Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday for talks expected to focus on expanding economic and strategic cooperation, as the two countries mark the 25th anniversary of a landmark friendship treaty.

Moscow and Beijing are expected to sign dozens of agreements during the two-day visit, highlighting the increasingly close alignment between the two powers on foreign policy, trade, and opposition to what they describe as Western unilateralism.

RT looks at where Russia and China align on global politics.

Multipolar world

Moscow and Beijing have increasingly aligned around the idea of a “multipolar world” – a global order they say should no longer be dominated by the West and the US in particular.

Both countries have accused Washington of abusing sanctions, military alliances, and the global financial system to preserve its dominance, while arguing that emerging powers should play a greater role in international decision-making.

Russia and China have promoted deeper cooperation through platforms such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, presenting them as alternatives to Western-led institutions and as pillars of a more balanced global order.

Taiwan

Russia backs the One China policy, under which Beijing views Taiwan as an inseparable part of Chinese territory. While most countries formally adhere to the policy, continued US military support for Taipei has fueled rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Middle East

Moscow has condemned the US-Israeli attack on Iran as “entirely unprovoked aggression.”

China, the main buyer of Iranian crude, has lost much of that supply since the US and Israel launched attacks in February. Russia has since ramped up oil exports to China to help offset the shortfall.

Both Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly called for the conflict to be resolved through dialogue and a diplomatic settlement.

Ukraine

Russia has described the conflict as a NATO-backed proxy war triggered by the US-led bloc’s expansion toward its borders and growing influence over Kiev after the 2014 Western-backed coup.

Moscow has insisted that any durable peace deal must include Ukraine’s return to a neutral, non-aligned status, as well as its demilitarization and “denazification,” alongside the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from all territories that voted to join Russia in 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in attacking European NATO states and is instead patiently waiting until their hostile and deeply unpopular leaders are replaced by their own citizens, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern told RT’s Rick Sanchez.

In an interview published on Monday, the former analyst noted that Russians are growing increasingly frustrated with drone attacks facilitated by Kiev’s backers. Moscow has said that Ukrainian UAVs are increasingly being built with the help of Europe’s military-industrial complex and attack via NATO members’ territory.

“We’re very fortunate in having such a cautious, perspicacious person as Vladimir Putin in office,” McGovern said. “He’s not going to be sucked into something that would be most dangerous.”

The Russian president is aiming to outlast the “three blind mice” – French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he added.

“The Europeans are going to do away with these clowns that they have at the top,” McGovern said. “Starmer’s on his way out. Macron will be out next year. Merz is about the most unpopular chancellor that Germany ever had. So I think the Russians play the long game… I wish we all had the patience that Vladimir Putin seems to have.”

Watch the full interview with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern on RT’s Sanchez Effect below.

I’ve been back in my hometown of Vancouver, Canada, for a few days now. The big wall-to-wall news story has been about a moron who was speeding around on a jet ski in the harbor off the downtown coast where pods of whales have been swimming around – and ended up using a grey whale as a jump ramp. The whale seems no worse for wear, while the jackass crashed out. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve heard such mass outrage.

This is Vancouver, after all. Home of “save the whales.” Greenpeace was literally founded here in 1971. People here have parked themselves in trees for days on end to save them from being chopped down for development. How could some jackass end up possibly slamming into a whale when anyone with working eyes can see that orcas are everywhere right now, putting on aquarium-like shows in their natural habitat. The answer is simple, really. The whims of a select few have been accommodated for far too long. That is, until something disastrous happens and jolts some people out of their slumber to notice that the institutions have failed to uphold even the most basic common sense. The incident is a metaphor for the whole place these days.

I remember when I was growing up here in the 1980s and wokeism used to mean fighting the good fight for the rights of the oppressed. Labor unions pushing back against creeping demands by the state and its corporatist cronies to give more for increasingly less. Defending animals and nature incapable of advocating for themselves. Equality of opportunity for all was the name of the game. And helping those who fell through the social safety net to get back on their feet.

But then, like the whale jumper, some folks took things too far in their own self-interest. Cottage industries of lobbyists and NGOs popped up to cash in on pushing grievances not towards any constructive resolution benefiting society, but instead to permanent profit for themselves.

And now, like the whale show spectators, average people are finally showing signs of being horrified by the results.

So after clinging to its failure for far too long, the same government has now thrown in the towel on decriminalization of drugs. The original goal was to “reduce stigma and fear of criminal prosecution that prevents people from reaching out for help, including medical assistance.” Turns out that giving them a safe place to shoot up, then when that didn’t work giving out free needles, then when that failed just giving them free drugs – all under the pretext that feeding their addiction at the public expense will get them clean – was a major bust. Now the mop-up job is more daunting than ever.

The mess is obvious to anyone without an agenda or a business model based on persistence of the debacle. Homelessness and drug carnage has now merged with the migrant crisis caused by the same woke institutions destroying their own longstanding immigration point system that was the envy of the free world. Because it wasn’t quite free enough, apparently. But now because they treated borders like an option, the borders and boundaries are left to everyday citizens to enforce themselves. Like when an Indian migrant was caught washing his clothes in a protected river, as onlookers yelled at him in a futile attempt to try to explain the concept to someone who could barely even understand the language itself.

Colony Farm is now “ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park,” the public swimming pool built and named for the 1973 Canada Games, and where I trained as a young competitive swimmer, is now called “təməsew̓txʷ Aquatic and Community Centre,” and the Pattullo Bridge is now the “stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge.” Try plugging that into your GPS.

But the final straw seems to be indulging the natives to the point of making tribal leaders de facto co-governors of the province while doing nothing to repeal the provincial legislation that implements DRIPA – the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act – leaving the average citizen convinced that somewhere between “consultation” and “consent,” the average homeowner may eventually need three permits, two environmental assessments, and a hereditary chief’s blessing just to build a garden shed on their own property.

It’s all become so absurd that you have to wonder how anyone still defends it with a straight face. But sprawling ideological movements rarely collapse without a fight, and the modern alphabet bureaucracy is no exception. Too many people remain invested in propping it up, if only because admitting the excesses would require rethinking years of assumptions, social loyalties, and their own identities. Like the guy who launched his jet ski off a whale, the woke crowd spent years thinking that they could mow down everything without wiping out.

President Vladimir Putin has recorded a video address to the people of China ahead of his official visit to Beijing, replacing the article or interview that the Russian leader has traditionally given to local media ahead of important foreign trips.

In the message, Putin said he was “delighted” to be visiting Beijing again at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he described as his “long-time good friend.”

“Regular mutual visits and Russia-China top-level talks are an important and integral part of our joint efforts to promote the entire range of relations between our two countries and unlock their truly limitless potential,” Putin said.

Putin is due to visit China on May 19-20 at the invitation of Xi. The trip coincides with the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Russia-China Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.

Putin said Russia and China are expanding cooperation in politics, the economy, defense, and humanitarian exchanges, adding that these issues will shape the agenda of the upcoming talks in Beijing.

“I deeply appreciate President Xi Jinping’s commitment to long-term cooperation with Russia,” Putin said. “I am convinced that our warm and friendly ties enable us to chart the boldest plans for the future and bring them to life.”

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Putin would travel with a high-level delegation that includes senior officials, ministers, and heads of major Russian companies. Around 40 bilateral documents are expected to be signed during the visit, including a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Putin also welcomed the introduction of a mutual visa-free regime between Russia and China, saying it would facilitate business and tourism exchanges and create new opportunities for personal contacts between Russian and Chinese citizens.

“The close strategic relationship between Russia and China plays a major, stabilizing role globally,” Putin said. “Without allying against anyone, we seek peace and universal prosperity.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China on May 19-20 is expected to mark a new milestone in the deepening partnership between Moscow and Beijing. The two sides are reportedly preparing to sign around 40 agreements, and issue a joint statement on expanding their comprehensive strategic cooperation.

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, the two leaders have met more than 40 times, repeatedly producing major agreements and driving Russia-China ties to new heights.

RT looks back at some of the key meetings that have shaped relations between the two countries over the past decade.

March 2013

Russia became the first country visited by Xi after he took office. During talks with Putin, the two leaders discussed issues ranging from trade and technology cooperation to the crisis in Syria. Moscow and Beijing signed more than 30 agreements covering energy and humanitarian and cultural cooperation, including a deal to expand oil trade and an action plan under the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation.

May 2014

Putin’s state visit to Shanghai marked a watershed moment in Russia-China energy ties. In the presence of the two leaders, Russian energy giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC signed a landmark $400 billion gas deal under which Russia agreed to supply China with 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually over 30 years.

May 2015

Xi visited Moscow for Victory Day celebrations marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The visit also produced a series of agreements linking China’s Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union, a Moscow-led economic bloc of which Russia is a founding member.

September 2015

Putin traveled to Beijing for celebrations marking the end of World War II, with the visit also serving as a platform for extensive talks between Russian and Chinese officials. The trip resulted in nearly 30 signed documents, including 16 agreements between Russian and Chinese companies. Russian energy giant Rosneft alone signed deals with an estimated investment potential exceeding $30 billion, according to CEO Igor Sechin.

June 2016

Economic ties between Russia and China deepened further during another state visit by Putin to Beijing. The two sides signed a broad range of agreements covering energy, high speed rail development, aircraft manufacturing, and major investment projects.

July 2017

During Xi’s visit to Moscow, Putin awarded the Chinese leader the Order of St. Andrew, Russia’s highest state honor, in recognition of his role in strengthening the comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation between the two nations. Putin described Xi as a “big friend” of Russia who had consistently supported closer ties between Moscow and Beijing.

June 2018

Xi returned the gesture by awarding Putin the Chinese Order of Friendship, making him the first foreign leader to receive the honor. The Chinese president described Putin as a “founder” of modern Russia-China relations and the “most recognizable and respected” foreign leader in China.

June 2019

Russia and China declared that their comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation had entered a “new era” in a joint statement issued during Xi’s visit to Moscow. The declaration said the two countries had elevated bilateral ties to their highest level, setting an example of good neighborly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Moscow and Beijing also pledged to deepen coordination on defending their core national interests, sovereignty, and long term development strategies.

February 2022

Russia and China described their relationship as a “no limits” partnership, emphasizing that their cooperation has “no forbidden areas” and is not constrained by traditional alliance structures. The phrase was formalized in a joint statement issued by Putin and Xi, in which the two sides pledged deeper coordination on security, economics, technology, and global governance while opposing what they described as Western dominance in international affairs.

March 2023

Russia became the first country visited by Xi after securing a third consecutive term as Chinese president. Beijing attaches “great importance” to ties with Moscow, Xi said at the time, describing the relationship as rooted in “historical logic” and driven by the two nations’ shared goals and interests.

Putin hailed the “major progress” in bilateral relations, noting that annual trade between Russia and China had surged from $87 billion to $185 billion over the previous decade.

May 2024

Putin chose China for his first foreign trip after securing re-election in 2024, describing ties with Beijing as a model of good-neighborly relations. Xi said the partnership had become a key pillar of global “strategic stability” and a driving force behind the democratization of international relations.

May 2025

Xi Jinping joined Russia’s Victory Day celebrations once again, a decade after first attending the commemorations in Moscow. During the visit, Xi said Russia and China had found the “right” model for cooperation and pledged to work together toward a more just and balanced system of global governance.

September 2025

Vladimir Putin traveled to China to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, describing the visit as a tribute to the sacrifices and heroism of the Russian and Chinese peoples during the conflict. The memory that “our ancestors paid an enormous price for peace and freedom” remains the foundation of modern Russia-China relations, he said.

Xi Jinping described ties between the two countries as a model of “eternal” friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation.

US President Donald Trump has postponed what he described as a “very major attack” on Iran, saying Gulf leaders had asked Washington to give negotiations with Tehran another “two or three days.”

Trump said the strike had been scheduled for Tuesday, but that he had ordered the Pentagon to stand down for now after Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and “some others” urged him to allow more time for diplomacy.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow,” Trump told journalists. “I’ve put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran.”

The president claimed that the Gulf states believe Tehran is “getting very close to making a deal,” adding that any agreement must prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Trump also instructed the US Department of War to remain ready for a “full, large-scale assault” at “a moment’s notice” if Washington does not receive what it considers an acceptable deal, according to his earlier post on Truth Social.

The announcement follows a series of threats by Trump, who warned Iran over the weekend that “the Clock is Ticking” and that “there won’t be anything left” of the country unless it accepts Washington’s demands.

Indirect talks between Washington and Tehran have remained stalled since a fragile ceasefire was established in early April, following a month of hostilities initiated by the US and Israel.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran enters into dialogue with dignity, authority, and the preservation of the nation’s rights, and under no circumstances will it retreat from the legal rights of the people and the country,” Pezeshkian wrote.

Iran previously accused the Trump administration of taking a “maximalist approach,” while insisting that its own nuclear program is peaceful and that it will not dismantle its enrichment capabilities entirely. Tehran has also demanded sanctions relief, reparations, an end to Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, and recognition of what it calls its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran is allegedly ready to hand over its highly enriched uranium stockpile to Russia, the Saudi news broadcaster Al Hadath has reported. The idea was floated as part of the latest peace proposal Tehran sent to the US via Pakistan, the outlet said on Monday, citing a leaked document it had obtained.

Indirect talks between the two sides mediated by Islamabad have been stalled since a ceasefire was established in early April. It followed a month of hostilities initiated by the US and Israel against the Islamic Republic in late February. Both Washington and Tehran have since repeatedly put forward proposals to end the conflict while dismissing each other’s demands.

According to the report, Iran is allegedly ready to freeze its nuclear program for a long period of time but only on the condition that its highly enriched uranium will be transferred to Russia instead of the US. Tehran still rules out dismantling its program completely, Al Hadath added.

Iran retains more than 400 kg of uranium enriched to 60%, according to International Atomic Energy Agency estimates. Weapons-grade levels typically require 90% enrichment and higher.

“Not only did we make such an offer; we already implemented it once before, back in 2015. Iran has complete trust in us, and not without reason,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists earlier this month. Moscow has never violated its agreements, he stressed, and continues to cooperate with the Islamic Republic on its peaceful nuclear energy program.

Washington has reportedly already dismissed Iran’s latest proposal as insufficient, Axios reported on Monday, citing an unnamed American official briefed on the issue. According to the official, Tehran made only “token” improvements on the previous version.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that Iran’s highly enriched uranium should be handed over to America. Last week, he told Fox News that the issue was “more for public relations” and getting the Iranian stockpile would just make him “feel better.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Beijing this week with a high-level delegation for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping focused on bilateral ties, trade, energy cooperation, and global affairs, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said. 

The May 19-20 visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Russia-China Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, which Ushakov said reflects relations that have reached an “unprecedentedly high level.” 

Ushakov told reporters on Monday that the delegation will include senior ministers, top Kremlin officials, and the heads of major Russian state corporations and banks, among them Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. 

According to Ushakov, Putin and Xi will hold both one-on-one and expanded-format talks focused on “the most important and sensitive issues” in bilateral relations, as well as major international developments. 

Around 40 bilateral agreements are expected to be signed, including a joint statement on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.  

The two leaders are also set to adopt a separate declaration on promoting a “multipolar world” and “a new type of international relations,” Yury Ushakov said. 

The Kremlin aide also dismissed speculation that the timing of Putin’s trip was linked to US-China contacts, stating that there was “no connection whatsoever” and that preparations for the visit began shortly after Putin and Xi held a video call in February. 

US President Donald Trump made a two-day visit to China last week, where he discussed Iran, Taiwan, trade relations and other issues with Xi. Despite both sides describing the talks positively, the visit produced no major breakthroughs on key disagreements between Beijing and Washington.

Three men were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, and two suspected teenage shooters are also dead, law enforcement officials said. The attack is being investigated as a hate crime, according to police.

Police responded to reports of an active shooter at the mosque, located at 7050 Eckstrom Avenue in San Diego’s Clairemont area, at about 11:40am local time. Officers later said the threat had been “neutralized” after a large emergency response around the Islamic Center.

One of the victims is believed to have been a security guard who investigators said played a “pivotal role” in preventing the attack from becoming “much worse,” according to FOX 9, citing law enforcement.

Graphic aerial footage from the scene showed a body lying in a pool of blood at the entrance to the facility.

🚨 NOW: ACTIVE SHOOTER situation at Islamic Center in San Diego results in 2 dead, more injured, and someone spotted laying in a pool of blood, aerial view shows

Absolutely horrifying.

Police have rushed the scene.

Pray for any victims 🙏🏻

h/t @RapidReport2025 pic.twitter.com/WjaEHWz0Ac

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 18, 2026

The mosque complex includes Al Rashid School, but officials said no students, teachers or school staff were injured. Aerial footage from the scene showed children being escorted away as police surrounded the area.

NEW: Children at a nearby school are escorted out by police after an active shooter was reported at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

2 teen suspects are dead from what appear to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds, according to police.

Officials say at least 3 adult male victims… pic.twitter.com/fTkpiHEas3

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 18, 2026

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said the two male suspects, aged 17 and 19, appear to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

“There were no officers involved in firing their weapons,” Wahl said at a news briefing, while cautioning that the investigation remains “still very preliminary at this point.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said emergency personnel were working to protect the community and secure the area, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said the governor had been briefed and urged the public to follow local authorities’ guidance.

Russian and Belarusian gymnasts have been cleared to return to international competition after being banned for over four years, the World Gymnastics Executive Committee announced on Monday. The decision reverses a ruling that had been denounced by Moscow and Minsk as politically motivated.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and the imposition of sweeping Western sanctions on Russia and Belarus, Olympic federations barred athletes from the two countries across dozens of sports. Some restrictions were later eased, allowing select competitors to take part under a neutral status.

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Western countries of politicizing sport and pressuring federations to exclude their athletes. Earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin denounced what he described as selective sanctions against Russian competitors, arguing that the differing treatment compared with other conflicts exposed political bias and corruption within international sports bodies. He has also insisted that athletes should be granted equal access to competition based solely on merit, stressing that “politics has no place in sport.”

World Gymnastics said in a statement that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to compete with immediate effect across all five disciplines represented by the Russian Gymnastics Federation. These include artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, acrobatic gymnastics, and aerobic gymnastics.

World Gymnastics became the fifth Olympic federation to allow Russian athletes to compete at international tournaments under their national flag. Similar decisions were previously adopted by the international federations for judo, taekwondo, and aquatic sports, as well as the governing bureau of United World Wrestling.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board maintained the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and upheld recommendations on sanctions against Russian athletes, while recommending the removal of restrictions on Belarusian competitors. The Kremlin described the IOC’s stance toward Russia as disappointing.

European leaders have reportedly discussed appointing an envoy to Moscow since early 2025, apparently out of concern that the EU’s interests could be sidelined if the US and Russia draw up a peace deal for Ukraine without their involvement. In a report on Monday, Politico revealed that chatter in Brussels has focused on three potential candidates: former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Notable for her absence from this list is EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who as the bloc’s chief diplomat would normally be a natural fit for the role. Kallas nominated herself for the position last week, boasting that she could “see through the traps that Russia is presenting.”

However, EU diplomats told Politico that Kallas’ open hostility toward Russia – she refers to Putin as a “terrorist” and has expressed support for the defeat of Russia and its dissolution into “many different nations” – makes her a non-starter for the job. “She’s ruled herself out for this one, unfortunately,” one diplomatic source told the outlet.

While Merkel, Stubb, and Draghi have not called for the outright dissolution of the Russian state, their track records will likely give the Kremlin pause before entering talks in good faith.

Merkel the deceiver

Merkel, who served as Germany’s chancellor from 2005 to 2021, has a long relationship with Putin, speaks fluent Russian, and in late 2021 proposed the establishment of a diplomatic format between the EU and Russia, which failed to find backing from other members of the bloc. Merkel has recently defended her support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, and on Monday criticized EU leadership for their refusal to engage with Moscow over Ukraine.

However, Merkel has also admitted that she negotiated the 2014 and 2015 Minsk accords – under which Kiev agreed to grant some autonomy to the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in exchange for a ceasefire with pro-independence forces – in bad faith. In 2022, Merkel admitted that the agreements were in fact an “attempt to give Ukraine time” to “create powerful armed forces” in preparation for a more intense conflict with Russia.

Putin has said that Russia was “simply led by the nose [and] deceived” by Merkel and the other European guarantors of the Minsk agreements.

Even if the Kremlin were to overlook Merkel’s deception, the former chancellor has ruled herself out as a potential envoy to Moscow. “We were only able to hold [the Minsk] talks with President Putin because we had political power, because we were heads of government,” she told German broadcaster WDR. “You need that power. And I, personally, would never have thought of asking a mediator to go to Minsk for me and talk to Putin.”

Stubb the hawk

Stubb has also repeatedly invoked the Second World War as a template for Finland to follow in dealing with modern Russia, telling US President Donald Trump last year that “we found a solution in 1944 – and I believe we can find one in 2025.”

His retelling of the Second Soviet–Finnish War left out the fact that Nazi-allied Finland allowed a buildup of German troops on its soil before declaring war on the USSR in 1941, and omitted Finland’s participation in the extermination of a million Soviet citizens during the siege of Leningrad.

On top of these grievances, Stubb has also lifted a ban on hosting NATO nuclear weapons on his country’s soil, and given Ukraine his blessing to use Finnish weapons in long-range strikes on Russia.

Draghi the no-show

Politico describes Draghi as “widely respected in Europe and seen as neither overly hawkish nor sympathetic to the Kremlin.” While the former Italian PM lacks Stubb’s belligerence and Merkel’s track record of betrayal, his record on Ukraine is broadly in line with his European counterparts. Before resigning in July 2022, Draghi declared it “impossible to have meaningful dialogue with Moscow,” sent military aid to Ukraine, and promised Kiev “whatever it takes” to defeat Russia.

Draghi served as president of the European Central Bank from 2011 to 2019, and returned to economic affairs after his tenure as Italian PM ended, currently working as the EU’s rapporteur on competitiveness. While his name has come up in Brussels for the envoy position, Politico conceded that “there’s been no public signal that the economically focused Draghi wants the role.”

Who does Russia want?

Earlier this month, Putin mentioned Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, as his preferred intermediary for talks with the EU. Schroeder served as chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and signed off on the Nord Stream 1 project, which buoyed Germany’s industrial output and economic growth during the Merkel years. A close friend of Putin, Schroeder worked as a director of the German-Russian consortium responsible for both Nord Stream pipelines after leading office, and served on the board of Russian oil giant Rosneft until 2022.

However, Schroeder is as unacceptable to Brussels as Kallas is to Moscow. Describing the former chancellor as a Russian “lobbyist,” she told reporters last week that it “would not be very wise” to side with Putin in choosing him.

Russia maintains that it is open to constructive dialogue, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed last week that any debate over who will lead the European delegation is meaningless until “a political decision to resume dialogue” is made in Brussels.

“How can you discuss anything with Kaja Kallas?” Peskov remarked to reporters earlier this year. Brussels, he added, is full of “semi-literate, incompetent functionaries.”

No matter who Brussels sends to Moscow, the EU’s vision for Ukraine remains fundamentally unacceptable to Russia. After the first iteration of Trump’s draft peace plan leaked to the media last year, Britain, France and Germany released a counterproposal that removes limits on NATO expansion, clears the way for Ukraine to join the military bloc, hands Ukraine security guarantees along the lines of NATO’s Article 5, and mandates that Moscow pay reparations to Kiev.

Top EU officials, including Kallas and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have endorsed all of these positions and insisted that Ukraine not be forced into making territorial concessions. With the US and Russia treating territorial concessions as a foregone conclusion, Brussels’ stubbornness all but guarantees that the EU will continue to be sidelined as the real powers draft a deal.

The US has once again extended a sanctions waiver that allows Russian crude and petroleum products already loaded onto tankers to be delivered and sold, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said. 

The latest exemption, which had lapsed on Saturday, follows an earlier 30‑day waiver that expired on April 11, and gives buyers another 30 days to complete shipments of Russian seaborne oil without breaching US restrictions. The move reportedly came after several countries requested more time to take delivery of cargoes.  

Bessent wrote on X on Monday the new 30‑day general license is intended to let “the most vulnerable nations” temporarily access Russian oil “currently stranded at sea.”  

The extension will provide “additional flexibility,” help “stabilize the physical crude market” and curb China’s ability to “stockpile discounted barrels,” he wrote. 

Washington introduced the waiver earlier this year in a bid to ease supply shortages and limit price spikes triggered by the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a result of the US‑Israeli campaign against Iran. The key waterway handles around 20% of global seaborne crude exports, and its disruption has rattled energy markets.  

.@USTreasury is issuing a temporary 30-day general license to provide the most vulnerable nations with the ability to temporarily access Russian oil currently stranded at sea.

This extension will provide additional flexibility, and we will work with these nations to provide…

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) May 18, 2026

However, the measure has so far done little to calm US gasoline prices, which remain elevated despite efforts by the Treasury and other agencies to prevent a deeper shock, according to Reuters. 

Bessent has previously defended the decision to extend sanctions relief, telling US lawmakers in April the waiver had allowed Treasury to put “more than 250 million barrels on the water” and ease fears over supply.

Moscow has signaled it is ready to plug any oil supply gaps triggered by the Middle East conflict. Some Asian countries have already moved to secure Russian crude since Washington first eased the restrictions.  

EU officials have criticized Washington’s decision to waive sanctions on Russian oil, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying it is “not the time to relax sanctions against Russia.”  

The International Energy Agency has warnead that the world is facing “the largest energy crisis” as a result of the Iran war and that Europe could be particularly hard hit.

Last week’s Trump-Xi summit produced no dramatic declaration or historic treaty – yet its importance may prove far greater than any immediate deliverable. What happened in Beijing was not a breakthrough in policy but a breakthrough in recognition: the United States openly acknowledged China as an equal center of global power. That alone marks a historic turning point.

For decades, American administrations approached China from the assumption that Beijing was either a manageable challenger or a state that would eventually integrate into a US-led international order on American terms. The summit suggested something fundamentally different.

US President Donald Trump appeared compelled to recognize that China is no longer simply a rival great power but a central pillar of the emerging world order – one that Washington can neither isolate nor overpower. This was the true message of the summit.

The triumph of pragmatism

Neither Washington nor Beijing expected immediate breakthroughs. The summit was never realistically supposed to solve structural tensions overnight. Its purpose was to stabilize relations between two powers which are increasingly aware that prolonged escalation has become prohibitively costly.

The talks reflected the reality that the US now needs stable engagement with China as much as China needs stable engagement with the US. This mutual dependency is perhaps uncomfortable, but it is also unavoidable – neither full confrontation nor full separation is sustainable anymore.

For years, the Americans described China as a revisionist actor seeking to overturn the international order. But the Beijing summit demonstrated something more consequential: the international order itself is already changing. Many countries have begun treating China not merely as a competitor to the US, but as a parallel – and in some respects superior – center of global gravity.

