British health officials believe that eggs imported from Ukraine could be responsible for a major salmonella outbreak in the UK, The Telegraph has reported, citing a source.

A total of 259 people in the country have been infected with the bacteria over the past year, with one of them dying, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in a statement on Thursday.

The agency stressed that the exact source of the contaminated products has yet to be established, but added that the outbreak “could all be associated with imported eggs.”

However, a senior official involved in the investigation of a salmonella outbreak in the Netherlands, where over a hundred cases have been registered, told The Telegraph that the “working hypothesis” among his British counterparts is that the unsafe eggs were of Ukrainian origin.

The cases, involving three closely related salmonella strains, were recorded over a year-long period, with a spike in recent weeks, UKHSA said.

Almost half of the victims, ranging from babies to people in their 90s, required hospitalization, the statement read.

Salmonella causes intestinal infection, typically resulting in diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal cramps. While most patients recover without specific treatment, the disease can be life-threatening for people with weakened immune systems.

Investigators believe the people were infected after consuming eggs served in “small cafes, restaurants, and takeaway businesses,” rather than eating at home, UKHSA said.

Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency Ian Young urged the British public to give up on traditional fried eggs with a runny yolk as long as the spread of salmonella continues.

The UK produces most of its eggs at home, with UKHSA assuring that they are perfectly safe. The country imports only 11% of its eggs, with Ukraine being the largest supplier, accounting for almost a third of them.

The exemption from tariffs on Ukrainian eggs exported to Britain, introduced after the escalation between Ukraine and Russia in February 2022, will remain in place until 2028, despite the EU reimposing barriers last year.

In July, EU health authorities linked Ukrainian-made instant noodles to a salmonella outbreak that affected more than 100 people across over a dozen member states.

A few months before that, Azerbaijan’s food safety agency reported discovering the bacteria in a 4.9-ton batch of frozen chicken coming from Ukraine.

A US court has struck down the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic, ruling that it illegally sanctioned the AI developer for refusing to let its Claude model be used for certain military operations.

In a 59-page ruling issued on Thursday, US District Judge Rita Lin said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority by designating Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security.” She also argued that the move amounted to unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment and deprived Anthropic of due process under the Fifth.

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” she wrote.
Lin said the government had sought to make a public example of Anthropic for its “arrogance” in criticizing Washington, adding that Hegseth’s supply-chain designation violated the statute invoked by the Pentagon and was “arbitrary and capricious.”

The dispute grew out of the Pentagon’s push to provide the military with access to AI models for “any lawful use.” Before the standoff, Anthropic had been deeply involved with the Pentagon, with Claude being deployed for various operations. Anthropic also held a Pentagon agreement worth up to $200 million.

However, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued in February that while he supports the use of Claude for military ends, it should not be used for mass domestic surveillance or guiding fully autonomous weapons because its current frontier models are not reliable enough for the latter task.

As the tensions escalated, US President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to cease using Anthropic technology on February 27, branding the company a “radical Left AI company.” Hegseth meanwhile announced the supply-chain-risk designation and declared that the Pentagon’s partners could no longer conduct commercial activity with Anthropic.

Anthropic vowed to challenge the designation, saying such treatment had historically only been reserved for US adversaries. It sued in March, alleging that Washington had retaliated against its protected speech and denied it a chance to contest the allegations before imposing the sanctions.

Hegseth, however, stood his ground, comparing Anthropic’s red lines to “Boeing giving us airplanes and telling us who we can shoot at,” and calling Amodei an “ideological lunatic.”

In the ruling, Lin stressed that the Pentagon “is undisputedly free to select the AI vendor of its choice” and remains free to abandon Claude if Anthropic’s conditions do not meet its requirements. Yet the Pentagon itself had been reluctant to lose access to the model, with one defense official telling Axios in February that “the problem for these guys is they are that good.”

A separate lawsuit from Anthropic is also pending in Washington, DC over a supply chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts.

Norway’s King Harald V has died at the age of 89, the royal palace announced on Friday.

The monarch, who had reigned since 1991, died peacefully at an Oslo hospital, the palace said.

Harald will be succeeded by his only son, Haakon VIII, 53, with his wife, Mette-Marit, becoming Norway’s new queen.

The succession comes after the king’s final years were overshadowed by a series of scandals involving members of his family. Mette-Marit faced scrutiny over her past ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, was convicted of rape.

Harald’s eldest daughter, Princess Martha Louise, also drew criticism after relinquishing her official royal duties to pursue alternative medicine and marrying Durek Verrett, an American and self-proclaimed “celebrity shaman.”

The kimg had been hospitalized with a blood disorder on August 17. His health deteriorated during treatment, with the palace describing his condition as “extremely serious” on Thursday.

Members of the royal family canceled their official engagements and gathered at Harald’s bedside during his final days, while members of the public laid flowers outside the palace, according to local media.

Despite the controversies surrounding his family, Harald remained a popular figure in Norway and was credited with helping modernize the monarchy, including by marrying a commoner and increasing transparency around royal spending.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has addressed this week’s unusually intense diplomatic traffic in Moscow, shedding light on talks with the Vatican’s top diplomat while remaining deliberately vague about a visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, and Ratcliffe were both in the Russian capital this week, prompting RBK to ask Lavrov what was behind the visits.

“In both cases, those who came to us wanted to come and talk,” Lavrov said in an interview published on Friday.

Gestures of goodwill and broken promises

Lavrov said his discussions with Gallagher focused heavily on the Ukraine conflict, with the Vatican envoy reiterating a desire to see hostilities brought to an end as soon as possible and offering continued assistance on humanitarian issues, including prisoner and body exchanges.

The foreign minister used the meeting to recount a long series of diplomatic agreements broken, abandoned or derailed by Kiev and its Western sponsors – from the 2014 Euromaidan coup-era agreement to the Minsk accords used to buy Kiev time to rearm, and the 2022 Istanbul talks derailed by London.

“I pointed out that there had been no shortage of goodwill on our part... I think he understood everything. I would say he had no counterarguments, apart from the general slogan that ‘it needs to stop as soon as possible,’” Lavrov said.

Lavrov also told Gallagher that the Western push for a ceasefire along the current line of contact would merely freeze the fighting without producing a lasting settlement. Plans to deploy British- and French-led “stabilization forces” would effectively preserve the “neo-Nazi regime” in Kiev that suppresses the Russian language and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he said.

Quiet intelligence channels

Lavrov was much more guarded about Ratcliffe’s visit.

“I wasn’t there,” he said, noting that intelligence agencies routinely communicate through established channels and that “there is nothing unusual” about such contacts taking place quietly. Diplomats, he added, also often work “in silence.”

“Of course, we do not disclose details that are too sensitive or are still being worked out, where it is important not to jeopardize possible compromises and consensus,” Lavrov said.

The top diplomat also denied allegations that Moscow had issued any kind of ultimatum to the administration of US President Donald Trump following media reports that American intelligence has been used to facilitate long-range Ukrainian strikes against Russia.

‘The end has already come’

Lavrov argued that Moscow remains willing to talk to Western governments but no longer assumes that public assurances or negotiated understandings will be honored.

“Deception is the basis of Western diplomacy. And it remains so,” he said, citing what Moscow regards as broken NATO assurances on expansion and successive derailed agreements over Ukraine.

Asked why Russia had continued to give its counterparts the benefit of the doubt, Lavrov said Russians tended to believe in people “until the very end.”

“But the end has already come,” he added, arguing that relations with the West would never return to what they were before February 2022.

What happened to Anchorage?

Lavrov presented last year’s presidential summit in Anchorage as the latest example of that frustration. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin went through a US peace proposal point by point with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who confirmed that it represented the American leader’s position. Putin then accepted the proposal despite some remaining “nuances,” according to Lavrov.

“If this is not consent and not an agreement, then I don’t know what an agreement is,” he said.

Washington disputes that characterization, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in June that there had been “a proposal in Alaska, but there was no agreement.”

According to Lavrov, the Anchorage understandings were subsequently undermined over the following months by EU and British leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron eventually declared at the G7 summit in Evian in June that Anchorage had been “buried.”

Trump himself, however, has not explicitly declared the Anchorage framework dead. At the original August 2025 summit, he described the talks positively while cautioning that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”

Lavrov said Moscow remains ready to hear new US proposals, but in the meantime Russia will “continue working on the ground.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has acknowledged that the loss of cheap energy imports has dealt a blow to the EU economy and that the bloc now faces prices far above those of its main competitors.

The EU drastically reduced Russian oil and gas imports following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, while Brussels has committed to completely phasing out Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Energy costs have since surged across much of the bloc, with the US-Israeli war on Iran adding further pressure.

Speaking at the La Rencontre des Entrepreneurs de France (REF) business conference in Paris on Thursday, von der Leyen said that “for a long time, the European economic model relied on” several key factors, including inexpensive energy imports. However, the pillars that once underpinned the bloc’s prosperity have now “disappeared,” she added.

Without addressing the reasons behind the rise in energy costs, von der Leyen noted that “European prices remain two to three times higher than in the United States and China.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged last month that Berlin’s self-imposed embargo on Russian energy was the main cause of the “ongoing energy crisis” that has eroded the competitiveness of German industry. Before 2022, Russia supplied approximately 55% of Germany’s natural gas imports.

French President Emmanuel Macron similarly warned earlier this year that the EU was in “emergency mode” over soaring energy costs after replacing Russian pipeline gas with more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US.

The Financial Times reported in June, citing projections by consultancy Wood Mackenzie, that the EU could enter the coming heating season with its lowest gas reserves in 15 years.

Some member states have since balked at further restrictions on Russian LNG as Brussels pushes to end long-term imports beginning next year. Against this backdrop, the bloc has recently stepped up purchases of Russian LNG, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

Despite the resistance and renewed purchases, the European Commission has maintained that it will proceed with the total phase-out of Russian energy imports, even in the event of physical shortages or the threat of power cuts.

Moscow has repeatedly described EU sanctions, particularly those targeting its energy sector, as self-defeating measures that undermine the bloc’s competitiveness. Russia, meanwhile, has redirected much of its energy exports elsewhere, primarily Asia.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has argued that he should not be seen as tainted by past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The billionaire addressed his links with the late financier as a source of reputational baggage in an interview with Axios on Thursday, insisting people should not let the controversy overshadow his current positions on major issues, such as AI and global health.

“I made mistakes. I’ve changed,” Gates said. “I do think the record is clear, and people can just judge me on the record.”

Gates has denied involvement in Epstein’s criminal activity and told Congress that the infamous pedophile later attempted to blackmail him over extramarital affairs.

The tech mogul called his dealings with Epstein a “huge mistake,” insisting they were limited and motivated by an attempt to raise money for philanthropic projects.

This week Gates also released a sweeping essay on the coming “turbulent AI era” and the shift in his attitude to the technology. Artificial intelligence could become either “the greatest equalizer ever invented” or “the worst source of injustice,” he wrote, warning that governments remain dangerously unprepared for the social and economic upheaval ahead.

He acknowledged his “potential bias” and conceded that he has “benefited enormously” from the tech industry, retains financial ties to the sector and works with Microsoft and other AI companies through the Gates Foundation.

Gates is now warning that AI could unleash disruption on an entirely different scale. Unlike previous technological revolutions, he argues, it can substitute directly for human cognition and rapidly replace workers across law, medicine, customer service, software and manufacturing. Without the right policies, he predicts, there will still be some new jobs, but “far fewer than exist today.”

He also warns that increasingly accessible AI could make cyberattack capabilities and biological weapons easier for bad actors to develop, while autonomous weaponry could give governments greater ability to use deadly force without human involvement. Surveillance and the manipulation of public opinion would likewise become cheaper and more effective.

Eventually, Gates cautioned, the danger may come from the machines themselves: increasingly powerful systems “could begin to act against our interests and we could lose control.”

It is not the first time Gates has sounded the alarm about a looming global threat. In a widely viewed 2015 TED talk, he warned that the world was badly unprepared for the next major epidemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic later gave that warning an air of prescience, but Gates’ prominent involvement in global public health policy turned him into a lightning rod for distrust. His past warnings and the Gates Foundation’s participation in a 2019 pandemic simulation were subsequently woven into numerous conspiracy theories claiming that he had planned the outbreak and intended to profit from vaccines. He himself described such accusations as “crazy” and “evil.”

This time, Gates argues there may be even less room to slow down. While saying he would support a credible international plan to restrain AI development, he concluded that “geopolitical and economic incentives are pushing too hard to go full speed ahead.”

US President Donald Trump has officially renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America” as trade-related tensions between Canada and the United States continue to escalate.

The premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, told Trump to “kiss my a**” this week and threatened to cut electricity supplies to the US.

“We’re going to be changing the name of Lake Ontario, effective immediately, to Lake America,” Trump declared in the Oval Office on Thursday before signing an executive order that requires federal agencies to use the new name on government maps, contracts, documents and communications.

The change was swiftly put into effect, with Trump sharing a letter from the US Geological Survey confirming that the federal Geographic Names Information System had already been updated.

The renaming caps a bitter week in which the trade dispute between Washington and Ottawa rapidly descended into personal insults and threats. The confrontation erupted after negotiations collapsed and Washington imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian imports.

On Monday morning, Trump threatened to further raise tariffs on Canadian cars, auto parts and steel to 50% from January 2027, accusing Canada of “ripping off” the US and declaring that it would no longer be treated “like a State.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded almost immediately, threatening to withhold or sharply raise the price of oil, potash and uranium exports and saying Ontario was prepared to revive a surcharge on electricity sent to the US, or even cut power exports altogether.

“Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” Trump fired back. Ford, who was holding a press conference at the time, doubled down, saying: “I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass.”

The following day, Ottawa threw its financial weight behind the rhetoric. Canada formally unveiled retaliatory tariffs matching Washington “dollar for dollar, rate for rate” on C$27.6 billion ($20 billion) worth of US goods. Duties of 15%, 25% and 50% on products including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics are due to take effect on September 8.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has insisted that his countrymen will continue to use the historic name, noting that “Ontario” derives from an Indigenous word predating both countries. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has likewise said her state would not adopt “Lake America.”

Washington cannot force Canada or international organizations to recognize the change, but it can dictate terminology across the US federal government.

On his first day back in office in January 2025, Trump similarly ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed the “Gulf of America” for federal purposes – and suggested Thursday that another geographic rebranding could be next.

“We have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” he said. “So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has instructed its employees not to refer to the 9/11 attacks as “terrorist,” according to several media reports.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. According to the official account, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners, crashing two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and a third into the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew attempted to wrest control from the hijackers.

The attacks prompted then-US President George W. Bush to launch the ‘war on terror’ and send American troops into Afghanistan, beginning a conflict that would last two decades.

The Toronto Sun reported on Wednesday that CBC Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust Basem Boshra had circulated a confidential memo instructing reporters and editors not to “refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

“The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed,” the memo reportedly stated.

The National Post also reported on the guidance and sought comment from CBC News. A spokesperson for Canada’s national public broadcaster insisted that “it is wholly inaccurate to state our journalists have been urged to declare that this was not a terrorist act.”

The spokesperson said the memo was a routine reminder of CBC policy on the terms ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’, which journalists may use when attributed to government officials, authorities, experts, or politicians.

CBC News editor in chief and general manager Brodie Fenlon has previously explained that the broadcaster “does not itself designate specific groups as terrorists, or specific acts as terrorism,” arguing that the terms are so politically and emotionally loaded that they “can end up being impediments to our journalism.”

The reported guidance comes as relations between Canada and the US have deteriorated amid an escalating trade war. On Tuesday, Ottawa announced retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on around 700 American products after US President Donald Trump imposed a new round of duties on Canada and threatened further punitive measures.

British state broadcaster the BBC this week ran a major story drumming up the alleged Russia threat and supposed looming retaliatory attacks on UK drone factories supplying Ukraine. The chilly warning purportedly came from a top Russian official – except that the individual in question has not been one in over three decades.

At first glance, the piece titled “UK drone factories may face attacks from ‘unknown sources,’ says Kremlin adviser” looked legit, based on comments made on BBC Newsnight by Andrey Fedorov. The broadcaster presented the interviewee as a heavyweight Russian official, describing him as a “Kremlin adviser” and “Russia’s former deputy foreign minister.”

The latter is partially true: Fedorov was the deputy minister in the RSFSR, the Russian republic of the USSR, between October 1990 and October 1991 prior to the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union. The other claim, however, is completely false. Fedorov used to be an adviser to Russia’s vice president until late 1993, the same year the vice president position was abolished, and has not held any public office since. Over the past decade, he has been best known as a political commentator and a media personality, frequenting assorted Russian political talk shows.

BBC tries to hide fake news

The piece survived for around five hours on the BBC website before it was quietly amended. Fedorov was ‘demoted’ to a “pro-Kremlin commentator who frequently appears on Russian television,” yet no official retraction of the initial claim was made. The description, while still debatable, given that Fedorov is known for frequently spelling doom and gloom for Moscow, citing his purported high-ranking sources at home and overseas, is not explicitly untrue.

The BBC also did not do a particularly good job of purging the fake, which survived on several of its platforms. A BBC Newsnight Facebook post on the matter still cryptically describes Fedorov as a “President Putin ally” at the moment of the publication, while its post on X claims the commentator “advises President Putin.”

Fake spills all over British media and beyond

The BBC interview with Fedorov was spread across British media alongside his false depiction as a “Putin adviser.” Unlike the source, outlets that reprinted the fake news never bothered to amend it.

Some outlets even managed to outperform the original. The Express, for instance, described Fedorov simultaneously as a “high-ranking Kremlin official” and “high-level Kremlin insider.”

HuffPost UK also described the political commentator as a “presidential adviser” and even ‘promoted’ him to a “key ally to Vladimir Putin.”

The fake also spread beyond the UK media, making it to Al Jazeera with minimal amendments. Following the BBC, Al Jazeera falsely described Fedorov as “an adviser to the Kremlin and a former deputy foreign minister.” 

It also made it to Ukrainian media, which generally takes its British counterparts at face value and attempts no independent fact-checking.

Are the fakes bound to roll on?

This was actually not the first time the BBC falsely presented the Russian political commentator. In January of this year, Fedorov made remarks to the BBC’s Radio 4 on the US military hunt for the Marinera oil tanker and was presented as a “Kremlin adviser and former Russian deputy foreign minister.”

The comments spread widely across British media at the time, apparently without any fact-checking, and remain readily available in news articles from major outlets such The Times and The Independent.

The BBC’s flagship Newsnight program is also involved in a legal case involving US President Donald Trump. The show is accused of editing a Trump speech in a way that made it appear that he had explicitly called for violence ahead of the Capitol Hill riots. A BBC documentary also featured a video of Trump spliced with remarks that had actually been made nearly an hour apart. Neither program notified viewers of the edit. Trump is reportedly suing the British state broadcaster for $10 billion for defamation.

Russia has condemned plans to build a supermarket and logistics center on the site of a former Nazi women’s concentration camp in Austria, accusing Vienna of erasing the memory of its victims.

The development in Leobersdorf, around 40km south of Vienna, would cover the remains of the Hirtenberg camp, a former subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp complex, where at least 90,000 prisoners were murdered or died from starvation, disease, exhaustion, and abuse during World War II.

According to Austrian media, the Hirtenberg site is set to host a large refrigerated storage and logistics facility, as well as a branch of German discount retailer Lidl.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the decision to effectively “pave over” the memory of victims of the Nazi regime despite public opposition as “hypocrisy in full view.”

“How can you advocate women’s rights and boast of your great achievements in feminism if you cannot protect the memory of 400 women who were forcibly deported and held in a concentration camp located in your country?” she said.

Hirtenberg was established in September 1944 and held around 400 female prisoners, many transferred from Auschwitz and forced to work long shifts producing munitions.

According to Mauthausen Guides, the largest group comprised 194 Russian prisoners. Other inmates came from Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Croatia, Germany and Slovakia, with some as young as 16. The camp was evacuated in April 1945 as the Red Army approached and Nazi Germany neared defeat.

The project has also sparked criticism in Austria. Mauthausen Memorial director Barbara Gluck has called the destruction of the camp remains “a disgrace.” Oskar Deutsch, the head of Vienna’s Jewish community, has similarly condemned efforts to “make money from the memory of tortured and murdered women.”

Moscow has repeatedly accused European countries of erasing or desecrating World War II memorial sites, particularly those commemorating the Soviet Union’s sacrifices and role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Zakharova has previously described such incidents as part of a growing “terrifying pandemic of historical revanchism.”

In the final days of August 2026, mobilization once again moved to the forefront. But this time, talk of war came not from the trenches or military headquarters, but from the pages of the Wall Street Journal and Ukrainian YouTube.

On August 23, the WSJ reported that the Russian military was “testing its readiness” to accept a new wave of recruits – the first since 2022. The authors did not claim that the Kremlin had already decided on another mobilization. Rather, they described a stress test of the system: Drills, logistics, and the military infrastructure’s ability to “absorb” large numbers of people should the order ever be issued.

Almost simultaneously, mobilization became a topic of discussion in Ukraine as well, though in a very different context. In the final days of the month, the idea that military service should apply to every citizen, regardless of sex, surfaced several times in high-level circles.

International audiences are already familiar with this framing. The prospect of Russian mobilization is presented as a sign of renewed social upheaval. Ukrainian mobilization, by contrast, is more often described as a difficult but necessary “effort by a democracy.” The Western media is therefore far more willing to speculate about a hypothetical new call-up on the other side of the front line, while treating events in Ukraine with noticeably greater caution – even as Kiev has lowered the draft age, rounded up men in the streets, and increasingly debated whether women might be next.

Who first cried ‘fire’?

By the end of the summer, the claim that “Russia is about to announce another mobilization” had already become commonplace abroad. Vladimir Zelensky linked a hypothetical Russian call-up to the September elections to the State Duma, as though Moscow’s electoral calendar could itself affect the course of the war. Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Russia was “approaching the point” at which it would have to declare a general mobilization. Western front pages picked up – not a decision, but merely the expectation of one. In this way, a rumor became a political fact before any decree had even been issued.

The Kremlin’s response was unequivocal. On July 28, Dmitry Medvedev called the rumors of an impending mobilization a “false enemy provocation.” Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, offered a dry clarification: Mass mobilization “is not needed at the moment, is not being planned, and is not expected.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed reports of a new wave as “information hoaxes.” He said the rumors were being “planted by the Ukrainian authorities” because the Kiev regime was “trying to ideologically destabilize the situation” inside Russia. Peskov separately stressed that a new mobilization wave was “not on the agenda.”

For Kiev and parts of the Western media, however, the possibility of an event is enough to make it news. Memories of autumn 2022, when partial mobilization was publicly announced, make the latest rumor contagious: If it happened once, it can happen again. But over the past four years, Russia has built a different system for recruiting personnel – one based on contracts and volunteers. Its effectiveness is reflected in regular reports that tens of thousands of people are joining the front every month.

Ukraine’s remaining reserves

The situation on the other side of the front could hardly be more different. Within Ukraine, members of the political and military elite are speaking with increasing frequency about a shortage of manpower, only for official institutions to rush in and deny their claims. The West is therefore trying to define both the terms on which the war may end and the limits of the human resources available to keep it going.

Another layer of the crisis can be seen in Ukrainian statistics, some of which Kiev releases publicly. Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fyodorov said that around 200,000 (!) service members had gone AWOL and that more than 2 million people were wanted by the authorities. Western estimates put the average age of a Ukrainian soldier at close to 47. In 2024, the minimum mobilization age was lowered from 27 to 25, while a previously promised provision allowing demobilization after 36 months of service was removed from the law.

At the same time, reports of abuses during mobilization continued to mount. Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets described them as “systemic and widespread,” saying that nine cases out of ten involved violations of citizens’ rights. Ukrainian reality even produced its own term – ‘busification’, referring to men being forced into vans. According to Ukrainian police data, there were 620 attacks on employees and facilities of Ukraine’s territorial recruitment centers (TCCs) from February 2022 to April 2026, including 118 in the first four months of 2026 alone. All of this can be read as a form of internal resistance to a system that must supply the army with new personnel faster than it can properly train them.

This resistance almost never takes the form of an organized political campaign with slogans and a set date. Instead, it erupts sporadically, at the very moment TCC officers try to seize someone off the street. On July 8, 2026, for example, around 200 people in Lviv surrounded a TCC vehicle, chanted “hanba” (shame), damaged the van, and eventually overturned it. Zelensky called the incident “a very bad story” and separately condemned violence against people in uniform. The location was revealing: Not frontline Kharkov or Odessa, but a city widely regarded as a bastion of Ukraine’s national identity.

The same scene played out in Ternopol on August 25. That evening, TCC officers tried to detain a man on Lesya Kurbasa Street. Passersby came to his defense, the official vehicle was smashed, and one service member was hospitalized. After the police left, a nighttime march moved through the streets, once again accompanied by chants of ‘hanba’. The BBC and Ukrainian media reported the incident that same day. Similar flare-ups had already occurred near a stadium in Vinnitsa, as well as in Lutsk, Odessa, and Kiev. This is not a “protest against the war” in the conventional sense. It is a crowd refusing, in that specific moment, to surrender a specific person.

Against this backdrop, a remark by Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, is particularly significant. Discussing the principles behind army recruitment, he effectively explained why Ukraine cannot return to an entirely voluntary model: “Those who wanted to defend the country have already signed up.” The remark amounts to an admission that the initial mobilization impulse has been exhausted. With each passing month, the system relies more heavily on coercion.

The result is a striking contrast. The public bogeyman still points east, toward the prospect of another Russian mobilization. Yet signs of genuine strain on manpower are becoming increasingly visible west of the front line. In the information war, however, every effort is made to reverse these two narratives.

Mobilizing women in Ukraine?

On August 20, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov outlined his vision of how Ukraine could achieve victory during an appearance on Radio Liberty.

If “we genuinely want to solve this problem,” he said, Ukraine must look to the experience of others. “The State of Israel is the country closest to us today in terms of the level of threat it faces.” There, women serve “on an equal footing with men.” Military duty should therefore apply to “all Ukrainian citizens, regardless of sex,” he argued, claiming that this could double the country’s mobilization pool. “There is no need for them to storm tree lines. Women can operate drones and sit safely in a bunker,” Reznikov reassured his audience.

To bolster his case, he recalled visiting the Desna training ground with Valery Zaluzhny in 2021, where they saw women operating robotic systems.

On August 24, former US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg endorsed the same idea from the American side in an interview with Naspravdi MAX. “My answer is yes, because they [women] fight every bit as well as men.” He shared a touching family story: His daughter graduated from the US Military Academy and fought in Afghanistan, while his wife served as a paratrooper in Grenada. “Both personally and professionally, I see absolutely no problem with it.”

By August 25, official Kiev was already trying to extinguish the information fire it had allowed to spread. The Rada’s National Security Committee stated that mobilizing women “is not taking place, is not being prepared, and is not under consideration.” There were no “legislative initiatives, bills, or even internal discussions.” Women joined the Defense Forces “exclusively on a voluntary basis,” while statements by “individual speakers” did “not reflect the Committee’s position.”

Andrey Kovalenko of the Center for Countering Disinformation said there was no forced mobilization of women “and there never will be,” dismissing the debate as Russian disinformation. Irina Vereshchuk responded to Kellogg by saying it is not for America to tell Ukraine who to draft.

Formally, there is indeed no legal basis for mobilizing women. Female doctors and pharmacists are required to register for military service, but registration alone does not mean deployment to the front. At the beginning of 2026, more than 75,000 women were serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including over 55,000 volunteer service members. Kiev cites these figures as proof that women serve voluntarily. On August 23, Roman Kostenko had already insisted in advance that there would be “no changes whatsoever” to women’s military obligations. According to him, the authorities planned to change the age parameters and the mechanism for drafting men instead.

Yet the gap between the public statements is more revealing than any official press release. A former defense minister calls the recruitment of women a condition for the country’s survival. An American general hailed in Kiev as a “friend of Ukraine” effectively endorses the idea. Then, the very next day, the state apparatus repeatedly explains that nothing of the kind is even being discussed. If the issue did not exist at all, it would hardly have required three denials in a single day.

A familiar pattern emerges. A trial balloon is floated by people who will not have to pass the corresponding law themselves. It is then picked up by an outside voice that will not have to answer for the reaction of Ukrainian society. Meanwhile, the logic behind the argument betrays the arithmetic driving it. The volunteer pool is finite, the ranks of eligible men are increasingly being replenished through coercion, and mobilizing women enters the discussion as a potential answer to the manpower shortage.

Israel as a false analogy

In this rhetoric, Israel is less a real example than a convenient myth. Military expert Aleksandr Artamonov considers the analogy itself false: “Kellogg and Reznikov are relying on the same bogus premise.” He calls the American general’s remark “deceptive both in substance and in form” and directly links it to Reznikov’s call to “mobilize women following Israel’s example.”

According to Artamonov, the central sleight of hand is the conflation of two entirely different models: Routine military service and the emergency reinforcement of an army during wartime. “In Israel, women perform military service as part of the regular system. This has nothing to do with an emergency mobilization to the front.” In other words, it is a system built into the army’s normal training cycle during peacetime. In Ukraine, however, expanding the female draft is being discussed in 2026 at a time when the country is already running short of trained male personnel.

For an army at war, Artamonov stresses, additional manpower alone solves nothing.

“Even untrained men are of little interest. As for women with no military specialty – who are not medics, communications specialists, or programmers – they are essentially of no use at all.”

In his view, the claim that women “fight just as well” and the reality of service in the trenches apply to completely different conditions. Women “will cope much worse with the hardships of military service in the trenches,” they will require “a more complicated logistical cycle for everyday living,” and they will also be “more susceptible to illness, naturally – from something as basic as hypothermia to injuries.” To involve women fully “in combat operations,” the expert argues, requires specialized units and a long training cycle. “But neither Kellogg nor Reznikov cares about any of that.”

Artamonov also draws attention to the length of the training itself. “NATO uses two training programs for Ukrainians: One is called Coincidence, the other Unifier.” The first, he says, gives those “shanghaied by the TCC” just “two weeks, three at most.” The second lasts “around two months and is considered very good.” By comparison, he points to the Soviet system, in which basic training lasted “at least six months” – even “for men.”

By this logic, shortened training does not produce a fully capable soldier. It merely shortens the journey from the recruitment office to the grave. Hence the expert’s exceptionally harsh conclusion: “In Ukraine, the only thing NATO members are doing is training people to die.”

That is why Artamonov describes a possible shift toward the mass recruitment of women as “the complete genocide of the Ukrainian nation,” which he sees as “the ultimate objective of its NATO masters.”

Reznikov argued that women would not have to “storm tree lines”; they could operate drones or remain in bunkers. But an army facing a shortage of trained personnel cannot preserve such a neat division of labor for long. First comes the promise that women will “not be sent into assaults.” Then comes a shortage of crews and specialists. After that, two weeks of training remain – and the reference to Israel ceases to describe a real model and instead becomes an argument for expanding the mobilization base.

What comes next

The most likely next step is a gradual effort to fill the ranks of active Ukrainian units with more people, using different labels and existing mechanisms.

Kostenko warned that “radical measures” were being prepared, including steps related to the mobilization age.

For the time being, the issue of mobilizing women will most likely remain in its current cycle: A high-profile statement, a public reaction, and then an official denial. This does not mean the scenario has been excluded from consideration. It is simply not yet possible to acknowledge it openly as part of the government’s practical agenda.

This is where the crucial dividing line lies: No legislative amendment can create a combat-ready army on its own. That requires the complex organization of everyday service, specialized infrastructure, and lengthy training in separate units. Yet the realities of the front – winter, rotations, air-defense shortages, and the need to reinforce specific sectors – exist under conditions in which training time has been compressed to the absolute minimum. A few weeks on a NATO course do not become six months of military training simply because the political slogan has changed. At the front, a promise is always cheaper than a trained soldier.

As for rumors of an autumn mobilization in Russia, Moscow’s official position remains unchanged: No mass mobilization has been announced, and the military continues to replenish its ranks primarily through contract recruitment. Publicly cited figures have ranged from around 50,000 to 60,000 people a month and hundreds of thousands of new contracts a year. Meanwhile, painful strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, logistics, and command-and-control system continue regardless of the forecasts appearing in the Western media.

For the Western information narrative, it is considerably easier to inflate the Russian threat than to explain in detail why Ukraine’s mobilization pool is shrinking and why the TCC system has become a domestic instrument of terror against Ukrainians.

Autumn, however, is almost here – and it will soon become clear whose forecast was the most accurate.

Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh is due to deliver the keynote address at this year’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Friday. It will give markets their first chance to hear from the new Fed chief at the central bank’s annual gathering in Wyoming.

It comes at a fraught time. A recent Treasury market intervention announced by Secretary Scott Bessent with the aim of pushing long-term Treasury yields lower raised eyebrows on Wall Street, to put it mildly. It was a move that seems to be at cross-purposes with the Fed’s messaging.

The Jackson Hole gathering is normally a chance for the Fed to lay out its views on the economy and its interest-rate strategy. How much Warsh will divulge is unclear. He has tended to play things close to the vest so far. One thing is clear, though: The market is hardly convinced by what it has seen coming out of Washington.

RT breaks down the latest developments in the world’s most important market and what the Fed chair might have to say on Friday.

Bessent’s ill-fated move to tame yields

A little over a week ago, Bessent announced that the Treasury would at least double its buyback operations of long-dated Treasuries. It was, as many such things are, framed as a mere liquidity operation. It was hard not to notice that the operation involves buying long-dated bonds at a moment when the Treasury very much wants long-dated yields to come down.

With the US operating with a $40 trillion debt anvil around its neck, any rise in yields entails a sharp increase in borrowing expenses. The US is already paying over $1 trillion a year in interest, more than it doles out on its military. However, the added expense of higher rates may not even be the main point of concern. The highly financialized US economy is extraordinarily sensitive to interest rates. On several occasions in recent years, rising rates have threatened to tip the financial system into turmoil.

