinned link to it at the very top of our website's front page.

The European Union has formally approved a €90 billion ($105 billion) emergency loan for Ukraine for 2026–2027 and adopted its 20th package of sanctions against Russia, the bloc’s presidency said on Thursday.

European Council President Antonio Costa said in a statement that increasing pressure on Russia was part of a strategy “to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

EU ambassadors approved the loan and sanctions package on Wednesday after Hungary lifted its veto following the election win of pro-EU politician Peter Magyar, who is slated to soon take over the government.

The controversial loan to Kiev was the focus of a months-long standoff with Hungary. Viktor Orban, the outgoing head of the Hungarian government, froze the disbursement of Ukrainian funding in retaliation for the halting of oil supplies via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline in January. He called it a politically motivated ploy aimed at supporting Magyar’s party in the April 12 parliamentary election. 

Cypriot Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said the disbursement of the funds would start “as soon as possible.” 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU “will move to swiftly implement on both fronts,” stepping up pressure on Russia and ramping up aid for Kiev. 

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X that the bloc would provide Ukraine “what it needs to hold its ground.”

The approval came after Ukraine restarted the flow of Russian oil to the EU via the Druzhba pipeline under pressure from Hungary, Slovakia – heavily reliant on Russian energy – and its EU backers. Kiev had halted supplies, claiming the infrastructure was damaged by Russian strikes, an accusation Moscow dismissed as “lies.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned the funds could be misused by corrupt Ukrainian officials, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the EU was “digging into the pockets of its own taxpayers” to prolong the conflict.

Ukrainians are increasingly afraid to engage law enforcement because they believe doing so could result in themselves or others being drafted, according to the country’s police chief.

The National Police, a civilian force, is tasked with assisting military authorities in enforcing mandatory conscription, a policy that has generated widespread resentment due to incidents of violence and alleged corruption.

“People lately are questioning whether they should call the police,” Ivan Vygovsky said in an interview with RBK Ukraine published Thursday. “They think: ‘If I call this in, the police will come and take away me, my family or someone else.”

Ukraine aims to mobilize roughly 30,000 recruits per month to sustain its numbers at the front. Hundreds of videos circulating online show tension and confrontations between the Defense Ministry’s press gangs and members of the public, with officials routinely resorting to force against their uncooperative targets and bystanders.

Police image tarnished too

Two recent high-profile incidents have tarnished the force’s reputation. In one case, draft officials were accused of a kidnapping scheme aided by police informants. In another, police officers were filmed fleeing the scene of a shooting, leaving civilians unprotected.

The alleged kidnapping ring was busted in Odessa on Tuesday. According to investigators, military officials working at a local conscription office targeted affluent men, threatening them with forced mobilization unless they paid bribes. Media reports said several police officers had supplied tips about people with expensive property or vehicles.

Public anger intensified after footage showed the officers running away as a civilian fell on the ground after apparently being struck by a bullet. The press contrasted their actions to those of one of the victims, a street cleaner, who died while shielding a child from gunfire.

Rebranding instead of solutions

The Defense Ministry is considering reforms to the conscription system, including rebranding draft centers and expanding police involvement in enforcement.

Lawmaker Roman Kostenko has criticized the proposal, arguing it is designed to shift public anger with the draft onto the civilian authorities without addressing the underlying problem.

Kiev argues harsh methods are lamentable but necessary to supply reinforcements to frontline units. Vladimir Zelensky’s government has said it intends to continue fighting despite the cost, claiming that no compromise with Moscow can be reached.

Landlords across London and the south-east of the UK have been illegally advertising properties exclusively for Muslim tenants, in an apparent breach of Britain’s equality laws, according to an investigation published by The Telegraph on Wednesday.

Listings on Facebook and Telegram posted across multiple groups were found to include phrases such as “Muslim only,” “only for Muslims,” “for 2 Muslim boys or 2 Muslim girls,” and “suitable for Punjabi boy.” Some adverts also demanded Punjabi or Gujarati speakers, or tenants from specific Indian regions.

As noted by the outlet, the postings appear to violate the UK’s Equality Act 2010, which explicitly prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, race, and other protected characteristics. Landlords can face civil action and fines of up to £7,000 ($9,445) for discriminatory listings. 

The Telegraph found the adverts posted across multiple parts of the British capital. The outlet contacted several landlords, all of whom refused outright to consider non-Muslim tenants. One man, advertising a room for £850 ($1,150) a month, told reporters to “go away.”

A government spokesperson told The Express that any discrimination is “illegal, including in the rental sector,” and that landlords violating the law should face consequences. However, the authorities have yet to announce a concrete response to the scandal.

The controversy comes amid a wider demographic shift in the UK, with Muslims now numbering approximately 4 million, or about 6.5% of the total population. In parts of London, the figure exceeds 40%. 

The name Muhammad has also been the most popular boys’ name in England and Wales for two consecutive years, with over 5,000 boys given that name in 2024 alone, according to the Office for National Statistics.

At least 20 people have been killed in coordinated attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants in two remote communities in northeastern Nigeria, local officials have reported.

The violence marks the latest in a series of brutal assaults in the ongoing security crisis that has plagued Africa’s most populous nation. Earlier this month, the US warned its citizens to avoid Nigeria, pointing to the growing danger.

Gunmen riding motorbikes raided the villages of Pubagu in Borno and Mayo-Ladde in Adamawa, opening fire on residents and overpowering local vigilantes, Mada Saidu, chairman of Askira-Uba local government area, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mada confirmed that 11 people, including four vigilantes, were killed in Pubagu, and two others were injured. The insurgents also set fire to a church, along with several homes and properties. In Mayo-Ladde, which lies on the border between Borno and Adamawa states, nine people were killed, he added.

“Pubagu is one of the locations in our council area that had never suffered such an attack until yesterday,” Mada said after the burial of the victims on Wednesday, AP reported.

On April 9, the two armed groups targeted the headquarters of the 29 Task Force Brigade in Benisheikh, located in Borno State, killing an army general and several soldiers.

Last October, the administration of US President Donald Trump placed Nigeria on its list of “Countries of Particular Concern” amid allegations of “genocide” against Christians in the country. Abuja has denied claims that they are the only group being targeted, saying the violence affects Nigerians of all faiths.

US President Donald Trump has shared a letter deriding India and China as “hellholes.”

Trump reposted the letter from former radio host Michael Savage’s podcast Savage Nation on Truth Social on Wednesday.

The post was a criticism of the US birthright citizenship laws, which referred to India, China and other countries as “hellholes” while fiercely advocating changes to American policy regarding nationality.

“A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” the letter said.

It charged that these immigrants have done more damage to “this nation than all the mafia families put together.”

It added, “In my un-humble opinion. Gangsters with laptops. They’ve robbed us, blind, treated us like second-class citizens, let the turd world triumph, stepped on our flag, et cetera.”

The letter also said that “white men need not apply” for jobs, and alleged unsubstantiated bias in internal hiring mechanisms, claiming they are “run by Indians and Chinese.”

The order directs federal agencies to deny citizenship to children born on US soil if neither parent is an American citizen or a lawful permanent resident.

The controversial repost by Trump comes a day after he falsely claimed in an interview with CNBC that “no country in the world” offers birthright citizenship other than the US.

Canada and most Latin American nations provide birthright citizenship.

The US president recently courted controversy after posting and later deleting an AI‑generated image of himself depicted as Jesus on Truth Social, triggering a worldwide backlash.

Earlier this month, he threatened to destroy Iranian civilization overnight in response to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, but later backed down.

Iran’s seizure of two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz was not a ceasefire violation because they were not US or Israeli-owned, the White House has said, after the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released footage of the operation.

The seizures were reported between April 22 and April 23 in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint for global trade and a central flashpoint in the confrontation between Tehran and Washington since US-Israeli strikes on Iran began in late February.

The IRGC footage shows armed personnel boarding from fast boats and taking control of the vessels. The IRGC Navy said the ships were targeted over alleged “maritime violations” and escorted to Iranian waters, according to media reports.

Technomar, the management company of the Liberian-registered and India-bound Epaminondas, confirmed the vessel was “approached and fired upon by a manned gunboat” off the coast of Oman, adding that its bridge sustained “extremely wide damage.” The company said the ship’s 21 Ukrainian and Filipino crew members were safe.

A second cargo ship, the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca, came under fire hours later and was forced to stop, though no damage or injuries were reported. Panama condemned what it called the “illegal seizure,” calling it a serious threat to maritime security.

While the incident is widely seen as retaliation for US pressure and a naval blockade of Iranian ports, Washington said the seizures did not breach the ceasefire.

.@PressSec: "Iran has gone from having the most lethal navy in the Middle East to now acting like a bunch of pirates. They don’t have control over the Strait—this is piracy that we are seeing on display, and the naval blockade that the United States has imposed continues to be… pic.twitter.com/yCnQGfIe2c

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 22, 2026

“These were not US or Israeli ships, these were two international vessels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News, adding that the naval blockade that the US has imposed “continues to be incredibly effective.”

The US had earlier seized two Iranian vessels ahead of ceasefire talks scheduled to take place in Pakistan.

The conflict has already driven up global energy and food costs, with Brent crude climbing above $100 a barrel, roughly 35% higher than pre-conflict levels, adding to inflationary pressures worldwide.

Italian officials have rebuked a US proposal for their national football team to replace Iran at the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

Italy lost the chance to participate at the World Cup for a third successive time after a humiliating penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a playoff last month, triggering widespread backlash at home and leading to the resignation of the head of the national football federation.

However, an American proposal to give Italy Iran’s spot at the World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico this summer, sparked indignation in Rome.

The proposal is impossible and inappropriate, Sports Minister Andrea Abodi told the Italian news agency La Press, stressing: “You qualify on the pitch.” Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti called the idea “shameful.”

The possibility of a swap was raised by Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-American who heads the Office of Global Partnerships at the US State Department, and who described his lobbying efforts to the Financial Times and Corriere della Sera. Zampolli argues that “Italy, not Iran, should go to the World Cup,” and says he would be disappointed if he couldn’t see Italian players “on home soil.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who is Swiss-born and also holds Italian citizenship, has maintained that Iran is expected to compete in the US. The international association referred to his remarks, when asked about Zampolli’s pitch.

The media described the envoy’s lobbying as an attempt to repair newly strained US-Italy relations. Tensions escalated after President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo and later Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who rebuked him for targeting the pontiff.

According to Corriere della Sera, securing the participation of Italy – who are four-time World Cup winners – could also carry domestic political benefits for Trump, potentially boosting Republican support among Italian-American voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Separately, media reports last week stated that Trump’s special envoy for combating anti-Semitism, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, warned European officials they could face travel restrictions during the World Cup in retaliation for alleged lapses in addressing the issue.

The number of immigrants in the European Union reached a record 64.2 million in 2025, a study by the Berlin-based Center for Research and Analysis on Migration (RFBerlin) shows, citing Eurostat and UN data. Of this total, approximately 46.7 million were born outside the EU.

The total rose by more than 2 million year-on-year and from about 40 million in 2010.

Germany remains the bloc’s largest host of foreign-born residents at nearly 18 million, while Spain has recorded the fastest recent growth, adding about 700,000 people – roughly one-third of last year’s EU-wide increase.

The study highlights an uneven distribution of arrivals, with Germany and Spain accounting for nearly half of the increase, while smaller states such as Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg face the highest inflows relative to population size.

At the same time, official data points to mounting strain on living conditions. Eurostat said 8.2% of EU residents spent at least 40% of their disposable income on housing in 2024, while 16.9% lived in overcrowded households and 9.2% could not afford to adequately heat their homes. Among people aged 15 to 29, nearly one in ten faced a housing cost burden.

European Council President Antonio Costa said earlier this year that housing affordability is “at the core of people’s disillusionment with democratic institutions.” EU-level spending on migration and border management accounts for roughly 2% of the bloc’s seven-year budget, with most costs borne by national governments.

The pressures have fueled rising anti-immigration sentiment across several EU countries, where migration has become a central political issue as concerns over housing shortages, public services and the cost of living continue to grow.

Western Europe continues to back Ukraine’s war effort against Russia while hosting around 4.35 million Ukrainian nationals across the EU, with Germany the largest host at over a million.

Berlin and Kiev are now coordinating efforts to return military-age Ukrainian men residing in Germany to their home country, as losses mount at the front and Germans become more and more reluctant to host them.

Meanwhile, the EU countries are increasing defense spending via Brussels’ recently launched €800 billion ReArm Europe plan, citing the danger of Russian aggression. Moscow has dismissed the threat narrative as “nonsense,” accusing Western governments of deflecting from domestic issues.

India has agreed to import urea at double the prices it paid earlier this year, amid the supply disruption caused by the Middle East conflict, Reuters has reported.

New Delhi is set to import a record 2.5 million metric tons of the nitrogen-based fertilizer in a single tender, the news outlet reported on Wednesday, citing government sources.

Indian Potash Ltd. has agreed to buy 1.5 million tons of urea at $935 per ton for delivery on the west coast, and an additional ⁠1 million tons at $959 per ton for delivery on the east coast, according to the report.

Before the US and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February, India’s Rashtriya ⁠Chemicals and Fertilizers received bids at $508 per ton for west coast delivery and $512 per ton for east coast delivery, Reuters reported.

The latest imports would account for nearly a quarter of its annual imports of about 10 million tons in 2025.

India is the world’s biggest urea importer, and its urea production depends heavily on natural gas, mainly imported from the Middle East. The development also comes amid a shortage of liquefied natural gas, a key feedstock for urea production.

Supply disruptions caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have resulted in many domestic fertilizer facilities being forced to halt production.

Urea prices have risen globally since the Middle East war began on February 28, as about 45% of the supplies move through the Persian Gulf.

Higher import costs are likely to push up India’s fertilizer subsidy bill, as the federal government compensates fertilizer ⁠companies for selling crop nutrients to farmers at lower prices.

Indian companies import fertilizers individually but negotiate collectively with suppliers.

As New Delhi secures supplies, other nations are also expected to scramble for fertilizers, pushing up prices further and straining supplies globally.

The US is not setting any deadlines for concluding the war against Iran, President Donald Trump has said.

The remarks contrast with Trump’s earlier claim, made shortly after the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, that the fighting would last “four to five weeks.” He also repeatedly said over the past month that the war would be over “very soon.”

The US president told Fox News on Wednesday that there is “no time frame” and no rush to end the conflict.

“People say I want to get it over because of the midterms, not true,” Trump said.

Trump’s approval rating on the economy has fallen to a new low of 30% as energy shortages caused by the Iran war continue to drive prices higher, according to an AP-NORC poll published earlier this week.

The announcement came just hours before the expiration of the two-week truce between the sides. Earlier the same day, Iran opted out of talks with an American delegation in Pakistan, arguing that any discussions are pointless as long as Washington’s “bullying” continues.

Trump told Fox News that there is “no time pressure” when it comes to the ceasefire or setting a new date for talks with Tehran. His goal is to “get a good deal for the American people,” he added.

”The blockade scares [Iran] even more than the bombing,” Trump claimed. “They’ve been bombed for years but the blockade they hate.”

The president also called Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghachi “a smart man,” who will “be there when talks get underway again.”

Iran has said it is prepared to fight the US “until complete victory.” Tehran’s envoy to Beijing, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, told RT India earlier this week that there will be no talks until the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for some 25% of global crude oil trade, continues. What the Americans expect from Iran “is not dialogue, but surrender,” and that is not going to happen, he insisted.

Lebanon has accused Israel of war crimes after a reporter for a Lebanese newspaper was killed on Wednesday in a strike on a house in the southern village of al-Tiri, where she had taken cover after an earlier attack targeted the vehicle she was traveling in.

Amal Khalil, a reporter for Al-Akhbar, was killed in the strike and her colleague Zeinab Faraj seriously wounded. Rescuers were initially unable to recover Khalil’s body because Israeli fire forced them to halt their efforts for hours.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the attack amounted to a war crime, arguing that Israel’s strikes on journalists could no longer be dismissed as isolated incidents.

“Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitute clearly defined war crimes,” he wrote in a post on X. “Lebanon will spare no effort in pursuing these crimes before the competent international forums.”

The Israel Defense Forces denied targeting journalists and said the incident was under review. The IDF claimed that people in the vehicles posed an “imminent threat” to Israeli troops after crossing the unilaterally declared Forward Defense Line in the occupied part of Lebanon.

Al-Manar TV journalist Hussain Hamood was killed in an Israeli strike on Nabatieh on March 25, while Lebanese radio presenter Ghada Dayekh was killed when an Israeli strike hit her home in Tyre on April 8.

Khalil’s death brought the number of journalists killed in Lebanon this year to at least nine, according to AP. Lebanese authorities say more than 2,300 civilians have been killed since the latest escalation began, including at least 254 women and 168 children, after Israel launched its combat operations in Lebanon, where the militant group Hezbollah is based, amid the wider US-Israeli war against Iran.

Three sailors were injured after a fire broke out aboard USS Zumwalt while the stealth destroyer was sitting pierside at HII Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, undergoing a costly modernization meant to give the ship a whole new identity.

One sailor was taken to a local hospital in stable condition, while two others were treated at the scene after the April 19 incident. The US Navy is investigating the cause and the extent of the damage to the warship, a spokesman told USNI on Wednesday.

The troubled vessel has never participated in any combat mission and has become a byword for Pentagon overreach: flashy, fantastically expensive, and still trying to figure out what exactly it wants to be when it grows up.

Those hypersonic missiles, however, have yet to be fully developed and fielded on the ship. National Defense previously reported that the Navy wanted to begin CPS testing aboard the Zumwalt in 2027 or 2028.

The Zumwalt-class destroyer program consumed up to $24.5 billion for a fleet of just three ships, according to a 2018 GAO review, while media outlets described the vessel as an $8 billion blunder.

The program was announced with much fanfare in December by President Donald Trump, alongside Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as part of a new “Golden Fleet” vision. Phelan was still out there this week touting the new battleship as the future of sea power – before abruptly “departing” the administration the very next day.

The White House has reportedly drawn up a NATO “naughty and nice” list, sorting member states into tiers as it considers how to reward countries that backed the US war against Iran and punish those that did not.

According to Politico, the internal paper was prepared ahead of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s recent trip to Washington. It reportedly lays out members’ contributions to the bloc and appears to reflect Pentagon rhetoric about “model allies” deserving “special favor,” while others face “consequences.”

The administration has not publicly spelled out what punishments are on the table. But officials cited by Politico said options could include shifting troops, scaling back exercises, or redirecting military cooperation away from “bad” members and toward more obedient ones.

For years, Trump has berated European NATO members for allegedly not paying enough for their own “defense,” even as they poured billions upon billions into arming, financing, and sustaining Kiev in its conflict with Russia. At the same time, many of those same governments have invoked the specter of a looming Russian threat to justify fresh militarization and bigger military budgets.

Trump has made little secret of his contempt for members he sees as freeloaders or cowards. Earlier this month, he blasted NATO over its reluctance to join the Iran fight, while Rutte again found himself trying to smooth things over after already being ridiculed for calling Trump “Daddy.”

As a Canadian who has spent 17 years working in Europe, I feel qualified to speak on behalf of the few remaining brain cells still on active duty (that would be just 40% of all Canadian neurons, according to a recent poll): Canada has zero interest in joining the European Union.

All some Canadians see when they declare their support for joining the EU are what they perceive to be advantages – which really aren’t. Take the free movement of people across the EU’s effectively borderless Schengen zone. That’s all fine and dandy until the Spanish prime minister decides to grant mass amnesty to the better part of a million migrants, many of whom might then decide to head over to that new EU nation of Canada.

Yet this idiotic topic keeps coming up. In just the latest instance, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, visiting the Canadian capital, was hanging out with central banker finance bro turned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

They played a fun little butt-slapper of a hockey game, and Stubb talked about how they texted nonstop like teenagers while musing to the Canadian press that Canada joining the EU “would be a marriage made in heaven.” Get a room, you two. But please keep the rest of Canada out of it.

In reality, it would involve requiring every European state to unanimously vote to modify the current EU treaty to include a North American state in a union explicitly limited to geographically European nations. But Stubb said that he foresaw “negotiations that would be faster than Finland joining NATO.” Only if Canadian officials sell out their own voters – something that would have to become a habit as an EU member state.

But here’s a less self-flattering way of putting it: “Maybe if I’m giving up my assets to someone of my own choice, then it’ll be clear to the creep pursuing me to keep his hands off them.” Regardless, someone’s getting easy access to your resources without having to regularly negotiate for them. Which isn’t much better than someone threatening to take them by force. Either way, your autonomy is compromised. You’ve just sold it to yourself differently.

The ideal option would be to maintain absolute control, don’t let anyone take you for granted, and ensure that anything you give up is subject to a fair exchange. That describes Canada’s current relationship with the EU. And that’s about as good as it gets.

Some Canadians apparently have failed to notice that the people of the country with which it currently shares a head of state – King Charles – already voted to bail out of the very same relationship that they’re now drooling over. And it wasn’t a clean escape. All the EU rule of law provisions that were domesticated into British law still impact the daily lives of the British.

Why would Canadians want European bureaucrats, over whom they have zero democratic control, to be capable of dictating policy and parameters to elected Canadian lawmakers? It’s a known feature of British and Canadian constitutional law that very little infringes on parliamentary sovereignty – but EU law was effectively given supremacy over UK law until Brexit. And every EU member state is in the same boat, usually with slightly different national traditions of complaining about it.

How would Canadians feel about paying cash to Brussels so it can be given away for use by other EU funding recipient countries? Because Canada would be in the donor tier of EU nations and expected to pay up. Meanwhile, its farmers and energy industry would be subjected to the same ridiculous regulations that have EU Copernicus satellites spying on crop production to make sure they match paperwork, Eurocrats wringing their hands over how to parlay cow farts into tax revenue or a land grab, and dictating how (or even if) Canada can exploit its own massive natural resources.

Canada is doing pretty well right now in developing a long overdue, sustainable new multilateral foreign and trade diversification policy approach that decenters the superpowers – notably amid US recklessness. But the EU is aiming for an increasingly lockstep strategy among its member states. Which makes some sense if you’re an actual European country and a part of continent where both world wars took place because you were fighting with one another nonstop until the EU was created to lock all of you into one giant political straitjacket so you’d behave. At least it gives the EU a nice narrative for crackdowns in service of its globalist agenda. But it’s ridiculous for Canada to want to voluntarily check into the insane asylum.