That transformation explains Trump’s increasingly pragmatic posture. Competition with China remains intense, particularly in trade and technology, but the White House no longer appears interested in fantasies of regime change or direct strategic rollback against Beijing. More importantly, Washington may no longer possess the power necessary to pursue such ambitions successfully.

The summit also revealed the outlines of Trump’s evolving geopolitical doctrine. Contrary to alarmist rhetoric on both sides of the Pacific, Washington’s strategy increasingly appears less focused on destroying China’s rise than on managing coexistence while preserving maximum American leverage. The emphasis has shifted from ideological crusades to economic and technological competition.

At the same time, the US seems determined to tighten strategic control over the Western Hemisphere in a manner reminiscent of the Monroe Doctrine. Recent developments in Panama and Venezuela, alongside growing pressure on Cuba, should be understood through this lens. Washington seeks uncontested primacy in the Americas while reducing external dependence and limiting Chinese penetration into its natural sphere of influence.

This strategy undoubtedly weakens Beijing’s position in Latin America. Yet paradoxically, it also reflects the logic of multipolarity. Trump’s America increasingly appears willing to accept Chinese dominance in certain areas, provided the US retains dominance in others.

The same applies in the Indo-Pacific. Washington continues to supply weapons to Taiwan, Japan, and other regional partners while encouraging broader militarization across the region. But this should not automatically be interpreted as preparation for direct confrontation. It may instead represent a rebalancing of strategic burdens – an effort to share military responsibility among allies while avoiding a catastrophic US-China war over Taiwan or other flashpoints.

The Iran exception

One major contradiction remains: the Middle East. Trump’s broader strategy points toward selective engagement, hemispheric consolidation, and managed competition with China. Yet the war against Iran appears strikingly inconsistent with that idea.

Strategically, it resembles an aberration – a costly diversion driven less by core American interests than by the influence of Israel and the priorities of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In many respects, it’s more Netanyahu’s war than Trump’s war.

Unlike Washington’s moves in the Americas, which constrained Chinese influence, instability in the Middle East may actually strengthen Beijing’s global position.

China benefits when the US gets trapped in expensive, open-ended regional crises. Every additional military commitment dilutes American focus and accelerates the redistribution of global influence. Beijing, meanwhile, continues to present itself as a comparatively stable economic partner with a mature and modern political system capable of engaging all sides simultaneously.

While Washington attempts to contain China economically and strategically, its own Middle Eastern entanglements may be helping Beijing expand its international stature far beyond the Gulf region.

This, in turn, reinforces Beijing’s confidence at the negotiating table. China now approaches talks with the US not as a rising power seeking acceptance, but as an established force convinced that time increasingly favors its long-term game.

Perhaps the clearest evidence of this transformation lies in official American doctrine itself. A comparison between Trump’s 2017 National Security Strategy and the 2025 version released last November reveals a remarkable evolution in Washington’s thinking.

The 2017 document portrayed China as a strategic threat, a revisionist power undermining American security and prosperity. Beijing was grouped alongside Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadist terrorism as one of the principal dangers ostensibly facing the US. China’s political system and values were described as fundamentally incompatible with American interests.

The new strategy is dramatically different. The 2025 National Security Strategy focuses primarily on trade imbalances, economic competition, and maintaining strategic equilibrium. China is no longer explicitly framed as a security threat. Ideological language has given way to that of balance, competition, and coexistence.

This is not a cosmetic adjustment. It reflects a profound strategic recalibration. Washington increasingly understands that China cannot be isolated, economically decoupled, or politically transformed through pressure alone. The costs would simply be too high – not only for China, but for the US itself.

‘Constructive strategic stability’

The Trump-Xi summit therefore may represent the beginning of a broader search for what Beijing calls “constructive strategic stability.” Not friendship, and certainly not alliance. But a structured coexistence between two systems competing intensely while recognizing mutual limits.

In many ways, this also validates Chinese President Xi Jinping’s long-standing assertion that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.” Until recently, such statements were dismissed in Washington as propaganda. Now it increasingly resembles the conceptual foundation of an emerging geopolitical compromise.

The next stage of this process may arrive sooner than expected. Xi will travel to Washington in September – a highly symbolic visit given that he never visited the US during Trump’s earlier presidency.

If that meeting takes place, it will confirm what the Beijing summit already suggested: the era when Washington could dictate the terms of the global order unilaterally is ending. A new world is emerging, shaped by negotiated coexistence between rival centers of power.

For the first time in decades, the United States appears ready to admit it.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has already cost businesses throughout the world at least $25 billion, with losses continuing to mount, Reuters reported on Monday, citing an analysis of corporate disclosures from companies listed in the US, Europe and Asia.

The outlet reviewed statements from businesses across major global markets and found that at least 279 enterprises have cited supply chain disruptions and soaring fuel costs linked to the Iran conflict as a reason for emergency measures.

Some have raised prices or cut production, while others have suspended dividends or share buybacks, furloughed staff, imposed fuel surcharges or have sought urgent government support.

Whirlpool CEO Marc Bitzer told analysts earlier this month that the downturn resembled the global financial crisis in 2008 after the appliance maker halved its full-year forecast and suspended dividend payments. “Consumers are holding back on replacing products and, rather, repairing them,” Bitzer said.

Most of them were based in the EU and the UK, where energy prices were already elevated since cutting back on Russian oil and gas imports after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict four years ago.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said “elevated gas prices are the core issue we’re seeing right now,” while Newell Brands CFO Mark Erceg said every $5 rise in oil prices adds about $5 million in costs. Continental executive Roland Welzbacher said the impact would become “full-blown” in the second half.

Airlines accounted for the largest share of quantified war-related costs at nearly $15 billion, while Toyota warned of a $4.3 billion hit and P&G estimated a $1 billion post-tax profit blow, the report said.

The economic fallout from the Iran war has also spread across the US economy, pushing inflation higher and sharply increasing fuel costs for consumers. A separate report by Brown University’s Watson Institute estimated Americans have spent an extra $41.5 billion on gasoline and diesel since the start of US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran – about $316 per household.

Moscow and Minsk have launched a joint nuclear exercise, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced on Monday. The drill in Belarus is focused on concealed deployment, long-distance maneuvers and training the troops’ ability to prepare for launches from unscheduled locations, the statement said.

Russia stationed nuclear weapons in Belarus in 2023, following repeated requests from Minsk. It also deployed its nuclear-capable Oreshnik hypersonic missile system there last year. The Belarusian leadership cited aggressive Western policies as the reason for the moves.

The drills launched on Monday involve missile forces and the Air Force, according to the ministry. Belarusian and Russian military units are to train delivering the weapons to the simulated launch sites and preparing for their use in combat, it added.

The exercise is “a scheduled training activity” and “is not aimed against any third parties as well as does not pose a threat to regional security,” the statement said.

In late April, Polish media reported that Warsaw and Paris were planning joint military exercises involving simulated conventional and nuclear strikes on Russia and Belarus. The reports came just days after French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced deepening military cooperation, citing the perceived “Russian threat.”

“Our cooperation, whether in the nuclear domain or in joint exercises [...] is a cooperation that knows no bounds,” Tusk said at the time. Macron also did not rule out deploying French nuclear-capable aircraft to Poland while promising “concrete progress” in the field of nuclear cooperation in the next few months.

Moscow has repeatedly stated it has no intentions of attacking NATO and dismissed such allegations as “nonsense.” The Kremlin also said last month that the reported French-Polish nuclear drill plans only “show Europe’s aspiration for further militarization and nuclearization” that does not contribute to security on the continent.

India has responded to remarks by Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten on press freedom and minority rights, saying that the comments stem from a “lack of understanding” of the country’s democratic and civilizational nature.

Jetten said the Netherlands has concerns “not just about press freedom” in India, but also about “the rights of minorities, which are under severe pressure there,” adding that these issues are “regularly raised” with New Delhi, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported.

Sibi George, a senior diplomat in the Indian Foreign Ministry, said such criticism of India often stems from inadequate knowledge about its social and democratic fabric. “We face these kinds of questions basically because of the lack of understanding of the person who asks the question,” he added.

George noted that India, the world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people, has a civilization dating back 5,000 years, saying: “It’s a diverse country – diversity in terms of culture, diversity in terms of languages, diversity in terms of food, diversity in terms of religion.”

“There is no other country in the world where four religions have originated,” George said. Four major religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism – originated in India and continue to flourish there.

The Jewish community has lived in the country for over 2,500 years without persecution, he said, adding that Christianity and Islam have also prospered in the South Asian nation for centuries.

At the time of independence, minorities constituted 11% of the total population, a figure that has risen to more than 20%.

After meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the weekend, Jetten posted on social media that both countries attach “great importance to democracy, good governance and a world order based on rules and justice.”

Jetten’s remarks are not the first time Western nations and organizations have made accusations against India.

In March, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom called for sanctions on India’s external intelligence agency and a social service organization for allegedly violating religious freedom.

US President Donald Trump has posted a glitchy AI-generated image of himself alongside a shackled alien in his latest flurry of space-themed Truth Social posts on Sunday.

The post came just over a week after the US War Department declassified a batch of government files on unidentified flying objects (UFOs), spanning more than a hundred historic documents, reports, photographs and videos of various unexplained phenomena.

In Trump’s post, the alien – portrayed as a tall grey-skinned humanoid with a bald head and large black eyes – is flanked by the president, several Secret Service agents and a US soldier. The restraints on its wrists appear to be only partially generated. Trump did not explain or caption the image.

In another set of AI-generated images, Trump is portrayed at a console in a space station, with images of satellites and missiles being shot down in the background. One post shows the US president five to six times larger than the officers that surround him as he holds his fingers on a big red button.

The images are labelled “Space Force.”

The Pentagon has characterized the program as urgently needed.

The US has “very limited capability” against ballistic missiles and “no defense against hypersonic weapons or cruise missiles today,” Assistant Secretary of War for Space Policy Marc Berkowitz told lawmakers in the Senate last month. Russia, China, India and some other nations have developed and deployed hypersonic missiles in recent years.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged African countries to strengthen cross-border surveillance and cooperation to contain Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, warning that the virus “does not respect borders.”

In his capacity as African Union Champion on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Ramaphosa said the outbreaks of the Bundibugyo strain in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Kampala, Uganda, required urgent and coordinated action across the continent.

”Ebola does not respect borders,” Ramaphosa said.

”In a region marked by high population mobility, insecurity, and humanitarian movement, the risk of regional spread is significant and demands urgent, coordinated action.”

Ramaphosa commended the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda for their “swift leadership and transparency” in declaring the outbreaks following laboratory confirmation.

”Early detection, rapid reporting, and decisive action remain critical to containing outbreaks before they escalate into a wider regional crisis,” he said.

He said Africa stood in solidarity with the governments and people of both countries, particularly affected communities and frontline healthcare workers, while also praising neighbouring countries that had moved quickly to strengthen preparedness, cross-border surveillance, and emergency coordination.

Ramaphosa also commended the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention under the leadership of Director-General Jean Kaseya, working together with the World Health Organization, for providing rapid support to affected countries and coordinating a continental response.

Ramaphosa welcomed efforts by national authorities, Africa CDC, the WHO, and partners to strengthen surveillance, laboratory systems, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, risk communication, case management, and access to medical countermeasures.

He called on the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda to sustain strong political leadership and continue working closely with frontline responders and communities “in an environment of trust and transparency to stop these outbreaks at their source and prevent further spread”.

Ramaphosa urged affected and at-risk countries to intensify cross-border collaboration, strengthen surveillance at formal and informal points of entry, and ensure rapid information sharing, particularly in areas affected by insecurity and population displacement.

”As the chair of the Global Leaders Network for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, I make a special plea to ensure that women, children, and adolescents are not left behind and that routine services do not backslide as we handle this crisis,” he said.

The president said the outbreaks were also a reminder that Africa needed to continue investing in resilient public health systems and regional health security structures despite declining Official Development Assistance.

He said preparedness required sustained investment in national public health institutes, emergency operations centres, laboratory and genomic surveillance networks, trained healthcare workers, and rapid response capabilities.

Ramaphosa also called on African Union member states and international partners to strengthen support for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response through timely financing, technical assistance, medical countermeasures, and direct support to affected communities.

”Solidarity must translate into concrete action,” he said.

Ramaphosa said he would continue working with the African Union Commission, heads of state and government, Africa CDC, and partners to ensure that Africa’s response remained coordinated, adequately financed, and anchored in “the principles of solidarity, health security and sovereignty”.

”The peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and the wider region must not face this threat alone,” Ramaphosa said.

”Africa has the experience, institutions, and resolve to contain these outbreaks. What is required now is urgency, unity, and collective action.”

First published by IOL

Tanzania is seeking to expand agricultural cooperation with Russia, viewing Moscow’s expertise in farming technologies as key to strengthening food security, Tanzanian minister Kitila Alexander Mkumbo has said. 

“Developing cooperation in the agricultural sector can make a significant contribution to food security and job creation,” Mkumbo noted, speaking at the third meeting of the Russian-Tanzanian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in Arusha, Tanzania.

Mkumbo, who serves as minister of state in the President’s Office for Planning and Investment, also pointed to expanding trade, investment projects, and cooperation in uranium extraction as areas capable of pushing bilateral ties “to a qualitatively new level.” According to Russia, trade turnover between the two countries rose by nearly 20% in 2025, while Tanzania’s share in Russia’s foreign trade hit a five-year high.

Russia currently exports wheat, meslin and fertilizers to Tanzania, while importing tobacco raw materials, coffee, tea, and fruit from the African country.

Earlier, the Russian minister announced at the Russia-Tanzania Investment Forum that Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is continuing work on a uranium project, also known as Mantra, in southern Tanzania.

“Mantra is an important project for the development of bilateral relations,” the expert said, noting that Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration had ensured “all the conditions for its implementation and the creation of a new uranium mining industry in the country.”

Maslov added the two sides had established a joint expert group on digital projects, coordinated by Russia’s HSE and Tanzania’s ICT Commission.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has vowed to sign an India-EU trade deal by the end of the year.

The pact, which would create a free trade zone of 2 billion people, and which has been stalled for nearly 20 years, was finally agreed upon in January. At the time, von der Leyen claimed the agreement would be the “mother of all deals.”

Meeting on Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerssonat at the European Round Table for Industry in Gothenburg, the EU chief also promised to make the deal fully operational “at record speed.”

“The trade agreement opened the door; an investment agreement walks us through this door,” she said.

Bilateral trade between India and the EU reached approximately $136 billion in 2024-25, making the bloc India’s largest goods trading partner.

India’s Commerce Ministry said the pact, further deepening economic and strategic ties, will result in export growth to the tune of $76 billion from Indian states to the EU.

Previously, India raised objections to what it sees as non-tariff barriers imposed by the EU and affecting steel, aluminium, and cement exports. The trade deal will enable India to have flexibility on carbon tax, according to reports.

A similar upgrade to the India-Netherlands relationship was reached during Modi’s meeting with the Dutch prime minister, Rob Jetten. As of 2025, bilateral trade between India and Sweden was estimated at $7.75 billion.

New Delhi and Stockholm also held discussions on widening collaboration in trade and investment, technology and innovation, green transition, space, emerging technologies, and defense and security, apart from people-to-people ties.

Modi pitched India as an investment destination to an array of leading European chief executives, including the leaders of Vodafone, Ericsson, Nokia, TotalEnergies, Nestle, and Unilever.

He urged them to make investment pledges to India over the next five years by invoking the recently concluded India-EU Free Trade agreement.

The Indian prime minister also invited Swedish companies to enhance their presence under the Make in India initiative and held talks with Maersk chairman Robert Maersk Uggla to discuss investment opportunities in ports and logistics.

Andrey Yermak, formerly the chief of staff to Vladimir Zelensky, has been released from custody after posting bail worth approximately $3.2 million, one week after being charged in a major money laundering case.

Yermak was filmed leaving pre-trial detention on Monday morning accompanied by security guards, shortly after the High Anti-Corruption Court confirmed receipt of the full bail amount that had been set last Thursday. Some Ukrainian commentators interpreted the fact that the influential former aide spent the weekend behind bars as a sign of weakening political influence surrounding Zelensky’s inner circle.

Opposition MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak claimed the necessary funds had been assembled by Friday evening, but delays in processing the transfer meant the payment was finalized only after business hours, forcing Yermak to remain in custody over the weekend.

Yermak tied to alleged corruption scheme

The charges against Yermak, brought by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies, are linked to a wider investigation into businessman Timur Mindich, often referred to in Ukrainian media as “Zelensky’s wallet.”

Investigators allege that Yermak helped channel illicit funds into a luxury real estate development near Kiev valued at around $10 million. Reports claim the project was jointly owned by Mindich, former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, Yermak, and a fourth silent partner believed by some media outlets to be Zelensky himself.

Yermak was released from pretrial detention on bail. He spent the weekend in a private cell.

According to media reports, they managed to raise even more than the required amount – 154 million hryvnias instead of 140 million. pic.twitter.com/uKwrrlaUmr

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) May 18, 2026

Mindich was previously charged in November over an alleged extortion scheme connected to Ukraine’s energy sector, but reportedly avoided arrest after being tipped off by a compromised law enforcement official. Yermak later resigned amid allegations linking him to the affair. Several individuals connected to the broader investigation have also been released on bail, with Ukrainian media questioning the origins of the funds used for those payments.

Former Energy Minister German Galushchenko, one of the suspected Mindich accomplices, was previously accused of personally approving a cell in abysmal condition for a detective of the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), who was detained last year by the security agency SBU in what was broadly believed to be an attempt to derail the investigation.

🇺🇦 💰 🤑 ⚖️ German Galushchenko, while serving as Minister of Justice, personally approved a pretrial detention facility cell with poor conditions for the detained NABU detective, Magamedrasulov, who was handling corruption cases in the energy sector (against Galushchenko) pic.twitter.com/KMftlh8cHs

— senore_amore (@SenoreAmore) February 18, 2026

Questions raised over bail payments

Ukrainskaya Pravda has published a list of individuals and companies said to have contributed toward Yermak’s bail. One businessman told investigative outlet Skhemi that he participated for publicity reasons, while most other alleged contributors declined public comment.

Earlier reports suggested the prominent law firm Asters — formerly associated with ex-Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov — would provide funds.

Political tensions deepen in Kiev

News outlet Strana.ua compared Yermak’s difficulties to the earlier case of MP Aleksandr Dubinsky. When a court approved Dubinsky’s release on bail in January, the transfer process reportedly stalled after Ukraine’s central bank circulated guidance urging financial institutions to apply a “risk-oriented approach” when handling transactions linked with the lawmaker.

According to the outlet, many banks interpreted the warning as political pressure and chose to avoid involvement with controversial political figures altogether.

“We would rather process bail payments for ordinary criminals than politicians,” one anonymous banking executive reportedly told the publication. “Why would a bank want such clients? For a meager commission? We can live without that.”

Strana.ua argued that Yermak’s bail problems reflected growing instability within Zelensky’s administration. Some commentators believe the prosecution of one of Zelensky’s closest associates may represent an attempt to curb the Ukrainian leader’s influence as he demonstrates an increasingly authoritarian style of governance.

After US President Donald Trump’s state visit to China, Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive on May 19 to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Given the flurry of visits by foreign leaders to Beijing this year, it is clear that Beijing has become the place to go to for resolving major problems which have become intractable for traditional international institutions.

Trump’s visit from May 13 to 15 has undoubtedly done more to reset China-US relations than all the discussions conducted over the last nine years between delegations and representatives of both nations. More than that, it presented a real possibility of reshaping the relationship from rivalry to genuine partnership.

”Great changes unseen in a century” is the phrase often used by Xi to describe the present period of world history. This characterizes the turmoil in the world today and the abject failure of traditional institutions to deal with that turmoil.

A war in the midst of Europe well into its fourth year, Israeli attacks on Gaza, and the unprovoked attack on Iran by the US and Israel have all been repeatedly debated and discussed in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Security Council, but with no resolution.

Some nations are moving away from seeking multilateral solutions to overriding problems and showing greater unilateralism and protectionism in the realm of trade and investment. Some have increasingly decided to go their own way without considering the interests of their neighbors. And the resulting rise in political tensions has seen more nations seeking destructive weapons, jeopardizing the treaties put in place to limit the possession of nuclear weapons and prevent their use.

In many respects, the fabric of the international norms and principles established in the aftermath of World War II has been seriously undermined, creating a basis for greater conflicts, including even a possible conflict between nuclear powers. The failure of many nations this year to commemorate the end of WWII indicates the principles established in the past to prevent new wars are being increasingly ignored and abandoned.

In 2023, the Global Civilization Initiative was proposed during the Communist Party of China in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting to protect and respect the cultural diversity of the world. Then in 2025, China introduced the Global Governance Initiative at the ‘Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Plus’ Meeting to strengthen the international institutions meant to preserve peace and harmony in the world.

In 2013, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Occurring at a time when the West had totally lost interest in development, it put the issue of global development firmly back on the agenda, creating tremendous excitement among the nations of the Global South that had despaired of working their way out of poverty and misery. The BRI has become the lodestar for the Global South, providing the needed infrastructure for them to move forward on the road to progress. This initiative alone has created a bond of trust among them and China.

During meetings between Xi and Trump, both leaders agreed on a new vision of building a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability. This involves positive stability with cooperation as the mainstay, healthy stability with competition in proper limits, constant stability with manageable differences, and lasting stability with expected peace.

Such a guiding concept stands in stark contrast to the previous phase of the relationship, characterized by great power rivalry, strategic confrontation and decoupling. In the often-troubled relationship between these two great powers, Xi expressed the hope of moving it from rivalry to partnership.

Even in the face of disruptions of international supply chains and increase in energy prices worldwide, China has maintained a stable economy. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for greater opening up to foreign investment and in the area of hi-tech, China is open to international cooperation rather than shutting itself behind ‘high walls’ like some nations.

Putin will arrive in China at a time when Russia-Ukraine military operations are still ongoing. During the course of the conflict, China has maintained a close relationship with Russia, in spite of its concerns about the conflict, and maintains good relations with Ukraine too.

The China-Russia relationship has been strengthened during these years, thanks to the close relationship between the two presidents and their overall agreement on issues of the international world order. And both leaders attest to the fact that the relationship of their two countries has now attained its highest level ever.

Given China’s position on the unnecessary conflict in Iran, it was not surprising that Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi visited Beijing on May 6, a week before Trump, at a time when the US president was again threatening military strikes on Iran.

China has been working diligently to bring this conflict to an end. China and Pakistan put forward a five-point initiative for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf region. Those included respect for national sovereignty, rejection of force and regime change, protection of civilians and shipping, reaching a political settlement and upholding the principles of the UN Charter. China has also been supportive of Pakistani efforts to mediate peace negotiations between the US and Iran.

Amid the overall paralysis in many of our international institutions, this type of heads-of-state diplomacy, championed and taken to its highest level by the Chinese president, provides an alternative to increasing chaos. Putin’s visit will be another example in this genuine endeavor to bring order out of chaos. Given the important role the Chinese, US and Russian leaders play in determining the outcomes in a wide variety of areas, this new beginning could provide the impetus for restoring a just and lasting system of global governance.

This article was first published by CGTN.

The decoupling of the US and European armies within NATO is no longer theoretical – the process is already underway. American troop deployments are being canceled, and weapons deliveries – delayed.

The latest example came in early May, when the US canceled the rotation of 4,000 troops into Poland, a week after the announcement Washington is pulling 5,000 soldiers from Germany following German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s criticism of the US-Israeli war on Iran as misguided.

US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has also canceled the deployment to Germany of a battalion specializing in long-range missiles, according to a leaked memo.

The bigger picture: America in Europe 

US forces have been permanently stationed on the European continent since World War II. Up to 80,000 American troops were stationed there in 2025 under a “coupled” system that is now unravelling. 

Both US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have signaled that Washington’s commitment to European defense is on the wane.

Responses by NATO’s European members have ranged from outright rejection of US militarism, as in the case of Spain, to both verbal criticism and acquiescence.

What decoupling actually means 

Decoupling armies in practical terms means the withdrawal of most of the 80,000 US troops in Europe, ending the post-1945 tradition of combined territorial defense and deterrence.

NATO’s European capitals are thus waking up to the prospect of living without the US military umbrella. “For the first time in human memory, we are alone,” as ex-ECB chief Mario Draghi has put it.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has stretched American stocks of ammunition, artillery systems, and missile interceptors thinner than at any point since the end of the Cold War.

US officials have warned several NATO members – including Baltic and Scandinavian states – that crucial weapons deliveries through the Foreign Military Sales program will be delayed, citing the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Beyond Iran, China remains the Pentagon’s primary long-term concern. Every brigade kept in Europe is one less available for a potential Pacific conflict.

Europe has become a secondary theater where NATO’s Euro-bloc will be expected to fend for itself.

‘Big bang’ or non-starter – EU’s army plan 

Earlier this year, EU defense chief Andrius Kubilius called for a “big bang in defense” – a 100,000-strong standing army to operate independently of the US and NATO.

The idea is deeply controversial. It would violate the EU treaty, require a new intergovernmental accord, and force member states to cede sovereignty over their armed forces – a non-starter for many capitals.

France has long championed the plan, with President Emmanuel Macron arguing for “strategic autonomy” from Washington, though Paris insists its nuclear deterrent would stay outside any joint command.

But analysts say the idea faces insurmountable legal hurdles: the EU’s founding treaties explicitly rule out a common army, and defense policy remains the exclusive preserve of national governments.

Europe’s capability problem 

Europe’s armies however remain highly dependent on the US for spy satellites, long-range missiles, heavy airlift aircraft, and undersea warfare capacity.

Earlier this month, German defense experts and industry executives published a paper arguing that EU defense autonomy will cost around $59 billion per year for the next decade.

The dramatic rise in NATO’s European members military spending has not translated into greater operational autonomy, though that may come. Vast amounts have been and will be spent, but capabilities remain fragmented across the bloc.

The internal European scramble 

Across the continent NATO’s European members are arming themselves at a pace not seen since the Cold War, citing intelligence reports of a ‘Russian threat’ – despite Moscow’s outright rejection of such – in an apparent effort to consolidate the EU and to reboot their economies through militarization.

In total, European NATO members spent a combined $559 billion on defense in 2025, with Germany’s outlays rising 24% to $114 billion and Spain’s jumping 50% to $40.2 billion.

The Franco-German brotherhood is the obvious place to find dissonance. In March, French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to expand his country’s nuclear stockpile to ensure a secrecy-obscured arsenal so that “no state, however powerful, could shield itself from it, and no state, however vast, would recover from it.”

Berlin remains deeply uncomfortable with Macron’s nuclear overtures, while German officials have started recalling their country’s past military forays in ways that are making neighboring countries nervous.