Bessent’s move was widely seen to have failed, given that about a day later, long-dated yields had risen above their pre-intervention levels. With the Iran war dragging on, fears are mounting that another surge of inflation could be around the corner. Investors would therefore demand higher yields on bonds, making Treasury’s task considerably harder.

What the market is saying

Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller recently penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he wrote that “governments defending prices against fundamentals always lose. The only variable is how much they spend before conceding,” The fundamentals, in this case, are rising inflation expectations and runaway US debt that has many wondering if Treasuries are losing their hallowed safe-haven status.

Economist and strategist Philip Pilkington claimed that a “desperate” Bessent is “fighting against gravity” and that the intervention indicated that the Treasury chief fears that high yields could trigger a financial crisis, noting that last time yields were this high, the 2008 crisis was just around the corner.

Politico, meanwhile, wrote an article titled ‘Wall Street turns on Scott Bessent’ in which it surmised that the Treasury secretary’s credibility as a steward of US financial markets is “under threat.”

On the heels of another intervention

Earlier this month, the US and Japan carried out a coordinated foreign exchange intervention to prop up the ailing yen. Over the last 12 months, the Japanese currency has sunk to its weakest level against the dollar in around 40 years.

One may wonder what it is about the yen’s weakness that is keeping Bessent and his colleagues up at night. Officially, the intervention was taken to counter “excessive volatility and disorderly movements” in the yen. Lurking underneath is the fear that Japan could have to resort to unloading a portion of its massive US Treasury holdings in order to support its beleaguered currency. This move would, among other things, push US rates higher.

The intervention achieved little, however, with the yen edging higher before giving up around half of the gains within a week. It was a quixotic effort to begin with. The road is littered with the bones of interventions not supported by economic policy adjustments. When the monetary authorities intervene in markets, they have a tendency to get tested and end up having to defend the move over and over.

Two people trying to drive the same car in opposite directions

At the press conference following the previous Fed meeting in late July, Warsh said the increase in long-term bond yields “has provided us some comfort.” He meant that the uptick in yields was helping fight inflation, thus reducing the immediate pressure on the Fed to hike interest rates.

Evidently not feeling much comfort, however, was Bessent, who a few weeks later would go on to announce the intervention with the aim of pushing long-term yields lower.

Despite incessant calls for lower rates by President Donald Trump, Federal Reserve officials are debating possibly hiking rates at their next meeting in mid-September. Inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target while the inflationary repercussions of the Iran war may yet be forthcoming.

Warsh has also discussed reducing the Fed’s $6.7 trillion portfolio of government bonds and mortgage-backed securities, a move that would represent a tightening of monetary policy – not least because reducing the Fed’s holdings would remove a source of demand for longer-dated securities.

This would put the Fed at cross-purposes with the Treasury, which is seeking to increase its own balance sheet of Treasuries in order to suppress yields at the long end.

The Fed and Treasury are under no obligation to coordinate their moves – indeed, they are not supposed to. They have different jobs. But visibly conflicting policy, particularly when the moves effectively cancel each other out, is not typical and tends not to go over well on Wall Street.

The $40 trillion elephant in the room

The US fiscal situation continues to deteriorate with no end in sight and little prospect for improvement. In fact, it is beginning to snowball under the weight of its own interest expense. The national debt crossed the $40 trillion threshold earlier this month. It has been climbing at a pace of roughly $1 trillion every five months, adding the equivalent of a whopping $7-8 billion a day.

What gives the US so little room for maneuver is the composition of its spending. A large and growing share of federal spending is effectively locked in by existing programs and political commitments. Entitlements, interest expense, and veterans’ benefits are already equivalent to 105% of federal receipts, according to calculations by analyst Luke Gromen. Those outlays are growing 7.5% year-to-date, he estimates, while receipts are growing by just 4%. The gap, in other words, is widening.

Entitlements – such as Medicaid and Social Security – are sacred cows in the US. No administration has succeeded in materially reforming these systemic pillars in generations, and few have seriously tried. The Trump administration has shown little appetite for the kind of spending restraint that would alter the country’s fiscal trajectory. That has left investors wondering whether the only source of restraint left is the bond market.

What to expect from Warsh

Investors are hoping that Warsh will weigh in substantially on the economy and the Fed’s inflation strategy at Jackson Hole. It may be too much to hope that he will address Bessent’s recent efforts. The Fed has often used the Wyoming gathering to shed light on its thinking about rate policy. So far since heading up the central bank, however, Warsh has given markets slim pickings, an approach that represents a break with his predecessors.

In fact, Warsh has floated the idea that the Fed should hold rate-policy meetings less frequently and is apparently considering scaling back the post-meeting press conferences. There is logic to this approach: When the market is kept guessing, it might indulge in less risk. Highly telegraphed interest rate policy can become a fat target for investors.

Trump picked Warsh to head the Fed in hopes that he would deliver the aggressive interest rate cuts that the president has been unabashedly advocating. Warsh, however, has demurred, but has also managed to avoid Trump’s wrath, which has more times than not been directed toward the remaining FOMC members, many of whom are holdovers.

That may make Friday’s speech all the more interesting. With the Treasury trying to push long-term yields down, the Fed arguing that higher yields can help restrain inflation, and the fiscal outlook putting pressure on both, Warsh will have plenty to talk about. Whether he chooses to do so is another matter.

Dozens of immigrants who disappeared from UK asylum hotels as children in 2023 are still unaccounted for, a parliamentary report released on Thursday has found.

Some 472 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children – some as young as 12 – went missing from Home Office-run accommodation for migrant minors.

According to the Director of Children’s Social Care at the Department for Education, Helen Waite, 432 have since been located, leaving 40 unaccounted for. Most have since turned 18, but two remain underage.

The committee “welcomed” that most had been found but said it remains “extremely concerned” about those still missing. It urged the Home Office to detail efforts to locate them, demanding updates every three months. Angela Eagle, then border security and asylum minister, told the committee last year that some of those found were “located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked.”

Commenting on the report, England’s Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza called the situation an “unacceptable failure.”

“Every child arriving in this country has the right to safely apply for asylum and to be provided with shelter and support while they do so,” she said, urging the government to prevent such disappearances from happening again.

At its peak in June 2023, more than 51,000 asylum seekers were housed in over 400 Home Office hotels across the UK. Human rights groups argued the facilities were unsuitable for children. In 2024, the High Court ruled that placement of unaccompanied minors in hotels was unlawful, and dedicated facilities were subsequently closed.

Immigration has become an increasingly contentious political issue in Britain amid continued Channel crossings, protests over asylum accommodation, high-profile migrant-linked crimes and renewed scrutiny of the country’s grooming-gangs scandal. The controversy contributed to mounting pressure on former Prime Minister Keir Starmer before his resignation earlier this summer. His successor, Andy Burnham, has pledged to stop small-boat crossings but declined to set a deadline.

Europe has faced sustained migration pressure since 2015, when more than a million people arrived, largely from the Middle East and Africa. The issue returned to the spotlight last month after more than 72,000 people crossed into Spain’s Ceuta enclave, overwhelming reception facilities and renewing calls for tighter border controls. Following the crossing, media reports said Ceuta was processing around 2,000 unaccompanied minors, many of whom were reportedly left on the streets with shelters overwhelmed. Police reportedly investigated at least five alleged rapes of minors linked to the influx.

Pentagon investigators reviewing the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan have uncovered classified documents that they say were deliberately hidden from previous probes. The discovery comes amid long-running accusations that the administration of former US President Joe Biden concealed failures surrounding the operation.

Sean Parnell, chairman of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel, said on Wednesday that his team had recovered “highly relevant classified documents” that “should have been disclosed.”

The material had been “stashed and hidden away in safes where they would not be found,” Parnell said in a video statement on X, five years after the deadly bombing of the Abbey Gate entrance to Kabul airport.

“After the team reviewed these documents, it became clear why someone tried to hide them,” he said.

Parnell did not disclose what the documents actually contain, who allegedly concealed them, or whether they relate to any specific decisions made by Biden or his officials.

However, he said his panel would follow the evidence “wherever it leads and to whoever it touches,” and promised veterans and the families of those killed “the full picture” of how and why decisions were made during the disastrous withdrawal.

Thirteen US service members and around 170 Afghans were killed when an ISIS-K suicide bomber attacked Abbey Gate during the August 2021 evacuation. During the chaotic withdrawal, the Taliban rapidly swept across Afghanistan, the Western-backed government collapsed, and thousands of people crowded Kabul airport in an attempt to flee the country.

Images of desperate Afghans clinging to a departing US military aircraft became emblematic of the withdrawal, which ended a 20-year American military presence with the Taliban back in power.

Republicans have since repeatedly accused Biden officials of ignoring or downplaying warnings that a complete US withdrawal could trigger the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and security forces, and of waiting too long to launch a full-scale evacuation.

House investigators have also consistently raised concerns that potentially relevant photographs, video, and other material from the evacuation were missing, deleted, or otherwise unavailable during subsequent probes. They have accused Biden-era officials of withholding information and frustrating congressional attempts to establish exactly how key decisions were made.

Biden administration officials have denied any cover-up and argued that the unexpectedly rapid collapse of the Afghan government severely complicated the evacuation.

Denmark will pay around $47,000 to each Greenlandic woman who can attest to having been implanted with a contraceptive device without consent while Copenhagen controlled the island’s healthcare system. Around 4,500 women may qualify under the scheme.

The Danish parliament approved the payout of 300,000 kroner by a large majority on Thursday, with the compensation to be made tax-free regardless of the contraceptive method used or the number of incidents.

To receive the money, the claimant should make a sworn statement and provide enough detail to make the incident plausible under the scheme. Providing medical records is not required because many of the alleged incidents occurred decades ago and the relevant documentation may no longer exist.

The payouts address the so-called “spiral scandal,” named after the Danish word for an IUD. An independent Danish-Greenlandic inquiry found that at least 4,070 women and girls – some only aged 12 – had been fitted with IUDs between 1966 and 1970, close to half of Greenland’s women of reproductive age. To some extent, the practice continued until the early 1990s when Greenland took over the health sector from Danish control.

The inquiry also collected testimony from 354 women describing 488 contraceptive incidents. Of 410 IUD incidents in those testimonies, 300 involved either no consent or no clear consent, 47 involved consent, and 63 contained insufficient information. The testimony also included 185 girls who had been under 18 at the time.

The controversial campaign was propelled by Danish concern over Greenland’s exceptionally rapid population growth, with the authorities seeking to reduce births as modernization required more housing, schools, and other services and became increasingly expensive for the Danish state.

According to the inquiry, another reason for the “spiral scandal” was Denmark’s drive to impose its ideas about family planning on Greenlandic society. While Denmark has favored small nuclear families, Greenlandic society has to a large extent relied on large family and kin networks.

Greenland’s former Prime Minister Mute Inequnaaluk Bourup Egede has described Denmark’s actions as “genocide.” While Copenhagen has not agreed with the characterization, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologized on Denmark’s behalf last year, admitting that Greenlandic girls and women had suffered “systematic discrimination” because they were Greenlanders while calling the controversy a “dark chapter” in the country’s history.

Ukrainian forces have hit 214 civilian vessels flying the flags of various countries in the Black Sea since the start of the year, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Speaking at a regular briefing on Thursday, Zakharova lashed out at Ukraine, arguing that Vladimir Zelensky’s “regime continues to create military threats for the states of the Black Sea region.”

She pointed to a string of attacks on commercial shipping near Russian ports this month, including several raids on vessels operated by Turkish companies. Ukrainian drones hit the San Marino-flagged Necibe. Its 18 crew members were rescued by the Turkish-owned vessel Ural, which was also later struck by Ukrainian drones, leaving one Turkish citizen dead and eight other people injured.

“Here we see how the weapons procured and transferred to the Kiev regime through NATO mechanisms are being turned against the alliance members themselves,” the spokeswoman said.

Zakharova also accused Ukraine of creating security risks for Romania, citing an incident on August 20 in which a Romanian F-16 opened fire on an explosives-laden maritime drone near the Neptun Alpha gas platform in Romania’s exclusive economic zone.

Ukraine has escalated attacks in the Black Sea over the past several months. Ukrainian officials portray them as part of Zelensky’s much-hyped 40-day pressure campaign on Russia to end the conflict.

The Financial Times reported this month that Ukraine’s attacks drew the ire of the US, with Vice President J.D. Vance requesting that Zelensky halt raids on tankers serving the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near Novorossiysk. The route mainly carries Kazakh crude and involves US majors Chevron and ExxonMobil. According to the FT, Kiev subsequently agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels unless they were sanctioned by Ukraine or are carrying Russian cargo.

In response to the campaign, Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s defense-related industry, vessels carrying military cargo, and port facilities in Odessa Region. The city is crucial for the country’s economy as it accounts for more than 90% of Ukraine’s seaborne exports, including agricultural products, which are the key source of income for the country.

The US has announced Operation Economic Outcast, which it calls “an unprecedented, whole-of-government, economic campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran” and compares to D-Day in its effort to end “the Iranian threat.”

The US Treasury has expanded the scope of potential secondary sanctions across five areas of the Iranian economy, including digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. At the same time, the Office of Foreign Assets Control has added nearly 60 companies, individuals, and vessels to its sanctions lists over alleged links to Iranian oil revenue, procurement for missile and nuclear programs, cyberoperations, and the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Five tankers have been designated as blocked property, while several licenses covering certain remittances and educational and cultural exchanges have been suspended.

Despite the forceful rhetoric accompanying the announcement, Washington has not imposed a comprehensive ban on all trade with Iran. The new sectoral determinations do not mean that every foreign company conducting a transaction with an Iranian counterpart will automatically be sanctioned. Rather, they provide the US administration with legal grounds for future enforcement, while specific penalties will continue to be imposed selectively. Washington is building a mechanism for more sustained pressure and preparing to direct that mechanism increasingly against Tehran’s foreign partners.

At the same time, the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program has renewed attention to its offer of up to $10 million dollars for information on senior IRGC leaders and associated members of the Iranian establishment, including Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The reward was first announced in March 2026 and has now become part of a revived psychological and intelligence campaign against Iran’s leadership and security apparatus.

An economic offensive after an inconclusive military one

The turn towards economic warfare comes after nearly six months of fighting. American and Israeli strikes inflicted substantial damage on Iran, destroyed parts of its military infrastructure and weakened elements of its regional network, but they failed to force Tehran to surrender or change its policies. Iran has retained missile and drone capabilities, the ability to threaten installations across the Gulf, and, most importantly, considerable influence over maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The military campaign has imposed a heavy cost on the US. According to the Pentagon, direct expenditure had reached at least $37.5 billion dollars by July. Sources and estimates by American analysts suggest that the US expended around 65% of its Patriot interceptor stockpile during the first five months of the war, while the number of available THAAD interceptors fell by at least 38% and the use of Tomahawk cruise missiles approached half of the national inventory. Domestic support for the war, meanwhile, remained low at approximately 35%.

With this in mind, the economic offensive doesn’t look like a demonstration of Washington’s confidence anymore – rather, it is an acknowledgement that further military action is getting unsustainable. The US needs time to rebuild its weapons stocks, reduce domestic political costs, and find an instrument capable of sustaining pressure without another expensive air campaign. Sanctions offer such an instrument because much of their immediate burden falls on foreign companies and the Iranian population, while Washington retains the ability to raise or lower the pressure at will.

Iran understands this as well. If Tehran concludes that a prolonged pause will allow the US to close its commercial and financial channels one by one, the Iranian leadership may attempt to deny Washington the time it needs through limited military escalation, renewed pressure on shipping or further strikes against regional infrastructure. Such a decision would carry enormous risks because it could once again unite the Gulf states against Iran, yet retaining control over the tempo of the crisis remains one of Tehran’s most important advantages.

China limits American pressure

Many Iranian organizations are already isolated by previous rounds of sanctions, and the new operation’s threat is directed mostly at Iran’s foreign partners. Companies and banks involved in the five designated sectors could face the freezing of assets under US jurisdiction, prohibitions on transactions with American citizens and entities, restrictions on correspondent accounts, and effective exclusion from the dollar clearing system. For an international bank, that threat can be more dangerous than a direct fine because losing access to dollar infrastructure could paralyze a substantial share of its global business.

China, however, throws a wrench into the American model. In 2025, Chinese buyers imported an average of around 1.38 million barrels of Iranian oil per day, accounting for more than 80% of Iran’s seaborne oil exports. The trade has been sustained through independent refineries with limited exposure to the US, intermediaries, yuan settlements, and schemes that obscure the origin of individual cargoes. By August 2026, deliveries had fallen to approximately 534,000 barrels per day from 1.57 million in February, although this decline resulted more from the war and naval blockade than from Beijing’s voluntary compliance with American sanctions.

Washington has already sanctioned individual Chinese technology suppliers and smaller refiners, but the new package does not target China’s largest banks. Sanctioning them could disrupt US-China negotiations, provoke retaliation, interfere with supplies of critical goods, and accelerate the movement of bilateral trade into payment systems beyond the dollar. The answer to the question of secondary sanctions against China is deeply contradictory. The US threatens Beijing with consequences, but it remains reluctant to adopt measures capable of inflicting comparable damage on the American economy itself.

Iran’s other partners do not form a united front. The United Arab Emirates, which accounted for roughly 30 percent of Iranian imports worth about $21 billion in 2024, has already suspended financial and commercial dealings with Tehran. Türkiye, however, whose annual trade with Iran amounts to around $5 to $6 billion, has given no indication that it intends to sever economic relations, particularly since Iran provides approximately 13% of Türkiye’s gas imports. Trade between Iran and Iraq exceeded $10 billion in 2025, while Baghdad pays Tehran an estimated $4 to $5 billion annually for natural gas used in electricity generation. Abandoning these supplies quickly would risk serious domestic disruption.

Pakistan and Oman are also important. Informal trade between Iran and Pakistan is estimated at approximately $4 billion, while the two governments have set a target of $10 billion. Trade with Oman reached around $1.5 billion in 2025. India has reduced its turnover with Iran to $1.63 billion, although most of that trade consists of food and other goods that New Delhi considers humanitarian. These countries may reduce overt operations and their banks will become more cautious, but they are unlikely to abandon commerce that supports energy security, supplies border regions, and preserves strategically important transport links.

Iran is redrawing its trade map

Iran began preparing for prolonged isolation long before the current war, building its response around a gradual dispersal of trade and logistics. In the oil sector, the Goreh-Jask pipeline is particularly important because it carries crude to the Gulf of Oman and permits exports without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Its designed capacity is 1 million barrels per day, although its effective capacity is estimated at closer to 300,000 barrels and actual shipments through Jask remained far lower before the war. The route cannot yet replace the terminals of the Persian Gulf, but it can preserve a portion of Iranian exports during a blockade.

The port of Chabahar provides access to the Arabian Sea for non-oil trade, while overland crossings connect Iran with Iraq, Türkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. After the crisis began, Pakistan opened six designated road routes linking its cities of Karachi and Gwadar, as well as Port Qasim, with the Iranian border crossings at Gabd and Taftan. Gas pipelines to Türkiye and Iraq allow part of Iran’s energy exports to continue without tankers, while border trade, barter, and settlements in national currencies reduce dependence on major international banks.

Maritime exports are simultaneously moving deeper into the grey economy. The methods include ship-to-ship transfers, the disabling of automatic identification systems, repeated changes of flags and ownership, the relabeling of crude oil, and long chains of intermediary companies. Digital assets and gold cannot support the entire foreign trade of a large country, but they can be used for individual payments, component procurement, and the preservation of reserves. The new sanctions will increase the cost of every such operation, but they are unlikely to eliminate a system that has been developing for decades.

When economic coercion undermines its own foundation

America’s capacity to impose secondary sanctions rests on the central role of the dollar in global trade. According to the International Monetary Fund, the dollar accounted for 57.13% of disclosed global foreign exchange reserves in the first quarter of 2026. Neither the yuan, the euro nor the existing BRICS platforms currently provide a comparable combination of liquidity, legal infrastructure and financial market depth.

Yet the dominance of a currency is not invulnerable, especially when access to it is increasingly used as an instrument of coercion. Every new threat against a foreign bank, tariff imposed on a trading partner, or attempt to force a third country to abandon an economically necessary contract increases the value of alternative mechanisms. Settlements in national currencies, central bank digital currencies, gold, regional clearing arrangements, and projects such as BRICS Pay remain fragmented, but sanctions are giving them both a political purpose and growing commercial demand.

The paradox of American strategy is that the more effectively Washington uses the power of the dollar, the more urgently other states search for protection from it. If secondary sanctions are extended to major Chinese, Turkish, Iraqi, or Indian institutions, Iran will not be the only country to bear the cost. Supply chains will be disrupted, energy and shipping prices will rise, global trade will become increasingly fragmented, and non-Western governments will acquire another powerful reason to support financial infrastructure that does not depend on decisions made in Washington.

The resilience of Iranian society, shaped by the war with Iraq, more than four decades of sanctions, repeated currency crises, and the constant threat of external pressure, should not be discounted either. Iranians have learned to adapt economic life to inflation, shortages, and instability, while the state has developed mechanisms for allocating scarce resources, using informal markets, and transferring much of the burden onto the private sector.

This does not mean that the new sanctions will be painless. They may accelerate inflation, reduce employment, restrict access to technology, and deepen public discontent. Yet declining living standards will not automatically lead to political revolt. External pressure often strengthens the authorities’ narrative, allows them to attribute the crisis to a foreign enemy, and increases the population’s dependence on state-controlled systems of distribution.

Even if implemented with maximum severity, Operation Economic Outcast is unlikely to weaken Iran rapidly or provoke an immediate mass uprising against its leadership. A prolonged struggle is far more probable, with Washington raising the cost of Tehran’s foreign relations while Iran expands alternative routes, exerts pressure in the Strait of Hormuz, and encourages its partners to adopt new settlement mechanisms.

Residents of the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta tore down makeshift migrant shelters as police fired rubber bullets during escalating protests over the migration crisis, videos posted online purport to show. Thousands of migrants remain in the territory nearly a month after a record mass crossing from neighboring Morocco, with many seeking asylum in the EU.

The crisis erupted in late July, when around 72,000 people crossed or attempted to cross into Ceuta, many by swimming around border barriers. Most were returned, but Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has said around 5,000 remain. Ceuta President Juan Jesus Vivas has put the figure as high as 9,000.

Thousands of residents took to the streets on Wednesday for a second day of protests, demanding faster deportations and criticizing Madrid’s handling of the crisis. Demonstrators carrying Spanish flags marched toward government buildings chanting “No invasion – expulsion.”

Protesters later headed toward El Trampolin beach, where migrants had erected makeshift shelters. Police intervened to keep the groups apart and fired rubber bullets as tensions escalated, according to media reports. Several shelters were torn down during the confrontation.

The influx has strained the resources of the tiny Spanish territory with a population of roughly 84,000 people, with thousands sleeping on beaches, in forests, and on the streets. Local authorities have struggled to provide accommodation, food, and sanitation while processing asylum claims and determining who can be returned.

Ceuta’s government has accused Madrid of failing to do enough to resolve the crisis. Police cleared about 1,500 migrants from a beach last Thursday and transferred them to temporary facilities, but hundreds reportedly returned within hours amid fears of deportation.

The mass crossing has also left scores of migrants dead. At least 88 bodies recovered following the influx were being buried at Ceuta’s Muslim cemetery last week, with only nine identified, according to media.

Migrants have meanwhile staged their own demonstrations demanding asylum. Around 200 gathered at El Trampolin earlier this month carrying signs reading “We don’t want to return to Morocco” and “We are human too.”

Ceuta, along with Melilla, forms the EU’s only land border with Africa and has long been a destination for migrants seeking to reach Europe. The latest influx was fueled by economic hardship in Morocco and viral claims that Spain had effectively opened its border.

Spanish and Moroccan authorities have blamed smugglers and online misinformation for encouraging the crossings. Morocco has since reinforced security around Ceuta, while Madrid has moved to speed up asylum decisions and the return of migrants with no right to remain.

A Turkish-owned cargo vessel carrying fresh vegetables to Russia has been struck by drones in the Black Sea, leaving five crew members injured, according to Turkish media.

Ukraine intensified drone attacks on Russian commercial traffic in the Black Sea last month as part of a failed campaign intended to exert economic pressure on Moscow and force it to accept Kiev’s terms in the conflict.

The Cameroon-flagged Lider Bordo Mavi was struck by three drones off the Russian port of Tuapse, sparking a fire on board, according to Turkish media reports. Some news outlets suggested the overnight strikes were part of Kiev’s campaign against Russian maritime trade.

The ship belongs to a ten-vessel fleet operated by the Trabzon-based shipping company Lider Gida and departed the Turkish city port of Samsun on Tuesday. It was carrying fresh vegetables and had diverted to Tuapse from its original destination, the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea port, as well as commercial vessels using its facilities. Global shipping giant MSC suspended new bookings to and from the port earlier this week after one of its vessels was damaged in an attack, according to Bloomberg.

Türkiye “tested” by attacks on cargo ships

Erkut Celebi, head of the Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the incident was the latest in a string of drone attacks on Turkish commercial vessels in the Black Sea and called on Ankara to provide financial support to affected companies.

“Türkiye is clearly being tested,” Celebi told reporters, warning that the attacks were threatening Black Sea trade and placing mounting pressure on Turkish exporters and shipowners.

Türkiye has remained largely neutral in the Ukraine conflict and maintained commercial ties with both Russia and Ukraine, drawing criticism from Kiev’s Western backers.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky announced the 40-day “pressure campaign” last month. Ukrainian forces targeted Russian oil refineries, civilian vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and warehouses operated by commercial online retailers to pile up economic damage and inflict hardships on the Russian population.

Ankara played a major role in negotiating safe passage for ships through the Black Sea since the escalation of the conflict in 2022. The arrangement largely held, despite occasional attacks on vessels in neutral waters that Moscow attributed to Ukrainian operations.

Russian officials warned that Kiev was playing with fire by attacking other countries’ commercial vessels. After the latest escalation, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of opening Pandora’s box. Russian retaliatory strikes have effectively cut off shipments through Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Moscow has indicated that it does not intend to restore the previous arrangement.

“Our Turkish colleagues are once again proposing that some form of agreement be reached so that shipping is not subjected to attacks. Yet it was not us who initiated these hostilities,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola outbreak in Uganda over after the country recorded no new confirmed cases for 42 consecutive days, the UN health agency said on Thursday. 

The announcement comes a month after the Ugandan authorities declared the country Ebola-free on July 28, following 42 days without a locally acquired case. The WHO, however, continued monitoring after the last confirmed patient – an imported case from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) – was discharged on July 16. The additional 42-day period, which represents twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola and is the international benchmark for determining that transmission linked to an outbreak has ended, has now passed without further cases. 

“Uganda has demonstrated that with decisive action, Ebola outbreaks can be brought under control quickly,” WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said. 

Uganda recorded 20 confirmed cases after declaring the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak on May 15. Of these, 15 were linked to infections brought in from neighboring DR Congo, while the remaining five were contracted locally by contacts and healthcare workers. The outbreak resulted in two deaths, while 18 patients recovered. Officials also identified and monitored more than 800 contacts. 

“Uganda has shown that Ebola can be stopped when leadership acts decisively, communities are trusted and public health systems reach people quickly,” Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Director-General Jean Kaseya said. “This is a victory for Uganda and an important lesson for our continent.” 

The announcement comes as the Ebola outbreak continues in the DR Congo.  According to the latest figures from the country’s health authorities, 5,713 confirmed cases have been recorded, including 2,744 deaths, putting the overall fatality rate at 48%. 

The outbreak has now affected 58 health zones across six provinces – Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Bas-Uele and Tshopo. Ituri remains the epicenter, with 28 of its 36 health zones affected. The WHO said earlier this month that the outbreak is the largest ever recorded in the DR Congo, with transmission continuing to outpace containment efforts.

A catastrophic flash flood on Wednesday morning wreaked massive destruction upon Nepal’s northern mountainous region, bordering China. The torrent of water, rock, and mud wiped out entire villages, washed away roads and destroyed power infrastructure and dams.

Thousands of people are missing, Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal has said, among them pilgrims to Mansarovar in Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus. “Town after town has been wiped out within hours,” he said. Nearly 400 of the 579 tourists missing are Indians.  

Nepal’s army has pressed in helicopters to rescue people trapped in mud and in buildings that survived the deluge, and deliver emergency supplies. More than 100 people have been rescued so far, including foreigners. 

In China, where the border customs post at Gyirong Port was wiped out by the rushing water and rocks, 558 people are missing – 260 of them foreigners. However, rescue efforts are hindered because of the lack of road connectivity and the thick mud covering the area.

Iranian businesses are increasingly turning to discounts and installment payments to keep customers shopping, as sanctions and the economic fallout from the US-Israeli war squeeze household budgets, RT’s Salman Khujuri reports.

The trend comes nearly six months after the US and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February. Large-scale fighting has subsided under a series of temporary agreements, but efforts to reach a lasting settlement have stalled as Washington ramps up economic pressure on Tehran.

Businesses in the Iranian capital are adapting to soaring prices and falling purchasing power, with some allowing customers to spread purchases over several payments.

Bobak Shirpour, who runs a large clothing retail business in Tehran, told RT on Thursday that worsening economic conditions after the war and years of sanctions prompted his company to seek suppliers offering better prices and quality. With many larger families unable to pay in cash, the retailer also introduced discounts and installment plans.

“People have welcomed it, they come in with a smile and leave with a smile,” Shirpour said, adding that despite the narrower profit margins, business remains steady.

Shoppers interviewed by RT said installment plans have become increasingly useful as household budgets come under pressure. “They allow people to buy things they can’t afford to pay for in cash and pay in four installments instead. It gives people some peace of mind and helps them meet some of their basic needs despite these difficult circumstances,” one customer said.

Iranian households have been cutting spending on food and other essentials as inflation and the falling rial erode purchasing power, according to recent media reports. Installment shopping has also expanded to Iranian companies offering deferred-payment services as consumers struggle with the rising cost of living, the Financial Times reported earlier this month. 

Watch RT’s full report below:

The African Union (AU) will launch a continent-wide credit rating agency in Mauritius on October 5, a senior AU adviser said on Wednesday.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an AU-backed initiative, is preparing to launch the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) as governments across the continent seek to address high borrowing costs. It was announced by Paul Sikazwe, the technical adviser on debt to the AU Commission, at a debt and development conference in Nairobi hosted by campaign group AfroDad.

“This is a sign of progress in our ambition to provide momentum for the reform of the international financial architecture,” Sikazwe said, as quoted by Reuters. 

Misheck Mutize, the APRM’s lead expert on credit rating agencies, said earlier this month that the agency should improve the quality and diversity of information available to investors. He said its role will be to strengthen the credibility of credit opinions rather than simply provide higher ratings.

The launch comes as several African countries remain under pressure from high debt burdens. Zambia defaulted on its sovereign Eurobonds in 2020, Ghana suspended payments on much of its external debt in 2022, and Ethiopia defaulted on a Eurobond in 2023. All three countries have since pursued debt restructuring with their creditors.

African governments have for years criticized major international rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana raised similar concerns in 2025, saying countries with comparable fiscal indicators can receive different treatment. 

“There is already a bias against the African continent by multinational institutions, by the investing community, by rating agencies,” he said. Ghana and Zambia have also criticized global rating agencies, saying downgrades scare off investors and worsen their access to credit.

Plans for AfCRA were already well-advanced last year. The APRM said the agency will initially focus on local-currency ratings and will be backed mainly by African private-sector investors, according to reports at the time. Mutize also rejected suggestions that its purpose is “to give favorable ratings to Africa.”

British military facilities and equipment in Ukraine and beyond could become legitimate targets for Russian strikes if Kiev continues to use UK-supplied weapons for attacks on Russian territory, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.

The comments come amid rapidly deteriorating relations between Moscow and London, and a day after Ukrainian forces reportedly used British-French Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles in a strike on Donetsk that wounded at least eight civilians, including two children.

“We have repeatedly warned that the response to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons against Russian territory could be directed against any British military facilities and equipment in Ukraine and beyond,” Zakharova said during a press briefing on Thursday.

Those responsible for attacks on Russian civilians will be punished, she added, warning that their “accomplices and instigators” will also face consequences.

Zakharova accused successive British governments of pursuing a long-term objective of inflicting a so-called “strategic defeat” on Russia, and urged “all residents of the United Kingdom to think about the inevitable, catastrophic consequences of the hostile steps taken by their own authorities.”

The spokeswoman called on the British government to “immediately, decisively and unequivocally” abandon its aggressive policies that threaten to push the conflict “to a fundamentally new level.”

Earlier this week, Britain approved the transfer of classified technology needed to help Ukraine assemble Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles domestically.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by accusing Britain of “participating in this war on the side of the Kiev regime” and warning that Russian forces are gathering intelligence on sites involved in producing missiles and other military equipment in Ukraine in order to destroy them.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned last week that Moscow has “every right to regard the proudly proclaimed direct involvement of British missile forces in strikes against Russia as participation in the war, with all the consequences that entails.”

Two employees at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport have died in a rare malaria outbreak caused by infected mosquitoes believed to have been accidentally brought in by plane from a malaria-endemic country.

The outbreak began in early July, according to the Frankfurt Public Health Department. The first worker died shortly afterward, with the malaria diagnosis confirmed posthumously. Authorities traced the outbreak to the airport, where operator Fraport set traps and captured several mosquitoes, sending them for genetic analysis to determine their origin. Staff were advised to seek medical attention if symptoms developed.

In mid-July, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s federal disease-control agency, confirmed four cases among airport employees.

“The affected individuals fell ill between July 4 and 6, 2026,” the RKI wrote in its Epidemiological Bulletin. “It is assumed that the infection was transmitted by an infected Anopheles mosquito imported by plane.”

Citing medical sources, local media later reported that a total of six male workers, largely in jobs handling luggage, had been infected.

On Wednesday, Frankfurt health authorities announced that a second infected worker had died. They insisted, however, that “for the population of Frankfurt, the risk is considered very, very low.”

“The disease is not transmissible from person to person but is always transmitted by mosquitoes,” the authorities said in a statement to German media. They did not confirm the total number of cases but said those affected were receiving treatment.