Trade and defense cooperation already exist with the EU, thanks. The last thing that a Canada needs is to become Brussels’ experimental North American bureaucratic extension project.

US Navy Secretary John C. Phelan has stepped down in an abrupt move announced by the Pentagon without any public explanation or indication that his exit was linked to the naval blockade of Iran.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that Phelan was “departing the administration” at once and that Undersecretary Hung Cao would become acting secretary of the Navy.

“On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy. We wish him well in his future endeavors,” Parnell said in the statement.

No reason for Phelan’s departure was included in the announcement, which was reposted without further comment by Secretary Pete Hegseth.

STATEMENT:

Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately.

On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy.

We wish…

— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) April 22, 2026

Phelan, a businessman and investor with no prior military service, was sworn in as the 79th secretary of the Navy on March 25, 2025, after being nominated by President Donald Trump. He had overseen the Department of the Navy for just over a year.

Cao, who had been serving as undersecretary of the Navy, will now take over in an acting capacity. Phelan had previously praised him as a key part of the department’s effort to rebuild the “warrior ethos” and improve quality of service across the Navy and Marine Corps.

Phelan’s departure also comes just weeks after Hegseth forced out Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and two other senior Army generals in a separate Pentagon shake-up.

A Ukrainian press gang in the city of Odessa used pepper spray on a woman as she desperately attempted to prevent the forced mobilization of a man, according to eyewitness video circulating on social media.

The footage, shared on Wednesday, depicts at least eight draft officers struggling with an unwilling conscript while the woman attempts to intervene. At one point, the officers pull her away and apparently pepper-spray her, leaving her sitting on the ground and screaming: “My eyes!”

The man is eventually escorted to an unmarked minibus, as bystanders suggest rinsing the woman’s eyes with milk to alleviate the burning sensation.

Amid mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and a shortage of willing recruits, Ukrainian draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to coercion to fill the ranks. The practice, colloquially known as “busification,” involves military-age men being snatched off the streets, from workplaces, and from residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will, often triggering clashes with relatives, neighbors, and passersby.

In one case, draft enforcers shoved a woman to the ground and pepper-sprayed bystanders as they detained a man.

In another incident, a press gang pepper-sprayed the occupants of a car after the male driver refused to get out and called a lawyer instead.

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Earlier this month, two draft enforcers were stabbed during a document check in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa. In a separate incident in Lviv, a conscription officer was fatally stabbed in the neck.

Moscow has accused Kiev of seeking to fight “to the last Ukrainian” at the behest of Western powers waging a proxy war against Russia. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov previously estimated that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen killed or seriously wounded in 2025 alone.

Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken has defended the drone scare which gripped the country last year and cost some €50 million ($58.5 million) in emergency spending, offering a lackluster apology for personally disseminating images purporting to show the UAVs, which turned out to be false.

The drone craze gripped the country, as well as several other EU nations, late last year with numerous sightings of mysterious UAVs reported from military and critical infrastructure sites. The Belgian government declared an emergency situation over the sightings and swiftly allocated €50 million for anti-drone procurement.

The scare prompted allegations of Russian involvement, yet no evidence to back up such claims, as well as to prove the very existence of the elusive aircraft, has ever emerged. Moscow at the time dismissed the “drone hysteria” as paranoia.

The drone affair was explored by VRT News’ program Pano, which reignited the controversy over the drones and the government’s handling of the crisis. According to the documentary, in several instances the alleged UAVs turned out to be police helicopters. The investigation also raised questions over emergency spending, pointing at inflated pricing allegations in multi-million contracts awarded without any due public tender process.

The defense chief cited findings by the country’s military intelligence, which claimed that at least 42 out of 250 drone sightings over military barracks were legitimate. While no physical evidence has been collected, there was “no other plausible explanation than a drone” for them, he claimed. 

“Anyone who claims today that there were no drones is therefore ignoring the findings of our own intelligence service. And let’s be honest: as long as you don’t have the means to detect and neutralize drones, it stands to reason that you cannot immediately produce physical evidence,” Francken said.

The minister also offered a lackluster apology for his role in fueling the scare, admitting it had been “painful” that he personally circulated images of alleged drones that turned out to be false. In particular, Francken disseminated an image of an aircraft above Brussels Airport, which turned out to be a police helicopter.

The US decision to extend sanctions relief for Russian oil was taken to prevent crude prices from exploding amid the Iran war and followed pleas from energy-vulnerable countries, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said.

Testifying before a Senate appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday, Bessent defended last week’s U‑turn to prolong a general license allowing deliveries of Russian oil and petroleum products that were already loaded on tankers. The waiver, which runs until May 16, follows an earlier 30‑day relaxation that expired on April 11.

Bessent said that during the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington he was approached by finance ministers and central bank chiefs from “more than ten of the most vulnerable and poorest countries in terms of energy,” who asked the US to extend sanctions relief for another month.

Bessent told lawmakers the waiver allowed Treasury to put “more than 250 million barrels on the water” and ease fears over supply. With crude trading near $100, he claimed that without the extra Russian barrels “they might have been at $150,” saying the measure was intended to shield both US consumers and allies from even steeper fuel costs.

US gasoline prices have soared, putting pressure on households ahead of November’s midterm elections. The national average exceeded $4 per gallon, up from $2.94 in late February before the Iran conflict, according to data from the American Automobile Association.

The Financial Times has called Russia “the biggest winner from the conflict in the Middle East,” calculating that Moscow is earning up to $150 million a day in extra budget revenues.

The Kremlin has confirmed a “modest increase” in oil income linked to the Middle East conflict but said it is not critical for the Russian budget or the wider economy.

When Spain’s Pedro Sánchez arrived in Beijing in April for his fourth visit in four years, he did so for a tightly choreographed round of high-level meetings with Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, alongside business and academic engagements.

Officially, the visit revolved around cooperation: trade, green energy, technology, and multilateral governance. Spain, Sánchez reiterated, rejects the fashionable rhetoric of “decoupling” and instead champions interconnected supply chains. He urged China to take on a greater role in global governance, from climate change to artificial intelligence to nuclear security.

This sounds like standard globalist responsibility-sharing talk, but there’s a strategic motive behind it. Spain is stepping into a role that others in Europe have either abandoned or mishandled: that of a credible, influential interlocutor with Beijing.

Brussels’ favorite son vs. Europe’s usual suspect

To understand Sánchez’s growing relevance, one must contrast him with Hungary’s now former prime minister Viktor Orbán. Both favor engagement with China, but only one is taken seriously in Brussels.

Orbán’s approach – conservative, sovereigntist, and openly combative – has long cast him as a convenient outlier for the EU’s liberal elites. Sánchez, by contrast, is Brussels’ model pupil. He aligns with the European Commission on migration, climate orthodoxy, and regulatory expansion, projecting the image of a leader fully in tune with the union’s progressive agenda. He does not challenge the EU’s ideological architecture, which is why Spain’s voice carries more weight in Brussels.

As the fourth-largest contributor to the EU budget and one of its fastest-growing major economies, Spain offers Beijing something Hungary could not even under ‘China-friendly’ Orbán: access without disruption. The result is a curious inversion. Europe’s most effective advocate for engagement with China is not a populist, but a leader deeply embedded in Brussels’ political mainstream, with all the inclusivity, sustainability, and wokeism that entails.

Washington has taken notice of Sánchez’s China policy – and not with enthusiasm. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent bluntly warned that aligning with Beijing would be “like cutting your own throat,” a remark that captures the growing impatience within US policy circles. Spain’s refusal to fully align with American positions on recent geopolitical crises, including the war in the Middle East, has only sharpened these concerns.

Within Europe, Sánchez’s approach has found a more receptive audience. European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Stéphane Séjourné has openly suggested that the EU would benefit from increased Chinese investment and should resist mimicking America’s more isolationist stance.

At the same time, Sánchez’s talk of multipolarity, shared global responsibility and cooperation over confrontation aligns neatly with Beijing’s own narrative – and sits somewhat awkwardly alongside the traditional transatlantic framework.

Meanwhile, Sánchez’s broader political ambitions are hard to ignore. Fresh from hosting a Barcelona gathering of global left-wing leaders aimed at countering the rise of the “far-right” and “authoritarian populists,” he appears keen to position as a figure of international progressive leadership within the EU. Ironically, this champion of ideologically progressive causes at home is navigating great-power politics abroad with a distinctly pragmatic touch.

China-Spain relations in practice

If the rhetoric occasionally drifts into abstraction, the substance of China-Spain relations is refreshingly concrete. China is Spain’s largest trading partner outside the EU, and economic ties are expanding rapidly. Chinese investment in Spain has grown by 50% between 2024 and 2025 compared to the previous two-year period, reaching around $3 billion. This capital is anchored in industrial projects that are reshaping Spain’s economic landscape

In Barcelona, Chinese automaker Chery is establishing a European operations center and R&D institute. In Zaragoza, battery giant CATL is building a lithium battery gigafactory. In Navarra, Hithium is investing in energy storage systems. These projects are part of a broader strategy by Chinese firms to localize production within Europe, bypassing tariffs while embedding themselves in the EU’s industrial ecosystem.

Spain has also ventured into more sensitive technological territory. A strategic agreement with China’s Origin Quantum aims to develop Europe’s largest quantum computer, placing Spain at the forefront of emerging technologies – albeit with significant Chinese involvement. Meanwhile, Madrid’s decision to entrust Huawei with storing judicial wiretaps raised eyebrows among some allies, particularly as debates over telecom security intensify. Yet while others deliberate, Spain is building.

Sánchez’s latest trip to Beijing delivered a dense package of outcomes that went well beyond diplomatic niceties.

Nineteen bilateral agreements were signed, covering trade, technology, green energy, and infrastructure. These deals also established a new Strategic Diplomatic Dialogue Mechanism, institutionalizing regular high-level engagement between Spain and China. For Madrid, this represents a significant upgrade in its bilateral relationship – one that positions it as a key European partner for Beijing.

By some estimates, the agreements achieved more for Spain’s trade position in a single visit than years of EU-level negotiations have managed. This is a reminder that, for all the emphasis on European unity, national diplomacy still delivers results.

Sánchez also used the visit to actively court further investment, including outreach to wind turbine manufacturer Ming Yang, whose expansion plans have faced resistance elsewhere in Europe. Spain’s openness contrasts sharply with the more cautious stance of other Western countries, reinforcing its reputation as a welcoming destination for Chinese capital.

Beyond economics, the visit included a strong cultural and academic component. Agreements were signed to expand cooperation in education, research, and cultural exchange. In a symbolic gesture, Sánchez was awarded an honorary professorship by the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences – an accolade that underscores the personal dimension of his engagement with China.

Between pragmatism and posturing

Sánchez’s China policy is, at its core, a blend of pragmatism and performance. The pragmatism is evident in the deals, the investments, and the industrial strategy. Spain is securing tangible benefits at a time when economic growth is a scarce commodity in the EU.

This duality defines Sánchez’s approach. In Brussels, he is the dependable progressive, aligned with the Union’s prevailing ethos. In Beijing, he is the pragmatic dealmaker, open to cooperation and eager to position Spain as a central player in a changing global order.

Europe’s new interlocutor, with strings attached

Spain’s deepening relationship is the result of deliberate political choices. Sánchez has identified an opportunity and moved decisively to seize it, positioning Madrid as a key bridge between Beijing and Brussels.

Despite the clear benefits, the strategy is not without its tensions. As Spain draws closer to China, it also tests the limits of its alignment with the US and navigates the complexities of EU politics.

For now, Sánchez appears comfortable walking this tightrope – equally at ease with Brussels ideology and Beijing pragmatism. Whether this balancing act proves sustainable is another question.

What is certain is that Spain is no longer a peripheral player in the EU’s China debate. Under Sánchez, it has become a bridge, a broker – and perhaps, for some, a rather enthusiastic convert to the art of strategic ambiguity.

There is “rampant Satanism” in certain EU member states, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has alleged, citing their connivance in the Ukrainian authorities’ “blasphemous practices” at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Orthodox monastery.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the government in Kiev has intensified its crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over allegations that it has connections to Moscow. The Ukrainian authorities have since conducted numerous raids on monasteries and launched dozens of criminal cases on collaboration charges against clerics, as well as property seizures.

At the same time, Vladimir Zelensky’s government has backed the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which the Russian Orthodox Church considers schismatic.

Speaking at a Russian Foreign Ministry reception on Wednesday dedicated to Orthodox Easter, Lavrov stated that the Ukrainian leadership has rejected “their spiritual and civilizational roots.”

“The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been persecuted for over a decade now, with churches [forcibly] taken over, vandalized and clergy and parishioners harassed,” he said.

According to Lavrov, the “Ukrainian Ministry of Culture used this bureaucratic formula to conceal its legalized blasphemous practices, while several European countries have turned a blind eye to these developments or even directly supported them.”

“There is rampant Satanism in these countries, too,” the Russian foreign minister concluded.

Last March, the first reports emerged of Ukrainian government officials and police forcing their way into the catacombs of what is considered the nation’s most significant monastery and the final resting place of several Christian saints.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Lavrov has suggested there are Satanic tendencies in the West.

Speaking in February, after the US Department of Justice released a large trove of the so-called Epstein files, the Russian foreign minister said that the materials had “revealed the face of the West.”

“Every normal person knows this is beyond comprehension and pure Satanism,” Lavrov stated then.

A Moldovan court has sentenced businessman and opposition politician Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison in a high-profile bank fraud case.

The charges are related to a 2014 bank scandal in which $1 billion was siphoned from three of the largest financial institutions in the country. Plahotniuc stood accused of receiving only a fraction of the money, namely $39 million and €3.5 million ($4.1 million) from the affected banks.  

The politician fled the country in 2019 after his Democratic Party lost the elections and has denied any wrongdoing, insisting the case against him is politically motivated. He was arrested in Greece in July last year and promptly extradited to Moldova to face trial. Plahotniuc requested to be sent to Moldova rather than to Russia, where he has been wanted since 2017 over a failed assassination attempt on a banker.

The 2014 bank fraud affair, locally known as the “heist of the century,” sent shockwaves through the political landscape of the ex-Soviet nation, implicating many high-profile figures. Former Moldovan Prime Minister and founder of the Democratic Party, Vlad Filat, was sentenced to nine years for corruption and influence peddling in 2016, but was released on parole in 2019. Filat has maintained his innocence, repeatedly accusing his former ally Plahotniuc of fabricating the case against him.  

Another opposition politician and businessman, Ilan Shor, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in 2023 over his role in the bank fraud. Shor fled the country in 2019 and has remained abroad ever since, first taking refuge in Israel and ultimately moving to Russia, where he was granted citizenship. The businessman has long maintained his innocence as well, insisting the charges against him are politically motivated.

The EU is facing months of uncertainty as its energy crisis deepens following the escalation of the Middle East conflict, with the bloc now paying far more for fossil fuel imports, Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has said. 

The US-Israeli war on Iran has added pressure to global energy markets, driving oil prices higher and increasing fuel costs for consumers worldwide. The conflict has choked flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route that handles around 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas. The EU has already been grappling with the fallout from its decision to cut energy ties with Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, alongside the costs of its green transition policies.  

Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Jorgensen said the bloc’s fossil fuel import bill had risen by more than €24 billion (over $28 billion) since the Middle East war began, amounting to “over €500 million per day.” He warned that “the coming months will be filled with uncertainties” and that the true impact of the crisis will be long‑term, adding “we must be prepared for anything.” 

In January, the European Commission restated its goal of phasing out Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Jorgensen told the Financial Times this month that Brussels is “preparing for the worst‑case scenarios” in light of the Iran war, including possible rationing of jet fuel and diesel, but insisted the EU will not reverse its ban on Russian LNG, opting instead for much more expensive alternatives from the US “and other partners.”   

The International Energy Agency has warned that the world is facing “the largest energy crisis” and that Europe could run short of jet fuel within weeks. Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev has said the EU faces deindustrialization under “Russophobic politicians” and that Western governments will eventually be forced to seek renewed access to Russian energy. 

The US has extended its temporary waiver on certain Russian oil shipments loaded on vessels through May 16 in an effort to stabilize prices. Moscow has signaled it is ready to plug any oil supply gaps triggered by the conflict.

The US Justice Department has charged the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with wire fraud over its funneling of more than $3 million to white supremacist and extremist groups, including the organizers of the deadly ‘Unite the Right’ Charlottesville rally in 2017.

In an indictment handed down by a grand jury in Alabama on Tuesday, the SPLC was charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the Justice Department and the FBI, the organization misled donors by soliciting money to “fight” extremists, then covertly funneling the money to the leaders of these same extremist groups.

🚨HAPPENING NOW: Justice Department announces indictment against Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC"). Our indictment alleges SPLC secretly funneled MORE THAN $3 MILLION in funds to members of white supremacist and extremist groups. pic.twitter.com/Ifpda94f7D

— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) April 21, 2026

Given the SPLC’s stated mission of “fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to help create a multiracial democracy,” the indictment – if proven – reveals stunning hypocrisy at the heart of the organization.

What is the SPLC? 

Founded as a civil rights law firm in 1971, the SPLC has grown into one of the US’ leading liberal NGOs. It has won civil lawsuits for victims of Ku Klux Klan (KKK) violence, agitated for immigrant, LGBT, and prisoners’ rights, and its database of “hate” organizations is considered authoritative by mainstream media outlets.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the SPLC focused its attention on white-supremacist and Klan-adjacent groups, one of which firebombed the organization’s Alabama offices in 1983. The SPLC’s more recent activities have proven controversial: the organization was accused of anti-white racism when a senior staffer, Mark Potok, was filmed with a ‘countdown clock’ to whites becoming a minority in the US taped to his desk; and the SPLC’s listing of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA as a “case study” in “hate and extremism” led the FBI to cut its ties with the center after Kirk’s assassination last year.

What does the SPLC indictment allege?

According to the indictment, donors were told that their money would be used to help “dismantle” the extremist groups listed in the SPLC’s database. What they weren’t told was that this money was actually being funneled to these groups via fictitious business entities, and that the SPLC would in some cases order the groups to continue stoking racial hatred. The list of recipients includes:

• A member of the online chat group that planned the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville – $270,000 between 2015 and 2023

• An affiliate of the neo-Nazi National Alliance – $1,000,000 between 2014 and 2023

• The Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America – unknown amount

• An officer in the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club – $300,000 between 2014 and 2020

• The Chairman of the National Alliance – $140,000 between 2016 and 2023

• The leader of the National Socialist Party of America – $70,000 between 2014 and 2016

• The National President of American Front – $19,000 between 2016 and 2019

• The wife of an Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Kluk Klan – $3,500 at an unknown time

Two of these individuals – the National Alliance chairman and National Socialist Party of America leader – were listed by name on the SPLC’s “extremist file” web page at the time of the payments. The president of American Front was, at the time, a convicted felon over his taking part in a cross burning.

Another individual was allegedly paid $160,000 by the SPLC, which he then disbursed “to various violent extremist group leaders including the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,” the indictment alleges. 

Did the SPLC secretly organize the Charlottesville rally?

A 2017 torchlit march attended by hundreds of right-wingers, militia members, ‘alt-right’ activists and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, ended in tragedy when participant James Alex Fields rammed his car into a crowd of left-wing protesters, killing one person and injuring 35.

Democrats and the mainstream media tied President Donald Trump to the spectacle. Trump, who expressed support for some of the participants, spent the remainder of his first term in office repeatedly disavowing “the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.”

According to the indictment, however, a man described as “a member of the online leadership chat group that planned” the rally and attended the event “at the direction of the SPLC… made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC, and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.”

The SPLC has never denied planting informants within extremist groups. In this case, however, it appears that the center played a leading role in organizing the rally – one which it concealed from the media, law enforcement authorities, and its own donors.

Is the SPLC’s use of informants illegal?

The SPLC’s use of paid informants is not illegal, provided the informants are not being paid to commit crimes. What the lawsuit alleges is that the SPLC knowingly deceived its donors, who were told that their money would be used to “dismantle” extremism and “uplift progressive candidates who uphold inclusive democratic values,” and knowingly deceived banks, who had no idea that fictitious companies with names like ‘Rare Books Warehouse’ and ‘Fox Photography’ were fronts for funding extremism.

Nonprofits like the SPLC are not required by law to show donors where every dollar of their money was spent. To win the case, the Justice Department will need to prove that the SPLC engaged in a deliberate scheme to lie.

How has the SPLC responded to the indictment?

In a statement on Tuesday, SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said that the organization no longer uses paid informants, but that the practice helped the SPLC infiltrate extremist groups and “saved lives.”

“We are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC,” Fair said. “Today the federal government has been weaponized to dismantle the rights of our nation’s most vulnerable people and any organization like ours that stands in the breach,” he continued, adding: “we will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.” 

What is the government saying?

The SPLC “lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups,” FBI Director Kash Patel said at a press conference on Tuesday. The organization “was not dismantling the groups,” US Attorney General Todd Blanche added. “It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

Responding to Fair’s allegations of “weaponization,” Blanche told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the “indictment is free for everybody to read, and if the takeaway is that that’s political, I mean, I think the opposite is true.” The SPLC’s conduct, he said, was “extraordinarily egregious.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has refused to release former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, ruling that it has jurisdiction over his case despite his country’s withdrawal from the tribunal. The 81‑year‑old will remain in custody in The Hague.

Duterte was arrested at Manila airport in March 2025 and transferred to the ICC’s detention facility in the Netherlands. He faces charges of crimes against humanity over a deadly anti‑drug campaign he launched while in office. Police records count roughly 7,000 deaths, although human rights groups put the figure much higher.

Duterte has consistently defended the campaign, saying he only ordered police to kill in self‑defense. His lawyers have also argued that the ICC lost jurisdiction when the Philippines formally withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2018.

The appeals chamber has rejected the argument, ruling that the alleged crimes were committed while the country was still a member and that a preliminary examination had already begun before the withdrawal took effect. The decision clears the way for a possible full trial.

The ruling has drawn sharp reactions from Duterte’s allies. Harry Roque, a former spokesman for the Philippines president, told RT that the court is using Duterte to justify its own existence. 