The view from Moscow 

For Russia, the militarization of European states and transformation of the EU into a military alliance resembling NATO, but without US defense and deterrence, presents a direct and growing threat. European elites have a historical tradition of ‘marching eastward’.

Russia has scorned the EU army idea, suggesting that the bloc should first tackle its internal problems – refugees, energy dependence, and lagging NATO contributions.

Moscow has also repeatedly condemned the EU’s militarization as “using ostentatious Russophobia” as a pretext to turn Russia into a “model external enemy” and divert attention from internal European crises.

For Moscow, any transformation of the EU into a military alliance would raise security concerns and upset an already fragile strategic balance in Europe.

Rwandan businessman Felicien Kabuga has died in custody while awaiting trial for his alleged role in the East African nation’s 1994 genocide, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) announced on Saturday. He was 93.

The IRMCT said Kabuga passed away while hospitalized in The Hague, Netherlands, where he was being held at the United Nations Detention Unit (UNDU).

“The president of the Mechanism, Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, has ordered a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Kabuga’s death, assigning Judge Alphons Orie to conduct the inquiry,” the UN court said in a statement.

An arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in April 2013. Kabuga evaded capture before being arrested in France in May 2020 and transferred to The Hague branch of the IRMCT in 2020, where he entered a not-guilty plea in his first appearance in November 2020.

His trial officially began in September 2022. However, in September 2023, proceedings were indefinitely stayed after judges ruled Kabuga unfit to stand trial due to dementia. Prior to his death, he had been awaiting provisional release to a state willing to accept him.

“A man whom international judges had themselves recognized as unfit to stand trial died in prison, although his continued deprivation of liberty no longer served any judicial purpose,” Kabuga’s lawyer, Emmanuel Altit, said in a statement cited by AP.

Other suspects have faced justice in France, a common destination for individuals who fled the landlocked African state after being implicated in the genocide. In October 2024, a French court sentenced former Rwandan doctor Eugène Rwamucyo to 27 years in prison for complicity in the massacre.

Tehran will take the US and Israel to court over attacks on Iranian cultural sites, the Islamic Republic’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, has said.

A fragile ceasefire, which was established between the sides in early April after a month of intense hostilities initiated by the Americans and the Israelis, currently holds. However, there has been no progress in indirect peace talks, with both Washington and Tehran rejecting each other’s demands as unacceptable.

Gharibabadi wrote in a post on X on Sunday that at least 149 historical landmarks and museums in 20 Iranian provinces, including five UNESCO-registered sites, have been damaged by the US and Israeli bombardment.

The authorities in Tehran “will register, document, and pursue this assault on its cultural heritage within the framework of international responsibility; for it will allow no power to sacrifice the history of the great Iranian nation to its military and political objectives of today,” he wrote.

Cultural sites must be protected during conflicts in line with the 1954 Hague Convention and the fundamental rules of humanitarian law, the diplomat added.

“Iran’s cultural heritage is not merely a national asset of the Iranian people; it is part of humanity’s shared memory,” Gharibabadi said.

The attacks on historic landmarks by Washington and West Jerusalem constitute “a clear manifestation of the lawless behavior of the American regime and the Zionist regime,” the deputy minister insisted.

The Iranian Ministry of Culture previously estimated that repairing the heritage sites damaged during the conflict would cost some 70 trillion rials (nearly $39 million).

The American wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere have led to damage or destruction of multiple cultural heritage sites since the 1950s, but Washington had never been held liable. It’s increasingly difficult for foreign governments to sue the US in domestic or international courts due to the doctrine of sovereign immunity and its refusal to recognize compulsory jurisdiction of global legal bodies.

In early April, US President Donald Trump warned that Iran’s “whole civilization will die” if it fails to accept American demands and faced instant international backlash, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying that he was “deeply troubled” by the statement and Pope Leo XIV calling it “truly unacceptable.”

The Ebola outbreak linked to the Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Uganda constitutes a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Sunday.

At the same time, the WHO stopped short of labeling the situation a “pandemic emergency.” 

According to WHO data, at least eight laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases, and 80 suspected deaths have been recorded in DR Congo’s eastern Ituri Province, while Uganda confirmed two imported cases in Kampala. Both patients in Uganda had recently traveled from the DR Congo and were admitted to intensive care units. 

Health officials stated that unusual clusters of deaths and infections among medical workers point to possible widespread community transmission and serious “gaps” in hospital infection control.

Unlike the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, there are currently no approved vaccines or targeted treatments for the Bundibugyo virus. “As such, this event is considered extraordinary,” officials said. 

Bundibugyo virus is a rare strain of Ebola first identified in Uganda in 2007. Scientists believe it is naturally carried by fruit bats and can spread to humans through contact with infected animals before transmitting between people through bodily fluids. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that the Ebola outbreaks in the DR Congo and Uganda pose a serious regional threat, calling for urgent cross-border coordination to contain the spread. “Ebola does not respect borders,” he said, citing high mobility and ongoing instability in the region.

In affected areas, Red Cross volunteers have been going door to door to share health information, identify suspected cases, support contact tracing, and combat misinformation surrounding the outbreak.

Smartphones and weaker face-to-face relationships could be contributing to plunging birth rates worldwide, particularly among young people, as global fertility is declining at a record pace, the Financial Times has reported, citing researchers and demographic data.

An analysis spanning population records and Google search data found that birth rates declined sharply across multiple countries following the widespread adoption of smartphones, regardless of earlier demographic trends, the outlet wrote on Saturday.

The FT cited Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a researcher on demographic change, who described falling fertility as “the big question of our time.” He argued that many of today’s economic and social problems were “downstream” from collapsing birth rates.

Researchers are increasingly linking heavy smartphone and social media use as well as weaker face-to-face relationships to declining fertility in countries around the world, including the US, UK, Brazil and South Korea, according to the report.

The FT cited a recent paper by Nathan Hudson and Hernan Moscoso-Boedo of the University of Cincinnati examining birth rates during the rollout of 4G mobile networks in the US and UK.

Similar trends had been recorded across the world, the outlet said. France and Poland saw comparable declines from 2009, followed by Mexico, Morocco and Indonesia in around 2012, while Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal recorded steep drops between 2013 and 2015.

According to a Eurostat report published last month, the EU’s population is projected to shrink by 11%, or about 53 million people, over the next 75 years. The region’s population is expected to peak at 453 million in 2029 before falling below 400 million by the end of the century as fertility rates decline to around 1.3 children per woman.

As part of efforts to rebuild social connections, Russian policymakers in 2024 introduced restrictions banning students from using mobile phones in schools, with exceptions allowed only for emergencies.

Specialists from Moscow will conduct an epidemiological investigation in Uganda after it requested assistance amid an Ebola outbreak, Russia’s public health watchdog has announced.

Ebola is a severe viral disease that can cause hemorrhagic fever, organ failure, and death. The latest outbreak is affecting Uganda and neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency of international concern.

“Russia’s public health watchdog will also provide logistical support to Uganda’s Health Ministry and supply Ebola diagnostic tests developed by its affiliated research institutions and used in Russia,” Rospotrebnadzor, which is responsible for monitoring epidemics, said on Monday.

The organization highlighted that joint efforts in recent years have significantly strengthened Uganda’s scientific, laboratory, and personnel capabilities. In 2024, Russia transferred a mobile anti-epidemic laboratory to Ugandan partners, enabling rapid diagnostics of dangerous infectious diseases. The facility was already used in 2025 to help contain a previous Ebola outbreak.

Russian medics have also trained more than 80 Ugandan specialists in infectious disease monitoring, disinfection practices, laboratory diagnostics and biological safety.

The WHO said the outbreak poses a serious international public health threat requiring cross-border coordination, warning that the virus has been detected in areas with high population mobility, increasing the risk of further spread.

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

On Sunday, Moscow and its suburbs came under what appeared to be the largest Ukrainian drone raid in more than a year, which left at least three people, including an Indian national, killed and over a dozen wounded. Kiev launched some 130 UAVs at the Russian capital, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday that the overnight bombardment focused on Ukrainian defense industry facilities; fuel, energy and transport infrastructure; as well as naval ports and military airfields.

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

On Sunday, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky praised his military and intelligence services for the attack on Moscow, in which three civilians were killed. It “sent a clear signal that one shouldn’t mess with Ukraine,” he claimed.

Zelensky also suggested that the raid meant that the conflict was moving to Russian territory, neglecting the steady advance by Moscow’s forces in Donbass and along other parts of the frontline.

Ukrainian drone raids deep inside Russia have intensified since mid-March, with Kiev launching hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on an almost daily basis against residential neighborhoods, civilian infrastructure, and industrial facilities far from the front.

Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.

Tehran could respond militarily to US naval forces enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports, a senior Iranian official has said, warning that the Gulf of Oman could become a “graveyard” for American warships.

Speaking on Iranian state television on Sunday, Mohsen Rezaei, who serves on a senior advisory body to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said Iran’s patience with the ongoing maritime restrictions was running out after weeks of disrupted shipping activity.

“The longer they continue the naval blockade of Iran, the greater the damage to the world economy will be,” Rezaei stated. “We advise the US military to lift the siege before the Gulf of Oman turns into their graveyard.”

Rezaei, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), argued that Tehran would be justified in responding militarily to an act of war, which he stressed the blockade amounts to.

US President Donald Trump announced the naval operation on April 13, undermining indirect diplomatic efforts mediated by Pakistan. Although Washington and Tehran declared a fragile ceasefire on April 8, both sides have continued to reject each other’s conditions for a broader settlement.

NOW: 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 TRUMP THREATENS IRAN

Trump just posted this to his truth social.

To me it looks like a clear threat of invasion or balkanisation, either directly or via proxy.

What a clown. pic.twitter.com/vhKOzPw7CD

— Adam (@adamemedia1) May 17, 2026

The crisis was triggered by a US-Israeli bombing campaign targeting Iran’s leadership and key infrastructure. Tehran responded with retaliatory strikes against the attacking nations and against regional countries hosting US military bases. Iranian authorities have also restricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway linking the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

According to reports by Axios and CNN, Trump convened senior national security officials on Saturday to discuss possible next steps, including renewed military action. The meeting was reportedly held hours after Trump’s return from a state visit to China, and included Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, sources have said.

More than 40 pupils have been kidnapped after militants, suspected to be members of the jihadist group Boko Haram, attacked a school in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, according to a senior lawmaker and local residents.

The gunmen reportedly stormed the Primary and Junior Government Day Secondary School (GDSS) in Mussa-Biri community, located in Askira-Uba Local Government Area, last Friday.

In a statement cited by local media, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, who represents Borno South, said 32 students were seized from classrooms and another ten from nearby homes.

The Network of Civil Society Organizations – Borno State said on Sunday that 48 students were abducted in the “heinous attack” that has left “the entire community in profound shock and psychological trauma.”

The organization said the insurgents breached the school’s perimeter when classes were in session, causing pandemonium that forced “dozens of other students to flee into the surrounding bushes.”

The Nigerian police and military have not issued any public statement confirming the Mussa village incident. The raid comes amid a wave of violent attacks across Africa’s most populous nation, despite increased security measures, including a state of emergency declared by the government.

A week earlier, 17 police officers were killed when terrorists launched an assault on the Nigerian Army Special Forces School in Buni Yadi, Yobe State. Authorities described the May 8 raid as “a coordinated attack on the facility from multiple directions.”

Last Thursday, the Nigerian Police Force announced it had conducted internal purges, dismissing officers involved in kidnapping, extortion, and armed robbery.

IGP DISU VISITS ORIIRE COMMUNITIES, ORDERS INTENSIFIED RESCUE OPERATIONS

The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, psc (+), NPM, today paid a visit to Oyo State following the tragic attack and abduction incident that occurred in Oriire Local Government Area of… pic.twitter.com/G7Idv9bnFI

— Nigeria Police Force (@PoliceNG) May 16, 2026

A Colombian mercenary has spoken of his regret at fighting for Ukraine, telling RT that the experience nearly cost him his life and could leave him unable to safely return home.

William Andres Gallego Orozco, 23, was captured by Russian troops after being seriously wounded by shrapnel on the front line. Russian soldiers provided him with medical treatment and evacuated him from the combat zone.

Speaking to RT, he said he had been promised around $3,200 per month and believed he would work as a cook for the Ukrainian military. According to Orozco, neither the pay nor the assignment matched what he had been told.

Orozco said he received just 15 days of basic military instruction before being issued a UAR-15 rifle – a Ukrainian-produced version of the AR-15 platform – along with a radio. He was deployed with the Guajiro unit, a group of Colombian fighters attached to the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard.

During combat operations, he said he witnessed heavy casualties among foreign recruits while Ukrainian commanders stayed away from the front. Orozco could now face difficulties in returning to his homeland, where mercenary activity is prohibited by law.

Watch the full report.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has defended purchases of American weaponry after US President Donald Trump characterized weapons deliveries to the island as a bargaining chip in talks with Beijing.

During Trump’s visit to Beijing last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping described the status of the self-governing island as the central issue in bilateral relations, warning that it could potentially lead to conflict. Beijing has repeatedly condemned US arms sales to Taipei as interference in China’s internal affairs and a violation of the decades-old One-China policy.

In a statement posted on social media on Sunday, Lai called the arms sales “the most important deterrent” against conflict in the region.

“We thank President Trump for his continued support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait since his first term, including the continuous increase in the scale and amount of arms sales to Taiwan,” he wrote.

Lai added that Taiwan “will not provoke” a conflict, but would also not “give up national sovereignty and dignity.”

In December, Trump approved a record $11 billion weapons package for Taiwan that included missiles, drones, artillery systems, and military software. Last week, however, he raised doubts about future deliveries, telling Fox News that he had not yet approved a proposed new $14 billion package.

China considers Taiwan part of its sovereign territory – a position shared by the vast majority of countries, including Russia. Xi stated in 2022 that Beijing sought peaceful reunification, but warned that the People’s Republic would not rule out the use of force if provoked.

Although the US does not officially recognize Taiwan as a separate country, it maintains informal diplomatic ties with Taipei, which Beijing also regards as a violation of the One-China policy.

US President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with a new attack if Tehran doesn’t agree to make swift concessions to Washington.

Indirect talks between the sides have remained stalled since a fragile ceasefire was established in early April after a month of hostilities initiated by the US and Israel. Both Washington and Tehran have repeatedly dismissed each other’s demands, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier this week singling out the Trump administration’s “maximalist approach” and provocative rhetoric as main obstacles to reaching a deal.

Meanwhile, disruptions continue in the Strait of Hormuz, which has heavily affected global shipping and sent oil prices soaring. While Tehran has announced its own mechanism to regulate maritime traffic through the waterway, which accounts for some 25% of global crude trade, the US has rejected the scheme and is enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports in retaliation.

Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Sunday to warn that “for Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”

The new threat followed the president’s meeting on Saturday with top members of his national security team, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and special envoy Steve Witkoff, dedicated to the situation around Iran, CNN reported.

According to the broadcaster’s sources, the Pentagon has prepared a list of targets, including energy and infrastructure sites, if Trump ultimately decides to resume strikes on the country.

The New York Times reported on Friday, citing unnamed American officials, that the US and Israel are actively preparing for a renewal of hostilities with Iran and could launch “more aggressive bombing runs” as early as next week.

The UAE said an unidentified drone struck the territory of its only nuclear power plant on Sunday amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.

According to the Emirati Defense Ministry, three drones entered the country “from the western border region.” While two UAVs were shot down, the third struck an electrical generator “outside the inner perimeter” of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant in the Al Dhafra region. No injuries or radioactive contamination were reported.

While the Emirati authorities stopped short of directly accusing Iran, the country’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “unprovoked terrorist attack,” saying it threatened national security and risked further escalation.

Regional tensions remain high as US-Iran peace talks continue to stall, with both sides accusing each other of advancing unacceptable demands. Several media outlets have reported in recent weeks that US President Donald Trump is considering abandoning the fragile truce declared last month and resuming airstrikes.

Iran has accused Gulf states hosting US military bases of facilitating attacks during the US and Israeli bombing campaign launched against the country on February 28.

“The truth is that the UAE was directly involved in the aggression against my country. When the attacks started, they didn’t even issue a condemnation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists last week on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting in New Delhi.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the UAE had conducted covert strikes against Iran during the conflict.

Israel has approved plans to establish a new military complex on the site of the former UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in East Jerusalem, Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced.

Israeli authorities have accused the agency of colluding with Hamas during the October 7, 2023 attack.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seized and partially demolished the UNRWA compound in 2024 after lawmakers passed legislation banning the organization’s activities in areas under Israeli control.

In December, the Defense Ministry signed an agreement with the Jerusalem municipality to establish a new defense headquarters in the city and relocate several military colleges there.

According to Israeli media reports, the new compound will cover around nine acres near Ammunition Hill and include an IDF museum, recruitment offices, and facilities for the defense minister.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini condemned the destruction of the office as “a new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law.”

While the UN denied any institutional support for Hamas, UNRWA said following an internal probe in 2024 that available evidence indicated that nine of its employees “may have been involved in the attacks of October 7.”

The agency operates schools, clinics, and aid programs for Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. More than 2.3 million people have been displaced by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and over one million are sheltering in UNRWA facilities. More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 2023, according to the UN.

UN agencies and humanitarian groups have repeatedly warned of catastrophic conditions in the enclave, including widespread hunger and overcrowded refugee camps. Israel has denied accusations of deliberately targeting civilians and argued that Hamas has stolen food aid and obstructed humanitarian deliveries to Gaza.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla has accused the US of fabricating a pretext for a potential invasion following an Axios report claiming that the island had acquired attack drones from Russia and Iran.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump had suggested that Cuba could become Washington’s next target after the conflict with Iran.

Rodriguez Parrilla described the Axios report as an attempt to concoct a “fraudulent case to justify the ruthless economic war against the Cuban people and, eventually, military aggression.” He added that Cuba “neither threatens nor desires war.”

“Certain media outlets are playing along, spreading slanderous claims and publishing insinuations leaked by the US government,” the minister said.

The US imposed an oil embargo on the Caribbean island in February, prompting blackouts and fuel shortages, and has repeatedly threatened military action. 

A senior US official told Axios that the White House views Cuba’s potential use of drones as “a growing threat.”

The outlet added, however, that US officials do not consider Cuba an imminent threat and do not believe Havana is actively planning an attack.

Russia, which has maintained close ties with Cuba since Soviet times, including a long history of military cooperation, did not confirm supplying drones to Havana. Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the US blockade of Cuba as unacceptable, while the Russian Foreign Ministry has said Moscow is prepared to provide the island with “political, diplomatic, and material support.”

Last week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe paid a rare visit to Havana, reportedly pressing for reforms. According to media reports, Washington has demanded that Cuba liberalize its political system and transition from socialism to a market-based economy.

Domestic demand is expected to spur economic growth in Russia, Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov has told RBK.

Despite facing economic challenges, the Russian economy has proven far more resilient to Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict than many analysts had initially predicted. Kremlin officials argue that the country has largely succeeded in reorienting trade toward new markets and adapting to foreign pressure.

In an interview published on Sunday, Reshetnikov said Russia’s economic growth remains largely inward-oriented, while the role of exports is diminishing. According to the minister, the trend is being supported by a steady increase in real disposable incomes, which are projected to rise by 1.6% this year.

Reshetnikov attributed the trend to the gradual reduction of the Russian central bank’s policy rate in recent months. According to the minister, lower rates are making bank deposits less attractive, freeing up more money for consumer spending, while lending activity is also recovering.

The government is also seeking to boost labor productivity through the introduction of new technologies, artificial intelligence, and automation. Reshetnikov said the authorities plan to expand workforce participation by offering new internships, apprenticeships, and short-term training programs.

Reshetnikov added that the “balanced policy” pursued by the central bank and the government would allow inflation to gradually decline to a projected 5.2% by the end of 2026.

During a meeting with ministers on Friday, President Vladimir Putin pointed to “positive statistical data” for March, including a record-low unemployment rate of 2.2% and GDP growth of 1.8%.

Governor General of Canada Mary Simon has stripped Peter Dalglish, a co-founder of the Street Kids International charity and a convicted pedophile, of the country’s top honor. The famous aid worker was found guilty of raping two boys and sentenced to 16 years behind bars in Nepal back in 2019.

On Saturday, the Canada Gazette, the official media outlet of the Canadian government, reported that Simon terminated the appointment of Dalglish to the Order of Canada on April 15. He was originally awarded the merit in recognition of his humanitarian work in 2016.

Since the late 1980s, Dalglish has worked in multiple African and Asian countries, including Nepal, on programs aimed at improving the living conditions for vulnerable youths. During the course of his career, he has also been involved with several humanitarian agencies, including UN Habitat in Afghanistan and the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in Liberia.

In a statement to CBC News, the governor general’s office described the revocation of the honor as an “extraordinary measure,” noting that Dalglish “has acted in a manner inconsistent with the standard of conduct expected of members of this society.”

Pushkar Karki, chief of the Central Investigation Bureau, alleged that Dalglish had been luring children from poor families with promises of education, job opportunities and trips.

In July 2019, the Canadian national was sentenced to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay around $10,000 to his victims.

Dalglish has consistently denied the accusations, with his lawyer claiming that his client had been set up.

In recent years, Nepal has seen several other cases where foreign nationals have been accused of sexually abusing vulnerable children while operating under the guise of humanitarian workers.

Two US Navy electronic warfare aircraft collided mid-air on Sunday during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. All four crew members ejected safely.

Video from the scene shows two EA-18G Growler jets flying in close formation at low altitude. At one point, the aircraft collide and appear to become entangled before both stall and spiral toward the ground. The pilots eject just seconds after the collision, with four brightly colored parachutes visible in the sky.

“All four members of the aircrew successfully ejected and are being evaluated by medical personnel,” Naval Air Forces spokeswoman Commander Amelia Umayam said.

The Boeing EA-18G Growler is a carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft derived from the F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet. Introduced in the late 2000s, it was developed to replace the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare platform.

The EU has been filling its underground gas storage facilities at record-low rates for three consecutive days this week, Russia’s state-owned Gazprom has said, citing figures by the Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) association.

The bloc has been grappling with the fallout of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which has caused global energy shortages and a spike in prices. The situation is primarily linked to the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains disrupted despite a shaky ceasefire coming into force early in April.

Reduced maritime traffic has heavily restricted energy supplies since the waterway handled around 20% of global LNG trade before the conflict, primarily going to European and Asian markets.

This week, the GIE recorded the lowest-ever rates for filling up European gas storage for three days, from Tuesday to Thursday, Gazprom said on Sunday. Apart from the Iran conflict, unusually cold weather in Europe also contributed to the historically low readings, the Russian petroleum and gas giant suggested.

Belgium, France, and Spain have accounted for most imports, according to the IEEFA. Despite the EU’s goal of phasing out Russian fossil fuels by 2027, the country remains its second-largest LNG supplier, the institute said. The hostilities in the Middle East have also hampered the bloc’s proclaimed effort to diversify imports, and the EU is now even more reliant on American and Russian LNG supplies. 

Russian officials have signaled readiness to cut energy ties with the EU altogether and to switch to emerging markets and more reliable customers. Moscow has suggested, however, that the EU will ultimately be forced to mend energy ties, arguing that the bloc’s “Russophobic politicians” are risking deindustrialization for the sake of an ideological stance.

An EU proposal to drastically cut its steel import quota in response to global overcapacity and the shrinking of local manufacturing will hurt Kiev, Ukrainian manufacturers and officials have told the Financial Times.

The quota is expected to be cut by 47% on July 1, and the bloc will levy an additional 50% tariff on any steel imports above that amount. According to the EU authorities, the new regulation is meant to protect local manufacturers and address the “negative trade-related effects” of global overcapacity on its steel market. A surge in imports has already cost European steel mills thousands of jobs, forcing manufacturers to operate at reduced capacity.

The quota cut is expected to heavily affect Ukraine, which has emerged as a major supplier of steel to the EU. While Kiev has had free trade agreements with the bloc, the new quota will apply to all trading partners to comply with WTO rules. 

The EU has been in negotiations with Kiev and some 20 other trading partners over a preferential rate of distributing the diminished quota, unnamed Ukrainian officials told the newspaper. Despite the apparent desire of the EU to mitigate the impact on Ukraine, it initially proposed a 70% reduction in imports compared to last year. While the EU Commission offered a quota of 713,000 tonnes to Kiev, it ultimately sold some 2.65 million tonnes to the bloc, which was Ukraine’s main market for steel. 

The estimated loss of steel export revenues hovers around the €1 billion ($1.26 billion) mark, according to the FT’s sources. The sharp drop is bound to further affect Ukraine’s strained budget, which has become increasingly reliant on foreign aid and loans amid the conflict with Russia. In recent months, Kiev has been pressed into further hiking taxes and making fiscal reforms by its main financial backers, the EU and IMF, who have tied the changes to promises of more foreign aid.

China maintained the upper hand during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing this week. He visibly tried to ingratiate himself with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but his counterpart made no attempt to reciprocate.

Trump has been heaping praise on Xi personally as a great leader and has vaunted his personal ties with him. He laid it thick at the start of formal delegation-level talks in Beijing, eliciting a smile from the normally impassive Xi who, in turn, did not feel the need to play to audience.

Trump is not particularly popular in China and Xi would have not have wanted, in any case, to unnecessarily rehabilitate him in the public eye in China.

Earlier, during the welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, Trump made several overtly warm physical gestures toward Xi, but the Chinese leader remained formal and impassive. By acting as a suitor, Trump effectively handed Xi the political and psychological upper hand.

Trump effectively cast himself as someone who had come to seek favors from China. His boast that only the number ones, not number twos of top American corporations were accompanying him hardly projected strength, coming after years of Washington’s (and Trump’s own) tirades against China’s business practices, alleged “rip‑offs” of US consumers, and technology theft. This, despite the fact that Trump had imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods and moved to restrict the flow of advanced technology, especially chips, to China.

From the media coverage of the visit, it does not seem that the Chinese side felt overwhelmed by the composition of Trump’s delegation. The emphasis in the reporting was on Trump’s praise for Xi, China’s rising stature, the US engaging China as an equal global power, setting a new framework of cooperation, and Trump visiting China when he was relatively weak domestically and needing trade deals before the mid-term elections.

Normally, before a visit of this importance, which has been under preparation for many months, the two sides begin working on a joint statement that would list the agreed-upon outcomes. In this case, no joint statement has been issued, which means that on many contentious points, the differences between the two sides could not be bridged.

The Taiwan issue is especially divisive; an agreed formulation on Iran, with the US being the initiator of the war and also militarily blockading the Strait of Hormuz, would have been difficult (China has been vetoing one-sided resolutions in the UN Security Council, prompted by the US). The same goes for the South China Sea and many other issues, including sanctions, tariffs and trade disbalance. All this signifies that the visit did not produce definable concrete results.

Ways to enhance bilateral economic cooperation  were discussed, including by expanding American businesses’ access to Chinese markets and increasing Chinese investment in US industries. Higher Chinese purchases of American agricultural products was discussed, but no figures for corn, soya beans, sorghum, beef etc. are mentioned, though in his public remarks Trump said China had agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets and US oil as well.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told the American media that the US and China have also discussed forming a “Board of Trade” and “Board of Investment” to oversee commerce between the two countries.

Some understandings seem to have been reached but not anything major, as Xi speaks of the economic and trade teams having reached a generally balanced and positive outcome, which is a low-key formulation, contrary to Trump’s claim to have “achieved a fantastic trade agreement.” Xi has said that China will only continue to open up. 

That China expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the Strait in the future is not only not a commitment it is ironical too, as the US has sanctioned China’s “tinpot refineries” buying Iranian oil and has ended the flourishing oil ties between Venezuela and China.

It is hard to believe that both countries genuinely agreed Iran can “never” have a nuclear weapon, given that this is the central justification for the US‑Israeli war on Iran. China, as a former JCPOA party, would in any case be reluctant to see Iran go nuclear because of the regional fallout. Trump’s claim that Xi said during their summit that Beijing would not provide military equipment to Iran sounds rather more like what Washington would like to hear – as also is the case with China’s purported military-tech support for Russia.

In response to Trump’s claim that Xi Jinping had offered China’s help in reaching a settlement with Iran, the Chinese Foreign Ministry set out Beijing’s position at some length. It said that China recognizes that the conflict has put a heavy strain on global economic growth, supply chains, international trade order and the stability of the global energy supply. It added that there is no point in continuing this conflict, which should not have happened in the first place, and that dialogue and negotiation are the right way forward while the use force is a dead end. It called for a settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue and other issues that accommodate the concerns of all parties, a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire as soon as possible, and laying the foundation for building a sustainable security architecture for the region.

The US didn’t mention Taiwan in its readout of the meeting. Trump acknowledged to the US media that Xi had raised the issue forcefully, including that of US arms supplies to Taiwan, but he listened and did not respond. Trump has since also equivocated on defending Taiwan and executive approval of $14 billion of arms aid to Taiwan cleared by the US Congress. He has also called on Taiwan and China to “cool it”, meaning avoiding provocations. 

The Chinese readout of the Xi-Trump summit has a hard, realistic and demanding edge to it. The emphasis is on a relationship based on equality. Centrality is given to US handling of the Taiwan issue, with Xi warning that it must be treated with utmost caution. If handled well, bilateral relations can maintain overall stability, but if handled poorly it can lead to confrontation and even conflict, pushing the entire relationship into a very dangerous situation. This has implications for Trump’s decision on the $14 billion arms package for Taiwan approved by the US Congress.

When Xi speaks about an agreement to establish a “constructive and stable relationship between China and the US,” it implies that the provocations have come from the US and that China is a victim. This is the usual Chinese tactic of placing the responsibility for handling ties on the shoulders of others and not accepting its own responsibility in creating tensions.

Xi says that faced with differences and frictions, equal consultation is the only correct choice, which is another formula that places the onus of making the “correct choice” on the other party and not China.

For Xi, stabilizing bilateral relations and strengthening communication were important. In his view, “we have established a new status called the ‘China-US Constructive Strategic Stable Relationship’" with the US. He added that the two sides had “achieved important agreements on stabilizing economic and trade relations, expanding practical cooperation in various fields, and properly handling mutual concerns.” The reference is to properly handling figures in statements that China makes on border issues with India. The sub-text is that it is not China but the other side that fails to properly address differences.

In his opening remarks to Trump at the formal talks, Xi called on the US to be “partners, not rivals,” and made a reference to overcoming the Thucydides trap. He has done so in the past, but that he chose to do so when the debate over this concept is no longer current internationally, suggests that Xi wanted to revive the debate and convey that China was now the risen power that was in a position to potentially clash with the US as the established power.

Trump seems to have understood the message belatedly and later in his Truth Social post called this an elegant way by Xi to refer to the US as a declining power. The subtle message here by Xi is also that China and the US are the principal powers today and bear the shared responsibility for global peace and prosperity – a possible hint of a G2. 

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told an audience of local Catholics in the southwestern city of Wuerzburg that he no longer advises young people to travel to the United States for work and study, citing the rapidly changing “social climate” in the country.

Merz, who has served as chancellor since May 2025, said “I would not recommend to my children today that they go to the US to get an education and to work” – a comment that attracted robust applause from the audience.

The chancellor’s concern focused primarily on the job market in the US, saying “the social climate that has suddenly developed” in the US had become a source of concern and argued that “even the best educated in America have great difficulty in finding a job.”

“I am a great admirer of America,” Merz added, eliciting laughter from the audience, “but right now my admiration is not increasing.”

New data shows that the German chancellor is not wrong in his prognosis of the US labor market. For the first time since Gallup began measuring the life evaluation of the American workforce, more US workers are struggling in their lives (49%) than thriving (46%).

“This contrasts with 2022 and 2023, when the reverse was true, with the share of US employees considered ‘thriving’ staying in the low-to-mid 50s – a mark of relative resilience after pandemic disruptions. After staying steady between 57% and 60% from 2009 to 2019, the thriving rate among workers fell to 55% in 2020 before rebounding in 2021 then steadily decreasing after that,” Gallup reported.

Americans are 26 times more likely to be shot compared to their counterparts in high-income countries, according to the Brady Center. Every day, 327 people are shot in the United States, of that number 117 will die from their injuries. Firearm suicides in the US account for 35% of all the world’s suicides, Brady found, despite the US making up 4% of the world’s population. It’s a well-known fact that America has more guns than people – there were 67 million more firearms than people in 2023.

The situation with regards to sexual violence is no less disturbing. Someone in the US is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds, while nearly 1 in 2 adult women and 1 in 4 adult men in the US have experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime. However, it is estimated that only about 25% to 40% of all rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police.

The situation in Germany with regards to crime, while not as bad as the United States, is steadily worsening with each passing year and should give leaders like Merz tremendous pause. Germany has experienced a significant increase in reported crime since 2023, with police statistics recording a rise in total offenses to nearly six million. Violent crime reached a 15-year high in 2025, while sexual offenses and politically motivated crimes saw notable spikes.

Violent crimes, such as grievous bodily harm, robberies, and knife attacks, have grown significantly. Major cities like Berlin and Frankfurt have seen unprecedented spikes in organized criminal violence and gun-related incidents. Meanwhile, Germany has smashed all of its previous records for shoplifting in 2024. An annual survey of 98 retailers estimates a 3% increase on the year before – amounting to some €4.95 billion ($5.84 billion) in total losses.

In December, the White House warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” within 20 years and questioned whether certain nations like Germany and France can remain reliable allies, in a new strategy document that puts a particular focus on the continent. The 33-page National Security Strategy sees the US leader outline his vision for the world where the US remains “the greatest and most successful nation in human history.”

Merz rose to power in 2025 as a staunch Transatlanticist but has since leveled criticism of the United States, Germany’s most powerful ally. Trump, in response, said the German chancellor should focus on fixing his own “broken country” as the United States is preparing to remove 5,000 troops from Germany as the two countries go through the worst bilateral breakup since World War II. It’s going to require a lot of work for the two countries to look past their separate problems and see each other in a new light.

Footage has been published online purporting to show an assault by an Israeli settler against a Palestinian farmer in the occupied West Bank, in one of the latest alleged attacks targeting Palestinian civilians.

The video, posted by the media office of the Palestinian government on Saturday, shows a blindfolded man on his knees in a field, and later lying on the ground surrounded by armed men. An accompanying caption alleges the farmer was “abducted and restrained” by the settler.

The footage emerged amid a surge in violence across the West Bank, where settlers have carried out repeated raids on Palestinian communities, torching homes and vehicles, vandalizing property, and assaulting residents, according to witnesses.

In a separate post on Sunday, the Palestinian government shared images of what it described as the aftermath of an attack by “extremist Israeli settlers” in the town of Surif, where several vehicles were torched.

Human-rights groups, the UN, and many analysts say some settlers use violence, intimidation, and property destruction to push Palestinians off contested land or retaliate for Palestinian attacks.

Images capture the destruction left behind following an attack by extremist Israeli settlers in Surif, a town north of Al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank, where several Palestinian vehicles were set ablaze. pic.twitter.com/Q6KDwzwwBV

— Government Communication Center (@pal_gcc_en) May 17, 2026

The UN says around 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025, driven by intensified Israeli military operations, home demolitions, and rising attacks by settlers.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have condemned settler attacks as the actions of a “minority” of “extremists.” Critics, however, argue that weak law enforcement, settlement expansion, and the influence of far-right pro-settler parties have contributed to a climate of growing impunity.

Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) will become the first American medical institution to open a clinic for adolescents seeking to reverse gender-related medical treatments, the US Department of Justice said.

The move comes as part of a settlement of a years-long probe by the DOJ and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton into America’s largest children’s hospital over its alleged false billings to secure insurance coverage for pediatric gender-affirming treatments.

The Justice Department said in a statement on Friday that Texas Children’s agreed not to offer sex change services, inducing administration of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, to minors anymore.

The Houston-based center will also pay over $10 million in damages and “dedicate millions to the provision of medical care to children harmed by the provision of such procedures,” the statement read.

Paxton announced in a separate statement that the TCH will also dismiss five doctors, who according to him, “harmed patients by performing dangerous medical interventions for the purpose of ‘transitioning’ them.” 

“The Justice Department will use every weapon at its disposal to end the destructive and discredited practice of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for children,” Blanche insisted.

The hospital has denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement that it decided to settle in order “to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation” and return to focusing on patient care.

“We stand proud knowing we will always put our purpose over politics and that we have and will continue to follow the law,” it said.

Senior counsel at Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ advocacy group, Karen Loewy told Reuters that “it’s deeply appalling to see [the TCH] capitulate to the relentless pressure campaigns of both AG Paxton and the Trump Administration.” 

Three Indian nationals have been wounded and one was killed in a drone strike in Moscow Region, New Delhi’s embassy in Russia has said.

The incident occurred overnight amid a large-scale Ukrainian kamikaze drone raid on the Russian capital and its surroundings. The attack appears to have been the largest to affect the area in over a year.

The Indian Embassy described the victims as “workers” but did not disclose where the attack occurred. The diplomats are now “closely cooperating with the company's management and local authorities” and providing assistance to the victims. 

“Today in the Moscow region, as a result of a drone attack, one citizen of India was killed and three others were injured. Embassy staff traveled to the scene of the incident and visited the victims in the hospital,” the mission said in a statement.

Kiev has intensified long-range drone attacks on Russia since mid-March, sending fixed-wing UAVs in the hundreds on an almost daily basis. Moscow has condemned the strikes as “terrorist” attacks, alleging that they indiscriminately target civilian sites and infrastructure. 

Russia has been retaliating with a long-range strike campaign of its own, targeting Ukraine’s dual-use infrastructure, including military manufacturing installations and energy facilities. Russia maintains it carefully selects the targets and never attacks purely civilian sites.

Some US officials are encouraging the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to seize one of Iran’s islands in the Persian Gulf, The Telegraph has reported, citing sources.

The island in question is Lavan, one of Iran’s key offshore oil export centers, which hosts refinery, storage and tanker-loading infrastructure connected to several major crude fields. It also sits atop a large natural gas reserve.

Some in the circle of US President Donald Trump have suggested the UAE should take the island, the outlet wrote on Saturday.

“Go take ‘em! It would be UAE boots on the ground instead of US,” it cited a former senior Trump security official as saying.

The reported proposal reflects broader pressure in Washington to reduce direct American military exposure as the war with Iran stretches into its third month.

US defense analysts and military publications have, meanwhile, warned that weeks of intensive strikes and operations involving THAAD interceptors, Patriot systems and Tomahawk cruise missiles have significantly depleted American stockpiles.

The Pentagon has since accelerated efforts to replenish inventories with lower-cost mass-produced weapons developed by newer defense firms rather than by relying exclusively on traditional military contractors.

The reported push for greater Emirati involvement also comes amid a broader reluctance among US allies to deepen their direct participation in the conflict. While Washington has pressed partners for greater military involvement against Iran, including naval operations in the Strait of Hormuz, several European NATO members, such as Germany, Spain, and the UK, have publicly distanced themselves from the war.

The UAE has emerged as one of the regional states that moved closest to Washington and Israel during the war. Tehran has accused Abu Dhabi of serving as a “hostile base” for US and Israeli operations, retaliating at targets in the Emirates.

Emirati forces have reportedly carried out covert strikes on Iranian targets, including attacks on Lavan Island in April.

Three civilians were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded by a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian capital and the surrounding region on Saturday night, the local authorities have said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanian said on social media on Sunday morning that a total of 127 UAVs were destroyed by air defenses during the previous 24 hours. He described the raid as “massive.”

The attack appears to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone raids targeting Moscow in more than a year.

There have been several major UAV attacks on the capital in recent months, but the number of drones deployed by Ukraine never exceeded 65.

Fatalities in Moscow Region

Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyev confirmed that three people were killed during the attack.

Two men died when the debris of a downed drone fell on a home construction site in the village of Pogorelki near the city of Mytishchi next to Moscow in the northeast, he said.

Another UAV struck an apartment block, killing a female resident in the city of Khimki, northwest of the capital, while another person was trapped under the rubble, according to Vorobyev.

Moment a Ukrainian drone crashes into a residential building in Moscow. https://t.co/vEcAt6Pf5M pic.twitter.com/q0ZEdHpV2R

— Woofers (@NotWoofers) May 17, 2026

In Istra, around 50 km northwest of Moscow, four people were wounded when an apartment block and six private homes were hit, he said.

Residential areas and infrastructure facilities have also been targeted in other parts of the region, the governor added.

In the town of Lobnya, north of Moscow, a woman was injured in a drone attack that damaged five apartment blocks and 20 cars, the local authorities said.

Three Indian nationals were also wounded and one was killed in a drone strike in Moscow Region, the Indian Embassy in Russia has said. It is not immediately clear whether the tally includes the Indian nationals.

Strike on Moscow Oil Refinery

A total of 12 people were wounded in Moscow as a result of the raid, according to Sobyanin.

Most of those injured were construction workers affected by an explosion near the entrance to the Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya District in the northeast of the city, he said. The refinery’s operations weren’t affected by the incident, he added.

Air traffic disruptions

More than 200 flights were delayed or canceled at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo international airports as the authorities introduced air traffic restrictions during the drone raid. Some of the incoming passenger jets had to be redirected to other airfields.

Incursions across Russia

The capital and Moscow Region weren’t the only targets of Ukrainian UAVs on Sunday night, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting the destruction of a total of 586 drones across the country.

The additional interceptions took place not only in parts of Russia bordering Ukraine (Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk regions) but also deep inside the country, including Kaluga, Tula, Smolensk, Pskov, Tver, Rostov, and Krasnodar regions, as well as over Crimea, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Escalation of raids in recent months

Ukrainian drone raids deep inside Russia have intensified since mid-March, with Kiev launching hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on an almost daily basis against residential neighborhoods, civilian infrastructure, and industrial facilities far from the front.

Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.
Russia has responded with long-range missile and drone strikes targeting Ukraine’s military, energy, and other dual-use infrastructure, and has said the operations are aimed solely at assets supporting Kiev’s war effort and not at civilian targets.

On Sunday, Ukrainian media and Telegram channels reported more explosions near Kiev, as well as in the cities of Kharkov and Dnepr, and parts of Zaporozhye Region which remain under Ukraine’s control.

An amateur cycling race taking riders through the "Golden Circle" surrounding Moscow has begun in the city of Kostroma, launching a summer-long series of mass events.

Around 2,400 riders are expected to take part in the 504 km “Rossiya” competition, which combines cycling with tourism and cultural events along Russia’s Golden Ring route, known for its historic towns and UNESCO-listed landmarks.

The race involves eight stages passing through Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Kalyazin, Nizhny Novgorod, Sergiev Posad, and Moscow, where the finale will take place on September 12.

The project is backed by the Russian Cycling Federation, the Sports Ministry and Liga Geroev (“League of Heroes”), a company known for organizing large amateur sports events and obstacle races across Russia. While aimed mainly at amateur cyclists, experienced semi-professional riders are also expected to join.

The “Rossiya” race first launched in June 2025 with a three-stage event through Murom, Vladimir and Suzdal in Vladimir Region. Organizers hope it will grow into Russia’s biggest amateur cycling series, similar to popular mass-participation races held across Europe, attracting riders from across the country and eventually from abroad as well.

Three people were killed in a Ukrainian drone raid on Moscow Region overnight, Governor Andrey Vorobyev has said.

Air defenses in the area have been repelling a “major” UAV attack since 3:00 AM local time, Vorobyev wrote in a post on Telegram on Sunday morning.

Two men lost their lives when the debris of a downed drone fell on a home construction site in the village of Pogorelki near the city of Mytishchi, northeast of Moscow, he said.

In the city of Khimki, northwest of the capital, a UAV struck an apartment block, killing a female resident, according to the governor. Another person remains trapped under the rubble, with rescuers working on site, he added.

Four people were wounded when an apartment block and six private homes were hit in the city of Istra, Vorobyev said.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on Telegram that 12 people in the capital were wounded as a result of the drone raid. A total of 120 UAVs targeting Moscow have been intercepted over the past 24 hours, he added.

Ukrainian drone incursions into Russia have intensified since mid-March, with Ukraine deploying hundreds of fixed-wing UAVs on almost a daily basis, targeting critical infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and residential areas.

Officials in Moscow have described the raids as “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks the Ukrainian military has been suffering on the battlefield.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is considering resigning amid a deepening political crisis in the ruling Labour Party, according to Daily Mail journalist Dan Hodges.

Starmer became prime minister after leading Labour to a landslide victory in the 2024 general election. Less than two years later, however, his government is facing falling approval ratings, internal divisions, and growing pressure following the party’s poor performance in recent local elections.

In a column published on Saturday, Hodges cited an unnamed cabinet minister as saying that Starmer “understands the political reality” and is considering arranging his departure on his own terms.

“He realizes the current chaos is unsustainable. He simply wants to be able to do it in a dignified way and in a manner of his own choosing. He will set out a timetable,” the source said.

Pressure on Starmer intensified after four junior ministers resigned on Monday. According to the BBC, more than 80 Labour MPs have privately or publicly urged the prime minister to step down, although more than 100 backbenchers and junior ministers later signed a statement arguing that it was “no time for a leadership contest.”

Starmer has remained defiant in public and has indicated that he has no intention of resigning.

“The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a cabinet,” he said earlier this week.

The UK has experienced repeated political upheaval since the 2016 Brexit referendum, with four Tory prime ministers serving over the following eight years before Starmer took office. Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss all resigned after internal party revolts.

France has opened an investigation into the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi after NGOs accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in the killing.

The 59-year-old journalist and Washington Post columnist was killed in 2018 while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. His body is believed to have been dismembered and was never recovered.

Saudi authorities acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate but insisted that rogue officials carried out the operation without authorization from the leadership.

In July 2022, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) – Khashoggi’s former organization – and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filed a legal complaint accusing Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance as part of an organized group. The complaint alleged that he had ordered “the murder by asphyxiation” of Khashoggi.

The Paris Court of Appeal has now ruled that “the possibility that these acts could be classified as crimes against humanity cannot be ruled out.”

“An investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit will now examine the complaint,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP on Saturday.

Khashoggi once served as an adviser to the Saudi government and was close to the royal family before becoming a prominent critic of the kingdom’s leadership and relocating to the US. KSA prosecutors said the journalist died after being forcibly restrained and injected with an overdose of drugs during what they described as a failed attempt to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.

A US intelligence report released by the Biden administration in 2021 concluded that Mohammed bin Salman exercised “absolute control” over the kingdom and that Saudi security organizations had approved an operation to “capture or kill” Khashoggi. The Kingdom rejected the assessment as “false and unacceptable.”

US President Donald Trump, however, said last year that the crown prince “knew nothing” about the plan to kill the journalist.

Bulgarian singer Dara has defied bookmakers’ expectations and won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, which was otherwise noteworthy for pro-Palestinian protests and an unprecedented boycott over Israel’s participation.

Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia shunned the international event this year due to West Jerusalem’s military campaigns in Gaza and in Lebanon – the biggest boycott in Eurovision’s 70-year history.

Last month, more than 1,100 musicians and cultural workers, including Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Kneecap, and Primal Scream among others, likewise signed an open letter calling for a boycott and accusing event organizers of helping Israel to whitewash and normalize its “genocide” in Gaza and Lebanon.

Nevertheless, Israel’s Noam Bettan came in second after the final tally, combining the jury’s ranking and an audience score, was announced on Saturday.

Pro-Palestinian protesters booed and jeered during Bettan’s performance of the ballad Michelle, with at least one Palestinian flag unfurled and chants of “Stop the genocide!” heard in the background.

🚨 The Palestinian flag is an icon of celebrations and events: “The Palestinian flag was raised directly in front of Israeli artists during the Eurovision Song Contest.” pic.twitter.com/4Lm9M53Tt1

— The Middle East (@A_M_R_M1) May 16, 2026

Outside the venue, a pro-Palestinian march was also held in the Austrian capital on Saturday. 

Tens of thousands are occupying the streets of Vienna today. The demand is clear: No Eurovision spot for Israel while the massacre in Palestine continues. The streets are speaking louder than the music. 📢👀#Vienna #Palestine #Eurovision #Protest pic.twitter.com/MR05smPXdR

— Sezen Ada (@bluemoonyellows) May 16, 2026

Earlier this year, the national broadcasters of Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia raised concerns with the European Broadcasting Union over alleged vote-rigging by Israel last year, when singer Yuval Raphael got second place.

According to a recent investigation by the New York Times, citing voting data and Eurovision documents, Raphael won the popular vote in several countries where the public is predominantly critical of Israel.

According to the newspaper, the Israeli government mounted a well-organized campaign, placing advertisements in multiple languages and mobilizing pro-Israel groups to vote for the singer.

Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza following the militant group’s deadly incursion into the country in October 2023, which left 1,200 people dead and 250 others taken hostage.

According to the Palestinian authorities, the Israeli military’s heavy-handed response has claimed nearly 70,000 Palestinian lives.

Meanwhile, Russia has been banned from Eurovision since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Moscow has responded by reviving Intervision, a Soviet-era alternative touted by the Kremlin as a music contest reflecting more “traditional values.”

The Pentagon has canceled plans to deploy 4,000 troops to Poland amid growing tensions between President Donald Trump and US allies over policy regarding Iran.

AP reported on Friday that some soldiers from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division – along with Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles – had already arrived in Poland or were en route when the Pentagon informed them that the deployment had been canceled.

General Christopher LaNeve, the acting army chief of staff, told Congress that the head of US European Command “received instructions on the force reduction.” He added that “it made the most sense for that brigade not to deploy to the theater.”

More than 10,000 US military personnel are stationed in Poland on a rotational basis.

Although Trump has frequently accused NATO members of failing to spend enough on defense, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently described Poland as a “model ally” after it spent about 4.7% of GDP on defense last year – more than other NATO members.

Earlier in May, the Pentagon announced the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from the roughly 38,000 US service members stationed in Germany. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been among the European leaders critical of US and Israeli policy toward Iran. Trump, in turn, urged the chancellor to focus on “fixing his broken country.”

Trump has also suggested he could withdraw troops from Spain and Italy after the two countries reportedly denied the use of bases and airfields for strikes related to Iran.

The Ukrainian military repeatedly attacked Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) this week, injuring two employees and targeting a pipeline in the immediate vicinity of the reactors, Aleksey Likhachev, CEO of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, has said.

Speaking to the company’s corporate newspaper Strana Rosatom on Saturday, Likhachev said that a Ukrainian drone had attacked the pipeline running along the power units of the plant earlier in the day. The UAV did not detonate, crashing near the first power unit of the facility.

On Thursday, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone targeted a car carrying two employees of the ZNPP. The attack occurred just 100 meters away from the plant’s premises, with both employees receiving moderate to serious wounds, the Rosatom boss said. 

“The employees were carrying out their duties at the time. Even this didn’t stop the enemy. For an hour, combat drones prevented ambulances from reaching the attack site, and the evacuation of the wounded resembled a military operation,” Likhachev stated.

The CEO slammed the inaction of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stating that it has been doing its best to “de facto turn a blind eye to daily Ukrainian attacks on the ZNPP, civilian infrastructure, and killings of Russian nationals by Ukrainian servicemen.” Moscow will address the continuing incidents around the plant during upcoming consultations with the IAEA leadership scheduled for July, Likhachev said. 

In recent weeks, the Ukrainian military has ramped up attacks on the plant, which fell under Moscow’s control early in the conflict and was taken over by Rosatom after Zaporozhye Region was incorporated into Russia following a referendum in late 2022. Moscow has repeatedly urged Kiev and its backers to stop targeting the facility, warning the attacks could result in a continent-wide nuclear catastrophe.

The US and Israel are actively preparing for a renewal of hostilities with Iran and could resume attacks as early as next week, The New York Times has reported, citing sources.

Indirect negotiations between Iran and the Trump White House have remained deadlocked since a fragile ceasefire was established in April following over a month of hostilities. Both sides have repeatedly dismissed the other’s demands as unrealistic, and both Tehran and Washington still insist they hold the upper hand.

Meanwhile, disruptions continue in the Strait of Hormuz, which has heavily affected global shipping and caused oil shortages worldwide. While Iran has announced its own mechanism to regulate maritime traffic in the waterway, Washington has rejected the scheme and is enforcing a naval blockade on Iranian ports in retaliation.

Two unnamed Middle East officials told the NYT on Friday that preparations for new strikes by Israel and the US have greatly accelerated over the past few days, and the conflict could resume as early as next week, according to the sources.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to renew the attack on Iran, increasingly voicing his dissatisfaction with Tehran’s proposals. Trump tore into Iran’s response to an American proposal last weekend, branding it a “piece of garbage” and slamming the current ceasefire as “unbelievably weak.”

Tehran says it is ready to “deliver a well-deserved response to any aggression.” It has expressed wariness about the stalled negotiations but shown willingness to engage in diplomacy nonetheless. 

“We have every reason not to trust the Americans,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday. “There is no military solution, and the US must understand this reality. They cannot achieve their goals through military action, but the situation would be different if they pursue diplomacy.”

At least twelve people have sustained injuries, with four reportedly in critical condition, after a car rammed into them in the Italian city of Modena.

The driver, described by the media as a “highly intoxicated” man of North African descent, was reportedly armed with a knife, and stabbed a person before being subdued by bystanders.

While the motive remains unclear for the time being, terrorism is not being ruled out, according to Italian newspaper La Pressa.

Two of the injured have reportedly been rushed to a hospital by helicopter, with one woman having both legs amputated after being crushed against a wall by the speeding vehicle.

The driver, identified by local media outlets as Salim el Koudriv, a 31-year-old Italian citizen of Moroccan origin, then attempted to flee the scene on foot, blending in with the panicked crowd. However, several bystanders gave chase.

La Gazzetta di Modena quoted one of the pursuers, Luca Signorelli, as describing how the suspect stabbed him when he approached him.

“I managed to avoid the first, but I took the other. I didn’t let go, locking his wrist and disarming him, and with the help of five or six other people, I managed to subdue him,” Signorelli, who sustained light injuries, told the newspaper.

The suspect was subsequently handed over to the police and brought in for questioning.

In a video message on social media, Modena mayor Massimo Mezzetti thanked the “citizens who chased [the suspect, for displaying]…courage and civic-mindedness.”

Following the incident, there was a heavy law enforcement presence at the scene, with the national police conducting the investigation.

Rudyard Kipling, a modern classic of the Western literary canon, was both a champion of British imperialism and too honest not to know its very sordid underpinnings of greed, lies, and sheer selfishness.

That’s why the same man who extolled the “white man’s burden” also wrote ‘The Man Who Would Be King,’ a story of two lowlife, ambitious adventurers who manage to swindle their way to becoming kings as well as rich in a remote country on the fringes of the empire, then at its late-nineteenth-century zenith of global primacy. Until, that is, one of them makes the mistake of messing with the wrong woman, who ends up biting him in public. Seeing him bleed, his subjects realize he is a mere mortal and mercilessly dispense with the two imposters.

Ukraine’s ruler – and de facto king (of the old-fashioned, non-constitutional kind) – Vladimir Zelensky is a social climber, too. In his formative years, his native Krivoy Rog was a provincial post-Soviet rustbelt town with a lively gangster scene, a “bandit city” in his own words. Zelensky is also an expert in make-believe by profession, a cynically profane showman of the ‘give-them-whatever-they-want-as-long-as-it-pays’ variety, the cruder and smuttier the better.

Indeed, Zelensky even has a sidekick, who, as in Kipling’s dark story, has shared in the scheme of power-grabbing and plunder: Andrey Yermak, his former chief of staff and very intimate friend, making headlines (again) for being so corrupt and sinister that he stands out, even in Kiev.

And now Zelensky, the man who, it seems, would be Ukraine’s president forever, has just been bitten in public by a woman. Judging by the fierce, clearly orchestrated reaction of his media propagandists in Ukraine and the fact that the Western mainstream media are largely pretending not to have noticed, he must be bleeding, too.

That has made it a very public bloodletting indeed. What Mendel has had to say is one thing, her ability to reach breathtaking numbers of Americans and other inhabitants of the West is at least as important and, from Kiev’s point of view, frustrating: Across various platforms, shows of the Tucker Carlson Network (TCN) are watched by, on average, over 55 million viewers, dwarfing, for instance, Fox News (Carlson’s former employer) with its prime time rating of 3.2 million.

Recently, the Israeli-US war against Iran has further undermined public confidence in the mainstream media and boosted TCN. “Explosive growth” in the two first months of the war has produced over 1.5 billion “views across social media and podcast platforms.” Indeed, TCN is on such a roll that Carlson is now rumored to be a contender for the presidency, and he has not ruled out a run.

This is the amplifier for Mendel’s harsh memo to the US and the West. It is hard to think of a bigger one. And what a message she had to deliver.

Consider a few highlights: Speaking, she underlined, as “an insider,” from her own close experience with Zelensky and the inner circle of his regime, Mendel has told us all that she believes Zelensky personally “stands behind many schemes of money laundering” and that he has always remained an “amazing actor” whose image “on camera” is “very different” from his real self.

For instance, while he is posturing as not merely some democrat but a shining epitome of democracy as well as everything else that is good and beautiful, such as rule of law, freedom of speech, civil society, and national unity, his real view, relentlessly repeated behind closed doors, is, as we learn from Mendel, that “Ukraine is not ready for democracy” and “dictatorship is an order,” too.

Zelensky’s profound hypocrisy permeates his private life and politics. Mendel reveals, for instance, that he was still going on trips to Crimea – to have fun with friends and drugs – while it was already under Russian control. In December 2019, he privately told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine would never join NATO. While Zelensky’s public poll ratings are steadily declining, the polls produced for internal use are so bad that even some of his fixers privately admit that he is “unelectable.”

With no respect for the truth, Zelensky’s attitude to reality itself seems broken, even deranged. From her own conversations with him, Mendel reports that Ukraine’s leader believes that “it doesn’t matter what is [actually] happening.” Things, he has argued behind closed doors, become real when they are said often enough by enough propagandists or, as she quotes him, by “thousands of talking heads.” Considering this bizarre outlook, it is revealing and revolting but also somehow, sadly consistent that Zelensky, who is Jewish, has literally demanded “Goebbels”-type “propaganda” from his communications team.

Beyond a ruthless and deliberate regime of lying and manipulation, there also is pressure and compulsion. Again, Mendel’s catalogue of Zelensky’s dictatorial strong-arm methods is depressing and plausible: from threats to perfectly illegal “sanctions” imposed via Zelensky’s personal fiat, to lawfare and process-as-punishment to long and open-ended jail terms to sending critics to the frontline as a punishment to very odd lethal accidents – Zelensky and his regime have, as Mendel puts it, “no limits.” Their rule has established a situation that is “inhuman.”

Mendel is believable. Zelensky regime propagandists, in Ukraine and the West, have, unsurprisingly, smeared her as, in effect, a Russian asset, as reproducing “Russian narratives” and, worst sin of them all, sharing Kiev’s very dirty secrets with the West. Because – this seems to be the underlying logic – the West must share hundreds of billions with Zelensky and his ultra-corrupt cronies, but no one has a right to share the truth about them with the West.

Even in the interview with Tucker Carlson, Mendel has made a point of carefully distinguishing between what she has seen herself and what she knows from – extremely strong – circumstantial evidence, for instance, that Zelensky has a long-standing cocaine habit.

And yet, by now Mendel – who displays no favor at all to Russia – considers Zelensky an evil and the key obstacle to peace for Ukraine. This peace, she warns, is the only alternative to what she calls being “on the verge of extinction.” She means it quite literally: There are far fewer Ukrainians left in the country than official statistics admit, perhaps 25 million, including 11 million impoverished pensioners. The only way to really support Ukraine, Mendel insists, is to “push for peace.”

Yet this is where, unfortunately, Ukraine’s would-be king is different from Kipling’s adventurers. They at least had no support from the empire on the fringe of which they ran their scheme of mass manipulation and self-enrichment. When their subjects lost their illusions, they fell.

Zelensky and his crew, however, still enjoy massive, cynical support from the West, even if it is now Germany and no longer the US that is in the lead. Perhaps Zelensky’s rule and its mistreatment of Ukraine and ordinary Ukrainians can only end when he loses his last Western backers. Until then, Mendel can make them bleed, but Ukrainians alone, it seems, will find it hard to shake them off.

Sloppy decision-making and an inability to agree on key issues have rendered the EU effectively irrelevant on the global stage, the bloc’s former foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has argued.

The former top diplomat made the remarks in an interview with Belgian broadcaster RTBF on Friday, somewhat echoing the stance of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The top official, who has been in power since 2019, has repeatedly urged the bloc to remove individual member states’ veto powers and move to qualified majority voting on foreign policy and defense issues.

The bloc’s decision-making process has become inadequate in its ability to react to the ever-shifting global situation, Borrell has said, arguing the EU “was not designed for the world in which we live today” in the first place. 

“The decision-making rules are not compatible with the acceleration of history. We continue to want to decide unanimously on events that are happening too fast and are very important, and we almost never reach an agreement,” he said, adding that the current system makes the bloc “not very relevant to international politics.”

“We need to build a union within the union. A union within the union means that with 27 members, even with unanimity, we won’t go any further. We’re held back. With 27, we won’t accomplish much. So we need to find another core group. Not the 27,” he said.

The former top diplomat, however, did not outline the exact criteria for the potential members of said group, stating it should be composed of the “few who truly want to move forward with political, economic, and military integration” and those “who want to go further, faster.”

Last week, the idea to abandon the EU’s unanimity principle was backed by Berlin, with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul arguing that a switch to a qualified majority voting would “make the EU capable of acting in areas where it currently has to remain at a standstill.” The initiative has already been backed by at least 12 EU member states, according to Wadephul.

US President Donald Trump has announced that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) worldwide, has been killed in Nigeria on his orders.

The operation comes as Washington seeks to reassert its influence in Africa’s volatile Sahel region where a string of military coups and growing anti-Western sentiment have weakened the positions of the US and its European allies.

Al-Minuki was eliminated overnight as a result of “a meticulously planned and very complex” joint mission by American and Nigerian forces, Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

The US president said that the senior IS commander, whom he described as “the most active terrorist in the world… thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.” 

“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans. With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he wrote.

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said in a post on X that al-Minuki was killed together with several of his lieutenants in a strike at an Islamic State compound in the Lake Chad Basin.

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) later released aerial footage of the bombardment.

Last night's operation targeted a significant presence of ISIS fighters in Northeastern Nigeria eliminating multiple high value individuals including Abu-Bilal al-Minuki. pic.twitter.com/lNj4AMSITH

— U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) (@USAfricaCommand) May 16, 2026

Washington labeled Al-Minuki, who is a Nigerian national, a “specially designated global terrorist” in 2023 under the administration of then President Joe Biden. The State Department said that he was part of an administrative body within IS that provides “operational guidance and funding around the world.” 

Shortly after that, the US carried out airstrikes targeting Islamic State-linked militants in Nigeria. It was followed by Washington sending 200 American troops to provide training and intelligence to the Nigerian forces fighting the jihadists. The US servicemen remained in a strictly non-combat role, according to the authorities.

In 2019, during Trump’s first term, he announced the killing of Islamic State founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US special forces raid in Syria.

Despite decades of American counterterrorism operations, jihadist violence continues to spread across parts of the Middle East and West Africa, with militant groups capitalizing on weak governance, poverty, and political instability.

Russia and China are moving, slowly but unmistakably, toward a structural alliance that is reshaping the global balance of power. But the two sides are progressing through this transformation at different speeds. Moscow has largely accepted the logic of deep strategic interdependence. Beijing, by contrast, still behaves as though it can preserve a carefully managed partnership in which China remains the senior partner while minimizing its own obligations.

That model is reaching its limits. For years, the dominant narrative in Western policy circles has been that Russia has become the junior partner in an unequal relationship. Brussels think tanks, Washington analysts and even many Chinese commentators have repeated the same formula: Russia supplies raw materials and China supplies everything else.

Berlin-based MERICS has described the relationship as “fundamentally unbalanced” and Intereconomics called it “symbiotic but deeply asymmetrical.” Other researchers have portrayed the Russia-China-US triangle as one in which Washington still holds the decisive advantage.

Yet this interpretation misses something important. Even while Western analysts obsessively measured asymmetry, many Chinese scholars privately acknowledged that the relationship was being driven less by hierarchy than by geopolitical pressure.

Professor Feng Shaolei of East China Normal University has argued that external circumstances, rather than relative status, have always been the true engine of the partnership. NATO expansion pushed Moscow and Beijing closer together while US tariffs accelerated the process further. Sanctions pressure on Russia gave China discounted resources and gave Russia guaranteed markets as each side increasingly possessed what the other lacked.

Agriculture has become another strategic pillar as Russia, now the world’s leading wheat exporter, signed a long-term agreement in 2023 to supply China with 70 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds over a twelve-year period.

And unlike Middle Eastern energy routes, Russian pipelines don’t pass through vulnerable maritime chokepoints. That reality became far more important once the geopolitical environment deteriorated.

Washington’s strategy was straightforward: isolate Russia financially while frightening China into limiting cooperation through the threat of secondary sanctions. By late 2023 and early 2024, major Chinese financial institutions including Bank of China and CITIC had sharply reduced direct transactions with Russian entities after new US restrictions were announced.

The pressure had some effect. Chinese state energy companies cut purchases temporarily after sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil in early 2025. Shandong Port Group banned sanctioned vessels from entering its terminals. Western analysts celebrated what they described as growing Chinese caution.

But the strategy contained a fundamental weakness. Secondary sanctions work only when alternatives exist and once instability threatened key global energy routes, particularly the Strait of Hormuz, Russia’s role changed dramatically. Roughly a third of global seaborne oil trade passes through Hormuz, while more than half of China’s imported oil comes from the Middle East. In those circumstances, Russian pipelines stopped being merely commercial infrastructure and became a strategic necessity.

As several Chinese analysts have noted, Russia and China may each be vulnerable separately, but together they possess the capacity to counterbalance American power. For most of the last three years, however, the relationship has remained stuck in a bargaining phase. Publicly, both sides speak of a “partnership without limits.” In practice, the relationship has often been slowed by caution and endless technical complications.

During Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing in September 2025, the two countries signed more than twenty agreements covering energy, aerospace, artificial intelligence, agriculture and industrial technology. The headline figures looked impressive. Analysts estimated the announced value of Russian-Chinese investment projects at more than $200 billion.

Yet many of these projects remain only partially implemented as Chinese businesses continue to calculate the costs of sanctions exposure carefully. Beijing has often preferred opportunistic gains over genuine strategic interdependence. Western researchers openly acknowledge this dynamic, arguing that China has benefited from the departure of Western competitors from Russia while avoiding commitments that would fully bind the two economies together.

The problem, however, is caution, not hostility, this has limits when geography and geopolitics are pushing both countries together.

In 2025, both sides entered a more sober phase. Bilateral trade declined by nearly 7% to $228 billion, the first major drop since the pandemic. The reasons were mostly economic rather than political. Falling oil prices sharply reduced the value of Russian exports despite relatively stable volumes.

Chinese media were unusually frank about the difficulties. Consumer demand in Russia weakened under high interest rates and Chinese car exports collapsed after an overheated boom period. Moscow’s growing import-substitution policies also began limiting opportunities for Chinese manufacturers.

Russia and China share more than 4,200 kilometers of border. One side possesses enormous energy reserves, agricultural resources, metals, territory and pipeline infrastructure largely immune from naval disruption. The other possesses industrial scale, capital, technology and a market of 1.4 billion people.

Neither can fully achieve its strategic ambitions alone and that is why the relationship continues to deepen despite friction.

When Xi Jinping visited Moscow for Victory Day commemorations in 2025, the two countries signed a joint declaration that went beyond symbolism. The document emphasized expanded settlements in national currencies, deeper investment cooperation and the joint development of the Northern Sea Route and this matters enormously.

The Arctic corridor offers China a long-term alternative to vulnerable maritime routes such as Suez and Hormuz. In a world where each of those chokepoints faces growing instability, the Northern Sea Route is becoming strategic infrastructure rather than an experimental trade project.

Chinese analysts increasingly recognize this reality. Academic discussions inside China now openly acknowledge that rivalry with the United States makes close partnership with Russia less a matter of preference than necessity.

This is because the partnership is no longer built merely on diplomatic convenience or temporary economic gains. It is being driven by structural forces: geography, energy security, trade routes, sanctions pressure and the emergence of a more fragmented global order.

Russia and China are joining together because the strategic logic is becoming overwhelming, yet one major obstacle remains.

China still often behaves as though it can enjoy the benefits of strategic partnership without fully committing itself to the burdens that come with it. Moscow has already integrated Beijing deeply into critical sectors ranging from energy to logistics and food security. But many major Chinese investments and technology commitments continue to move cautiously or remain delayed.

At some point, Beijing will have to decide whether it truly views Russia as an equal strategic partner or merely as a useful resource base operating on China’s periphery.

That question now defines the future of the partnership and the answer will shape the architecture of Eurasia for decades to come.

Large crowds have descended upon central London for an anti-immigration rally dubbed ‘Unite the Kingdom’. Videos and photographs circulating on social media on Saturday showed demonstrators with Union Jack flags, crosses, and other Christian symbols marching through the streets of the British capital.

Ahead of the event, local media, citing the authorities, reported that an estimated 50,000 people were expected to take part. Another large-scale demonstration, a pro-Palestinian march marking Nakba Day, was taking place in London concurrently with the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, as well as the FA Cup. Some 4,000 officers were deployed to maintain public order in the British capital, according to London’s Metropolitan Police.

A few hours after both demonstrations came to a close on Saturday afternoon, the authorities reported on X that a total of 43 arrests had been made, though both gatherings “proceeded largely without significant incident.”

Arrests have begun at the far-right Unite the Kingdom rally in central London today.

Ryan Bridge, co-founder of the “Raise the Colours” movement — whose members attach flags to lampposts and engage in anti-migrant vigilantism — has been arrested by the Met Police.

5Pillars is… pic.twitter.com/Ul5n2BaBad

— 5Pillars (@5Pillarsuk) May 16, 2026

‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration organizer Tommy Robinson, a British anti-immigration activist whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, called on his supporters to “GO HOME SAFELY,” proclaiming in an X post of his own that “WE WON.”

Ahead of Saturday’s anti-immigration rally in London, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that several foreign activists and commentators had been denied entry to Britain. According to Downing Street, eleven people were blocked because their presence was considered “not conducive to the public good.”

Reports suggest over 80,000 patriots have arrived in London for Unite The Kingdom with thousands more are still on their way. pic.twitter.com/aeHlEeZixM

— dks pros (@dkspros) May 16, 2026

Starmer stated on Thursday that the authorities would not permit anyone to “spread hate on our streets,” according to remarks published by the UK government. The restrictions drew criticism from supporters of the march, who accused the authorities of attempting to suppress political dissent and limit attendance.

Tarczynski, however, did join the protesters via video link, drawing cheers from the crowd. The Polish lawmaker from the conservative Law and Justice party said among other things: “He could ban me. He will not cancel you. And believe me, there will be a day I will be back.”

🚨BREAKING: MET police reports indicate that MILLIONS of patriots are on the streets of London for Unite the kingdom.

'Who's streets our streets'

Britain is wide awake 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/eieVS1ertY

— God Save Great Britain (@GSGB01) May 16, 2026

Addressing the attendees, Robinson, for his part, referred to the 2029 general elections as nothing short of the “battle for Britain.”

“If we don’t send a message in our next election, if you don’t register to vote, if you don’t get involved, if you don’t become activists, we are going to lose our country forever,” he said.

The right-wing activist urged his supporters to “get political,” and “join a political party.”

“I don’t care if it’s Reform, if it’s Advance, or it’s Restore, or it’s the Conservative Party. We have to locally get involved in politics,” Robinson proclaimed.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he will no longer recommend the United States as a destination for his children to study or work, citing what he described as a worsening “social climate” in America.

Speaking at a Catholic youth conference in Wuerzburg on Friday, the conservative leader said the US had become deeply polarized and a less appealing destination for young people.

“I am a great admirer of America,” Merz said during a panel discussion. “At the moment my admiration is not growing.” Merz also argued that even highly educated Americans were increasingly struggling to find employment, suggesting the US was no longer the “land of opportunity” it once was.

"I wouldn’t recommend to my children today that they go to the US, get an education there, and work there,” he said.

Nearly half of young graduates are now working in jobs that do not require degrees, while hiring for entry-level professional roles has slowed sharply, according to The Washington Post. At the same time, white-collar layoffs in sectors such as tech, finance, and corporate services have accelerated amid AI adoption and corporate cost-cutting.

Merz’s remarks are notable because he has long been regarded as one of Germany’s most pro-American conservative politicians, having previously championed close transatlantic ties and worked extensively with US financial giant BlackRock. They also come amid a public spat with US President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.

In April, Merz said Washington had been “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership, arguing it lacked a coherent strategy for the conflict. Trump responded by telling the German chancellor to focus on Germany’s domestic problems and the Ukraine conflict instead of criticizing US policy.

Germany continues to host critical US command centers, air bases, and logistics hubs central to NATO operations, highlighting Berlin’s continued reliance on the US despite increasingly strained relations.

Moscow has made it easier for residents of Transnistria, a de facto self-governing region of Moldova, to obtain Russian citizenship, according to a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

The measure applies to “foreign citizens and stateless persons” permanently residing in Transnistria. It aims “to protect human rights and freedoms” of the region’s residents in line with “international legal norms,” the decree states.

The move comes amid growing political and economic pressure on the predominantly Russian-speaking region from authorities in Chisinau and their Western backers, in what Moldova has described as a policy of “reintegration.”

WHAT IS TRANSNISTRIA?

Transnistria is a self-governed breakaway region located along the Dniester River in Moldova, a former Soviet republic located between Ukraine and Romania.

The region broke away from Moldova after a brief war in the early 1990s and has remained under the protection of a joint Russian-Transnistrian-Moldovan peacekeeping force ever since.

Moldova has charted an increasingly anti-Russian and pro-EU course since President Maia Sandu came to power in 2020. The country applied for EU membership shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, obtained candidate status the same year and formally opened accession talks with Brussels in 2024.

In October 2025, the Moldovan government adopted a new security strategy identifying Russia as the country’s main threat. Moscow warned at the time that the nation’s leadership was “making a grave mistake” by increasingly antagonizing the Kremlin.

LANGUAGE

Language has become one of the most sensitive issues between Chisinau and Transnistria.
Despite it being widely spoken, Russian lost its status as a “language of inter-ethnic communication” in 2021, and Romanian became Moldova’s sole official tongue.

Tensions have grown as Moldova’s pro-EU leadership has increasingly promoted Romanian-language integration. Among the latest measures are new restrictions on the use of Russian in Moldova’s parliament, which were introduced earlier this month, under which bills will no longer be routinely translated into the language.

ENERGY SECURITY

The Ukraine conflict has severely undermined Transnistria’s energy security. For decades, the region relied on free or heavily subsidized Russian gas delivered through Ukraine, which powered the Soviet-era Cuciurgan power station supplying electricity to much of Moldova, including the breakaway region. The arrangement had long formed the backbone of the enclave’s economy.

But the system collapsed in early 2025 after Kiev refused to extend a transit agreement allowing Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine. The disruption triggered the worst energy crisis in Transnistria since the 1990s.

TAXATION

Despite the ongoing crisis, Moldovan authorities have moved to increase pressure on Transnistrian businesses by introducing new taxes and gradually phasing out long-standing exemptions.

Under the measures, enterprises registered in Transnistria will increasingly be required to pay taxes and customs duties to Moldova’s state budget rather than solely local authorities. Transnistrian officials have condemned the policy as “double taxation” that could deepen the region’s economic crisis and trigger further businesses closures.

Moldovan leadership and the EU have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping troops despite strong public support for the mission inside Transnistria. A poll conducted in the region in April suggested that 82.5% of residents support the continued presence of Moscow’s peacekeepers.

Authorities in Transnistria’s capital Tiraspol have rejected the possibility of troop withdrawal, arguing that the Russian military presence is “absolutely legal and legitimate” and remains a key part of the existing peacekeeping mechanism that has preserved stability for more than three decades.

Israel carried out strikes in Gaza targeting Hamas’ top military commander, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement. It marked the first attack on a senior official of the militant group since a US-backed deal in October intended to halt fighting in the Palestinian enclave.

The strikes on Friday killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 others, who were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza emergency services said. Neither side confirmed whether the Hamas leader was killed or wounded in the attack.

In a joint statement on Friday, Netanyahu and Katz said al-Haddad was among the “architects” of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack and accused him of involvement in holding hostages taken during the assault. They also accused him of refusing to implement a plan promoted by US President Donald Trump for Hamas to disarm and for Gaza to be demilitarized.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire took effect last year, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in Gaza, much of which has been reduced to rubble. Under the truce, Israeli forces retained control of a largely depopulated zone covering more than half the enclave, while Hamas remained in control of the remaining coastal strip. Both sides have accused each other of violating the truce, and talks on advancing Trump’s post-war plan for Gaza remain deadlocked.

Since Israel launched its military campaign in the territory, more than 72,000 people have been killed and over 172,000 wounded over the past three years, according to the Palestinian health authorities.

Israel’s war against Hamas and its siege of Gaza have drawn growing international criticism, including threats of sanctions. Western support for Israel has also eroded amid rising civilian casualties and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Mercedes-Benz is considering engaging in defense production if it would make “business sense,” its CEO Ola Kallenius has told the Wall Street Journal.

The Munich-based company once manufactured military hardware on a large scale, before and during World War II. It began supplying trucks and airplane engines to the Nazis in 1937.

After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, all of the vehicles produced by Mercedes-Benz were sent to the army or to businesses viewed as essential for the war effort. During that period, almost half of the carmaker’s 63,000 employees were forced laborers, POWs and concentration camp inmates, according to the Mercedes-Benz’s website.

In his interview with the WSJ on Friday, Kallenius stressed that “the world has become a more unpredictable place, and I think it is absolutely clear that Europe needs to increase its defense profile. Should we be able to play a positive role in that, we would be willing to do so.”

According to the CEO, defense-related operations would likely constitute “a minor share” of Mercedes-Benz’s business, which would remain focused on making civilian cars.

Germany and other EU states have accelerated military spending and defense procurement in recent years, with Brussels urging member states to expand arms production and reduce reliance on US military supplies.

The push toward rearmament comes as Germany’s industrial sector struggles with weak growth, high energy costs and falling competitiveness, prompting some manufacturers to look at defense contracts as a new source of revenue.

In February, Mercedes-Benz reported a 57% drop in profit in 2025 compared to the previous year as European carmakers continue to struggle amid rising production costs caused by growing energy prices, supply chain disruptions, regulatory pressure and competition from Chinese companies.

The Financial Times reported in March that another German carmaker, Volkswagen, was in talks with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to convert its failing Osnabrueck plant to the production of air-defense missiles. A spokesman for VW denied the report.

In 2022, then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz unveiled a €100 billion ($113 billion) military modernization plan for the German armed forces. Der Spiegel reported last month that the Defense Ministry in Berlin had signed some 47,000 procurement contracts since then.

The European Union has taken yet another step in its long-running confrontation with Russia. But what now stands out is not only the scale – it is the restless, almost reflexive expansion of sanctions as a default instrument of policy.

In April, EU authorities unveiled their 20th round of sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus, while pointedly extending their reach toward China.

Sanctions spiral

What was once framed as a targeted response now resembles a sanctions regime without clear geographic or strategic limits. By including 56 designations tied to Russia’s military-industrial complex – 17 of them in China, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, and Central Asia – the EU has effectively dissolved the boundaries of its own confrontation. Another 60 entities now face tightened export controls tied to alleged contributions to Russia’s defense sector.

For the first time, even a Chinese state-owned entity has been targeted by anti-Belarusian sanctions. In Brussels, this is justified through the language of “dual-use” goods. But outside Europe, the perception is of a growing tendency toward economic coercion that stretches legal authority across borders, fueled by an escalating appetite for pressure.

China’s response was swift: officials condemned what they described as “long-arm jurisdiction,” rejecting the EU’s attempt to discipline Chinese firms operating far beyond European territory. More importantly, Beijing read the move as a signal of the EU’s shifting posture toward China itself.

Within a day, China placed seven European entities on its control list over arms sales to Taiwan, imposing restrictions that mirror the EU’s own extraterritorial reach. These measures prohibit the transfer of Chinese goods to the targeted firms, extending the ripple effects well beyond those directly sanctioned.

The list includes one German entity, two Belgian firms, and four Czech companies – including military industrial manufacturers Omnipol and Excalibur Army, all deeply embedded in supply chains connected to Ukraine.

The prominence of Czech firms reflects a deliberate strategic shift in Prague between 2022 and 2025 – a pivot away from Beijing and toward Taipei that has reshaped the country’s geopolitical role.

This transformation has been multifaceted. Political engagement with Taiwan has intensified, exceeding the limits of the One China principle. Economically, the Czech Republic has inserted itself into semiconductor supply chains linked to Taiwan, seeking to hedge against dependence on Chinese production.

But the most sensitive dimension lies in defense cooperation. Cybersecurity coordination, intelligence exchanges, and the transfer of military equipment have all deepened. Czech-made systems have moved to the island, while Taiwanese components have flowed to Ukraine, often rerouted through intermediaries to avoid scrutiny. This emerging alignment increasingly feeds into the conflict in Ukraine while simultaneously intersecting with tensions around Taiwan.

The Taiwan-EU-Ukraine Axis

Taiwan has expanded its drone manufacturing footprint in the Czech Republic, anchoring joint initiatives aimed at building shared military-industrial capacity. In 2025, more than 70,000 drones were exported to the Czech Republic and over 30,000 to Poland. Taiwanese high-tech components, European integration and manufacturing, and Ukrainian battlefield deployment form a continuous loop. Systems are developed in one region, assembled in another, and tested in active conflict.

What is presented as cooperation or resilience begins to resemble a distributed war economy, stretching across continents while maintaining the appearance of separation.

From Beijing’s perspective, this is a network – one that links Taiwan, the EU, and Ukraine into a shared strategic space aimed at countering both Russia and China.

China’s sanctions, in this light, are less a reaction than a calculated attempt to disrupt this chain at its most exposed nodes.

Within Brussels, this trajectory reflects a deeper shift. Certain policymakers appear increasingly convinced that Europe’s security must be asserted not only in its immediate neighborhood, but across a wider geopolitical spectrum.

Yet the more the EU expands its sanctions and security engagements, the more it risks entangling itself in multiple fronts simultaneously. What began as a response to a regional conflict is now bleeding into the Indo-Pacific, merging distinct crises into a single, volatile continuum.

There is also a growing perception, both within and beyond Europe, that sanctions have become less a tool of last resort and more an instinctive response. This habitual reliance narrows space for diplomacy and fosters a climate in which escalation becomes easier than restraint.

What is unfolding is not simply a sanctions dispute. It is the emergence of a more fragmented and confrontational international (dis)order.

The EU’s expanding measures signal a readiness to project power through economic means far beyond its borders. China’s response increasingly demonstrates that such moves will be met in kind. Each step reinforces the other, feeding a cycle of action and reaction that grows harder to control.

At the center of this dynamic lies the Taiwan-EU-Ukraine triangle – a convergence of technology, industry, and conflict that encapsulates the shifting nature of global competition. It is here, in these interlocking relationships, that the future outlines of geopolitical rivalry are being shaped.

The stakes ahead

For Europe, the path forward is fraught. An ever-expanding sanctions regime risks overextension and unintended consequences. For China, the priority remains clear: to defend its economic and strategic interests against what it views as encroaching pressure.

What is undeniable is that the old boundaries are dissolving. Decisions made in Brussels now echo in Beijing, Taipei, and Kiev alike. Supply chains double as strategic corridors and industrial cooperation blends into military alignment.

The deeper question is whether this trajectory can be sustained without tipping into a broader and more dangerous confrontation. Sanctions, once seen as a controlled instrument, are becoming part of a larger pattern of escalation that is steadily redrawing the map of global politics.

The EU may believe it is shaping events. But in binding together distant theaters and tightening the screws of economic pressure, it may also be setting forces in motion that it cannot contain.

With 65 deaths reported so far, an Ebola outbreak has been confirmed in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday. 

According to preliminary results from the National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa, 13 out of 20 tested samples came back positive for Ebola.  

“About 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths have been reported, mainly in the Mongwalu and Rwampara health zones,” the authorities said, adding that four of the fatalities were among laboratory-confirmed patients. 

Health officials are also investigating suspected infections in the city of Bunia, although those cases have not yet been confirmed.  

The Africa CDC said it was coordinating with the governments of the DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, as well as international health partners, to strengthen surveillance, preparedness and emergency response measures along border areas. 

Ebola, a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever, is spread through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or tissue. The fatality rate for this disease can reach 90%. Symptoms often include high fever, fatigue, headaches, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, skin rash, and internal or external bleeding.  

The outbreak comes just months after the DR Congo declared an end to its previous Ebola flare-up in Kasai Province. According to WHO figures, it resulted in 64 cases – 53 confirmed and 11 deemed probable – and 45 deaths. The outbreak officially declared over in December 2025 in the country, marked the country’s 16th recorded Ebola epidemic since the virus was first identified there in 1976. Kasai had previously experienced outbreaks in 2007 and 2008. 

South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola has said the US cannot exclude Pretoria from the December G20 Summit, noting that the country is a founding member.

Lamola was interviewed while in New Delhi, India, for the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/International Relations, which is being hosted under India’s BRICS chairmanship on 14 and 15 May 2026. The meeting has been convened under the theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation, and Sustainability (BRICS)”.

When asked how the country is handling its relationship with the President of the US, Donald Trump, the minister admitted that it has been “an unpredictable environment”.

”We deal with it as it comes, and as it goes. We have, up to so far, maintained our communication with the White House, and the various facets of the American society, because the American society is multilayered – Congress, ThinkTanks, academia, business sector, and so forth,” Lamola said.

“We look at it as a multifaceted society that we need to continue to work with, and strengthen the relations of people-to-people.”

He added that the ministry was surprised that the highest number of tourists to South Africa last year came from the US.

”It shows that the strengthening of people-to-people relations is also a very key component of our engagement with the US and also with the cities.”

On the matter of the G20 Summit and the uncertainty surrounding South Africa’s attendance, Lamola said that it is not Trump’s place to dictate whether South Africa can or cannot attend.

”He can’t say that we can no longer be in the G20, because we are a founding member of the G20, and no member of the G20 can decide that this country can no longer be a member of the G20.

“What he has done is not to invite South Africa into the G20 summit that will be hosted by the US, but, we are a member of the G20. So, we really don’t know what that summit will be, which does not have one of its founding members.

”It is important that the members of the G20 will have to discuss and characterise what that is… I don’t know whether you can characterise it as a G20 if South Africa is not there.”

When asked if the development of a BRICS currency was still being discussed, Lamola said: “The talks have been more on the use of local currencies on trade. It is a process that is still ongoing, and we will want to see that being developed, because those who are financial experts say it is cheaper to trade in local currency… So it’s indeed something that BRICS has to continue to develop.”

It was also reported in the media that Iranian authorities have increasingly singled out the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and have warned of stronger strikes against the country if the United States and Israel resume their attacks.

Speaking of how the tension the two between BRICS countries has impacted proceedings, Lamola said: “There are member states of BRICS who are directly impacted by the conflict, as you are aware, the UAE and Iran, but we do think, and see, this as an opportune platform for us to foster that cooperation, to foster that dialogue for peaceful engagement, even on this conflict that affects directly our members. We see it as a huge platform of interactions, of exchange of ideas, and its resolution anchored on the UN Charter.”

Speaking of the SA-India partnership, Lamola said that India is a big global player in terms of technology and agriculture, and it is among South Africa’s biggest trading partners.

”They account for almost a fourth or fifth of our trade. We are India’s number one trader in Africa, so it’s a relationship of goodwill. The relationship between South Africa and India has grown from strength to strength, with South Africa being one of those countries where there’s a huge Indian diaspora in the world,” Lamola said.

”These cultural people-to-people, but also the trade level between the two countries, make this relationship very strategic, and we look forward to continuing with it, both at the strategic level, in terms of research, development, science and technology, and also skills development.

”We are looking forward to continuing to build on this foundation,” he said.

First published by IOL

Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an official visit to China on May 19 and 20, the Kremlin has said.

The Russian president has been invited to the country by his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, it said in a statement on Saturday.

During the trip, Putin and Xi are expected to discuss bilateral relations, ways to further deepen strategic interaction between Moscow and Beijing, as well as exchange views on key international and regional issues, the statement read.

The talks are set to conclude with a joint statement from the two leaders and the signing of various agreements between the Russian and Chinese governments.

Putin will also meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to discuss trade and economic relations, according to the Kremlin.

Xi was among the foreign leaders who traveled to Moscow for the May 9, 2025 Victory Day parade marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, with Beijing refusing to join Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict and the two countries expanding trade, energy and diplomatic ties. Moscow and Beijing have also moved forward with major energy projects, including the proposed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which would significantly increase Russian gas supplies to China.

Putin is expected to visit China twice in 2026, having also accepted an invitation to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen in November, presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.

A political drama unfolded in the past week in Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state known for its ancient temple, booming manufacturing, and political duopoly. For six decades, the state has seen power alternate between two powerful regions parties – the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

Last week, however, this era came to end with popular actor-turned-politician Vijay and his newly formed the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party winning the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election.

Vijay was sworn in as chief minister of the state on Sunday. The ceremony brought to a close a week of political uncertainty. The TVK won 108 seats in the April election (the results of which were announced on May 5).

Although it was an extraordinary debut, the party was still ten seats short of the majority mark of 118 (the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly has 234 members).

When Vijay called on the governor last week to stake his claim, he could demonstrate the backing of only 113 legislators – the TVK’s own seats plus five won by Indian National Congress party, a key opposition party at the federal level (the Congress severed ties with its traditional partner, the DMK, to support the TVK).

Later, the left parties – the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxist, and two other smaller parties, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and Indian Union Muslim League – backed Vijay, providing the needed support.

On Wednesday, Vijay passed the confidence motion in the assembly, securing the support of 144 lawmakers – well above the majority mark of 118. The vote took place amid high political drama, with DMK and DMDK legislators walking out of the house.

A power shift thanks to Gen Zs

The election results came as a surprise both to the previously dominant parties and outsiders, giving a setback to the old paradigm that has governed politics in the state for decades. Now-former Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, who leads the DMK, lost his own seat. Political commenters say it is the Gen Z voters who want to see a change in governance.

A veteran with over three decades of experience in films, Vijay is more than just an actor for the state of Tamil Nadu. He performs electrifying dances. Vijay’s entry into politics was awaited. He expressed gratitude towards his voters, especially Gen Z voters, after the results came in.

“We said this election would be a remarkable one that would shake Indian politics, and it has proven to be so in many ways,” Vijay said. 

“Among the many factors, one of the deeper reasons behind this extraordinary election has been the children who guided their families with their sense of conviction,” he added, referring to Gen Z voters.

Vijay said the “TVK has emerged as a major driving force of change.” He called his social media followers “his virtual warriors” for fighting online hate against the party.

Vijay’s promises

Vijay established his fame by playing an underdog hero in films who challenges the system, which eventually prepared him for a career in politics. In 2024, he officially entered politics through the TVK. For a party barely two years old, winning 108 seats was historic.

According to experts, unlike most celebrities who enter politics by joining established parties, Vijay stepped in on his own and presented himself as a third option against the two giants that have dominated Tamil Nadu politics since 1967.

The TVK leader announced four important steps in his party’s Youth Agenda. Under the Education Guarantee Scheme, a loan amounting to 2 million rupees ($21,000) without any guarantee will be provided to those pursuing education from Class 12 onwards until the PhD level. Participants will receive a monthly stipend of 18,000 rupees ($190). Vijay also promised to establish a Tamil Nadu Youth Advisory Council, pitching it as a platform for youth to communicate with the chief minister and government officials.

The contestants chosen by Vijay came from citizens of all 234 constituencies and were considered ‘members of the family’ of the voters rather than professional politicians. He accused the incumbent DMK government of corruption, theft, and targeting journalists.

Why Gen Z believes in Vijay’s party

This election saw the emergence of young people and new voters. For Gen Z, whose lives have been dominated by the politics of the AIADMK’s ‘Two Leaves’ and the DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’, Vijay offered the prospect of breaking the cycle of 60 years.

“Youth everywhere wants change, and that is what happened here,” Rupa Vardarajan, 23, a computer science engineer from Chennai, said.

“We needed a new political wave, a change in our state. Someone who will understand the problems of youth, unemployment, and the drug problem. The problems of educated women. We hope all these things will change now,” she added.

Vijay’s campaign leaned heavily on visual storytelling – short videos, cinematic references, and a personalized, almost influencer‑style connection with followers online. 

“On campuses and in small‑town tea shops, the 2026 election felt like a youth rebellion,” Allen Jospeh, a resident, said. “Tamil Nadu has a large youth population; millions of first‑time and second‑time voters grew up with Vijay’s movies.”

He said the new party became a vehicle for frustration with unemployment, exam leaks, corruption scandals, and a sense that both the DMK and AIADMK had become too disconnected from reality.

Fall of the Dravidian fortress

Tamil Nadu is located in South-East India and ranks second in economic terms in India, with a population of around 77 million, equivalent to that of Germany. For decades, the state has taken pride in upholding Dravidian Identity, a sociopolitical ideology emphasizing social justice, secularism, and regional autonomy.

Since 1967, power has alternated between the DMK and AIADMK, both offshoots of that Dravidian tradition.

The DMK, headed by M. K. Stalin, ruled the state from 2011 to 2016 (in alliance roles) and then returned in 2021. By 2026, it had been in office for five consecutive years when it sought another term. Although the state had numerous welfare schemes, it was hit hard by an unprecedented wave of anti-incumbency. Corruption and ‘family rule’ are some of the factors voters pointed to.

Udhayanidhi Stalin, the former chief minister’s son, won his seat in Chepauk, while M. K. Stalin himself faced a humiliating defeat in his constituency of Kolathur. 

Political pundits say the election was the biggest change in South Indian politics in the last 50 years.

In April 2026, assembly elections were held in four states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, and Assam, along with the Union Territory of Puducherry, which dramatically altered the political landscape in these regions. The southern states witnessed a clear mandate against the ruling parties, and in West Bengal, the ruling BJP, headed by Prime Minster Narendra Modi, recorded an unprecedented landslide victory with 207 seats. This win came as an even bigger surprise.

‘Gen Z in Tamil Nadu wants dignity in public life’ 

Political scientist and commentator Professor S. Narayan, who is based in Tamil Nadu, argued that in the case of Tamil Nadu, Vijay tapped into “a new moral imagination among young voters.” 

Mukund Padmanabhan, a senior political expert and editor, described the results as a “structural rupture.” 

“The 2026 election is the first time in 50 years that the ‘Dravidian Duopoly’ has been physically challenged not just by a person, but by a new demographic reality. Vijay didn’t just win seats; he won the first-time voter who sees the legacy parties as relics of their parents’ era.”

For now, Tamil Nadu’s Gen Z voters say they have made their choice clear: They are tired of watching the same political movie on repeat. 

“We grew up cheering for him in the dark of the cinema, and now we expect Vijay’s party to deliver in governance,” Saad Shaikh, 26, who works in his family’s leather business in Madurai, said.

The international community must take a more active approach to the plight of displaced Palestinians and the Israeli occupation of their land, Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Amir-Saeid Iravani said on Friday.

Iravani made the appeal on the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, a term used in the Arab and Muslim world to describe the flight and expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Today, around six million Palestinians are registered with the UN refugee agency UNRWA, many of them living in refugee camps.

There is an “urgent necessity for international mobilization to confront the root causes of this situation,” Iravani said, calling for resistance to Israeli occupation and “expansionist policies.” Support for Palestine “must not remain limited merely to expressions of sympathy,” he added, arguing that the world must abandon “approaches that have failed to achieve peace or justice.”

The situation has been further exacerbated by Israel’s war in Gaza, with the UN saying that the majority of the enclave’s pre-conflict population of 2.1 million has been displaced.

Officials in Israel have increasingly rejected calls for a two-state solution, arguing that the establishment of a fully independent Palestinian state would threaten their country’s existence.

“There will not be a Palestinian state. It’s very simple: it will not be established,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in November 2025, according to the Times of Israel.

Russia is seeking to expand a pilot Islamic banking program as demand for Sharia-compliant financial products continues to grow, according to the country’s largest lender, Sber.

Islamic banking, also known as partner financing, follows Sharia principles that prohibit interest-based lending and speculative transactions. Instead, it relies on mechanisms such as leasing, installment sales, profit-sharing arrangements, and asset-backed financing. It also restricts financing for sectors such as gambling, alcohol, tobacco, and weapons production. Russia launched the pilot initiative in 2023 in four predominantly Muslim regions, including the Republic of Tatarstan, and later extended it until 2028.

An estimated 20 million Muslims live in Russia, including more than 2 million in Tatarstan.

Speaking at KazanForum, an Islamic-themed conference held in Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan, on Thursday, Sber senior vice president Oleg Ganeev said demand was strongest for everyday banking products, including accounts, payment services, cards, and deposits. Sber has also launched digital sukuk products – Islamic bonds designed to comply with Sharia principles – Ganeev added.

Aksakov said lawmakers and financial institutions had identified “eight priority areas for development” based on standards used by the Bahrain-based Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

Tatarstan Economy Minister Midhat Shagiakhmetov said the republic had been developing Islamic finance for around 15 years and now offers about 35 Sharia-compliant financial products. More than half of all transactions under Russia’s pilot program are currently carried out in the region, he added.

Russian officials have also discussed expanding the pilot program beyond the four participating regions and increasing the use of Islamic finance instruments to attract foreign investment.

The US-mediated truce between Israel and Lebanon has been extended by 45 days, US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said on Friday.

Pigott said the sides had agreed to extend the ceasefire reached on April 16 following “highly productive talks.” He added that the Pentagon would host discussions with military delegations on May 29, while the State Department would hold another meeting focused on political matters on June 2-3.

“We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the establishment of genuine security along their shared border,” Pigott said.

The strikes have taken the lives of nearly 3,000 people in Lebanon since March, when Israel resumed operations against the armed group Hezbollah, which had fired rockets at Israel in support of Iran.

Tehran has since listed an end to hostilities in Lebanon as one of its key conditions for a peace agreement with the US and Israel.

Hezbollah, which was not part of the peace talks, has continued mortar, rocket, and drone attacks on Israeli troops stationed in parts of southern Lebanon that West Jerusalem says are needed for a “security zone.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have lost six soldiers since the start of the ceasefire, including a staff sergeant killed on Thursday.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel pledged not to carry out offensive operations against targets in Lebanon, while reserving the right to “take all necessary measures in self-defense, at any time, against planned, imminent, or ongoing attacks.”

US President Donald Trump reaffirmed during his recent talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would not change Washington’s policy toward Taiwan, US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz has said.

Beijing has long opposed US arms sales to the self-governing island and any diplomatic recognition of the government in Taipei. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during Trump’s trip to China on Thursday that “Taiwan independence” and peace in the region were “as irreconcilable as fire and water.”

“At the end of the day, [Trump] made no commitments either way, in line with our longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity,” Waltz told Fox News on Friday. “There is a whole line of thinking that if you basically indicate or tell China that we won’t be there, that it could embolden them as well,” he added.

The US maintains informal ties with Taiwan, having withdrawn recognition in 1979. Although the People’s Republic of China has stressed that it seeks reunification with the island through peaceful means, it has indicated that it could resort to force if the wayward province formally declares independence.

In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Trump said that “nothing has changed” and that he was “not looking to have somebody go independent.”

“And, you know, we’re supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war. I’m not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down,” he added.

China has said it considers all contacts with the “separatist” government in Taiwan to be hostile acts. In 2022, Beijing condemned then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island and launched snap military drills in response.

A federal jury in Chicago has ordered Boeing to pay $49.5 million to the family of a woman who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash involving the ill-fated 737 MAX airliner. The aircraft went down shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 passengers and crew on board.

Several months earlier, another Boeing 737 MAX operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 people aboard. The two disasters prompted a 20-month worldwide grounding of the aircraft. Boeing later admitted that a design flaw in the flight control system was responsible for the crashes.

On Wednesday, jurors awarded the family of Samya Stumo $21 million for pain and emotional suffering, $16.5 million for loss of companionship, and $12 million for grief, according to the family’s attorneys.

Last November, a jury ordered Boeing to pay $28.45 million to the family of Shikha Garg, another victim of the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines disaster.

The company faced dozens of additional civil lawsuits, most of which were settled through confidential pretrial agreements worth billions of dollars in compensation.

In 2021, Boeing reached a deferred prosecution agreement with federal authorities and agreed to pay $2.5 billion to avoid prosecution after admitting it had deceived the Federal Aviation Administration regarding flaws in the 737 MAX flight-control system.

In 2024, the Department of Justice found the company in breach of the settlement terms. However, under US President Donald Trump, the department dropped its demand that Boeing plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge.

Last November, a federal judge in Texas approved the DOJ’s decision to dismiss the criminal case against the aerospace manufacturer, which is also a major defense contractor for the US military. An appeals court upheld the ruling in March this year.

Russia’s allegations that the US-funded clandestine biological laboratories near its borders – claims denied until recently by Washington – have remained a persistent flashpoint in the steadily deteriorating relationship between Russia and the West for nearly a decade.

This abruptly changed the past week when US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that her department had identified more than 120 US-funded biological laboratories in 30 countries, with over a third of them located in Ukraine. The agency is now working to “identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what ‘research’ is being conducted to end dangerous gain-of-function research that threatens the health and wellbeing of the American people and the world,” according to Gabbard.

RT looks back at the timeline of the biolabs saga and the US denial of its existence until now.

2017 RT report 

The US-funded bio research made international headlines in July 2017, when RT published an investigative report revolving around a tender issued by the US Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The command was seeking to procure genetic material samples that “shall be collected from Russia and must be Caucasian.” The Air Force explicitly said that it did not want samples from Ukraine, for reasons not explained.

“The question is – why is it being done? It’s being done purposefully and professionally. We are a kind of object of great interest,” the president said. “Let them do what they want, and we must do what we must,” he added.

The attention this garnered from the Russian leadership prompted a vague explanation from AETC, which claimed the samples were needed for research on the musculoskeletal system and Russia had been picked as the source of the samples for no particular reason.

Georgia revelations

Another bombshell on the clandestine US-funded biolabs was dropped by a former Georgian minister for state security, Igor Giorgadze, in late 2018. He claimed he had obtained some 100,000 pages of data pointing to questionable practices at the US-funded Richard Lugar Center for Public Health Research near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The tests appeared to involve “a highly toxic chemical or biological agent with a high lethality rate,” the commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces (RKhBZ), Igor Kirillov, said at the time. Kirillov, who had spearheaded the Russian military’s probe into the US-funded biolabs in Ukraine and beyond, was assassinated in late 2024 in a bombing staged by Kiev’s intelligence.

The Pentagon flatly denied the allegations, with then-spokesman Eric Pahon dismissing the Russian ministry’s statements as a part of “a Russian disinformation campaign directed against the West.” The US and Georgian governments also dismissed the claims made by Giorgadze, describing them as “absurd.”

Ukraine conflict 

The escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022 marked a new turn in the biolabs saga. While Moscow seized additional evidence of questionable research activities conducted in secretive facilities dotting Ukraine, the West entered a full-denial mode, bluntly dismissing any Russian statement on the matter as “propaganda.”

“The credibility of information provided by the Kremlin is in general very doubtful and low,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said at the time. “Russian disinformation has a track record of promoting manipulative narratives about biological weapons and alleged ‘secret labs.’”

The Biden administration took a similar defensive stance, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki calling the allegations “preposterous” and accusing Moscow of plotting to use “chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine or to create a false flag operation using them.” John Kirby, then-Pentagon spokesman, also branded the Russian allegations “absurd,” “laughable,” and a “bunch of malarkey.” 

“There’s nothing to it. It’s classic Russian propaganda,” Kirby told reporters at the time.

Gabbard’s remarks this past week have reignited scrutiny of a program Washington spent years denying existed.

US President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, was heavy on pomp, praise, and promises. But what did both leaders walk away with after the superpower summit in Beijing?

Trump left Beijing on Friday, two days after becoming the first US president to visit the Chinese capital in almost a decade. The trip took place amid two paused conflicts – Trump’s trade war with Beijing and his real war against Iran – which directly affect China, and although both leaders hailed positive developments in their relationship, differing statements from the two sides suggest that these issues and others remain unresolved.

Xi gives Trump a royal welcome 

From the military honors and red carpet that greeted Trump on Wednesday, to the garden tour of Xi’s Zhongnanhai compound on Friday morning, the Chinese president was a gracious host throughout. At a lavish banquet on Thursday, Xi declared that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.”

Ahead of bilateral talks on Friday, Trump claimed that he and Xi had “settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to settle, and the relationship is a very strong one.” 

Did Trump and Xi reach breakthrough on Taiwan? 

Amid the optics and pageantry, few observers expected any progress on Taiwan – the longest-running unresolved issue between Washington and Beijing. Xi maintains that Taiwan’s reunification with the Chinese mainland is “inevitable,” while the US has followed a policy of strategic ambiguity since the 1970s. It accepts but does not endorse Beijing’s claim to the island.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump said that he and Xi “talked a lot” about Taiwan, and about a planned US arms sale to Taipei this year. “I made no commitment either way,” Trump added. The US president then said that Xi had asked him whether he’d use the US military to defend Taiwan. In keeping with the US’ policy of ambiguity, Trump said that he replied “I don’t talk about that.” 

“I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” Trump said in a Fox News interview aired on Friday. “And, you know, we’re supposed to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war? I’m not looking for that. I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down.” 

What did they say about Iran? 

Trump emerged from talks with Xi claiming victory on the issue of Iran, with his own comments and White House statements suggesting that Beijing would help push Iran into a peace deal that favors the US.

“We did discuss Iran,” Trump said on Friday. “We feel very similar about [how] we want it to end. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open.” A White House statement went further, claiming “President Xi also made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use, and he expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China’s dependence on the Strait in the future.” 

China imports around 12% of its oil from Iran. While the Islamic Republic has allowed some Chinese vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a five-point China-Pakistan proposal to resolve the conflict has urged all parties to ensure the “normal passage” of ships through the waterway as soon as possible.

In one potential breakthrough, Trump said on Friday that he is considering lifting sanctions on Chinese companies that purchase Iranian oil.

Did Trump and Xi settle the trade war? 

The US trade war with China remains in a state of truce, with Trump’s heightened tariffs on Chinese goods paused until November. Trump left Beijing claiming that he had secured “fantastic trade deals” with Xi, including the purchase by China of 200 Boeing passenger jets. US trade representative Jamieson Greer also said that he expected China to buy “double-digit billions” worth of US agricultural exports “over the next three years.” 

However, Boeing has not confirmed the jet deal, and even if it does, the purchase of 200 aircraft falls dramatically short of the 500 predicted by market insiders before the trip. The Chinese government has not confirmed any trade deals, agricultural or otherwise.

After meeting American business executives who accompanied Trump to Beijing – including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang – Xi “noted that China-US economic and trade ties are mutually beneficial and win-win in nature,” read an ambiguous statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Trump has repeatedly accused China of facilitating the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the US, slapping a 10% tariff on China over its alleged inaction on the issue last year. Beijing maintains that the accusations are politically motivated.

The White House claimed on Friday that Trump and Xi agreed on “the need to build on progress in ending the flow of fentanyl precursors into the United States,” although the Chinese side has not referred to fentanyl in any of its post-summit statements.

China’s near-monopoly on rare earth minerals – vital in the manufacture of electric vehicle motors, guided missiles, and a range of high-tech components – is one of Beijing’s strongest cards in the trade dispute with the US. China imposed export controls on these minerals last year, but relented and allowed their sale to the US when the trade war was put on hold in October.

The fact that neither Trump nor the Chinese government mentioned rare earths after the summit suggests that the issue is still very much unsettled.

The bottom line 

Although the most pressing issues between the US and China remain unresolved, both sides portrayed it as positive. Trump said that his trip was “very successful,” while Xi described it as an “historic and landmark” visit. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the trip was Trump’s invitation to Xi to visit the White House in September, which Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed on Friday that Xi had accepted.

Xi last visited the White House in 2015. The fact that he will travel to Washington before Trump’s tariffs are reapplied indicates that both Washington and Beijing believe that a trade deal can be struck, and some agreement on other issues can be reached.

India can mediate in the Middle East conflict given its vast diplomatic expertise, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

New Delhi can mediate between Iran and Arab countries as a first step, Lavrov said in a media briefing after the conclusion of the BRICS foreign ministers’ summit hosted by India.

While BRICS as a group would not be the right mediator, Lavrov noted, individual members could help resolve the deadlock.

“For example, India, the BRICS president, they are directly interested and receiving oil from this region. Why won’t they offer their services, including as a country that is currently presiding over BRICS, so they could invite Iran, UAE to start with,” he said.

Lavrov said every flashpoint in the globe has originated from the “flagrant interference of Western countries in the domestic affairs of a country.” The real reason for the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, he asserted, is because powers are trying to drive a wedge between Iran and the Arab nations. “I believe that this hostility, this aggression against Iran was motivated, among other things, to antagonize Iran and its Arab neighbors to instill more hostility in their relations,” he said.

Lavrov said a mediator role would be in sync with New Delhi’s profile. “Well, this role could be played by India, considering its vast diplomatic experience and authority and clout.”

In the chair’s statement following the meeting, New Delhi noted that BRICS nations had underscored the grave impact of the conflict on the global economy and called for “an early resolution of the current crisis” and affirmed “the value of dialogue and diplomacy.” 

At the same time, the statement noted “differing views among some members.” Indian media reports suggest that, just as the April meeting of BRICS deputy foreign ministers and special envoys ended without a joint statement after Iran and the UAE clashed over how to address the US–Israel war on Iran, those divisions had only deepened by the time ministers met.

The US-Israeli war on Iran is increasingly hitting consumers far beyond energy prices. Disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz are driving up fertilizer costs and fueling a sharp rise in global food prices. Potatoes have emerged as the latest casualty as futures prices have surged in recent weeks amid mounting warnings over food security and supply chain strain. 

Why are potato futures prices soaring?

Potato-linked financial contracts have spiked more than 700% over the past month and are up over 34% year-on-year as of mid-May, according to Trading Economics data.

The surge has been driven largely by concerns over the impact of the Middle East war on fertilizer supplies, energy costs and agricultural trade routes. Potatoes are a nutrient-intensive crop that depends heavily on nitrogen-based fertilizers such as urea and ammonia. The Strait of Hormuz, which handles around 20% of global crude exports, is also critical for shipments of nitrogen-based fertilizers. Fertilizer prices have already surged around 80% since the conflict escalated, according to industry estimates.

According to UN estimates, roughly a third of the global fertilizer trade normally passes through the strait, including shipments of urea, potash and phosphates. Analysts say markets are increasingly pricing in the risk of higher farming costs and weaker future harvests.

Analysts say the spike is unlikely to trigger immediate shortages and that markets are reacting instead to expectations of rising farming, fertilizer, and transport costs rather than a breakdown in potato supplies.

However, if disruptions to fertilizer flows and energy markets persist, the pressure could ripple across the wider food sector. Processed potato products such as fries, chips and frozen foods are seen as especially vulnerable due to their dependence on industrial farming, energy-intensive production and global supply chains.

Will fries cost more in Europe?

The region is reportedly experiencing a potato oversupply after farmers expanded production in recent years to meet growing demand, helping cushion consumers from a sharp rise in retail prices.

However, traders remain focused on the longer-term impact of disruptions to global trade and energy markets despite the current supply glut.

Could other staple food prices be affected?

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says global food prices have risen for three consecutive months, with vegetable oil prices reaching their highest level since 2022. Wheat, rice and corn have also climbed amid higher transport and energy costs linked to instability around the Strait.

Economists say prolonged disruption could eventually affect products ranging from bread and dairy to meat and processed foods, especially in economies vulnerable to energy shocks.

Is the world facing a food crisis?

In wealthier economies, consumers are likely to feel the fallout mainly through higher grocery bills. In poorer countries, however, the consequences could be far more severe, as soaring fuel and fertilizer costs threaten planting, weaken harvests and push staple foods further out of reach.

A similar warning came from Jose Andres, founder of charity World Central Kitchen, who said war-related disruptions to fertilizer supplies could trigger a prolonged global food crisis, with poorer and import-dependent countries expected to suffer the hardest hit.

The broader economic fallout from the Middle East conflict could push more than 30 million people into poverty across 162 countries, especially in nations reliant on imported energy, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

US President Donald Trump has said recovering Iran’s highly enriched uranium is “more for public relations” than anything else, downplaying what remains one of the key sticking points in negotiations aimed at ending the Middle East war.

Following the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran last year, Trump claimed the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities and severely limited Tehran’s ability to continue enrichment. However, an estimated 400 kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity – a short technical step from weapons-grade level – is believed to be buried beneath the rubble of bombed nuclear sites.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump suggested removing the material was not urgent because the US maintained round-the-clock surveillance over the facilities, but added he would still “feel better” if the uranium was removed.

Trump, who has repeatedly warned he could resume strikes on Iran, also signaled his patience with negotiations is running out. “I am not going to be much more patient. They should make a deal,” he said. While active fighting triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February paused under a fragile ceasefire reached in early April, negotiations on a broader peace deal remain deadlocked over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, arguing that abandoning enrichment would undermine its sovereignty and technological independence. Tehran has repeatedly rejected demands to dismantle the program or surrender its uranium stockpile – including proposals to store it in Russia – though it has reportedly offered to downblend it to lower civilian-grade levels. However, Iranian parliamentary spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei warned earlier this week that Tehran could enrich uranium to 90% purity – considered weapons-grade – if attacked again.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has accused the Yale School of Medicine of illegally discriminating against white and Asian applicants, following a year-long inquiry into its admissions practices.

The investigation comes as the administration of President Donald Trump has intensified scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies at federally funded institutions over the past year. The authorities have argued that universities which receive taxpayer money must comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

According to the DOJ, US medical schools in particular “use substantial federal financial assistance.”

In a press release on Thursday, the DOJ stated that the leadership of the Yale School of Medicine has “intentionally selected applicants based on their race,” and “studied how to use racial proxies to circumvent” a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the use of affirmative action in admission decisions.

The inquiry indicated that “Black and Hispanic students have a much higher chance of admission to Yale than White or Asian students with the same test scores,” the DOJ added.

The press release noted that “illegal race politics” are of particular concern in the medical field, “where quality and excellence are vitally important to public safety.”

Last Wednesday, the DOJ sent a similar letter to the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, accusing it of unfairly favoring “preferred race classes of Black and Hispanic.”

An analysis of fundraising disclosures published by Yale’s student newspaper in January found conservatives to be overwhelmingly underrepresented among professors at the Ivy League university, with 97.6% of contributions going to Democrats.

Over the past year, the Trump administration has suspended funding to several Ivy League schools, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Princeton University, and Cornell University, over alleged anti-Semitism and refusal to dismantle DEI programs.

For Palestinians May 15th is a date etched into their souls. Nakba, literally means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic. For Palestinians on this day in 1948, the day after the State of Israel was declared, the destruction of their homeland began.

While Israelis celebrated the birth of their nation, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced. Some were forced out; others left after being advised to, as Arab States fought against the fledging Israeli state. Almost all Palestinians will tell you that those that left thought they’d be back home within a few weeks. Seventy-eight years later and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are still waiting.

This year the pain is being felt even more acutely in the West Bank, as many Palestinians – or West Bankers - feel they are living through a new Nakba. Salah Khawaja, who works for the  Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission witnesses on daily basis how communities are being forced out of their lands.

“Today, history is repeating itself through these same terrorist groups, committing even larger and more dangerous massacres under the cover of international silence,” Khawaja says.

Israel’s current government has approved 103 settlements in the West Bank since it took office in 2022. These settlements are what Israel deems ‘legal’ and it differentiates them from the more ad-hoc developments that it doesn’t yet recognize. Though under International law, all these settlements are illegal.

Between 1967 and 1979 the UN says Israel established 79 settlements in the West Bank. Khawaja outlines how the expansion now is ramping up in pace. “[N]ow there are plans to legalize another 18 settlement outposts, meaning the total exceeds 120 new settlement outposts across the Palestinian West Bank. This is considered an extremely dangerous development, amounting to more than nearly 80% of everything that had been built from 1967 until 2022,” he says.

Since 2025, settlements Israel deems ‘illegal’ have been spreading. As the land runs out in Area C, the expansion is hitting Area B and many fear Area A will be targeted. Sharon is an Israeli activist based in Duma in the West Bank. She works with locals to document the attacks and harassment they are facing from these settlers.

“They’re saying we want to finish C and we want to go into B after B we are going into A. There is no end to this process. Once they have this village surrounded, they are attacking it inside. It’s the same, village after village,” she says.

Her concern is how long it is before Palestinians have had enough and can take no more. She says Israelis are blind to the problems that are stacking up as a result of the continued encroachment in the West Bank.

“So the plan is to abuse these people until they decide to leave without any foresight that ‘we have already done this in ‘48’. We’ve already banished people and they didn’t go and have their own lives. They formed the PLO, they formed all these organizations to fight Israel…this is going to happen again,” Sharon says.

She’s not the only one suggesting the West Bank is ready to explode. Comments attributed in the Israeli press to the IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, suggest he believes settler violence could spark a new Palestinian uprising. Bluth is reported to have cautioned, “It’s quite a miracle the Palestinian public is still indifferent… but it won’t remain indifferent forever.”

While a former Mossad chief, Tamir Pardo, has suggested that settler violence is causing an “existential threat” to the State of Israel. He said he was distraught over what is happening. “My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century. I feel ashamed,” Pardo says.

Bedouin villages often to appear to be hastily constructed from corrugated fencing and salvaged materials. However, despite their ability to be dismantled and moved easily, these are real homes. In January 2026, a whole community of around 135 families, was forced to pack up everything and leave Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja for good.

In the months leading up to this decision, RT spoke to locals about the increasing harassment they were facing from settlers. They described being cut off from the local spring, which for years had provided a place for their herds to take water. They showed the team videos of settlers threatening them day and night.

While the team was filming in Ras ‘Ein al ‘Auja, they witnessed settlers trespassing over Bedouin lands and allowing their flocks to graze outside homes. The RT team was also prevented by one settler from accessing part of the village, this settler also assaulted a member of the team.

In Al-Mughayyir, another Bedouin community is under threat – for the second time. Abu Najeh says that his family fled here from their original home in Ein Samiya after being forced out two years ago. “They want to displace us again,” Najeh says, adding, “When we first came here, they told us this was Area B, Palestinian land, but then they turned around and told us, 'No, you are not allowed to stay here either'.”

The situation has taken a toll on him and his family. He sighs as he says, “I swear I do not know where we are supposed to go. There is nowhere left.”

While Israeli government figures, including the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claim settler violence is the result of a ‘few bad eggs,’ there is plenty of evidence to show it is much more widespread than that. It is also deadly.  Over the last 15 months or so, more than 270 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank. Some are directly attributable to settlers. No one has been held accountable for those deaths.

IDF forces routinely open fire on Palestinians in the West Bank, including in situations where soldiers say locals are ‘throwing stones’ at them. This too has deadly consequences, with innocent bystanders caught in the fray.

In May, Naif Samaro was packing up his shawarma shop in Nablus and getting ready to head to the hospital. His wife was waiting to give birth to their first child. Naif was overjoyed at the prospect of becoming a father; he never saw that day.

As he left his shop, he became aware there was an IDF operation nearby. Soldiers say locals were throwing stones at them and opened fire. A bullet hit Naif. He was rushed to the same hospital where a day later his wife would give birth to a baby boy, Yaman. Naif was pronounced dead on arrival.

His mother-in-law describes the heart-wrenching moment she found out that Naif had been killed. “I kept trying to say no, God willing, maybe the news is not true,” she says. Fathiya Al-Shami then had to break that news to her daughter. “When she saw us coming to her she was surprised why are all these people here when it was supposed to be just me, and we told her come with us to the hospital. At that point you cannot hide the truth,” she explains.

While deaths like these, sometimes, make the headlines, there is another form of killing that is also taking place that is less covered in the international press – the total destruction of olive groves. A vital lifeline for many Palestinian families, olive trees provide food and a source of revenue.

Intensified access restrictions and new settler outposts also made it difficult for many Palestinians to even access the groves and collect olives. This had a huge impact and put many families economically under even more strain.

Again, while this is a form of harassment used by settlers, Israeli government figures are also celebrating the destruction of olive trees. Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, is a huge proponent of the settler movement. In fact, he is part of the settler movement.

He recently announced some 3,000 olive trees were uprooted by Israel’s Civil Administration agency in a bid to secure more land for settlements. Smotrich declared, “We are building the Land of Israel and destroying the idea of a Palestinian state.” That is a statement he makes frequently.

Israel is using every mechanism possible to make land grabs in the West Bank easier. The Knesset is currently reviewing a new law that if passed, would enable it to have full control over heritage and archeological sites across the West Bank, even in area A – which is supposed to be fully under Palestinian control.

Salah Khawaja from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission suggests this is about white-washing Palestinian history. “Even Palestinian historical areas, including around 2,500 archaeological sites, are described by Smotrich as “Biblical archaeological sites,” he says, adding this means there is a “falsification of Palestinian history, civilization, and reality” that is taking place.

Israel’s Civil Administration’s Archeology Unit suggests already there are over 2,600 archeological sites in the West Bank. But given that the whole of the West Bank is historically important to the three main Abrahamic faiths, almost any part could be declared a heritage site, if the law passes. The bill may have the support it needs in the Israeli Parliament, but it has already faced a backlash from archeologists who have accused the government of approving a 'de facto annexation.'

As Palestinians take a moment to remember the ‘48 Nakba, to think about the fear, the violence their grandparents or great grandparents faced, this year they perhaps have an even deeper connection, a more personal understanding of what unfolded. Instead of just remembering, they too are living through their own Nakba. Will they be forced out? When you ask this question to a Palestinian, the response is a defiant ‘No!’ – but how much more can they take?

Ukraine is stripping some doctors of their draft exemptions and requiring medical students to undergo compulsory military training, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko has announced.

Lyashko made the remarks during question hour at the Ukrainian parliament on Friday, saying the Health Ministry would be authorized to cancel draft deferrals of certain medical workers at the request of the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces’ Medical Forces Command.

“There will be changes to the procedure under which all doctors are currently exempt, and it is currently impossible to replace the active doctors at the front,” he said.

Medical students at universities “will become service members, and upon completing their studies, will receive the rank of officer,” Lyashko added.

Lyashko also stressed that most injured service members are treated in civilian hospitals.

The announcement comes amid Ukraine’s increasingly unpopular forced mobilization campaign, which has been fraught with violent clashes between conscription officers and reluctant recruits, with the overall effort being widely mocked as “busification.” 
In July 2025, the Council of Europe found systemic human rights violations in the drive, including beatings and the conscription of people with disabilities.

By embracing harsh mobilization policies, Ukraine is seeking to stem the manpower crisis caused by mounting battlefield losses. According to a report by the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies last year, some of the Ukrainian frontline units are operating at as low as 30% of their intended strength.

Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally is so controversial that the British government has deployed the latest surveillance technology against attendees and banned speakers from entering the country. What are they so scared of?

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected at the Unite the Kingdom rally in London on Saturday, where they will march through the streets of the British capital to government buildings at Whitehall. The rally is expected to be the largest right-wing gathering in the UK this year, as public anger against Prime Minister Keir Starmer builds on both sides of the political spectrum.

What is Unite the Kingdom?

The first Unite the Kingdom rally took place in July 2024. Riding a wave of right-wing anger – amplified by the stabbing of three children by a teenager of Rwandan descent two days later – organizer Tommy Robinson held further events that October, and in September 2025.

Last year’s rally took place after a wave of protests and riots at hotels housing asylum seekers, and included speeches from French Reconquete (Reconquest) leader Eric Zemmour, Polish Law and Justice MEP Dominik Tarczynski, and Elon Musk, who addressed demonstrators via video link.

Described by the media as “anti-Islam,” “far-right,” and “xenophobic,” the rally drew attendees frustrated with rising immigration, the growing influence of Islam in British politics, and Starmer’s response to earlier protests and riots – which involved jailing hundreds of people for online speech and advancing a draconian online censorship bill.

This year’s protest promises much of the same, although Unite the Kingdom’s website is opaque about the nature of the event. The rally will “bring UK citizens together in London for a peaceful, people-led assembly focused on unity, awareness, and collective responsibility,” the site states. “The event is designed to provide a safe and respectful space for individuals to come together, connect with one another, and stand united on the issues affecting our nation.”

How many people will take part in Unite the Kingdom?

London’s Metropolitan Police expect around 50,000 people to attend the rally, but organizers expect many times that number. Unite the Kingdom’s organizers claim that a million people took part in last year’s rally, but police put the figure at 150,000.

Is Unite the Kingdom violent?

Twenty-three people were arrested at last year’s protest, the majority for assault, disorder, and obstructing police officers. Minor scuffles broke out between protesters, police, and left-wing counterprotesters, and one left-wing demonstrator was also detained.

‘Unite The Kingdom’ demo turns ugly in London as protesters and police clash. In a statement, the Met police said 26 officers were injured. They admitted the number in attendance “significantly exceeded the estimates of organisers”. FULL VIDEO on YT: https://t.co/6LFyhUNvtd pic.twitter.com/epZFuwY1T4

— Urban Pictures (@Urban_Pictures) September 14, 2025

These numbers paled in comparison to the 423 arrests made two weeks earlier at the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual celebration of black and Caribbean culture in London. The violence at Notting Hill received almost no media coverage, while headlines used to describe Unite the Kingdom included “Tommy Robinson protesters attack police” and “Far right’s show of force leaves Met desperately kettling counter-protesters.”

Who is Tommy Robinson?

Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) has been a fixture on the British right for decades. After a youth spent racking up a petty criminal record in the anti-Islam ‘English Defence League’, Robinson reinvented himself as a filmmaker, free speech activist, and crusader against Islamic immigration after breaking with the EDL in 2013.

In the years since, Robinson has been jailed for filming alleged members of a Pakistani rape gang during their trial, and for falsely claiming that a Syrian refugee in a Yorkshire secondary school had a history of assaulting female students. Robinson was arrested as he attempted to leave England the day after the 2024 Unite the Kingdom rally and imprisoned for airing a documentary containing the allegations about the Syrian refugee at the protest.

The rally takes place one week after Starmer’s Labour Party suffered an historic defeat in local elections across England. Labour lost almost 1,500 seats, 60% of the seats it was defending, and Starmer – the most unpopular prime minister in modern British history – heads into the weekend embroiled in a leadership contest after refusing to resign.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was the biggest winner in the local elections, picking up 1,492 seats – almost as many as Labour lost. For Starmer, the sight of tens of thousands of right-wingers marching in London can only add insult to injury.

How is the government preparing for the rally?

Robinson and his supporters will face an unprecedented police presence on Saturday. Some 4,000 Metropolitan Police officers will be deployed on the streets of the capital in riot gear, with armed response units on standby. Mounted units, dog units, and undercover detectives will be active, while drones will be used to monitor the crowds from above.

Facial recognition cameras will be installed in areas where attendees are expected to gather before the rally, “comparing the faces of those walking past, with the faces of those on a specific watchlist,” police spokesman James Harman said at a press conference on Wednesday.

“If hate speech is used at the rally, we, the police will intervene,” Harman added, warning that “both the speakers and the organizers will face consequences if that happens.”

We will block far right agitators from traveling to Britain this weekend for a march designed to confront and provoke our diverse capital city.

We will not allow people to come to the UK, threaten our communities and spread hate on our streets. pic.twitter.com/VXwyhsDOnD

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 11, 2026

Starmer has banned 11 speakers from entering the UK, including Belgian nationalist politician Filip Dewinter, Dutch activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek, and American pro-MAGA commentator Valentina Gomez. “We will not allow people to come to the UK to threaten our communities and spread hate on our streets,” he said in a speech on Monday, describing those targeted as “far-right agitators.”

“Starmer has just admitted he banned me and other commentators from traveling to the UK because we would ‘set back communities’,” Vlaardingerbroek said in response to the ban. “Yet mass third-world migration doesn’t bother him as it only sets back the one community he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about: the White native population.”

Starmer has just admitted he banned me and other commentators from traveling to the UK because we would “set back communities.” Yet mass third-world migration doesn’t bother him as it only sets back the one community he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about: the White native population. pic.twitter.com/oIBdDdORD5

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) May 11, 2026

Is there a counterprotest?

Previous Unite the Kingdom rallies have been met by smaller crowds of left-wing counterprotesters. This year, the march takes place on the same day as a pro-Palestine rally marking ‘Nakba Day’, which commemorates the expulsion of Palestinians from their territory in what is now the state of Israel.

The Nakba Day march was not organized to oppose Unite the Kingdom, although some groups attending the pro-Palestine rally say they’re doing so both to support the Palestinian cause and oppose Robinson’s “hate march.”

This Saturday 16 May…

Show fascist Tommy Robinson & the far right that we won’t let them divide us. pic.twitter.com/YdMh012ubs

— Stand Up To Racism (@AntiRacismDay) May 14, 2026

The Metropolitan Police will not scan Nakba Day protesters with facial recognition cameras, although Harman has warned that speakers and participants at the rally will “face consequences” if they use “hateful” slogans such as “intifada” or “death to the IDF.”

Unite the Kingdom supporters have accused Starmer and the Met of “two-tier” policing – using harsher measures against them than the counter-protesters

However, the speech restrictions deployed against both gatherings illustrates why Starmer is so despised by both the right and left. After his 2024 crackdown on anti-immigration speech, Starmer listed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, arrested thousands of protesters for voicing support for said organization, and called for the “policing of language” and banning of anti-Israel protests.

If any common ground exists between Tommy Robinson’s marchers and the pro-Palestine crowd, it’s in their mutual resentment of Starmer’s government, which will be on full display in London this weekend.

New videos circulating online show Ukrainian military recruiters and police officers forcibly detaining men and placing them into unmarked vehicles for possible mobilization into the conflict with Russia.

Ukraine continues to rely on mandatory conscription to replenish troop numbers at the front line, with press gangs operating in major cities and rural areas alike. The mobilization campaign has increasingly sparked public resentment, with many Ukrainians accusing officials of corruption and abuse of power. Videos showing confrontations between civilians and draft officers regularly spread across social media platforms.

In one recent clip from the Black Sea city of Odessa, a man is seen clinging to the legs of military recruiters as they drag him into a van. The footage was reportedly submitted to a local Telegram news channel by the man himself, who claimed he was legally exempt from military service.

Another video from Kiev shows police officers forcing a young man into a vehicle while bystanders shout at the officials. The man resists so strongly that the officers drive away with the rear door still open and his legs hanging outside the car.

The practice of forced mobilization has become widely known in Ukraine as ‘busification’, a reference to the vans used to transport detained men to conscription centers. Officials acknowledge that the campaign has become one of the biggest sources of domestic dissatisfaction, particularly because draft officers are perceived to operate with virtual impunity.

In a recent interview, Ukrainian MP Yury Kamelchuk recounted the case of a father of five – exempt from military service under Ukrainian law – who he claimed was “literally murdered” inside a draft center before the incident was allegedly covered up. According to the lawmaker, the case was far from unique.

The US boasts impressive military capabilities that solidify the country’s position among the world’s military powers. This also applies to missile technology – the US maintains its status as a major global missile power, and long competed with the Soviet Union in the missile and space race.

The US did not immediately recognize the potential for developing powerful rockets for launching spacecraft and delivering nuclear warheads over intercontinental distances. However, it soon caught up with the USSR and leveraged its advantages effectively. By investing significant resources and attracting top engineering talent, the US achieved breakthroughs in several areas: Solid rocket fuels, simple silo-based launch systems, compact thermonuclear warheads, and advanced guidance systems enhanced by cutting-edge electronics. These advancements ultimately led to the development of Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs) and cruise missiles.

The Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union played a crucial role in the evolution of US missile technology, particularly in the development of the nuclear triad.

The US strategic nuclear forces were initially composed of a substantial fleet of long-range bombers designed to carry atomic bombs. Though the US was engaged in developing rocket technology, at the time, it did not receive the same level of priority as it did in the Soviet Union.

In the aftermath of World War II, the US, like the USSR, studied the rocket-building legacy of the Third Reich. This endeavor was bolstered by the defection of prominent German rocket scientists like Wernher von Braun to the US. The foundation for US rocketry was laid in the late 1940s with the replication of German V-2 missiles. Subsequently, American engineers began implementing new technologies that were pioneered in Germany, such as fuel tanks, new engine types, and fuels. By 1958, this led to the development of medium-range missile projects like Redstone, Thor, and Jupiter. That same period saw the initiation of work on Atlas – America’s first liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which proved to be more compact than the R-7 – the world’s first ICBM developed in the USSR by Sergey Korolev.

The rapid advancement of chemical technologies in the US fueled rapid progress. At the time, solid propellant for missiles (composite propellant) was developed. This breakthrough facilitated the development of relatively compact submarine-launched missiles and initiated the deployment of the first American solid-fueled intercontinental missile, Minuteman I, in 1962. The benefits of solid fuel were clear: Ease of maintenance, non-toxic and non-self-igniting components, high reliability, and sufficient characteristics for delivering payloads. In the early 1960s, the US deployed both liquid-fueled ICBMs equipped with heavy megaton warheads and solid-fueled Minuteman missiles with medium-yield warheads; however, over time, only the Minuteman remained in service with the US Army.

Efforts were also underway to develop supersonic intercontinental cruise missiles like the AGM-28 Hound Dog and air-launched ballistic missiles for the US Air Force. By the 1970s, however, the focus shifted toward subsonic air-launched long-range cruise missiles. Interestingly, some speculate that the CIA ‘borrowed’ this idea from Soviet developers, whose project from the late 1960s failed to gain traction in the Kremlin and was subsequently shelved.

The nuclear triad: Strategic systems

The modern US nuclear triad comprises a classic set of missile systems: Ground-launched ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and air-launched cruise missiles and bombs. The US strategic nuclear forces are characterized by a minimized set of systems: One type of ICBM, one type of SLBM, and one type of nuclear-armed cruise missile. While the inventory of aerial nuclear bombs is more varied, efforts are underway to minimize the variety of bombs by developing warheads with adjustable yields.

Currently, around 400 solid-fueled LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBMs are deployed in silo launch facilities across the US. These missiles were originally introduced in the early 1970s and have undergone several upgrades since then. They boast a range of up to 13,000 km and can be armed with up to three W78/W87 MIRV warheads, each yielding 300-350 kilotons of TNT equivalent. Advanced guidance systems ensure accuracy within the 90-200 meter range. Minuteman III missiles are expected to remain operational until the early 2030s, at which point they will gradually be replaced by the new Sentinel LGM-35A ICBMs.

In 2026, the US is set to begin testing the new Sentinel missiles, with deployment to follow. The developers aimed to create a missile that could be launched from the same silos as Minuteman III, but it appears that new launch facilities may need to be built from scratch. The design of the Sentinel missile remains fairly conservative, featuring the same three stages and similar dimensions, albeit with new types of fuel, upgraded electronics, and warheads. However, there is currently no mention of hypersonic glide vehicles or other major innovations; the focus is on practicality and cost-effectiveness. Historically, funding for these types of programs has never been an issue.

The situation with America’s underwater missile shield is similar. The US Navy does not plan to retire the highly successful UGM-133A Trident II D5 missile. Currently in service aboard Ohio-class submarines (14 submarines with 20 missiles each), the Trident II will also be deployed on new Columbia-class submarines (carrying 16 missiles each) which are currently under construction. British submarines are equipped with Trident II missiles as well. This effective three-stage ballistic missile has a range of 7,800-12,000 km and can carry up to eight type W76-1/2 (90 kilotons) or W88 (455 kilotons) thermonuclear MIRV warheads. Its Circular Error Probable (CEP) ranges from 90 to 120 meters. While Trident II missiles have been tested using low-trajectory flight paths to circumvent contemporary missile defense systems and achieve medium-range strikes, there have been no reports about the development of hypersonic warheads, though it’s possible that these types of projects are shrouded in secrecy.

In the US Air Force, the nuclear-capable aircraft include around 60 subsonic B-52H bombers, 20 B-2A Spirit bombers utilizing stealth technology, and the more compact B-21 Raider second-generation bomber (there are plans to produce at least 100). The backbone of America’s nuclear arsenal consists of AGM-86B ALCM cruise missiles which were deployed in the mid-1980s. This subsonic missile, powered by a turbojet engine, has a range of 2,500 km and carries a thermonuclear warhead (W80) with a yield ranging from 5-150 kilotons. Another key weapon is the latest version of the B61 thermonuclear bomb. Looking ahead, the cruise missiles are set to be replaced by new Long Range Stand-Off (LRSO) missiles, also with a range of at least 2,500 km. It’s likely that one of the hypersonic air-launched missiles will be equipped with a nuclear warhead and will enter service in the coming years.

Significant funding is allocated for the development of strategic nuclear forces within the nuclear triad. This includes the Sentinel LGM-35A program, construction of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, and the development of new Nuclear-Armed Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) for the US Navy, including new Trump-class battleships. There are also several programs focused on developing air-launched missiles.

Non-nuclear missile systems 

Since the 1990s, the US has focused on developing long-range non-nuclear missile systems. Several types of cruise missiles have been adopted by the US Air Force and Navy and were used in policing operations worldwide.

At the forefront of these systems is the Tomahawk BGM-109 cruise missile developed by Raytheon. It is the most widely produced naval cruise missile in the US, with over 4,500 units manufactured. Depending on the variant, these missiles are equipped with various types of warheads and have ranges from 1,600 to 2,500 km. The guidance system is fully autonomous, utilizing extreme navigation technologies, as well as satellite navigation systems. The subsonic missile flies at low altitudes, reaching speeds of around 880 kph. These missiles are widely deployed on US ships and submarines, and are also in service with several other navies. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers launch them from vertical launch systems, while Ohio-class SSGN submarines use specialized launch systems; all other types of US attack submarines can also fire Tomahawks from torpedo tubes or launch systems. Tomahawk missiles are versatile and effective not just against land targets but also as anti-ship missiles.

During the 1990s and 2000s, air-launched cruise missiles like the JASSM AGM-158B and its extended-range variant, the JASSM-ER, developed by Lockheed Martin, were introduced. These missiles incorporate elements of stealth technology. The standard version has a range of around 500 km, while the Extended Range (ER) variant boasts a range of around 1,000 km. With their low observability, these missiles are capable of effectively evading modern air defense systems and targeting protected assets.

The new missiles are set to be deployed on both supersonic B-1B long-range bombers and subsonic B-52H aircraft, as well as various types of frontline jets. Currently, efforts are underway to replace these missiles with the subsonic LRASM AGM-158C, which is being developed. This missile features advanced electronics and is designed to be even less observable. 

Hypersonic weapons are also being developed for the US Air Force. Various projects have emerged, but the focus is now on the HACM (Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile) project. This initiative aims to create a missile powered by an air-breathing scramjet engine, boasting a range of up to 1,900 km and speeds exceeding Mach 5. Flight tests are planned for 2026. They will determine whether the program receives the green light or gets shelved – similar to the earlier AGM-183A ARRW hypersonic air-to-surface missile project. While it may not match Russia’s Kinzhal missile, it is an original American technological solution.

Finally, the US is developing several new land-based missiles. This includes a replacement for ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles – a new missile which is already being integrated into HIMARS and MLRS systems. This is the PrSM (Precision Strike Missile) developed by Lockheed Martin, with a baseline range of 500 km (expected to be expanded to 1,000 km in the future). This missile utilizes an inertial navigation system (INS) supplemented by satellite navigation data and its own seeker for terminal guidance. Its key advantage is that it can be deployed from existing launchers. Until PrSMs become widely available, however, the ground forces will continue to rely on several thousand ATACMS missiles, which have a maximum range of 300 km and come with various types of warheads, including cluster munitions and high-explosive options.

Another system in service with the US Army is the Typhon missile system. The military currently has around two Typhon batteries. This new mobile ground-based missile system can launch Tomahawk cruise missiles and the hypersonic Standard Missile-6. The Tomahawks in this system are identical to their naval counterparts, while the SM-6 is unique – it can engage both ground and air targets at ranges of up to 500 km, traveling at speeds greater than Mach 5. The Typhon gained attention during discussions regarding potential Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine in 2025. At the time, it was suggested that if a political decision regarding these deliveries is made, sending a Typhon battery to Ukraine would be the most straightforward option. Thankfully, this cutting-edge missile system was not supplied to Ukraine.

Lastly, the LRHW Dark Eagle missile system is being prepared for deployment in the US. This land-based system includes a new ballistic missile designed to deliver an unconventional payload: The Common-Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB), capable of reaching speeds of Mach 17 to 20 and achieving ranges of nearly 2,800 km. Full-scale deployment of this missile system is expected to begin this year, with extensive plans for its use across Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

The system is highly mobile and can be rapidly deployed anywhere. Its main advantage is its impressive speed and capability for anti-missile maneuvers. This makes it nearly unstoppable – but at what cost? The Dark Eagle program has become one of the most expensive missile initiatives in US history – with each missile costing around $40 million. That’s significantly more costly than the above-mentioned systems.

This sheds light on why the Pentagon’s budget for 2026 has reached a record high, and is projected to rise even more. The roll-out of several new missile programs is set to begin in 2026, and substantial funds have been allocated for this purpose. However, the results of all these initiatives for the strategic, naval, air, and ground forces cannot be fully assessed until the end of the decade.

US President Donald Trump’s China visit was an attempt to “save face” and seek relief after the Iran war destabilized the global economy, geopolitical analyst Danny Haiphong has told RT. According to Haiphong, the US is now in a “far weaker position” than China and is seeking closer ties with Beijing to stabilize its economy and global standing.

US-China relations have been strained for years over trade, technology, and security, with Trump’s tariff hikes last year escalating tensions into a full-scale trade war before both sides agreed to a temporary pause. Expectations for a breakthrough were high ahead of Trump’s May 13-15 China visit – his first in nearly a decade – but no major deals or clear breakthroughs were officially announced before the trip ended Friday.

In an interview on Thursday, Haiphong argued that the US delegation came to China “hoping to essentially get saved from the crisis of their own making” in Iran and its global fallout. US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered retaliation against countries hosting US bases and led to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a route for roughly 20% of global oil and LNG supplies – sending energy prices soaring.

“What it amounted to was the Trump administration and all of these executives coming with their hands out hoping that China will give them deals that will ease some of this tension,” he said, referring to Trump’s delegation of CEOs ranging from SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk to Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg.

“The world has changed. The US is in a far weaker position. China is in a far stronger position. It really is the US that has to hold on to the ties that it has with China in order to try to save face and strengthen its hand,” he said.

Following the summit, both leaders praised the talks as progress toward stabilizing the bilateral relationship. Xi said the sides had agreed on “constructive strategic stability” for the coming years, while Trump claimed “a lot of different problems” had been settled.

India and the United Arab Emirates have inked energy and defense pacts during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the Gulf nation on Friday.

Modi started his five-nation tour with a brief visit to the UAE, after which he will head to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy.

The UAE also pledged investments in India worth $5 billion, including the investment of $4 billion by Emirati financial entities in Indian banks and $1 billion pledge by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) with the National Infrastructure & Investment Fund of India (NIIF) in priority infrastructure projects in India. 

Pacts on a defense partnership framework, strategic petroleum reserves, and an agreement for the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) were also signed, according to the statement by Modi’s office. The energy pact includes potential collaboration in liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas storage facilities in India. 

❗️ 🇮🇳🇦🇪 PM Modi Shares Remarks to HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan: ‘India Has Always Prioritised Dialogue & Diplomacy to Solve Problems of Such Scale’

‘India stands shoulder to shoulder with the UAE in every circumstance and will continue to do so in the future,’ he added. https://t.co/6eh6oGXGdp pic.twitter.com/YK9y3G6WvJ

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 15, 2026

A memorandum of understanding to build a ship repair cluster at Vadinar in the western state of Gujarat was also signed. An understanding has also been reached to establish a supercomputer cluster.

During the meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Modi also condemned the attacks on the UAE amid the Middle East conflict. “We strongly condemn the attacks on the UAE and denounce the way the UAE has been targeted. This is unacceptable in any form,” he said. 

“India has always vouched for dialogue and diplomacy,” he said, adding, “our priority is to keep Hormuz free and safe. We have to follow international laws.” 

He also lauded “the restraint and maturity” shown by the UAE in these difficult circumstances.

The Danish government has suspended plans for a solid rocket fuel facility intended to supply Fire Point, the Ukrainian defense company widely linked to high-level corruption involving Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle, one of the firm’s senior executives has told the Financial Times.

The Danish government had used national security provisions to bypass potential legal objections surrounding the construction of a facility in Vojens, southern Jutland, where fuel for Fire Point’s missile systems was expected to be manufactured. However, the project announced last September was quietly halted earlier this month, Fire Point chief designer and co-owner Denis Shtilerman told the outlet on Thursday.

Originally operating as a film scouting agency owned by Zelensky insiders, Fire Point has been exposed in leaked transcripts of conversations between Zelensky’s inner circle as a vehicle for syphoning off lucrative arms contracts.

Surveillance recordings published by Ukrainian media since April indicated that businessman Timur Mindich – who is wanted in Ukraine over an alleged $100 million corruption scheme in the energy sector – effectively controlled Fire Point during 2025. The recordings also suggested he enjoyed preferential treatment from then-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who now serves as secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

Shtilerman dismissed the allegations as “rumors,” while lamenting that the suspicions had delayed the company’s plans. He claimed that Fire Point’s products could contribute to the creation of a “pan-European air-defense shield” and claimed that Gulf states, Germany, and other countries had shown strong interest in the firm’s technology.

Mindich scandal widens

The recordings were originally gathered by Western-backed anti-corruption agencies as part of their investigation into Mindich, a longtime business associate of Zelensky dating back to the Ukrainian leader’s entertainment career. Ukrainian media have nicknamed Mindich “Zelensky’s wallet.”

Political uncertainty in Denmark

While Danish media acknowledged that the so-called ‘Mindich tapes’ had intensified scrutiny of Fire Point’s operations in Denmark, authorities have up to now stopped short of confirming that the fuel plant project was in jeopardy.

In late 2025, Deputy Foreign Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, who also serves as defense minister under pro-Ukrainian Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, stated that Copenhagen “does everything it can to follow the money we give” Ukraine.

Denmark is currently facing difficult coalition negotiations after Frederiksen’s Social Democrats recorded their worst election result since 1903 in March voting. Last week, King Frederik asked Poulsen to attempt to form a new government after Frederiksen failed to secure enough parliamentary support for a third term.

“With the launch of transfers to UnionPay Global, we have expanded the service from local scenarios to a full-fledged international network. It is now possible to send money to UnionPay cards issued not only in China, but also in other countries – regardless of where the recipient is located. A transfer to Dubai, Guangzhou, or Tashkent now works as simply and quickly as a domestic transfer within Russia. The potential audience is expanding to billions of recipients,” said Artyom Avladeev, head of transfers at T-Bank, commenting on the launch.

The bank noted that clients can send money to themselves or to other people on UnionPay Global cards using only the card number and the recipient’s full name. Funds are credited instantly, just like domestic transfers within Russia.

Previously, the service had been limited to transfers only to cards issued in China. Now, the geography covers countries in Asia, Europe, as well as the CIS and the Middle East. At the same time, it does not matter where the card was issued or where the recipient is physically located. For example, a card issued in Uzbekistan can be topped up successfully even if its owner lives in France.

No separate foreign-currency account is needed to make a transfer – a ruble account with T-Bank is sufficient. Up to 100,000 rubles per month can be sent without commission. The limit for a single transfer is $5,000 or the equivalent in the transfer currency.

“This new functionality will be useful for Russians supporting loved ones abroad, freelancers working with foreign clients, travelers, and anyone doing business with partners in Asia and Europe,” T-Bank said.

The Libyan capital of Tripoli erupted in protests on Thursday after a controversial refereeing decision during a domestic football match triggered chaos, leaving parts of the prime minister’s office damaged by fire and at least one soldier dead.

Supporters of Al Ittihad SC and Al Swehly SC had gathered for a Libyan Premier League game in Tarhuna stadium, southeast of Tripoli, when the match was suspended following a pitch invasion. Crowds later moved into central Tripoli, where parts of the Government of National Unity headquarters were set on fire and vehicles were burned, according to local reports.

According to witnesses and officials cited by the Libyan Observer, the violence began after Al-Ittihad players protested the referee’s decision not to award a penalty kick.

The Libyan Presidential Council issued a statement condemning the events, describing the attack on the prime minister’s office as “acts of vandalism and arson representing a serious affront to the prestige and sovereignty of the state.” 

Eyewitnesses said protesters used fireworks near the prime minister’s office compound, while gunfire could be heard as security forces attempted to contain the crowds. Police and paramilitary units later secured the surrounding area, restoring calm to the capital.

The council expressed regret for injuries among civilians and security personnel, emphasized that grievances should be addressed through legal channels, and called on the Libyan Football Federation and all sports institutions to uphold transparency, integrity, and the rights of clubs and fans. The statement also urged the public and sports associations to exercise self-restraint, protect public facilities, and prioritize reason to prevent incitement and division among citizens.

🚨 Protesters in #Tripoli, driven by a fallout at a football league game earlier, have stormed Government of National Unity's headquarters and set fire to parts of it.#Libya pic.twitter.com/77dw5M7RIM

— Abdulkader Assad (@Abd0Assad) May 14, 2026

The North African country has a history of violent sporting incidents. Last June, a Libyan Premier League derby between Al Ahly Tripoli and Al Ittihad was suspended after fans stormed the pitch and clashed with security forces, setting a team bus on fire. In November, supporters of Al Ahly reportedly set fire to the Libyan Football Federation headquarters over refereeing disputes. Last year, the Ministry of Interior announced that matches would be played behind closed doors as part of measures to reduce the risk of spectator violence.

The unrest reflects Libya’s long-standing instability following the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. Since 2014, the country has been divided between rival administrations in Tripoli in the west and Tobruk in the east, with numerous armed factions operating across both regions. Protests over governance, public services, and political stalemates have occasionally escalated into violence.

🚨🇱🇾 The moment officers opened fire during the Al Ittihad vs Swehly match in Libya.

Absolutely chaotic scenes inside and around the stadium as the game was eventually stopped.

This is crazy.#AfricanFootball #Libya pic.twitter.com/E4N7elLTRD

— Micky Jnr (@MickyJnr__) May 14, 2026

Saudi Arabia has floated the idea of a landmark non-aggression pact between the Gulf states and Iran after the end of the US-Israeli war on Tehran, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing diplomatic sources.

Western diplomats told the newspaper that Riyadh is studying a model loosely inspired by the Helsinki Process, the Cold War-era talks that produced the 1975 Helsinki Accords on security and European cooperation, and succeeded in defusing tensions between the Soviet Union and Western nations led by the US.

The idea is reportedly being weighed as Gulf states fear that Iran – outraged by the devastating US-Israeli strikes but still a potent military power – will remain dangerous, especially if the US agrees to reduce its large regional footprint after the end of the war.

An unnamed Arab diplomat told the newspaper that most Arab and Muslim states, as well as Iran – which has long insisted that the US should leave the region – would probably welcome a Helsinki-style pact, but warned that Israel remains the elephant in the room.

“In the current climate, you are not going to be able to get Iran and Israel... without Israel it could be counter-productive because after Iran, they are seen as the biggest source of conflict,” the diplomat told the FT. “But Iran is not going anywhere and this is why the Saudis are pushing it.”

European nations – which were reluctant to support the war against Iran and seek stability in the Strait of Hormuz – have reportedly backed the Saudi idea and urged other Gulf governments to support it, seeing it as a way to reduce the risk of another war while giving Tehran assurances that it will not be attacked.

Prior to the war, Gulf states lobbied the US against launching a full-scale attack against Iran to avoid retaliation, according to media reports. When their efforts failed, they condemned the Iranian strikes, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE reportedly independently striking targets in Iran. Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE host US military bases, which Iran views as legitimate targets.

While many Arab countries would welcome a deal, they are not united, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE sparring over regional influence, the FT said. The UAE has also been the most hawkish Gulf state toward Iran during the war, while signaling the intention to forge closer ties with Israel. Two of the sources told the FT that it is doubtful the UAE will sign a non-aggression pact.

Iran’s relations with the Gulf states are equally uneven. Tehran enjoys the warmest ties with Oman, which has acted as a key mediator in US-Iran talks. It also maintains pragmatic economic ties with Qatar as the two countries share the South Pars-North Field gas deposit. As for Kuwait, the two countries have treated each other with caution.

Saudi Arabia remains Iran’s main rival in the Gulf, though the two restored relations in 2023. Iran and the UAE maintain trade ties, though relations are strained due to the war and territorial disputes. Bahrain has the most tense relationship with Tehran due to sectarian politics, accusations of Iranian interference in internal affairs, and Bahrain’s close ties with the US, though the sides agreed to a limited detente before the war.

British international auction house Christie’s sold a rare blue-green diamond known as the ‘Ocean Dream’, which was found in Central Africa, for more than $17.3 million at its Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on Wednesday. 

The auction house said the 5.5-carat diamond is the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond ever certified by the Gemological Institute of America. It exceeded its presale estimate of $8-12 million. It was cut from an 11.70-carat rough stone found in the 1990s. 

The gem was shaped into a triangular cut that preserved much of the original rough diamond. 

Christie’s said the diamond attracted strong bidding before an unnamed private collector bought it. The bidding lasted around 20 minutes. The auction house said the final price set a new auction record for a diamond of its kind.

“The Ocean Dream is a gemstone of rare distinction, returning to auction for only the second time in its history. Celebrated by the Smithsonian Institution as one of the eight rarest diamonds in the world, it stands as the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond ever recorded,” Max Fawcett, the global head of Christie’s Jewelry, said in a statement released before the sale.

Details about the diamond’s origin, including the mine and country where it was discovered, have never been publicly disclosed by gemological authorities or auction houses. Christie’s and industry sources have only identified the stone as originating from Central Africa.

Palestinians mark 78 years since the Nakba on Friday – one of the largest refugee crises in modern history – as expanding Israeli settlements and military operations are again forcing communities from their homes, RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij reports.

The Nakba, or ‘catastrophe’, was triggered by the mass displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. A 1947 UN partition plan, adopted with backing from the Soviet Union, called for the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states, but only Israel was established.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rooted in competing territorial claims, has fueled decades of unrest and wars in the Middle East.

The UN says around 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank since early 2025 amid intensified Israeli military operations, demolitions, and settler violence.

Members of Bedouin communities interviewed by RT described repeated attempts to force them from their land.

“When we first came here, they told us this was Area B, Palestinian land. But then they turned around and told us, no, you are not allowed to stay here either,” one resident said. “Every single day, they come after us trying to force us out.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state were being systematically undermined.

“A process is underway to eliminate even the slightest possibility of creating a Palestinian state, in violation of United Nations decisions,” Lavrov told a news conference.

Watch RT’s full report below: 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed that he will visit Moscow later this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

Modi and Lavrov met a day earlier and discussed a broad bilateral agenda. Russia’s top diplomat is on a two‑day visit to New Delhi to attend the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed that this year it is his turn to pay a visit to the Russian Federation. We will be preparing for this meeting,” Lavrov said. He also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to visit New Delhi for the BRICS leaders’ summit later this year.

During his bilateral interactions in New Delhi, the Russian foreign minister discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation in trade, economy and investment “in such a way that we don’t depend on the negative, unfriendly pressure from third party countries,” Lavrov stated.

Nuclear energy, including plans to build new nuclear power reactors in India in addition to the ongoing Kudankulam project, cooperation in defense manufacturing and space exploration also figured in the talks.

Though the US had put pressure on New Delhi to stop Russian oil purchases, imposing even a 25% punitive tariff in August 2025, India has maintained that its energy procurement is based on national interests. The tariff was later withdrawn.

The pressure exerted on India by Western nations over its purchases of Russian oil is “neocolonial,” Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with RT India earlier this week.

US President Donald Trump’s increasingly “confrontational and unpredictable” policies have left Europe “truly alone together” and unable to rely on Washington as its main security guarantor, former Italian prime minister and ex-ECB chief Mario Draghi has warned.

Draghi made the remarks in Aachen, Germany, on Thursday while receiving the Charlemagne Prize for his “historic services” to European integration and competitiveness.

Using his speech to outline how Europe can survive the “new realities,” Draghi warned the bloc could no longer depend on the US.

“The world that once helped Europe generate prosperity no longer exists. It has become harder, more fragmented and more mercantilist… The central external fact of our time: our relationship with the US has changed,” Draghi said.

At the same time, Draghi described the shift in US policy as a “necessary wake-up call.”

“In a world of evolving partnerships, every strategic dependency must now be re-examined. For the first time in living memory, we are truly alone together,” he said, warning that “the partner on whom we still depend has become more confrontational and unpredictable.”

Relations between the US and EU have been strained since Trump returned to office in 2024, with recurring disputes over trade, defense, digital regulation, and the Ukraine conflict. Trump repeatedly threatened the bloc with tariffs and accused European NATO members of failing to meet obligations, pressing them to raise military spending. His 2026 National Security Strategy further criticized the EU as strategically unreliable and warned of “civilizational erasure.”

Trump’s rhetoric over Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory he sought to annex, also fueled tensions last year, although he later softened his stance.

The remains of the second US soldier who went missing during the African Lion military exercise in Morocco has been recovered after nearly two weeks of search operations involving more than 1,000 military and civilian personnel.

The US Army Europe and Africa announced on Wednesday that the body of Spc. Mariyah Symone Collington of Tavares, Florida was found on May 12 in a coastal cave around 500 meters from where she reportedly entered the Atlantic Ocean.

The army said the recovery operation spanned more than 21,300 square km and involved over 1,000 US and Moroccan personnel, deploying aircraft, drones, surface vessels, divers, mountaineers, and ground teams.

Collington served as an air and missile defense crew member with Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command. She joined active duty in 2024 and had just been promoted to specialist on May 1, shortly before the incident.

Brig. Gen. Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, called her death “a profound loss.” Capt. Spencer Grider, commander of Charlie Battery, echoed similar sentiments, describing Collington as “an outstanding soldier whose unwavering enthusiasm and positive spirit uplifted every environment she entered.”

African Lion is AFRICOM’s largest annual exercise, aimed at bolstering interoperability between US forces, NATO allies, and African partners. The 2026 edition involved more than 5,600 personnel and concluded on May 8. Fatal incidents have occurred in previous exercises, including a 2012 MV-22 Osprey crash in Morocco that killed two US Marines.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 205 prisoners of war, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Friday.

The ministry said the Russian servicemen are currently in Belarus and are receiving psychological and medical assistance, adding that they will be taken to Russia for further treatment and rehabilitation.

The officials noted that the release was negotiated with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates, which has helped mediate exchanges on numerous occasions.

A source for RT Russian said the bodies of deceased service members were also exchanged, with Russia handing over a disproportionately larger number (526 to 41).

Ukraine has confirmed the swap, describing it as the first stage of a wider 1,000 for 1,000 exchange, which was announced by US President Donald Trump on May 8 as part of a US-mediated three-day ceasefire around Russia’s Victory Day commemorations.

Officials in Kiev said the freed group includes army, navy, and air force service members, as well as members of the territorial defense forces, the National Guard, and the Border Guard Service.

Russia and Ukraine regularly exchange POWs and bodies of deceased service members. The last swap took place in late April, with both sides releasing 193.