Frankfurt health chief Peter Tinnemann similarly sought to reassure residents, telling DPA news agency that “the risk to the Frankfurt population is insignificant.”

Malaria is a potentially fatal disease caused by Plasmodium parasites spread by infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It typically causes fever, chills, headaches and fatigue, while severe cases can lead to organ failure, seizures and coma. The most dangerous form, malaria tropica, can become life-threatening within 24 hours if undetected, though malaria is generally considered preventable and curable with early treatment.

The disease is concentrated mainly in tropical regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. The latest WHO data shows an estimated 610,000 people died from malaria worldwide in 2024 out of roughly 282 million cases – around 9 million more infections than the previous year. More than half of the deaths occurred in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Niger.

Malaria cases in Germany normally involve travelers who were infected in endemic countries. In rare cases, however, infected mosquitoes can be carried into the country aboard aircraft, including in luggage, and then bite people on the plane or at the airport – a phenomenon known as “airport malaria.” Europe’s last documented airport-acquired case also occurred at Frankfurt Airport in 2023, according to the RKI.

Russia has no reason to escalate the Ukraine conflict because its forces are already advancing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told Bloomberg.

A Bloomberg report published on Wednesday cited “volume of chatter” among foreign policy hawks in Moscow as indicating that the Russian government could potentially use nuclear weapons. It also claimed “three people close to the Kremlin” told it Moscow is preparing to intensify long-range missile and drone strikes as it sees the diplomatic path as pointless.

In comments added to the report on Thursday, Peskov distinguished battlefield action from Moscow’s response to Kiev’s increasing efforts to cause economic damage with attacks deep inside Russia.

“Ukraine is trying to hit our economic infrastructure, our trading infrastructure, thus causing a response from our side, and this will be a heavy response,” Peskov said. “But if you’re speaking about military escalation, we simply don’t need it because we are advancing anyway.”

Last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky announced a 40-day “pressure campaign” involving intensified attacks on Russian oil refineries, civilian vessels in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and warehouses operated by commercial online retailers. Ukrainian officials have argued that such strikes could pressure Moscow into accepting Kiev’s terms.

The campaign was also reportedly intended to convince US President Donald Trump that Ukraine still has a viable path to victory and persuade Washington to approve additional deliveries of as many as 300 Patriot missile interceptors. Stockpiles of the costly US-made weapons have been depleted by the war on Iran.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Ukrainian campaign as opening Pandora’s box. Retaliatory Russian strikes have since virtually paralyzed Ukrainian shipping through Black Sea ports and caused congestion in Romania, where traffic has been rerouted. Reuters reported that as many as 70 cargo ships were waiting to pass through the Danube-Black Sea Canal, which has become a logistical bottleneck.

Bloomberg also claimed that Putin “could eventually opt to use tactical nuclear weapons as a last resort.” Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows nuclear weapons to be used only in response to a nuclear attack or during a conventional conflict that poses a critical threat to the existence of the Russian state.

Meanwhile, Zelensky’s government is facing mounting political pressure amid a growing number of corruption cases involving members of his inner circle. Last week, he was forced to dismiss a deputy head of his office who was accused of laundering money to fund bail for a former energy minister implicated in a separate graft case.

The Landesweingut Kloster Pforta, one of Germany’s oldest wineries, faces insolvency by 2027, according to an expert report commissioned by the state government. Its troubles, from an unsustainable business model to high staffing costs, come amid a wider German wine slump driven by falling consumption and cheaper imports.

Owned by Saxony-Anhalt, Kloster Pforta is one of Europe’s oldest continuously operating wineries. Cistercian monks founded the monastery in 1137 and planted the Pfortenser Koeppelberg vineyard in 1154. The state took ownership after German reunification in 1993, but the estate still grows rare historic varieties, including Weisser Heunisch and White Elbling, alongside Riesling, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris.

An independent report by auditing firm Ecovis, cited by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday, found that the winery can no longer secure credit or maintain liquidity on its own.

“The current business model is not sustainable in its present state, as it is generating persistent losses,” the auditors warned, adding that “without drastic restructuring measures, these losses will lead to insolvency and over-indebtedness of the company by 2027 at the latest.”

Auditors blamed high payroll costs, inefficient vineyard use, and weak sales and marketing, compounded by a disastrous 2024 harvest and the wider wine-market slump. To avoid bankruptcy, Kloster Pforta now plans to halve its vineyards, cut staff, and receive a €2 million injection under a four-year restructuring plan.

German wine has been in decline for years. German Wine Institute (DWI) data earlier this year showed that annual consumption fell from a Covid-era peak of 24.3 liters per adult to 21.5 liters – below pre-pandemic levels.

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, producers have faced higher energy, labor, and material costs, pushing up prices, while consumers have increasingly turned to cheaper bottles as German food prices have risen by around 30% on average.

Cheap imports add to the squeeze: Spanish bulk wine, for example, enters Germany at just €0.91 ($1.06) per liter, making it difficult for domestic producers to compete at the €1-to-€3-per-bottle end of the market.

Wine woes mirror Germany’s wider slump

The winery’s troubles come amid a broader German slump, with near-zero growth, high energy costs, and business insolvencies at a 20-year high. Since moving away from Russian energy in 2022, Germany has turned to costlier supplies, while major manufacturers have closed factories amid weaker demand.

Meanwhile, Berlin has committed €96 billion ($109 billion) to Kiev, launched a €100 billion rearmament drive, and pledged to raise core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2029. Amid criticism that military spending is coming at the expense of domestic needs, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s approval has plunged to a record-low 13%.

Germany is considering pouring funds into Britain’s nuclear program as European NATO nations grow increasingly hesitant to rely on the US nuclear umbrella, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

German officials are discussing financial and industrial support for Britain’s Trident submarine nuclear weapons program rather than pursuing a national arsenal, with one source citing Germany’s World War II guilt as a factor, the newspaper said.

“We have a very strong interest that the existing nuclear powers in Europe extend their capabilities,” one well-placed source told the newspaper.

Berlin is reportedly exploring whether German money or industry could contribute to the next generation of British nuclear submarines, missiles, or uranium enrichment for future warheads. One British defense source, however, questioned whether German companies possess the highly specialized experience needed to build and maintain Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet, which has been reeling under maintenance and manpower issues.

The push comes amid tensions between European NATO members and US President Donald Trump, who has pressed the rest of the bloc to shoulder more of their own defense burden while moving toward reducing the US military footprint on the continent.

“Policymakers are waking up each morning and asking themselves what the hell the Americans are going to do tomorrow,” a German diplomatic source told The Telegraph.

Rather than respond by seeking a national nuclear weapon, Berlin has increasingly looked for ways to bind Germany into the British and French deterrents, the article says.

Together with France, Germany has created a nuclear steering group, and German forces are expected to take part in a French nuclear exercise. However, Berlin is reportedly wary of depending solely on Paris because of President Emmanuel Macron’s looming exit next year and the potential victory of an EU-skeptic candidate.

Germany remains a non-nuclear-weapon state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is formally barred from manufacturing or controlling atomic weapons. The 1990 Two Plus Four Treaty, which paved the way for German reunification, also prohibited foreign nuclear weapons and their carriers from being stationed in the territory of the former East Germany.

Berlin nevertheless already takes part in NATO’s nuclear-sharing arrangements and is believed to store 20 US B61 bombs at Buchel Air Base in western Germany under US custody, with German aircraft assigned a potential role in delivering them during a potential NATO nuclear operation.

Last month, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported that at least one NATO country raised “concern about the active research and development work being carried out in Germany that has a nuclear weapons focus.”

It added that NATO specialists believe Germany could produce the necessary fissile material “within one to three months” and build a functioning nuclear explosive device “within a year” without conducting a full-scale test.

Moscow has warned that any NATO plans to buttress its nuclear umbrella are a “direct strategic threat” to Russia.

Nepal has ramped up rescue efforts as it searches for thousands of people missing along its northern border with China, where a catastrophic flash flood wiped out towns and villages on Wednesday morning, killing more than 350 people.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal said Thursday that thousands of families have lost their homes and remain untraced.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority in Nepal said 826 people are missing, with the Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts being the worst affected. The authority said 44 Nepalese Army personnel, 28 police personnel, and 13 Armed Police Force personnel are among those missing.

The Nepalese Army and private helicopters are conducting rescue missions, with about a 100 people rescued from the affected areas, spokesperson Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said. Army teams also rescued people trapped in the Trishuli hydropower project’s facilities.

At least eight foreign nationals were airlifted to Kathmandu by the army, he said.

Videos posted online by the army show its personnel rescuing people trapped in the thick, concrete-like mud covering many of the villages and towns that stood in the flood’s path.

The aftermath destruction of Nepal-Tibet flood seen from the helicopter view.
Why they built the houses near the river bank. pic.twitter.com/lYTgdyHo5s

— Sohail (@onlysohail_) August 27, 2026

“Rehabilitation is the major concern” for the Nepalese government as people have lost their homes, the spokesman for the Nepalese Prime Minister’s Office, Hemraj Aryal, told RT India. “The main thing is revitalizing and re-engaging the people in the society.”

He said rescue teams are already on most sites where people need help, but added that reconnecting the roads will take time as the devastation is huge.

China, where 558 people are missing in Tibet, dispatched 111 emergency rescuers to Gyirong Port in Xizang carrying detection, life-saving, demolition, communication, and support equipment. With roads washed away or damaged, the team was flown from Chengdu early Thursday morning, landing at Dingri Airport in Shigatse.

PM @narendramodi talk to nepal pm @ShahBalen and assured him of all possible assistance.

The Nepali Army is conducting a rescue operation. See the photos of the helicopter rescue operation.

Pls pray for #Nepal#NepalFloods #Nepal #Rasuwa #FlashFlood #Floods #Dhading pic.twitter.com/iRCC60rHtF

— Ravi Pandey🇮🇳 (@ravipandey2643) August 26, 2026

The People’s Liberation Army also sent a group to take over command over military rescue forces, including aviation, medical, transportation, and engineering troops.

The People’s Daily said a barrier lake has formed about 2.5 km from Gyirong Port, posing “significant challenges to ongoing rescue efforts.”

बाढी प्रभावितहरूको उद्धारमा #नेपालीसेना....
जहाँ संकट, त्यहाँ #नेपालीसेना !!!#NepaliArmy#BhoteKoshiFlood pic.twitter.com/roAhhUGMNt

— Nepali Army (@NepaliArmyHQ) August 27, 2026

Nepal’s Khanal said about 500 foreign nationals are out of contact, many of them on pilgrimage to Mansarovar, a sacred site for Hindus, in Tibet. He said the Nepalese government has been in contact with foreign embassies on the missing foreign nationals.

“We are as committed to the safety and well-being of foreign nationals as we are to the Nepali citizens,” he said in Kathmandu.

All-out Rescue, Relief Efforts after Mudslide Hits Border Port in Xizang

The Chinese PLA Western Theater Command dispatched a directing group to the Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China on the morning of August 27 to coordinate the military forces’ joint rescue operations… pic.twitter.com/FUbAwPNGEu

— China Military Bugle (@ChinaMilBugle) August 27, 2026

Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah and Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal have travelled to Bidur, in Nuwakot. They will meet local officials and discuss relief and rehabilitation as well as how to restore the damaged infrastructure.

India flew in 10 tons of relief supplies to Nepal, including temporary shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps, and medicines, on Wednesday evening. A second flight carrying medicines and food packets took off Thursday morning.

India and China have offered assistance but are waiting for Kathmandu to assess its emergency needs and raise a request as current protocols require. The US and the World Bank have also offered support.

India, China, and the World Bank are coordinating financial and other assistance for rescue and reconstruction, the Kathmandu post reported, adding the World Bank has offered to mobilize up to NPR 25 billion (about $165 billion) in emergency assistance.

Ukrainian basketball player Kate Koval has left Louisiana State University’s women’s basketball team less than two weeks after the team signed Russian center Anna Minaeva.

Head coach Kim Mulkey announced Koval’s departure on Monday, saying the Ukrainian had decided to leave the program “for personal reasons.”

“We will respect her privacy on her decision, but we had a long talk about it, and it was a hard decision for her,” Mulkey said.

The announcement came after Mulkey revealed last week that she had spoken privately with Koval about whether she was prepared to play alongside Minaeva and “pass the ball to each other.”

Mulkey said she had hoped the Ukrainian and Russian players could become “ambassadors” for friendship and perhaps even help bring an end to the conflict between their countries. Koval reportedly responded: “I doubt that.”

Mulkey also said she had made clear that geopolitical tensions would not influence LSU’s recruitment decisions.

“I cannot make a decision to not recruit somebody that can help our program because of a conflict between two countries,” she said.

LSU announced Minaeva’s signing on August 14, describing the 17-year-old Russian center as an “all-around addition that can impact the 2026-27 squad immediately.”

“It takes tremendous courage to leave home at just 17 years old and travel across the world to pursue a dream. I’m excited to support and guide Anna as she begins this next chapter at LSU,” Mulkey said at the time.

LSU has said Minaeva could develop into “one of the college game’s most effective post players.” She previously played for MBA Moscow, competing in the Russian Premier League and Superleague.

Ukrainian athletes have repeatedly avoided interactions with Russian competitors since the escalation of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in 2022.

In May, Ukrainian rhythmic gymnasts were filmed covering their ears and eyes while the Russian and Belarusian national anthems were played at the European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria.

The tournament marked the first time in nearly five years that athletes from Russia and Belarus had been allowed to compete under their national flags, after World Gymnastics and European Gymnastics lifted restrictions earlier that month.

The US-Canada trade war is reaching the bathroom, with tariffs on paper products threatening to push up prices for toilet paper and other everyday essentials for Americans.

Trade talks between the two neighbors collapsed last Friday, with both sides accusing the other of making last-minute changes to a proposed comprehensive deal. US President Donald Trump immediately imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, including wine, cement, plywood, and clothing. Not to be outdone, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to respond “dollar for dollar,” with Ottawa announcing duties of up to 50% on around 700 American products on Tuesday.

Paper products are among the hardest hit, with Canada targeting toilet paper and facial tissue with 25% duties, along with paper towels and napkins at 50%. Chemical wood pulp used to make such products also faces a 50% tariff.

Canada is the main source of US toilet paper imports, supplying $383.4 million worth in 2025 – about two-thirds of the imported total – according to US International Trade Commission data. Mexico was a distant second at $63 million. Canada is also the main foreign supplier of wood pulp to the US, including northern bleached softwood kraft pulp (NBSK), a key material in toilet paper and paper towels. Canadian pulp reportedly accounts for around 30% of US toilet paper and 50% of paper towel production.

If the tariffs take effect, US importers will bear the added cost of bringing Canadian products and pulp across the border, and given the reliance on Canadian supplies, at least some of that expense is likely to be passed on to consumers. This could prove particularly noticeable in a country that accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption, according to the 2019 report The Issue with Tissue by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Market research data shows the average American goes through around 141 rolls of toilet paper a year – roughly three a week – making the US the world’s top consumer, just ahead of Germany. At that rate, even a modest price hike could quickly add up.

Toilet paper is far from the only potential casualty of the trade war. Canada’s measures mirror many products targeted by Washington, with higher duties covering everything from fish, cheese, clothing, and cosmetics to steel and aluminum goods, motorcycles, smartphones, and exercise equipment. Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly said that the counter-tariffs were aimed primarily at protecting businesses while also applying political pressure ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections.

With Canada’s retaliatory tariffs not taking effect until September 8, however, some analysts hope that Washington and Ottawa still have time to strike a deal.

“That gives us this week. It gives us next week,” Christopher Sands, head of the Center for US-Canada Studies at Johns Hopkins University, told AP on Wednesday. “Time to take a breather and talk about how to avert an all-out trade war.”

The US has accused Chinese hackers it described as “state-backed” of breaking into NASA, the Federal Reserve, and other sensitive government networks, just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump.

Beijing rejected the allegations. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said China “opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks” and urged the US to “stop using cybersecurity issues to smear or discredit China.”

The Justice Department and FBI announced on Wednesday that they seized three internet domains linked to two hacking platforms allegedly operated by a Chinese group known as QTFY. The US authorities claimed the operation targeted NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Senate, and several government departments, as well as hospitals, telecommunications providers, power companies, financial institutions, and defense contractors.

Washington described the campaign as Chinese state-sponsored activity and alleged that the company behind it provided hacking services to China’s Ministry of State Security and the People’s Liberation Army. However, officials did not disclose what sensitive information was allegedly stolen or what damage, if any, was caused.

The latest accusations come little more than a month after Trump accused Beijing of meddling in US elections, claiming China illicitly acquired 220 million American voter files during the 2020 election cycle in what he called the “largest compromise” of election data in US history.

China dismissed that allegation as “groundless” and “entirely fabricated.” Trump’s assertions of election hacking were met with skepticism even among some of his supporters, as the documents released by the White House only showed Chinese interest in collecting publicly available or commercially obtainable American voter information.

Trump openly acknowledged after meeting Xi in Beijing in May that Washington conducts extensive espionage against China.

“We spy like hell on them too,” Trump told reporters. “We do a lot of stuff to you that you don’t know about,” Trump said he told Xi, describing the two countries’ espionage activities as a “double-edged sword.”

Beijing has made similar accusations against Washington, claiming last October that the NSA conducted a years-long cyberattack on China’s National Time Service Center, which supports critical sectors including finance, energy, transportation, and defense. The NSA did not confirm or deny the allegation.

The renewed cyber accusations come ahead of Xi’s expected visit to the US on September 24. Trump said he plans to host the Chinese leader following their talks in May in Beijing, as the two sides seek to manage disputes over trade, technology, and cybersecurity, as well as the sanctions threats against nations that continue trading with Iran.

Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has warned that AI and social media are eroding people’s ability to think and feel, while powerful interests exploit technology, politics, and war for profit.

Speaking to RT on Wednesday, the legendary musician welcomed Australia’s decision to bar fully AI-generated songs from its music charts, saying streaming platforms have already gutted musicians’ livelihoods with minuscule royalties while concentrating ownership and profits in the hands of Big Tech.

“So that piracy has almost destroyed everything. But if they are then allowed to use AI to produce fodder for their very tame audience who pays so much a month to get any music that they want from anywhere… Unfortunately, we know that a large number of that audience won’t be able to tell the difference between AI and Pink Floyd, or Neil Young, or Bob Dylan, or The Beatles or anything else.”

Waters broadened his criticism beyond the music industry, accusing social media platforms of manipulating users’ emotions and political attitudes through addictive algorithms, while warning that reliance on AI assistants is undermining independent thought.

“It reduces the size of your brain and your capacity to think and your capacity to feel,” Waters said. “In fact, it reduces everything human about anybody who goes in that direction.”

“So where do you draw the line? I’m not sure,” he added. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a factual, you know, a sort of fact-based library, if that’s all there was? But it’s not. It’s controlling our political motivations and our feelings and our emotions, and also releasing dopamine.”

Waters widened the argument to global politics, saying the same pursuit of power and profit has produced a world increasingly governed by force rather than international law.

“We live in a world that is controlled now by gangsterism,” he said. He cited Israel’s destruction of Palestinian communities in Gaza and the occupied territories, as one example, while accusing Washington of openly stealing Venezuela’s oil wealth through coercion.

Turning to Ukraine, Waters blamed the failure to implement the Minsk agreements and the collapse of the 2022 Istanbul peace talks, accusing Western governments of preventing a negotiated settlement.

Waters warned that the Ukraine conflict has since escalated “in a very, very dangerous way” and increasingly resembles the future of warfare, dominated by drones and missiles.

“Just who gets killed, nobody cares anymore,” Waters said, “because all they’re interested in is making money.”

Watch the full interview below

Iran has praised China for rejecting US threats to impose sanctions on countries that continue to trade with the Islamic Republic, with Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf saying on Wednesday that Tehran’s strategic partnership with Beijing “needs no one’s permission.”

Ghalibaf welcomed China’s “principled statement” rejecting “illegal sanctions against Iran” in a post on X.

“The Iran-China comprehensive strategic partnership is rooted in mutual respect, win-win cooperation, and a shared vision for a multipolar world,” he wrote. “This relationship needs no one’s permission.”

His remarks came after Beijing strongly rejected Washington’s threat of secondary sanctions against countries and companies that continue doing business with Iran. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Beijing firmly opposes sanctions that have no basis in international law or authorization from the UN Security Council.

China said its cooperation with Iran complies with international law and should not be interfered with, warning that it would take all necessary measures to protect its rights and interests.

Washington unveiled a new round of economic measures against Tehran on Monday as part of what the Trump administration described as an effort to further isolate Iran from the global economy. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions against nearly 60 individuals, entities, and vessels and warned foreign countries and companies that they could face penalties for maintaining financial ties with Tehran.

The measures targeted companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong but stopped short of sanctioning major Chinese financial institutions. Beijing has been the biggest buyer of Iranian oil for years, although flows have been severely curtailed since Washington resumed its blockade of Iranian ports in mid-July.

The latest pressure campaign comes nearly six months after the US and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February. Large-scale fighting has subsided following a series of temporary agreements, but efforts to reach a lasting settlement have stalled, while Washington has stepped up economic pressure on Tehran.

Iran has denounced the expanded sanctions as a violation of international law and argued that Washington’s attempt to force other countries to sever economic relations with Tehran amounts to interference in their sovereignty.

Ukrainian forces launched a major missile strike on Donetsk, the capital of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), on Wednesday, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, regional head Denis Pushilin has said.

The strikes targeted several locations in the east of Donetsk, with most of the casualties reported near the Donetsk-City mall. The Western-supplied munitions used included the Anglo-French Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG missiles, according to Pushilin.

At least eight civilians, including two minors, were injured in the strikes near the mall, while another man was wounded by the detonation of an unexploded ordnance piece at another location, Pushilin said.

Two other civilians were wounded in the Ukrainian attacks elsewhere in the DPR, the governor added. A total of eight residential buildings, 11 civilian infrastructure sites, and multiple cars were damaged in the attacks across the city and beyond, he said.

An RT crew filmed the aftermath at one of the strike sites near the Druzhba sports center in Donetsk. The building, which belonged to a long-defunct research institute, partially collapsed after apparently being hit by multiple projectiles, while residential buildings nearby sustained minor damage, footage shows.

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a probe into the attack, with operatives working at the affected locations to collect evidence and assess the damage.

“During the inspection of the scene, it was established that the massive attack resulted in extensive damage and destruction to apartment buildings, civilian infrastructure, and passenger vehicles. The enemy targeted civilian areas of the city, where there was no weaponry or military equipment,” an operative with the committee has said.

Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik linked the attack to the recent pledge by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government to share secret Storm Shadow technology with Ukraine.

“Ukrainian terrorists are like junkies,” the diplomat, who leads a Foreign Ministry mission for tracking war crimes in the Ukraine conflict, said on social media. “If they get their hands on something, they want to use as soon as possible, usually in the worst possible way for others.”

Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian military conducted a deadly drone strike on an intercity passenger bus in the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR). The attack killed at least nine civilians and injured another five, according to local governor Leonid Pasechnik.

Kiev has stepped up long-range attacks against Russia in recent weeks, repeatedly targeting its energy and civilian infrastructure. Moscow has condemned the strikes as indiscriminate terrorist attacks and has mounted a retaliatory campaign, which has already resulted in heavy damage to Ukrainian military-related industrial sites, as well as brought the country’s maritime traffic to a halt.

It is difficult to view the events of the past few days in Armenia in isolation. On August 24, Nikol Pashinyan announced that Yerevan would soon begin preparing a formal application for membership in the European Union. The very next day, former President Robert Kocharyan – one of the current prime minister’s most recognizable opponents and the leader of the Armenia Alliance parliamentary bloc – was detained.

Officially, the two developments are unrelated. The former president has been charged with money laundering, accepting bribes, and abuse of office. Investigators claim that, during his presidency, he was involved in transferring state property to himself and his associates on favorable terms. The authorities, meanwhile, categorically deny that Kocharyan’s arrest was politically motivated.

But politics is shaped not only by the substance of a criminal case, but also by its context. Kocharyan is not simply a former official facing questions nearly two decades after leaving office. He leads an opposition alliance, has consistently opposed a break with Moscow, and is an outspoken critic of Pashinyan’s foreign policy. At the same time, other government opponents have also faced investigations or restrictions, including members of the Strong Armenia party, Samvel Karapetyan, Gagik Tsarukyan, and senior clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. As a result, even if formal legal grounds exist, every new case is inevitably seen as part of a broader campaign to clear the political field.

A bid for a new source of legitimacy

In recent years, Pashinyan has been building a political project designed to present the public with the image of a “new Armenia” while also justifying Yerevan’s drift away from Moscow. That project is a “European Armenia.” Within this framework, abandoning the country’s previous foreign policy is portrayed not as the consequence of past failures, but as a historic choice in favor of “sovereignty, peace, and democracy.” Russia, meanwhile, becomes a convenient explanation for nearly every domestic problem, while opposition figures with political, economic, or personal ties to Moscow are cast as obstacles standing in the way of this new Armenia.

This is precisely why Kocharyan’s arrest carries significance far beyond the criminal case itself. To a domestic audience, it symbolizes a final break with the old elite. To the West, it can be presented as a campaign against corruption and alleged Russian influence. To the opposition, it sends a warning that participation in political life no longer offers any protection from criminal prosecution.

Pashinyan appears to be betting that Brussels and Washington will judge Yerevan’s actions primarily through a geopolitical lens. As long as the Armenian leadership continues distancing itself from Moscow, openly curbing pro-Russian forces, and advancing a Western, openly Russophobic agenda in the region, the shortcomings of “Armenian democracy” will be treated more leniently. Put simply, this is a gamble on political indulgence: what might otherwise be called pressure on the opposition can instead be framed as “defending democracy from foreign interference.”

That calculation, however, is already running up against some inconvenient facts. In the June 7, 2026 parliamentary election, Pashinyan’s party received 49.8% of the vote, while the two main alliances advocating close ties with Russia won roughly 31% between them. Numerous violations were reported, and even OSCE observers noted that the concentration of arrests and criminal proceedings targeting opposition figures had created the appearance of “selective justice.” They also documented pressure on public-sector employees and a clear bias toward the ruling party on public television. Six candidates from the opposition Strong Armenia party were detained the day before the vote.

Tellingly, even Freedom House – an American organization whose objectivity has been repeatedly questioned because of its lenient treatment of pro-Western governments that emerged from “color revolutions” – does not classify Armenia as a free country. In Freedom House’s 2026 rankings, Armenia scored just 54 out of 100 and retained its status as “partly free.” Judicial independence and due process received only one point out of four. An increasingly clear pattern is emerging: formal democratic procedures remain in place, while administrative powers and the criminal justice system are applied to political actors in a profoundly uneven manner.

Brussels backs the course – but makes no promise of membership

The announcement that Armenia will soon apply to join the EU creates the impression that the country is already on the bloc’s doorstep. In reality, it has not even reached the beginning of accession talks; it has yet to begin the application process itself.

The law adopted by Armenia in March 2025 to launch the process of European integration was not an application for membership – a point the European Parliament itself explicitly acknowledged. As of August 26, 2026, Armenia has neither candidate status nor a European Council decision recognizing its European perspective, much less open accession negotiations. The European Commission’s official list of candidates and potential candidates includes nine countries and Kosovo. Armenia is not among them.

The substance of the first EU-Armenia summit, held in May 2026, is equally revealing. The official documents express support for Armenian sovereignty and call for partnerships in transportation, energy, digital development, and security, but contain no commitment to grant the country candidate status or draw up a road map for accession. Brussels welcomes Yerevan’s rapprochement, and some officials have all but promised the moon. But no one in Europe is waiting for Armenia.

For the European Union, Armenia is valuable as a partner in the South Caucasus and as a foothold for weakening Moscow’s influence in a region that has historically formed part of Russia’s sphere of national interests. All of this makes Yerevan useful to Brussels. But a “useful partner” is not the same thing as a future EU member. The bloc can spend years deepening sector-specific integration, liberalizing visa rules, and financing reforms without making any commitment to membership. The experience of Türkiye and Georgia’s stalled European path shows that even formal candidate status guarantees nothing.

Moreover, Armenia’s accession would require the unanimous consent of all 27 EU member states, full adoption of the bloc’s body of law, and withdrawal from the Eurasian Economic Union’s common customs regime. Pashinyan himself has previously acknowledged that membership in both integration blocs at once is impossible. This is therefore not an expansion of Armenia’s multi-vector foreign policy. Ultimately, it means choosing one economic and legal system over the other.

An economy that declarations cannot remake

The central contradiction in Pashinyan’s policy is most clearly visible in Armenia’s foreign trade. According to the country’s Statistical Committee, Armenia’s total trade turnover reached $21.43 billion in 2025. Of that amount, $8.04 billion, or 37.5%, was with EAEU member states. Russia alone accounted for $7.66 billion, or 35.8%. Trade with all 27 EU countries combined totaled $2.50 billion, or just 11.7%.

In other words, Armenia’s trade with Russia was roughly three times greater than its trade with the entire European Union. The gap was even wider in exports: Armenia shipped $3.22 billion worth of goods to the EAEU in 2025, compared with only $667 million to the EU. Exports to the Eurasian bloc were nearly five times greater than those to Europe, while exports to Russia alone were about 4.5 times higher than exports to the entire EU.

These figures demonstrate that Armenia is fundamentally incapable of diversifying its economy. More importantly, they make clear that the Russian and Eurasian markets cannot be replaced by the European market – not in the short term and not even over the long run. Armenian goods are already integrated into established supply chains, familiar patterns of consumption, and the EAEU’s system of free circulation. Leaving the bloc would mean the introduction of customs barriers, changes in technical standards, and worse conditions for Armenian workers within the common labor market. Producers of agricultural goods, alcoholic beverages, mineral water, and food products would be especially vulnerable, since Russia remains their primary or most accessible market.

The dependence is even more pronounced in the energy sector. In 2025, Armenia received 2.229 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia out of total supplies of 2.705 billion cubic meters – about 82%. Another 476 million cubic meters came from Iran, but those deliveries are made under a gas-for-electricity swap rather than serving as a full-fledged market alternative to Russian imports. Armenia’s gas transportation system is operated by Gazprom Armenia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russian energy giant. At an April 1, 2026 meeting, Vladimir Putin noted that Armenia pays $177.50 per thousand cubic meters of Russian gas, while the same amount cost more than $600 in Europe.

What Pashinyan is really betting on

The Armenian prime minister appears to be making several bets at once. At home, he is seeking to deprive the opposition of influential centers around which it can rally and to monopolize the country’s vision of the future. Abroad, he wants to convince the West that his government is the only barrier to Russian influence in the region. In his dealings with Moscow, he aims to preserve the economic benefits of EAEU membership for as long – and as shrewdly – as possible, while steadily raising the price of his geopolitical pivot. Finally, the promise of a European future allows him to postpone any discussion of the real cost of that choice: an application can be submitted today, candidate status can remain out of reach for years, and membership can take decades.

That is the essence of Pashinyan’s political calculation. He does not need to secure Armenia’s accession to the EU anytime soon. He merely needs to turn the movement toward Europe itself into a source of domestic legitimacy and foreign support. As long as the promise of a “European future” remains alive, every concession can be explained away as a reform, every economic setback blamed on Russian resistance, and every criminal case against an opponent justified as a mythical effort to “defend democracy.”

But this strategy has its limits. Brussels may be willing and able to help Armenia diversify some of its ties, but it is certainly not prepared to replace Russia overnight as a market, an energy supplier, and a hub for labor mobility. More importantly, it has yet to give Yerevan even a formal promise of membership.

Rather than acknowledge his own mistakes, Pashinyan has chosen to shift the blame to Russia – the country that has enabled Armenia’s economy to survive and develop from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the present day. He is betting that his geopolitical choice will allow him to win Western support, weaken the opposition, and continue enjoying the benefits of relations with Russia for a while longer. This extremely risky gamble can produce only one outcome: turning Armenia into an expendable asset. If Pashinyan believes that scenario is impossible, he should ask neighboring Georgia. For years, Tbilisi was promised a European future, yet even receiving candidate status in 2023 guaranteed neither the opening of accession talks nor membership itself. Georgia’s European path is now effectively frozen, while the European Commission describes it as a “candidate country in name only.”

The experience of Armenia’s other neighbor, Türkiye, is even more revealing. Ankara’s institutional rapprochement with Europe began with the 1963 Association Agreement. Türkiye applied for membership in 1987, became a candidate in 1999, and opened accession talks in 2005. More than 20 years later, the negotiations remain frozen and the prospect of membership is deeply uncertain. Erdogan was recently forced to acknowledge that joining the EU is no longer a priority for Ankara. The lesson is clear: the promise of European integration can be used for decades as an instrument of political influence without ever translating into actual membership.

The US has labeled Palestine Action a terrorist group, marking the first time that a British left-wing organization has been targeted by US terrorism sanctions. The US Treasury also blacklisted two other left-wing groups.

Palestine Action was added to the US’ list of Specially Designated ​Global Terrorist organizations on Wednesday, according to a statement posted online by the US Treasury Department. Under the department’s sanctions, the group will have any of its bank accounts or property in the US frozen, while its members could be barred from entering the country.

Formed in the UK in 2020, Palestine Action’s stated goal is to end “global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.” Its members have vandalized British military aircraft and factories owned by or linked to Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer.

The British government declared Palestine Action a terrorist organization last July. Since the designation, four of its members have been sentenced as terrorists for causing criminal damage to an Elbit Systems plant, while more than 3,500 of its supporters have been arrested and 480 charged with terror offenses for endorsing the group.

Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control took action to counter the growing threat posed by violent far-left terrorist groups. Globally networked and politically motivated terrorists—particularly far-left terrorists—are increasingly embracing organized, deadly violence…

— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) August 26, 2026

“Today’s action complements the UK’s proscription,” the Treasury Department stated, adding that Palestine Action was being sanctioned “for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, an act of terrorism.”