“Outside of the Duterte case, the court has not been trying any other case,” he said, pointing to the ICC’s failure to prosecute any other leaders it has accused, namely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He called the decision “sad” and argued that the drug war was a “legitimate sovereign duty,” not a crime against humanity.

Constitutional law professor James Reserva told RT that the case is a signal to future Philippine presidents. “If you will not behave like what we want you to behave, you will become like Duterte,” he said, claiming that the ICC is being driven by geopolitical interests rather than justice.

The ICC pre‑trial chamber is expected to decide by the end of April whether to confirm the charges. If confirmed, Duterte would become the first former Asian head of state to stand trial at The Hague.

Europe’s summer getaway is under threat as airlines slash thousands of flights amid a deepening jet fuel crunch, raising alarm among holidaymakers. Lufthansa alone is scrapping 20,000 services through October to conserve fuel, the carrier announced on Tuesday, while airlines across the continent trim schedules as costs surge and supplies tighten.

Why is this happening?

The jet fuel squeeze is being driven by disruption in one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints – the Strait of Hormuz – amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. Around a fifth of global oil supply passes through the narrow route linking the Persian Gulf to world markets, making it vital to energy flows to Europe and Asia, according to the International Energy Agency.

The escalation of the conflict has sharply reduced tanker traffic through the strait, with shipments delayed or halted, triggering what IEA chief Fatih Birol even warned could become the worst energy crisis in history.

Why is jet fuel affected?

The EU does produce jet fuel in its own refineries, but not in sufficient volumes, which is why Europe’s aviation sector is particularly exposed to the situation in the Middle East. Around 75% of Europe’s jet fuel imports come from the region, mostly Kuwait, making supplies highly vulnerable to disruptions in Gulf shipping routes.

Jet fuel itself is also relatively scarce by design. Only a small share of crude oil, typically around 10%, is refined into jet fuel, meaning supply cannot easily be increased even when demand is high.

How much fuel does a plane use?

Jet fuel is one of the largest and most volatile costs for airlines, accounting for a significant share of operating expenses, according to industry data.

Fuel consumption varies by aircraft and route, but even short-haul jets use large volumes. A typical single-aisle aircraft such as a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 burns around 2,500 to 3,000 liters per hour, depending on load and conditions, according to aviation estimates.

What does this mean for my holiday?

Jet fuel prices have roughly doubled since the Iran war began on February 28. Airlines have begun passing on costs by raising fares, adding surcharges, and increasing fees for baggage and other extras, according to reports.

At the same time, carriers are cutting unprofitable routes and reducing frequency, increasing the risk of last-minute cancellations and disruption. Airlines including Lufthansa, KLM, Ryanair, SAS, and Aer Lingus have already cut or cancelled flights, according to industry and media reports.

Are others worried?

Travelers are already showing signs of concern as uncertainty over flights grows ahead of the summer season. More Britons are opting to holiday at home due to “uncertainty over flights,” with concerns over potential cancellations and disruption linked to the jet fuel crisis, according to The Guardian. UK holiday operators have reported a sharp rise in domestic demand.

What is the EU doing to fix the situation?

EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said on Tuesday that EU countries could be asked to share jet fuel reserves if shortages emerge, noting that the bloc maintains emergency stocks that can be released if necessary. Voluntary cooperation between member states could become mandatory if the situation worsens, he added.

European transport ministers are also exploring options to import jet fuel from alternative suppliers such as the US, according to Euronews.

What are the airlines doing to fix the situation?

Apart from increasing costs for passengers, airlines are seeking to offset tightening supplies by securing alternative fuel sources and rerouting deliveries, according to industry reporting.

Several airlines are also urging the UK government to relax regulations, allow alternative imports and prioritize jet fuel production to stabilize supply, according to The Guardian.

Is it too late to save summer vacations?

However, he vowed to maintain the US naval blockade, touting it as leverage to force Tehran to make a deal, meaning that traffic remains unstable and unpredictable.

But even if flows were restored immediately, analysts warn the disruption may already be too deep to avoid impacting the peak travel season.

Energy market specialists say it would take months for global oil and jet fuel supplies to normalize after such a shock. Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler, said recovery could take until “at least July,” adding that even that timeline may prove optimistic.

Florida has launched a criminal probe into OpenAI and ChatGPT over a shooting spree at Florida State University, which the perpetrator planned with the help of the AI chatbot.

The incident occurred in April 2025, when the suspect allegedly killed two and injured six people. He was subsequently injured in a shootout with the police and taken into custody. The gunman, who turned out to be the son of a deputy sheriff, was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.

The US state is now probing ChatGPT’s role in the attack and seeks to determine whether “OpenAI bears criminal responsibility” for the chatbot’s actions, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Tuesday. 

“The chatbot advised the shooter on what ⁠type of gun to use, on which ammo went with which gun, and on whether or not a gun would be useful at short range,” Uthmeier told a press briefing. 

“If it was a person on the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder,” he added.

“In this case, ChatGPT provided factual responses to questions ⁠with information that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet, and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity,” the spokeswoman stated.

The rise of chatbots has long-prompted concerns over AI-enabled crimes, voiced by numerous independent researchers and government agencies worldwide. While the bulk of AI-powered crimes appear to take place in the tech sphere, including hacks, cyberattacks, fraud, and identity theft, the chatbots have been repeatedly implicated in aiding violent crime as well. A recent joint investigation by CNN and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, for instance, found that eight out of ten leaders were ready to assist users in staging violent attacks, including religiously motivated bombings, school shootings, and assassinations.

Russia has announced new initiatives to combat infectious diseases in Africa, including responding to a mysterious outbreak in Burundi and expanding cooperation with the Republic of the Congo.

In recent years, mpox – a rare deadly tropical disease – has spread across parts of the continent, while several countries have also faced other infection outbreaks, and Ebola and cholera have killed thousands in West and Central Africa.

Russia’s public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, announced on Tuesday that it will establish an epidemiology and infection prevention center in the Republic of the Congo. A memorandum was signed by its head, Anna Popova, and Congo’s minister of health and population, Jean-Rosaire Ibara.

“The creation of the center will ensure the national sovereignty of the Republic of the Congo in the field of biosafety,” the Rospotrebnadzor press service noted.

The move follows a 2023 agreement on sanitary and epidemiological cooperation signed on the sidelines of the second Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 35 cases have been identified and at least five people have died in the Mpanda district. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the urine, fatigue, and jaundice.

Laboratory tests for Ebola, Marburg, and other known diseases have returned negative, raising concerns about the nature of the outbreak.

“While it’s reassuring that preliminary analysis is negative for these serious infections, further investigations are ongoing,” Lydwine Badarahana, Burundi’s minister of health, has said.

Rospotrebnadzor reported it has sent a proposal to assist Burundi and noted that a joint infectious disease research center is already operating in Bujumbura.

Russia has been expanding health cooperation with African countries in recent years. In July, Rospotrebnadzor began training Ugandan medical personnel, and has also supplied Burkina Faso with a mobile laboratory capable of processing up to 800 tests per day for more than 20 infectious diseases.

Pope Leo XIV has criticized the “colonization” of Africa’s mineral resources in a speech in Equatorial Guinea, one of the continent’s top oil producers, where nearly half of the population still lives in poverty.

The pontiff arrived in the central African nation on Tuesday for the final leg of his 11-day tour of the continent, having previously visited Algeria, Cameroon, and Angola. He was warmly welcomed by flag-waving and cheering crowds in the administrative capital, Malabo.

In his address to Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and other officials, Pope Leo echoed the words of Pope Francis, who passed away one year ago, stating, “We must also say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.”

“It is clear today that the proliferation of armed conflicts is often driven by the exploitation of oil and mineral deposits, with no regard for international law or the self-determination of peoples,” he said.

A peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to end decades of violence in eastern Congo, mediated by Trump, also includes plans to establish a regional economic framework tied to US investment in the country’s cobalt, coltan, and other critical minerals sectors.

Equatorial Guinea possesses significant oil wealth and is one of the richest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, this wealth has not translated into broad prosperity, with poverty remaining widespread in the former Spanish colony, according to a World Bank report published last November.

The EU wants to cut funding for the Venice Biennale after the exhibition decided to readmit Russian artists to its 2026 edition, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russian artists have faced event cancellations across EU member states. Performers from other nations who are believed to have sympathy for Russia have likewise been discriminated against.

Kallas, known for her hardline anti-Russian stance, claimed the country “should not be allowed to exhibit” its culture.

“Russia’s return to the Venice Biennale is morally wrong,” she said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, warning the bloc “intends to cut funding” if Moscow takes part.

Latvian Culture Minister Agnese Lace was also quick to react, stating she would boycott the Biennale’s May 9 opening if Russia participates, after leading a push to exclude Moscow and alleging Kremlin-linked ties among those involved in the pavilion.

Separately, 37 MEPs urged the EU to suspend roughly €2 million ($2.35 million) in funding and consider sanctions on those involved.

The biennale defended its decision as preserving a space for dialogue, keeping art separate from politics, while Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini struck a mocking tone, scoffing: “Latvia? Come on! So if Latvia writes something, we’re supposed to stop, right?”

He said he plans to attend the Venice Biennale opening “with all due respect to Latvia,” adding that the exhibition, with its 130-year history, is an autonomous body respected worldwide and that “no one in Brussels would dare threaten it.” On the European Commission’s plan to withdraw about €2 million, he said that, given the billions paid in by member states, the move amounts to “ignorant pettiness.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that attempts to “cancel Russian culture” in the West are doomed to fail.

Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s wealthiest man, has reportedly broken the world record for the most expensive residential real estate transaction in history, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation. 

Although the deal has not been publicly disclosed, the outlet has cited private documents that suggest Akhmetov purchased a sprawling five‑floor penthouse in Monaco for a staggering $554 million. The 21‑room, 2,500 square meter waterfront property, which features a private swimming pool, a jacuzzi and at least eight parking spaces, is located in the “Le Renzo” building in the principality’s exclusive, newly built Mareterra district. The sale was reportedly finalized in 2024.

Akhmetov’s holding company, System Capital Management (SCM), has confirmed it had made an investment in the “Le Renzo” project but declined to disclose details about the property or its cost.

The reported price shatters previous records, surpassing the sale of developer Nick Candy’s Chelsea mansion for more than $350 million and the $240 million New York penthouse bought by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.

Akhmetov’s acquisition in Monaco appears to have come shortly before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, which has inflicted severe damage on his business empire. Some energy facilities operated by his DTEK group, Ukraine’s largest private electricity provider, have been destroyed, and he has lost some of his major assets, including his entire media empire, which he was forced to hand over to the Ukrainian state. 

Nevertheless, he has remained one of Kiev’s most prominent backers. In December 2024, Russia designated the oligarch as an extremist, accusing him of financing the Ukrainian military and terrorist groups such as the neo-Nazi Azov regiment through his business network.

The time is opportune for India to exploit its economic advantages globally, a former IMF director has said.

New Delhi’s comparative advantage “is labor as well as openness, [and] democracy,” Surjit Bhalla told RT India in an exclusive interview.

“If you take China out, India is the second fastest-growing economy for the last 30 years,”  he told Salman Khurshid in the latest episode of In Conversation.

One of the least recognized events for policymakers is the supreme decline in fertility globally, he said.

India still is at an advantage, “thanks to the fact that we are reaching the fertility decline a bit later than China,” Bhalla added.

“We will supply human capital to the world, we will supply labor to the world, and we will supply know-how. So I think there’s a perfect union,” he said. “GDP per capita growth is relevant, [and though] India has done well, better than any country, except China, we can do much better.”

He noted that India has been conservative in its monetary policy.

Private investment in India has gone down, and foreign direct investment as a percentage of GDP in India is at the same level as it was in 1990, Bhalla said.

In 2025, Indian stock markets showed the lowest increase relative to its peers, he noted. Bhalla cited this as the reason why a trade deal with the US “is absolutely necessary to bring the market back into our decision-making rather than bureaucrats taking … economic decisions.”

He also noted that China has enormously benefited from the rest of the world.

“So the rest of the world is now in a position of how do we stand up to this dragon in economic policies,” he said.

Bhalla cited a unique situation in which most countries, including India, have a trade deficit with China, while posting a surplus with the US.

Ukraine has restarted the flow of Russian oil to the EU via the Druzhba pipeline after a pause of almost three months, Hungarian energy giant MOL has said.

The company said in a statement that Ukrainian operator JSC Ukrtransnafta has informed it that Ukraine began receiving crude from Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline system at noon on Wednesday.

According to MOL, it expects the first shipments of Russian oil to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia on Thursday “at the latest.”

Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said in a post on Facebook that Bratislava has also been contacted by Ukrtransnafta and that Slovakia should begin receiving crude via the Druzhba again on Thursday morning. She later reported that the flow started at around two hours past midnight on Thursday local time (12:00 AM GMT).

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said on social media on Tuesday that repairs on the pipeline had been completed and that it was ready to resume operations.

The move to resume supplies by Ukraine comes less than two weeks after a parliamentary election in Hungary, in which the pro-EU Tisza party led by Peter Magyar defeated the ruling Fidesz party of longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orban – a harsh critic of EU aid to Ukraine.

During the campaign, Orban’s government repeatedly accused Kiev of interfering in the vote. It rejected claims of the Druzhba pipeline being damaged, arguing that Zelensky was deliberately blocking oil deliveries to create tensions in the country ahead of the vote. Landlocked Hungary and neighboring Slovakia are both heavily dependent on Russian energy.

In recent months, Budapest has vetoed the EU’s planned €90 billion ($105 billion) emergency loan for Ukraine, citing Kiev’s reluctance to resume supplies via the Druzhba.

Hours after the resumption of oil flows was announced, EU ambassadors moved to approve the transfer of funds to Zelensky’s government, Reuters reported, citing a spokesman for the Cypriot presidency of the bloc. A formal sign-off on the loan by the 27 member states is expected on Thursday, the agency said.

Budapest and Bratislava eralier argued that Kiev’s reluctance to allow EU inspectors to examine the Druzhba pipeline was proof that it has not been telling the truth about the condition of the infrastructure.

Magyar said after his election win that he is not intending to veto EU funds for Kiev, but added that Budapest will not participate in the loan due to financial difficulties. Earlier this week, he urged Kiev to reopen the Druzhba, stressing that Hungary would not accept “any kind of blackmail” over energy supplies.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also warned earlier that Bratislava would veto further sanctions on Russia by the EU and resist Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the bloc if Kiev doesn’t restart the pipeline.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated on Tuesday that Ukraine was the only side to blame for the stoppage of deliveries via the Druzhba. Russia intends to fulfill its contractual obligations to Hungary, remaining ready to continue supplying oil to the country, Peskov said.

A €90 billion ($106 billion) EU loan to Ukraine that was the focus of a months-long stand-off with Hungary is set to be disbursed on Thursday, according to media reports.

EU ambassadors approved the move on Wednesday, paving the way for a formal sign off by 27 member states, Reuters said citing a spokesman for the Cypriot presidency in the bloc.

The green light came shortly after Ukraine reportedly resumed deliveries via the Soviet-built Druzhba oil pipeline, as demanded by Peter Magyar, the incoming Hungarian prime minister.

Viktor Orban, the outgoing head of the Hungarian government, froze the disbursement of the Ukrainian funding in retaliation for the halting of the deliveries in January. He called it a politically motivated ploy aimed to support Magyar’s party in the April 12 parliamentary election.

Orban and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had an increasingly acrimonious relationship as the date of the election in Hungary drew closer. Zelensky infamously threatened the prime minister’s life, earning a rebuke from Magyar.

After his party won a landslide victory, Magyar indicated that there would be no full U-turn on Ukraine under his government. Among other things, he said Budapest will not be sending weapons to Kiev and will not contribute to the €90 billion scheme, which is required to keep the Ukrainian government running. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic had opted out of servicing the loan that was originally approved by the European Council in February.

The European Commission proposed the arrangement after its original push to bankroll Kiev by stealing frozen Russian sovereign assets failed to overcome resistance by some member states, particularly Belgium, where most of the funds are immobilized.

The latest election in Bulgaria has delivered a striking result. Former President Rumen Radev’s party, Progressive Bulgaria, secured a commanding 44.5% of the vote, far ahead of its rivals. The once-dominant GERB–SDS alliance trailed in second place with 13.3%, followed by the We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria coalition on 12.6%. While coalition talks are still required, the outcome leaves little doubt about the direction of Bulgarian politics.

Radev’s decision to resign from the largely ceremonial presidency in January in order to contest the parliamentary election, the eighth in five years, has paid off. His victory reflects not only personal popularity but also a broader shift in public sentiment. In a country exhausted by political instability, voters have rallied behind a figure who presents himself as pragmatic and focused on national interests.

Predictably, much of the Western European commentary has framed Radev as “pro-Russian.” In today’s political climate, that label is applied with remarkable ease. Any hesitation about Brussels’ strategy of complete rupture with Russia, or any attempt to introduce nuance into the debate over Ukraine, is often enough to invite suspicion. Yet this characterization says more about the narrowing of acceptable discourse inside the EU than it does about Radev himself.

Radev isn’t a champion of Moscow. He does not express overt sympathy for Russia, nor does he challenge Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union or NATO. Rather, he represents something increasingly rare in contemporary Western European politics: a leader willing to question whether every directive from Brussels necessarily serves his country’s interests. That alone is enough to mark him out as a dissenter, albeit one operating within carefully defined limits. As the experiences of Hungary and Slovakia demonstrate, those limits can be stretched, but only by the most determined political actors.

First, changes in this region, however notable, do not fundamentally alter the strategic direction of the EU or NATO. The core of decision-making remains concentrated in a handful of major capitals and central institutions. This was the design of European integration from the outset. Smaller and newer member states, particularly those that joined in the 21st century, remain too dependent on the Union to pursue genuinely independent policies.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has often been presented as a disruptive force, but even his resistance has had limited practical impact. Apart from occasional disputes, such as Hungary’s recent exclusion from Russian oil supplies delivered via Ukraine, Budapest hasn’t created insurmountable obstacles for Brussels. Elsewhere, dissent has tended to be rhetorical rather than substantive. Leaders in Croatia or Romania have voiced objections without translating them into concrete policy shifts. Even Slovakia’s Robert Fico, perhaps the closest counterpart to Orban, operates within the constraints of a relatively small state.

Poland is something of an exception. It’s a large, ambitious country with a coherent economic strategy and growing political weight. Yet even in Warsaw’s case, the emphasis remains on defending national interests within the existing framework rather than reshaping the EU project itself.

For now, Western Europe’s overarching course, strongly pro-Ukrainian and firmly anti-Russian, continues to serve as a unifying principle. Abandoning this stance would pose greater risks for the cohesion of the EU than maintaining it. As a result, meaningful change is unlikely to originate from the periphery.

The second factor, however, is more subtle and potentially more consequential over time. Across Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, a gradual shift in attitude is becoming visible. This should not be interpreted through the simplistic binary of “pro-EU” versus “pro-Russian.” Such framing is reductive and, in many cases, deliberately misleading.

Faced with this reality, governments across the region are seeking to limit their exposure. Poland, despite its hawkish rhetoric, is acutely conscious of the risks on its doorstep. Hungary continues to pursue a cautious, interest-driven approach. The Czech Republic navigates a contradictory path, balancing alliance commitments with domestic considerations. Romania remains relatively passive, avoiding bold moves in either direction.

In this sense, a loose “coalition of the unwilling” is taking shape, a group of countries that aren’t prepared to openly challenge Brussels, but are equally reluctant to bear the full costs of its policies. Their aim is to avoid being drawn too deeply into a confrontation whose consequences they would feel most directly, rather than realign with Russia. 

The Bulgarian election result fits neatly into this pattern. Radev’s success doesn’t signal a geopolitical pivot. Rather, it reflects a growing desire for a more measured, interest-based approach, one that acknowledges the realities of geography and security.

Whether this trend will eventually translate into a broader shift in EU policy remains uncertain. Most likely, it won’t, at least not in the near term. The structural dynamics of the EU favor continuity over change, and the current strategic consensus is deeply entrenched.

Nevertheless, the signs are worth noting. As the EU confronts a more complex and unstable global environment, the question of adaptation will become unavoidable. If the bloc moves away from its current model of universalism toward a more fragmented system of overlapping interests and alliances, the choices facing individual countries will become more pronounced.

In that scenario, the instinct for self-preservation now visible in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe may prove to be an early indicator of a broader transformation. History, after all, rarely repeats itself in identical form, but it often echoes. And in this case, the echo is unmistakable: a region navigating between larger powers, seeking to protect its own interests in an increasingly uncertain world.

One of the more surprising turns of the US-Israeli war on Iran has been the sophistication of Tehran’s multi-pronged PR response.

From memes to sleek AI-generated cartoons to official messaging, pro-Iranian online content looks like anything but the product of a stiff-necked self-centered bureaucracy stuck in an outdated mindset – what was broadly expected from the Iranian government. The posts hit the right buttons, adapt to local environments, and react to current events lighting-fast.

RT explores how Iran has shown off its edge in the fight for the hearts and minds of people around the world.

The US military has dangerously depleted its stockpiles of critical missiles during the seven‑week war on Iran, creating a “near‑term risk” that could leave it vulnerable in any future conflict, according to a new analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The report, published on Tuesday, found that intense combat operations have exhausted a staggering portion of America’s most advanced weaponry, including at least 45% of its inventory of Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), nearly 50% of its Patriot air defense interceptors, and over half of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles. The figures are said to closely align with classified Pentagon assessments.

The depletion is not limited to air defense systems. The analysis estimates that the campaign has also consumed approximately 30% of the US Tomahawk cruise missile stockpile, more than 20% of its long‑range Joint Air‑to‑Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM), and around 20% of its SM‑3 and SM‑6 interceptors.

The report’s authors warned that rebuilding the arsenals will be a slow and costly process. One of the experts told CNN it would take “one to four years to replenish these inventories and several years after that to expand them to where they need to be.”

Despite the alarming findings, the Pentagon has pushed back, with chief spokesperson Sean Parnell insisting that the US military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president’s choosing.” 