“Palestine Action’s activities in the US and elsewhere have always been about saving lives by disrupting the Israeli war machine, which is committing a genocide in Gaza with the support of the US Government,” Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori said in a statement. “[US President Donald] Trump has been at the center of the mass murder of Palestinians, enabling the Zionist regime at every turn.”

The Treasury also sanctioned Masar Badil, a Palestinian revolutionary movement allegedly run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Autistici Inventati, described by the department as “an Italy-based entity that supplies specialized digital architecture, tools, and services for Antifa cells and other violent far-left extremists.”

The 2026 US Counterterrorism Strategy identifies “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists” as one of the top three terror threats facing the US, along with transnational drug cartels and Islamist terrorists. In late 2025, the US State Department designated four European ‘Antifa’ groups – including a German group that attacked right-wingers with hammers in Budapest in 2023 – as terrorist organizations.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a new prisoner of war exchange involving ten servicemen from each side, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova has announced.

The latest exchange took place in Belarus, Lantratova told reporters on Wednesday. Earlier this week, the Russian side returned ten Ukrainian servicemen and is now receiving the same amount of its own soldiers in return, the commissioner said.

“Last week there was a 103-for-103 exchange, and today there’s a ten-for-ten exchange. We’re preparing for more exchanges, hopefully soon,” Lantratova stated. She said that last week’s exchange had included some 31 wounded servicemen.

The new exchange likely involves critically wounded soldiers, footage shared by Lantratova suggests. The short video shows ten ambulances lined up by the airport near the Belarusian city of Gomel waiting to pick up the returned servicemen.

The swap is the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges between Moscow and Kiev amid the ongoing conflict. Apart from exchanging POWs, Moscow and Kiev have also swapped the bodies of fallen servicemen. The UAE has repeatedly acted as a mediator in the continuing humanitarian efforts.

The POW exchange process has seemingly picked up this month following a brief pause in July. Before last week’s exchange, mediated by the Gulf nation, the two sides carried out two swaps in June, exchanging a total of 345 servicemen each that month.

Meta has reached a settlement in a landmark lawsuit filed by multiple US states that accused it of deliberately designing Facebook and Instagram to addict children and teenagers.

The social media giant has faced allegations of encouraging compulsive use among young people, misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms, and improperly collecting personal data from children under 13.

Meta previously estimated that the claims could have exposed it to penalties of as much as $1.4 trillion, while the states were also seeking sweeping changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate.

On Wednesday, the social media giant announced that it had reached an approximately $18 billion settlement with 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, effectively ending the case without a jury ruling on the allegations and without Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg taking the stand.

Meta said the money would be paid out over the next ten years and earmarked to fund youth online safety initiatives, among other state priorities. The settlement, which still requires judicial approval, will also force significant changes to Facebook and Instagram for users under 18.

Teens will face a two-hour daily limit across both apps unless a parent allows them more time, while access will be blocked from midnight to 6 AM and most notifications muted during school hours.

Meta said it will also offer teenagers the option of a non-algorithmic feed, allow autoplay to be disabled, hide like counts by default, and strengthen age checks and parental controls. Most of the measures will remain in place for ten years.

The tech giant has further demanded that rival tech giants TikTok and YouTube also face certain restrictions. Meta said it would pay out 30% of the settlement, or $5.3 billion, only if the two companies adopt similar safeguards and make matching payments.

The settlement came during the second week of a federal trial in Oakland, California involving claims brought by 29 states, which based their accusations on Meta’s own internal research and communications.

Court documents cited company data showing that teenagers were disproportionately being exposed to harmful material, including content involving suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, bullying, and violence.

Internal messages revealed that some of the figures were deliberately removed from a presentation to company leadership, following advice from Meta’s lawyers, to avoid creating a paper trail back to Meta’s top brass. Instagram product design director Francesco Fogu admitted that he agreed to scrub the statistics from the presentation because “at the end of the day, I didn’t care.”

Meta has denied wrongdoing throughout the case, insisting that it has worked to protect children and teenagers online. It has also rejected the idea that Facebook and Instagram were deliberately made addictive, arguing that “social media addiction” is not even a recognized psychiatric condition.

Despite the settlement, Meta, along with other social media companies, continues to face thousands of separate lawsuits from individuals, families, and school districts over alleged harm to young users.

Hungary considers Russia a “threat to Hungary, Europe and the global order,” according to a foreign policy directive published by the country’s new pro-EU government. The statement marks a dramatic shift from the pragmatic relations pursued by former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Signed by Prime Minister Peter Magyar on Tuesday, the document states that “Hungary condemns Russian military aggression and fully supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and recognizes Ukraine’s right to self-defense.”

“Russia’s behavior poses a threat to Hungary, Europe and the global order, and also puts the Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia in serious danger, therefore we support all efforts aimed at initiating negotiations towards sustainable peace and long-term security guarantees,” it continued.

Hungary had not formally designated Russia a “threat” at any point since 1945.

This new position is almost identical to that of the EU, which also backs “sustainable peace and long-term security guarantees,” but only if they recognize Kiev’s maximalist demands – a return to Ukraine’s 1991 borders, freedom for Ukraine to pursue NATO and EU membership, and NATO-like security guarantees provided by European and American forces.

Since taking office in May, Magyar has worked to align Budapest’s foreign policy with Brussels’. He has ended Hungary’s opposition to EU accession talks with Ukraine, backed the bloc’s 21st package of anti-Russian sanctions, and lifted Budapest’s veto on a €90 billion loan package to Kiev.

Magyar’s predecessor, Viktor Orban, condemned Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. However, he also condemned the “war policies” of the West that provoked the conflict, and refused to help arm Kiev, arguing that Ukraine cannot hope to defeat Russia and should seek an imperfect peace deal instead. Orban argued that the EU’s self-imposed embargo on Russian energy would “kill off the European economy,” and lent support to its sanctions packages only after securing exemptions that would allow Hungary to continue purchasing Russian oil, gas, and nuclear fuel.

Hungary still imports energy from Russia under Magyar. Andrey Kolesnik, a member of Russia’s State Duma committee on defense, Andrei Kolesnik, suggested that Russia could cut these supplies in response. 

“They’ve given [Magyar] the order to now treat Russia poorly,” he told Gazeta.ru. “They’re trying to gain some benefits. I think that oil supplies to Hungary, and energy supplies to Hungary from Russia, are now in question after such statements.”

Orban’s government viewed Kiev, not Moscow, as the most pressing threat to Ukraine’s Hungarian minority. Under Vladimir Zelensky’s rule, ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia have had their language rights restricted and been subjected to brutal forced conscription. 

In June, Magyar struck what he called a “formal agreement” with Zelensky to protect the rights of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarians. However, no documents concerning the agreement have been published to date, making it completely unclear what protections Zelensky has agreed to.

Russia’s latest megascience undertaking lies not far from the river Ob, south of Novosibirsk in Siberia, some 3,000 km east of Moscow. The Siberian Ring Photon Source (SKIF) synchrotron complex is effectively an ultra-powerful X-ray microscope for research ranging from medicine and chemistry to metallurgy and geology.

RT has been granted access to SKIF, a state-of-the-art megascience project built to let scientists examine matter at the atomic scale.

SKIF was officially unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month. At the time, he said that the opening was postponed from 2024 because foreign suppliers failed to deliver certain equipment due to Western sanctions, forcing Russian teams to reproduce key components domestically. Now, the first research stations are expected to enter operation before year-end.

The construction of the nearly $600 million facility began in 2021, becoming one of Russia’s most expensive scientific projects. As for its principles, the device accelerates electrons to almost the speed of light and sends them around a 476-meter storage ring, where magnets bend their path and make them give off extremely bright radiation. Scientists can then select the part of that radiation they need, from infrared through hard X-rays, and aim it at a sample.

The scientists can then watch a chemical reaction as it happens, studying how metals behave under shock waves, examining proteins and medicines, or looking inside archaeological objects without cutting them open. The method is also expected to drastically reduce the development time for new materials, pharmaceuticals, and cancer drugs.

“The emission that the source creates is well suited to studying the atomic or molecular structure of a compound… It’s viruses, medicine, bone fractures, aircraft engine, turbines, chemical reactions, high-speed processes. Indeed, it’s useful to everyone,” SKIF Director Evgeny Levichev told RT.

One of the upcoming experiments will examine titanium-based catalysts used to produce ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, while other planned work includes studying difficult-to-extract gold and searching lake sediments near the site of the 1908 Tunguska event for possible extraterrestrial particles.

WATCH THE FULL REPORT.

Thirty-five years have passed since the dramatic events of August 1991 in Moscow which marked, more clearly than any later declaration or diplomatic ceremony, the end of the era we call the Cold War.

The failed ‘August Coup’ attempt to preserve the Soviet Union made continuation of the old confrontation impossible given one of its principal participants had effectively left the battlefield. Everything that followed, including the formal dissolution of the USSR in December 1991, merely recorded a change that had already taken place.

The essential fact was that the Soviet Union, and subsequently Russia, could no longer sustain the material and political foundations required to continue the struggle. There were many reasons for this, but foremost among them was the exhaustion of the Soviet model of state governance.

Moscow therefore chose to end the confrontation. This was historically unusual because Russia hadn’t been defeated on the battlefield or forced to surrender, and the Cold War ended because of internal political change and a voluntary decision by the Soviet leadership.

Paradoxically, this peaceful ending helped make a future confrontation more likely. The principal reason was simple: the Western powers, led by the United States, regarded the end of the Cold War as a victory, but Russia didn’t regard itself as a defeated country. That contradiction became one of the central problems of the post-Cold War order.

Great nuclear powers such as Russia, the United States, and China cannot realistically be defeated militarily without risking mutual destruction, thus the greatest threats to such states therefore tend to come from within through political dysfunction, economic weakness, poor governance, and social instability.

We can see something similar today in the United States. It remains the strongest individual power in the international system, but domestic conflict increasingly limits the effectiveness of its foreign policy. Meanwhile, China places internal stability and development at the center of its strategic thinking precisely because its leaders understand that domestic cohesion ultimately determines external strength.

The same logic shaped the Cold War because once Washington and Moscow accumulated enormous nuclear arsenals, direct military conflict became irrational. The confrontation instead developed according to what George Kennan described as containment in restricting Soviet influence and applying pressure across numerous fronts while avoiding a direct war between the superpowers.

But we shouldn’t romanticize this arrangement because the Cold War was still a war in the political sense and the objective of the Soviet Union’s adversaries wasn’t simply peaceful coexistence, rather it was the containment and ultimately neutralization of their opponent.

From Moscow’s perspective, this amounted to a struggle against Russia itself, which at that particular historical moment existed politically and economically in the form of the Soviet state.

The relative stability created by nuclear deterrence certainly encouraged a degree of mutual respect as it forced both sides to search for peaceful solutions even during serious crises. However, none of this removed the fundamental Western strategic objective which was victory over the Soviet adversary.

When the Soviet Union disappeared, therefore, Western capitals naturally interpreted the event as the achievement of that objective, but the victory was incomplete.

Russia had lost the geopolitical struggle but had not been defeated in the traditional sense. Its territory hadn’t been occupied and its armed forces hadn’t surrendered, so Russians could therefore reasonably believe that the changes of 1989-91 were the result of decisions taken in Moscow rather than terms imposed by a victorious enemy and that distinction proved enormously important.

It also explains why comparisons with France after 1815 or Germany after 1945 are misleading as both countries were militarily defeated before being incorporated into new international systems established by the victors.

France was reintegrated into the European order after Napoleon because Russia, Britain, Austria, and Prussia quickly developed disagreements of their own so Paris could therefore play a useful balancing role within the Concert of Europe.

Nothing comparable existed after 1991 when the Western coalition was unusually united and organized around NATO under American leadership and there was no internal balance of power in which Russia could become an indispensable partner.

The comparison with West Germany after 1945 is even less convincing. West Germany entered NATO and the emerging European institutions while foreign troops remained on its territory and its sovereignty was sharply constrained by the consequences of military defeat. No comparable arrangement could conceivably have been imposed upon Russia.

After 1991, the central problem was never resolved given that the West saw itself as the victor of the Cold War and wanted to construct a political order reflecting that victory. Russia, on the other hand, saw itself as a sovereign great power that had voluntarily abandoned the previous confrontation and expected to participate in the new order on that basis and these expectations were fundamentally incompatible.

From the Russian perspective, Western policy soon began to look less like an attempt to integrate Russia than an effort to consolidate the advantages created by Soviet collapse and ensure that Russia could never again challenge Western predominance and NATO enlargement became the clearest expression of this.

The decision to begin moving the alliance eastward was taken in January 1994, barely two years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. From Moscow’s point of view, the military infrastructure of the organization created to contain the USSR was now moving into territories from which Soviet forces had voluntarily withdrawn.

Western governments insisted that enlargement was defensive and that sovereign states had every right to choose their alliances, but those arguments were never persuasive in Moscow. Russian policymakers increasingly interpreted NATO expansion as the construction of a territorial and military base that could be used against Russia in a future confrontation and this was the contradiction created by 1991.

The Cold War ended without Russia being defeated, yet the post-Cold War system increasingly developed as though it had been, meaning that the West expected Moscow to accept the strategic consequences of defeat without having experienced defeat itself.

Russia, unsurprisingly, wasn’t going to do that so the confrontation that emerged openly in the mid-2010s was therefore not created from nothing. Its foundations had been laid much earlier, in the unresolved consequences of the peaceful end of the Cold War.

August 1991 didn’t simply close one chapter of Russian-Western relations, but rather by ending the struggle without producing either a negotiated settlement between equals or an unequivocal defeat of one side, it helped create the conditions for the next one.

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

AP and Reuters have demanded answers from Israel over last year’s strike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza, which killed more than 20 people, including five journalists.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of the August 25, 2025 attack, the news agencies said Israel had yet to provide the “clear answers and accountability that an incident of this gravity requires.” They stressed that the journalists were killed at a hospital, a site protected under international law and a key location for news coverage from Gaza.

The victims included Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, visual journalist Mariam Dagga, who worked for AP and other outlets, and Moaz Abu Taha, a freelancer who collaborated with Reuters. The other two reporters slain in the attack were Al Jazeera photographer Mohammad Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz, who worked for the Quds Feed Network and several other media outlets.

Reuters also renewed its demand for an explanation over the October 2023 death of visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed by Israeli tank fire while reporting in southern Lebanon.

“We again call on the government of Israel to explain the deaths of these journalists and take every step necessary to protect journalists covering the conflict,” AP and Reuters said.

The IDF acknowledged carrying out the ‘double-tap’ strike on Nasser Hospital. It later said it regretted harm to “uninvolved individuals,” denied deliberately targeting journalists, and promised an inquiry.

The attack came two weeks after four Al Jazeera journalists were killed in an Israeli strike near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Israel has repeatedly faced accusations of targeting reporters since launching its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.

In March, RT correspondent Steve Sweeney and cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity narrowly escaped death when a missile struck less than ten meters from their position in southern Lebanon, leaving both with shrapnel wounds. Sweeney later told RT’s Rick Sanchez that he believed the attack was deliberate, noting that both journalists were wearing clearly visible press markings.

In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Israel was responsible for two-thirds of the 129 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2025. It described Gaza as the deadliest assignment for journalists since the organization began collecting data in 1992.

CPJ also said that Israel had conducted few transparent investigations and that no one had been held accountable in the cases it examined.

The IDF has “strongly” rejected the allegations that it intentionally targets journalists or their families.

At least nine people have been killed and six others wounded in a Ukrainian strike on a passenger bus in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), according to Governor Leonid Pasechnik.

The attack occurred in broad daylight on Wednesday, when an intercity bus traveling from Lisichansk to Stakhanov was targeted, the governor said. Eight passengers were killed on the spot, while another, a young woman, later died of her wounds in hospital.

“This is yet another act of terrorism by the bloodthirsty Kiev regime. Cynical, inhumane, and unjustifiable. It is a war crime for which those responsible will surely be punished,” Pasechnik wrote on Telegram.

While the governor did not explicitly say what exactly was used to strike the bus, the Russian Investigative Committee confirmed the vehicle was attacked with a kamikaze drone. A criminal probe into the incident has been launched, and investigators are now working to establish the exact type of the UAV involved in the deadly attack, the committee said.

Footage from the scene shared by LPR officials suggests that the UAV hit the bus in its roof hatch, pelting the passengers with shrapnel.

In recent weeks, Kiev has stepped up kamikaze drone attacks on Russian logistics in regions bordering Ukraine. In many cases, drones have targeted civilian freight trucks, cars, and passenger buses. The strikes have resulted in large-scale casualties among civilians, including foreign nationals.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the strikes as indiscriminate terrorist attacks staged by Kiev in an attempt to compensate for the continuous string of setbacks its troops have been suffering on the battlefield.

African gold producers are pushing for greater resource sovereignty as governments seek to retain more of the economic value generated by their mineral wealth, Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) representative has said.

Speaking to RT, Prince Kwame Minkah, the agency’s media relations officer, stated that African countries are increasingly moving away from a model in which minerals are extracted domestically and much of the processing, certification, trading, and financing takes place abroad. He noted that the shift is part of a broader African drive toward resource sovereignty and local value addition.

“If we produce the mineral, why should we capture only the value extraction while other countries continue to capture the value processing and, for that matter, trading?” Minkah said.

Ghana is among several major African gold producers tightening control over its gold sector. From September 1, gold doré purchased by self-financing aggregators under arrangements with approved offtakers must be refined in Ghana before it can be exported.

Several other African nations have also moved to tighten control over their gold resources. Guinea has introduced mandatory domestic gold refining, while Mali has taken steps to expand local processing. Burkina Faso has expanded state purchases of artisanal gold through its National Precious Substances Company. Tanzania has also tightened state control over the gold trade and requires exporters to sell part of their output to the central bank.

The policy forms part of the Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama’s broader goal of ending raw mineral exports by 2030, according to Minkah. Ghana has already increased state involvement in the gold trade through the country’s artisanal gold marketing agency GoldBod, which was established in 2025 and given exclusive authority over the purchase and export of artisanal and small-scale gold.

According to the Ghana Chamber of Mines, the country is now the world’s sixth-largest gold producer, behind China, Russia, Australia, Canada, and Peru, after producing about 185 tons in 2025, marking a 23.41% increase from its 2024 production of 4.82 million ounces. It is the only African state in the global top ten and remains the continent’s largest producer.

South African Minister of Employment and Labor Nomakhosazana Meth has revealed that more than 47,000 jobs were saved over the past year through interventions by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

The Minister revealed this in a written reply to Parliament after Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Tebogo Mokwele asked what concrete measures the department had taken to address South Africa’s persistent unemployment. Mokwele also asked what measures had been put in place to hold corporations accountable for exploiting workers and denying them fair wages and benefits, as well as what strategies were being implemented to boost job creation in key sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture.

”The Department has implemented a number of measures to help curb the unemployment challenge. The Department has provided in the last financial year, counselling to more than 357,000 work seekers, more than 116,000 work seekers were placed in employment opportunities,” Meth said.

She added that more than 1.1 million work seekers were registered during the last financial year, while the CCMA’s interventions helped save more than 47,000 jobs. Meth said the subsidy funding allocated by the National Treasury also created 1,215 work opportunities for people with disabilities, while the Labour Activation Programme of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) supported more than 174,000 participants and created 93,730 jobs.

On measures to ensure that companies comply with labour laws and protect workers’ rights, Meth said the department’s Inspection Services had conducted more than 309,000 inspections.

”Working with the National Pathway Management Network (NPMN) and the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), the Department aims to create demand in key sectors, including manufacturing and agriculture, amongst others,” she added.

”The NPMN has created more than 96,418 employment opportunities during the last financial year. The Department has also introduced the National Labour Migration Policy and amendments to the Employment Services Act, that will create further employment opportunities for local South Africans”.

First published by IOL

Palestinians in the West Bank village of Madama say they fear further violence after Israeli MP Zvi Sukkot smashed a local memorial with a sledgehammer as IDF soldiers stood by. The military later insisted the incident was neither authorized nor anticipated.

A far-right lawmaker known for confrontations with Palestinians and a member of the ultranationalist Religious Zionist party, Sukkot traveled to Madama, south of the city of Nablus, on Tuesday, ostensibly for a tour.

Videos he later posted online instead showed him pulling out a sledgehammer and defacing a memorial to Palestinians killed in conflicts over the past century. He claimed the memorial “glorified terrorism” and “must be removed,” arguing that children who grow up seeing it could be encouraged to become terrorists themselves. His IDF escort could be seen standing meters away and not intervening as he struck the memorial.

After the footage sparked widespread condemnation, the IDF insisted Sukkot had requested protection for a tour of West Bank villages but deceived the military about his intentions, producing the sledgehammer and attacking the monument without authorization.

Locals, however, reject the suggestion that the soldiers were innocent bystanders, pointing to repeated confrontations with Israeli troops and settlers. One said army patrols had passed through Madama just hours before Sukkot arrived, firing tear gas and stun grenades and waking residents.

RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij spoke to Madama residents about why they dispute the IDF’s account and what they fear could come next. Watch her full report below.

Israeli forces shot and wounded a Palestinian teen during a raid on a UN-run training center in East Jerusalem, local officials have reported.

The moment the boy was shot was caught on camera, with footage published by Middle East Eye and other media outlets on Tuesday showing him collapsing as gunfire rings out.

The Jerusalem Governorate said the boy sustained a minor gunshot wound to the shoulder from live ammunition as Israeli forces raided and seized the Qalandiya Training Centre, a key UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facility in Kafr Aqab in East Jerusalem.

VIDEO | The moment a Palestinian child was struck by live ammunition fired by Israeli occupation forces after they raided and seized the Qalandiya Training Centre, a key facility operated by the UNRWA, in the town of Kafr Aqab, in occupied Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/D8xRucHqp1

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) August 25, 2026

More than 50 Israeli security personnel and at least four armored vehicles entered the facility while around 20 UNRWA employees were inside, according to the agency. Staff were forced from the premises during the operation.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir joined the raid, saying “there is no place for the agency in Jerusalem and Israel.” He later posted an image from the compound on X declaring: “UNRWA in our hands.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the takeover, saying he had ordered the operation under Israeli legislation restricting UNRWA. Israeli officials accuse its employees of links to Hamas and involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack, and say the site will be converted into an educational and community complex. UNRWA has rejected broader allegations against it while saying it investigates claims involving individual staff members.

UNRWA “unequivocally” condemned the raid, saying the center is UN property protected under international law. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also hit out at the “unlawful” entry and said Tuesday’s operation was the fifth unauthorized Israeli incursion into the facility since May.

The incident comes amid rising violence in the Palestinian territories. Days earlier, Israeli settlers shot dead 17-year-old Karim Sanad Shalaldeh near Hebron, while Israeli troops killed 58-year-old Fathi Khazem in Jenin in a separate incident. The IDF said Khazem had attempted to attack a soldier with a knife.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 Six-Day War. The territories are envisaged as part of a future Palestinian state under the internationally backed two-state solution.

Russia has repeatedly said a negotiated two-state solution is the only viable way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moscow supports an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting peacefully with Israel.

Israel will continue building illegal settlements in the West Bank in preparation for a “major” wave of Jewish immigration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. Israel’s most recent settlement expansion triggered rebukes from its Arab neighbors and Western partners.

“Today, many of our brothers and sisters around the world understand: This is our land and it will remain ours,” Netanyahu said in Jerusalem on Tuesday. “And when I say our land, every Jewish man and every Jewish woman, the door is open. We are waiting for you. We are preparing the door for major Aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel).” 

It is unclear whether the “major Aliyah” predicted by Netanyahu is actually coming. Israelis have emigrated in growing numbers since Hamas’ 2023 attack and the subsequent war on Gaza. More than 150,000 Israelis left the country from 2024 to 2025, according to a report by 972 magazine.

The Israeli prime minister spoke at an event organized by the Binyamin Regional Council, which governs 47 Jewish settlements in the West Bank. All of these settlements, which are located outside Israel’s 1967 borders, are considered illegal by the UN, and Israel’s transfer of population to them has been deemed a breach of the Geneva Convention by the International Criminal Court.

Although the Israeli state sometimes pre-authorizes the construction of settlements, they typically begin as outposts on Palestinian land, until they are retroactively legalized by the Israeli government. During his speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu boasted that his government has established and regularized “104 settlements and 160 farms and we continue to do more.”

“It isn’t easy, it’s never easy,” he continued. “The land of Israel is acquired through suffering. Sometimes also through smiles, sometimes also through arguments, but it is being acquired by us. We are not giving up, we have a vision, this is our land, and it will remain ours.”

Last week, Israel opened bidding for the construction of more than 1,200 homes in the E1 settlement project, located east of Jerusalem. Named after its designation on Israeli planning maps, the project will comprise more than 3,400 homes, and was green-lit by Netanyahu’s government last year.

The E1 plan will establish a land corridor between East Jerusalem and the existing settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, both of which are built on Palestinian land. It will also sever road links between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem, located to the north and south of Jerusalem, respectively. 

Eight Arab and Muslim states, including Mecca Pact members Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Türkiye, “categorically” rejected the plan, describing it as “a dangerous escalation.” The UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, European Commission, and 15 European states also condemned the project.

“The E1 settlement will undermine the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank,” they said in a statement last Thursday. “At a time of grave instability in the West Bank with unprecedented levels of violence by settlers against civilians, and serious restrictions on the Palestinian economy, this decision is even more concerning.”

Netanyahu has suggested for years that he intends to annex the entirety of the West Bank, describing the option as “on the table” even as he signed peace accords with Arab states in 2020. Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners have been more explicit, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urging the prime minister in June to “apply sovereignty here in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] before the elections” in October.

Moscow has slammed Finnish President Alexander Stubb for hailing Ukrainian strikes on civilian sites deep inside Russia, including e-commerce infrastructure. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Stubb of “degradation.”

Ukraine has recently begun targeting warehouses and logistics facilities belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, and its rival, Ozon. Kiev has acknowledged the strikes are deliberate, claiming the companies’ networks are used by the Russian military to procure, store, and transport dual-use goods. Moscow has rejected the claims, denouncing the attacks as acts of terrorism aimed at generating publicity.

What Stubb said

At a press conference on Tuesday following a meeting in Kiev of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing,’ Stubb said Kiev’s backers should help expand its ability to strike deep inside Russia. He claimed such attacks “increased the cost and the price of the war for Russia” and could pressure Russians to seek an end to the conflict.

“We can see that now in the sense that 65% of the Russian population wants to end this war. And hitting logistics centers like Wildberries increases it with an additional 10%,” Stubb said, without providing a source for the figures. He called the attacks “a sensible military strategy” and “the only way we’re going to get into the peace negotiations.”

Finland's Stubb expressed support for long-range Ukrainian strikes, including attacks on logistics centers like Wildberries pic.twitter.com/4gfrYAXKxJ

— Jungle Journey (@JnglJourney) August 25, 2026

Moscow reacts

Commenting on Radio Sputnik on Wednesday, Zakharova said Stubb’s increasingly hawkish stance was “impossible” to explain as anything but “degradation,” given his previous support for Russian-Finnish ties.

“This is some kind of stupor. It’s impossible to explain… This isn’t someone simply changing or expressing a position. It’s degradation. Degradation as a statesman, as a politician, and as a person,” she stated.

Zakharova recalled the strong business and civil-society ties between Russia and Finland before the Ukraine conflict, saying Stubb had supported them and “can’t be unaware” of the damage his anti-Russia policies have inflicted on Finland. She suggested his shift reflected either pressure from “hostile forces” or his own political decline.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Stubb’s remarks “evoke nothing but surprise,” contrasting them with his comments in May urging the EU to resume dialogue with Russia.

“He said that it would be better to do it sooner rather than later. But now we see that escalatory rhetoric has prevailed,” Peskov said, branding Stubb “a prominent representative of the party of war” alongside new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. “They want the war to continue. But they are deceiving their voters by claiming that Russia can be defeated… And they apparently refuse to acknowledge the realities that exist on the ground.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was more scathing.

“The Finnish president really is a complete idiot,” Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and known for his often sharp comments, wrote on the messaging platform Max. “He talks about defeating Russia through strikes on the Wildberries marketplace. His level of professional competence is below rock bottom. A moral degenerate and a fool.”

Since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, Finland has joined Western sanctions on Russia, supplied military aid to Kiev and abandoned decades of neutrality to join NATO. The result has been a sharp deterioration in relations with its neighbor, with which it shares a 1,340km border. Earlier this year, Helsinki lifted a longstanding ban on transporting or stationing nuclear weapons on its territory, a move Moscow called “concentrated confrontation.” Peskov warned that “if Finland threatens us, we [will] take appropriate measures.”

Russian retaliation

Russia has responded to Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure with retaliatory strikes on military-industrial sites, Black Sea shipping, and key port facilities that handle military-related imports. The Russian military maintains it targets only infrastructure that supports Ukraine’s war effort.

President Vladimir Putin recently warned that Ukraine faces a “catastrophic scenario” after “opening Pandora’s box” with attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure. He said retaliatory strikes had hit Ukraine’s “most sensitive economic sectors,” including agricultural exports, while Kiev’s attacks had failed to change the course of the conflict. Citing Putin’s remarks, the Russian Defense Ministry vowed to continue retaliatory strikes, writing on Max: “There will always be a response.”

US President Donald Trump has reportedly submitted a landmark nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia for congressional review and renewed demands that Riyadh normalize relations with Israel as part of the deal.

According to US media outlets, citing unnamed administration and congressional sources, the document was sent to Congress on Monday. The White House has yet to publicly confirm the move.

Lawmakers now have 90 session days to review the US-Saudi pact. If they attempt to block it, Trump is expected to use his veto powers to push it through. A two-thirds majority in both chambers would be required to overrule the president.

The agreement was originally signed last month and aims to allow American companies to play a major role in developing Saudi Arabia’s civilian nuclear energy program. The 30-year deal is expected to involve the construction of US-designed nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia and could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

Riyadh says it wants nuclear power to meet the growing domestic energy demand, reduce the amount of oil consumed at home, and free up more crude for export.

However, the deal has raised concerns over nuclear proliferation. Unlike a similar US deal with the United Arab Emirates, the pact does not permanently bar the kingdom from reprocessing nuclear fuel or enrichment, which could potentially be used to make weapons.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman previously suggested that the kingdom could seek a nuclear weapon if Iran ever acquires one.

Trump has also tied the nuclear agreement to Saudi Arabia formally joining the Abraham Accords and establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. The condition was unexpectedly announced by Trump late last month after the agreement had already been negotiated and signed.

An administration official cited by Reuters on Wednesday said Trump’s position on the issue “has not changed.”

The Abraham Accords, brokered during Trump’s first term, established diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.

The US has also pushed for Saudi-Israeli normalization, but the efforts have stalled since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said it will not normalize relations with Israel without an irreversible path toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

The deep physical and structural wounds inflicted on the African continent by European colonialism will take generations to heal – if they ever heal at all. In today’s fast-moving geopolitical landscape, where crises like illegal migration, economic turbulence, and regional conflict dominate African headline news, the question of historical justice is often forced onto the back burner. Yet, through continental efforts, Africa refuses to let the issue recede into memory.

The landmark Algiers Declaration, adopted last December under the auspices of the African Union, marked a shift from moral grievance to a legal strategy, demanding the codification of colonial atrocities as crimes against humanity and establishing that justice requires binding legal reparations, not voluntary Western aid usually publicized as gifts.

This week, that continental demand for accountability finds its most vivid expression in Namibia. On August 23, the Herero and Nama people gathered in the historic town of Okahandja in central Namibia, just 70 kilometers north of the capital, Windhoek, for the annual Herero Day (Red Flag Day) commemorations. The event honors Chief Samuel Maharero, leader of the Herero resistance against German rule. After he died in exile in Botswana, his body was returned to Namibia and reburied in Okahandja in 1923.

The march through the ancestral burial grounds of the paramount chiefs stands as an active protest against modern colonial evasion – and a direct challenge to a European power attempting to settle a multi-century blood debt on its own convenient, unilateral terms.

To understand the full weight of this grievance, one must return to 1904, when Imperial German colonial forces unleashed a systematic campaign of destruction following an indigenous uprising against relentless land dispossession and colonial tyranny. In October 1904, German General Lothar von Trotha issued his notorious ‘Vernichtungsbefehl’ (extermination order), explicitly declaring: “Within the German borders, every Herero, with or without a gun... will be shot.”

Far from facing criminal prosecution, von Trotha was long celebrated as a hero at home – a street in Munich bore his name until public pressure finally forced the city council to rename it ‘Hererostrasse’ in 2006.

Under his command, German troops drove tens of thousands of Herero families into the hyper-arid Omaheke Desert in eastern Namibia, systematically poisoning and sealing off water wells to ensure death by thirst and starvation. Those who survived, along with the Nama people who rebelled shortly afterward, were swept into concentration camps (most notoriously at Shark Island) where they faced forced labor, lethal living conditions, and pseudoscientific racial experiments.

By the time the campaign ended in 1908, it had claimed an estimated 70,000 lives, systematically wiping out 80% of the Herero population and 50% of the Nama population in what historians and legal scholars recognize as the 20th century’s first genocide.

Yet, when confronting the modern reckoning for these atrocities, Imperial Germany’s successor state has constructed a masterclass in diplomatic and legal evasion. In May 2021, after six years of closed-door bilateral negotiations, Berlin and Windhoek initialed a joint declaration in which Germany acknowledged the atrocities as “genocide from today’s perspective” – a carefully calculated semantic formula designed specifically to avoid admitting legal liability under international law. Rather than offering legally binding reparations, Berlin committed €1.1 billion over 30 years earmarked for state-level development projects, framing the financial support strictly as a voluntary gesture of reconciliation.

The contrast with Germany’s handling of European historical crimes could not be more glaring. In the aftermath of World War II, Germany recognized direct legal liability for the Holocaust, paying tens of billions of euros in formal reparations directly to survivors and representative organizations – commitments that continue to this day. When dealing with African victims, however, Berlin invoked intertemporal legal loopholes, arguing that international law against genocide did not exist in 1904. By bypassing the Herero and Nama leaders to cut a state-to-state deal, Germany sought to buy immunity from future legal claims. This double standard is precisely why affected communities rejected the 2021 agreement.

Two years later, traditional leaders from the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) and the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), representing the direct descendants of the victims, launched a legal challenge in the Namibian High Court to invalidate the 2021 Joint Declaration. They argue that by excluding affected indigenous communities from negotiations, the Namibian government breached its duty to protect its citizens’ rights and heritage.

The resulting political impasse has paralyzed parliamentary ratification in Windhoek, while opposition lawmakers in Berlin increasingly view the agreement as a diplomatic liability. By challenging a deal struck over their heads, the Herero and Nama are establishing a critical precedent: Sovereign states cannot settle the blood debt of indigenous genocide without the direct inclusion and consent of the victim communities themselves.

This domestic legal battle has become the focal point of a broader international legal push. In August 2026, Amnesty International officially filed court papers in the Namibian High Court seeking to join the Herero and Nama litigation as ‘amicus curiae’. Amnesty’s legal intervention targets a fundamental principle: State-to-state development packages cannot override the recognized rights of indigenous communities under international law to seek direct, full reparations for genocide. Former European powers have long shielded themselves behind the principle of non-retroactivity, claiming that atrocities committed prior to the 1948 Genocide Convention fall outside modern judicial frameworks. However, joint efforts between the African Union and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are systematically dismantling this defense.

Germany’s refusal to accept legal liability in Namibia is thus exposed as a deliberate attempt to preserve a legal shield protecting ex-empires from reparatory claims.

As the African Union moves to codify colonial atrocities into international law, the ongoing High Court challenge in Windhoek serves as a test case for former colonial powers across the West. Until Berlin meets its obligations with the same legal and financial rigor applied to European historical crimes, the solemn gatherings in Okahandja will stand as an active front line in the global struggle against impunity.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has ordered an urgent operation to rescue people abducted by gunmen last week in the north-central Niger State region.

Tinubu said on X on Tuesday that the armed forces, police, Department of State Services, and other security and intelligence agencies have been instructed to coordinate efforts to locate and free the captives. He also ordered security chiefs to provide regular updates until all those abducted have been accounted for.

“We will not rest until your sons, daughters, mothers and fathers are brought back safely to you,” the president said, adding that those responsible for the attack “will not go scot-free.”

The order comes after an armed group released a video apparently showing hundreds of people being held captive in a forest.

The footage, circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp on Sunday, showed large groups of captives sitting on the ground surrounded by armed men, with children heard crying in the background. The video emerged two days after gunmen attacked worshippers during Friday prayers at a mosque in Dekara village and carried out simultaneous raids on several nearby communities, according to residents.

An official in the Borgu district, where the attack took place, told Reuters that 30 people had been killed and were buried on Sunday. Niger State Governor Umaru Bago condemned the attack and ordered the authorities to work with security agencies to secure the release of those abducted, the Punch outlet reported.

Mass kidnappings for ransom have become common in parts of northern Nigeria, where heavily armed gangs frequently target villages, schools, and highways. Earlier this month, families in northeastern Borno State staged a protest demanding government action nearly 100 days after dozens of children were abducted from a school and nearby homes. Around 40 remain unaccounted for.

Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have previously targeted schools in the northeast. The region has been at the center of a longstanding Islamist insurgency, with mass abductions, including the 2014 kidnapping of more than 270 Chibok schoolgirls.

Ukrainian authorities have ordered the evacuation of a village that was heavily damaged by a powerful explosion on Tuesday, citing security concerns and an ongoing investigation.

The incident in Peschanka, in Dnepropetrovsk Region, 20 km northeast of the regional capital, Dnepr, resulted in an explosion that killed at least one woman and injured 11 other people. The blast also destroyed three houses and damaged 15 others, according to Aleksandr Ganzha, head of the region’s military-civilian administration.

A local news channel published a short video showing a large column of smoke rising in the distance before a massive explosion sent debris flying through the air.

Another news outlet posted two clips purportedly filmed at the scene, showing several damaged buildings. Smaller explosions typical for a fire at a munitions storage facility can be heard in the footage, followed by a big blast.

Municipal authorities said the evacuation of Peschanka was ordered because of “potential risks,” while criminal investigators and bomb disposal specialists worked at the scene. 

There have previously been incidents in which Ukrainian officials stored military munitions near residential areas. The practice endangers civilians and is considered a form of using noncombatants as human shields under international law.

A major incident of this kind occurred last month in the city of Vishnyovoe in Kiev Region, where a Russian strike on an ammo depot caused a series of secondary detonations and devastated a large area. Some 500 residents were evacuated from the settlement.

The Ukrainian military distanced itself from the Vishnyovoe incident, while executives at a local defense plant were arrested on suspicion of negligence.

A massive flash flood has killed at least 360 people across Nepal and China's Tibet after a torrent of water, mud and debris tore through the Himalayan border region on Wednesday, sweeping away villages, roads, bridges, and power facilities.

Nepal Police said Thursday afternoon that 359 bodies have been recovered, while Chinese authorities have confirmed another three deaths at Gyirong Port in Tibet. Thousands remain missing on both sides of the border.

‘Thousands of families missing’

“Town after town has been wiped out within hours,” Nepali Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told India’s NDTV on Thursday morning. “Thousands of families have lost homes and are missing as of now. We are still trying to ascertain the full extent of the disaster.”

Khanal said around 500 foreigners, mostly pilgrims on the Kailash-Mansarovar route, are out of contact. These include about 300 Indians reported missing.

Nepal’s Department of Tourism said that among the missing are 47 Americans, 34 Australians, 33 Britons, 24 Canadians, and 19 Malaysians, as well as citizens of more than 20 other countries. Four Russians are also among those unaccounted for.

Beijing said 558 people were missing in the flash flood, including 260 foreign nationals, in Tibet’s Gyirong County.

❗️ More Horrifying Footage Shows Gigantic Mudslide Engulfing China’s Gyirong Region - WARNING: Distressing 📹

‘Major casualties’ are feared after infrastructure was completely obliterated in the major border crossing between China and Nepal. (Xinhua) https://t.co/lct3g9fOIc pic.twitter.com/M1NzVj0Naq

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 26, 2026

Nepalese officials have stressed that being out of contact does not necessarily mean the travelers were caught in the flood, as roads, electricity and communications have been wiped out across parts of the mountainous region. Many were pilgrims traveling toward Mount Kailash in Tibet, while Nepali trekkers were heading toward Gosaikunda Lake ahead of the Janai Purnima festival.

Flood’s fury caught on camera

Videos show the flood’s fury as it swept aside everything that stood in its way, including hydropower projects, bridges, roads and houses. Buildings were swallowed by muddy water and vehicles tossed through the debris as residents fled with little warning.

⚠️ Extremely Distressing Footage Shows Mudslide Sweeping Up Fleeing Citizens, Cars, & Buildings On China-Nepal Border

Viewer discretion.

📹 @mcudirector https://t.co/RV9HxrYyP4 pic.twitter.com/pFtKSs5v42

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 26, 2026

Floodwaters surged through the Bhote Koshi River at around 9am local time, causing widespread destruction in the Syapru Besi and Timure areas of Rasuwa district before racing downstream into the Trishuli River.

❗Nepal Floods: At Least 7 Dead, Security Personnel Missing 🇳🇵

The worst-hit areas include Timure and Syabrubesi in Rasuwa, where floodwaters have swept away homes, bridges and parts of a key road towards the China border, according to The Kathmandu Post.

Nine Armed Police… https://t.co/OGz6YNAMPx pic.twitter.com/XRGgZGxHj7

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 26, 2026

The speed of the surge was extraordinary. The Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said the Trishuli rose by as much as nine meters in just 30 minutes at one monitoring station, while another recorded a seven-meter rise over roughly the same period.

Apocalyptic view of the flash flood that struck northern Nepal and Tibet today.

A bridge collapsing under the fury of the water. pic.twitter.com/YdHjZ2SwPQ

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 26, 2026

Authorities have warned people along riverbanks in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Chitwan to remain on higher ground. Several flood-monitoring stations were themselves damaged or swept away.

Infrastructure wiped out

At least 19 motorable bridges and nearly 40km of roads have been swept away, cutting off communities and crippling access to the worst-hit areas.

A sudden massive flood swept through northern Nepal this morning, causing extensive damage in Timure and Syafrubesi areas of Rasuwa district after the Bhote Koshi River surged around 9 am, reportedly from the direction of Tibet.

Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police… pic.twitter.com/P78X3328dX

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) August 26, 2026

Nepal’s electricity network also took a major hit. Eleven hydropower projects and one solar facility were affected, knocking 431.1MW of generating capacity off the national grid. Transmission lines and substations were damaged, while electricity was completely cut in Rasuwa and disrupted in several neighboring districts.

Trishuli Bazaar After The Floods 🇳🇵

The river has redrawn the landscape.

Drone footage shows entire rows of riverside homes gone, leaving behind a barren expanse of mud, debris and scattered structures.

📹 Social Media https://t.co/RV9HxrYyP4 pic.twitter.com/0rToqQpbPU

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 26, 2026

Rescue operations have been complicated by destroyed roads, deep mud, high water and difficult Himalayan terrain. Nepal has mobilized the army, police and helicopters, while at least 28 police officers are themselves among those still missing.

What triggered the disaster?

Initial reports pointed to an earthquake, but the US Geological Survey later said the seismic event was actually a massive glacial collapse and debris flow that caused catastrophic impacts downstream. ICIMOD believes an ice-rock avalanche crashed into the Lhende Khola and may have temporarily blocked the river before unleashing the devastating surge, although the precise sequence remains under investigation.

The flash flooding along the Lhende Khola and Bhotekoshi Rivers near the Nepal,China border was triggered by a cascade of geological events:

​Ice-Rock Avalanche:
A massive ice-rock avalanche detached from a glacier high on the Himalayan slopes.

​Landslide Dam Creation:
The… pic.twitter.com/E7QluW7K5L

— Cio (@LoveLigth7) August 26, 2026

The danger may not be over. ICIMOD has warned that a blockage remains lodged upstream, posing a threat of another sudden flood, with evacuation orders issued around Gyirong Port.

Authorities in Nepal report villages washed away by a massive flash flood in a region bordering Tibet. Roads, bridges, and power projects were damaged across the Himalayan area. pic.twitter.com/LUquf3vWNP

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 26, 2026

The Lhende Khola has now flooded twice in just 14 months. The same border region was hit by another devastating flash flood last August, when a glacial lake in Tibet overflowed and nine people were killed.

China races to find missing

Chinese authorities said three people were killed and 558 remained missing in Tibet’s Gyirong County as of Thursday morning, more than doubling the previous tally of 265. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said 260 of those unaccounted for are foreign nationals.

Two people have been rescued alive, according to Chinese state media, as hundreds of emergency workers, troops and rescue specialists continue searching the devastated border area.

The torrent devastated the border crossing, burying buildings in debris and washing out sections of road. Xinhua reported that rescuers initially struggled to reach the core disaster zone as raging water, rain and completely destroyed roadbeds blocked access.

China has dispatched 111 emergency rescuers to the mudslide-stricken Gyirong Port in China's Xizang, carrying detection, life-saving, demolition, communication, and support equipment.

The plane has now landed at Dingri Airport in Shigatse. pic.twitter.com/NxfkffAwxO

— Li Zexin 李泽欣 (@XH_Lee23) August 27, 2026

President Xi Jinping ordered rescuers to make every possible effort to find the missing, evacuate those at risk and prevent secondary disasters. Tibet activated its highest Level-I natural-disaster response, while Beijing launched a national Level-II emergency response and sent hundreds of firefighters, troops, engineers and other rescue personnel to the region.

Beijing reinforced the operation early Thursday by dispatching an additional 111-member China Rescue Team with detection, communications and lifesaving equipment. A PLA Y-20 military transport aircraft was also sent to Tibet carrying a Western Theater Command team to coordinate joint rescue operations.

China has also allocated 120 million yuan ($16.8 million) in central disaster-relief funds and another 100 million yuan for emergency infrastructure restoration.

New Delhi launches emergency response

Nepal has asked both India and China for help with rescue operations. The Bhote Koshi feeds into the Trishuli River, which eventually flows into India as the Gandak, prompting authorities downstream to closely monitor rising water levels.

India has put vulnerable areas in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on alert and begun sending emergency assistance to Nepal. An Indian Air Force C-130J carrying around 10 tonnes of shelters, blankets, hygiene kits, solar lamps and medicines departed for Kathmandu on Wednesday night.

The shipment followed a phone call between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart Balendra Shah, during which Modi offered “all possible humanitarian assistance.” India said additional transport aircraft and helicopters were being prepared for relief and evacuation operations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin set foot on Iturup Island, the largest of the Kuril Archipelago and known in Japan as Etorofu, on August 13 and walked its length as if he were simply visiting home.

He toured a local fish plant, spoke with residents who praised the island’s clean air, friendly neighbors and quiet charm, and smiled for the cameras.

Japan, which has claimed ownership over the islands since they were incorporated into the USSR after World War II, reacted swiftly and sharply. The Russian ambassador was summoned to receive a formal protest, while Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit “absolutely unacceptable” and said it had hurt the feelings of the Japanese people. Moscow answered in kind by summoning Japan’s ambassador in Russia.

The diplomatic exchange, while predictable, revealed how little room remains for compromise between the two countries right now.

Ukraine and the Kuril red line

The deterioration of relations cannot be separated from Japan’s full-throated support for Ukraine after 2022. Tokyo adopted Western sanctions, revoked Russia’s most-favored-nation trade status and has increasingly discussed ways of supporting Ukraine’s military effort. From Moscow’s perspective, this is not simply an expression of Japanese solidarity with Kiev, but part of a wider alignment against Russia.

Putin’s visit served as a direct and measured response. It showed that while Japan supports Ukraine and participates in the pressure campaign against Russia, Moscow has no intention of making territorial concessions to Tokyo with regards to the Kurils.

Interestingly, Tokyo’s current confrontational stance, while symbolically forceful, has not produced a corresponding escalation of concrete measures over the territorial dispute itself. That restraint may reflect two realities. Washington has little incentive to become directly involved in a bilateral quarrel with Moscow, while Tokyo must also consider the consequences of pushing Russia, China and North Korea into even closer alignment.

More than just four islands

The disputed territories have considerable practical value. They provide access to rich fishing grounds that once sustained extensive bilateral economic activity and may contain valuable mineral resources.

The Kurils also occupy a strategically critical position in the North Pacific. For Russia, control of the island chain provides a natural defensive buffer and helps protect access routes for its Pacific Fleet, energy infrastructure and maritime trade. For Japan, meanwhile, Russian control of the territories represents the unresolved legacy of the Second World War and an enduring challenge to its territorial claims.

The fishing issue illustrates just how complicated this relationship has been. Tokyo until relatively recently paid Russia for access to fishing grounds around the disputed islands. Whatever the legal and political arguments surrounding sovereignty, such arrangements demonstrated a degree of practical recognition of Russian administrative control and jurisdiction.

Today, those same waters remain economically important to Russian coastal communities.

That practical reality helps explain why Moscow sees the Kurils not simply as bargaining chips but as part of its national security perimeter.

A warning about militarization

Putin’s visit came against the backdrop of Japan’s military buildup and Tokyo’s increasing involvement in supporting Ukraine’s war efforts.

From Moscow’s perspective, these developments reinforce longstanding fears of strategic encirclement. Japan’s proximity to Russia’s Far East makes its military posture particularly sensitive to Russian planners. Moscow sees military exercises, missile deployments and discussions about providing military assistance to Ukraine as part of a pattern.

The Kremlin’s response has likewise included naval drills and missile exercises in the region, moves that Tokyo has condemned as provocative.

Overall, Putin’s visit wasn’t some new threat aimed at Japan – it was a public reaffirmation of an existing position and realities on the ground.

The missed opportunity of the Abe-Putin years

During the 2010s, parallel negotiations under Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe created genuine expectations that the two countries might finally resolve their territorial dispute and conclude a formal peace treaty.

Neither side approached those negotiations as a simple exercise in defending maximalist claims. Both governments understood that a compromise would require concessions and that a durable settlement could produce economic and strategic benefits.

The 1956 Moscow Declaration had already established the basic framework for one possible compromise: Moscow agreed in principle to transfer the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty, while leaving the larger islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri under Soviet control.

For a time, it seemed that formula could become the foundation for a settlement. However, the political environment has since changed dramatically.

Why the Kurils are only one thread in a complicated story

The territorial dispute is a symptom of deeper tensions that have shaped Russo-Japanese relations since the 19th century.

The 1855 Treaty of Shimoda established a border between Etorofu and the island of Urup, also part of the archipelago. The 1875 Treaty of St. Petersburg subsequently transferred the entire Kuril chain to Japan in exchange for Japanese recognition of Russian control over Sakhalin. The 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth then reshaped the regional balance following the Russo-Japanese War.

These agreements demonstrate that sovereignty over the islands has never existed outside a shifting regional balance of power.

The events of 1945 transformed that balance again. Amid the ongoing war in the Pacific in 1945, the Soviet Union acted with the blessing of the United States as far as the Kuril islands were concerned. Under the secret Project Hula – launched in 1945 – American warships and training helped the Soviets take control over the Kurils.

This history provides Russia with a strong historical argument: the islands were taken from Imperial Japan with allied consent. Japan’s postwar renunciation did not bind Moscow, and decades of Soviet and now Russian administration have simply created a fait accompli.

Tokyo, however, maintains a fundamentally different interpretation of the postwar settlement and continues to describe the southern Kurils as its ‘Northern Territories’.

The result is a dispute in which both sides possess deeply rooted historical narratives – and neither is prepared to abandon them easily.

Pragmatism or permanent paralysis?

The Kuril dispute is not inherently insoluble. What makes it appear so today is the wider deterioration of the relationship.

The experience of the 2010s showed that negotiations can advance when both governments regard compromise as more valuable than rhetorical victory. It also showed that progress requires political courage: neither side can expect to obtain everything it wants.

Japan’s position has hardened alongside its Ukraine policy. Russia, meanwhile, has become increasingly resistant to territorial negotiations with states it regards as participating in an adversarial Western coalition.

That leaves the two countries trapped in a familiar cycle. Japan demands recognition of its territorial claims. Russia responds by emphasizing its sovereignty and military presence. Each side then interprets the other’s position as evidence that compromise is impossible.

But this need not be permanent. A future settlement would require Japan to reconsider whether confrontation over Ukraine and maximalist positions on the Kurils are advancing its long-term interests. Russia, for its part, would have to recognize that a stable relationship with Japan could offer benefits that perpetual confrontation cannot.

A statement of reality

Putin’s visit to Iturup was not, in itself, a threat. It was a statement of fact as Moscow sees it: Russia controls the islands, considers them strategically vital, and has no intention of surrendering them under political pressure. Japan is equally clear that it has not abandoned its claims.

The choice facing both countries is therefore not between victory and defeat, but between permanent paralysis and pragmatic diplomacy.

The unresolved dispute over the Kurils remains one of the most visible in the Pacific. But it also presents an opportunity. The same pragmatic approach that once brought Moscow and Tokyo to the negotiating table could do so again – if both sides decide that managing their differences is more valuable than allowing the wider geopolitical confrontation to define their entire relationship.

At least fourteen newborn babies have been killed after a fire tore through a nursery at a major government hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, according to the city administration and hospital officials.  

The fire broke out at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) early on Wednesday on the third floor of PIMS’ Mother and Child Health ward. Rescue officials said it began at around 6:45am local time after the compressor of an air-conditioning unit apparently exploded inside the nursery, although the precise cause has not yet been established. Firefighters brought the blaze under control and began cooling operations.  

Initial reports gave conflicting casualty figures, with Reuters citing Geo TV as saying 15 of 16 newborns had died. The Islamabad administration later confirmed 14 deaths, while PIMS said 15 babies had been in the nursery. 

At least one baby was rescued by a doctor, PIMS spokesperson Dr. Aneeza Jalil told reporters, adding that the fire may have been caused by a short circuit.  

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered an immediate investigation and called for anyone found responsible to face punishment. “A tragedy involving children is an irreparable loss,” he said, adding that those responsible should be identified and face the “strictest possible action.”  

A fact-finding committee has been set up to determine the cause of the fire and examine whether the hospital’s safety systems and emergency response were adequate.  

PIMS, established in 1985, is Islamabad’s largest public-sector hospital, with more than 150 beds in its maternity ward. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan underwent a brief medical checkup there on Friday.  

The blaze comes months after authorities identified widespread fire-safety shortcomings across Islamabad and follows another recent tragedy involving children. In June, 14 children were killed when the roof of a tutoring center collapsed outside Lahore.  

The Capital Development Authority said in January that most of the 6,500 public and private buildings it inspected lacked approved fire-safety plans or relevant certificates. The survey covered 300 government buildings.

India and China agreed to continue to seek a political settlement of their border dispute in talks between top officials held in Beijing on Tuesday.

Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the designated special representatives for the border talks mechanism, “had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on the India-China boundary question, and agreed to continue their work in seeking a political settlement of the boundary question in the context of their overall and long-term interests,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It said the two sides expressed satisfaction at the steady resumption of people-to-people and cross-border exchanges, including the ongoing Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage and resumption of border trade through the Himalayan passes.

The special representatives noted the progress made in implementing the consensus reached between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in October 2024, and again in Tianjin, China in August 2025 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

ICYMI: Doval, Wang Yi Hold 25th Round Of India-China Boundary Talks

New Delhi and Beijing agreed to continue working towards a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” settlement of their boundary question, while stressing the importance of maintaining peace along the border.… pic.twitter.com/L0jbSFQcjd

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 26, 2026

Kazan was the first formal bilateral meeting between Modi and Xi in four years, since a skirmish in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas in 2020 left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers dead.

At Kazan, Modi and Xi agreed to use the special representatives mechanism and foreign minister dialogues to seek solutions to the border question and maintain peace in border areas.

The Beijing talks were held under the strategic guidance of Modi and Xi and in a constructive and forward-looking spirit, the statement said, adding that India highlighted the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility in the border areas for the continued development and progress of bilateral relations.

Doval and Wang also discussed bilateral, regional, and international issues of mutual interest, as the two neighbors prepare for this year’s SCO summit next week in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and the BRICS summit next month in New Delhi.

Xi is expected to attend the BRICS meeting with a large delegation, according to reports.

Doval also called on Chinese Vice President Han Zheng before the special representative talks.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s unannounced trip to Moscow on Tuesday was for contact between the US and Russian security services, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

A US Air Force C-17A Globemaster III, identified by flight trackers as RCH4555, flew from Joint Base Andrews to Riga on Sunday evening before continuing on Tuesday to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Later that day, a motorcade with US diplomatic plates was spotted in central Moscow.

CBS News first reported that Ratcliffe was in Moscow for meetings, citing sources familiar with the situation. It was also not clear whether the visit – which ultimately lasted roughly eight hours – involved any other senior US officials.

Asked by the Washington Post on Wednesday about the purpose of Ratcliffe’s trip, Peskov said it was for “contacts between security services” and declined to give further details. Separately, Peskov told TASS that “contacts with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin were not planned.”

Speaking to reporters later on Wednesday, Peskov said Putin had been kept in the loop about the talks, calling engagement between the special services “a positive phenomenon.” However, he cautioned that it is “too early to say” whether the talks “will affect the overall process of bringing our bilateral relations out of the deep crisis.”

US President Donald Trump described the visit as "semi-routine." Asked by talk show host Glenn Beck whether Putin planned on "testing NATO resolve," or whether Ratcliffe discussed US sanctions on Iran, Trump replied "none of the above."

Media reports have floated several possible subjects of the secretive talks, including detainee negotiations, the Ukraine peace process, the Iran conflict, and broader questions of strategic stability.

The last publicly disclosed contact between Ratcliffe and top Russian officials took place in March 2025, when the CIA director spoke by phone with Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergey Naryshkin. At the time, the SVR said Russia and the US agreed to maintain dialogue in order to “promote international stability and security, as well as to reduce tensions in relations between Moscow and Washington.”

Ratcliffe’s visit was the first known trip to Moscow by a CIA director since William Burns traveled there in November 2021, several months before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The last publicly known face-to-face meeting between the heads of the CIA and Russia’s SVR before Ratcliffe’s trip was in Ankara in November 2022, when Burns met Naryshkin to discuss nuclear escalation risks and detained US citizens.

Scientists at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) have developed a way to make 3D-printed cookies using genetically engineered yeast to produce protein and nutrients from plastic and agricultural waste.

The project aims to tackle two of the planet’s crises: plastic waste accumulation and food insecurity.

The team first set out to develop ways to make use of waste plastics, Lahiru Jayakody, an associate professor of microbiology at Southern Illinois University said in an interview with the American Chemical Society (ACS) published on Monday.

“We thought, why not focus on making food? Because plastic is carbon and food is carbon,” he said.

The process starts by breaking down plastic and plant waste with water and oxygen under high temperature and pressure. Genetically engineered yeasts then consume the resulting compounds and produce proteins, fats, and acids. With the addition of fiber, starch, and sweetener, the resulting mix is fed into a 3D printer which molds the paste into any desired shape.

With this technology, the scientists created small protein-rich cookies they dubbed “µBites” or “microbites.” They are waiting for the safety go-ahead from their university to actually taste-test them, however.

The novel technology could be useful in hostile environments, according to Jayakody.

“If you want to produce food in a very extreme environment using the resource you have, carbon resource waste like Arctic, or the desert, and potentially one day in the Mars or the lunar surface, microbeids can do that job,” he told Reuters.

SIU researchers have been developing the technology since 2021, when their µBites concept was selected for NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge.

The news comes as scientists are paying closer attention to how plastic already unintentionally enters the human food chain.

Researchers have reported microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics in human tissues. A 2025 study published in Nature Medicine detected them in the liver, kidneys, and brain, while a 2026 review published last month said particles had also been found in blood, placenta, and heart tissue.

The particles could pose health risks, with studies linking exposure to inflammation, oxidative stress, cell death, and disruptions to metabolism and immune function. However, researchers say more evidence is needed to determine the effects of long-term exposure in humans.

A crowd in western Ukraine attacked and badly damaged a vehicle used by military conscription officers, prompting police to send reinforcements to the scene as public resistance to Kiev’s increasingly coercive draft campaign continues to spill into street confrontations.

The incident erupted at around 8 PM on Tuesday on Lesya Kurbasa Street in Ternopol, where a mobile group from Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC) was conducting a raid targeting military-age men.

According to police, draft officers were merely speaking to one man and checking his enlistment documents when locals began gathering around their Nissan X-Trail. The crowd then started striking the vehicle and confronted the servicemen, turning the encounter into a mass scuffle.

Тернопіль: люди нищать автомобіль ТЦК, поруч — поліція.
❗️На місці події на вул. Курбаса у Тернополі перебувають поліцейські у повній екіпіровці та спецпризначенці

Приїхала військова техніка та автобус. За словами очевидців, із автомобіля з розбитими вікнами вивели службовця ТЦК… pic.twitter.com/ggM1eb009d

— BARMENY (@barmeny_ua) August 25, 2026

Additional police units were eventually sent in to bring the situation under control, as people continued to gather after the initial confrontation. Videos circulating online show a large crowd surrounding police and military vehicles, with uniformed men, including some wearing balaclavas, deployed at the scene.

In Ternopol, Ukraine, a forced mobilization raid turned chaotic as locals intervened, reportedly beating and hospitalizing a conscription officer and damaging his vehicle. Kyiv now faces growing public resistance to its draft efforts amid the ongoing conflict. #Ternopol pic.twitter.com/IGg1mMGSPM

— WW3 Watchtower (@WW3Watchtower) August 25, 2026

One draft officer was hospitalized with injuries, according to the recruitment center, which also said “unidentified people” had stolen some of his personal belongings. Police said several recruitment officials suffered injuries and vowed to identify those involved in the disturbance, claiming some of them may have been carrying “objects resembling bats and knives.”

The confrontation is the latest in a growing series of violent clashes between Ukrainians and conscription squads as Kiev struggles to replenish battlefield losses.

Earlier this month, a crowd in Lviv surrounded a recruitment vehicle after draft officers detained a man during a document check. Protesters rocked and eventually overturned the vehicle while chanting “Shame!”

In another recent incident, bystanders attempted to save a man from conscription but were tear-gassed by members of the recruitment squad. Similar confrontations have been captured on video as relatives and passersby intervene when military-age men are detained in public.

The practice has become widely known in Ukraine as ‘busification’ – a reference to men being seized in the streets and bundled into vehicles before being taken to recruitment centers.

Even Ukrainian officials have acknowledged widespread abuses during the mobilization drive. Human Rights Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets told lawmakers in May that complaints over mobilization-related rights violations had increased 333-fold compared with 2022, with his office receiving more than 6,000 appeals. He cited the continued use of balaclavas, unlawful force, and beatings, saying previous efforts to address the problem failed.

The public backlash and resistance have also often turned deadly. Just last week, a recruitment officer was fatally stabbed during a confrontation in Lviv. Another member of a draft squad was stabbed to death by a Lviv resident in April.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Ukraine conflict, Kiev’s persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and restrictions on the Russian language during talks with the Vatican’s top diplomat, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.

Gallagher, who heads the Holy See’s diplomatic service, arrived in Moscow on Monday for a four-day visit.

The talks also covered the Middle East, Africa, and other global hotspots, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Moscow and the Vatican also found common ground on protecting traditional values and discussed emerging issues such as AI.

Here are the key takeaways from Lavrov’s remarks following the meeting:

Ukraine conflict

Moscow praised the Vatican’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine conflict and briefed Gallagher on Russia’s approach to ending the hostilities by addressing the “root causes.”

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Russia was forced to launch the military operation in Ukraine to protect civilians in the largely Russian-speaking Donbass. Moscow has also long described Kiev’s deepening military cooperation with NATO as a major threat to Russian national security.

Lavrov also praised the Vatican’s involvement in humanitarian efforts linked to the conflict, including work to reunite children separated from their families.

‘Blatant cruelty’

Lavrov noted the “blatant cruelty” of Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians. He accused Kiev of striking civilian targets “on a daily basis,” including facilities where children are present.

Lavrov said another wave of Ukrainian strikes on several southern Russian regions early Monday killed three minors and injured six others at a childcare center in Krasnodar.

“We will [also] never forget and will seek justice for [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky’s bloody terror attack in Starobelsk,” Lavrov said, referring to a drone strike in May on a college dormitory in the Donbass city. The attack killed 21 people, most of them teenage girls.

Russian language crackdown

Lavrov accused Kiev of waging an unprecedented campaign against the Russian language and Russian culture.

Ukraine is the only country to have outright banned Russian, he stated, arguing that no other state has gone as far in targeting Russian speakers.

“We discussed how Ukraine treats the Russian language, Russian education, Russian media, and Russian culture in general,” Lavrov said. He expressed hope that Vatican diplomats would raise the issue directly with Kiev.

Plight of Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Gallagher was also given a copy of its latest report on Kiev’s persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The report details “unlawful actions” against the church, the clergy, and parishioners and has already been submitted to the UN and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Lavrov said.

The Ukrainian authorities are “legislatively pursuing the destruction of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he warned, urging the Vatican to take a closer look at the issue.

Zelensky’s government has targeted the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for several years, accusing it of maintaining ties with Moscow despite the church declaring independence from the Russian Orthodox Church in 2022.

The crackdown has included monastery raids, property seizures, and dozens of criminal cases against clergy on collaboration charges. Kiev also supports the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which the Russian Orthodox Church considers schismatic.

Moscow-Vatican ties

Despite deep geopolitical divisions elsewhere, Russia and the Vatican have managed to keep their relationship “trustworthy, friendly and pragmatic,” Lavrov said.

He praised the Holy See for favoring diplomacy and peaceful solutions and said Moscow remains ready to work closely with the Vatican on humanitarian issues.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the two sides discussed defending traditional spiritual and moral values, family reunification, prisoner exchanges, and the protection of Christian communities around the world.

US grain farmers have been plunged into their worst financial crisis in four decades as the war with Iran drives up diesel and fertilizer costs, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The latest price shock compounds years of weak crop prices and falling incomes.

The mounting pressure follows the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February, which prompted Tehran to largely block commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route that previously served about a fifth of the world’s energy supplies. The resulting surge in energy costs is hitting the US heartland ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress.

Farmers across the Corn Belt have been particularly hard hit by soaring diesel and crop nutrient prices since the military campaign began, the FT reported. Nebraska Farmers Union president John Hansen described the downturn as the sector’s worst since the 1980s.

”Inputs are way out of whack,” Nebraska corn and soybean farmer Matt Bailey told the newspaper. He said a phosphorus-rich fertilizer used at planting now costs more than $900 per ton, compared with about $470 a decade ago.

Diesel prices have also surged after the conflict disrupted energy markets and sharply reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The nationwide average has climbed to about $5.45 per gallon from $3.81 before the war, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

”The [Iran] war has made so much uncertainty for us as farmers,” Pam Johnson, a former president of the National Corn Growers Association, told the FT. “It’s projected that farmers aren’t going to make any money for the next two years.”

The latest shock comes after several difficult years for major US crops. American Farm Bureau Federation economists estimate that growers of nine principal crops will lose about $31 billion in 2026 without federal assistance, with losses expected to reach $32 billion next year. Corn producers are projected to lose $131 per acre this year and $167 in 2027, while soybean losses are forecast at $80 and $138 respectively.

Farmers also blamed Washington’s trade disputes for weakening overseas demand, particularly for US soybeans in China. The Trump administration asked Congress in June for another $11 billion in assistance for the sector after billions of dollars in earlier payments.

Drought and unusually hot weather have compounded the pressure, damaging crops across parts of the Corn Belt, including Nebraska. Corn prices have risen as traders cut estimates for this year’s harvest, while soybeans and wheat have also rallied, fueling concerns that higher commodity costs could add to inflation already running above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Darline Graham has won South Carolina’s Republican Senate primary runoff, putting the political novice in a strong position to secure a full six-year term in the seat held for more than two decades by her hawkish late brother, Lindsey Graham.