President Donald Trump has also downplayed the issue, claiming the US has a “virtually unlimited” supply of missiles, even as his administration has requested a record-breaking military budget of around $1.5 trillion for the 2027 fiscal year, with much of it dedicated to replenishing stocks.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon had also approached major US car manufacturers General Motors and Ford about redirecting civilian factories towards producing munitions and other military equipment.

The war with Iran has been a strategic disaster for the US, leaving President Donald Trump in a weaker position at home and damaging American credibility, Quincy Institute co-founder Trita Parsi has told RT. He added that the conflict, which he said Israel had pushed for, had not unfolded as Washington expected.

The war, which began with the US-Israeli bombing campaign on Iran on February 28 under the pretext of dismantling Tehran’s nuclear program, has dragged on far longer than Trump’s initial prediction of “two to three weeks.” The attacks have killed dozens of senior officials, including Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as more than 1,300 civilians. Iran has responded by striking US bases in Gulf states, saying the strikes are an exercise of its right to self-defense. The crisis has resulted in the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint handling roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply, triggering an energy crunch.

“This has been a disaster for the United States,” Parsi said. “They have lost a tremendous amount of credibility. The president himself is in a much weaker position at home now.” He added that much of Trump’s base has “turned away and turned off” as the US has become involved in another war clearly under Israeli influence.

US bases in the Gulf have become “a source of insecurity” for host nations rather than providing deterrence, he told RT. Parsi also stated the US and Israel “never had the same goals,” with Israel willing to see regional instability and the US suffered defeats as long as Iran was bombed. Trump believed the war would be over in four days, Parsi said, but had he listened to advisers urging caution, “he would probably not have gone down this path.”

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Six people, including a retired major general and a serving police officer, have been charged with treason and terrorism for their alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

The suspects are among 16 security personnel arrested last October following media reports of a foiled coup in the West African country. The military confirmed the incident in January, stating that “a number” of officers were involved in a conspiracy to destabilize the government in violation of the ethical standards of the Nigerian Armed Forces.

On Monday, the government filed 13 charges against six of the suspects accused of masterminding the conspiracy. They are retired Major-General Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, retired Captain Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Kashim Goni, and Abdulkadir Sani.

According to court documents cited by state broadcaster NTA on Tuesday, the defendants “conspired with one another to levy war against the state in an attempt to overthrow the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” 

The six were remanded in custody, while former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva, charged with helping to cover up the plot, is reportedly at large.

President Tinubu, who assumed office in May 2023, has faced criticism for a cost-of-living crisis triggered in part by economic reforms, including the removal of a fuel subsidy as part of efforts to reduce the budget deficit in Africa’s most populous country. His administration is also grappling with a security crisis marked by escalating violence from insurgent groups, kidnappers, and militant factions.

Nigeria transitioned from military rule in 1999, and has experienced its longest period of uninterrupted democratic government since gaining independence from Britain in 1960.

The details of the RELOS (Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Support) pact between New Delhi and Moscow were published on Russia’s official legal information portal last week, providing long-awaited insights into the agreement, which allows the countries to deploy troops, warships and aircraft in each other’s territory, even during conflicts. 

Interestingly, the agreement with Russia has gained greater traction now, when Washington is increasingly leaning towards Islamabad.

Alongside already deepening defense cooperation and a streamlining of operations of the militaries of the two nations, the pact also provides India with vital access to ports along the northern sea route, from Vladivostok to Murmansk. 

Discussions on the RELOS agreement began in 2018 and featured regularly in bilateral summits. By December 2021, it was reported to be in its final stages, but technical issues and differences in wording caused delays. The conflict in Ukraine further protracted negotiations.

In February 2025, the agreement was signed in Moscow. Russia ratified it in December, with President Vladimir Putin signing it into law. It entered into force on January 12, 2026. It reflects India’s assertiveness, Russia’s tenacity, and a larger move towards a more complicated balance of power in the Indo-Pacific.

RELOS in detail

The RELOS pact allows both nations to access each other’s military bases, ports, and airfields for logistics support. It facilitates refueling, repairs, and supplies for warships and aircraft, covering both peace and war. The agreement, as we learn from the recently published document, allows for the simultaneous deployment of up to 3,000 troops, five warships, and ten aircraft to be stationed on each other’s soil.

India and Russia conduct joint, biennial military exercises known as INDRA, designed to enhance interoperability and counter-terrorism cooperation between their ground, air, and naval forces. Recent exercises, such as Indra-2025, involved ground troop drills in Rajasthan and naval operations in the Bay of Bengal, focusing on counter-terrorism and maritime security.

RELOS will support cross-training between militaries. It will greatly facilitate Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) missions in the countries’ areas of interest. The two can support search and rescue missions.

Logistically it streamlines the servicing of Russian-origin military hardware that makes up a vast proportion of India’s inventory. The pact acts as a logistical multiplier for both countries, strengthening maritime security cooperation, particularly in the context of changing global alliances.

The pact is in force for five years, with provisions for automatic extension with mutual consent. It applies in both peacetime and wartime, marking a practical step in deepening long-standing defense ties.

Geopolitical and tactical win-win

Geopolitically, the pact enhances India’s strategic autonomy by deepening ties with Russia while enabling a balance of power in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) against other major actors.

Strategically it enables Russia to access the IOR for maritime diversification, while giving India a strengthened presence in the Arctic and Pacific regions.

India and Russia have had recent and earlier combat experience. There is a lot for two to learn from each other. This will be more readily achieved when troops are stationed together for longer periods. There is a need for the countries to share their experience using new technologies in fields such as cognitive operations, cyber and electronic warfare, hypersonic missiles and directed energy weapons.  

RELOS will also help smoothen energy and mineral trading between the two countries. It will greatly smoothen transit for military platforms.

For India, the pact provides direct access to Russian-controlled Arctic shipping routes (Northern Sea Route).

It permits reciprocal access, specifically granting India access to Russian Arctic ports, which could include those such as Murmansk and Severomorsk. It in general supports India’s growing interest in the Arctic, including in sourcing LNG from Russia’s Yamal Peninsula. This is particularly important as India seeks to diversify its energy imports after the war in Iran disrupted supplies from the gulf.

How the pact with Russia is different from the pact with the US

Many commenters in India have compared the India-Russia RELOS pact with another agreement, signed by New Delhi and Washington a decade ago.

LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement) and COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) are foundational military pacts between India and the US, strengthening strategic interoperability. Signed in 2016, LEMOA allows mutual access to military logistics and refueling facilities. Signed in 2018, COMCASA enables the use of encrypted, secure, and high-tech communication systems between the two militaries.

COMCASA enables the US to share secure, specialized communication equipment, facilitating better operational coordination and interoperability. It directly enables Indian forces to use US-made high-tech systems securely.

Both are part of four foundational agreements (including GSOMIA and BECA) designed to boost defense cooperation, enhance mutual trust, and facilitate secure, real-time information sharing.

However, the RELOS pact signed with Moscow is different from the agreements New Delhi has with Washington because it allows the permanent stationing of troops, aircraft, ships, etc. which is not the case in any other agreement.

Eying next-level ties

The India-Russia Strategic Partnership, established in 2000 and elevated to “Special and Privileged” status in 2010, is a foundational pillar of India’s foreign policy. Based on mutual trust and strategic convergence, it covers defense, energy, space, and technology.

In December 2021, a new format called the “2+2 Dialogue” was added, where both foreign and defense ministers meet simultaneously. The relationship remains crucial for India’s strategic autonomy and multipolar world view, surviving geopolitical shifts, particularly with record trade exceeding $68 billion in FY 2024-25.

The US has imposed CAATSA sanctions on India in the past for purchasing Russian equipment (S400). It will now be possible to have Russian equipment depots in India. The operationalization is also well timed.

The provisions of RELOS go far beyond similar pacts: none of the Indo-US agreements specifies the positioning of troops and military platforms for long periods on a more permanent basis. RELOS will enhance interoperability between militaries and also strengthens India’s Indo-Pacific strategy by enabling long-range deployments using Russia’s network of over 40 military bases. The pact boosts military cooperation and logistics support between India and one of its most reliable allies.

The agreement is crucial for India, as it supports maintaining the 60 to 70% of India’s military inventory that is Russian-origin, including Submarines, Su-30MKIs, and S-400 systems. RELOS enhances the operational reach and endurance of the Indian Navy and Air Force, especially for Russian-origin platforms, and improves logistical readiness for distant operations.

RELOS is clearly a “win-win” for both. It boosts strategic autonomy for India while providing Russia with logistical depth in warmer waters, and is geopolitical messaging for the US. 

Pacts like RELOS make the two nations closer and increase cooperation in current and future defense production programs like BrahMos, AK 203 Rifles, 12 additional SU-30 MKI, and the fleet upgrade. It brings greater cooperation in possible future programs like Su-57E, Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) Ka 226T, and R-37M air-to-air missiles. There is a great scope to work on Shaheed drones, which Russia has mastered and India is scouting to make.   

India and Russia have always had mature time-tested relations. The two do not believe in knee-jerk reactions in their relationship. RELOS pushes India even closer to Russia with tangible strategic consequences.

Two people were killed and at least 12 others injured when a Ukrainian drone strike led to the partial collapse of an apartment block in the city of Syzran in Russia’s Samara Region, local authorities have said.

The bodies of a woman and a child were recovered from the rubble of the four-story building, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev wrote in a post on Max on Wednesday morning. Two of the injured required hospitalization, while the rest received treatment on site, he added.

“I express my sincere condolences to those who lost their loved ones. We’re seeing another inhumane criminal act against civilians,” the governor said.

The local emergencies ministry said earlier that there were at least two children among the wounded.

Some 300 rescuers and more than 80 units of specialized equipment had been involved in the search and rescue operation, which went on for several hours, according to the ministry.

A fire broke out in another multi-story apartment block in the same area of Syzran as result of a UAV attack, Shot Telegram channel reported.

There were no injuries and the blaze was being extinguished at the time the story was posted. Two cars parked outside were destroyed by fire due to being hit by debris from the drone, according to the channel.

Russia was subject to another major Ukrainian drone attack overnight, with the Defense Ministry in Moscow saying that a total of 155 UAVs were destroyed by air defenses in Kursk, Samara, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Saratov, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Volgograd, Rostov and Krasnodar Regions as well as in Crimea and over the Black Sea.

The raids have intensified since mid-March, with Kiev deploying hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs almost on a daily basis, targeting critical infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and residential areas inside Russia.

The officials in Moscow have described the aerial incursions as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks Kiev’s military has been suffering on the battlefield.

Iran’s “red lines” on restarting the talks to end the Middle East conflict with the US have changed, a leading expert in Tehran has said.

The Americans were trying to provoke a kind of violent insurrection among Iranians, Prof. Elham Kadkhodaee of Tehran University told RT India in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

“Iran’s red lines in terms of its capability and its will to use its military power have changed. Tehran now controls the Strait of Hormuz,” she added.

“What the Iranians are saying right now is that we, whatever situation we have right now, it’s not going to go back to that status quo,” Kadkhodaee said before a planned second round of talks in Islamabad was postponed.

The status quo was one in which we were under extreme economic sanctions,” she noted.

Kadkhodaee, an assistant professor of West Asian Studies at the University of Tehran, said the Iran and the US have entirely different ideas of what a deal would look like.

Iran has experienced decades of sanctions, war, and backtracking by the US on its promises, she added, saying that “all of this has not been very much constructive in terms of convincing the Iranians that negotiations… are going to be productive.”

Kadkhodaee noted that ahead of the first round of Islamabad talks, the Iranian delegation postponed their flight several times because “they were expecting the Americans to actually follow through [on] some of the promises.” 
The professor said she expects Iran to be “much more pessimistic” this time.

The US wants Iran to forego its right to nuclear enrichment, which is an insult to any nation’s sovereignty, “especially when you are a member of the NPT, especially when you have declared  that you do not seek a military nuclear program,” Kadkhodaee said.

A US Army nuclear surety official has reportedly described the rampant corruption he witnessed in Ukraine since the administration of US President Barack Obama.

The interview was released by the media group run by the controversial journalist James O’Keefe, whose modus operandi is to send reporters on dates with their targets to record candid conversations. He identified the subject as Andrew Hugg, the US Army’s chief of chemical and nuclear surety, a role tied to safety oversight rather than command of the US nuclear apparatus.

In the undercover video, Hugg claimed he had lived in Ukraine and personally witnessed Kiev officials plundering US taxpayer money. Washington and Kiev have consistently denied accusations of widespread graft involving American aid programs in the country.

“That government is so corrupt, they stole our money,” he said. “They just stole it and bought houses, cars, like hundred-thousand-dollar cars. If they can get themselves rich and go live in Dubai… they don’t care about the people.”

BREAKING NEWS: Top U.S. Nuclear Chief Caught LEAKING Sensitive National Security Information to Stranger, Reveals Army Chemist Was Exposed to U.S. Chemical Nerve Agent, Confirms U.S. Strike Killed Children in Iran, Discloses U.S. Plans to ‘Kill Iran’s New Supreme Leader’

“If he… pic.twitter.com/owL1YGUnms

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) April 21, 2026

Speaking of domestic issues, Hugg claimed the US still possesses nerve agents, referring to a US Army chemist allegedly exposed to a chemical agent, and commented on the possible assassination of Iran’s newly-elected supreme leader.

Hugg also disclosed details of the US nuclear posture and described a rapid decision-making process in which a launch could be triggered: “if a Girl Scout gives you a message… if it passes all the checks, go.”

At one point in the conversation, Hugg ironically admitted to his undercover date that “the easiest way to get intelligence… send a pretty girl to talk to the guy.”

After the video was released, Army spokesperson Cynthia O. Smith reportedly told O’Keefe that Hugg had been placed on administrative leave while the service conducted what she called a “thorough investigation.” Several unconfirmed reports alleged that Hugg had been “escorted” from the Pentagon.

Critics have long accused O’Keefe of using unethical methods and selectively editing his content to further conservative causes. In 2023, he parted ways with his former organization, Project Veritas, amid allegations of financial impropriety, and launched a new media group, OMG.

More than 1,100 musicians and cultural workers have signed an open letter urging fans, performers, broadcasters, and crew to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, accusing the event of “whitewashing” and normalizing Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and Lebanon.

Eurovision is an annual televised song contest run by the European Broadcasting Union. The event has long marketed itself as a non-political spectacle, but it has repeatedly become a flashpoint over war, identity, and woke cultural messaging.

“This May, millions of people are expected to tune in to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. For the third consecutive year, they’ll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza,” reads the letter published by the No Music For Genocide campaign. “As musicians and cultural workers… we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalize Israel’s genocide, siege, and brutal military occupation against Palestinians.”

Among the best-known signatories are Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Sigur Rós, Idles, Mogwai, Macklemore, Kneecap, Primal Scream, Hot Chip, and Of Monsters and Men – as well as Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and former Eurovision winners Emmelie de Forest and Charlie McGettigan.

At the same time, the BBC backed the decision to let Israel participate, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would support Berlin pulling out of Eurovision if the Jewish State were excluded, calling the debate “a scandal.”

The letter further argues that the organizers apply a clear double standard by keeping Israel in the competition while Russia remains banned indefinitely after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Moscow has responded by reviving Intervision, a Soviet-era alternative pitched by the Kremlin as a music contest reflecting more “traditional values,” free of politics and “perversion.”

Walking through the glass-and-steel corridors of the modern tech-security apparatus reveals that the telescreen is a tireless processor of our very souls.

Palantir Technologies’ vision of a “Technological Republic” arrives as a manual for the refinement of the boot, the one destined to remain on the human face, provided the boot remains equipped with the latest predictive sensors. In the spirit of a clear-eyed look at the clock striking thirteen, we must dissect the alliance between corporate algorithmic power and the Zionist state. This is a new Newspeak, where “defense” is a moral debt and “deterrence” is the silent humming of an algorithm deciding who shall disappear.

The foundation of this digital fortress is built upon the claim of a “moral debt” that the engineering elite owes to the State. In George Orwell’s world of 1984, this represents the ultimate synthesis: the Party and the Corporation becoming indistinguishable. This “affirmative obligation” to participate in national defense is literalized in Palantir’s “strategic partnership” with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Finalized in early 2024 during a high-stakes visit by co-founders Peter Thiel and Alex Karp to Tel Aviv, this pact seeks to harness advanced data mining for “war-related missions.” The software engineers of Palo Alto have been drafted as the new Inner Party: high priests of a digital armory. Their corporate identity is so entwined with the Zionist project that Palantir held its first board meeting of 2024 in Israel, signaling that their “Technological Republic” transcends borders when it comes to the enforcement of state power.

We are told that the age of “soaring rhetoric” and atomic deterrence is fading, replaced by a “hard power” built entirely on software. Here is the transition from the clumsy violence of the truncheon to the invisible violence of the code. Reports from Gaza suggest that Palantir provides the underlying scaffolding for a system where human intuition is replaced by mathematical certainty. By synthesizing massive datasets – surveillance footage, intercepted communications, and biometric records – the software assists in the production of targeting databases that function as automated “kill lists.”

Within the theater of Operation Epic Fury, Palantir’s software functions as the primary cognitive engine for the US and Israeli military, processing thousands of Iranian targets with a speed that defies traditional human oversight. By compressing the “kill chain” to mere minutes, the firm has transitioned from a mere vendor to a lead protagonist in a conflict where the unblinking eye of the machine determines the survival of entire populations. In this environment, Palantir’s “unflinching commitment” to those in harm’s way becomes a mandate to silence debate regarding the human cost of the occupation.

There is a cunning piece of managed perception Palantir uses to critique the “tyranny of apps,” suggesting that the small glass slabs in our pockets limit our “sense of the possible.” The proposed remedy is a shift from the trivial surveillance of the consumer “app” to the total surveillance of the “infrastructure.” It is the complaint that the telescreen is being used for games when it should be used for the Two Minutes Hate. While the public frets over screen time, Palantir’s infrastructure works behind the scenes to monitor “regressive” elements.

Amnesty International has documented how this “made-by-Palantir” technology poses a surveillance threat to protestors. It is the realization that a society is only “free” so long as its actions are “vital” to the State’s interests. The manifesto of the Technological Republic suggests that the “decadence” of the ruling class will be forgiven so long as they deliver security. This is the ancient bargain of the totalitarian: we will feed you and keep you safe from the current “Enemy,” provided you hand over the keys to your private life and the right to remain unobserved.

The architects of this system boast of an “extraordinarily long peace” made possible by American power and its allies. This is the ultimate slogan: War is Peace. To the billions living under the shadow of proxy wars and AI-driven policing, this “peace” looks remarkably like a spreadsheet of managed casualties. It is a peace of the graveyard, maintained by a “deterrence” built on software that purports to know a subject’s intent before they have even conceived a thought.

The rejection of “hollow pluralism” in favor of a civilizational ranking is not a deviation from history, but rather the latest iteration of a continuous imperial project. While Franz Boas attempted to introduce cultural relativism as a check on Western dominance, his efforts never achieved a true global consensus; instead, the underlying structure of Western imperialism simply evolved its justifications. Where the British Empire once spoke of the “White Man’s Burden” to civilize the “savage,” and the Cold War era spoke of “democratization” to modernize the “underdeveloped,” Palantir now speaks of “technological vitality” to vanquish the “regressive.” This civilizational supremacism is the bedrock of the partnership with the Israeli state, framing a brutal, decades-long occupation as a defense of “progressive values” and “Western civilization.” By reintroducing a hierarchy where “vital” cultures possess the moral authority to dominate “regressive” ones, Palantir provides the digital scaffolding for a new kind of algorithmic empire. It is a world where the software determines who is “civilized” and who is a “target,” ensuring that the legacy of imperialist expansion continues under the guise of technical necessity.

The manifesto poses a pointed, rhetorical question: “Inclusion into what?” The answer, built into the very structure of Palantir’s corporate philosophy, is a mandatory absorption into a singular, totalizing System: a digital panopticon where the Marine’s rifle and the citizen’s intimate data are managed by the same algorithmic entity. This system establishes a stark, neo-feudal class divide; it laments the “ruthless exposure” of the private lives of the elite, seeking to resurrect a protected “priesthood” of public servants who operate within a sanctuary of state-sanctioned forgiveness and anonymity. Meanwhile, the rest of mankind is subjected to the absolute “ruthless exposure” of their own data, stripped of the right to be unquantifiable. Under this regime, transparency is a weapon used downward to discipline the proles, while opacity is a shield used upward to protect the architects of the machine.

Palantir represents a new era of the military-industrial complex, one where data is the primary ammunition and ideology is the primary marketing tool. It seeks to upgrade the Republic into a fortress where the walls are made of code and the “long peace” is maintained by the stoic demeanor of the machine. The company frames its support for Israel as a defense of democratic survival, when in reality it is the chilling realization of high-tech surveillance used to enforce a permanent state of siege. As the international community begins to react – evidenced by the $24-million divestment by Norway’s Storebrand over concerns of “international law” violations – the core question of our age remains: Should the power to decide who is a “terrorist,” who is “regressive,” and who is a “target” to be outsourced to a private company with a political agenda? In the “Technological Republic,” the most rebellious act one can commit is to remain unquantifiable, to exist outside the data-mining net, and to insist that a human life is more than a data point in a war-related mission.

The upper age limit for military reservists in Germany should be raised to 70 given that people stay fit longer, Bastian Ernst, the newly elected president of the country’s Reservists’ Association, has said.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany has pursued a major recruitment drive, aiming to increase Bundeswehr personnel from the current 186,000 to 260,000 active soldiers and another 200,000 reservists by the mid-2030s.

While Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government has cited a perceived ‘Russian threat,’ President Vladimir Putin has dismissed as “nonsense” claims that Moscow harbors aggressive intentions against NATO states.

In an interview with the RND media outlet published on Tuesday, Ernst stated that “we should raise the age limit for reservists from 65 to 70.”

“If we are lamenting a shortage of young recruits, then we should also address the other end of the age pyramid,” he argued.

Ernst also called for scrapping rules that leave it up to reservists’ employers whether to allow them to participate in military training when called up.

Late last year, another EU and NATO member state, Finland, announced that it would raise the upper age limit for rank-and-file military reservists from 50 to 65, starting in 2026.

The UK government has similarly hiked the maximum liability age for reservists from 55 to 65.

Andre Denk, the head of the European Defense Agency (EDA), suggested earlier this month that compulsory military service could be reinstated in the EU.

He predicted that his home country of Germany would likely go down this path eventually. On January 1, a new law came into force introducing a voluntary model of recruitment. The legislation has sparked protests, with critics saying that it could potentially be a prelude to reinstating conscription, which was suspended in 2011.

Commenting on Germany’s continued military buildup earlier in April, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that it could lead to another tragedy on a global scale, referring to the Second World War.

Hungary has violated EU principles when it adopted a law to ban children from accessing LGBTQ content, the bloc’s top court has ruled, ordering Budapest to revoke the legislation.  

The EU Court of Justice announced the ruling on Tuesday, less than ten days after Viktor Orban suffered a decisive defeat during the general election to his longtime rival Peter Magyar.  

The legislation in question, Hungary’s 2021 law restricting or banning the “promotion” of homosexuality and gender change in media accessible to children, was adopted in accordance with the EU’s own guidelines on protecting minors from harmful content. Budapest’s interpretation of those rules, however, angered Brussels, with the EU Commission ultimately taking the case to the bloc’s top court. 

“The Court emphasizes, in particular, the margin of assessment that the Member States have, in the absence of harmonizing rules at the EU level, when defining the content, including audiovisual content, which is likely to impair the physical, mental, or moral development of minors,” the judiciary said in a statement, warning that said “margin of assessment” must be exercised in line with the bloc’s Charter.  

Budapest is now obliged to comply with the ruling and repel the law, the court said. Failure to comply may bring “further action seeking financial penalties,” it warned.  

The court’s ruling is bound to become a major test for Magyar, who now must choose between his pro-EU commitments and the risk of angering Hungary’s conservatives. Magyar has campaigned on fixing ties with Brussels and unblocking more than €16 billion ($19 billion) in the bloc’s funding for Hungary, which ended up frozen under Orban over rule-of-law and corruption allegations.

American surveillance tech contractor Palantir released a 22-point manifesto over the weekend, calling for a “new era” of AI-enabled US military supremacy. The internet went wild, with the text being labeled a blueprint for “technofascism.” 

Posted on X on Saturday, the document goes far beyond the typical mission statement of a Silicon Valley tech company. It outlines Palantir’s positions on the role of technology and military power in the 21st century, stating: “Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation;” “hard power in this century will be built on software;” “national service should be a universal duty,” “the postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone.”

Because we get asked a lot.

The Technological Republic, in brief.

1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.

2. We must rebel…

— Palantir (@PalantirTech) April 18, 2026

To understand how a private corporation can feel empowered to demand such far-reaching policy changes from the state, it’s important to understand what Palantir is, and how enmeshed with the ‘deep state’ it really is.

What is Palantir?

What does Palantir sell?

Palantir’s flagship product is an operating system called ‘Gotham’. Not a surveillance system as such, it pulls together and analyses existing data that may otherwise take days to sift through. For example, if US Central Command is planning a missile strike in a foreign country, Gotham can combine maps and satellite footage from that country, data from other agencies, including human intelligence from the CIA and signals intelligence from the NSA, and local surveillance data to present CENTCOM with potential targets.

Gotham and MOSAIC – another Palantir target identification program that pulls digital data including surveillance footage and IP addresses from a target area – use AI to label the most effective targets for military strikes. The US admits that it has used these programs to select targets during its ongoing war on Iran, but insists that humans make the final decision to fire.

Gotham has also been used as a policing surveillance tool. The Los Angeles Police Department, for example, uses Gotham to collect data on civilians – including names, addresses, social media activity, personal relationships, and surveillance photographs – in order to trace their connections to known criminals and predict the likelihood that they will go on to commit crimes.

Gotham can “centralize everything an agency knows about a person in one place, including their eye color from their driver’s license, or their license plate from a traffic ticket – making it easy to build a detailed intelligence report,” a former employee told Wired last year.

Who are Palantir’s customers?

Palantir’s client list is extensive. In the US it includes the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CIA, FBI, NSA, US Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Special Operations Command, as well as dozens or even hundreds of police departments and other law enforcement agencies. At present, there is no single, publicly-available list of Palantir customers within the US.

Abroad, Palantir’s technology is used by the British Ministry of Defense, Israel Defense Forces, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as police departments and government agencies in France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.

Why is a private surveillance tech company releasing a manifesto?

Palantir is at its core a data aggregation company, but one set apart by its clients, its marketing, and the ideological streak of its executives. The company markets itself not as a faceless seller of data collation and analysis software, but – in its own words – a provider of “an Al-powered kill chain” that enables “decision dominance from space to mud.” Palantir refers to its consultants as “forward-deployed software engineers” and its internal emails as “situational awareness” reports. CEO Alex Karp portrays himself as deeply involved in military decisions that he, at least on paper, shouldn’t be.

Palantir’s mission, he said on an earnings call last year, is “to scare enemies, and on occasion, kill them.” As the public face of the company, Karp has defended the IDF’s use of Palantir software to plan strikes in Gaza, and called for the US to prepare for a three-front war against China, Russia, and Iran.

The manifesto can be viewed as a continuation of this sales pitch. Adapted from Karp’s 2025 book, ‘The Technological Republic’, the 22 points envision a world in which Palantir’s products will be in even higher demand. Take the following points:

• “The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation.” 
  
  
• “The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.” 
  
  
• “The question is not whether AI weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose. Ouradversaries will not pause to indulge in theatrical debates about the merits of developing technologies with critical military and national security applications. They will proceed.”
  
  
• “The atomic age is ending. One age of deterrence, the atomic age, is ending, and a new era of deterrence built on AI is set to begin.”
  
  
• “The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone. The defanging of Germany was an overcorrection for which Europe is now paying a heavy price. A similar and highly theatrical commitment to Japanese pacifism will, if maintained, also threaten to shift the balance of power in Asia.”
  
  
• “Silicon Valley must play a role in addressing violent crime.”

Who are Karp and Thiel and why are they controversial?

These points reflect Karp’s ideological bent – he describes himself as “progressive, but not woke,” and a “tech nationalist.” Karp has also portrayed himself throughout the years as a “socialist” and a “neo-Marxist,” and has consistently voted Democrat, while praising some of Trump’s policies. His only consistent beliefs appear to be that “the West has a superior way of living,” and that this way of living must be defended “by applying organized violence.” Karp is a vocal defender of Israel, and has referred to pro-Palestinian protesters in the US as “an infection inside of our society.” 

Thiel, by contrast, is a much more partisan figure. An avowed conservative, he has donated to libertarian and Republican causes, and bankrolled Vice President J.D. Vance’s 2018 senatorial campaign. While Thiel has described himself as a libertarian, he donates to the interventionist Alliance of Democracies (established by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen) and sits on the steering committee of the Bilderberg group.

Thiel funded wrestler Hulk Hogan’s 2015 lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker, almost a decade after the news blog outed him as gay.

What are people saying about the manifesto?

Palantir’s manifesto has garnered an overwhelmingly negative reaction, with commentators describing it as “scary,” “technofascist,” and “the ramblings of a comic book villain.” 

“The manifesto’s vision...is that of a US government and its tech allies as dominant players, unconstrained by accountability,” political scientist Donald Moynihan wrote. “A world where soft power has real and lasting impact is simply less profitable for a company like Palantir relative to a world where we blow a lot of stuff up.” 

“If governments were actually doing their job, this Palantir document wouldn’t be a manifesto they proudly boast about, but a clear sign of the urgent need to purge its software from the public institutions it has infiltrated,” French entrepreneur Arnaud Bertrand wrote on X. “They’re effectively saying ‘our tools aren’t meant to serve your foreign policy. They’re meant to enforce ours’.”

Palantir Manifesto is much more important than Trump. Trump is insignificant pawn on the serious chess board. His role is total destruction. The preparations stage. Palantir is much more serious. It is the plan to safeguard the declining dominance of the West by radical means.

— Alexander Dugin (@AGDugin) April 19, 2026

The manifesto is more significant than any action by Trump, Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin argued on X. “Trump is insignificant pawn on the serious chess board. His role is total destruction. The preparations stage. Palantir is much more serious. It is the plan to safeguard the declining dominance of the West by radical means.”

A Russian national team has appeared at a major team sport event under the national flag and anthem for the first time since 2022.   

The women’s water polo team became the first Russian squad to participate in a competition in a full-fledged status after the World Aquatics lifted all the restrictions imposed on the country, as well as its ally Belarus, over the Ukraine conflict. The federation, which oversees competitions in swimming, diving, high diving, artistic swimming, water polo, and open-water swimming, has been easing restrictions on Russian and Belarusian athletes since 2024. This month it opted to lift them in full.  

“Senior athletes with Belarusian or Russian sport nationality will be permitted to compete in World Aquatics events in the same way as their counterparts representing other sport nationalities, with their respective uniforms, flags, and anthems,” the federation said earlier this month.  

The Russian female team faced off against Argentina during the second division competition underway in Malta, inflicting a decisive defeat of 33:11. The Russian team is now set to face Germany and South Africa later this week.  

The World Aquatics decision has sparked a storm of criticism from Kiev and its backers. Ukraine’s men’s team withdrew from the competition in protest. The EU commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef, harshly criticized the federation’s ruling, branding it a “grave mistake” and proclaiming that the bloc would not “accept this normalization.”   

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Western countries of politicizing sport and pressuring federations to exclude their athletes, as well as of adhering to double standards.

US President Donald Trump has claimed with his usual bluntness that Apple CEO Tim Cook once called him to “kiss his a*s.” 

The tech giant announced on Monday that Cook will resign as CEO and become executive chairman in September. He will be replaced by hardware chief John Ternus.

In a tribute to the man he famously called “Tim Apple,” Trump said they first spoke early in his first term, when Cook called him to present “a fairly large problem” that “only I, as President, could fix.” 

“When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling,” Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday, reviving the nickname that once went viral, before adding he was impressed to have the head of Apple calling to “kiss my ass.”

Behind the humor, the exchange points to a well-established pattern of close contact between Silicon Valley and political power. A Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday said Cook “effectively lobbied the White House directly” to secure outcomes such as tariff exemptions.

During the escalation of the US-China trade conflict in early 2025, Apple successfully avoided sweeping tariff hikes that threatened other major firms, largely due to Cook’s direct, behind-the-scenes outreach to senior officials and the White House.

He also publicly clashed with Cook over Apple’s refusal to scrap diversity policies, urging the company to abandon DEI programs he described as “a hoax that has been very bad” for the US.

Russia’s adversaries are busy thinking about how to “shape” the country’s victory in the Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested.

The president made the remarks in response to comments by the head of the local legislature of the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Evgeny Chintsov, during a meeting with representatives of the country’s municipalities. Chintsov said that “nobody, including the enemy” doubts that the conflict will result in Russia’s victory.

Putin agreed but appeared to caution against making overly bold statements prematurely. 

“Yes, they are just thinking about how to shape it all; we’ll see. However, military action is always a very complicated and dangerous thing. We know how everything will end, but we will not make any public statements about it. We will simply strive to achieve the goals we have set,” the president said.

Moscow has repeatedly signaled openness to resolve the hostilities through diplomacy, should its demands be met, while maintaining its readiness to achieve its goals by force should the negotiating efforts ultimately fail. Territorial issues seem to have become the main obstacle in the negotiations, as Kiev has repeatedly refused to withdraw its forces from the parts of Donbass it still controls.

A lone gunman has killed a Canadian tourist and wounded several others, including a Russian national, at the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico. The assailant took his own life after being injured and surrounded by security forces, according to the Mexican authorities.

The UNESCO-protected pre-Columbian archaeological site near Mexico City is one of the country’s top tourist attractions, drawing around 2 million visitors annually.

At around 11:30 AM on Monday, the man, armed with a handgun, ordered a group of tourists to lie prone atop the pyramid before firing multiple shots at them, as seen in eyewitness videos circulating online.

Atención: Tiroteo en las pirámides de Teotihuacán, en México. Se reporta una persona muerta. El atacante habría sido abatido por la guardia nacional. Vía @BluRadioCo pic.twitter.com/YxKV8DSx4V

— Ricardo Ospina (@ricarospina) April 20, 2026

In a video apparently recorded by one of the hostages, the gunman is heard threatening foreign tourists and saying the pyramid was originally built for human sacrifice.

🇲🇽 Trapped tourists on Teotihuacan pyramids lie down as threats are directed at them — the shooter roamed freely https://t.co/4T6pPXP1MY pic.twitter.com/DlvMhw26ug

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) April 21, 2026

At one point, some of the terrified visitors apparently made a dash for their lives, suffering injuries as they tumbled down the structure, while others sustained gunshot wounds.

According to the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Mexico, National Guard troops responding to the incident shot the attacker in the leg. He took his own life with his revolver once he was surrounded.

Additionally, an AI-generated image of the assailant alongside Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold – the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre – was reportedly recovered at the crime scene. Monday marked the 27th anniversary of the tragedy.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Embassy in Mexico confirmed that “as a result of a horrific act of gun violence, a Canadian was killed and another wounded in Teotihuacan.”

🚨 #ÚltimaHora
Así atienden a los lesionados tras el tiroteo en #Teotihuacán. 🎥 #VideoExclusivo
Julio César Jasso Ramírez, de 27 años, fue identificado como el responsable. Autoridades investigan posible premeditación del ataque.@FiscaliaEdomex ya realiza las diligencias. pic.twitter.com/znGZgb1EFv

— Mariana Hernández (@Mar_Hernandez_G) April 21, 2026

According to the Mexican authorities, a total of 13 people were injured in the incident, with eight remaining hospitalized. Among them are a Canadian woman, three Colombian nationals, six Americans, a Brazilian citizen, a Dutch woman, and a Russian man.

Anastasia Krychkova, Russia’s vice-consul in Mexico, has told Russian media that the Russian national is in non-life-threatening condition and is being treated for a tangential gunshot wound to his leg.

Several Ukrainian mobilization officers accused of taking bribes have been arrested in a dramatic roadside raid in the southern city of Odessa. Video footage reportedly of the incident shared by local media shows security service of Ukraine (SBU) officers descending on a van at a traffic light in the city as gunfire rings out.

The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of the country’s mobilization practices as its battlefield losses mount.

Images posted on local Telegram channels on Tuesday show several men in military uniform lying face down on a busy road in broad daylight as armed officers carry out the detentions. Gunfire can be heard during the operation. 

The detainees are reportedly officers from a Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC), suspected of attempting to forcibly mobilize a man before allegedly demanding $30,000-50,000 from him under threat of weapons, despite him reportedly having a legal deferment. Local media, citing sources, reported that the victim had alerted the SBU in advance.

Odessa’s regional recruitment center confirmed that its personnel had been detained. The heads of the regional and district recruitment centers have been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation. A criminal case has been opened, and a service inquiry is ongoing.

Reports and videos have been mounting across Ukraine of violent conscription practices known as ‘busification’ – snatching men off the streets and then shoving them into unmarked minibuses. Conscription officers have been recently caught on video attacking a 16-year-old boy in Odessa. Last month, a local resident fought off four Odessa TCC officers using a heavy metal chain, smashing their vehicle’s windows. In Kharkov, armed conscription officers reportedly shot and killed a man during an attempted forced mobilization in March.

With volunteer rates plummeting and the military suffering heavy casualties, less than 10% of new recruits join voluntarily, Ukrainian lawmaker Vadim Ivchenko admitted last month. Desertion and draft evasion remain rampant, with an estimated 2 million potential conscripts on a wanted list.

Japan has lifted restrictions on lethal arms sales, ending a ban on military exports imposed under the country’s pacifist constitution in 1947.

The move was announced on Tuesday by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hardline conservative who had long advocated revising Japan’s pacifist constitution and further beefing up the country’s offensive military capabilities. The PM said the decision comes amid an increasingly challenging security environment, when “no single country can now protect its own peace and security alone.”

“Until now, the overseas transfer of domestically produced finished products had been limited to search and rescue, transportation, surveillance, and minesweeping equipment (the so-called ‘five categories’), but with this amendment, transfers of all defense equipment will in principle become possible,” Takaichi said in a statement.

Japanese companies will now be able to sell arms to 17 countries with which Tokyo has defensive equipment and technology transfer agreements, including the US, the UK, Australia, and multiple Southeast Asian nations. The relaxing of arms exports supposedly does not affect the country’s pacifist commitments, the PM asserted. 

Tokyo formally renounced war under Article 9 of its post-World War II constitution and pledged to never maintain a military. In reality, however, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) have long become a full-fledged military, packed with the most sophisticated equipment. 

While the easing of the arms sales restrictions has been touted by Takaichi as a major achievement, the latest step towards full re-militarization is consistent with the decisions made by the previous Japanese governments. In late 2023, Tokyo performed the first overseas lethal arms sale since 1947, supplying domestically produced missiles for US-made Patriot anti-aircraft systems to Washington. The munitions are manufactured by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries under license from US defense contractors Lockheed Martin and RTX.

Soldiers from the UK’s elite SAS force are resigning in significant numbers over fears of prosecution following human rights investigations into alleged war crimes, British media reports.

The probe largely focuses on British special forces operations in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2013, as well as missions in Syria and Northern Ireland.

A public inquiry is examining claims that troops carried out extrajudicial killings during night raids, including the shooting of detainees and unarmed civilians, and whether evidence was falsified and senior officers failed to investigate or concealed wrongdoing.

Members of 22 SAS, the British Army’s elite special forces unit, have applied for “premature voluntary release,” multiple outlets reported on Monday, citing insiders. The exact number of departures has not been disclosed, though at least two squadrons (D and G) are understood to have been affected.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams told LBC radio on Tuesday the growing number of departures from 22 SAS was driven by concerns among serving troops that actions during operations could later lead to investigations or potential arrest under human rights law.

In 2022, a BBC Panorama investigation identified 54 people shot dead in suspicious circumstances by one SAS unit during a six-month tour of Helmand province, with unarmed Afghan men allegedly “routinely shot dead in cold blood” and weapons planted on them.

In one incident presented to the inquiry, special forces fired into a mosquito net until there was no movement, only to later find women and children, according to inquiry documents. The shooting was allegedly covered up and the soldier awarded.

A review prepared for the inquiry found a Royal Military Police investigation into alleged unlawful killings was undermined by delays and poor resourcing, according to Action on Armed Violence. Operation Northmoor, the main investigation, began only in March 2014 despite concerns emerging as early as 2011, and was closed in July 2019 in what the review described as an “inappropriate and premature” decision, leaving key lines of inquiry unexamined.

A wave of “fill up and flee” crime is sweeping petrol stations across the UK, while American drivers are waking up to drilled-through tanks and drained fuel as the US-Israeli war on Iran has sparked a spike in oil and gas prices across the globe, according to media reports and industry watchdogs.

The crisis has been mostly triggered by the de-facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint that handles roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply. The situation has been exacerbated by Iranian retaliatory strikes on the Gulf energy infrastructure – although the attacks have now been paused as part of a tentative US-Iran truce.

Petrol prices in the UK have surged to over £1.58 ($2.14) a liter on average, up from £1.33 before the war, according to the Royal Automobile Club. Rising prices encouraged a 27% increase in drive-off thefts, according to a crime prevention watchdog Forecourt Eye.

“At current fuel costs, motorists deliberately evading paying for fuel is costing the sector more than £100m a year,” Claire Nichol, executive director of the British Oil Security Syndicate, told The Sun, adding that operators should be “extra vigilant during peak periods.”

The picture is the same across the Atlantic. As of Monday, the American Automobile Association pegged the US national average at over $4 per gallon and up to $6 in California. Before the war, the AAA average was less than $3.

On Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright admitted that sub-$3 gas “might not happen until next year.” The comments triggered a sharp rebuke from US President Donald Trump who called the statement “totally wrong,” adding that the prices will fall “as soon as this [war] ends.”

Europe has seen prices soar as well, with media reporting a spike of up to 40% in diesel prices in Germany since the start of the war. In France, overall energy prices rose by almost 9% in March. The crisis has also led to a 51% rise in sales of electric cars across the continental part of Europe.

In Australia, Rowan Lee, the chief executive of the ACAPMA fuel industry watchdog, said that fuel theft from service stations had increased by between 8% and 30% nationally since late February. In addition, a study by the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research estimated that for an every 10 cent increase in petrol price, there are up to 120 additional reported incidents of service station fraud a month in the state alone.

In a sharp contract, Russia — which has no structural fuel deficit – has mostly evaded the spike in gas prices. As of late April, a liter of middle-grade petrol costs 68 rubles ($0.91), up slightly from 67 rubles in late February.

The US has scaled back intelligence sharing on North Korea with South Korea following an alleged leak by a minister of information thought to have come from sensitive sources, according to local media reports.

Seoul is one of Washington’s key allies in East Asia, alongside Japan, with cooperation spanning real-time intelligence sharing on North Korea, including missile warning data and satellite surveillance. Around 28,500 US troops are also permanently stationed in the country.

”It’s true that the US has cut back on sharing intelligence on North Korea collected through satellites from early this month,” a senior South Korean military official told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Tuesday. The restrictions “are related to information regarding parts of North Korea’s technology,” he added.

The dispute stems from remarks by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young during a March 6 parliamentary session, when he identified Kusong as a third North Korean uranium enrichment site alongside facilities at Yongbyon and Kangson. The statement – notable because Seoul had not previously officially confirmed the Kusong site – reportedly drew complaints from US officials through diplomatic and military channels, with Washington viewing it as a potential exposure of sensitive, possibly shared data. Chung has rejected the accusations, insisting his remarks were based on publicly available research and prior reports.

The developments come amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Earlier this month, North Korea conducted a series of weapons tests as it seeks to expand its military capabilities. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said nuclear weapons remain the country’s only effective deterrent against what he called US “aggression,” while officials in Pyongyang have recently described the South as the “most hostile enemy state” following drone-related incidents.

Israeli soldiers and settlers are systematically using sexual violence and harassment to force Palestinians from their homes in the occupied West Bank, according to a report by the West Bank Protection Consortium – a group of international humanitarian organizations. 