Graham defeated five-term Congressman Ralph Norman on Tuesday, taking 52% of the vote against his 48%, according to preliminary results. She will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, in the November 3 general election. Republicans are heavily favored in South Carolina, which has not elected a Democratic US senator since 1998.

The 62-year-old was appointed to the Senate by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster in July following her brother’s sudden death, which came just hours after the veteran lawmaker returned from a visit to Kiev.

She had never held elected office before, previously serving as commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and in a communications role at the state Vocational Rehabilitation Department.

What was initially presented as a caretaker appointment quickly turned into an outright bid for the seat after President Donald Trump threw his weight behind Graham and urged her to run. Trump later campaigned for her in South Carolina, while his MAGA Inc. super PAC spent nearly $830,000 backing her ahead of the runoff.

Graham finished first in the initial ten-candidate Republican primary on August 11 with around 33% of the vote, while Norman took 25%, forcing Tuesday’s head-to-head contest because neither secured a majority.

Her victory came despite an awkward debate performance last week that raised questions about her readiness for the Senate. Asked whether Taiwan and the South China Sea constitute national security issues for Washington, Graham struggled to answer before acknowledging that she is “not that informed on national security.”

“National security is not my thing,” she later said, stressing instead that she supports the US military and arguing that South Carolina voters are more concerned with domestic issues.

The admission presented a striking contrast with Lindsey Graham, who made foreign policy one of the defining features of his 23 years in the Senate. He was a vocal supporter of Kiev, pushed for sweeping sanctions against Russia, and advocated an aggressive US posture toward Iran and other foreign adversaries. At his funeral last month, Trump described Graham as “extremely hawkish,” adding that the senator “never saw a war that he didn’t like.”

Darline Graham has nevertheless already inherited at least one of her brother’s signature foreign-policy projects. Shortly after taking his seat, she helped reintroduce legislation originally championed by Lindsey Graham that targets countries purchasing Russian and Iranian energy. The Senate passed the measure earlier this month.

Trump’s endorsement proved decisive in the runoff, overcoming attacks from Norman and his allies, who questioned Graham’s experience and accused her candidacy of amounting to political nepotism.

A US Army Black Hawk went down during a training flight in Colorado on Tuesday, just a day after CNN reported that Apache attack helicopters are crashing at a historically high rate amid persistent mechanical problems.

The Black Hawk went down on the east side of Thorodin Mountain in Gilpin County, west of Denver and near Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Four people were aboard, but no injuries were reported. Emergency crews also found no fuel leak or fire and said there was no danger to the surrounding community.

Footage and aerial images from the scene show the helicopter sitting upright among trees with its rotor blades heavily damaged.

A U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has crashed in Colorado while carrying four crew members. The status of the crew and the cause of the crash are currently unknown. pic.twitter.com/0EWyqvLMqD

— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) August 25, 2026

The Black Hawk had flown from Fort Campbell, Kentucky and belongs to the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. The Army described the incident as an “aviation mishap” during routine training operations and said an investigation is underway.

The unit suffered a deadly crash last September, when an MH-60M Black Hawk went down during nighttime training near Summit Lake in Washington state, killing all four soldiers aboard.

A far more devastating Black Hawk disaster thrust Army aviation into the national spotlight on January 29, 2025, when an Army UH-60L Black Hawk collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 as the passenger jet approached Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River, killing all 64 people aboard the airliner and all three soldiers in the helicopter.

The disaster – the deadliest US aviation accident since 2001 – triggered heightened scrutiny of military helicopter operations and aviation safety. Internal Pentagon figures provided to Congress and reviewed by AP last year showed that the rate of Class A mishaps – the military’s most serious category of aviation accidents – jumped 55% from 2020 to 2024.

More recent Army data suggests that the problem has not gone away. On Monday, CNN reported that AH-64 Apache attack helicopters are crashing at a historically high rate, with five Class A flight mishaps recorded so far in fiscal 2026. Based on internal Army safety data and flight-hour figures supplied by the service, the outlet calculated a rate of around 6.24 major crashes per 100,000 flying hours.

Two Russian soldiers who spent more than two years in terrorist captivity in Mali have described to RT the extreme heat, constant shackling, poor food, and barely drinkable water they endured at the hands of Islamist militants.

Aleksandr Efremov and Vasily Nagalev spoke exclusively to RT’s Daria Vaganova after being brought to Libya on their way home to Russia.

The servicemen were captured in 2024 during the battle of Tinzaouaten near the Algerian border, when militants from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM ambushed a Malian military convoy supported by Russia’s Wagner Group. The Malian and Wagner forces were heavily outnumbered in the fighting.

Efremov and Nagalev spent a total of 755 days in captivity, isolated from civilization and keeping track of time by counting sunrises and sunsets. They said the reality of captivity was nothing like what is typically portrayed in films.

“In movies, you can usually escape, but here there’s nowhere to run because there’s nothing but Sahara everywhere,” Aleksandr said, describing their ordeal as essentially “Sahara and chains.”

The soldiers said their legs were constantly shackled as they endured extreme heat and survived on poor food and barely drinkable water. After about a year, hope of being rescued began to fade.

“There was hope for about the first year, but by the second year, it didn’t matter anymore whether we’d be released or not,” Aleksandr recalled. “There were moments so tense that we practically begged to be shot.”

Their release was secured through negotiations involving the Russian Defense Ministry’s Africa Corps and the Malian General Staff, mediated by forces of the Libyan National Army led by General Saddam Haftar.

A Russian medical specialist treating the men after their release said the food they had received was “extremely detrimental to their bodies,” while they had been “practically drinking from a puddle.”

“They have problems with their intestines, liver, and other organs,” he said, adding that doctors were “gradually restoring them” to health. Both men are currently in “stable and satisfactory” condition and could return to Russia within “a week or two” once their condition has fully stabilized.

Efremov and Nagalev told RT they intend to continue serving in the Russian military after recovering and plan to join Moscow’s military operation against Kiev.

The Sahel has been plagued by militant violence for more than a decade, with groups linked to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram carrying out attacks across Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and neighboring countries. Moscow has repeatedly accused foreign powers, including Ukraine, of seeking to destabilize the region and undermine local nations’ ties with Russia by assisting extremist groups.

The freed soldiers said their captors appeared to be receiving substantial outside support.

“They certainly receive money because they have everything,” Vasily said.

“They have money, equipment, weapons. They have it all. And in large quantities,” Aleksandr added.

The Wagner Group, with which the two men previously served, has since ended its operations in Mali, with Russia’s Africa Corps taking over its role in supporting Sahel governments in their fight against militants and extremists.

In mid-July, Malian and Russian forces recaptured the strategic northern town of Anefis from FLA and JNIM after more than a week of intense fighting. In mid-August, Russian troops also helped the Malian military repel a large-scale attack on an army base in the central city of San.

Global fertility may have fallen below replacement level for the first time in human history, putting the world population on course for decline within roughly one generation, a new study has warned.

The paper, Terra Incognita: The Economics of a Shrinking World, published earlier this month by economics professor Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde of the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University researcher Patrick Norrick, warns that prolonged low fertility could shrink workforces, rapidly age societies, and strain economies and welfare systems.

The researchers estimate that humanity is likely already below replacement fertility – the average number of children per woman needed for each generation to replace itself. The global threshold is around 2.2, while the study puts the current rate at no higher than 2.19, suggesting the world may have only just crossed it.

“As of 2026, humanity is likely to be below replacement level: we are having fewer births than we need to keep population constant in the long run… this has never happened before in our history as a species, not even during wars or pandemics,” the authors stated.

The analysis covers 236 countries and territories from 1950 to 2023, with fertility declining in 219. On average, countries have lost around 0.062 births per woman annually, and there is little evidence the trend is leveling off, authors note.

The global population is not shrinking yet because large generations born in previous decades are still having children, but the researchers estimate this effect could sustain growth for only another three decades, with population peaking at around 9 billion in 2056 before declining.

The authors note the trend has spread well beyond rich countries, with fertility rates in 2025 estimated at just 0.87 in Thailand, 1.01 in Colombia, 1.35 in Iran and 1.52 in Brazil. They say there is no automatic mechanism driving fertility back toward replacement level because there is no single explanation for falling birth rates: while housing and childcare costs, economic insecurity, contraception, and changing social norms may all contribute, none fully explains the global trend.

The economic consequences of the looming population decline could be far-reaching, the study warns. Smaller generations mean fewer workers supporting growing elderly populations, straining pensions, healthcare, and public finances while slowing growth. In the US, the authors estimate that 2% annual productivity growth combined with a 0.5% contraction in the workforce would reduce long-term GDP growth to roughly 1.5%.

UN demographic forecasts have also shifted sharply downward over the past decade. In 2015, the organization projected more than 11.2 billion people in 2100, with no peak before the end of the century. Its 2024 revision instead projected that the population would peak at around 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s before declining slightly to about 10.2 billion by 2100.

The world’s population crossed the 8 billion mark in 2022, according to UN estimates, and currently stands at approximately 8.3 billion.

Musk weighs in

US tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has repeatedly warned about falling birth rates, reacted to the study after an X user described its findings as an “existential crisis.” “I’ve been warning about this for years,” he wrote.

I’ve been warning about this for years https://t.co/kHFPFjNkE7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2026

Musk, who has 13 children, has repeatedly described declining birth rates as one of the greatest threats to civilization. In 2022, he wrote that “population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.” Last year, he warned that “Low birth rates will end civilization” and called for the issue to be treated as a national emergency, while suggesting Europe could “die out” unless birth rates recover.

Last weekend, commenting on a paper outlining ancient Rome’s attempts to boost its population, Musk wrote: “The reason Rome fell was because they stopped making Romans.”

Russia’s demographic challenge

Russian officials have long warned about the country’s demographic challenges. According to state statistics agency Rosstat, Russia’s total fertility rate fell to around 1.305-1.374 children per woman last year, alongside some of the lowest monthly and quarterly birth figures in modern Russian history. 

Moscow has introduced childbirth payments, expanded maternity benefits and other family support measures to reverse the trend. It has also revived the Soviet-era “Mother Heroine” title, which provides financial rewards to women with ten or more children, and discouraged the promotion of “child-free” lifestyles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed the importance of improving economic and social conditions in order to promote larger families and make parenthood a widely supported choice. He has backed a national family support service and established a presidential council on family and demographic policy in 2024.

Two people have died of measles in Pennsylvania, decades after the disease was considered eradicated. Measles is currently making a resurgence in the US, with cases at a 35-year high.

The two victims were residents of Lancaster County, a largely rural county west of Philadelphia, state health officials announced on Tuesday. No additional details were provided, except that neither victim was vaccinated.

Fatal cases of measles are exceedingly rare in the US, but infections are rising. 2,289 cases of the disease were recorded in 2025, the highest number since 1991, when 9,643 cases were recorded. Last year’s number was surpassed by this July, and as of August 20, 2,777 cases have been recorded this year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Outbreaks have occurred in 47 US states and territories, with 94% of cases occurring among the unvaccinated.

Measles is a highly contagious viral respiratory disease that was officially eliminated in the US in 2000 following a successful mass vaccination campaign. Before mass vaccination began in the 1960s, measles killed between 400 and 500 Americans every year, according to CDC data.

Dr. Adam Ratner, an adviser to the CDC, told the JAMA medical journal last year that skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines has “bled over” into other vaccines, due to the Covid shots becoming “this insanely polarized political thing” from 2020 onwards. 

“Once there was that kind of hesitancy out there and that kind of divisiveness, it’s not surprising that it has bled over into people thinking about vaccine mandates and childhood vaccines in general,” Rather said.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, has vouched for the safety of the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, but noted “the decision to vaccinate is a personal one.”

A vaccination rate of around 95% is required to prevent measles outbreaks. In November, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO), will meet to determine whether the US and Mexico can still claim to be “measles free” after recent outbreaks.

The trial of six members of a Pakistani ‘grooming gang’ has quietly restarted in Manchester. The retrial hasn’t made the headlines, and looking at the sordid details of the case, it’s clear the British establishment wants to keep it that way.

The six suspects were alleged members of the Rochdale grooming gang – a group of Muslim men, predominantly Pakistani, who trafficked, sexually abused, and raped underage white British girls in the northern English town between the 1980s and 2010s. More than 75 men have been charged and 53 convicted since Greater Manchester Police began investigating the gang in 2010.

What are the men accused of?

The suspects have been charged with 46 counts of rape, sexual assault, and ‘assault by penetration’, with two of the men facing more than a dozen charges each.

• Tahrir Rashid, 53, 12 counts of rape, 3 counts of indecent assault, 1 count of assault by penetration

• Mohammed Saleem, 46, 8 counts of rape

• Sucklane Shah, 46, 2 counts of rape

• Itfaq Hussain, 45, 3 counts of rape

• Arshad Mohammed, 55, 5 counts of rape

• Amjad Mahmood, 53, 12 counts of rape, 2 counts of indecency with a child, 1 count of indecent assault, 2 counts of assault by penetration

All of the suspects’ alleged offenses took place between 2003 and 2008, and involved two girls who were as young as 13 when they were “passed around” between the gang, according to prosecutors. Rashid, the alleged ringleader, is also accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.

What happened in the first trial?

The six men were tried last year, but the trial collapsed with no explanation in December. When reporting restrictions were lifted a month later, it was revealed that the jurors had formed a WhatsApp group to discuss the case, and had shared documentaries on the subject of grooming gangs. 

As the jury had been banned from talking about the case outside of court, the judge concluded that “no course of action that I can reasonably take can cure the position that now exists because of these multi-layered difficulties,” and halted the trial.

Before the trial collapsed, the court heard how the group abused two girls in the “most humiliating and degrading way imaginable.” One of the victims, identified only as ‘Girl C’, was collected from school by Rashid, plied with alcohol, and raped repeatedly by the gang. ‘Girl C’ was raped a dozen times by Shah over several months, prosecutors alleged.

Mohammed told the other victim, ‘Girl A’, that he ran a modeling agency as a ruse to take nude photographs of her. She was allegedly raped by at least three members of the gang.

Both girls were described by the prosecution as “very vulnerable children with chaotic home lives,” which made them “easy prey for men with an unhealthy interest in having sex with children.” All six suspects pleaded not guilty.

Why do the British authorities want this kept quiet?

The proliferation of grooming gangs – or ‘rape gangs’, as right-wing politicians label them – is a national embarrassment for all levels of the British state. Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Police were warned of the gang’s activity in Rochdale as far back as 2007, but refused to investigate allegations of organized rape by Pakistani gangs until 2012, for fear “of being tarnished with a race brush,” according to an independent review published in 2024.

A 2014 report on rape gangs in Rotherham found that social workers, youth workers, and police officers ignored reports that 1,400 children had been abused by the gangs, partly for fear of being seen as racist. A nationwide audit published this year concluded that authorities in 50 towns and cities were reluctant to investigate the gangs due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.

The most shocking report, funded by Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe and published in June, found that Pakistani rape gangs operated in 149 of the UK’s 317 municipalities. The report determined that a “bare minimum” of 250,000 women and girls had been raped by grooming gangs since the year 2000, and that senior politicians helped the gangs escape prosecution. 

In Parliament, reading the testimonies of rape gang survivors provided to our inquiry.

Please watch, listen and understand. pic.twitter.com/C7dyIL46ga

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) June 17, 2026

These politicians included London Mayor Sadiq Khan, of Pakistani descent, who denied the existence of grooming gangs in the British capital, despite having evidence proving otherwise, and former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013, let 13,000 pedophiles off with warning letters instead of prosecuting them.

Lowe’s report was published at a time of heightened racial tension in the UK, coming a week after a Sudanese migrant attempted to behead a man in Belfast, and six months after British police handcuffed a dying white teenager after the man who stabbed him falsely accused him of racism.

It detailed a litany of crimes committed against white girls, with one victim “raped by between six and seven hundred different men over the course of three years,” and others raped by dogs, cut with knives, and “subjected to penetration with objects.” Lowe’s report, and earlier government-backed reports, found that some children were trafficked to Pakistan by the gangs.

Starmer’s ruling Labour Party voted en masse against a Conservative motion calling for a national statutory inquiry into the gangs last year. Starmer’s party eventually backed down under public pressure and opened a probe earlier this year, which is ongoing.

Are there more trials to come?

The six suspects currently on trial were charged in 2023 as part of Greater Manchester Police’s ‘Operation Lytton’. Active since 2015, Operation Lytton is aimed at arresting and prosecuting suspects who were overlooked by earlier investigations. The operation has resulted in 32 convictions to date.

#JAILED | Seven men jailed for 174 years after grooming two girls in #Rochdale (2001–2006).

Thanks to survivor bravery & GMP’s CSE team, justice has been served.

Op Lytton: 32 offenders jailed for 474 years so far.

Time is no barrier to justice.

More: https://t.co/SzwzGHTode pic.twitter.com/DolFSd1kBv

— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) October 1, 2025

Fourteen suspects are currently awaiting trial, according to the most recent information from Greater Manchester Police.

Outside the greater Manchester area, six other large-scale grooming gang trials resulted in convictions this year. In Bradford, where 20% of all residents are of Pakistani descent, 15 men were sentenced in June for 88 rape offenses against the same 14-year-old girl. 

Eight men in south Wales have been charged with raping eight children, with their trial due to begin in early 2028.

A far-right Israeli MP smashed a memorial to Palestinians killed in the conflict with Israel in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. He committed the act under IDF escort, which has been condemned by the army and politicians in Israel.

Zvi Sukkot, a member of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s ultranationalist Religious Zionist party, said he went to the West Bank village of Madama to remove a monument that “glorified murderers of Jews.”

Video of the incident circulating online shows Sukkot and one other man taking sledgehammers to the monument while an Israeli soldier with an assault rifle watches nearby.

Footage of the aftermath captured by an RT correspondent shows the memorial defaced, with tiles around its stone base partially smashed.

The IDF said Sukkot had received permission to conduct a military-escorted “tour of monuments” in the West Bank, but “acted deceptively” and without authorization in damaging the monument.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stressed that “taking the law into one’s own hands, particularly by public figures, is unacceptable.” The statement did not mention Sukkot by name.

Netanyahu’s primary political rival Gadi Eisenkot called the MP’s stunt “a disgrace.”

“He lied to and misled the IDF and its commanders, harmed security, and tarnished the State of Israel as a whole,” the former military chief said on X.

Sukkot’s ultranationalist Religious Zionist party has been at the forefront of Israel’s recent push for more settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law by the UN and most of the international community.

Last week, West Jerusalem opened bidding for the construction of more than 1,200 new homes in the area as part the settlement expansion, which was unveiled in July. Critics stress that the project threatens to effectively cut the West Bank in two if completed.

Settler violence has also spiked. Around 190 attacks against Palestinians took place in the first four months of this year, the UN said last month.

The settlement push has been condemned internationally, with the leaders of more than a dozen European countries denouncing it as “unacceptable” in a joint statement on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia called on Israel to cease its “creeping expansion” into the occupied Palestinian territories and to take measures to “curb settler violence.” Moscow has long said that the only way to put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to rest is to implement a two-state solution.

The Russian military has struck a launch site for Ukraine’s long-range FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. Kiev has used Flamingos in attacks deep inside Russia.

The site was targeted with two Iskander cruise missiles and seven Geran-4 Seeker attack drones, according to the ministry.

“The target has been hit,” it said, adding that the strike triggered a major fire and “a massive fuel spill… burning over an area of approximately 40,000 square meters.”

The MOD also released drone footage purporting to show a massive fire engulfing the launch site after the attack.

In separate strikes, Russian forces also hit Ukrainian drone assembly and storage facilities, according to the ministry.

The Russian military has intensified long-range strikes on targets in Ukraine in response to repeated Ukrainian attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure inside Russia. Moscow has condemned Kiev’s drone and missile strikes, including attacks deep inside Russian territory, as acts of terrorism intended to compensate for Ukrainian setbacks on the battlefield.

Russia maintains that it does not deliberately target civilians and that its strikes are directed at military facilities and infrastructure supporting Ukrainian forces.

Last week, the Russian military struck an industrial facility belonging to Ukrainian weapons manufacturer Fire Point, which produces Flamingo missiles and other weapons. The plant manufactured components for long- and medium-range drones and was also used to assemble and store boosters for the cruise missiles, according to the MOD.

Fire Point has been promoted by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky during trips to Western countries as the manufacturer of some of the nation’s “most successful” weapons. Over the weekend, a Russian volunteer air-defense unit shot down one of the supposedly state-of-the-art Flamingo missiles with machine-gun fire, according to Kursk Region Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein.

Fire Point has been linked to Zelensky’s former business partner, Timur Mindich, who has been dubbed ‘Zelensky’s wallet’ in Ukraine. Mindich fled the country last year after being named as a key suspect in a major corruption scandal.

The Canadian government has announced that it will impose retaliatory tariffs of up to 50% on around 700 American products, after US President Donald Trump hit Canada with a round of tariffs and threatened further increases. 

American steel and aluminum will be tariffed at 50%, according to a statement on the Canadian Finance Department’s website, while other goods – including dairy products, appliances, and farm equipment – will face tariffs of 25%. The measures will cover around $20 billion in US imports, and will come into effect on September 8, the statement added.

“Canada will match the United States’ tariffs dollar for dollar, rate for rate,” Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said at a press conference on Tuesday. The tariffs, he added “are designed primarily to provide protection for Canadian industry impacted by US tariffs.”

Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed on Friday, with both sides accusing the other of making last-minute changes to a proposed comprehensive trade agreement. Trump immediately imposed 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, including wine, cement, plywood, clothing, and hockey equipment.

The dispute deepened on Monday when Trump took to Truth Social to threaten further tariffs on America’s northern neighbor.

Trump accused Canada of “ripping off the United States of America for years,” highlighting Ottawa’s protectionist tariffs on American agricultural produce. The system, he said, is “not sustainable.”

“On January First, 2027, Tariffs on all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and Steel, will be increased to 50%,” Trump announced. The move will double the current 25% tariff on Canadian auto imports. “Build in the US and there are ZERO TARIFFS,” the president added, saying Canada would no longer be treated “like a State” and calling it “among the worst nations in the world to deal with.”

At the core of Trump’s grievance is the trade deficit with Canada. He claims this figure stands at $60 billion, but Trump’s own trade representative puts it at $48.3 billion. While Trump views this deficit as evidence that Canada is taking advantage of the US, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has argued that the deficit only exists because the US imports so much oil, gas, and electricity from Canada. “I don’t think they want us to stop sending it,” he commented in an address on Saturday.

Trump also takes issue with Canada’s protectionist tariffs on dairy, poultry, and eggs, which can be as high as 200% over a certain quota. Canada also tariffs American automakers who have moved their Canadian factories back to the US, a policy that directly challenges Trump’s plans to reindustrialize the US.

Trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa date back to Trump’s first term, but reignited when he returned to office last year and launched a sweeping tariff campaign against major trade partners, including China, the EU, Japan, and Mexico.

“We’ve been under no illusions,” Carney said on Saturday, referring to his dealings with Trump. “We recognized from the start that America has changed.”

Thirty-five years after Ukraine declared independence, the anniversary offers little cause for celebration from Moscow’s perspective. Russian officials and commentators argue that a country which inherited one of the Soviet Union’s strongest industrial bases has spent the ensuing decades squandering that legacy, surrendering its real sovereignty to the West, and building a national identity around hostility toward Russia and rejection of the two nations’ shared past.

RT gathered comments from Russian diplomats, politicians, and analysts on what – if anything – remains of that independence and where the country’s chosen path is ultimately leading.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s representative to the United Nations:

Ukraine is marking the 35th anniversary of its so-called “independence” with great fanfare. But is there really anything to celebrate? Over the past three and a half decades, successive governments have run the country into the ground. Those who shouted the loudest about Ukraine’s independence and bright future have, whether knowingly or not, been the very ones destroying it. Its current dictator – the self-proclaimed “president of peace,” whose term has long since expired – has been particularly successful in this regard.

With the active involvement of the collective West – whose countries claim to embody “civilization” and “democracy” – Ukraine has been turned into a “Zelensky concentration camp.” All dissent and political opposition have been outlawed, while those brave enough to voice an alternative point of view are imprisoned without trial or due process – or physically eliminated. The unprecedented persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church has been accompanied by brutal attacks on clergy and parishioners. Meanwhile, history is being rewritten wholesale: the Soviet legacy is repudiated, while Hitler’s accomplices and collaborators – responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Russians, Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians during World War II – are glorified.

It is not only the Russian language that is under attack. Everything associated with our shared past is being systematically erased. The Kiev authorities display a truly primitive form of Russophobia and xenophobia – directed, in practice, even against their own citizens, many of whom are Russian not only by ancestry but also by cultural identity.

Perhaps nowhere is the wretchedness of Kiev’s rulers more evident than in one seemingly absurd example. Ukraine has even imposed sanctions on the Russian animated series Masha and the Bear, claiming that it promotes Russian militaristic narratives.

Having failed to achieve the desired results on the battlefield, the Kiev regime has now descended into outright terrorism against Russia’s civilian population. At the same time, Zelensky continues begging his Western patrons for more weapons and ammunition, which are then used to strike Russian cities, residential neighborhoods, and civilian infrastructure. The calculation is obvious: to frighten the public, sow chaos, and destabilize the situation inside Russia. Terrorism has become Kiev’s last resort in its attempt to reverse a situation that is increasingly turning against it.

Sergey Poletaev, analyst, CFDP member, co-founder and editor of the Vatfor Project:  

Ukraine marks its 35th anniversary as more than just a failed state. It has become a country reduced to a single function, whose only reason for existing is to wage war against Russia. It is not fighting for its own interests, since everyone understands that Ukraine’s only chance of surviving in any form is to make peace with Russia immediately.

Whatever the ultimate outcome of the war, Ukraine has already perished in it. Its population has been cut in half, it has lost one-fifth of its territory, its industrial base and energy sector have been destroyed, and, most recently, its agricultural exports have been severed. Countries do not recover from something like this.

And all of it has been sacrificed for the interests of Ukraine’s Western masters. The country is now dying to give France, Britain, and Germany a chance to establish themselves in a post-American world. But Ukrainians spent 35 years consciously pursuing this path, and now they are getting exactly what they worked so hard to achieve.

Happy Dependence Day, neighbors.

Dmitry Rodionov, Director of the Center for Geopolitical Studies at the Institute for Intonational Development (IID):

The document that laid the foundation for Ukrainian “statehood” was adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR exactly 35 years ago.

Ukraine marked the occasion with its customary pomp, despite the ongoing hostilities. After all, the “dignity” and “unbreakable spirit” of the “Ukrainian nation” must be emphasized at every opportunity. Yet much of this pageantry stems from the architects of Ukrainian “statehood” recognizing just how artificial and fraudulent their creation really is – hence their determination to make it appear as real as possible.

Frankly, they have done a poor job of it throughout the past 35 years, although the leaders of the Kiev regime have bent over backward trying. But no amount of whitewashing can change the facts, and the history of “independent Ukraine” contains far too many dark chapters for the country ever to establish itself as a viable state.

The declaration of Ukrainian independence was riddled with legal inconsistencies. These became a kind of foundational birth defect that predetermined the future of the Ukrainian “state,” which ultimately turned into a textbook failed state. Its historic collapse was baked in from the beginning, but regrettably, the process has dragged on for years and continues to claim more and more lives.

There are more than enough such inconsistencies to declare Ukraine a nonexistent state and withdraw its recognition as an entity under international law. But what would be the point? Ukraine’s fate is now being decided on the battlefield. Kiev still has a chance to preserve at least some form of statehood, yet it stubbornly refuses to do so, clinging instead to historical phantoms such as the “1991 borders.”

History will therefore put everything in its proper place and bury the temporary geopolitical aberration known as “Ukraine” once and for all.

Anatoly Viktorov, Russian Ambassador to Israel:

On August 24, 1991, Ukraine adopted its Act of Declaration of Independence. The 35 years that have passed since then provide an opportunity to look back and acknowledge with regret that Ukraine cannot claim any genuine autonomy in either its foreign or domestic policy.

Western countries have completely stripped Ukraine of its international legal personality, placing it under direct foreign control and turning the country into a staging ground for threats to Russia’s security.

Ukraine once inherited a unique legacy from the Soviet Union: advanced industry, infrastructure, and agriculture. It became Europe’s second-largest country by area after Russia, with a GDP exceeding that of Central European states and powerful armed forces. Regrettably, instead of developing as an independent democracy, pursuing national progress, and building a society that respected the legitimate rights and interests of people of every nationality and faith, the Kiev authorities began persecuting the Russian language, culture, traditions, religion, and our shared historical memory.

At outside instigation, with the active participation of the “collective West” and amid the passive indifference of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, a radical and destructive strain of Western Ukrainian nationalism took root and flourished in the country. The Kiev regime based its ideology on the misanthropic ideas of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), led by terrorist Stepan Bandera, who, in pursuit of his slogan “Ukraine for Ukrainians,” became an organizer of and accomplice to the murder of thousands of Poles, Russians, and Jews. The greeting now commonly used in Ukraine – ”Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” – was introduced by Bandera’s followers. It is comparable to the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!”

The attempts by the Kiev junta, which has seized control of Ukraine, to portray its confrontation with Russia as Ukraine’s “existential struggle” for independence bear no resemblance to reality.

Likewise, Ukrainian officials’ claims that Ukrainians and Israelis face some kind of common “axis of evil” amount to little more than verbal gymnastics.

Ukraine has now become one of the world’s leading exporters of instability. The trail of Kiev’s intelligence services can be traced across numerous global flash points, including in the Middle East. Ukrainian “operatives” are actively seeking to share their experience and are more than willing to profit from the misfortunes of others.

Russia’s achievement of all the objectives of its special military operation would not only serve our vital interests in security and the protection of human rights, but also help curb modern Ukraine’s unchecked and destructive influence on the very foundations of international relations.

Alexander Shatilov, Professor of Political Science at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation:

Thirty-five years of independence have clearly demonstrated that Ukraine simply failed the test of statehood – something that was effectively handed to it when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Instead of making intelligent use of the enormous potential it inherited from the USSR and building upon it effectively, Ukraine chose simply to squander that legacy. Once it was gone, the country began playing a series of strange games in the hope of outsmarting everyone else.

At first, Ukraine tried to “have it both ways.” Later, following the Euromaidan, it attempted to tap into the European Union’s supposedly “bottomless barrel.” As a result, Ukrainian statehood now stands on the brink of collapse, with its industrial base destroyed, its demographic crisis reaching monstrous proportions, and vast territories lost.

The country’s political reputation has also been ruined beyond repair. In 1991, Ukraine was given enormous credit as a new and promising post-Soviet state. Today, however, the same West treats it with condescension, if not outright contempt, despite continuing to provide financial, military, and information support. Incidentally, it is only thanks to this assistance that Ukraine has not yet disintegrated completely and continues to exist in some form as a state.

Ukraine is being exploited in every conceivable way, while still being regarded as a kind of “territory of Untermenschen and Nazi collaborators.” This is largely the result of the Ukrainian elites becoming so consumed by what they believed were their clever political games that they ultimately gambled away their own country. The population bears responsibility as well: it allowed itself to be drawn into the elites’ schemes, failed to rein them in before it was too late, and then, in large numbers, supported the Maidan and began sliding down the slope toward rabid Russophobia and Nazism.

State Duma Deputy Mikhail Matveyev:

Ukraine was one of the wealthiest and most developed republics in the Soviet Union. Judging by its GDP and the revenues and expenditures it generated, it was broadly capable of supporting itself. It was a self-sufficient republic with advanced industry, agriculture, and a thriving tourism sector – the Black Sea resorts and everything associated with them.

This system began to fall apart after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The years of independence brought industrial decline, mass emigration, and deteriorating infrastructure – processes that began long before Russia launched its military operation.

Take Crimea, for example. During the peninsula’s years as part of Ukraine, its infrastructure and roads fell into an extreme state of disrepair, while Kiev invested virtually nothing in their development.

Independence therefore brought Ukraine no happiness whatsoever. The country has lost its land, its people, its natural resources, and much of what once made it prosperous and livable. The term “independence” is particularly inappropriate in Ukraine’s case.

It should also be remembered that an independent, territorially unified Ukraine stretching from the Carpathians to Donetsk never existed historically. Ukraine was once a relatively small territory centered somewhere around Kiev.

Before becoming part of the Russian Empire, Ukraine was dependent on other states, particularly Poland. After 1991, that dependence merely changed direction: Ukraine became dependent on Western countries – above all the United States, Poland, and Britain. It possesses neither political nor economic sovereignty, so there is no reason for it to celebrate Independence Day.

Oleg Akimov, Chairman for Regional Affairs at the Association of Russian Trade Unions:

What Ukraine has today is pseudo-independence, artificially sustained by the United States, the European Union, and those who have aligned themselves with the pro-Western world in the belief that they can defeat Russia using the Ukrainian army. That will never happen. Russia has a unique history: even in the most difficult moments, it has always emerged victorious.

Ukraine today is a completely fabricated country with no centuries-old history of its own. There were never any “ancient Ukrs.” These stories were invented by Ukrainian “scholars” to create the myth of an age-old Ukrainian state. Ukraine’s territory became prosperous and developed as part of a greater Russia, thanks to the collective efforts of the entire country. But once its politicians embraced the “anti-Russia” formula, Ukraine began destroying itself, ultimately driving the country into effective bankruptcy and leaving it unable even to pay pensions.

Ukraine has no GDP, economy, or industry of its own. It does not even own its land, which has been sold off to European and pro-American companies. Even its president can no longer be called a president, because he is illegitimate – no elections were held. Ukraine today resembles a patient in intensive care connected to an artificial life-support system. Western countries are keeping it alive solely so that it can continue fighting Russia. Therefore, when we speak of Ukraine as an independent state, its independence is in fact largely notional.