The report, published on Sunday and titled ‘Sexual Violence and Forcible Transfer in the West Bank’, documents at least 16 cases of conflict-related sexual violence attributed to Israeli settlers and soldiers over the past three years. The researchers noted that the actual number is likely significantly higher, as survivors often remain silent due to shame, stigma, and fear of retaliation associated with reporting such crimes. 

Victims who have chosen to come forward described harassment, assault, and intimidation inside their own homes, including forced nudity, invasive body cavity searches, exposure of genitals to minors, and threats of rape. Men and boys also reported forced stripping, sexualized humiliation, and degrading treatment. 

More than 70% of displaced households surveyed cited threats to women and children, particularly sexualized violence, as a decisive reason for leaving their homes and communities. 

The report documents cases attributed to Israeli soldiers as well as settlers, and adds that settler abuse often takes place in the presence of Israeli forces, who do not intervene or effectively investigate those responsible. It further notes that sexualized violence is not incidental but described as a deliberate tactic of displacement. 

Families have adopted coping strategies, including sending women and children away, withdrawing girls from school, or arranging early marriages to reduce exposure to harm. 

The Israeli government has long sought to annex the West Bank despite widespread international opposition to the move, including from US President Donald Trump. 

The Palestinian Presidency has strongly condemned Israeli advances into the territory, noting its latest land grab effectively voids multiple signed agreements and openly contradicts UN Security Council resolutions.

Israel’s latest land grab is dashing Lebanon’s hope of tapping offshore gas to solve its persistent energy shortage. Maritime energy prospects were the focus of a 2022 deal on a disputed border between the two nations.

On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published a map of a “forward defense line area” in southern Lebanon – effectively an occupation zone that some officials in West Jerusalem said needs to be depopulated for Israeli national security. The claimed area extends into the sea, cutting a roughly 9 km wide strip of Lebanese territorial waters.

⭕️ REVEALED: The Forward Defense Line and the area in which IDF soldiers are operating, following the ceasefire agreement.

5 divisions are operating simultaneously south of the Forward Defense Line in southern Lebanon in order to dismantle Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites… pic.twitter.com/eibA2pgDHe

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 19, 2026

In 2022, US-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon ended a long-time row over their maritime border, driven to a large degree by the potential presence of offshore natural gas fields in the disputed area. Unlike Israel, Lebanon is yet to tap into those riches. However, the IDF’s move makes prospecting by a Euro-Qatari conglomerate, announced in January, highly unlikely.

Does Lebanon have offshore gas fields?

Israel’s investment in offshore exploration in the past two decades paid off with the discoveries at Tamar, Dalit, Leviathan, Dolphin, Tanin, Aphrodite, Karish, and Tamar Southwest gas fields. Gas is trapped under a regional geological formation, with Israel, Egypt and Cyprus exploiting the reserves.

The Karish field is located close to Lebanon’s border, and there were strong indications that a larger field was located further to the north-east. Under the 2022 deal, Lebanon relinquished its claim on a part of Karish, but gained the opportunity to prospect in the Qana area, since the agreement solved the legal status of potential discoveries.

Beirut pinned much hope on finding reserves, which then-Energy Minister Walid Fayyad described as an equivalent of 20-year supply of electricity for Lebanon.

Is Lebanon benefiting from undersea riches? 

Exploration for offshore gas in Lebanon was launched in 2017 and is led by Total. The French energy giant not only has the technical expertise, but also could handle payments of royalties to West Jerusalem, making direct transactions between Israel and Lebanon unnecessary. The company initially partnered with Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek, though Qatar Energy replaced the latter in late 2022.

A few things to point out:

• There is no Qana gas field. No discovery was made when they drilled the Qana 31/1 well (it was a dry hole), which resulted in the abandonment of the Qana Prospect in Block 9.

• What the map in the QT doesn't show, and which is more important, is… https://t.co/lKdbm7pYvf pic.twitter.com/djVSxQi7FL

— Nicolas Sawaya (@sawaya_nicolas) April 20, 2026

The 2022 deal did not lead to a gas bonanza for Lebanon. While pumping at Karish started only four days after the agreement was announced, no reserves were uncovered at Qana. However, a new hope came in January, when Total reported plans to search in an area further away from the coast.

“Although the drilling of the Qana well on Block 9 did not give positive results, we remain committed to pursue our exploration activities in Lebanon,” CEO Patrick Pouyanne said.” We will now focus our efforts on Block 8.”

Among Lebanon’s offshore acreage only Block 9 lacks 3D seismic data, largely because the border dispute prevented studies, the Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT) said of the announcement.

When could Lebanon extract gas?

The JPT’s assertion that the environment of the UK’s sector of the North Sea and Lebanon’s EastMed are harsh in very different ways is quite an understatement. Israel has been in an on and off war with Lebanon for decades – formally since the Jewish state’s creation in 1948 – and the ongoing hostilities are causing damage in more direct ways.

Over one million people in Lebanon have requested relief after being displaced, as Israel struck dense population areas and demanded evacuation of a significant portion of its territory. Upwards of 2,300 fatalities have been reported since March 2, including more than 300 on April 8 in strikes on over 150 locations. Many commentators called the attacks an attempt to derail a ceasefire announced by the US and Iran that was supposed to suspend military action in Lebanon as well.

The destruction adds also to the cost Lebanon has been paying since October 2023, when a Hamas raid on Israel set off the conflagration in the Middle East. In just the first year of the conflict, Lebanon suffered $3.4 billion worth of physical damage and $5.1 billion in economic losses, according to a World Bank estimate.

The US-Israeli war with Iran is set to reshape global energy trade one way or another. Evidently West Jerusalem is now making sure that there will be no offshore silver lining for Lebanon.

Iran will not budge on talks while the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, Tehran’s envoy to Beijing, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, has said.

Iran complied with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) framework while the US exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) unilaterally, Fazli told RT India in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

Fazli said the conditions that the US is trying to impose do not show any reciprocity, adding: “What they are showing is actually the closure of the Hormuz Strait, and also they are threatening Iran militarily.”

The approach is “affecting the atmosphere of the talks,” he said. “What they expect from Iran is not dialogue, but surrender.”

Fazli stated that when the conditions are right, Iran will favor dialogue. The aims of Iran’s nuclear program are peaceful, and according to the country’s rightful needs, he added. “It has always been according to the IAEA’s laws and regulations.”

Fazli said that during the past two rounds of negotiations with Iran, when talks were progressing smoothly, the US “broke their promises and adopted actions against Iran which led to the current condition.”

For Iran, uranium enrichment is non-negotiable, he stressed. “Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and imposition of illogical requests upon Iran. That is our red line.”

Fazli’s remarks come as Iranian and US negotiators are set to arrive in Pakistan for a second round of talks as a shaky ceasefire is due to expire.

Vice President J.D. Vance will reportedly lead the US side, joined by President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Iran’s team will be headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Both sides are expected to arrive in Islamabad later on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe’s gold-backed currency (ZiG) is undervalued by nearly half and should be trading much stronger against the US dollar, the southern African nation’s central bank has said.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mushayavanhu said on Friday that the ZiG should be valued at around 15 to the US dollar, compared with the official rate of about 25, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

“If we wanted to buy back all the local currency in circulation using our reserves, we could do so at an exchange rate of around 15 to the dollar,” Mushayavanhu said.

The ZiG was launched in April 2024 to replace the Zimbabwe dollar, which had been battered by inflation and repeated bouts of depreciation. It was billed as a currency backed by gold and foreign exchange reserves, with Harare presenting it as a key plank in its push to stabilize prices and eventually reduce reliance on the US dollar. Zimbabwe held 3.4 metric tons of gold reserves as of June 2025, according to official data.

Despite lower inflation and efforts to stabilize the currency, more than 90% of transactions in Zimbabwe are still done in US dollars, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) said. In a December report, the group said confidence in the local currency remains low, with many businesses viewing its current stability as artificial and unsustainable. The IMF has also warned that the central bank continues to support the exchange rate by selling foreign currency, meaning it is still heavily managed.

“It’s a function of the confidence of the market in the central bank, and we’re still trying to rebuild that confidence,” Mushayavanhu said in an interview on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, according to Bloomberg.

“We had lost it and we’re trying to rebuild it,” the governor added.

The US and Israel have committed war crimes in Iran, Russian Ambassador to Tehran Aleksey Dedov has declared while inspecting the ruins of a hospital in the Iranian capital destroyed in the strikes.

The diplomat made the remarks to RT on Monday during a visit to damaged residential areas alongside a group of foreign ambassadors.

According to RT correspondent Saman Kojouri, the hospital was hit without prior warning while patients and staff were inside. It was not immediately clear how many people were injured.

“It’s a horrible thing to see,” Dedov said, assessing the damage to civilian medical infrastructure. “This is evidence of an inhumane approach by Israel and the US… it’s very clearly a war crime.”

You can see Saman Kojouri’s full report from Tehran here.

More than 14 million people have been forced to flee their homes since war broke out in Sudan three years ago, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Monday, describing the situation as “the world’s largest displacement and protection crisis.”

Sudan plunged into a civil war in April 2023 after a struggle for power broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict has been marked by widespread violence against civilians, including killings, sexual violence, and attacks on specific ethnic groups, the UNHCR said. Basic infrastructure has collapsed in parts of the country, with clinics closing and aid programs scaled back due to insecurity and funding shortfalls.

Nearly 12 million people remain displaced, including 6.8 million within Sudan, while around 4.5 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and Uganda, the agency said.

The UNHCR warned that its 2026 regional response plan, which requires $1.6 billion, remains severely underfunded, with only about a quarter of the needed financing secured so far.

Sudan has also topped the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Emergency Watchlist for global humanitarian crises for the third consecutive year, ahead of the Palestinian territories and South Sudan. At least three children a day are dying in El-Fasher, North Darfur due to food shortages, according to the Sudan Doctors Network. 

The crisis is increasingly destabilizing neighboring states, with violence spilling across the borders into countries such as Chad, which hosts more than 1.3 million Sudanese refugees.

Aid agencies warn that funding shortages mean basic needs are going unmet. Conditions in Chad are dire, with refugees often receiving less water than minimum standards require, while food assistance is being cut. The UN says it can currently support only four in ten refugees in Chad.

India has expanded the pool of Russian shipping insurers eligible to provide cover to vessels docking at its ports.

New Delhi has also extended permits to various other insurance companies as it seeks to provide cover for ships amid an increase in shipping traffic at its ports due to the Middle East conflict.

Nearly 100 ships are either waiting or seeking berthing at the port of Vizhinjam in Kerala alone, Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker from the southern state, posted on X.

The Directorate General of Shipping said the number of Russian insurers eligible to provide cover to vessels has increased to 11 from eight, according to Reuters.

India Bolsters Russian Marine Insurance Options Amid Hormuz Disruptions

🇮🇳’s Directorate General of Shipping has approved a further three Russian marine insurers at Indian ports – bringing the total to eleven. (Economic Times)

Gazprom Insurance and Rosgosstrakh Insurance are… pic.twitter.com/cKNhZxgy52

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 20, 2026

Gazprom Insurance Ltd., Rosgosstrakh Insurance Co., and Balance Insurance JSC were added to the directorate’s list, Bloomberg reported. Gazprom and Rosgosstrakh have approvals until February 19, 2027, while Balance’s term ends on August 19 of next year. Rosgosstrakh is under US sanctions.

Approvals for Soglasie Insurance Co. Ltd., Ugoria Group of Insurance Cos., Sberbank Insurance, and ASTK Insurance LLC will remain valid through February 20, 2027, India’s shipping agency said.

Dubai-based Islamic Protection & Indemnity Club has also been allowed to provide marine cover until February 19, 2027, it added.

The Russian entities are not a part of the International Group of ⁠Protection and Indemnity (P&I) clubs.

Members of the Europe-based International Group of P&I Clubs provide marine liability cover for about 87% of the world’s ocean-going tonnage, but do not cover Russian vessels due to sanctions.

P&I clubs are mutual insurance associations that provide liability cover for shipowners, including risks such as oil spills, cargo damage, and crew injury.

The Russian firms mostly provide cover to vessels loaded with Russian oil as Western service ‌providers skip Russian cargoes due to tougher sanctions, Reuters reported.

Insurance is vital for maritime transport, particularly energy cargoes, due to the risk of spills.

India is ‌the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer. New Delhi is relying on Russian oil to meet most of its ⁠demand as the US-Israeli war on Iran has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz.

On Sunday, the US extended a waiver allowing foreign buyers to take Russian crude loaded on tankers by about one month to mid-May.

Ugandan and Congolese troops have rescued more than 200 teenagers from captivity after raiding a camp run by the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the authorities said on Sunday.

The abductees were freed last week during an offensive along the River Epulu, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) said in a press release.

Several militants were killed and weapons seized during the joint operation at the camp, which the army said was under the control of “notorious” ADF commander Ssebagala, also known as Mzee Mayor.

“Among those rescued was a 14-year-old girl, the youngest, while the oldest was a 19-year-old boy. Many recounted harsh conditions in captivity, including lack of food, forced labor, and punishment for disobedience,” the UPDF said.

The army added that several were in poor condition and appeared to be suffering from untreated illnesses, including malaria, respiratory infections, and physical exhaustion.

Ugandan and Congolese forces launched Operation Shujaa in late 2021 to counter the ADF threat after a wave of deadly bombings and cross-border attacks, but the group has continued to stage deadly raids.

The Ugandan army, however, said joint operations have intensified since January, “leading to significant gains.”

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that it is “simply not respectful” for US President Donald Trump’s peace envoys to hold multiple rounds of talks in Moscow while never visiting Kiev.

Zelensky delivered the remarks on Monday in a wide-ranging interview with Ukrainian outlet Fakti ICTV when asked what the chances were of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner eventually coming to Ukraine.

In response, the Ukrainian leader preemptively downplayed any expectation of a visit, stressing that the media “should not turn the arrival of Jared and Witkoff into some kind of special sensation, because we are in contact with them.”

“I believe their visit is needed not by us, but by them. It is not respectful to travel to Moscow and not come to Kiev. It’s simply not respectful. I understand that our logistics are more complicated. But everyone is travelling,” he said.

Witkoff, who has played a key role in the peace process, has made six trips to Moscow since US President Donald Trump took office, including multiple meetings with President Vladimir Putin. Kushner has joined him on some of those occasions. Witkoff has held talks with Ukrainian officials, but never in Kiev. The most recent meeting was in Miami last month.

Zelensky rebuked the US negotiators earlier this month for their perceived proximity to Putin, lamenting they “spent too much time” with the Russian leader. “The problem is they trust Putin. And it’s a pity,” he said.

According to multiple media reports, Ukraine and the US have also been at odds over the terms for settling the conflict. Zelensky has claimed Washington was conditioning US post-war security guarantees for Kiev on a full military withdrawal from Russia’s Donbass. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has rejected the allegation, accusing Zelensky of “lies.”

Prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has issued a public apology for his role in getting US President Donald Trump into the White House, saying in a podcast published on Monday that he will be “tormented for a long time” by the damage he helped cause.

Speaking on his podcast with his brother Buckley Carlson, a former speechwriter for Trump’s 2016 campaign, Tucker Carlson said he and millions of other supporters had ignored “signs of low character” in their enthusiasm for Trump.

“You and I and everyone else who supported him… we’re implicated in this for sure,” Carlson said. “It’s not enough to say, well, I changed my mind or like, oh, this is bad, I’m out… In very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.”

Carlson, who has emerged as one of Trump’s most prominent conservative critics over the US‑Israeli war on Iran, apologized for “misleading people,” adding that the deception was not intentional but that he still bore responsibility. “I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” he said.

“If Russia had given a PAC for Trump... would that have been acceptable? Of course it wouldn’t have been,” Buckley Carlson said.

Despite being one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in recent years, Tucker Carlson has had a major falling-out with the US president. Earlier this month, the former Fox news host described Trump’s religion as “Israelism” rather than Christianity, accusing the American leader of launching the war on Iran “on behalf of Israel.” He also condemned Trump’s infamous AI‑generated image of himself as a Jesus‑like figure as a “mockery of God.”

Trump has responded with a series of personal attacks on his critics, calling them “stupid people” with “low IQs.” He also stated that Carlson was no longer part of the MAGA movement and described him as a “flailing fool” who should “see a good psychiatrist.”

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs has also listed Carlson among its top ten “anti‑Semite and anti‑Zionist” influencers for 2025, alongside Candace Owens and Greta Thunberg.

US President Donald Trump has extended the ceasefire with Iran. The move happened just hours before the fragile two-week truce had been set to expire on Wednesday.

However, he has vowed to maintain the naval blockade, touting it as leverage to force Tehran to make a deal.

“I have directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Vice President J.D. Vance had been expected to lead the US delegation in Islamabad, alongside Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. However, the trip was put on hold after Iranian officials said the talks were pointless as long as Washington maintained its “bullying.”

The US president later claimed that Washington would not lift the blockade, because “if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!” Iran promises to “reveal new cards on the battlefield.” Iranian officials have yet to formally respond to the US ceasefire extension.

• Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Trump of trying to turn talks “into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering.”
  
  
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the country “will not bow to coercion,” while Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi described the blockade of its ports as “an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire.”
  
  
• Separate talks between West Jerusalem and Beirut are set for Thursday to discuss extending their ceasefire, due to expire on Sunday, as the Jewish State continues strikes on southern Lebanon and Hezbollah reports retaliatory attacks on northern Israel.
  
  
• The Middle East conflict has triggered what IEA chief Fatih Birol has called “the biggest” energy crisis in history.
  
  This live coverage has ended.

Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Peter Magyar, has said he would order the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country, marking a sharp reversal of predecessor Viktor Orban’s policy.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Magyar said he would halt Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), initiated by Orban, and stressed that as a member state Budapest is legally obliged to enforce its arrest warrants. The ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel claimed earlier this week that Magyar had spoken with Netanyahu and invited him to visit Hungary after his Tisza party’s landslide win on April 12. Asked to clarify, Magyar confirmed the call but downplayed the invitation, saying he had spoken with multiple leaders and broadly invited them to attend an upcoming anniversary of the 1956 popular uprising. He added that Netanyahu was informed Hungary would seek to remain in the ICC – and what that implies.

Magyar’s position marks a direct break with the stance of the outgoing government, which rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction and guaranteed Netanyahu safe passage. Orban dismissed the warrant as “brazen and cynical.” Last April, Budapest moved to withdraw from the ICC, arguing the court had become politicized. The country’s parliament approved the move in May, though under the Rome Statute withdrawal only takes effect a year after formal UN notification, currently set for June 2.

At Monday’s press conference, he also urged Kiev to reopen the Russian Druzhba pipeline and said Hungary would not accept “any kind of blackmail” over energy supplies. He previously said Budapest would continue buying Russian energy, prioritize the cheapest oil, and signaled he would “pick up” if Russian President Vladimir Putin called.

China has increased its direct flights to India amid warming ties between the Asian nations.

On Tuesday, Air China will resume its direct service between Beijing and Delhi, the Global Times reported.

The Beijing-Delhi direct flight is the second route to India resumed by Chinese airlines in less than a week.

China Eastern Airlines relaunched its direct service between Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan Province and the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on April 18.

An Airbus A330 aircraft will run the Beijing-Delhi flight, with the service available on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Cleared For Take Off: China-India Air Links Roaring Back To Life

Direct connectivity between China and India is picking up pace, with Air China resuming Beijing-Delhi flights three times a week, according to Global Times.

China Eastern Airlines recently restarted… pic.twitter.com/bZf1OzHuj1

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 20, 2026

Fares start from $523, with flights departing the Chinese capital at 3:15 PM and arriving in Delhi at 8:20 PM local time.

China Eastern’s Kolkata flight was the carrier’s latest expansion of its service between China and India, following the resumption of the Shanghai-Delhi route in November 2025.

The Kolkata service has six weekly round-trip flights.

Indian airlines have also started similar services, with the South Asian nation’s largest carrier, Indigo, launching daily direct flights between Kolkata and Shanghai on March 29.

Before that, IndiGo resumed the Kolkata-Guangzhou route and launched the Delhi-Guangzhou route.

Direct flights between China and India officially resumed in October 2025 after a five-year hiatus as ties between the two nations improved. They were suspended at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. A border clash in June of that year further strained relations.

The Asian neighbors have also eased visa restrictions for each other’s citizens over the last year.

In March, India relaxed restrictions on Chinese investments in selected sectors, marking a reset of economic ties, Reuters reported. The countries have also agreed to improve border management and reopen cross-border trade.

Trade between China and India reached a record $155 billion in 2025.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has been on a European “concert tour” begging for more money and weapons for years, but the Middle East is now taking up all the attention, Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, has said.

Speaking at a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine on Monday, Nebenzia accused Kiev and its backers of staging a “cheap, shoddy show” in the UN halls as they fear that the Iran war is drawing attention away from Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.

Zelensky, a comedian-turned-politician, “is perfectly aware that moving the Ukrainian file to the backburner of international politics due to the escalation in the Middle East can significantly reduce the profits reaped from his concert tour over European countries,” Nebenzia said.

The Ukrainian leader has been courting his Western backers, particularly in the EU, for weapons and financial assistance for years, while constantly complaining that the aid is not enough.

According to the Kiel Institute, Ukraine received €207 billion ($243 billion) from Europe and €115 billion ($135 billion) from the US since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. Media reports suggest, however, that the Iran war could slow the pace of deliveries.

Nebenzia noted that faced with this conundrum, Zelensky “did not lose his bearings,” and started raving about Ukraine “singlehandedly unblock[ing] the Strait of Hormuz.”

The envoy was referring to Zelensky’s claims that Ukraine provided Gulf countries with drone expertise, and in return securing defense deals. US President Donald Trump, however, dismissed the offer of support from Kiev, saying “the last person we need help from is Zelensky… we know more about drones than anybody.”

Zelensky’s claims about Ukraine’s decisive role in the Hormuz crisis are “nothing but a figment of the imagination of the thieving Kiev ringleader, and he is trying to sell his whimsical illusions to anyone willing to pay for them,” Nebenzia said.

He also highlighted the dire situation for Ukraine at home. “Ordinary Ukrainians are refusing to fight for the blatantly corrupt country’s leadership, they are dodging the draft, deserting,” he said, adding that reluctant recruits are being maimed, stunned, and nearly beaten to death by recruitment officers.