Russia will prevail – we have no doubt about that. We will overcome every difficulty together, and once the special military operation is over, Russia will enter a period of prosperity. Ukraine, as a fascist state ruled by a fascist regime, will be consigned to the dustbin of history, and every criminal who issued orders to kill will be punished.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing to revoke the visas of up to 200,000 foreigners, AP reported on Tuesday, citing State Department documents and two US officials familiar with the plan. The reported move, which targets business and tourism applicants who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum, could be the largest mass visa revocation in US history.

US President Donald Trump has pursued a sweeping immigration crackdown since returning to office in January 2025, including increased deportations, expanded detention efforts, and tighter restrictions on visa applicants.

The visa revocation process, which has not yet been finalized and could be challenged in court, is expected to begin in the coming weeks and would target B1 business and B2 tourist visas issued since 2016, AP said.

“We are coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the US claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told AP.

Pigott did not provide an estimate of how many visas could be affected, adding that the process would remain ongoing and the number of cases could change.

The measure would not necessarily result in immediate deportation, AP noted, adding that most people with pending asylum applications could be moved into another immigration category while losing their status as business or tourist visitors. Under the new approach, current applicants would reportedly have to demonstrate that they do not intend to seek asylum in the US and provide evidence that they plan to return to their home countries.

As part of its broader immigration campaign, the Trump administration has taken a series of measures to tighten controls on foreign nationals seeking to enter or remain in the US.

Earlier this month, the State Department said it revoked more than 175,000 visas since Trump returned to office. The affected individuals include people who violated visa terms or were accused or convicted of crimes. AP reported that the total also includes people who have publicly criticized US policies.

In January, the department imposed an indefinite pause on immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries while it reassessed screening and vetting procedures.

The administration has significantly stepped up deportation efforts as part of the campaign. In September 2025, DHS reported that more than 2 million people had been removed or had self-deported from the US during Trump’s first 250 days in office.

The Trump administration has also moved to tighten rules for work visas for highly skilled professionals. A new DHS proposal would impose an additional $103,265 fee on cap-subject H-1B petitions filed by US employers. DHS estimates that around 85,000 petitions annually would be subject to the proposed fee.

Eighteen-year-old Amber-Rose Berry has made history after becoming the youngest South African woman to swim the English Channel.

Berry completed the gruelling 33km open-water crossing from England to France in an unofficial time of 10 hours and 27 minutes on Sunday, August 23. Her time is still subject to ratification, but if confirmed, it would place her well ahead of the average 12 to 14 hours taken to complete the crossing.

She began her swim from Shakespeare Beach in Dover at 5.27am and reached the rocks at Pointe du Riden, near Cap Gris-Nez in France, at 3.54pm.

The achievement came despite a series of challenges during the crossing, including painful jellyfish stings, strong currents, cold water and the wake of a passing ship.

“That was bloody tough,” Berry said shortly after completing the swim. “But I was motivated by the opportunity I was given to complete this swim. And by the fact that, by finishing, so many opportunities would be afforded to student-athletes like myself.”

Berry’s mother, Karen, who supported her aboard the escort vessel Sea Leopard, said her daughter faced one of her toughest moments just beyond the halfway point. “She was tired and cold, and there was still so far to go,” Karen said.

Huge congratulations to Amber-Rose Berry on completing her solo swim at just 18 years old!
Well done to all on Sea Leopard Charterhttps://t.co/3YrZI4wGUu pic.twitter.com/zPPRRfcFcb

— Channel Swimming Association (@CSAswimmers) August 23, 2026

However, Berry’s training and determination helped her push through. She was also forced to battle the huge wake created by a ship, which her mother said appeared to give her renewed energy. “Funnily enough, that just seemed to energise her,” Karen said.

Berry trained for months under the guidance of open-water swimming coach Clinton le Seuer. During the crossing, she fed regularly, taking liquid nutrition every hour for the first two hours before moving to feeds every 30 minutes.

The crossing also adds another milestone to Berry’s already remarkable open-water swimming career. At just 16, she became the youngest person to complete Cape Town’s 33km False Bay crossing, finishing the swim solo in nine hours and 40 minutes. She completed that challenge without a wetsuit, wearing only a swimming costume and cap.

Her latest achievement carries additional significance as it comes exactly 100 years after Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926. It also coincides with South Africa’s Women’s Month, which commemorates the historic 1956 Women’s March against the Pass Laws. Berry follows in the footsteps of another record-breaking South African swimmer, Otto Thaning, who became the oldest person to complete the English Channel crossing when he swam it at the age of 73 in 2014. His record remains intact.

Beyond the sporting achievement, Berry’s swim was also aimed at raising funds for student-athletes. More than $7,000 has already been raised through a campaign supporting the Ukukhula Institute in Makhanda. The initiative aims to provide scholarships for disadvantaged student-athletes from Eastern Cape high schools to attend Rhodes University. The campaign carries the message, “Believe in What You Can Achieve”, reflecting Berry’s own journey from months of preparation to hours spent alone in the English Channel.

First published by IOL

Ukraine’s top anti-corruption court has set bail for the former deputy head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office, Irina Mudraya, at under $450,000 – less than one-seventh of the amount requested by prosecutors. She is suspected of channeling illicit funds into a bail payment for a defendant in a separate corruption case.

The High Anti-Corruption Court ruled on Tuesday that Mudraya must remain in Kiev and comply with any summons even if she posts bail, which she said she intends to do with the assistance of unnamed sponsors.

Zelensky fired Mudraya last week after she was formally accused of laundering about $3.3 million in cash to pay bail for former Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko. The latter had previously been implicated in an alleged $100 million kickback scheme blamed on Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of the Ukrainian leader.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), two agencies established under Western pressure to tackle government graft, accused Mudraya of pressuring financial-monitoring officials to overlook suspicious transfers through Sense Bank. The lender was formerly the Ukrainian branch of Russia’s Alfa Bank before being nationalized by Kiev in 2023.

Surveillance recordings previously leaked to Ukrainian media suggested that Mindich’s group was interested in placing loyal figures on Sense Bank’s cabinet-appointed supervisory board. Ukrainian media dubbed Mindich “Zelensky’s bagman” amid suspicions that he was merely a frontman for corruption at the highest levels of government.

Mudraya trained as a lawyer specializing in banking and worked for several major clients in the sector before becoming a deputy justice minister in 2022. She moved to Zelensky’s office in 2024, ostensibly to contribute to Kiev’s efforts to obtain war reparations from Russia.

The former Zelensky aide has also been accused of participating in criminal schemes intended to expropriate real estate in Kiev worth some $16.75 million by illegally altering government records and pressuring judges to deny the legitimate owners legal recourse.

NABU and SAPO presented extensive records of conversations reportedly involving Mudraya and other suspects. The exchanges were allegedly recorded by former lawmaker and banker Maksim Mikitas.

Ukrainian media have speculated that Mikitas agreed to participate in the sting operation in return for leniency in other criminal cases being investigated by the two agencies.

During the bail hearings, Mudraya blamed a provocateur, apparently referring to Mikitas, for abusing her trust in order to produce incriminating recordings. She suggested that references to her alleged involvement in corruption were false but did not explain why she had failed to challenge the statements at the time.

Her defense team called several character witnesses, including Jonathan Markovitch, the chief rabbi of Kiev. He told the court that he knew Mudraya as a trustworthy member of the Jewish community and did not consider her a flight risk.

Mindich fled to Israel in November 2025, reportedly hours before he was due to be arrested. One of his key associates, Aleksandr Zukerman, also left for Israel. Both suspects hold Israeli citizenship.

A rare and violent tornado has run rampant through the village of Pomas in southern France, injuring 39 people, including two critically, and damaging around 300 homes, according to the local authorities.

The tornado struck the village in the Aude department on Monday evening, with footage showing a large funnel swirling over the settlement, with gusts of violent winds wreaking havoc, ripping apart roofs, and smashing windows.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez called it a “tornado of rare intensity” while praising firefighters, security forces, and volunteers involved in the response.

Rescue operations continued through the night, the prefecture said on Tuesday, with 75 firefighters deployed alongside specialist reinforcements to check damaged buildings and search affected areas.

Residents forced from their homes were sheltered in a multi-purpose hall with help from the Red Cross, while others were temporarily relocated with relatives or to neighboring communes.

🌪️Eyewitness footage recorded from the village of #Verzeille captured a #tornado forming and swirling beneath a violent supercell thunderstorm south of the southern French city of #Carcassonne. https://t.co/tL5GfNBnxLpic.twitter.com/oGurjJdrxi
📌Authorities reported at least 26… pic.twitter.com/U5AVlVP0iw

— ⚡️🌎 World News 🌐⚡️ (@ferozwala) August 25, 2026

While no people were reported killed or missing, among the injured was a pregnant woman who was hurt when her house collapsed on her, according to AFP.

The storm also battered electricity infrastructure across southern France. Grid operator Enedis said about 21,000 households were without power across the south on Tuesday morning, including around 1,600 in Aude. The prefecture later put the number still without electricity locally at about 1,400.

The tornado appears unusually powerful by French standards. Emmanuel Wesolek, president of the Keraunos severe-weather observatory, told HuffPost that an initial assessment indicated “gusts of more than 200 kph” and potentially as high as 240 kph.

The tornado would likely rate somewhere between the upper end of EF2 and the lower end of EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, he added.

According to Meteo-France, while not as frequent as in the US, a few dozen tornadoes occur in mainland France in an average year, and most are of low intensity. According to figures cited by HuffPost, EF2 tornadoes occur only once or twice annually, while an EF3 is recorded roughly once every four years.

The EU is highly reluctant to revive plans to steal more than $200 billion in frozen Russian sovereign reserves and hand them over to cash-strapped Ukraine, EurActiv reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

On Monday, European leaders flocked to Kiev in a show of solidarity for Ukraine, which marked its 35th Independence Day, but the talks quickly turned to the country’s numerous issues, including a substantial budgetary deficit. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky told European officials that his government still faces a €23.5 billion ($27.4 billion) shortfall on top of EU funding already promised and urged Brussels to accelerate the next instalment of its €90 billion support loan.

According to EurActiv, while the EU’s attention once again pivoted to the idea of confiscating around €210 billion of Russian funds immobilized in EU institutions, mostly in the Belgian-based Euroclear, “there is little sign the issue is about to return to the table in Brussels.”

“The obstacles and the reservations by a number of member states haven’t changed,” a senior EU official told the outlet.

Last year, EU officials proposed a scheme to leverage the frozen Russian assets as collateral to issue a loan to Kiev, which it would repay only after receiving reparations from Moscow. Separately, the EU had already agreed to redirect net windfall profits generated by the immobilized assets to Ukraine.

Russia has condemned the asset freeze as “theft,” ruled out paying any reparations to Ukraine, and has warned the EU of harsh retaliation if it confiscates the funds one way or another.

However, the scheme – which was championed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – met fierce opposition from a number of EU members, most notably Belgium. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever argued that the plan would leave it uniquely exposed to legal and financial pushback from Russia.

“Taking [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s money and leaving the risks with [Belgium]. That’s not going to happen,” he said last year.
Euroclear also vehemently opposed the seizure plot, at one point warning that it could sue the EU if the bloc tries to confiscate the assets. Several other EU leaders also raised concerns that confiscating Russian assets would erode international law and tarnish the bloc’s reputation and standing among investors.

Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday on the border issue between the two countries and improving relations.

”We are meeting in keeping with the guidance of our leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, who have given clear and positive direction to our relationship, both at the highest and working levels,” Doval said in his remarks, reports said. “I am happy that, over the past year, our relationship has been steadily returning to normalcy.”

Doval noted that the talks are “particularly important against the backdrop of the BRICS Summit.” The summit will be held in New Delhi next month and Chinese President Xi Jinping will reportedly attend.

The two officials are the designated special representatives for the border talks mechanism, which was established in 2003. It is the main channel for negotiations between the two countries on the border issue and communication on issues of mutual interest.

Doval, who is on a two-day visit to China, met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Monday and discussed ways to strengthen peace in the border areas and improve economic, political, and multilateral relations, the Indian Embassy said in an X post.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks on the India-China boundary question with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing.

During his visit, NSA Doval also met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, with discussions focusing on… pic.twitter.com/QyEcnOaYN3

— DD News (@DDNewslive) August 25, 2026

Ahead of the talks, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar reiterated that “peace and tranquility” along the border areas are a prerequisite for good relations with China.

Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors froze after a skirmish between their troops in the Ladakh region of their common Himalayan border in 2020, which left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers dead.

The two countries have been rapidly normalizing relations recently, with the resumption of direct flights and updates to the visa regime. India has started allowing Chinese investments into critical sectors of its economy. Border trade, which once connected remote Himalayan communities to the Silk Route, was also resumed earlier this month.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the BRICS summit in New Delhi next month with a 400-strong delegation, Reuters reported, citing three unnamed sources.

Xi’s participation in the summit, which Russian President Vladimir Putin will also attend, has not been officially confirmed yet. India, which holds the rotating chair of the BRICS group, has engaged in intense diplomacy ahead of the summit.

Two UN peacekeepers have been killed and seven people injured after unidentified gunmen ambushed a patrol in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei State, the UN mission in the country (UNMISS) said on Monday.

The patrol was attacked while traveling to Pajut, a remote area in Jonglei, according to the mission. UNMISS deployed a quick reaction force to secure the area and assist with the emergency response. Three other peacekeepers were among those injured, along with two members of the South Sudan National Police Service and two civilian staff. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. 

UNMISS chief Anita Kiki Gbeho condemned the attack, describing violence targeting personnel working to support peace in the country as “unacceptable.”

Gbeho called on the authorities to launch a “thorough and prompt investigation” and ensure those responsible are brought to justice. UNMISS also warned that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in 2011 but has remained volatile after a five-year civil war erupted in 2013 over a feud between leaders Salva Kiir and Riek Machar. The two signed a power-sharing deal in 2018, but tensions have escalated since Machar was detained on treason charges last year.

Jonglei has been at the center of renewed fighting in recent months. Opposition forces seized government outposts in the state in December, prompting a government counteroffensive involving ground assaults and aerial bombardments. Violence displaced more than 420,000 people across South Sudan between January and June, primarily in Jonglei, according to UNMISS.

The incident comes amid mounting security risks for humanitarian personnel in South Sudan. At least 36 aid workers have been killed in the country since the beginning of the year, according to the UN, already exceeding the 31 deaths recorded throughout 2025.

More than 450 incidents of violence against humanitarian workers and assets were reported between January and July, more than double the number recorded during the same period in 2025, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan Ramanathan Balakrishnan said last week.

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, now a major opposition figurehead, has been detained in a corruption probe, the head of his office has said. Kocharyan and his eldest son Sedrak are reportedly being held amid a series of searches on their properties.

The detentions come amid Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s intensifying confrontation with the Armenian opposition, which has escalated further since the June parliamentary election. Kocharyan, whose Armenia Alliance is one of the main opposition forces in parliament, is a prominent political rival of Pashinyan.

Investigators have also searched dozens of addresses, including the home of Kocharyan’s younger son Levon, an opposition MP.

The Anti-Corruption Committee confirmed the arrests on Tuesday after Kocharyan was taken to its offices earlier in the morning. It said the investigation involves alleged property deals and bribery.

“Searches and other procedural actions are being carried out at several dozen addresses” as part of proceedings concerning “corruption-related crimes,” committee spokeswoman Marina Oganjanyan told News.am.

Kocharyan was later taken to a medical facility after his condition deteriorated in custody, she told reporters.

The ex-president’s office described the investigation as a fresh government “attack” on him and his family.

The case centers on alleged property schemes dating from 2004 to 2009, according to Kocharyan’s lawyer, Aram Orbelyan. Investigators claim property belonging to an educational institution and worth several billion drams was sold for just 12 million drams (around $31,000) before eventually passing to a member of Kocharyan’s family.

The committee is also investigating the sale of Defense Ministry land to a company linked to a Kocharyan associate for around a quarter of its market value. It alleges Kocharyan received a 30% stake in Toyota Yerevan for facilitating the deal, which was later transferred to Sedrak through allegedly fictitious transactions. Armenian media reported on Tuesday that tax authorities had sealed the Toyota dealership as part of searches targeting businesses linked to the family.

Orbelyan rejected the allegations, arguing that the decision to dispose of the property was made by the Armenian government, of which Kocharyan was not a member. He said the then-president’s approval of the relevant document was in line with Armenia’s 1995 Constitution.

Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission authorized criminal proceedings against Kocharyan in June. The former president had earlier been barred from leaving the country without explanation, with his office accusing the authorities of attempting to fabricate a case against him.

The latest proceedings come after Kocharyan’s Armenia Alliance won 9.92% of the vote and 12 seats in the June 7 parliamentary election. Pashinyan’s ruling Civil Contract party secured 49.74% and 64 seats. Kocharyan subsequently accused Pashinyan of attempting to “usurp power” by declaring victory before the final results had been announced.

Pashinyan, who was first elected prime minister in 2018, has since declared the opposition parties that entered parliament illegitimate and threatened to strip them of their political status. He has also vowed to confiscate the assets of the three largest opposition parties’ leaders, saying they “should be left hungry.”

Kocharyan served as Armenia’s president from 1998 to 2008 and previously headed the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. He has faced criminal proceedings before, including charges related to the violent unrest that followed Armenia’s disputed 2008 presidential election. That case was terminated after the Constitutional Court ruled that the provision under which he had been charged was incompatible with the constitution.

The escalating tensions between Kocharyan and the Armenian authorities come as Yerevan seeks closer ties with the EU while maintaining strong economic links with Russia. Kocharyan has criticized the policy as a “geopolitical balancing act,” arguing that Armenia’s rhetoric is directed toward the EU while its economy and business remain oriented toward Russia. President Vladimir Putin has said Yerevan will eventually have to choose between the EU and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), while Armenian officials have insisted they have no intention of severing ties with Moscow.

Gaza rescue crews have been searching the enclave’s ruins for thousands of Palestinians believed to remain buried beneath buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes, some dating back to the first months of the war.

Recovery work continues amid a fragile ceasefire and an unresolved dispute over a peace roadmap unveiled last month by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which calls for Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the enclave. Israel has rejected the proposal, insisting Hamas must first disarm, while Israeli strikes have continued, further complicating recovery operations.

Gaza’s Civil Defense estimates that around 8,000 Palestinians killed during the war remain buried beneath the rubble. A chronic shortage of excavators and other heavy machinery has hampered recovery efforts, often forcing crews to search collapsed buildings with basic tools. Some families have waited years for the remains of relatives to be recovered for burial.

Local journalist and RT contributor Rami Almughari visited one such operation in southern Gaza City, where Civil Defense crews were searching the ruins of a three-story building struck during Ramadan in 2024. Thirteen people were killed in the strike, and crews are now searching for the remains of four still beneath the rubble. With bodies spending years under the debris, Almughari says rescuers are often recovering only bones and fragments of remains.

Watch Almughari’s full report on the recovery struggle below.

Norway will continue developing oil and gas fields in the Arctic, Energy Minister Terje Aasland has said, despite EU calls for a moratorium on drilling in the region. The bloc should no longer see his country as Europe’s “green battery,” he added.

EU Arctic policy aims to keep fossil fuels in the ground, cut black carbon and accelerate the green transition, citing claims of the region’s unusually rapid warming.

Brussels seeks to influence energy policy in Norway, which is not a member of the EU, but is the bloc’s largest gas supplier following the decision to reject cheap gas from Russia.

“In today’s geopolitical and security environment, and given the resource situation, I believe continued activity in the Barents Sea serves both Norwegian and European interests,” Aasland said in a Reuters interview on Monday, the opening day of ONS, Norway’s four-day energy conference in Stavanger.

The minister explained that Norway would develop the areas, but leave it to the EU to decide whether to impose a moratorium on buying the resulting oil and gas. He added that Norway aims to maintain petroleum production and exports at roughly the current levels until at least 2035, with production in the Barents Sea key to that goal.

Ranked among the world’s top 10 gas producers and exporters, Norway also generates surplus renewable energy from its extensive hydropower network, exporting it to help balance Europe’s power supply.

Aasland called the long-standing idea of Norway serving as “the green battery” of Europe “flawed,” stressing that “the Arctic must be part of that discussion” if the country “is to remain a long-term supplier of oil and gas to Europe.”

According to the European Commission, Norway has supplied roughly 30% of the EU’s gas imports in recent years after Brussels rejected Russian energy in the wake of the Ukraine conflict. The country’s petroleum revenues have since reached record levels, boosted by its growing share of the European gas market and a surge in oil and gas prices after the loss of Russian supplies.

In 2025, the country’s gas production remained near the previous year’s record high, while oil output reached its highest level since 2009. Official Norwegian forecasts, however, show output could fall sharply after 2030 unless new fields are developed.

Fifteen years ago, it appeared that Russia-Japan relations were improving to the extent that Japan could become, for Russia, an eastern version of Germany as a former enemy turning into a major economic partner in a relationship where Russian resources were traded for the other partner’s investment and advanced technologies. With frequent and seemingly productive summit meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it appeared that the issues remaining after World War II would finally be resolved and that a firm and lasting foundation would be laid for a qualitatively new relationship between what were sometimes called distant neighbors.

Over the years, the Russo-Japanese negotiations on a peace treaty to finally draw a line under the war had advanced considerably. However, there was still one stumbling block that refused to go away, and that was Tokyo’s defense and foreign policy subservience to Washington. Moscow simply could’t trust the Japanese to stand up to American political and military demands, given the US overlordship of Japan. That attitude proved prudent, because when the Ukraine crisis came, Tokyo had to fall in line with its senior ally. Germany, one might add, did even worse, given Berlin meekly allowed its economy to be deprived of the unique advantage it had enjoyed, cheap Russian gas, and watched its vast and lucrative business relationship with Russia be destroyed.

The cases of Japan and Germany taught Russians an important lesson. Countries that are US allies cannot be regarded as genuinely sovereign, since Washington has enough leverage to make them follow the American lead. Of course, Germany and Japan are more dependent on the US than some other allies, given the long and continuing military occupation of both and the wholesale Americanization of their elites and societies, but the general finding is still true in that an alliance with America is a form of bondage.

Japan, again alongside Germany, is teaching Russia another lesson. When encouraged by the US, formerly pacified countries can return to militarism. Germany’s post-war culture of peace is rapidly giving way to wholesale militarization as German leaders vow to make the Bundeswehr Europe’s strongest army and the German defense industry is ramping up production. Germany has become a leading participant in NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and German politicians and experts openly discuss a direct shooting war with Russia.

Japan isn’t there yet, but its Defense White Paper has already named Russia as a threat, while Tokyo’s already impressive defense budget is on the rise and restrictions on its naval activities are being eased, as are the rules governing Japan’s military exports. At the same time, US missile deployments in Japan threaten not only China and North Korea, but Russia as well. Tokyo is also strengthening its ties with NATO, so, as a result, Russia has to pay more attention to its Far Eastern flank. President Putin’s recent visit to Russian Pacific Fleet maneuvers and his trip to the island of Iturup in the South Kurils testify to that.

There are also other useful lessons to be learned from Northeast Asia. North Korea stands out as an example of a medium-sized and largely isolated country that has been able to ensure its sovereignty and security in a complex and challenging environment. All the talk of an impending collapse of the regime in Pyongyang, so common for years, has long since ceased. Unlike many other countries, the nuclear-armed DPRK is being courted, not threatened, by the US. For Moscow, Pyongyang has become a valuable military ally whose soldiers actually fight alongside their Russian comrades. The Russia-DPRK alliance substantially complements the Moscow-Beijing strategic partnership in bolstering security in the region.

From this perspective, it is interesting to consider where South Korea is headed. The ongoing Iran war has demonstrated the hollowness of US security guarantees. Rather than protecting the Gulf states and deterring their regional adversaries, American military bases in the region have become targets attracting Iranian strikes that also affect the host countries. Not only has the US failed to defeat Iran and change its regime, it has proven unable to make Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It should have dawned on US allies around the world that the Americans may still make others fight for them, but that they themselves will not be willing, or even able, to fight for their allies.

There’s no question that the Republic of Korea is intently observing these developments and considering their implications. President Donald Trump’s recent abrupt decision to cut short joint military exercises to put pressure on Seoul over trade and investment issues has also been a useful warning. At the end of the day, South Korea’s security lies in its own hands. That security doesn’t rest solely on military and technological power, considerable as it is, and, thus, investing more in diplomacy with neighboring countries, including China and Russia, should be a priority. 

Germany’s Porsche has signed a $1.5 billion deal with India’s largest IT services company as the luxury carmaker looks to leverage AI to make itself more competitive in a fast-changing industry. 

It gives Bengaluru-based Tata Consultancy Services, which employs close to 595,000 people, a foothold in the European automotive industry as it changes focus from the traditional headcount-based outsourcing model to one defined by measurable results and productivity targets.

The 5-year strategic partnership with Porsche will go into effect once TCS completes the acquisition of Porsche’s IT consulting business, MHP, for €320 million ($373 million). 

It is a win-win for two companies from two industries that are swiftly being upended by artificial intelligence. 

The automotive industry is among the most disrupted by digital technology as cars increasingly become software on wheels, and with AI accelerating the evolution of technologies like self-driving through systems that learn from real-world data.

TCS will establish a dedicated AI Mobility Centre of Excellence for Porsche, to apply AI across engineering, manufacturing, operations, and customer experience as the car maker doubles down on its core business by shedding MHP – part of its ‘Sportwagenschmiede 35’ strategy, which aims to improve profitability and cash flow. 

Porsche recorded about $40 billion in revenue in FY2025.

TCS will “industrialize AI at scale for Porsche,” said the IT firm’s CEO K. Krithivasan.

AI has also become a major source of worry for Indian IT consultancy companies, which have built a multi-billion global success story, with margins coming under pressure as clients demand increased productivity from AI deployments.

The Nifty IT index, a benchmark for Indian IT stocks, is down nearly 20% from the beginning of the year, compared to just 7% for the broader Nifty 50 – an indication of how investors view Indian IT’s prospects.

However, with MHP, which already has a bunch of automotive clients including Porsche, TCS gets deeper access to the European, particularly German, auto market. And it gets an existing business to scale leveraging its AI/IT capabilities, alongside building deep skills in automotive consulting. 

TCS recorded $30 billion revenue in the financial year ended March, and analysts expect MHP to add 3% to its top line.

In short, TCS gets Porsche’s technology transformation business, MHP’s automotive expertise, and a platform to grab more business from global auto manufacturers.

Four people have been arrested in Kenya over the suspected poisoning of 18 elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem, the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife said on Saturday. 

A representative of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Monday that all four suspects were later released on bail.

Preliminary laboratory tests suggest that the animals may have died after ingesting tomatoes contaminated with cyanide from farms bordering wildlife habitats. Officials said further scientific testing was needed to confirm the cause of death.

The first 15 elephant deaths were recorded June 24 to July 24 in Amboseli National Park, Kimana Sanctuary, and the Kuku Ranch area, prompting the KWS and other agencies to launch an investigation. 

Ten of the elephants developed similar symptoms before dying, including partial paralysis which left them unable to stand. According to KWS, “the condition primarily affected adult females and their calves, with only one adult male” among the reported cases.

Four suspects have since been detained as persons of interest, while investigators are pursuing another individual believed to have information relevant to the case.

A search in Tikondo in Kimana, within Loitoktok Sub-County, also uncovered chemicals and other substances believed to have been sourced from a neighboring country. The potentially toxic and unlabeled materials have been sent for analysis.

The government stressed that the arrests and seized materials do not establish criminal responsibility. The authorities said the investigation is ongoing and pledged to prosecute anyone found to have unlawfully killed, poisoned, or harmed wildlife.

Earlier in August, the Kenya Veterinary Association (KVA) called for urgent testing of agricultural produce from areas around Amboseli after preliminary findings linked elephant deaths to cyanide. The group warned of potential risks to people after tomatoes were reportedly found in the animals’ stomachs and urged the authorities to determine whether contaminated produce could have entered local food supply chains.

The Amboseli ecosystem spans around 8,000 square kilometers across southern Kenya and into neighboring Tanzania, with Amboseli National Park at its core. The area is home to around 1,800 elephants.

Moscow has mocked a German journalist’s claim that a Russian missile strike near Kiev the day before German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited the Ukrainian capital amounted to a “clear affront” to Berlin.

The strike reportedly near Borispol airport – some 40 km to the east of central Kiev – destroyed dozens of trucks that had been converted into concealed launch platforms for long-range drones, as revealed by images of the aftermath released by the Ukrainian authorities, which were later scrubbed from official accounts.

When asked about Welt correspondent Christoph Wanner’s claim that the strike had crossed a certain diplomatic threshold, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Izvestia on Tuesday that Germany “gets insulted on a regular basis.”

What appears to be a truck coverted into a mobile launcher for Ukrainian FP-series one-way attack drones destroyed as a result of Russian strikes in Boryspil, Kyiv Oblast, earlier on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/wSIfrPZsjR

— Status-6 (War & Military News) (@Archer83Able) August 22, 2026

She pointed to several examples, including the US wiretapping of then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, which was exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013. She also cited the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which German investigators have linked to a Ukrainian diving team that may have acted on orders from Kiev.

“The German leadership supplies weapons to the Kiev regime that has been killing children year after year. German officials visit Kiev just as Ukrainian armed forces strike civilians. For some reason, Germany tolerates all those insults,” the diplomat said.

Berlin endures diplomacy Ukraine-style

Ukraine’s diplomatic corps has for years used moral pressure to secure concessions from Western countries. Andrey Melnik, who served as Kiev’s ambassador to Germany from 2014 to 2022, became a prominent example of that approach by repeatedly lobbing insults at officials and politicians in his host country.

Among other things, Melnik called then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “offended liverwurst” and accused former Chancellor Angela Merkel of having a “borderline obsession” with Russia that was “almost perverse.” While serving in Berlin, he also branded retired German Gen. Erich Vad a “pathetic loser” and left-wing politician Klaus Ernst a “Marxist crank.”

Melnik was recalled and appointed ambassador to Brazil only after becoming embroiled in a major controversy in Germany over his defense of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera. In an interview, he denied that Bandera and his movement were responsible for mass atrocities during World War II. Melnik currently serves as Ukraine’s envoy to the UN.

US President Donald Trump has warned schools across the country against promoting gender identity and transition, touting his administration’s efforts to purge what he calls “transgender ideology” and “far-left extremism” from classrooms.

Speaking at a White House back-to-school event on Monday, Trump said schools could face legal and financial consequences for telling children they are “trapped in the wrong body.”

“Every public school in America is now on notice that if they tell a child that they’re trapped in the wrong body, they are committing child abuse,” he said.

The president accused his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration of “weaponizing” education and imposing “extreme ideologies,” including critical race theory and “transgender insanity,” on children as young as four or five. He said schools had neglected basic education for gender identity issues, leaving the US near the bottom among leading nations despite spending “more money on education than any other country in the world by double.”

President Trump just issued a MAJOR WARNING to American schools:

"Every public school in America is now on notice that if they tell a child that they're trapped in the wrong body, they are committing child abuse"

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/bls7ASN6FS

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 24, 2026

Trump stated his return to office meant reversing course, citing his measures targeting transgender policies and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in education.

“We’re systematically ending every single one of these radical left betrayals and we’re putting the parents back in charge,” he stated.

Speaking alongside Trump, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the administration had cut billions in DEI funding at schools and universities, redirecting it toward teachers, classrooms, and academic efforts, including workforce training. She warned that schools that continue promoting gender-related changes could lose funding altogether.

“If they subject children to radical experiments and sideline parents, they will lose their federal funding,” McMahon stated. “Children belong to their parents, not the federal government.”

Trump attacked the promotion of gender transition even before returning for his second term, vowing to “stop” gender-affirming care for minors, which he equated with “child sexual mutilation.”

On his first day back, he signed an executive order recognizing only two sexes, male and female, and defining sex as an immutable biological classification rather than gender identity. His administration later rolled back Biden-era Title IX rules expanding protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation and moved against schools over transgender students’ participation in girls’ sports, access to sex-segregated facilities, preferred pronouns, and social transition without parental knowledge.

Trump has also pursued a broader DEI crackdown, which his administration views as discriminatory and incompatible with merit-based policies. He ordered federal agencies to dismantle DEI programs, including in the military and Foreign Service, and reversed Biden-era workforce equity initiatives. The campaign has extended beyond government, with DEI funding cut and federal contractors and other institutions pressured to abandon race- and gender-conscious policies.

The crackdown has fueled disputes across the US, pitting Trump supporters and parental-rights groups against civil rights organizations, Democratic-led states, and some school districts, which have challenged several measures in court. Trump’s broader anti-DEI push has proved similarly divisive, with some major companies scaling back diversity programs while others have retained them despite administration pressure.

As recently as July 26 of this year, Ursula von der Leyen appeared full of confidence in victory during her visit to Kiev. She claimed the tide of the war had turned, that Ukraine had regained the initiative, and that Russia was on the defensive. The cause of this supposed turnaround, after four and a half years of a devastating war, is said to be a new ‘wonder weapon’: drones which, with the help of AI provided by Palantir and others, can carry the war deep into the Russian hinterland and precisely destroy oil refineries and other critical infrastructure there. The Russian economy – particularly the energy sector – is said to be severely weakened, and the war Russia started has now hit the country itself “with full force.”

On the battlefield too, according to these accounts, Ukraine has achieved considerable success with autonomously operating “killer drones.” These drones are said to be capable of automatically detecting and destroying all life at a distance of 30 kilometers on the front line. Technology, it is claimed, has thus more than compensated for the shortage of Ukrainian soldiers. Russian soldiers, by contrast, are now said paying a heavy price in lives without being able to demonstrate any military successes. This must be wearing down the aggressors and forcing Putin to acknowledge that he is going to lose the war.

These accounts were accompanied by media-effective drone attacks on Moscow and St Petersburg. No wonder, then, that the mainstream Western media have been full of victory reports over the past two months. Some even speculated that Russia could only hold out for another six months; a coup in Moscow was deemed possible. The strategically important Crimea was said to have been largely cut off from Russia by Ukrainian attacks. Putin would now be forced to the negotiating table as the loser – and on the terms of the European NATO states, which would amount to a Russian surrender. Their policy of providing massive military, political, and financial support to Ukraine, while refusing any talks until Russia was ‘brought to its knees’, seemed to have paid off.