”Is this the kind of ‘security’ Zelensky is looking to ‘export’ throughout the globe?” Nebenzia said.

The US is pushing for a “win-win” trade deal with India, Washington’s ambassador to New Delhi, Sergio Gor, has said.

An Indian delegation will arrive in Washington to finalize a trade deal this week, Gor said on Monday.

The talks between Washington and New Delhi will be a “great step” to finalize a pact, Gor said in a post on X.

“A win-win for both nations,” Gor added.

The Indian trade delegation will be arriving in Washington this week. A great step to finalize our bilateral trade deal. A win-win for both nations!

— Ambassador Sergio Gor (@USAmbIndia) April 20, 2026

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

In-person meetings would be held to shape the agreement’s structure and timelines, he said.

India’s trade surplus with the US narrowed to $34.4 billion in fiscal year 2026 from $43 billion a year ago. Exports to the US rose 1% to $87 billion, while imports jumped 16% to $53 billion.
In April, China said it became India’s largest trading partner in the 2025-26 financial year, overtaking the US. Washington was New Delhi’s largest trading partner for four years in a row until 2024-25.

In February, Washington reduced India’s tariff burden to 18% from the earlier 50%. Half of the tariff was for New Delhi’s imports of Russian oil.

Talks with the US then came to a halt after the US Supreme Court struck down tariffs on imports from various countries.

The US will not allow India to emerge as a strong competitor like China, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in March.

Washington views the 2001 decision to facilitate China’s entry into the World Trade Organization as a strategic miscalculation, Landau added.

India has recently signed trade deals with the UK, Oman, New Zealand, and the EU, as it looks to diversify export markets and reduce reliance on the US.

Iranian officials have struck a defiant tone ahead of a possible new round of talks with Washington, warning that Tehran is prepared to “reveal new cards on the battlefield” while rejecting any negotiations conducted “under the shadow of threats.”

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused US President Donald Trump of trying to turn negotiations into “a table of surrender,” and said Iran has spent the past two weeks preparing new military options.

“Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table – in his own imagination – into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.

The temporary ceasefire brokered by Pakistan is set to expire on Wednesday, after the first round of talks in Islamabad last weekend failed to produce a breakthrough and Trump imposed a US military blockade of Iranian ports.

Trump warned on Sunday that if Iran doesn’t accept his administration’s “fair and reasonable deal,” the US will “knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran.”

According to Axios, Iranian negotiators had been stalling amid reported pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to take a harder line and refuse talks unless the US first ends its blockade. The report claimed that Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators had urged Tehran to attend, and that Iran’s team reportedly received the green light from the supreme leader on Monday night.

Tim Cook will step down as Apple’s chief executive on September 1, ending a nearly 15-year run at the helm of the iPhone maker and handing over to senior hardware executive John Ternus.

Cook took over as CEO in August 2011 after Steve Jobs resigned just six weeks before his death, and he presided over a period of huge commercial expansion that saw Apple’s market value rise from roughly $350 billion to around $4 trillion. During his tenure, Apple expanded its wearables and services businesses, rolling out products and platforms such as the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Music, and Apple Pay.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,” Cook said in a press release on Monday. He is set to remain with the company as executive chairman to “assist with certain aspects,” including “engaging with policymakers around the world.”

“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” Ternus said, promising to “lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”

The leadership transition comes as Apple faces growing pressure to prove it can keep pace in AI, an area in which critics and investors have argued that the company has moved too slowly compared with its rivals. Several reports suggest that Ternus will inherit a business that remains highly profitable but is under scrutiny over its AI strategy and future product pipeline.

Israel is promoting a new festival called ‘Pride Land’ as the “biggest LGBTQ+ festival ever in the Middle East.” The event at the Dead Sea is billed as a four-day gathering of performances, parties, exhibitions, and queer culture.

The official Israel account on X said on Monday that the festival would bring “four days of nonstop celebration, community and connection.” The Jerusalem Post has described it as the largest festival of the kind in the region’s history.

According to the official website, ‘Pride Land’ is scheduled for July 1-4, 2026 in Ein Bokek on the Dead Sea and is being sold as a destination-style event rather than a single parade. Organizers are offering hotel-and-ticket packages, including all-access wristbands, and promoting a central events space called DOME X.

Pride rises at the lowest place on earth 🌈 This June the Dead Sea becomes Pride Land, the biggest LGBTQ+ festival ever in the Middle East. Four days of nonstop celebration community and connection.

Israel celebrates its LGBTQ+ community bigger than ever 💙 pic.twitter.com/JxqjQGNB7z

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) April 20, 2026

The website says the program will include performances, parties, exhibitions, art, and queer culture – along with family-oriented activities and child-friendly areas alongside the broader entertainment lineup.

The event is being promoted against a mixed legal backdrop for LGBTQ rights in Israel. Same-sex marriage is not performed in Israel because marriage is handled through the religious authorities rather than civil law.

The label ‘biggest ever’, however, appears to be a promotional claim rather than objective fact. Israel has long marketed Tel Aviv Pride as one of the region’s biggest LGBTQ events. The annual event was canceled during the Gaza war in 2024, as well as in 2025 during the US-Israeli strikes against Iran.

Satirical outlet The Onion is seeking to take temporary control of Alex Jones’ Infowars and transform it into what its executives describe as a parody version of the conspiracy platform, under a new court-backed proposal tied to the broadcaster’s Sandy Hook defamation liabilities.

The plan, submitted in Texas state court, would give Global Tetrahedron, the parent company of The Onion, a six-month lease over Infowars’ intellectual property and operations at $81,000 per month, with an option to extend the arrangement for another six months. The proposal has backing from the court-appointed receiver and lawyers for the Sandy Hook families, but it still requires final judicial approval.

The Onion wants to repurpose the Infowars website and social media accounts for satirical content. Ben Collins, the outlet’s chief executive, said the goal is to build it into a broader comedy platform. Comedian Tim Heidecker is expected to serve as creative director if the deal goes ahead.

Shirtless Alex Jones Jumps in to Explain the TRUTH About the Deceivers at THE ONION: “They’re In Deep Sh*t... Just Because You’re Wearing My Shirt, Don’t Mean You’re Me!”@HarrisonHSmith

🔴WATCH LIVE NOW NOW NOW NOW!👇https://t.co/qwRESE12vh pic.twitter.com/BjaVKk7OQq

— INFOWARS (@infowars) April 20, 2026

Jones has pushed back against the plan, accusing The Onion of trying to misrepresent Infowars and confuse viewers by presenting itself as the real outlet under the guise of parody. He argued that parody does not entitle anyone to take over another platform’s identity, adding that his team has “already checked with lawyers,” and is already pursuing legal action against what he described as politically aligned law firms.

Jones insisted that even if he loses control of Infowars’ current site or studio, he and his team will continue broadcasting elsewhere through what he described as an expanded Alex Jones Network and new websites already being prepared.

Jones’ media company, Free Speech Systems, entered bankruptcy proceedings as he faced more than $1 billion in defamation judgments stemming from his false claims about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The US Supreme Court later declined to hear his appeal, leaving the roughly $1.4 billion judgment in place.

A hearing on the latest licensing arrangement is reportedly set for April 30 in Travis County, Texas, and Jones could still appeal any adverse ruling.

The Irish government is aiming to terminate government-provided accommodation for Ukrainian migrants within a year, and will offer payouts to encourage repatriation, Minister of State for Migration Colm Brophy has said.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, around 125,000 Ukrainians have received temporary protection in Ireland, according to Brophy. From July 2022 to March 2026, Dublin reportedly spent more than €438 million ($516 million) to provide half of them with housing.

Dublin has also shelled out nearly €400 million in “political, humanitarian, economic and non-lethal military aid” for Kiev, while other EU members have funneled billions of euros into the conflict. Russia has warned that the EU’s support for Ukraine has only served to prolong the hostilities.

“I don’t see why we as taxpayers should be paying out millions and millions and millions… because no other EU state is providing that,” the minister stated, adding that the “timeline is the critical thing here.” The termination of the program has yet to be finalized at the government level, he said.

According to Brophy, the Irish government is also considering offering generous financial incentives to encourage Ukrainians to return home.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced last week that Berlin and Kiev will coordinate efforts to return military-age Ukrainian men residing in Germany to their home country.

Increased military use has put a strain on the key NATO jet fuel pipeline, the Central Europe Pipeline System (CEPS), disrupting deliveries of commercial supplies, Bloomberg reports.

The Cold War-era pipeline, which runs through Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, has long been certified for civilian use, becoming an important component of the EU market. While the pipeline primarily carries jet fuel, it is also capable of transporting diesel and other petroleum products.

Military deliveries still have priority while moving through the pipeline, and NATO has been actively using it over the past two months, Orkhan Rustamov, the CEO of trading company Alkagesta, told Bloomberg on Monday.

The increased use is reportedly straining the system, particularly in Rotterdam, pushing out civilian jet fuel supplies and reducing deliveries to key European airports, including a major hub in Frankfurt, Germany.

While it is not immediately clear what prompted the increased military use of the pipeline, it comes amid the US-Israeli war with Iran.

The war with Iran has strained global flight connections, with jet fuel prices spiking and prolonged disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic route that carries around 20% of the world’s oil. The International Energy Agency has warned of rising market volatility and possible jet fuel shortages within six weeks if disruptions continue. A number of airlines have announced cuts to their schedules in an effort to contain the damage inflicted by the Middle East crisis.

Estonia has dismissed Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s claims that Russia could be preparing to attack NATO’s Baltic members, saying its intelligence does not indicate any plans, according to public broadcaster ERR. Moscow has long described claims of a “Russian threat” as “nonsense” used by the US-led military bloc’s European members to justify increased defense spending.

Zelensky told local media over the weekend that Russia could be planning a new conscription drive to step up its military operation in Ukraine or launch a smaller one against one of the Baltic states, which he said “are not prepared for strong resistance.”

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told ERR on Monday that, since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Kiev has repeatedly claimed that Russia plans on attacking the Baltic nations.

The NATO member’s Foreign Intelligence Service (EFIS) concluded in its annual threat assessment report, published in February, that Russia poses no threat to Estonia in the coming years, stating that there is “no cause for panic.”

Estonia has been among Ukraine’s top supporters and has pushed for increased military spending in Europe. Tsahkna said recently that Tallinn is not against the idea of hosting NATO nuclear weapons, adding that the country will be ready if the bloc decides to station them there.

Moscow has rejected the claims. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Russia has no reason to attack the EU or NATO unless attacked first, and that it is the European NATO members that “are seriously preparing for war against the Russian Federation and... are not even hiding it.”

French investigators have summoned X owner Elon Musk for a “voluntary interview” which they say could shed light on allegations that the platform was involved in the spread of AI-generated child sexual abuse images and deepfake content.

The French authorities have had a long-running feud with the US-based billionaire, casting his social media platform as a potential threat to democracy, while Musk says he is defending freedom of speech.

According to the Wall Street Journal, France attempted to convince the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to cooperate in the probe – only to be rebutted over what the DOJ suspected was an attempt “to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding.”

Here is what we know about the Musk-France feud so far.

How did the feud between Musk and France start?

The probe dates back to January 2025, when a formal complaint against X was lodged by a French MP and a public official. According to reports at the time, the documents cited a “major modification in the algorithm used by the X platform,” resulting in a surge of “hateful, racist, anti-LGBTQ, or homophobic” content designed to “skew democratic debate in France”.

Around the same time, Musk was openly endorsing European right-wing parties, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Reform UK, and France’s National Rally.

A formal criminal investigation over alleged algorithm manipulation and illicit data extraction was opened in July 2025 and handed to the national police.

X denied any wrongdoing, describing the probe as an attack on free speech that distorted domestic law to “serve a political agenda.” The platform also complained that the authorities classified it as an “organized gang” and said it would not cooperate, adding that prosecutors were steering the investigation toward a predetermined outcome.

What has France accused X of?

The probe has since been expanded to include the following allegations:
• Complicity in the possession of pornographic images of minors
• Complicity in the organized distribution of these images
• Defamation of personal image through sexual deepfakes
• Denial of crimes against humanity (Holocaust denial)
• Fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system by an organized group
• Falsification of the operation of an automated data processing system by an organized group
• Operating an illegal online platform by an organized group

Has controversial sexualized content been generated by Grok and X?

X found itself in hot water in late 2025 and early 2026 when the Grok AI assistant generated an estimated 3 million sexualized images, including thousands that appeared to depict children. Grok’s ‘spicy mode’ reportedly sexualized public figures such as Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, and former US Vice President Kamala Harris.

In response to the backlash, in January, X restricted Grok’s ability to edit photos of real people and show them in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where it is illegal. According to NBC, however, Grok still continues to fulfill these requests in some cases.

Holocaust controversy

In November 2025, Grok answered questions about common myths surrounding the Holocaust in a thread under a post by a convicted French Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi militant, writing that the gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than mass murder – effectively denying well-established Nazi crimes.

Grok later backpedaled, calling its statement ‘false’ and attributing it to “an anomalous glitch in an early output.” Musk explained the incident by saying that Grok “was too compliant to user prompts” and the issue was being dealt with.

The authorities in France – which has strict Holocaust-denial laws – expanded the probe to include the incident.

’Free speech is pure bulls**t’

French President Emmanuel Macron has made no secret of his intention to introduce more guardrails for regulating social media. In February, in one of his most brazen takes on the matter, he blasted social media platforms for “having no clue about how their algorithm is made.”

He has also accused X of being “dominated by far-right content,” suggesting that the platform is no longer neutral because of the political affiliation of its owner.

Is Washington cooperating in the probe against Musk and X?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ told the French law enforcement authorities that it would not facilitate their efforts to investigate X. The letter seen by the outlet argued that the investigation “seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas,” and that French requests for US assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office said it has no knowledge of the DOJ letter.

The Trump administration has long criticized the EU over what it describes as “digital censorship” and “regulatory suffocation” – including the bloc’s strict digital market guidelines, which the administration claims discriminate against US-based tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has turned EU governance into a “super authoritarian” system, former European Council President Charles Michel has said, accusing her of overstepping her mandate.

Michel, who worked alongside von der Leyen for five years from 2019 until 2024, has become the latest figure to criticize her leadership style.

“There is a super authoritarian governance,” he said in an interview with The Brussels Times on Monday. “[The European] commissioners have absolutely no role anymore.” 

Under EU treaties, the 27 commissioners collectively propose laws, enforce treaties, and manage the EU budget, while the president sets political guidelines and allocates portfolios. Von der Leyen has been accused of concentrating power in her own office, reducing commissioners to little more than administrators.

Tensions between the bloc’s top officials spilled into the public during the so-called “Sofagate” incident in Ankara in April 2021, when Michel took the only available chair next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leaving von der Leyen without a seat and forcing her onto a sofa. At the time, von der Leyen suggested sexism was at play.

“The protocol was perfectly respected,” Michel insisted. “The Commission decided to instrumentalize this incident to try to grab more power… and to get involved in things that are not [its] responsibility.” 

Von der Leyen has also reportedly proposed creating a new intelligence cell that would bypass the EU’s existing intelligence center, while seeking to concentrate authority at the expense of the bloc’s diplomatic service.

Von der Leyen’s presidency has been shadowed by controversy. The so-called “Pfizergate” affair, involving undisclosed text messages between her and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla raised questions about transparency. In January, she survived a fourth no-confidence vote in the European Parliament.

Oil prices jumped on Monday after the US seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz, dimming prospects for peace in the war on Iran and raising fresh supply concerns. 

Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate jumped more than 6%, to above $96 and $88 per barrel, respectively, in the latest swing after weeks of volatile trading. The gains followed renewed disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend after a brief reopening late last week. Tehran has warned the route will remain restricted unless the US naval blockade is lifted. 

On Sunday, a US warship fired at and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel, the Touska, in the Gulf of Oman. According to the US military, the ship was attempting to breach the naval blockade and reach Bandar Abbas via the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran condemned the move as “armed maritime piracy,” accusing Washington of violating the ceasefire in place since April 8 and warning of retaliation. 

The US-Israeli bombing campaign prompted Iran to restrict passage through the strait, a conduit for roughly 20% of global oil, for “enemy ships,” snarling supply chains and sending prices higher. Prices had eased earlier this month during the first round of US-Iran talks in Islamabad on hopes of the strait reopening, before rebounding after the negotiations collapsed.  

Analysts say markets are reacting primarily to the threat of reduced supply, with traders pricing in further disruptions to Gulf exports. Kuwait, a major crude exporters, has reportedly declared force majeure on some oil and fuel shipments.  

OPEC+ production limits and higher shipping and insurance costs are constraining producers’ ability to replace lost barrels. Industry estimates suggest hundreds of millions of barrels are now effectively stranded behind the chokepoint. 

The Hormuz disruption has triggered ripple effects across the global economy. The International Energy Agency has warned of rising market volatility and possible jet fuel shortages in Europe within six weeks. Humanitarian organizations have also flagged knock-on risks to global food security as fertilizer and agricultural supply chains are affected. 

Europe is widely seen as one of the biggest losers from the Hormuz blockade due to its heavy reliance on Middle Eastern oil after sanctioning Russian supplies. Moscow, by contrast, has benefited from higher prices and stronger demand for its crude, with estimates putting the windfall at up to $150 million a day. 

Few figures in contemporary American politics have risen as swiftly or as improbably as US Vice President J.D. Vance, propelled from relative obscurity to the very apex of power. Yet this meteoric ascent carries its own perils: What appears as extraordinary fortune conceals, under the surface, the very conditions of strategic entrapment.

The crucible of power: Vance’s dual test of survival

Entrusted with the fraught assignment of leading negotiations with Iran, a high-stakes diplomatic mission that promises prestige yet cloaks hazard, Vance confronts a classic poisoned chalice.

The role confers visibility and the semblance of influence, yet concentrates the risk of failure upon Vance. At the same time, the treacherous charge provides cover for his principal, US President Donald Trump, who preserves the ability to appropriate any gains as his own. This asymmetric risk burden is only one dimension of the vice-presidential existential predicament.

Beyond the rigged assignment itself lies a more diffuse but equally perilous hazard: The taint of association. Entanglement with the administration’s overall record, regardless of the specific brief in the Iran file, threatens to imprint itself indelibly upon the vice president’s public identity, casting him as the face of outcomes he has never been able to control.

Yet diagnosis is only half the story: The predicament demands not just analysis, but a clear-eyed strategic response. What the vice president needs now is nothing less than a deliberate, finely calibrated, and truly transformative strategy to prevent both traps from sealing his political fate.

The V-Strategy: Resolving the vice-presidential dilemma

To escape the catch-22, Vance should, as a first recourse, seek to persuade Trump to reverse course across contentious policy fronts. Given Trump’s well-documented intransigence, such an effort is unlikely to prevail.

Should this prelude fail, Vance might attempt to establish a carefully choreographed good cop-bad cop arrangement, casting himself as the moderating counterpoint. Yet this, too, is improbable. Trump’s political instinct, though inclined toward provocation, remains fundamentally anchored in the pursuit of personal acclaim, the hallmark of the archetypal Narcissist.

Absent both a substantive policy shift and a coordinated dual-role configuration, the vice president must adopt a two-pronged approach, encapsulated in the V-Strategy (the first letter standing for both Vance and Victory). It enables a complicit deputy to remain viable as a presidential contender through a disciplined strategy of differentiation and contestation.

In the first step, Vance must escape the immediate gilded trap of the Iran portfolio; second, beyond Iran, he must mitigate the longer-term risk of being permanently tainted by association with Trump.

Though the moment is already advanced, it is not yet so late that such strategic action would be seen as a precipitous abandonment at the point of collapse, a move often condemned as jumping ship. The broader public has yet to grasp the full extent of the unfolding disaster, a picture that may sharpen after midterm elections unfavorable to Republicans.

Vance can always frame his earlier restraint as loyalty and a commitment to unity in crisis, and any later break as an act of civil courage rather than betrayal – after all, no legacy is so rich as honesty.

As a precondition for strategic buffering and leverage, the vice president must become fully power-literate, developing a granular understanding of the political forces at work.

The Poisoned Chalice Equation: Cracking the code of power

The underlying risk of Vance’s hazardous commission can be expressed plainly in what may be termed the Poisoned Chalice Equation (PCE):

Poisoned Chalice Risk = (Responsibility – Authority) × Visibility × Uncertainty.

In simple terms, the more you are held accountable for outcomes beyond your control, the greater your public exposure, and the less predictable the outcome, the more likely you are to bear the blame. When the stakes are high, such risk elevation translates directly into a commensurate increase in the expected total cost of your engagement.

In Vance’s case, responsibility is substantial, authority partial, visibility maximal, and uncertainty profound, while the mission itself is inherently world-shaping. This combustible configuration demands careful calibration of each variable to contain blame exposure and mitigate the attendant risk of lasting reputational damage.

Fortuitously, the PCE serves not only to illuminate power dynamics but to actively shape them, enabling the construction of a protective buffer while opening avenues for transformative leverage.

Calibrated action: Turning the Poisoned Chalice to strategic advantage

As regards the Iran file, Vance must not simply accept the chalice unaltered, but expose its origin, transmute its contents, and determine who must drink the refashioned draught. The cumulative effect of these mutually reinforcing actions is paradigm-shifting.

By deliberately recalibrating the equation’s variables – narrowing the responsibility gap, attenuating visibility, and tempering uncertainty – Vance can materially reduce the hazard it describes. More than that, he may transform a liability into an influential platform for projecting strategic acuity, converting exposure into credibility and risk into political capital.

To begin with, the vice president can both redress the disparity between responsibility and actual power and diffuse concentrated visibility by dispersing ownership of process and outcome in equal measure. At the same time, Vance should strengthen his capacity to shape outcomes in his favor by securing greater operational latitude from Trump and broadening his coalition of support.

The poisoned chalice exerts its toxic effect only when accountability can be individualized, with the equation’s variables being concentrated in a single actor. By embedding the negotiations within a multilateral, institutional framework – foregrounding the roles of the president, security agencies, Congress, and allies – Vance can effectively dilute the toxic attribution of responsibility focused on him alone while simultaneously reducing perilously personalized visibility.

What ultimately shapes public perception is not the substantive result of negotiations, but the authority to define their meaning. Vance must therefore establish the criteria of success for which he will be held accountable before they are imposed upon him.