But is that really the case? Or may the tide actually have turned in Russia’s favor?

It is striking that for the past week there have been hardly any reports on the course of the war, and the victory announcements have largely fallen silent. This is because doubts are mounting, both in the US and in Ukraine itself, about the success of the drone war deep within the Russian hinterland.

One need only heed the warnings of Valery Zaluzhny: the drone war is not very successful and far too expensive. As former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and current ambassador to the UK, he should know. According to the pro-Ukrainian war monitors ‘Dron-Bomber’, the Russians are now reportedly achieving a high shoot-down rate of Ukrainian drones. The dismissal of Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov is also likely to be linked to the looming failure of the drone war. Is the realization taking hold that this conflict cannot be won by drone warfare alone?

This means that developments on the battlefield remain decisive. However, there can be no question of a military stalemate claimed by the Western media. Even some Ukrainian Telegram channels admit, that “the pace of the Russian armed forces’ offensive is increasing.” Russian territorial gains are said to have occurred not only in Donbass but also around Kharkov and in Zaporozhye. This is still proceeding slowly, but it is a war of attrition whose primary aim is the destruction of the enemy’s armed forces. Could this objective be achieved by capturing the last remaining fortified defensive positions around the Donbass cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk?

Even more serious for Ukraine is the fact that its drone attacks have led to a hardening of the Russian position. The Russian leadership is now openly speaking of a war – including a war by NATO against Russia – and has significantly intensified the conflict. In the cruel logic of war, the destruction in Ukraine now far exceeds that in Russia. Another crucial factor is that Ukraine has no air defenses to speak of and is barely able to defend itself against massive Russian drone and missile attacks, while the intensity of Ukrainian attacks is reportedly waning.

This is already having consequences. The Ukrainian Black Sea ports in and around Odessa are said to have been bombed so heavily that Ukraine has effectively become a landlocked country. If these reports are accurate, this would be a severe blow: to date, around 70% of all Ukrainian imports and exports, as well as 90% of agricultural exports, have been handled via these ports. Key bridges, such as the Zatoka Bridge, which connects Odessa with the Romanian Black Sea ports, have also been destroyed. Furthermore, rail and road links, petrol stations, the power grid, industrial facilities and warehouses are being systematically destroyed.

The European NATO member states can do little to change this – they lack the military capabilities. Plans to station a ‘coalition of the willing’ in Poland or even to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine are completely unrealistic. The United States has recently announced that it will hand over leadership of the NATO center in Wiesbaden, which coordinates military support for Ukraine, entirely to European NATO member states. There is even talk of disbanding this NATO facility, which is crucial for Ukraine. Further, with the Iran war ranging, the US has hardly any weapons left to spare. There can therefore be little question of renewed US military involvement in the war in Ukraine.

Even before the latest escalation of the war, there were clear indications that the Ukrainian army was experiencing considerable difficulty. Upon taking office as defense minister in January, Fedorov spoke of around 200,000 deserters; other MPs cited significantly higher figures. Furthermore, some two million Ukrainian men are said to have evaded conscription orders. Whichever figures are accurate, they point to an alarming state of affairs within the Ukrainian armed forces – a situation that cannot be remedied either by forced recruitment on the streets or, as is now becoming apparent, by drones controlled by artificial intelligence. Similarly, a proposal now being discussed by the EU – to withdraw refugee status from Ukrainian men who have fled, in breach of international law, and to send them back to Ukraine to face the war – is further evidence of the hopelessness of the situation.

In May, Ukrainian Minister for Social Affairs Denis Ulyutin stated that the population in the government-controlled part of the country had shrunk from 52 million (at the time of independence in 1991) to possibly as low as 22 million. Of these, around 11 million are on social security, predominantly pensioners and war invalids. He expects the population to continue to fall after the war ends, as young men – once exempt from military service – would follow their families to the West. He does not expect any significant return of Ukrainians living abroad. Added to this demographic decline are increasing impoverishment, deep social inequalities, pervasive corruption, astronomical public debt and the country’s economic collapse.

This is hardly a state – let alone an army – to which the media could realistically attribute an imminent military turnaround or even victory.

Of course, such forecasts must be treated with caution. Yet the apparent failure of the drone war to bring about a strategic turning point should make it clear to European NATO states that, at the end of this escalation which was accompanied by such fanfare, Ukraine may not emerge as the victor, but is instead sliding into an increasingly devastated, depopulated, and bled-dry country. This should give us cause for great concern for the suffering people in Ukraine. European NATO-states must ask themselves whether a continuation of the war – which they have demanded and supported – can still be morally justified at all.

European NATO states are only harming Ukraine with their illusions of victory and wonder weapons, and must finally base their policy on a more realistic assessment of how the war is unfolding. It is therefore time to consider what would happen if the Ukrainian army’s resistance were to collapse one day and Russia were to capture Kharkov and Odessa as well. Any remnant of Ukraine that remained would scarcely be viable. It must be in the top interest not only of Ukraine but also of its Western backers to prevent such a scenario. But how?

Certainly, this cannot be prevented through direct military intervention by NATO. This would make the situation only much worse – also for Ukraine – as such a course of action would inevitably entail the risk of a nuclear war, which nobody can win. Diplomacy therefore remains the only realistic option. After almost five years of war, it is high time that the European NATO states actively sought dialogue with Russia. Germany – given its role as the strongest country in the EU, its geographical location, and its historical responsibility – should take the first step.

To move beyond the entrenched positions of both governments, an initial rapprochement through a civil‑society initiative involving respected and influential figures may be advisable. Such an approach could open a first, cautious pathway toward renewed understanding after years of silence and mutual demonization. Europe needs peace, and lasting peace can only be achieved with Russia, not against it.

There is not much time left for this.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs and edited by the RT team

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to “neutralize” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by establishing a direct channel with President Donald Trump, CNN Brasil reported on Monday, citing sources.

Rubio previously excluded Brazil from the group of countries he described as friendly and attacked Lula over trade. The Brazilian president accused him of being “anti-Latin America.”

Tensions between the US and Latin America’s largest economy have been soaring for months, as Trump fiercely backed former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro during his trial over a plot to overturn his 2022 election defeat and keep himself in power.

In September 2025, Bolsonaro was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison. Trump described the prosecution of the former leader as a “witch hunt.”

The two countries are also locked in a trade dispute. The US imposed an additional 25% tariff on certain Brazilian goods in July after a trade investigation accused Brazil of a litany of unreasonable practices.

According to CNN, Lula complained for weeks about Rubio, a vocal critic of Brazil’s government, before calling Trump and seeking to weaken the secretary’s influence over bilateral relations. During a call last week, Lula reportedly told Trump that contact should proceed “without intermediaries.”

Following the conversation, Lula said talks with Trump were “very civilized and very respectful,” while lamenting that the “second tier” of the US government was taking “unthinkable” actions. “I sometimes get the impression that Trump is much better at political relations than his advisers.” 

Rubio has made little effort to hide his hostility toward Lula’s government. In June, he excluded Brazil from the list of friendly countries, while noting that it is “in the middle of an election cycle” – a reference to the upcoming vote in October in which Lula is seeking reelection and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has emerged as his main right-wing challenger.

Rubio also accused Lula of failing to negotiate in good faith, and said he “put his own ego” ahead of securing a trade deal, adding that the tariffs were “the price for that.” Lula has called Rubio “anti-Latin America” and “a mortal enemy of Cuba and several Latin American countries.”

The US sanctioned four Indian companies on Monday for allegedly trading in Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.

The additions came as the Treasury Department launched “an unprecedented, whole-of-government, economic campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers” called Operation Economic Outcast.

The sanctioned companies include Sadashiva Overseas, PP Softtech, and Prakrutees Infra Impex, which are accused of importing shipments of Iranian oil and oil products; and Portease Partners, a customs broker accused of facilitating the shipments.

Two partners of Portease – Indrismiya Asharafmiya Shekh and Harish Ramchandra Rangi – were also added to the list.

Bilateral trade between India and Iran is currently at around $1.6 billion, with $1.25 billion coming from Indian exports of goods exempted on humanitarian grounds, such as agricultural staples and medicine.

Iran’s exports to India, valued at around $400 million, was dominated by crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas.

The Treasury said the designations will intensify pressure on networks that sustain the regime’s malign activities and fund its attacks across the Middle East.

Iran has largely blocked commercial shipping via the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s energy previously passed, following the US-Israeli attack against Iran earlier this year.

Nearly two dozen former cricket captains from around the world have appealed to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to provide proper medical treatment for the country’s former prime minister and one of cricket’s all-time greats, Imran Khan, as directed by Pakistan’s top court.

Twenty-two cricketers, including Indian legends Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, made the appeal in a letter on Sunday after Khan was rushed back to jail early Friday morning following a brief checkup in a government-run hospital in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court had ordered that Khan be moved to the private Shifa hospital in the capital and be kept there until September 16, and that a medical board that includes his physician sister Uzma Khan be formed to examine his health issues.

Khan was, however, rushed to the state-run Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) from a Rawalpindi jail under heavy security just after midnight on Thursday, past the deadline given by the court, and whisked back early Friday morning after a few hours.

The cricketers, who also include India’s Dilip Vengsarkar, Sri Lanka's Arjuna Ranatunga, Clive Lloyd, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, and Alastair Cook, appealed that Khan be allowed visits from family members, as directed by the court, and any treatment recommended by the court be provided without delay. 

The cricketers said they were not writing as politicians, but as former colleagues and rivals who had shared a bond with Khan on the cricket field.

No Pakistani cricketer joined the appeal.

In February, 14 former cricketers – also including Kapil, Gavaskar, and Chappel – had written to Sharif, seeking more “humane” treatment for Khan.

Prime Minister Sharif on Saturday formed an inquiry committee, headed by a bureaucrat, to probe why Khan was not administered a heart diagnostic test previously recommended by doctors at the government-run hospital.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has also repeated its demand to move him to the Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad without any delay.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that Iran attempted to assassinate one of his sons, making the explosive allegation without saying which of his children was targeted, when the supposed plot took place, or how close it came to being carried out.

The bombshell came almost in passing during a telephone interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on Monday about security arrangements for Netanyahu’s political rival, Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israeli military chief who is challenging him ahead of the October 27 general election.

“This is an unbelievable case. Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to murder him, tried to murder one of my sons,” Netanyahu said, arguing that round-the-clock protection for Eisenkot was “not a luxury” and warning that without it, the Iranians “will succeed.”

Netanyahu has two sons, Yair and Avner. He did not identify which one he was referring to, nor did he say where or how Iran planned to attack him.

Israeli media separately reported that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, and both sons were granted expanded state protection in July. Channel 12 reported that the alleged Iranian plot was known to Israel’s security establishment for several months but was subject to a military gag order.

The claim comes as Netanyahu faces a difficult reelection campaign. Successive surveys have put his governing bloc short of the 61 seats required for a parliamentary majority, while polls have shown Eisenkot competing closely with or overtaking Netanyahu and his Likud party. Reuters reported in July that surveys were pointing to a defeat for Netanyahu’s coalition, although the fragmented opposition also lacks a straightforward path to forming a government.

US President Donald Trump also claimed that Tehran has tried to kill him – even before the initial salvo of US-Israeli strikes on February 28 killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“I got him before he got me,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News shortly after the strike, which also killed Khamenei’s daughter, Boshra, and 14-month-old granddaughter Zahra, as well as a son-in-law and daughter-in-law.

During the NATO summit in Türkiye in July, Trump was secretly removed from Air Force One and transferred inside a catering truck to another military aircraft after Israel relayed intelligence about another alleged Iranian assassination threat. The extraordinary operation was concealed even from some members of his traveling party.

US intelligence reportedly assessed the Israeli-supplied information with “low confidence,” while Tehran has denied broader accusations that it sought to assassinate Trump or other American officials.

Dutch public broadcaster Avrotros has pulled out of next year’s Eurovision song contest, arguing that the event can “no longer be considered neutral” given the severe humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

In a statement on Monday, Avrotros criticized Eurovision organizers for failing to establish clear rules for countries involved in military conflicts, saying its continued participation was no longer consistent with the broadcaster’s values of “trustworthiness, independence and humanity.”

This year’s contest became embroiled in a series of scandals linked to Israel’s participation amid its continued military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon. Five countries – Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia – boycotted the event in May in protest against West Jerusalem’s actions.

In April, more than 1,100 musicians and cultural workers, including Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Kneecap and Primal Scream, signed an open letter accusing Eurovision organizers of whitewashing what they described as “genocide” in Gaza. The contest was also accompanied by large pro-Palestinian protests in the host city of Vienna.

Nevertheless, Israel’s Noam Bettan came in second, combining the jury’s ranking and an audience score, prompting rumors about vote-rigging.

Avrotros did not mention Israel by name, but said that “geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are having a significant impact on the Contest” and have caused deep divisions around Eurovision.

Earlier this month, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the event, amended its rules and said that a winner would be automatically barred from hosting the next contest if it or its “immediate region” is affected by an armed conflict or “a sensitive geopolitical situation.”

The Dutch broadcaster said the changes “do not provide sufficient confidence that the independent and neutral character of the Eurovision Song Contest has been restored.”

Avrotros Director-General Taco Zimmerman said Eurovision, originally founded to bring countries together, has become a “platform for division.”

The EBU said it had contacted the NPO – the Dutch umbrella organization for public media – over the issue. The NPO expressed its regret over Avrotros’ decision but said it was “too early to comment on the next steps at this point.” The Netherlands, one of Eurovision’s longest-standing participants, could still take part next year if another public broadcaster takes over the role played by Avrotros.

The EBU has applied a selective approach towards nations involved in military conflicts. It banned Russia from participating following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 but did not take any measures against Kiev or West Jerusalem.

Russia has meanwhile revived Intervision, a Soviet-era alternative to Eurovision touted by the Kremlin as a music contest reflecting more “traditional values.” The first modern edition was held in Moscow in September 2025, attracting singers from 23 countries, including China, India, and Brazil.

Organizers said Intervision’s mission was to foster “dialogue between civilizations based on the mutual enrichment of national histories and traditions.” This year’s Intervision is expected to be hosted by Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine has been transformed into a “Zelensky concentration camp” with Western assistance, Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has said, accusing Kiev of suppressing dissent at home and increasingly resorting to attacks on civilians in Russia.

Nebenzia made the remarks at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday marking the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence. The session was requested by the council’s five European members – Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, and the UK – which reiterated their full support for Kiev.

The Russian diplomat questioned whether Ukraine has anything to celebrate, arguing that successive governments have run the country “into the ground” and that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky accelerated the process.

“With the most active involvement of the countries of the collective West, which claim to be ‘civilized’ and ‘democratic,’ Ukraine has morphed into a ‘Zelensky concentration camp,’ where any dissent or opposition is completely prohibited and those who find the courage to voice an alternative point of view are thrown behind bars without trial or due process, or physically eliminated,” he said.

Nebenzia described the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the glorification of Nazi collaborators, and the suppression of shared history and the Russian language – including a ban on a popular Russian cartoon – as a “vivid illustration of the sheer wretchedness of Kiev’s rulers.”

Amid a growing crackdown on dissent and a deteriorating battlefield situation, Kiev has now slipped into “outright terror against Russia’s civilian population,” Nebenzia said.

“Terror has become the last resort for Kiev in its attempt to reverse the situation that is not currently in its favor,” he added. “At the same time, Zelensky continues to beg his Western patrons for new shipments of weapons and ammunition, which are then used to hit Russian cities, residential areas, and civilian infrastructure.”

The envoy said at least 475 Russian civilians were killed or injured in Ukrainian attacks from August 10 to 16 alone, with 69 fatalities, including children. He highlighted a strike on Nizhnekamsk that killed 13 people and wounded 78, as well as attacks in Novorossiysk, Rostov Region, and a number of towns in Donbass, which Kiev claims as its territory.

“It appears that Ukraine’s Western patrons, not to mention Zelensky himself, still harbor the dangerous illusion that further escalation, strikes deep inside our territory and terror against civilians will somehow force us to accept an ultimatum that is being pushed under the guise of peace.” 

Nebenzia said Russia retains the battlefield initiative and rejected calls for a temporary ceasefire that would give Kiev time to regroup and its Western sponsors time to rearm it. He warned that there would be no meaningful diplomatic process as long as Russia is confronted with ultimatums and threats while the reality on the ground is ignored.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to cut electricity and critical minerals to the US if President Donald Trump continues to escalate his trade war with Canada, drawing an angry response from Trump.

The exchange came hours after Trump announced that tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts, and steel would rise to 50% on January 1, 2027. The move followed the collapse of trade talks last week and a separate 50% tariff that took effect Saturday on around $20 billion worth of Canadian imports.

“Everything’s on the table. I’ll do whatever it takes,” Ford told AP on Monday, saying Ontario could raise electricity prices or halt exports altogether.

“We power 1.5 million homes and businesses,” he added, warning that if Trump keeps trying to dismantle Canadian manufacturing, “he better have a pack of batteries.”

Trump fired back on Truth Social, dismissing Ford’s comments as “bluster” and personally attacking the premier before warning Canadian leaders to “fall in line.”

“Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” Trump wrote, again referring to Prime Minister Mark Carney as “Governor Carney.” He said the US is “far bigger, richer, and stronger” and claimed that Canada “couldn’t survive” without its southern neighbor.

“I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass,” Ford shot back at a press conference on Monday.

Canada's Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Trump:

I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so Trump has a lot of room to kiss my ass. pic.twitter.com/nP8MLVxfbI

— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 24, 2026

Ford said Ottawa should consider progressively stronger retaliation, including restrictions on oil, potash, and strategic minerals. Quebec Premier Christine Frechette, whose province is a major hydroelectricity supplier, said she is not currently pursuing Ford’s approach but would not exclude it as Canada enters a “new phase” of the dispute.

Canada is by far the largest foreign supplier of electricity to the US, although nationwide dependence is relatively modest. US Energy Information Administration data shows the US imported around 24.5 terawatt-hours of Canadian electricity in 2025 while exporting around 16 terawatt-hours back, leaving net dependence at 0.2% of total US consumption.

However, the exposure is far more concentrated in border states such as New York, Michigan, and Minnesota, where a stable supply of Canadian power can be particularly important during periods of peak demand.

Meanwhile, the AI boom is placing additional pressure on regional power grids as tech companies race to build massive, power-hungry hyperscale data centers. In July 2026, New York imposed a one-year moratorium on state discretionary environmental permits for new hyperscale facilities while it develops new regulations intended in part to protect grid stability and ratepayers.

Ontario has used the electricity threat before. In March 2025, Ford imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the three states before suspending it after Trump threatened to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Carney also responded to Trump’s latest tariff threat on Monday, accusing Washington of seeking to dismantle Canada’s auto industry through negotiating terms Ottawa considered unacceptable. After Canada walked away from the talks late Friday, Carney said the US “asked too much and offered too little” and announced dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs beginning September 8.

Russia and China have expanded trade links through the Arctic, with the first Chinese container ship arriving at the northern Russian port of Murmansk via the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Rosatom announced on Monday. Beijing has described the growing cooperation as part of its Ice Silk Road initiative.

The NSR runs through Russia’s Arctic waters and exclusive economic zone, relying on Russian ports and icebreakers. State atomic energy corporation Rosatom oversees the route’s development, navigation, infrastructure, and maritime safety.

NewNew Shipping Line’s Xin Xin Hai 1 arrived in Murmansk on Wednesday carrying 500 containers of automotive components, Rosatom said.

“This was the first container ship from China to arrive at the Murmansk Commercial Sea Port,” the corporation said.

NewNew Shipping Line has operated along the NSR since 2023, although its vessels have generally carried cargo to ports in Russia’s Far East or the Baltic.

China is ready to continue “playing the role of a bridge” to support cooperation between Chinese companies and Murmansk Region and further develop the Ice Silk Road, Chinese Consul General in St. Petersburg Luo Zhanhui said on Thursday.

Earlier this month, NewNew Shipping Line CEO Ke Jin announced plans to deploy six new Arctic-class container ships on the NSR, each capable of carrying around 4,800 standard containers. Four are due to enter service in October, enabling two voyages a month between Chinese and Russian ports, with another two expected to join the fleet in June 2027.

Ke has also expressed interest in investing in the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in Russia’s far north and acquiring a stake in the port of Ust-Luga.

China accounted for around 40% of Murmansk Region’s foreign trade in 2025, when the region traded with 48 countries, according to Governor Andrey Chibis.

Russia has long used the Arctic corridor for energy exports. LNG shipments from the Yamal LNG project began in 2017, with the first cargoes delivered eastward to China via the NSR the following year. Russia has also shipped other hydrocarbons along the route to Asian markets since 2010.

The Northern Sea Route provides a shorter maritime link between East Asia and northern Europe and can cut around two weeks from a voyage between China and Europe compared with the route through the Suez Canal, according to Rosatom.

Interest in the Arctic corridor has also grown as the US war with Iran and instability in the Middle East have disrupted shipping through the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. South Korea launched its first trial container voyage to Europe via the NSR on Saturday, while India plans to send its first cargo ship along the route in 2027.

Appointing Darline Graham to simply finish her brother Lindsey’s Senate term was one thing, but having her run for the next term, with Donald Trump’s support, is simply bonkers. Or does Trump know something we don’t?

Darline’s political inexperience was on full display during last week’s debate against her run-off opponent, Rep. Ralph Norman, when she was unable to answer an elementary question on national security involving China and Taiwan.

Graham was simply asked if Taiwan and the South China Sea are national security issues for the US. Incredibly, she even failed to at least respond with a “yes” or “no.”

Clearly unprepared for the big night, Graham began by requesting for the question to be repeated. It didn’t help her. Following the second reading she admitted defeat, saying, “I’m just going to be honest here – I’m not, on national security, that – I’m not that informed on national security. So...”

After her voice quivered for a moment amid rumbling from the debate audience, Graham dug her hole deeper with a non sequitur: “But I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the army.”

But things only got worse for poor Darline, who proceeded to admit to her severe shortcomings and incompetency. “I’m not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing – not my area of expertise – but I do support the military.” Some people may think that it is a bit perplexing and not a little scary that Graham is already serving in the Senate on an interim basis.

Following Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sudden death on July 11, Gov. Henry McMaster appointed his sister Darline to finish up the remaining months of his tenure. What began as a sentimental gesture inexplicably morphed into a White House endorsement, with Trump pushing the inexperienced woman to enter the primary race with a chance at serving a six-year term that will begin in January. Feelings for her brother aside, Darline Graham has never held an elected office. Until this summer, she was commissioner of the South Carolina Commission for the Blind, and earlier held a communications role in the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department.

Trump’s endorsement notwithstanding, Graham only received 33% of the vote in the special August 11 ballot, forcing her into an August 26 runoff against Ralph Norman, who came in second place with 25% of the vote. “Her lackluster showing reflected South Carolina Republicans’ deep unease with Trump trying to turn one of their Senate seats into an inheritance for someone with a joke of a political resume,” ZeroHedge quipped.

Darline’s egregious debate failure drew comparisons to Miss South Carolina’s famous response to a question in the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant.

The question she was asked to answer went as follows: “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?”

The cringe answer: “I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps. And, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as... And I believe that they should – our education over here in the US should help the US or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.”

It is an apt comparison and it would be funny if we weren’t dealing with a position that has the power to actually influence America’s foreign policy.

Having driven her own performance off a cliff, the next day Graham attempted to cover her losses by admitting to Trump attack dog Sean Hannity that she “tripped up on one question.” Brushing aside the importance of her inability to answer the question, Graham told Hannity, “I’m not a politician, certainly not a career politician, I don’t speak politician.”

In a separate interview with reporters, Graham said: “I tripped up on one question last night, regarding Taiwan. I don’t speak politician. I was just honest. Of course, Taiwan is our friend. But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about boys in girls’ sports.” Too bad Darline didn’t say that on the debate stage.

With feelings for politicians at an all-time low, it would be a safe bet that the majority of South Carolina Republicans don’t want Graham to “speak politician.” With that said, however, it’s reasonable to expect her to have the capacity to string together some intelligent comments with regards to one of world’s major hot spots, especially at a time when the US Department of War has expended a hefty proportion of its weapons in Iran – a military disaster with no resolution in sight.

Thus, perhaps it can be argued that Darline Graham’s embarrassing lack of knowledge over foreign affairs might be just what the MAGA camp wants – a lot less Lindsey and much more Darline. They may be willing to forgive Darline’s inability to find Taiwan on a map so long as she focuses congressional attention on critical domestic issues, like LGBTQ curricula in schools, soaring costs, and crumbling infrastructure.  

On Tuesday, South Carolina Republicans will cast a vote that either continues in the blood-soaked shoes of Lindsey Graham or opts for a change in the person of his sister that keeps the attention on the American homeland.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has barred Russian teams from returning to the Chess Olympiad next month, prompting prominent names in Russian chess to accuse its leadership of politicizing the sport and making “Russophobic” decisions.

FIDE suspended the Russian and Belarusian national teams from its competitions in 2022, although players from both countries were allowed to compete individually under neutral status. The federation lifted all restrictions on Belarusian athletes last month.

On Sunday, the FIDE Council ruled that Russian teams would remain excluded from the 46th Chess Olympiad, which is scheduled to take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from September 16 to 27.

Russian Chess Federation chief Aleksandr Tkachev said the decision had undermined FIDE’s own motto, “We are one family,” and accused members of the Council of putting their personal interests ahead of chess. Since 1991, Russian players  have won six gold medals in the Open Chess Olympiad (and multiple silver and bronze medals), and three gold medals in the Women’s Chess Olympiad. 

“There are people who prioritize the game over politics and don’t worry about their own careers. But there are also people who prioritize personal interests, and they currently predominate on the Council. This time, they prevailed,” Tkachev told TASS on Monday.

He claimed the decision had been initiated by acting FIDE President Viswanathan Anand, who took over last month after his Russian predecessor, Arkady Dvorkovich, was forced to step aside after he was placed under EU sanctions.

Russian chess legend Anatoly Karpov, the 12th world champion, went further, accusing the federation’s leadership of Russophobia.

“There is only one explanation for this decision – the FIDE leadership has gotten out of control. The decisions being made are Russophobic,” Karpov told TASS. “Let’s hope the situation changes after the elections in September.”

FIDE is due to hold its presidential election in Uzbekistan on September 26-27, alongside the closing stages of the Olympiad.

The ruling means Russia will miss its third consecutive over-the-board Olympiad after being absent from Chennai in 2022 and Budapest in 2024.

Former FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said he was “ashamed” of the decision, arguing that sport should remain above politics.

Russian players nevertheless remain prominent internationally under the FIDE flag. They won four medals – one gold, two silvers and one bronze – at the Asian rapid and blitz championships in Hong Kong last month.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned restrictions imposed on Russian athletes by international sporting bodies as politically motivated. President Vladimir Putin has argued that comparable measures have not been applied to athletes from other countries involved in armed conflicts.

Russia just pulled its ambassador to the UK, as British Prime Minister Andy Burnham doubles down on open involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The risk of open war has never been higher, but Burnham is writing checks that he can’t cash.

Relations between Russia and the UK are at an “unprecedentedly low level,” Moscow’s embassy in London said in a statement on Sunday, after it emerged that ambassador Andrey Kelin had left his post in late July and would not be immediately replaced. In a follow-up statement to the Sunday Times, an embassy spokesperson said that Kelin had made “considerable efforts to preserve contacts and channels of communication” between the UK and Russia, but the UK had clearly chosen a “path of confrontation.”

☝️ Russia-UK relations across all areas have deteriorated to an unprecedentedly low level entirely on London's initiative.https://t.co/ddib4uE1B4 pic.twitter.com/BrdJAyk4bO

— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) August 23, 2026

“He left Britain in the hope that a more constructive and respectful dialogue could eventually be restored, should the UK reconsider its policies towards our country,” the spokesman added.

How did Russia-UK relations get this bad?

Well, firstly, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and of course David Cameron and their anglophonic media bullhorns. 

Moscow has viewed the UK as one of Ukraine’s most bellicose foreign backers since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson intervened to scupper a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev that April; Britain supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow cruise missiles for long-range strikes on Russia a year later; and in the latest revelation by the British press, Ukraine utilized a plethora of British-made drones in its campaign of long-range attacks on Russian civilian targets this year.

On August 17, the Russian Embassy in London warned Britain that “the deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kiev’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added that Moscow has “every right to regard the proudly proclaimed direct involvement of British missile forces in strikes against Russia as participation in the war, with all the consequences that entails.”

Neither statement seems to have deterred Burnham. Later that day, the British PM proclaimed that the UK would continue “to support Ukraine 100%.” Six days later, his office announced that it would provide Ukraine with classified information enabling it to produce Storm Shadow cruise missiles on Ukrainian soil. Burnham followed this up with a visit to Kiev on Monday, where he compared the conflict to Britain’s struggle against Nazi Germany in World War II, and promised to supply Ukraine with anti-air missiles to repel Russian strikes on its energy infrastructure.

Is pulling the ambassador a sign of war?

The withdrawal of Kelin is an unprecedented move. Diplomatic relations between Moscow and London have been strained on multiple occasions during the post-Soviet period, Russia’s response has typically been restrained. When FSB agents caught British spies hiding a listening device outside the Russian Embassy in 2006, the Kremlin named and condemned the agents responsible. When the UK expelled four Russian diplomats after Moscow refused to extradite a suspect in the alleged poisoning of double agent Alexander Litvinenko in 2007, Russia responded in kind. 

Similarly, when the UK expelled 23 diplomats in 2018 over the alleged poisoning of undercover MI6 agent Sergei Skripal, Moscow’s response was the tit-for-tat expulsion of 23 Brits staff and the closure of a British consulate-general in St. Petersburg.

At no point during these incidents did Russia withdraw – or threaten to withdraw – its ambassador. However, with relations already in the gutter since 2022, Moscow’s lack of urgency in replacing Kelin most likely does not herald military action against the UK. Instead, it is an acknowledgement of just how badly relations have deteriorated.

What will Russia do to neutralize the UK’s Ukraine missile threat?

Russia’s kinetic response to Burnham’s missile data sharing plan is straightforward. In a statement to reporters on August 24, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “our armed forces are carrying out the relevant work and obtaining the necessary data in order to identify the production sites for such missiles and other military equipment, and are taking measures to destroy these locations.”

Destroying missile production sites in Ukraine is a far easier task for Russia now than at any point since 2022. Ukraine has no ammunition for its Patriot air defense batteries left, nor does Kiev have any money to buy more. In a post on X on Sunday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky admitted that his military used all of its 2026 budget in the first six months of the year buying and building drones to attack civilian infrastructure in Russia. 

As a result, Russia has been dismantling weapons plants, ports and ships used to import arms, and energy targets across Ukraine with impunity since July.

How far can Britain escalate against Russia?

Burnham has little more to offer. The US is unwilling to share its dwindling stocks of Patriot missiles with Ukraine, even if the UK offers to buy. Three out of five weapons packages donated by the UK to Ukraine this year included other models of defense missiles – a total of more than 2,500 missiles – but these have apparently been used up by Kiev’s forces.

Britain’s ability to escalate beyond data-sharing and weapons packages is constrained by two key factors. Firstly, open UK intervention in Ukraine could trigger a cataclysmic, and likely nuclear, conflict between Russia and NATO. Secondly, Britain’s armed forces have been hollowed out by decades of underfunding: there are fewer active-duty troops in the British military than at any point since the end of the Napoleonic Wars; Britain reportedly has enough ammunition for less than a day of full-scale combat; and no means of defense against Russian ballistic missiles.

Given the potential consequences, some figures within the British defense establishment have called for restraint. Former Chief of the Defense Staff Tony Radakin – who once urged Britain to prepare to fight Russia in space – and his successor, Richard Knighton, have both reportedly sought contact with Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in order to limit the threat of naval escalation. Another former British defense chief, Field Marshal Lord David Richards, has called for peace talks with Russia since 2022, arguing last year that Ukraine “cannot win” the conflict with anything short of full-scale NATO intervention.

Even former defense attache John Foreman – who has encouraged Ukraine to strike Russia with British-made missiles – told The Times on August 15 that Britain should reopen “strategic dialog” with Russia, calling London’s suspension of military-to-military communications in 2024 “daft.”

'Good to speak to @edvaizey today about the need to hold our noses and re-establish mil to mil ties.

We can continue to support Ukraine. But at the same time, we can talk to the Russians'. Cutting military communication with Russia was a 'daft decision'.

With Russian forces…

— John Foreman CBE (@John_ForemanCBE) August 15, 2026

These calls have also come from the UK’s typically hawkish circuit of ‘Russia experts’. Among this group is Mark Galeotti, an academic with rumored links to British intelligence. In an interview with former British diplomat Ian Proud in mid-August, Galeotti conceded that “behind closed doors,” many British diplomatic and security officials now believe that “we’ve reached the stage where we need to be pushing both sides to some kind of resolution.”

“After years of spouting these empty mantras of ‘as much as it takes, for as long as it takes’, etc etc, who’s going to turn around and say ‘actually, come to think of it, this is not in our interests’,” he told Proud. 

Will Burnham step back?

Burnham, Galeotti argued, is unlikely to spend precious political capital on restarting diplomacy with Russia, as to do so would open him up to attacks from rival parties and hawks within his own Labour Party. 

After his speech in Kiev on Monday, Burnham chaired a meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’ – a 34-nation group put together to pool military aid for Ukraine. In his opening remarks, Burnham called on the UK’s allies to “dig into our own stocks and help others dig into their stocks” to keep the Ukrainian military fighting.

However, should the UK continue supplying long-range missiles and drones to Ukraine, and should these munitions be used to kill Russian civilians, Russia is running out of diplomatic means of deterring London.

Britain has scoffed at every polite warning from Moscow to date, but with Kelin’s office vacant, there are fewer civilized options available to Russia. The “consequences” threatened by Lavrov could be far more catastrophic than a formal demarche.