Should he permit the negotiations to be judged merely by the crude binary metric of ‘deal or no deal’, he incurs responsibility for an optimistic outcome that is at present rendered unlikely by structural impasse.

By cultivating a reputation for sobriety, acknowledging constraints rather than inflating prospects, Vance can invert the legacy of overconfidence associated with Trump, substituting disciplined realism for rhetorical excess. In doing so, he stands to mitigate the risk that an inconclusive result will be construed as failure.

Crucially, Vance must publicly reframe his mandate as one of patiently clarifying systemic conditions and deliberately charting a viable path forward rather than immediately delivering a sweeping, definitive breakthrough. This entails candidly delineating the systemic boundaries imposed by American positions, Iran’s own red lines, and the fragmented diplomatic landscape.

For instance, Vance may publicly underscore that maximalist US demands such as the relinquishment of nuclear rights, Iran’s counter-insistence on unencumbered sovereignty, and the multiplicity of mediators render a swift deal structurally unlikely.

At the same time, he could consistently highlight incremental progress such as confidence-building measures or verifiable concessions that yield partial de-escalation.

Taken together, he thus can recalibrate expectations, diffuse ownership, and recast even the absence of a final agreement as strategic restraint rather than personal failure.

By grounding expectations in reality and shifting evaluation from personal performance to systemic dynamics, while operating within an expanded coalition of support, Vance is bound to transform himself.

Instead of remaining a highly exposed, disposable agent of all-or-nothing outcomes, the vice president stands to evolve into an indispensable interpreter of both structural conditions and continuous progress. In doing so, he shifts the interpretative frame from dichotomous judgment in a zero-sum game to a more differentiated and sustainable win-win dynamic.

Finally, by pivoting from the extreme contingency of a putative, amorphous grand bargain, purported to resolve a conflict rooted in the 1979 Revolution in a single stroke, to a more feasible, concrete, near-horizon incremental settlement, Vance is also bound to reduce uncertainty, the last term in the PCE, in his favor.

Cumulatively, the careful calibration of all variables can transmute liability into leverage.

By anchoring expectations in sober realism, Vance draws a sharp contrast with Trump’s habit of overpromising and thus enhances his own standing. By crediting incremental progress to interagency discipline and allied coordination, while explicitly attributing deadlock to maximalist positions at the presidential level, he casts himself as a credible, reality-attuned statesman to whom partners increasingly turn.

Through these measures, the vice president converts exposure into authority, strengthening his position while the burden of failure shifts upward to the president.

Beyond Iran: The battle for political identity

In highly visible, ambiguous settings, responsibility without control is not empowerment but exposure.

Vance’s narrow yet real opportunity lies in inverting this logic by pursuing a strategic course that not only enables him to survive the chalice, but entails exposing it and remaking its contents for others to consume.

Yet even if the vice president masters this trial by fire, deftly navigating the acute Iran crisis and achieving success against the odds, the broader hazard of enduring taint by association persists.

Hence, the ultimate test lies not in diplomacy abroad but in political differentiation at home. The question is whether Vance can, at the decisive juncture, redraw the line between loyalty and independence before proximity congeals into identity. What, pray, is the complementary component of the V-Strategy that can effect this separation at the ‘kairos’?

[Part 2 of a series on vice-presidential strategy. To be continued. Previous column in the series: Part 1, published on 18 April 2026: Prof. Schlevogt’s Compass No. 54: Vance’s VP Dilemma – The poisoned chalice and taint of power]

Washington and Tehran remain deadlocked over Iran’s nuclear program and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran has insisted that continuing its nuclear program is its sovereign right, while the US maintains that the program must be abandoned for good and the uranium surrendered.

RT looks into the status of Iran’s uranium stockpile, as well as the positions of Tehran and Washington on the issue as the temporary ceasefire nears its end.

How much uranium does Iran have?

Iran has a sizable stockpile of fissile materials, including uranium enriched up to 60%. While the material is not yet weapons-grade, it could potentially be enriched to that level in a matter of days, depending on the equipment used. Tehran has long maintained its nuclear program serves purely civilian goals and rejected assertions it had been seeking to build nuclear weapons.  

According to the latest comprehensive assessment from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), published in May 2025, Tehran possessed more than 400 kg of uranium enriched up to 60%, as well as nearly 300 kg enriched up to 20%. Apart from that, the country was believed to hold some 5.5 tons of uranium enriched up to 5%, as well as some 2.2 tons up to 2%.  

Where exactly is the Iranian stockpile?

The whereabouts and status of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile are debated, and no solid independent assessment of them is available. The IAEA said it had lost “continuity of knowledge” about the stash after Tehran turned off on-site cameras used to monitor its nuclear program in June 2022 in retaliation for what it called a “political” resolution adopted by the organization. In its May 2025 assessment, the organization admitted the knowledge gap was no longer bridgeable.

A recent report by Le Monde suggested that Iran could have transferred possibly all of its highly enriched uranium to the Isfahan underground facility shortly before the June 2025 strikes. The assessment is based on a satellite image taken on June 9, 2025, which shows a large flatbed truck packed with 18 blue containers, which experts believed to be consistent with caskets used to transport highly radioactive materials. The containers could hold up to 540kg of uranium, according to experts cited by the newspaper. After the strikes, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth insisted that no intelligence suggested Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium prior to the attacks. 

The polar positions of the US and Iran on the uranium

The issue of the uranium has remained a key obstacle to an agreement between the US and Iran. Washington has demanded that Tehran surrender all of its highly enriched uranium, as well as dismantle its infrastructure and abandon the nuclear program for good.  

Tehran has repeatedly refused to abandon its nuclear program, offering to dilute its highly enriched uranium stockpile instead. During the discussions in Islamabad, it also reportedly offered a five-year moratorium on uranium enrichment. 

Top Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected the idea of surrendering the stockpile to the US or any other third party, insisting that the country’s nuclear achievements and assets were a matter of national pride and non-negotiable. The stance was reiterated by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. during a press conference on Monday. Transferring the country’s enriched uranium abroad “has never been raised as an option for us in negotiations,” Baghaei stated.

Russian offer 

Moscow has on several occasions proposed to host Iran’s enriched uranium as a compromise to defuse the Middle East crisis. According to remarks made by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week, Russia extended its offer “quite a time ago,” and Tehran had been “okay with it” at the time.

Russian officials have signaled that the offer remains on the table. The head of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Aleksey Likhachev, said over the weekend the company was ready to help remove Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile.  

“Only Russia has positive experience interacting with Iran. In 2015, at Iran’s request, we already removed enriched uranium… We are ready to assist with this issue today as well,” Likhachev told corporate newspaper Strana Rosatom. 

Iran exported some 11 tons of low-enriched uranium to Russia under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the “Iran nuclear deal,” a 2015 multinational plan to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The scheme crumbled early in Trump’s first term, after the US president accused Tehran of violating the “spirit” of the deal and unilaterally walked away from it.

After eight snap elections in five years, Bulgaria’s Rumen Radev, a 62-year-old reform-minded pragmatist with much political (he’s a former president) and military (he's also a former general) experience has just managed to gain an absolute majority of seats in the national parliament. It is, according to Bloomberg “a landslide” and, for German mainstream flagship Spiegel, an “exorbitant victory.”

With this breakthrough, Radev’s party Progressive Bulgaria has also broken a long trend of inconclusive elections and now has very good chances of establishing a stable, lasting government after years of instability and scandals, climaxing in a full government collapse late last year.

Election participation was higher than usual, which is another signal of genuine popular support for Radev’s message and reinforces his mandate. Bulgaria has been suffering from prolonged gridlock and a massive crisis of public trust. No one can predict the future, but Radev promises a fresh beginning, and this election result at least provides a chance to make one. Moreover, Progressive Bulgaria’s voter appeal, polls show, has not only been deep but also wide: Gen-Z, older citizens, pro-EU voters and those often, in Western mainstream media, disparaged as “pro-Russian,” and, last but not least, Bulgaria’s expat voters – they are all in the mix.

While Progressive Bulgaria will not have the two-thirds majority to make constitutional changes without help from other parties, Radev will have enough seats to rule without a coalition partner. In a country where coalition building has become associated with sleaze and inefficiency that is an advantage. Especially if Radev makes good on one of his key campaign promises to fight corruption and the influence of what Bulgarians call the “oligarchy.”

In sum, Radev’s election victory should be grounds for if not celebration than at least optimism. All the more so since he is also ready to apply constructive pragmatism to Bulgaria’s relationship with the EU as well. In his own words, “what Europe needs right now is critical thinking, pragmatic action and results, especially building a new security architecture and recovering its industrial power and competitiveness […] That will be the main contribution of Bulgaria to its European mission.”

Plenty, it turns out, at least for some Western and especially EU observers struggling with their own biases and, really, phobias. Because, you see, there is a thing that Radev does not have: He does not hate Russia. Indeed, according to Spiegel, always EU-aligned to the point of obsequiousness, there is “disquiet in Brussels,” because Radev has “the reputation of being inclined toward Moscow.” What a delicate way of shouting “Russians under the Bulgarian bed!”

But it’s all the same anyhow: Radev stands accused of one of the worst heresies against Western and, in particular, EU doctrine. Being soft on and even Russia-friendly, as Bloomberg, for instance has put it. The catalogue of his alleged sins is short but impressive: he has objected to delivering ever more weapons to fuel the West’s proxy war against Russia in and via Ukraine; called Crimea Russian, does not believe in sanctions against Russia, and, in general, dares criticize EU foreign policy.

Radev, to be sure, has made no radical statements regarding Bulgaria’s membership in the EU or NATO, and observers generally agree that he is very unlikely to challenge either. It even remains to be seen whether now that he has power, he will repeat his attacks on Bulgaria’s mistake of adopting the euro. Yet all that moderation and pragmatism may not be enough for the true believers now dominating the EU. For them, the mere fact that Radev openly displays his lack of belief in the Ukraine war project and – correctly – hints that Europe’s future depends on inexpensive, that is, Russian, energy may well be enough to initiate a slide into ostracism.

For now, the message seems to be that the EU establishment does not expect Radev to become a second Victor Orban, the long-time leader of Hungary, that the EU has just removed by massive interference in Hungary’s domestic politics. But the essence of that conditional offer to try cooperating is, of course, really a warning or, to be more precise, a threat: Do not be Orban or else!

The irony of this uneasy relationship is palpable but worth restating: The issue is not that Radev is “Russia-friendly.” He is simply reasonable and pragmatic and that sets him at odds with the extremely irrational Russophobia that is maintaining a tight grip on the EU. While Western mainstream commentators are stuck on pondering whether Radev’s purported sympathy for Russia is a big or maybe just a small problem, they are, as so often, caught up in the wrong question. The problem isn’t “Radev and Russia” at all. It is that for so many in the EU, the only good relationship with Russia is a bad one, a very, very bad one, please. 

Lebanon’s political system and differing views on how to deal with Israel make a lasting peace deal difficult to achieve, according to an RT report from Beirut. 

Political power in the country is formally divided along religious lines, with key roles allocated to different communities. It is a structure designed to preserve balance, though it can also make unified decision-making more challenging. 

While the government has signaled openness to negotiations and recently moved to restrict Hezbollah’s military role, positions across the political spectrum remain varied.

Hezbollah, which has been in conflict with Israel since the civil war in the 1980s, rejects disarmament. Its allies in the Amal movement argue the issue is an internal matter and that Lebanon has the right to maintain a “strong military” to defend its land.  

“If half the population is against direct talks with Israel, you can’t force it down their throats,” according to RT correspondent Marina Kosareva. Banning Hezbollah’s armed wing “won’t make them go away or accept foreign peace terms.”  

With ceasefire violations reported daily and internal differences unresolved, prospects for a stable settlement remain uncertain. 

Watch the full report below.

The surge in oil prices in light of the war on Iran has grabbed most of the headlines. For many observers, the severity of the crisis is measurable in the daily changes in the Brent ticker. Some analysts have also begun pointing to emerging stress in fertilizer markets. But beneath these familiar markers, several less visible – and in some cases more systemic – signals are now flashing red.

RT takes a look at the ominous signs that don’t always show up in the news. 

Naphtha 

​Naphtha, a feedstock for petrochemicals, is a classic behind-the-scenes actor. Rarely in the headlines, naphtha is critical to the production of much modern technology, not to mention a whole host of everyday plastics, car parts, medical supplies, packaging – you name it. Naphtha sits at the base of the petrochemical supply chain, where it can wreak havoc if it’s not in supply. 

So what exactly is naphtha? It is a liquid hydrocarbon mixture derived from the distillation of crude oil. It is then “cracked” at extreme temperatures to extract ethylene and propylene, which is upstream from a slew of chemical processes that produce the high-purity chemicals, solvents, and plastics that are used in numerous industries, including as supporting inputs in semiconductor manufacturing. Because naphtha is not a core chip material input itself, its role is often overlooked.

Unsurprisingly, naphtha generally exhibits a strong positive price correlation with Brent crude. It is a refinery product, so crude costs are an important driver of pricing. However, its price can diverge meaningfully because it is primarily used in petrochemicals and not simply as a fuel. Naphtha supply disruptions have already made themselves felt in parts of Asia, even causing shortages of plastic bags in South Korea. Incidentally, South Korea has purchased Russian naphtha for the first time in four years.

Several large petrochemical companies, such as LG Chem and Lotte Chemical, are having to cut production or shut cracking facilities due to feedstock shortages. This has disrupted supplies of plastics and packaging, impacting products from consumer goods to medical supplies. 

For industrial heavyweight Japan, for example, the disruption to the flow of naphtha is arguably the most pressing economic fallout from the crisis in the Middle East. Japan gets around 60% of its naphtha from overseas. The Middle East is responsible for over 70% of those imports, according to the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association.

The 40% of Japan’s naphtha that comes from domestic refineries isn’t exactly immune to problems in the Middle East – 90% of the oil these refineries use comes from the same region. 

Diesel 

Diesel is a middle distillate fuel, meaning that it is heavier than gasoline but lighter than fuel oil. It is called “the fuel of the real economy.” It powers all the heavy stuff: trucks, ships, construction, mining, agriculture. 

Of particular concern is the fact that diesel prices rise faster than gasoline in nearly every energy crisis. Because it is a critical heavy-transport fuel it has low demand elasticity – meaning diesel consumers will keep buying even at higher prices. Also, it is much harder to ramp up diesel refining quickly. Refineries generally operate at high utilization and have inflexible configurations, limiting their ability to respond quickly to demand surges.

Because diesel is the fuel for the “real economy,” price spikes can be broadly inflationary. According to BloombergNEF, diesel at $5 per gallon in the US could increase prices to consumers by 35%.

Diesel cost an average of $5.61 a gallon nationwide as of last Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association. That is just over $2 above the average on the same date last year and 63 cents more than a month earlier.

Diesel prices have also surged across Europe. Analysts are now warning of potential shortages of both jet fuel and diesel this summer. These two fuels are often grouped together as middle distillates and can to some extent be substituted or blended.

Aluminum

The Iran war has triggered a major crisis in the global aluminum market that could reverberate across numerous sectors of the economy. 

Consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates that the global market is staring at a supply deficit of up to 4 million metric tons this year, which would be the largest in over 25 years. JPMorgan has warned that the global aluminum market has entered a supply “black hole.”

Prices are forecast to exceed $4,000 per tonne. For comparison, the long-term “normal” range is $1,500-$2,500 per tonne. The majority of aluminum ​producers in the Gulf, which account for around 9% of global ​supply, have been unable to make shipments to world markets. Meanwhile, a missile strike last month damaged the Al Taweelah smelter operated by Emirates Global Aluminium. Repairs will reportedly take up to a year. 

As smelters run through stocks of raw materials, production shutdowns could be forthcoming. But shutting down aluminum smelter isn’t the same thing as turning off an appliance and turning it back on with the flip of a switch. Smelters run around-the-clock at extremely high temperatures. If you shut them down, the molten metal solidifies and damages the equipment. Restarting them is extremely costly and technically challenging and sometimes entails a full rebuild. 

It is currently Western manufacturers taking the brunt of the crisis and partly by the doing of their own countries’ policies. China and Russia are both among the world’s main sources of aluminum but both have been cut off from Western markets because of tariffs and sanctions. 

Crack spreads

The gap between what a refiner pays for crude oil and the price at which it sells the finished product is called the crack spread – the word to describe the refining process of “cracking” large hydrocarbon molecules into smaller ones (gasoline, diesel, naphtha, etc.)

A normal crack spread is between $10 and $20, although it can vary by product and region. What we are seeing now is crack spreads over $50. This means refined fuels are becoming more valuable relative to crude oil. This will show up in naphtha and diesel (already discussed above) and in gasoline prices at the pump. Crack spreads therefore provide a useful indicator of fuel-related cost pressures faced by consumers.

Meanwhile, what we’re seeing is a windfall for refiners. In crises such as the current one, pricing power shifts to the most capacity-constrained stage in the system, where output cannot be easily expanded. In this case – and often in oil markets – it is the refining stage. 

Helium

Helium, a byproduct of natural ​gas processing, is a small market that punches well above its weight. Helium is essential in the high-tech world. It has important uses in chipmaking for which there is no easy substitute. 

Currently, the global supply of helium is significantly disrupted and reports of rationing are already emerging. The war has thrown a wrench in both the production and transportation of helium. Supply chains for high-tech goods are already feeling the effects. If dislocations continue, this could start to noticeably interfere with production of goods such as electronics, automobiles, and even smartphones.  

Helium production is highly concentrated in certain countries. Qatar, a large natural gas supplier, produces nearly a third ​of global supply, according to the US Geological Survey. However, the Ras Laffan Industrial City, the single largest helium production site in the world, sustained damage from a missile in early March. The Qatari government estimates that it will take up to five years to fully repair the site.

While shippers of some goods have diverted vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, a much longer but entirely unencumbered route, this is not as viable for helium, which is transported in specialized cryogenic containers. During long trips, the helium inevitably heats up and “boils off.”

Sulfur

The disruptions in fertilizer markets have garnered a lot of attention but less focus has been on the major feedstock components of fertilizer: sulfur. Called the “king of chemicals,” sulfur is a byproduct of oil and gas refining. It’s another of the vastly underappreciated inputs that keep things running and keep food plentiful across the globe. 

Once converted into sulfuric acid, it is used in fertilizers and metal processing, as well as in many pharmaceuticals. The Gulf accounts for roughly 45% of global supply, which means the disruption is already having knock-on effects in both agriculture and metals. Compounding the problem is the fact that sulfuric acid isn’t easily replaced or immediately substitutable. Another vulnerability is that it is not stockpiled heavily, so when flows stop trouble can creep up quite quickly. This sends consumers scrambling for expensive spot supply – all of which eventually shows up in food price inflation. 

Sulfur prices have moved sharply higher since the war on Iran began, and now countries are taking measures to insulate their own economies. Türkiye has announced a ban on sulfur exports, while India is also reportedly considering export restrictions. 

Looking ahead

The global economy is as fragile as it is complex. As analyst Zoltan Pozsar says, “global supply chains work only in peacetime, but not when the world is at war, be it a hot war or an economic war.” Right now there are both. The confluence of multiple failures at key chokepoints could trigger cascades of crises that would inflict significant and enduring pain across the economy. Nobody thinks much about naphtha or sulfur when the world is humming along. But these and many other inputs, fuels and feedstocks are what keep the whole show running and their absence quickly becomes a crisis.  

More than 3,000 people have reportedly suffered sexual abuse as minors within the Spanish Catholic Church, according to a eight-year investigation by the El Pais newspaper which published its latest findings on Monday.

The outlet began collecting data on sex crimes within the church in 2018, when only 34 cases were officially known. Since then, through public testimonies, judicial records, and church admissions, the number of victims of pedophilia has risen to 3,084 with the earliest incidents dating back to the 1940’s.

The list of accused has reached 1,613, representing 1.46% of the 110,000 priests and laypeople who have served in Spain in the past 80 years.

El Pais’ latest report, the sixth in five years, has added 58 new testimonies from Spain accusing 50 clerics and laypeople, all men except two nuns, and a separate section covering 21 testimonies from eight Latin American countries with 24 individuals accused.

The outlet said that it has shared all its findings with the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), the Vatican, and Spain’s human rights commissioner. However, the newspaper noted that over the past five years, the Church has not responded substantively to the allegations with the CEE prioritizing “opacity and denial” while the Vatican has delegated responsibility to the Spanish bishops.

Previously, a 2023 survey by Spain’s human rights commissioner estimated that 1.13% of the adult population, about 440,000 people, may have suffered sexual abuse in a Catholic environment.

The latest findings mirror similar revelations in the US, where the Diocese of Brooklyn is currently seeking a global settlement for 1,100 child sex abuse cases, having already paid over $100 million to survivors.

Pope Leo XIV, who will visit Spain in June, is said to have received copies of El Pais’s reports but the Vatican has yet to comment on the latest findings.

South Africa will push to put inequality at the center of the global agenda through a UN resolution, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

Pretoria plans to submit a draft to the UN General Assembly in 2026 proposing the creation of an International Panel on Inequality.

“This will ensure that inequality is placed as a critical issue on the global agenda that requires the ongoing attention of world leaders and the broader United Nations system,” Ramaphosa said in Barcelona on Saturday.

The proposal has already received backing from the African Union, he added, calling on UN member states and civil society to support the initiative.

The body would be modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and tasked with monitoring global inequality trends, assessing their causes and impacts, and evaluating policy responses.

Inequality, as defined in the G20-backed report, includes disparities in income, wealth and access to opportunities, as well as differences in economic development among countries.

The World Inequality Report 2026, compiled by more than 200 researchers, found that the top 10% of earners receive more income than the remaining 90% combined, while the poorest half of the global population accounts for less than 10% of total income.

“If we are to build democracy, to strengthen democracy across the world, if we are to empower people to take charge of their lives, it is essential that we intensify the struggle for equality and social justice,” Cyril Ramaphosa said.

The initiative comes amid a broader push by African nations to assert their positions more forcefully on the global stage, including calls for historical accountability, the return of cultural artifacts, and greater recognition of past injustices.

In March, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution led by Ghana describing the transatlantic chattel slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations.