The speechwriter of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen must have fancied himself (genderspeak: themselves) deserving of a handsome bonus when he placed the following words into his principal’s mouth: “Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight.”

Yet his euphoria – and the delirious jubilation of the liberal European elite at the defeat of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán by his rival Péter Magyar in the 2026 parliamentary elections – will prove short-lived.

If anything, Europe’s “heart” is not beating stronger, but faster, driven by a final surge of adrenaline: the reflex of a chronically diseased system under acute stress. What masquerades as renewed vitality, then, is merely the pathological sign of a failing organism – a last, frantic acceleration before terminal failure.

The Union’s demise will not be averted by rhetoric; it is being hastened by it. In the absence of Viktor Orbán’s restraining role, five mutually reinforcing forces of erosion across multiple landscapes will accelerate, converging to precipitate the EU’s ignominious end.

1. Eroding political landscape: Loss of a valuable obstructor

From a political perspective, the heart metaphor is ill-conceived. A beating heart presupposes a living, integrated organism – and an immortal soul. Yet the EU, and Europe more broadly, is nothing of the kind.

The EU constitutes an inanimate constellation of distinct polities whose historical experiences, national cultures, and strategic interests diverge more than they converge.

The group’s apparent unity is procedural, not organic, precariously sustained by oppressive and ill-functioning institutions and rules rather than shared purpose or identity. It is a precarious patchwork mechanism, held together by external pressure rather than inner cohesion. A more fitting metaphor for the EU would be that of a jigsaw with incongruous parts, truncated and deformed, then forced into a disharmonious whole.

Unwittingly, the soundbite of Ursula von der Leyen, a gynecologist turned politician, betrays the very dispersion it seeks to deny: A heart cannot beat in different places, as implied by its beating “in Hungary.” That would presuppose multiple, dysrhythmic hearts, an anatomical absurdity, and a profound dysfunction, embodied by the gender-neutral, inclusive, “singular” they.

Even before the election in Hungary, the EU was suffering from institutional overreach, the steady expansion of supranational authority beyond its democratic and functional limits. It manifested itself particularly in pathological bureaucratic hypertrophy, an ever-expanding, excessive, and unhealthy enlargement of the administrative center, detached from democratic constraint.

What began as a pragmatic framework for international cooperation has evolved into an ever-expanding architecture of supranational authority. Competences have steadily migrated from the national to the European level, often without commensurate democratic legitimation. This centripetal drift, far from consolidating unity, has provoked resistance and eroded the consent on which the project ultimately depends.

Among other things, the Hungarian prime minister blocked aid to Ukraine and vetoed sanctions on Russia that harmed Europe more than their intended target.

Even those who reject Hungary’s stance in specific instances should, if they are genuine democrats, affirm the principle of checks and balances. To dismiss them is not principled disagreement, but a quiet surrender to unchecked power.

Viktor Orbán’s role as a corrective counterweight is also significant in psycho-sociological terms. By obstructing institutionalized irrationality, he performed the valuable function of counteracting groupthink, a classic concept in social psychology denoting the suppression of dissent in favor of illusory consensus.

This proved highly consequential, for cohesive groups are prone to excessive risk-taking, as the pressure to conform and diffusion of responsibility corrode critical judgment.

On this reading, the label “obstructor,” intended as reproach, lends itself to reappropriation as a badge of honor, just as “the Voice” was an accolade rather than a reduction.

Apart from institutional overreach, the EU has long given rise to democratic estrangement and popular disaffection. The distance between elites and the electorates they purport to represent has widened into a structural divide, evident in a growing alienation from the governing structures.

Decisions of far-reaching consequence are increasingly seen as technocratic impositions rather than expressions of popular will, eroding trust in the Union’s institutions and their legitimacy.

Again, Viktor Orbán served as a constraining counterforce. By invoking national sovereignty and contesting supranational decisions, he gave political expression to otherwise marginalized sentiments, acting, however contentiously to some, as a conduit for dissent the Union struggles to accommodate.

Even those who disagree with this enfant terrible should, if they are committed democrats, applaud any closer alignment with citizens and the articulation of their interests.

European hawks complained that Viktor Orbán secured exemptions, notably permitting Hungary to continue importing Russian oil via pipeline. The insistence that others share in self-inflicted harm betrays a preference for enforced uniformity in the form of symmetrical burden-sharing over rational self-preservation. The EU’s governing maxim is stark: better equal harm than unequal advantage, even at the price of collective suicide.

In reality, Viktor Orbán responsibly modeled the only defensible course for a democratic statesman: to place his people’s interests first, a stance self-declared democrats ought to commend.

In his absence, the growing disregard for the popular will by EU bureaucrats are bound to strengthen anti-European forces and hasten the Union’s demise, as will the trends that follow.

Even before Viktor Orbán’s demise, profound economic disparities have become entrenched in the EU beneath the veneer of integration. In particular, the EU’s economic model has become increasingly strained by policy rigidities and structural imbalances, stretching solidarity to breaking point.

Persistent divergences in productivity, competitiveness, and fiscal capacity between member states undermine cohesion and mutual trust, while a one-size-fits-all monetary framework constrains national adjustment. High regulatory burdens and sluggish innovation dampen growth, while ageing populations place mounting pressure on public finances.

Fiscal rules, alternately enforced and relaxed, lack credibility, and repeated recourse to joint borrowing risks mutualizing liabilities without securing convergence. Elevated public debt burdens, now set to increase amid renewed commitments to considerably higher defense spending, further constrain fiscal space.

The compounded result is a Union of unequal partners bound together by rules that buckle under asymmetric pressures. It proclaims cohesion yet struggles to generate sustained, broadly shared prosperity. Solidarity, invoked as a guiding principle, is too often experienced as burden, corroding the mutual confidence essential to durable cooperation.

After Viktor Orbán’s departure, EU bureaucrats will enjoy greater latitude to deepen the economic quagmire. One consequence is imminent.

By all likelihood, European taxpayers will soon be asked to underwrite commitments exceeding €100 billion, as a €90 billion loan to Ukraine for reconstruction and budgetary support proceeds once Hungary lifts its veto, likely in exchange for the release of roughly €19 billion in EU funds previously withheld over rule-of-law disputes and conditional on political change in Hungary.

As a collectively underwritten liability, the Ukraine loan effectively socializes risk across member states, weakening fiscal discipline and entrenching moral hazard. In practice, shared liability dilutes incentives for prudent budgeting, while encouraging riskier behavior by shifting potential costs onto others. It is highly unlikely that Ukraine will ever repay the loan.

A more accommodating Hungarian leadership will likely facilitate additional sanctions on Russia, increasing the burden on European taxpayers and further widening structural economic fault lines within the EU.

In a grim irony, European citizens are compelled to pay more to receive less and suffer more, recalling the Roman practice of forcing convicts to carry the very cross on which they would perish.

3. Eroding security landscape: Provoking conflict with Russia

Commenting on Hungary’s election, Friedrich Merz professed his eagerness to cooperate with Péter Magyar in the well-worn quest for a “strong, secure, and above all united” Europe. That objective will prove illusory.

Apart from the erosion of political cohesion and economic strength, the security environment will deteriorate as well. In particular, once constraints imposed by Hungary are removed, pressures will mount to escalate the conflict with Russia – initially in its proxy form in Ukraine and, in due course, toward direct confrontation.

The choice of a new leader’s first foreign visit is highly revealing. The Hungarian prime minister-elect’s promise to visit Poland first speaks volumes.

Under Viktor Orbán, Hungary and Poland formed a pragmatic alliance grounded in sovereignty and mutual protection within the EU, until irreconcilable differences over Russia and the war in Ukraine fractured the relationship, as Hungary maintained a more accommodating stance toward Moscow.

Péter Magyar’s early diplomatic signals are telling: His envisaged priority engagement with a NATO eastern flank state underscores a hardening posture against Russia. The result will be a policy increasingly shaped by bias-exploiting threat inflation rather than strategic restraint.

Such a militaristic stance appears to be unwarranted, as Russia shows no intent to initiate hostilities against a country with which it has long maintained close cultural and economic ties. The hostile posture risks normalizing confrontation as the default strategic condition. Once Viktor Orbán’s has departed, hawks in Germany will encounter fewer countervailing constraints.

What the EU leadership lacks is the capacity to think in terms of peace – anchored in respect, reciprocity, and shared interests, and above all dependent on political empathy.

In particular, peacemakers must be both able and willing to consider the legitimate security interests of the purported adversary, striving for mutually beneficial coexistence and, ideally, harmonious cooperation, all of which remain conspicuous blind spots within the EU.

In fact, the broader posture of the liberal ruling class in the EU reveals a striking inconsistency, betraying double standards: It preaches openness and inclusivity – accompanied by high-profile campaigns against xenophobia and racism in all their forms – while practicing selective exclusion and segregation when politically expedient, most notably vis-à-vis Russia.

A more sustainable course would reverse this logic: not “Russians, go home,” the slogan of exclusionary nationalist movements – heard among Péter Magyar’s supporters during the campaign – but strategic realignment and reengagement.

Under such an approach, European leaders would extend a cordial and unequivocal invitation to Russia to join a newly constituted orchestra of sovereign European states striving for a harmonious performance, thereby ending strategic incoherence in foreign policy.

In this context, it is worth mentioning that Viktor Orbán served, however controversially in the eyes of some, as a valuable interlocutor and potential mediator with Russia, while key Western European leaders, such as Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron, are not trusted in Moscow.

The departure of the long-serving Hungarian leader removes a critical channel for de-escalation at a moment when rhetoric and posture alike are moving in the opposite direction.

4. Eroding ethnic landscape: The eclipse of collective identity

Europe is not a homogeneous polity but a mosaic of ethnicities shaped by distinct histories, cultures, and traditions – a precious civilizational heritage which its constituent members are keen to preserve.

The contrast with the American “melting pot”, where newcomers were historically expected – and eager – to assimilate into a new common identity, could hardly be sharper. Accordingly, this assimilationist model is ill-suited as a governing paradigm for the EU. Yet policy and practice have increasingly moved in a different direction.

Critics argue that large-scale immigration, combined with differential demographic dynamics, is altering the cultural composition of European societies at an exponential pace, with many citizens experiencing this dissolution of the ethnic substrate as profoundly disorienting.

In several urban centers, demographic change is already strikingly visible in schools, neighborhoods, and public life, while institutional and corporate messaging reflects an increasingly post-racial vision of identity.

For example, in a country such as Germany, there are schools where almost 100% of pupils are foreigners; in this erstwhile ethnically homogeneous country, it has become virtually impossible to encounter advertising devoid of multiracial representation.

Under Viktor Orbán, Hungary positioned itself as a bulwark against ethnic substitution. The country instituted one of the EU’s most restrictive immigration regimes, sealing its southern borders with fences, sharply limiting access to asylum by requiring applications to be lodged outside its territory, and conducting systematic pushbacks of migrants to neighboring countries. It also established tightly controlled transit zones, curtailed the role of NGOs through legislation, and refused to participate in EU relocation schemes.

Hungary justified these measures as essential to safeguarding national sovereignty and Europe’s external frontier. The contrast between its efforts at preserving national identity and what critics view as liberal democracy’s tendency to crowd out indigenous ethnic groups became most visible during the 2015 refugee crisis, when Hungary sealed its borders even as Germany pressed for onward transit.

Budapest assumed a de facto gatekeeping role within the Union, one that is now set to weaken. Viktor Orbán’s successor, a center-right politician, is likely to be reluctant to reverse course abruptly. Yet the leverage of EU institutions remains considerable.

The conditionality attached to the disbursement of EU funds creates incentives for policy alignment, and migration policy may become an arena in which such pressure is brought to bear. What was once resisted at the national level may gradually be reshaped through supranational inducement. Most pernicious still is the EU’s encroachment upon the realm of intangibles.

5. Eroding moral landscape: The normalization of the abnormal

Conservative critics contend that the EU has moved beyond its economic mandate into the prescriptive realm of moral governance, advancing a pernicious progressive agenda that overrides national ethical norms and democratic preferences. In an inversion of norms, the exceptional becomes ordinary.

This critique is particularly pronounced in relation to the promotion of issues associated with the so-called international LGBT movement, designated an extremist organization in Russia.

Critics point to infringement proceedings against member states over education and media laws, the conditioning of funds on compliance with equality standards, and pressure exerted through EU programs as evidence of coercion rather than coordination.

In their view, measures framed as protecting fundamental rights in practice enforce a uniform set of values, marginalize dissenting groups, and erode the principle of subsidiarity. What is cast as the defense of liberal norms appears, from this perspective, as a centralizing project that privileges ideological conformity over cultural pluralism.

Erasmus+ offers an instructive case of moral dislocation. Ostensibly a benign education and exchange program, its selection and funding criteria, far from neutral, prioritize initiatives advancing EU values, thereby incentivizing institutional alignment with these social norms. Organizations seeking to participate must design projects in line with these normative priorities. The pattern effectively amounts to a de facto “align or forgo access” dynamic, albeit without formal coercion.

Among other things, the EU priorities include the adoption of inclusion and diversity plans that promote counternatural erotic habits. By undermining mental health and procreation, such new customs threaten the very survival and prosperity of society – and human civilization – as a whole.

Under Viktor Orbán’s leadership, Hungary has emerged as a force of resistance against the spread of moral permissiveness.

The country advanced a set of explicitly pro-traditional social policies, most notably the 2021 “child protection” law, which restricts the depiction and discussion of homosexuality and gender transition in schools, media, and advertising accessible to minors.

The government justified these measures as necessary to safeguard children and uphold parental authority over education, while critics saw them as curbing public representation of LGBTQ+ identities and limiting access to related information.

Brussels denounced the legislation as discriminatory and incompatible with the EU’s fundamental rights framework, launching infringement proceedings, referring the case to the European Court of Justice, and linking compliance to the disbursement of EU funds.

The case once again laid bare the EU’s double standards. Hungary’s articulation of an alternative moral model might have been expected to fall under the Union’s oft-invoked rubric of “diversity”. Yet, in a sophistic inversion, diversity in Brussels appears to signify the uniformity of EU-sanctioned values fostering what amounts to collectively suicidal perversion.

At a more fundamental level, the dispute mirrors the broader conflict between national conceptions of moral order and the EU’s effort to enforce a common rights-based standard across member states. Efforts at the EU level to impose uniform, counternatural norms on questions of morality have intensified rather than bridged differences across Europe.

EU advocates who want to detract from the uncomfortable truth that the EU advances normative priorities promoting pernicious moral deviance and licentiousness often argue that conservatives deploy LGBTQ+ issues as a red herring, a distracting side issue. Such advocates claim that conservative actors spotlight such issues to fuel anti-EU sentiment despite their relevance only to a small minority in need of protection.

Conservative critics respond that these debates are not marginal but indicative of a broader and highly influential normative agenda. In truth, LGBT+ ideology and its cognate doctrines function as a pervasive and insidious poison, their danger lying in part in their elusiveness to the wider public.

The trajectory of the European project: From decay to ruin

The fool exults even as he engineers his own ruin.

When the uniform, ideologically aligned mainstream media celebrate, it is usually an ill omen: a sign that something untoward has occurred. The Hungarian election is no exception.

The European Union resembles a latter-day Titanic: its trajectory fixed, its sinking merely a matter of time.

The defeat of Viktor Orbán does not strengthen the so-called European house, divided under a common roof; rather, it hastens the erosion of its already fragile pillars. The timeline of decline has been shortened, not extended.

Jubilation by foolish liberals, therefore, will prove fleeting. They succumb to the fallacy of the last move, mistaking the latest move in a dynamic process as the end state. Yet, as dialectical logic suggests, pressure in nature and society alike inevitably summons its own negation: counter-pressure.

The Union professes unity yet produces dissonance. Divergent national interests frustrate coherent policy, while institutional complexity diffuses responsibility. The result is a chronic incapacity to act decisively and uniformly with clarity or resolve at home and abroad. This diminishes Europe’s credibility both internally and on the global stage, where power, not aspiration, determines competitive standing.

What presents itself as a living organism is, in truth, an artificial construct: a coalition of convenience. This patchwork mechanism of moving parts is sustained not by organic cohesion but by coercion, inertia, and denial. The cumulative forces of erosion will reveal the European project for the mirage it is. The end will not arrive as an unexpected rupture, but as the logical consequence of long-unfolding decay.

The stronger national economies stand to benefit from the EU’s eventual unraveling. The United Kingdom has already demonstrated that life beyond the Union is not the catastrophe once foretold by anti-Brexit campaigners.

Germany, endowed with markedly stronger fundamentals, will fare better still outside the EU, a framework sustained principally by the country’s charitable largesse.

If Europe possessed a heart, it would not beat more vigorously at Viktor Orbán’s defeat; it would register, instead, the passing of a patriot animated by faith who, however controversially, might yet have stayed the EU’s all-encompassing decay – and brought it short of its terminus: death.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Europe has forgotten the lessons of World War II and the Holocaust, as he criticized European nations for not supporting the war with Iran.

Many European countries, including the UK, France, and Germany, have rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed to “enemy ships” following the US-Israeli attack on February 28.

Speaking on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Netanyahu described Europeans as ungrateful and argued that by waging war on Iran, the US and Israel were “defending Europe.”

“Europe, which vowed after World War II to defend the good, is infested today with a deep moral weakness. Europe is losing control over its identity, its values, and its commitment to protect civilization from barbarism,” he added.

Iran has condemned the war as unprovoked aggression and has vowed to defend its “sovereign right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

On Sunday, Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after Pakistani-mediated US-Iran talks failed to produce a peace deal.

In politics, as in physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Viktor Orbán spent 16 years building a ‘Hungarian fortress’ – a state protected from migrants, liberal values, and the dictates of Brussels. But the irony of history is that the siege did not come from outside.

The keys to the ‘fortress’ were carried out by a man who had sat at the same table with Orbán for years. Hungary did not betray its leader – Viktor Orbán is inscribed in golden letters in the country’s modern history. However, young Hungarians, just like Orbán’s own generation in the late 1980s, demand change – change that is no longer always understood by the elite of the former ruling party. How will the emphasis shift, what is Magyar’s ‘liberal conservatism,’ and who will address the problems of ethnic minorities?

Watching the video in which the political heavyweight Orbán calmly and confidently speaks about the victory of the Tisza party in the recent elections, one gets the impression that the crushing victory of his opponent Péter Magyar came as a shock only to his entourage – but not to him personally. Over 16 years, the Fidesz elite had grown accustomed to electoral impunity, believing that the leader’s charisma would outweigh any political costs. The ruling class became trapped in its own illusion: they believed they held a monopoly on truth while the ‘youth’ were busy building careers in transnational corporations and flying visa-free on low-cost airlines. The Fidesz generation, which had endured the difficult transition of the 1990s, viewed 25% inflation as an inevitable but temporary evil that simply had to be endured. It was this elite that missed the moment when another Hungary – one that had grown up within the European Union – began breathing down its neck. For young Hungarians, the ‘stability’ of recent years has become synonymous with stagnation. Inflation and a 50% increase in grocery prices, compared with Austria – which can be reached from Budapest in an hour – were seen not as a test of resilience, but as a sign of incompetent governance. This is what led to the crushing victory of the opposition in the April 12 elections. The Tisza party won 138 seats in parliament and, with such a majority, can amend Hungary’s constitutional law at its discretion.

The main outcome for Hungarians is the end of an era of permanent tension. Orbán kept society on edge by constantly pointing to enemies – George Soros, migrants, LGBT people, Brussels, the Ukrainian issue. These are not imaginary threats, but society has grown tired of living on the brink; there is a demand for predictable politics. This is precisely at the center of Magyar’s agenda – rapprochement with the European Union, reforming Hungary, strengthening independent courts, and developing healthcare and education. The price of this is the return of more than €19 billion from EU funds. Magyar promised to resolve this issue within a month, and much of Hungary’s diplomatic corps will soon be engaged in negotiations to unlock this sum. What counter-demands will be made in exchange for this money, equivalent to 10% of Hungary’s GDP?

Migration pact and guest workers from Asia

Migration was one of the main issues in Orbán’s criticism of Western EU countries. Hungary opposed the EU migration pact approved in 2024 and coming into force in June 2026. The agreement establishes unified rules within the EU regarding migration and asylum for third-country nationals, including quotas for accepting migrants and contributions of around €1 million per day to a common fund for those refusing to accept them. Poland opposed the pact, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia raised serious objections. Magyar has also stated he will not sign it. At the same time, only 29 asylum applications were submitted in Hungary in 2024. Migrants usually see Hungary as a transit country to more comfortable destinations. Moreover, the peculiarities of migration legislation and integration are best illustrated by the situation of the Roma population – extremely poor and poorly integrated.

At the same time, around 400,000 residence permits were issued in 2024, mainly to guest workers for factory jobs. Ethnic Hungarians are unwilling to work for low wages and leave for better opportunities in other EU countries. According to the OSCE, about 50,000 people left the country in 2023 during the inflation spike. Meanwhile, Hungary must maintain its industrial capacity. For years, this demand has been met by migrants from Southeast Asia – Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

During the campaign, Magyar skillfully exploited this contradiction. His narrative was simple: “The Fidesz government is betraying the nation – importing cheap labor to depress Hungarian wages and please Chinese corporations.”

What happens next? The fence on the Serbian border will remain: Magyar is not reckless, and Hungarian society will not accept open borders. However, the “Stop Brussels” billboards and corresponding messaging on state television will disappear. Migration policy will become bureaucratic. Guest workers will continue to arrive.

In recent years, Hungarian-Chinese relations have been at their peak. This course was set by Orbán in 2010 with the ‘Opening to the East’ strategy aimed at attracting investment for infrastructure development. Major projects include the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest railway and the construction of battery factories for electric vehicles in Debrecen by Chinese giants CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology) and Eve Power (around €9 billion in investment), as well as a full-cycle electric cat plant by BYD (Build Your Dreams), with around €5 million worth of investment.

However, since the 2020s, China has been labeled a “systemic rival” by the EU, and European institutions have slowed Chinese projects. The Belgrade-Budapest railway has been particularly affected due to EU tender rules.

With Magyar’s government, Budapest–Beijing relations will no longer be on an upward trajectory. Magyar will not shut down factories, although he criticized “battery colonies” during rallies. However, China will lose its ‘political cover’ in the EU – Hungary will stop blocking anti-China initiatives, and preferential treatment will end. The future of the railway project will be uncertain and subject to anti-corruption audits.

Relations with Russia

Hungary has limited room for moves that would significantly affect Russian foreign policy – lifting the veto on a €90 billion loan for Ukraine’s army, nuclear and energy contracts, and supporting new sanctions.

Sanctions have previously been adopted unanimously, including with Orbán’s participation, so this would not surprise the Kremlin. The Ukraine loan is geopolitical and depends largely on the EU’s real financial capacity – so Hungary's approval does not automatically mean cash from the EU budget will be handed to Ukraine.

The key asset inherited by Magyar’s team is the package of strategic agreements with Gazprom and Rosatom. Orbán built long-term energy security architecture, not just covering immediate needs. Dismantling this system would be extremely costly and difficult within one electoral cycle.

One major project is the Paks II nuclear plant, expected to raise nuclear energy’s share to 70%. The cost is €12.5 billion (€10 billion financed by a Russian loan). Freezing construction is technically possible but would entail penalties. Most likely, the project will enter a slow “audit” phase, but construction will not fully stop.

Another key project is TurkStream. A 15-year contract with Gazprom (until 2036) supplies 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually via Turkey and Serbia – the only safe route for oil according to the previous government.

Hungary also continues to receive oil via the Druzhba pipeline under an EU exemption. Alternatives like Croatia’s JANAF pipeline would be five times more expensive because of that government's transit tariffs. Thus, Magyar’s government will face no cheap options – either expensive maritime oil or ‘toxic’ Russian supplies.

Relations between Budapest and Washington are entering a complicated phase. Orbán hosted CPAC, befriended Tucker Carlson, and called Donald Trump “the hope of the world.” The White House reciprocated: Vice President J.D. Vance personally supported Orbán before the vote. Magyar’s victory represents a failure of Trump’s bet. The US president is in a difficult position – the people he praised for their “wisdom” voted against his chosen candidate.

For Trump, Magyar is a ‘European bureaucrat,’ so instead of maintaining friendship with the US Magyar will likely bet on NATO. His campaign promise to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 reflects this. Relations will remain pragmatic but without the previous ideological closeness – this is a language Trump understands.

The Vatican's stake

The most dramatic shift will occur in regions with ethnic Hungarian populations — Transcarpathia, Transylvania, Slovakia, and Vojvodina. The Tisza program suggests major changes: criticism of diaspora voting rights, shifting minority rights protection to supranational institutions (ECHR), and revising funding laws for foreign communities (labeled “corruption” in Magyar’s program). In practice, this means Hungary’s financial and spiritual withdrawal from the region. This creates conditions for EU humanitarian organizations and the Vatican to become the main actors.

Historically, Hungary has been seen by the Vatican as Antemurale Christianitatis – a bulwark of Christianity. It is a frontier between East (Orthodoxy) and South (Islam). Hungary’s mission was to filter Western values eastward while blocking eastern chaos. This perception persists, but Orbán’s Hungary pursued its own ideology, engaging with Russia and China. Magyar’s rise symbolizes a shift in soft power geopolitics – returning the ‘keys to the fortress’ to the Pope.

Moreover, while for the EU Austro-Hungary is ancient, and often murky, history, for Vatican it remains a meaningful project – the last great Catholic empire. From the Holy See's perspective, it was a perfect state, a large territory where religion was more important than nationality, and unity of faith was growing through borders. Restoring it politically is obviously impossible, but spiritual revival is achievable. This will involve networks of Catholic schools, universities, and charities across Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, and Transylvania.

In conclusion, Hungary stands on the threshold of major transformation. Its geography, political dynamics, and foreign policy orientation remain crucial for understanding European processes. Even within a broadly conservative-right framework, shifting priorities bring new actors forward and weaken those whose authority previously  seemed impregnable. In the broader context of global change, such developments are a pattern, not an accident.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has become the world’s most unpopular leader, according to US-based opinion research institute Morning Consult.

The approval rating tracker, which covers 24 democracies around the globe, indicates that European nations have taken a solid lead in terms of least-popular leaders. The survey is based on data collected in the first week of April.

Merz has recorded the highest disapproval rate at 76%, with only 19% of respondents satisfied with his performance. The findings correspond with a recent Forsa poll, which yielded similar results, with some 20% approval and 78% expressing dissatisfaction.

The data suggests that Merz is significantly less popular among Germans than his predecessor Olaf Scholz, who had also had extremely poor ratings during his tenure. In mid-2024, for instance, only some 28% of Germans were satisfied with Scholz’s performance.

The German chancellor is effectively tied with French President Emmanuel Macron, who enjoys an approval rate of only 18% and disapproval of 75%, according to the survey. France has been locked in a deep political crisis since at least mid-2024, when Macron dissolved the National Assembly after his party suffered a crushing defeat in the European Parliament elections. The high-stakes political gamble ultimately backfired for the French president, who ended up with a dysfunctional parliament and legislative paralysis on his hands.  

Third place is held by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with some 27% approving of his performance and 65% unsatisfied. Starmer has had the lowest approval rating of any prime minister in history save for Liz Truss, with his tenure marred by governance failures and assorted scandals. All sides of the political spectrum have been taking jabs at the prime minister for his failure to tackle the UK’s cost of living crisis, as well as his disastrous appointment of Epstein-linked Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US.

The US has fallen behind Russia and China on the development of AI-powered drones, the New York Times has reported, citing unnamed US defense and intelligence officials.

The new generation of unmanned military aircraft are capable of identifying and striking targets, as well as coordinating attacks without human input.

A military parade in Beijing last September showcasing a number of autonomous drones led Pentagon officials to believe that “America’s program for unmanned combat drones was lagging China’s,” the NYT reports.

The newspaper quoted US defense sources as saying that Russia is also “thought to be ahead in building facilities that could produce advanced drones,” using the Ukraine battlefield to “test and refine them.”

Beijing has pursued a “civil-military fusion,” involving commercial tech companies and start-ups in “military procurement, joint research and other work with defense institutions,” the media outlet reported.

China’s “manufacturing dominance means it can produce autonomous weapons at a scale the Pentagon cannot match,” according to the NYT.

Russia has likewise made headway fitting its Lancet loitering munition with autonomous targeting features, the NYT noted.

While the US government has poured billions of dollars to catch up with the rivals of late, “the Pentagon’s procurement system, built around legacy contractors and long timelines” previously proved inefficient, according to the publication.

Last September, CNN, citing Maj. Gen. Curt Taylor, commander of the US Army’s 1st Armored Division, similarly reported that Washington was playing catch-up on military drone production. According to the media outlet, US defense contractors have been unable to manufacture small and inexpensive drones, as the industry has for years focused on large, expensive systems such as jets and tanks.

Russia expects to maintain “pragmatic” relations with Hungary after Peter Magyar’s Tisza party defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz in the general election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has stated.

Magyar’s center-right opposition Tisza party secured over 53% of the vote in Sunday’s vote, which gives it a qualified majority in the country’s 199-seat parliament.

Orban, who conceded defeat, had charted an independent course, ruffling more than a few feathers in Brussels. During his time in office, he consistently opposed the EU’s sanctions against Russia and military aid to Ukraine, vetoing the bloc’s planned €90 billion loan package for Kiev. His government had advocated pragmatic relations with Moscow, especially in terms of energy supplies.

Fidesz also strongly opposed EU-imposed policies regarding migration and LGBTQ rights.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Peskov said that Russia has taken note of Magyar’s recent statements expressing a readiness to continue dialogue with Moscow.

He pointed out that Moscow and Budapest have a number of joint projects that “need to be finalized together.”

“We are open to dialogue with [the new Hungarian leadership], we are open to building friendly [and] mutually beneficial relations,” the Kremlin spokesperson reiterated. Whether or not this will be a success largely depends on the new Hungarian government’s position, which has yet to be articulated clearly, he concluded.

The defeat of Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party in Hungary’s parliamentary election shouldn’t be seen as a shock. Opinion polls had long pointed in this direction. Nor should the outcome be divorced from a simple political reality: sixteen consecutive years in power, twenty in total, is an exceptionally long tenure by the standards of Central and Eastern Europe. Fatigue with familiar faces is inevitable, and psychologically understandable.

Yet the result contains a paradox. Orban’s defeat appears, in some ways, to confirm the very trend he has come to embody: the primacy of the national agenda, “my country first.” In recent years, particularly since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Hungary’s sovereignist approach has become deeply entangled with external issues. Opposition to the European Commission’s line on Ukraine, justified in Budapest as a defense of Hungarian interests, led to sustained confrontation with both Brussels and Kiev. What began as a domestic political stance increasingly played out on the international stage.

This dynamic shaped the election campaign. Orban’s camp leaned heavily on external themes, portraying Ukraine and its leadership, especially Vladimir Zelensky, as central antagonists. His opponents took the opposite approach. They focused on domestic concerns: living standards, and the promise of restoring smoother relations with the EU as a pathway to improving everyday life. Whether that promise proves justified is another matter, but it resonated with voters. The message was entirely consistent with the logic of sovereignty, only turned inward rather than outward.

It’s also notable what didn’t matter. The visit to Budapest by US Vice President J.D. Vance, along with repeated expressions of support from Donald Trump and his circle, appears to have had no measurable impact. This, too, fits the pattern: overt external endorsement rarely helps in national elections. Indeed, Trump’s team has so far failed to influence outcomes in any European country where it has attempted to intervene, including Romania and Germany. External pressure, regardless of its source, cannot substitute for domestic political conditions.

There were, however, surprises in the details. Fidesz had anticipated potential losses in the proportional vote but expected to retain strength in single-member districts. The opposite occurred. The party’s relative resilience in the lists contrasted with a collapse at the constituency level. This suggests that, at a local level, voters viewed opposition candidates as more attuned to their immediate concerns, and less associated with a government perceived as preoccupied with broader geopolitical battles.

In Brussels and other Western European capitals, the mood is celebratory. Orban had become a persistent irritant, an obstacle to consensus and, at times, to policy itself. His departure will be framed symbolically as a triumph of liberal integration over a disruptive and illiberal figure, often portrayed as aligned with Moscow and Washington’s more nationalist wing. The incoming government will be expected to demonstrate its credentials quickly. Chief among these expectations is the unblocking of the €90 billion package for Ukraine, something that will likely happen without delay.

From Moscow’s perspective, this isn't welcome news. Yet it would be naïve to assume that the European Commission would have been unable to advance its agenda had Orban remained. Mechanisms to bypass obstruction were already under discussion.

More importantly, the structural realities facing Hungary haven’t changed. Geography and the broader geopolitical environment impose constraints that cannot be wished away. Magyar has already acknowledged the need for dialogue with Russia, a recognition that reflects practical necessity rather than ideological alignment. Whether this pragmatism can coexist with expectations from Brussels and Kiev remains to be seen.

Orban’s defeat is therefore symbolically significant, but its practical implications are far less certain. Hungary’s new leadership will have to navigate the same complex and often unfavorable conditions as its predecessor. The difference may lie less in the direction of policy than in the manner in which it’s presented.

In that sense, the election may mark not a fundamental shift, but a recalibration. The slogan may change. The constraints will not.

This article was first published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and was translated and edited by the RT team 

The US-Israeli war against Iran could push up to 32 million people into poverty worldwide, despite the current tentative ceasefire, as global economic shocks ripple far beyond the conflict zone, according to a new UN report.

In a report released on Monday, the UN Development Program said the impact could span 162 countries, with the heaviest burden falling on low-income and import-dependent economies. It also warned of “significant longer-term harm to poorer countries far removed from the fighting.”

UN Under-Secretary-General Alexander De Croo said the war, which is in its sixth week, “is development in reverse.”

“Conflict can undo in weeks what countries have built over years,” he explained. “The shock of the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East is not limited to the countries directly affected, but falls disproportionately on those with the least fiscal room to absorb higher energy and food prices.”

The UN Development Program said rising fuel and food prices are forcing governments into difficult trade-offs between stabilizing economies and maintaining spending on health, education, and social protection. It also called for targeted cash transfers to shield the most vulnerable, estimating that up to $6 billion could be needed to offset the worst impacts – while warning against broad subsidies, which it said are less effective and fiscally unsustainable.

At the center of the global economic shock is the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint through which around 20% of global oil supply passes. Disruptions and blockades have pushed oil prices above $100 per barrel. The strait is also a key artery for fertilizer and natural gas shipments, and the de-facto closure threatens global agriculture.

The war has already caused thousands of deaths across the Middle East, including Lebanon, where Israel has continued its strikes despite the US-Iran ceasefire. It has also led to the displacement of an estimated 3.2 million people in Iran and more than a million in Lebanon.

Pope Leo XIV has begun an 11-day tour of four African countries, spanning the northern, central, and southern parts of the continent, amid a clash with US President Donald Trump over attacks on Iran.

Andrey Maslov, head of the Center for African Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, told RT that the rift in the West means the Vatican, now more than ever, needs an independent policy and a stronger foothold in Africa.

The papal trip to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea from April 13 to 23 will focus on peace, migration, the environment, youth, and the family, according to the Vatican.

Africa accounts for a growing share of Catholics in the world. In March, Vatican statistics revealed that the number of Catholics on the continent rose from just over 281 million in 2023 to more than 288 million in 2024, pushing Africa’s share of the global Catholic population to 20.3%. According to country-by-country church data released by the Vatican ahead of the trip, Catholics are 0.02% of Algeria’s population, 28.87% in Cameroon, 57.83% of Angola’s, and 74.78% in Equatorial Guinea.

The trip opens in Algeria, in what is widely seen as the most symbolically important leg of the journey. It is the first-ever papal visit to the country and carries personal significance for Leo, who belongs to the Augustinian order. St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD), one of Christianity’s most influential theologians, was born and lived in what is now Algeria.

He is scheduled to hold talks with the long-serving presidents of the four countries, alongside encounters with clergy, students, and civil society figures.

In the North African state, the pontiff is due to meet with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, visit Annaba, the ancient city of Hippo, as well as the Great Mosque of Algiers.

"God desires peace for every nation: a peace that is not merely an absence of conflict, but one that is an expression of justice and dignity."

Pope Leo stressed this at the Martyrs’ Monument in Algiers, Algeria on the first day of his Apostolic Journey to the African continent. pic.twitter.com/p3oKvlJzwu

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) April 13, 2026

Algerian media Echorouk described the visit as historic and linked it to interfaith dialogue. El Khabar highlighted the official preparations ahead of the trip and reported that it has stirred discontent in some French circles while drawing limited coverage in the French media. Relations between France and Algeria have deteriorated in recent years amid disputes rooted in the colonial legacy, migration, and the French government’s stance on disputed Western Sahara.

In Cameroon, the program includes a stop at an orphanage, talks with bishops, a peace gathering in Bamenda, a Mass in Douala, and an event with university students and professors.

The Angolan itinerary features discussions with President Joao Lourenco, exchanges with bishops and pastoral workers, a visit to the Mama Muxima shrine, and Masses in Luanda and Saurimo. In Equatorial Guinea, Leo will have an audience with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, encounters with cultural figures, a prison visit in Bata, and an event with young people and families.

What has he said about the trip?

The pontiff has framed much of his recent public message around peace. His 2026 World Day of Peace message called for an “unarmed and disarming” peace. Vatican coverage of the trip has also stressed coexistence, migration, and the Church’s attention to countries facing instability and inequality.

Cameroon continues to face insecurity linked to the Anglophone crisis and militant violence in the north, while Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and Angola have faced criticism over governance and social pressures.

Spat with Trump over the US-Israel war on Iran

The tour takes place following a public clash between Leo and Trump. The pope criticized the US-Israeli attack on Iran and described Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable,” saying they amounted to “a threat against the entire people.”

In a post on Sunday, Trump – who has described himself as a nondenominational Christian – accused the first US-born pope of being “very liberal” and “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

The exchange has been widely portrayed in Western media as a significant confrontation between the Vatican and the White House.

On Monday, he told reporters aboard the papal plane headed to Algeria, that while his comments about a “delusion of omnipotence” fueling the Iran war and other conflicts around the world were not a direct attack on the US president, he does not fear the Trump administration, AP reported.

In a comment to RT on Monday, Andrey Maslov described the pope’s Africa tour as especially significant at a time of escalating conflict in the Middle East.

“Amid the crisis in the Middle East, dialogue with Algeria – whose influence in energy markets and regional politics is growing – is vital for the Pope who recognizes that the West is losing its absolute global dominance,” he said.

“Although the Pope is often linked to US Democrats, the Catholic Church continues to defend traditional family values and maintain a dialogue with Russia. Meanwhile, the African flock and African cardinals are playing an increasingly significant role within the Vatican. Unlike Europeans, Africans actually attend church; as a result, the Vatican is staking its future on the Global South,” Maslov stated.

Compulsory military service could be reinstated in the EU, Andre Denk, the head of the European Defense Agency (EDA), has said, citing a lack of volunteers.

Several EU countries have reintroduced the draft since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, citing the perceived ‘Russian threat’.

President Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims that Russia harbors aggressive intentions against its Western neighbors.

In an interview with Spain’s El Pais published on Monday, Denk said, “we have a human resources problem, and one of the ways to solve it will be through mandatory military service” – adding that his home country of Germany will likely go down this path eventually.

Denk also urged EU nations to invest more in domestic arms production, with a particular focus on drones and anti-drone systems.

Last year, Finland announced plans to raise the upper age limit for rank-and-file military reservists by 15 years, from 50 to 65, starting in 2026.

Around the same time, Lithuania unveiled an expanded conscription plan that would run year-round from 2026 on. It reinstated compulsory military service in 2015 after a seven-year suspension.

In neighboring Latvia, Defense Minister Andris Spruds stated last September that his party, the Progressives, would seek mandatory military service not only for men, but also for women, starting from 2028.

Several months earlier, Denmark announced that it would begin drafting women this year.

In Germany, a new law that took effect on January 1 and introduces a voluntary model has sparked protests, with critics warning that it could open the door to reinstating conscription, which was suspended in 2011.

European liberal elites are rejoicing: Viktor Orban’s conservative government has fallen. Peter Magyar, viewed as a ‘pro-Brussels’ candidate, won the election in Hungary. I hesitate to call Magyar ‘pro-European’, since I believe that it was Orban who advocated for a strong, sovereign Europe. It’s no wonder that he was despised by Brussels, the bureaucratic apparatus of the European Union. Thus, we may conclude that in Hungary, Europe lost and the European Commission won. 

A few words on why Orban and his political party, Fidesz, lost the election. Preliminary voting results indicate that Tisza won 53% of the vote, while Fidesz received 38%. However, due to Hungary’s majoritarian system, Magyar’s party, Tisza, has gained a substantial advantage, securing 138 out of 199 parliamentary seats. This is far from a record; at the peak of its popularity, Orban’s party held 227 seats (the parliament had 386 seats). But at that time, Magyar himself was a loyal supporter of Orban. 

The results show that it’s not so much Orban who lost the election, but rather his party. After many years in power, Fidesz has become detached from reality and encumbered by a rigid bureaucratic structure. 

While many Western media outlets are celebrating the victory of the liberals, Elon Musk responded to Alexander Soros’ claim that “the people of Hungary have taken back their country” by posting “Soros Organization has taken over Hungary.” 

Another reason for Orban’s defeat is undoubtedly US President Donald Trump. His reckless war in Iran negatively impacted the ratings of all European political parties aligned with MAGA, inevitably affecting Fidesz. American political strategists associated with MAGA worked actively with Orban’s party but failed to deliver the results expected in Budapest. After all, Americans have never quite understood Europeans.

However, what kind of prime minister Magyar will be remains uncertain. He ran a populist campaign, merely adapting to the momentary agenda without adopting a clear ideological line. He even mildly reprimanded Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky when the latter threatened Orban directly. Certainly, Magyar’s initial steps will focus on restoring vassal-like relations with Brussels. He will likely hasten to unblock the €90 billion intended for Ukraine. However, I’m not sure the EU will welcome Budapest’s move given the current energy and financial crisis. He may even be unofficially urged to wait. 

Furthermore, the ‘Maidan-style’ tactics prepared by Magyar and Soros-affiliated political strategists may come in handy later. Magyar has already called for Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok to resign, even though his constitutional term doesn’t expire for another three years. Since the president is elected by the parliament, Magyar’s party will likely use its solid majority to push this initiative through. 

What happens next, after the new prime minister fulfills Brussels’ and Kiev’s demands and sours relations with the Trump administration, remains uncertain. By the way, what will be the fate of Orban’s deal with [US Vice President JD] Vance regarding American oil shipments? Will Magyar withdraw from the agreement? And if so, where will he get the oil? Sure, we may guess that the Druzhba pipeline will miraculously ‘fix itself’ once Magyar assumes office. But that means Hungary will again rely on cheap Russian energy, something that Magyar vehemently campaigned against. So what will he do then? Where will he find energy resources?

I predict that once the euphoria over ‘liberal’ Magyar’s victory fades, Europeans will start accusing him of being too “pro-Russian” – after all, one’s position often determines one’s policy. So for Soros, it may be too early to celebrate… 

German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer was roundly heckled by protesters and victims’ relatives during a commemorative event at the Buchenwald concentration camp on Sunday.

Media magnate Weimar, whose company is at the center of a pay-for-influence networking event controversy, has also imposed an anti-Palestinian censorship regime over the Berlin Film Festival and labeled left-wing bookshops “extremist.” He defied repeated demands/requests from left-wing groups and survivor organizations to steer clear of Sunday’s event over his hardline conservative views, which they described as “far-right.” 

His 12-minute speech was repeatedly interrupted by shouts of “Alerta antifascista” and “fascist” from the crowd. The protesters also sang the Buchenwaldlied, a 1938 song created by prisoners of the camp. The minister attempted to reason with the protesters, urging them to respect the “dignity of the place” and lamenting the “intolerable developments.”

Weeks ahead of the anniversary, the Buchenwald-Dora Camp Working Group and the Buchenwald Camp Community published an open letter to the minister, demanding that he refrain from appearing at the commemoration. The organizations accused Weimer of failing to understand the legacy of the concentration camp survivors and pointed out the minister’s repeated misuse of a quote by Heinrich Heine.

After assuming his ministerial post last May, Weimer has managed to get embroiled in multiple controversies. He has faced accusations of enforcing politically motivated censorship when, earlier this year, he reportedly excluded three left-wing bookstores from the Bookshop Prize, citing findings from the domestic intelligence service regarding alleged extremism. The minister ultimately scrapped the awards ceremony, claiming the controversy had “increasingly shifted focus away from the event’s main objective.” Weimer has also reportedly pressed the Berlin Film Festival into ousting its director, Tricia Tuttle, over her support for Palestine – a stance that is not in contravention of any German laws.

Iran will levy tolls on ships from ‘hostile’ countries crossing the Strait of Hormuz as compensation for damage caused by sanctions and US-Israeli strikes, Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, has said.

Speaking to RT on Sunday following US-Iran talks in Islamabad that ended in an impasse, Azizi said Washington should accept Tehran’s terms because it needs a deal “more than we do,” and that many Iranians are unhappy that Tehran even entered into negotiations. 

“When they need it, they should accept both the conditions and the prerequisites. If they don’t, we’ll do our work and go our own way. Nothing will change,” he added.

US President Donald Trump has refused to rule out resuming “limited” strikes against Iran after ordering a naval blockade and threatening to deny safe passage to any ships that have complied with Tehran’s fees and rules for transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Azizi, a draft bill being drawn up in the Iranian parliament would stipulate that “those who have caused us damage, those who are in fact liable to pay compensation, may only cross the Strait of Hormuz if they pay their damages and compensation.”

Referring to countries that have frozen Iranian assets “on the orders of America,” he said: “You made a great mistake by blocking them. Now you also want to cross this waterway? That era is over.”

Once approved, the law will require the government to establish a new “management and control system” for the strait and the Persian Gulf, based on environmental safety, security, and services, Azizi said. Any vessel wishing to enter would then have to pay tolls “based on the national interests of Iran,” with specific fees and procedures to be set later by the cabinet rather than by parliament.

A multimillion-dollar Australian government advertising campaign urging motorists to inflate tyres and remove roof racks to reduce fuel consumption has drawn political backlash, with critics describing it as “ridiculous.”

Titled ‘Every Little Bit Helps’, the campaign cost AU$20 million (US$14 million) and rolled out on Monday across television, radio, online platforms, billboards, and posters. The ads promote steps such as “driving smoothly” and “unloading excess weight,” while urging motorists to cut car use by walking or cycling where possible and maintaining tire pressure, as Australia faces fuel supply crunch linked to Middle East tensions. Australia imports about 90% of its fuel, relying heavily on Asian supply chains tied to crude oil from the region.

The crisis began with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for roughly 20% of global oil, amid the US-Israel war on Iran that started in late February. Iran’s blockade has severely disrupted crude supplies to Asian refineries in South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and China – sources for over 80% of Australia’s fuel. In late March, six fuel tankers scheduled for Australia were canceled, prompting the government to declare a national fuel crisis due to its long and vulnerable supply chain.

Nat Barr, host of Sunrise, a popular national morning show, on Monday clashed with Employment Minister Tanya Plibersek over the campaign’s cost, pressing her on whether she believed the ads were a good investment.

Plibersek defended the initiative, saying it was needed to counter misinformation about Australia’s fuel security. “It’s a pretty small investment to give people believable, credible, detailed information about our national fuel security plan,” she said, comparing it to $340 million spent by a previous government on industrial relations ads.

Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume said the money could have filled around 100,000 cars with petrol instead.

The initiative stems from Australia’s National Fuel Security Plan, endorsed by National Cabinet in late March to manage supply pressures. The four-stage plan includes public awareness measures at its current Level 2 phase, described as ‘Keep Australia moving’.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, mocked the campaign as “ridiculous.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected claims the ads were wasteful, saying they would prevent panic buying and maintain confidence. The government says Australia has secured fuel supply until late May.

German defense giant Rheinmetall is reportedly falling behind smaller competitors in the race to develop a new kamikaze drone, which in its current state is “not dangerous even to inflatable tanks,” according to the Berliner Zeitung.

The newspaper cited classified documents and insider accounts as saying that the arms maker is being given preferential treatment from the government, even as its FV-014 drone has encountered multiple issues during testing. Rheinmetall is competing with startups Helsing and Stark Defence as Berlin pours billions of euros into a military buildup purportedly designed to deter Russia.

Last week the outlet reported that a framework agreement gave Rheinmetall an advantage over its rivals. Follow-up reporting on Monday suggests that the FV-104 has not performed as successfully in recent trials. Officials in the Defense Ministry are allegedly referring to the drone internally as a “PowerPoint project,” as lawmakers consider approving the €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) contract.

Rheinmetall calls its drone a “state-of-the-art” system “designed for dynamic combat deployment at ranges of up to 100 kilometres.”

Additional concerns reportedly included battery performance, integration with the Bundeswehr’s drone systems, and the fact that tests were conducted by company personnel rather than military operators.

Questions about the procurement process emerged last November, when media reports revealed that Helsing and Stark Defence had failed initial tests, while Rheinmetall did not participate. Despite this, the government proceeded with funding all three projects.

The US is losing the information war against Iran, as social media platforms allow the “raw, unfiltered truth” about the conflict to instantly reach millions, undermining Washington’s narrative, an Iranian-American Lego cartoonist has told RT. 

Mahdi Hemmat, some of whose Lego rap videos have gone viral during the US‑Israeli war on Iran, said that Washington’s “old ‘believe what we say’ approach no longer works,” because “reality is streaming live, and whether anyone likes it or not, the president can’t control it anymore.” 

Hemmat is one of several artists that have been creating Lego‑style videos, the most well-known of which is the Explosive Media Group, following the outbreak of the US‑Israeli war on Iran.

The clips, generated with the help of AI and part of Iran’s information warfare campaign, have garnered millions of views on social media, depicting various incidents and details of the war, often set to rap music. Some have described the phenomenon as “defensive memetic warfare” and “internet diplomacy.” 

“Iran’s strategy is brilliant,” Hemmat said, describing the country’s overall approach to countering US-Israeli aggression. He explained that Tehran uses the same asymmetric principle online as on the battlefield, noting that “low cost, high impact content forces billion‑dollar media empires to play defense. Iran controls the terms of engagement online, just like it does on the ground.”  

Check out the full interview with Hemmat below.

Russian rhythmic gymnasts competing under a neutral flag have won four medals at the FIG World Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Maria Borisova led with gold in the individual all-around – topping reigning Russian-born German Olympic champion Darya Varfolomeeva – and silver in the hoop, in the team’s first World Cup outing.

The finals were held on Sunday as part of the second stage of the 2026 FIG World Cup series. All seven Russian competitors train at the Sky Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy, founded in Sochi in 2022 by 2004 Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva, and all were making their World Cup debuts.

Coached by Irina Gusarova, the 18-year-old Borisova finished ahead of Varfolomeeva and Uzbekistan’s Takhmina Ikromova in the all-around, then claimed silver in the hoop behind Ikromova.

The group of five – coached by Anna Ustsova – won silver in the five-balls final and bronze in the three-hoops-and-two-pairs-of-clubs, bringing the total to one gold, two silvers, and one bronze.

Kabaeva remained in direct contact with the gymnasts throughout the competition.

Russian forces only have a few kilometers left before Donbass has been liberated, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday, Peskov was asked to comment on a recent statement by US Vice President J.D. Vance, who said the Ukraine conflict has fundamentally “stopped making sense,” and that the sides are “haggling at this point over a few square kilometers of territory.”

Peskov confirmed that the territorial issue is now down to “ just a few kilometers, roughly speaking.” He stated that Russia still needs to liberate around “18-17% of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)” in order to reach the region’s borders. 

Once the army reaches the borders of Russia’s new regions, he said, “a complex, painstaking, and not fast negotiation process” will begin, in which the details of a settlement with Ukraine will have to be determined.

Peskov’s remarks came after the Russia Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it has established control over the village of Dibrova in the DPR and the village of Miropolskoye in Sumy Region.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Moscow issued a two-month deadline for Ukrainian troops to retreat. The Kremlin rejected the claim, stressing that Zelensky should have issued the withdrawal order long ago, which could have “saved the lives of thousands of people and stopped the hot phase of this war.”

Trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the US have been on hold due to the Iran war, with Peskov describing the pause as “situational.” 

Zelensky has rejected any territorial concessions, calling a withdrawal from Donbass a threat to European security. 

Moscow insists that a lasting peace must include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and recognition of the regions that voted to join Russia.

The United Kingdom has halted a plan to hand over the Chagos Islands, an Indian Ocean archipelago, to Mauritius.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed an agreement last year transferring sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius. However, the deal allowed Washington and London to retain control of the joint military base on Diego Garcia Island for an initial period of 99 years.

US President Donald Trump said in February that the plan to hand over the archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of the joint US-UK military base of Diego Garcia through a lease, was a “big mistake.” 

On Sunday, the UK said it continued to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but added the condition of US support.

“Diego Garcia is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US,” a UK government spokesperson said. 

“We have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support. We are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius,” the spokesperson added.

The development also comes amid opposition to the planned move in the UK from the Conservatives and Reform Party.

Mauritius has said it will hold talks with UK officials on April 22 to discuss the issue, Bloomberg reported.

In 1965, the UK promised to withdraw from Mauritius, but it removed the Chagos Archipelago from the jurisdiction of Mauritius, paying the latter £3 million in compensation.

In 1966, despite the UN’s objections to British control over the archipelago, the UK leased Diego Garcia to the US for 50 years in exchange for a $14 million discount on the purchase of Polaris ballistic missile submarines. 

The joint US-UK military base, equipped with a runway, is used for positioning navy ships and long-range bombers. 

In March, the Maldives told the UK that it does not recognize the deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. It has now welcomed the decision to pause the handover of the Chagos Archipelago.

The Maldives says it has historical claims to the archipelago.

Ukrainian forces violated a 32-hour Easter ceasefire more than 6,500 times over the weekend, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the unilateral pause last week. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signaled that Kiev would also observe the truce, and called on Moscow to extend it beyond the holiday period.

According to the Russian military, combat activity decreased significantly on Saturday and Sunday but did not fully stop. The ministry said most of the 6,558 reported violations involved short-range unmanned aerial vehicles. It listed 4,685 strikes by first-person-view (FPV) drones and 749 munitions dropped from drones. Ukrainian forces also reportedly conducted 694 artillery and tank attacks on Russian positions.

Russian air defenses reportedly intercepted 33 long-range drones, including 11 over the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

Moscow has declared temporary ceasefires during previous Orthodox holidays, including Christmas 2023 and Easter 2025. According to the Russian military, the previous Easter truce saw more than 3,900 violations by Ukraine.

Russian officials have rejected calls from Kiev for longer ceasefires, citing a lack of trust. They argue that Ukraine intends to use extended pauses to regroup and reinforce its forces with Western support rather than pursue genuine peace negotiations.

Moscow has also said that Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donetsk People’s Republic would be viewed as a meaningful step toward a resolution and a basis for a longer ceasefire, but Zelensky has refused to order a withdrawal.

US President Donald Trump has shared an AI-generated image of himself as a robed, Christ-like figure healing a bedridden man, flanked by eagles, fighter jets, and US service members, with the Statue of Liberty and the US flag in the background. The post triggered backlash, with some users suggesting the figure being healed resembled the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The image was posted on Truth Social on Sunday after Trump’s broadside at Pope Leo XIV, calling the Chicago-born pontiff “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”

In the picture, Trump – while lacking a halo – is seen wearing red and white drapes, colors symbolizing bloodshed and Christ’s sacrifice for humanity, as well as his absolute purity.

Trump deleted the post on Monday after it sparked widespread public backlash. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, the president admitted he personally posted the image on his feed, but blamed its divine interpretation on the “fake news” media. 

“I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor. And it had to do with the Red Cross, and a Red Cross worker there, which we support. Only the fake news could come up with that one,” Trump claimed.

The Pope previously criticized the US-Israeli attack against Iran and described Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable,” saying it amounts to “a threat against the entire people.”

The US president – who has described himself as a nondenominational Christian – also noted that “we don’t like a pope that’s going to say that it’s OK to have a nuclear weapon,” adding that he is “not a fan of Pope Leo.”

pic.twitter.com/GflRnfJESS

— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) April 13, 2026

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly was quick to condemn the remarks. “As a Catholic, I find it abhorrent that the President of the United States would publicly attack the Successor of St. Peter”, Kelly wrote on X. “Donald Trump is flailing. His war in Iran has led to the death and injury of American servicemembers and the death of Iranian children.”

The public backlash to Christ-like imagery proved to be even sharper. Former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Trump ally said the president’s post was “more than blasphemy,” calling it “an Antichrist spirit.”

Pakistan has sent troops and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to boost security, the Gulf nation has said.

Pakistani military personnel and fighter jets arrived at King Abdulaziz Air Base on Saturday, the Saudi Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The deployment is aimed at boosting military coordination, improving operational readiness, and supporting security and stability on the regional and international levels, the ministry added.

The move comes as part of a defense cooperation agreement signed between the two nations last September.

As per the pact between the two nations, any attack on one country would be considered an attack on the other.

The aircraft were sent after Iranian strikes hit energy infrastructure and killed a Saudi national, according to a Reuters report.

Iran welcomed the defense agreement between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan last year.

Pakistan condemned the Iranian missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia’s energy facilities last week and described the attacks as “a dangerous escalation” that undermines regional peace and stability.

Islamabad is expected to receive around $5 billion in financial aid from Riyadh and Doha ahead of major debt repayment commitments, according to reports.

Pakistan is preparing to clear a $3.5 billion repayment to the United Arab Emirates by April 23.

Islamabad has sought assistance from Riyadh, including expansion of existing cash deposits and an extension of an oil financing facility set to expire later this month, reports said.

African countries marked Orthodox Easter this weekend, with celebrations taking place in Tanzania, the Central African Republic, Mali, Madagascar, South Africa, Benin, Cameroon, and Kenya.

The events combined religious services with cultural activities, highlighting the spread of Orthodox traditions across the continent.

In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, students took part in an Easter workshop in which they learned egg-painting techniques, as well as the history and symbolism of the holiday.

“It would seem a simple task, but it hides a whole world of traditions, symbols, and a warm holiday atmosphere,” the Russian House in Dar es Salaam said. The gathering reportedly sparked active discussions, with participants comparing local customs to Russian traditions.

In the Central African Republic, Russian Embassy staff attended a service at the Russian House in Bangui. “The solemn Easter service concluded with the traditional blessing of Easter cakes and painted eggs, which were shared in a warm atmosphere,” the Russian Embassy in the Central African Republic said on Sunday.

In Bamako, Mali, priest Vyacheslav Perkov conducted services at the Russian Embassy, after which people brought Easter dishes, including ostrich eggs, to be blessed.

Elsewhere, Orthodox believers gathered for night services on Saturday in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo. In South Africa, Benin, and Cameroon, clergy led festive liturgies attended by local congregations. Services were also held in Kenya.

Speaking to TASS on Thursday, the dean of the Eastern Church District of Uganda, Hieromonk Silouan (Brown), noted that African Christians often adhere to the Easter traditions of the ‘Old World’, of countries “such as Russia or Greece, in contrast to the Nativity of Christ, which has begun to acquire its own unique African flavor.” 

Orthodox Easter is celebrated on a date calculated according to the Julian calendar and usually comes later than Western Easter, often in April. The holiday is preceded by a period of fasting and culminates in night liturgies and processions.

An Israeli general linked to a controversy over the use of a teenager in an online influence campaign has been appointed as the next director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, currently serving as his military secretary, will take over as the country’s top spy chief. Netanyahu described Gofman as a “bold and creative” commander capable of unconventional thinking.

Gofman, a career officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is widely seen as a close ally of Netanyahu. However, his nomination drew criticism in Israeli media, with some questioning his qualification for the role. First proposed in December, his candidacy underwent a lengthy review by the Senior Appointments Advisory Committee following concerns about his conduct.

The committee ultimately gave its approval last week, with three junior members outvoting the chairman, former Supreme Court president Asher Gruni, who opposed the decision.

Elmakayes criticized the committee’s findings, calling them “ridiculous” and arguing that a key witness was not interviewed. Writing on X, he warned that “whoever abandoned a 17-year-old boy – will abandon Mossad agents too.”

The committee concluded that Gofman was unaware of Elmakayes’ age at the time and did not know about his arrest until it became public. Gruni disputed those conclusions, expressing doubt and arguing that even if true, they pointed to failures in leadership.

The committee also noted that some documents related to the case were heavily redacted. Gruni added that his actual dissenting opinion could not be made public due to security restrictions, with only brief remarks included in the report.

Last month, the New York Times reported that Barnea had presented plans to US and Israeli leadership aimed at inciting a public uprising in Iran to coincide with the two nations’ ongoing bombing campaign, but Mossad did not ultimately succeed.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the opening of the Aswan High Dam – one of the most ambitious engineering projects of the 20th century. On January 15, 1971, former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat pressed a button and the powerful turbines started generating electricity, altering both the course of the Nile and the fate of an entire nation.

This monumental dam, located near the city of Aswan, became a symbol of technological advancement and the close partnership between Egypt and the Soviet Union, which played a crucial role in its construction.

“Forged by many years of joint labor, the Arab-Soviet friendship has become as strong as the Aswan High Dam,” the inscription on the Lotus Monument in Aswan reads. These words were spoken by former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who initiated the project but passed away just months before its completion, dying of a heart attack on September 28, 1970.

Construction of the dam lasted around ten years, and required the efforts of hundreds of thousands of workers and engineers. Its total cost exceeded $1 billion – a staggering amount for that era. The dam not only prevented the flooding of the Nile but also laid the groundwork for Egypt’s industrialization by providing energy to factories, cities, and irrigation systems.

The economic impact

The Aswan High Dam is a 3.6-kilometer-long rock-fill structure that rises 111 meters high and spans 980 meters at its base. Lake Nasser, created by the dam, is the largest artificial reservoir in the world, with a gross capacity of 169 billion cubic meters of water.

With a total installed capacity of 2.1 gigawatts, the dam generates around 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. When it first became operational, it met nearly half of the country’s electricity needs; however, today its contribution to the national energy balance has decreased due to population growth, rising demand, and the construction of new power plants.

Nevertheless, the dam’s functions extend beyond energy production: It regulates the Nile’s waters to prevent destructive flooding and manages irrigation, increasing arable land by 30%.

Interestingly, the Aswan Dam was built twice, with over five decades separating the two large-scale projects. The original dam was built by the British from 1899 to 1902. It was relatively low and underwent two expansions to increase its reservoir capacity.

However, these measures did not fully address the need for better control of the Nile’s water levels, leading to discussions in the mid-20th century about the necessity of building a new dam 6 km upstream. The Soviet hydrotechnical design institute Hydroproject was tasked with the design. Construction began in 1960 and was completed in 1970, with significant assistance from the Soviet Union.

The dam’s economic impact was immense. In the 1960s, Egypt grappled with poverty and energy shortages, and per capita GDP was less than $200. However, after the Aswan Dam became operational, this figure began to rise steadily.

The dam spurred industrial growth, significantly boosting production in textile factories in El Mahalla El Kubra, at the Iron and Steel Factory in Helwan, and at various chemical plants across the country. By 1975, industrial output doubled and unemployment dropped.

The project had its downsides, however. The construction led to the displacement of 100,000 to 120,000 Nubians and prompted extensive rescue operations overseen by UNESCO at submerged archaeological sites like Abu Simbel. Additionally, the retention of nutrient-rich silt in Lake Nasser reduced fertility in the Nile Delta and increased reliance on artificial fertilizers.

The Suez Crisis and Moscow

The construction of the Aswan Dam was the high point of Soviet-Egyptian cooperation, which dated back to the Suez Crisis of 1956. Initially, funding for the project was promised by the US, UK, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. However, due to Egypt’s alignment with the USSR, arms purchases from the Soviet Union (via Czechoslovakia), and recognition of the People’s Republic of China, Western nations withdrew their offers in the summer of 1956.

In response, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal on July 26, 1956, intending to use the canal’s revenues to finance the dam’s construction. This move provoked an invasion of Egypt by British, French, and Israeli forces.

In 1958, the USSR and Egypt signed a contract in which Moscow provided Cairo with a loan of 113 million Egyptian pounds (400 million rubles), along with machinery, raw materials, and technical expertise. A portion of this debt was later forgiven.

Soviet engineers designed the dam, supplied 12 175-megawatt turbines, and trained Egyptian specialists. On January 9, 1960, Nasser ceremonially inaugurated the construction by detonating 10 tons of dynamite to breach an earthen barrier. Building the dam was an arduous task that took over a decade.

By 1970, thousands of Soviet workers and around 30,000 Egyptians worked on the dam.

The USSR provided much more than just engineering support; it transferred technology that enabled Egypt to develop its hydropower sector and heavy industry.

Khrushchev: The first soviet leader in Africa

Nikita Khrushchev holds a special place in the history of Soviet-Egyptian relations. In 1964, he made his first visit to Egypt, becoming the first Soviet leader to set foot on African soil. He took part in the ceremonial opening of the first phase of the Aswan Dam.

His visit was accompanied by military parades and impassioned speeches celebrating friendship and solidarity between Egypt and the USSR. In his speeches, Khrushchev highlighted the anti-imperialist nature of the project, condemned “imperialist powers and their agents,” and reaffirmed the USSR’s commitment to strengthening ties with Arab nations.

During the visit, with his characteristic pomp, Khrushchev awarded Abdel Nasser the title Hero of the Soviet Union, presenting him with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

Soviet assistance to Egypt extended well beyond Aswan, however. In the 1950s-1970s, the USSR invested heavily in Egypt’s industrialization, agricultural development, and infrastructure projects, helping establish over 100 industrial facilities, including textile mills and the Iron and Steel Factory in Helwan.

Khrushchev also provided substantial military aid to Egypt. Reports indicate that from 1955 to 1966, the Soviet Union supplied Egypt with military equipment worth $1.16 billion, including several Antonov military transports, Tu-16 jet bombers, and Su-7 fighter bombers. By 1970, 80% of the Egyptian Army was armed with Soviet weapons.

Sadat’s shift in policy

Cooperation between Egypt and the USSR peaked in the 1960s. But following Nasser’s sudden death in 1970, Anwar El-Sadat, who succeeded him as president, shifted Egypt’s foreign policy course towards the West. Believing that Soviet assistance was insufficient to confront Israel, the new president sought closer ties with the US, viewing it as a more powerful ally. He halted all military supplies from the USSR and expelled Soviet military advisers in 1972.

The unfavorable outcome of the Yom Kippur War (which ignited between a coalition of Arab states and Israel in October 1973) forced Sadat to further align with the US and, unexpectedly for the Arab world, initiate peace talks with Israel, culminating in the Camp David Accords of 1978-1979. In 1976, Sadat unilaterally annulled the friendship treaty with the USSR signed in 1971.

Soviet legacy and current relations

Despite this shift, the Soviet legacy in Egypt has endured. In the 1980s, the USSR continued to supply spare parts for the Aswan Dam, and in the post-Soviet era, Russia reestablished itself as Egypt’s partner. Today, numerous agreements exist between the two countries, particularly regarding Russian investment in the Egyptian economy, as both Moscow and Cairo now characterize their partnership as 'strategic'.

In 2003, Egypt signed a contract with a Russian-German consortium for the renovation of 12 generators of the Aswan Hydroelectric Power Plant. Russia’s participation in the project, which significantly boosted the plant’s capacity, accounted for around 60%.

In the course of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Egypt in 2017, a historic agreement was signed for the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant, the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant. It is currently being built by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation, ROSATOM, in collaboration with Egyptian partners.

The plant is being built in El Dabaa, Matrouh Governorate on the Mediterranean coast around 300 km northwest of Cairo. The 4,800 MW plant is set to become operational in 2028, with all four reactor units expected to be fully operational by 2030.

At the beginning of 2025, a project was approved to create a 50-hectare Russian industrial zone near Ain Sokhna on the Suez Canal. It will offer Russian manufacturers direct access to African and Middle Eastern markets. This project is expected to be fully operational by 2031.

Moreover, Russian long-distance trains, recognizable by their distinctive white exterior with red and black stripes, can now be spotted throughout Egypt. The delivery of 1,300 passenger cars started in 2020 as part of an agreement involving Egypt, Russia, and Hungary, totaling over €1 billion.

In October 2018, Russia and Egypt signed an Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation in Sochi. The document was signed by Vladimir Putin and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and later ratified by both countries’ parliaments. This agreement encompasses cooperation across the political, economic, military-technical, scientific, cultural, and energy sectors.

Bilateral trade continues to thrive. In 2025, trade turnover between Russia and Egypt set a new record, surpassing $10.5 billion. Egypt has become a key trading partner for Russia in Africa. Russia primarily exports grain, machinery, and fertilizers, while Egypt supplies food products.

The Aswan Dam today

Today, the Aswan Dam stands as a living reminder of the Soviet-Egyptian alliance. It plays a crucial role in Egypt’s economy, aids in the regulation of the river flow, boosts Egypt’s water resources, protects against frequent droughts, and enhances agricultural productivity. In light of modern challenges, including population growth projected to reach 120 million and climate change, Egypt plans to build additional dams on the Nile, yet Aswan remains the most important.

The Aswan High Dam transformed Egypt from an agrarian society into a regional industrial hub. By 2050, Egypt aims to establish itself as a leading industrial power in the region, focusing on export-driven growth, ecological innovation, and digital transformation.

The authorities are striving to ensure an annual economic growth rate of over 6% and create over 2 million jobs each year. The Soviet Union’s contribution to Egypt’s economy in the 1960s wasn’t just about concrete and turbines, it was also about human resources: Thousands of Egyptian engineers were educated in the USSR, and many of them became prominent professionals across various sectors.

“Egypt is the gift of the Nile,” the ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote. And the Aswan Dam empowered Egypt to take ownership of this gift. Once dependent on unpredictable annual floods, the country finally gained control over its water resources.

55 years later, the Aswan Dam stands as a symbol of an era when, together, the USSR and Egypt challenged the colonial past. From Khrushchev’s visits to today’s contracts, this is a partnership that has stood the test of time.

Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh has won reelection, according to provisional results, securing a sixth term and extending his nearly three-decade rule over the small East African nation.

Guelleh, 78, won 97.81% of the vote in Friday’s election, Interior Minister Said Nouh Hassan announced on Saturday. His sole challenger, Mohamed Farah Samatar, a former ruling party member representing a small opposition party with no seats in parliament, received 2.19%. Turnout was just over 80%.

“These provisional results will be transmitted to the Constitutional Council for verification and official proclamation in accordance with the current electoral law,” Hassan said.

The outcome was widely expected to deliver another landslide victory for Guelleh, who has been in power since 1999 after succeeding his uncle, former President Hassan Gouled Aptidon. He also won the 2021 presidential election with more than 97% of the vote.

The April 10 election came months after Djibouti’s parliament removed the presidential age limit of 75, allowing Guelleh to run again.

Djibouti’s government has repeatedly rejected the allegations, saying elections are conducted in line with the law.

Guelleh’s administration has been credited with investing in port infrastructure, helping turn Djibouti into a key gateway for landlocked Ethiopia. The country, located on the Gulf of Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea, also hosts military bases for the US, China, France, Japan, and others.

Djibouti’s economy relies heavily on port services, while revenue from foreign military bases is also a key source of state income, according to the IMF and World Bank.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has accused WhatsApp of misleading users about privacy, arguing that Telegram offers stronger protection for sensitive content.

The Russian tech entrepreneur has repeatedly criticized Meta-owned WhatsApp’s security model, dismissing claims that the app cannot access user communications.

In a series of posts on Sunday, Durov described WhatsApp’s claim of “end-to-end encryption by default” as “a giant consumer fraud,” alleging that most private messages ultimately end up stored in plain-text cloud backups on Apple and Google servers.

”Add the fact that WhatsApp stores and discloses who you chat with, and the picture is dire,” he wrote, further claiming that Apple and Google provide backed-up data from the service to third parties “thousands of times per year.”

In response to a user who said he only shares intimate images via Telegram, Durov replied: “Thanks for the trust – your nudes are safe with us.”

Telegram, however, does not use end-to-end encryption by default. According to the company’s own documentation, only its ‘Secret Chats’ feature offers full end-to-end protection, while regular messages are stored in its cloud. Critics have identified cloud backups as a weak point in messaging privacy, as data stored outside encrypted channels may be accessible under legal requests or breaches.

Meta has long maintained that messages are protected with end-to-end encryption and cannot be accessed by the company. It also offers optional end-to-end encrypted backups for users who enable the feature.

In January, a major class-action lawsuit filed against Meta Platforms in a US district court by an international group of plaintiffs from several countries accused the company of making false claims about the privacy of its WhatsApp service.

Durov has long criticized the platform as a “tool of surveillance,” urging users to avoid it entirely, particularly after its 2014 acquisition by Meta, then known as Facebook. In 2022, he warned that vulnerabilities regularly discovered in the app were not accidental but likely backdoors.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone rejected the allegations, saying any claim that WhatsApp messages are not encrypted is “categorically false and absurd,” and described the lawsuit as “a frivolous work of fiction.”

The pro-EU Tisza party’s victory over Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Hungarian election means that the country has essentially been taken over by the Soros network, Elon Musk has said.

In a post on X on Monday, Musk lashed out at Alexander Soros – the son of Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros and chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) – who celebrated Orban’s fall as “a resounding rejection of entrenched corruption and foreign interference.”

“Soros Organization has taken over Hungary,” the SpaceX and Tesla owner said. In a separate post, Musk responded to a post by an X user who listed figures who cheered the result – among them, former US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, and various EU officials – and wrote: “This should tell you everything.” Musk replied with a “100%” emoji.

Though conservative in profile, Tisza has pledged to dismantle core pillars of Orban’s policies – drawing once again closer to the EU and NATO.

Orban – who will see his 16-year tenure as prime minister come to an end – has long clashed with Budapest-born Soros, accusing him of fomenting ‘woke’ ideologies, “liberal internationalism,” and an intention to turn native Europeans into a minority through an “invasion of immigrants.”

Hungary received nearly double the OSF’s average of $19 million per country across Europe and the post-Soviet region, with at least 153 organizations benefiting from Soros’s financial support, according to the report.

The OSF was essentially forced to leave Hungary in 2018 after Orban passed the so-called ‘Stop Soros’ anti-migration legislation. Critics have argued that despite the move, the OSF continues to influence Hungary’s domestic political scene through alternative routes.

US President Donald Trump has hit back at Pope Leo XIV, calling him “weak” and suggesting he should be “grateful” for becoming head of the Catholic Church, after the pontiff publicly criticised his policies.

The clash comes as Pope Leo has emerged as a vocal critic of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, launched in late February. He described Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable,” warning it amounted to “a threat against an entire people.”

The pontiff has also broadened his criticism to domestic US policy, calling for “deep reflection” on the treatment of migrants.

Trump responded in a post on Truth Social on Sunday night, accusing the Pope of being “WEAK on CRIME, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” and saying he would prefer his “all MAGA” brother Louis Prevost, who is US-based and known for his pro-Trump views.

“Don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History,” Trump wrote.

Later on Sunday, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump repeated his criticism, calling the Pope “a liberal person” who does not believe in “stopping crime,” adding: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job... I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo.”

The Pope has intensified his calls for peace and a return to diplomacy. He pushed back against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who urged Americans to pray for victory “in the name of Jesus Christ,” saying God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

On Friday, Leo wrote on X that “God does not bless any conflict” and that “no cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.” He repeated the appeal a day later at a Vatican vigil, calling for prayers to “break the demonic cycle of evil.”

India and Uzbekistan have kicked off the seventh edition of their annual joint military exercises. Launched in 2019, the exercise is held alternately in India and Uzbekistan each year.

This year’s drills, titled ‘Dustlik 2026’, started on Sunday at the Gurumsaray Field Training Area in Namangan, Uzbekistan.

The focus of the exercises is to enhance preparedness for the planning and execution of joint special operations and counter-terrorism coordination against unlawful armed groups, the Indian Army said in a statement.

The Indian contingent comprises 60 personnel, including 45 from a battalion of the Mahar Regiment, and 15 from the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The Uzbek contingent is also drawn from its army and air force personnel.

‘Dustlik 2026’: 🇮🇳🤝🇺🇿 India-Uzbekistan Joint Military Drills Set For Namangan, Uzbekistan

Scheduled from April 12 to 25 at the Gurumsaray Field Training Area, the 7th edition will focus on joint special operations and counter-terror coordination against unlawful armed groups.… pic.twitter.com/l19VytbMga

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 12, 2026

The Indian personnel are also expected to familiarize themselves with the operational procedures and drills of the Uzbekistan Armed Forces.

A 48-hour validation phase to test joint tactical drills is also on the agenda.

The previous edition of the annual joint military exercises was held in April 2025 at the Foreign Training Node in Pune.

India, which has a wide-ranging cooperation with Uzbekistan, established a joint working group on defense with the Central Asian nation in 2019.

Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar has pulled off a stunning victory in the country’s parliamentary election, with his Tisza party beating Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz by more than 16 points. The result is set to dramatically change Hungary’s relations with the EU, Russia, and Ukraine.

Just over an hour after polls closed on Sunday, Orban called Magyar to congratulate him on his win.

With 92% of the ballots counted on Sunday night, Tisza was leading with 53.72% of the vote, ahead of Fidesz with 37.67% – a result in line with opposition-friendly pre-election polls.

Magyar campaigned on ending corruption, funding public services, and restoring ties with the EU. Orban promised to continue his program of tax breaks for citizens and levies on corporations, all while pledging to keep Hungary out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. His campaign cast Magyar as a tool of the EU, who would cut off Hungary’s access to cheap Russian energy and back Brussels’ escalatory policies toward Moscow.

“What the result means for the fate of our country and the nation, and what its deeper or higher meaning is, we do not know now, time will decide,” Orban told supporters in Budapest. “No matter how it turns out, we, as opposition, will serve our country and the Hungarian nation.”

Will Hungary maintain close relations with Russia?

This is highly unlikely. Magyar’s allies in the opposition media collaborated with EU spies to run stories of supposed Russian interference in the election, and Magyar led crowds in chants of “Russians, go home!” But he also said he will have to interact with Moscow, because “the geographical position of neither Russia nor Hungary will change.”

Rhetoric aside, Magyar is unlikely to embrace a policy of open hostility toward Moscow, but his desire to mend ties with the EU will in all likelihood result in Budapest dropping its opposition to the bloc’s €90 billion ($105 billion) loan package for Ukraine – a decision that will be poorly received in Russia.

Will Hungary get the cold shoulder from the US?

Viktor Orban is a close ideological ally of US President Donald Trump, who dispatched Vice President J.D. Vance to Budapest to campaign for his reelection, and promised to use the “full economic might of the United States to strengthen Hungary’s economy” if Orban won. 

Will Magyar open Hungary to more immigrants?

Highly unlikely. Orban’s hardline immigration policies are exceedingly popular in Hungary, and Magyar has attacked the prime minister on immigration from the right, criticizing his decision to allow 35,000 guest workers into Hungary from outside the EU. It remains to be seen whether Brussels will pressure Magyar into accepting asylum seekers, and whether the liberal Western media criticizes him as intensely on the issue as it did to Orban.

How quickly can the EU release billions of euros it withheld from Hungary?

The EU is currently withholding around €20 billion in funding from Hungary, citing concerns over judicial independence, corruption, and Orban’s ban on LGBTQ propaganda.

Magyar is on track to win the two-thirds majority necessary to modify Hungary’s constitution and implement the judicial reforms demanded by Brussels, but the EU will ultimately decide if and when to release the money. Additionally, Magyar has stayed quiet on LGBTQ issues, and any attempts to liberalize Hungary to meet the EU’s demands may prove unpopular with Hungarians.

For Magyar, accessing this money is crucial. His program of spending on healthcare, education, and other public services depends entirely on the release of the funds.

Will Hungary be able to cancel its contracts for Russian oil?

Russia supplies almost 90% of Hungary’s oil and slightly more of its gas, and provides nuclear fuel for the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. The EU has mandated that its member states completely cut themselves off from Russian energy by the end of next year, but Hungary’s contracts with Russia extend to 2035.

Will the EU now be able to steal Russia’s frozen assets?

No. Despite Orban being portrayed in the media as the sole obstacle between the EU and its plans for Ukraine, the decision on whether to steal the roughly €210 billion in Russian assets frozen in the EU is an unpopular one. Leaders including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Slovakia’s Robert Fico, and the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babis all oppose the measure, as does Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose country the assets are impounded in.

As such, the EU is banking on its €90 billion debt-financed loan to keep Ukraine afloat. With Orban out of the picture, Brussels will likely be able to secure unanimous support for the loan, unless Fico or Babis object.

The US naval blockade of Iranian ports has come into force, heightening fears over security and trade routes in the region and adding to market jitters after US‑Iran talks in Pakistan on Saturday ended without a deal. US Central Command has said that the measures apply to vessels calling at Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

US President Donald Trump has launched a verbal attack on Pope Leo XIV, an outspoken critic of the war on Iran, calling the American-born pontiff “weak.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump – who initially hailed Leo’s election as a “great honor” – said the Pope is “terrible for Foreign Policy,” with the US leader adding that he does not “want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States.” Speaking later aboard Air Force One, Trump doubled down, calling Leo “a liberal person” and saying: “I don’t think he’s doing a very good job... I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo.”

The remarks came after the pontiff intensified calls for peace and diplomacy in the Middle East. On Friday, Leo wrote that “God does not bless any conflict” and “no cause can justify the shedding of innocent blood.”

On Monday, the Pope reiterated his stance, saying he “will continue to speak out loudly against war.”

The clash comes as Trump refused to rule out resuming “limited” strikes on Iran after ordering a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The move followed the collapse of 21-hour US-Iran talks in Pakistan at the weekend, which Tehran said broke down over “excessive” and “unreasonable” US demands. The US Department of War said enforcement of the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports will begin at 10:00 AM ET (14:00 GMT) on April 13.

The announcement sent global oil prices back above $100 and prompted Iran to warn any hostile activity in the strait would be met with force, declaring no port in the Persian Gulf or the Sea of Oman would remain secure if its own ports are targeted.

• Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Trump’s planned Hormuz blockade “makes no sense,” calling it part of a “downward spiral.”

• China warned the blockade threatens global trade, stressing the strait must remain “safe, stable, and unimpeded.”

• The UK said it will not join the blockade, adding Hormuz “must not be subject to tolling.”

• Iran said it is weighing tolls on all vessels transiting Hormuz, not just oil shipments.

• More than 32 million people could be pushed into poverty by the war’s fallout, the UN Development Program warned.

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

Scientific knowledge should go hand-in-hand with religious faith for humankind to avoid a potential catastrophe, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has said while speaking to the Russian cosmonauts working at the International Space Station (ISS).

The Patriarch delivered his address to the cosmonauts via video link on Sunday as Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter. This year, one of the most revered Orthodox holidays coincides with Cosmonautics Day, which marks the anniversary of the first crewed space flight made by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

Speaking to the cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikayev, and Andrey Fedyaev, the Patriarch spoke about the importance of maintaining a balance between scientific and technical advances and religious faith, arguing the latter is key to keeping the potentially dangerous progress at bay.  

“This is possible, since faith in God strengthens a person’s understanding of their own limitations. This is crucial – the recognition of what you can do and what you cannot. And another important point: faith in God affirms the need to strengthen and develop a moral sense within a person,” he added. “Where there is a moral sense, there is conscience. And without conscience, a person cannot live. And the planet will not be able to live – everything will simply be destroyed.”

Israel has condemned Spain after a fireworks-filled effigy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was blown up during an Easter festival in the southern town of El Burgo.

The long-strained ties between Madrid and West Jerusalem have deteriorated even further in light of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, with Spain emerging as one of the most vocal Western critics of the aggression.

Last month, Spain permanently withdrew its ambassador from Israel, formally downgrading the level of diplomatic relations with the country.

This week, West Jerusalem kicked Madrid out of a US-backed coordination center in Kiryat Gat that oversees the Gaza ceasefire, calling it retaliation for opposing Israel and “defaming” its military.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called out Spain over the El Burgo festival on Saturday, branding the display an “appalling anti-Semitic hatred” and accusing Madrid of “systemic incitement.” The Spanish chargé d’affaires was summoned over the incident, it added.

Footage from El Burgo, taken during Easter Sunday festivities, shows the massive effigy of the Israeli prime minister going up in flames. The seven-meter (23-foot) figure was packed with 14 kilograms (31 lb) of fireworks that exploded to cheers from a crowd of onlookers.

The appalling antisemitic hatred on display here is a direct result of @sanchezcastejon government’s systemic incitement.
And even now, the Spanish government remains silent.
The Spanish chargé d’affaires was summoned for a reprimand. pic.twitter.com/2Bguhs7Ce8

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) April 11, 2026

El Burgo’s mayor, Maria Dolores Narvaez, defended the act, pointing out that it was a part of a decades-old local “Burning of Judas” tradition that previously never caused any issues. Speaking to a local television station, she said that foreign leaders’ effigies had on numerous occasions been featured during the festivities.  

Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Kirill Budanov has acknowledged that mobilization has created what he called a “huge” problem in Ukrainian society, exposing an increasing gap between Kiev’s calls to “fight until victory” and widespread draft evasion.

The Ukrainian military faces a severe manpower crisis driven by battlefield losses, draft evasion, and desertion. With few volunteers, Kiev increasingly relies on mandatory conscription – a highly divisive policy. Recruitment officers are often accused of heavy-handed tactics, and videos of so-called ‘busification’ – the forced detention of military-age men – circulate widely.

In an interview with Ukrinform earlier this week, Budanov conceded that society is split, though he stopped short of linking the divide to growing backlash over coercive mobilization.

“There are real problems... in our society. Because on the one hand, everyone says we need to fight until victory – and on the other, everyone is running away from mobilization. It's a huge, huge problem,” he said, acknowledging a contradiction in which both frontline troops and draft dodgers are lauded as “heroes.”

Tens of thousands of draft-age men have been caught attempting to flee since 2022, Ukrainian border authorities reported, with dozens dying while trying to cross dangerous routes such as into neighboring Romania, a top destination for draft evaders. Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov recently revealed that around two million potential recruits are wanted for draft evasion, while some 200,000 troops have deserted.

Public backlash against mobilization has been mounting with videos showing civilians intervening in forced conscription. Earlier this month, three enforcement officers were stabbed, one fatally, while performing their duties.

A March survey cited by Slovo i Delo found roughly that 40% of Ukrainians would refuse military service, while only 16% said they would willingly serve.

In mid-2025, Gallup reported that 69% of Ukrainians favored a negotiated end to the conflict, a massive swing from 2022, when 73% were in favor of fighting until victory.

Polish Defense Minister Władyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz suggested that draft-age Ukrainians should return home, while Estonian Interior Minister Lauris Laanemets even offered to track down and extradite Ukrainian draft dodgers.

China has unveiled a set of new economic incentive measures for Taiwan, offering to resume some ties with the island. The announcement comes after a visit by the head of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), to Beijing.

Taiwan has been a de-facto self-governing territory since 1949, when Chinese nationalist forces fled there after losing the civil war. Beijing regards the island as an integral part of its territory under the One China policy, which is backed by the overwhelming majority of the UN member states.

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office unveiled the ten-point economic incentive package to the island on Sunday, which includes fast-tracking a full resumption of regular direct flights across the Taiwan Strait and facilitating access for Taiwanese food products to the Chinese market. The plan also envisions sharing energy and water supply with Matsu and Kinmen, Taiwanese-governed islands that are geographically closer to the mainland, as well as working on constructing a bridge to them.

Cheng said she was “very thankful” to China’s leadership for the proposed preferential measures. “As I said during the Cheng-Xi meeting, things must be done one by one,” she stated.

Taiwan’s authorities, however, openly signaled their mistrust towards Beijing and expressed displeasure at getting sidelined by the KMT. Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo said that “any exchanges should not be subject to political preconditions, nor should they be used as tools for political maneuvering or deals by specific parties.” 

The MAC urged caution over Beijing’s latest announcement, stating that similar measures had been repeatedly rolled out and suspended by China in the past. “The same pattern is now being repeated, without any institutional safeguards for Taiwan’s industries, farmers, fishers or the rights and interests of the public, making the measures highly risky,” it said in a statement.

The US-Iran talks in Islamabad ended exactly as they were bound to end under the current balance of power – without a deal, without a handshake, without even the faintest sense that the two sides have moved closer to a durable peace.

Nearly 21 hours of talks, an unprecedented level of representation, extraordinary security measures in the Pakistani capital, the high hopes of mediators, and the jitters of global markets changed none of the essentials. What now lies between Washington and Tehran is no longer mere political distrust, but an entire layer of military memory, and that layer proved stronger than diplomatic protocol. It would have been a surprise if the talks turned out any different.

Talks about the past, not the future

From the outside, the talks looked historic. They marked the highest-level direct US-Iran contact in decades. The American delegation was led by Vice President J.D. Vance and included Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Iran was represented by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Pakistan, for all practical purposes, turned Islamabad into a sealed security zone, while the Serena Hotel became a fortified diplomatic venue. Yet it was precisely this contrast between the historic form and the emptiness of the results that revealed the true essence of the moment. Formally, the two sides were talking about the future. In substance, they were arguing about the past and about the right to dictate the terms of the present. The US demanded Iranian concessions on non-proliferation, the nuclear program, and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded with demands for reparations, the unfreezing of assets, recognition of its regional interests, and a broader de-escalation that would also extend to Lebanon. That alone showed that the parties had not come to Pakistan in search of compromise, but to stake out their outer limits.

The central reason for the breakdown lies in a word that appeared almost routinely in official statements, yet in reality explains everything: Trust. Iran spoke openly of its absence, while the American side effectively confirmed that absence through the rhetoric of ultimatum. When Vance declared after the talks that the US had presented Tehran with its “best and final offer,” it sounded less like an invitation to peace than an attempt to dress up the failure of diplomacy in the language of American superiority. For Tehran, this tone was unacceptable from the outset. Iran entered these negotiations convinced that Washington had repeatedly shown its willingness to combine diplomacy with coercion, and to use pauses to regroup. This is why the Iranians approached Islamabad with extreme caution. Under these conditions, the talks were not an instrument of reconciliation, but merely a way of testing whether the other side was capable of stopping, even temporarily. Tehran’s conclusion, judging by the outcome, was negative.

From this follows a second, deeper reason for the failure – the US entered these negotiations from a position of strategic urgency. US President Donald Trump needed a pause far more than the White House cared to admit. This was evident both in the substance of Pakistan’s mediation efforts and in how quickly Washington agreed to a two-week suspension of bombing. Formally, Trump insisted that no deal was necessary and that the US retained the upper hand regardless. But political logic suggested the opposite. The war, which began on February 28, 2026, did not bring a quick or unambiguous resolution. It hit energy markets, logistics, insurance, fertilizers, helium supplies, and inflation expectations. The economic shock is already forcing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to prepare more pessimistic forecasts on growth and inflation. The longer the confrontation drags on, the less room for maneuver the White House retains, both at home and abroad.

The legal dimension only deepens this trap. Under the US War Powers framework, the president must notify Congress within 48 hours, and in general, the unauthorized use of armed forces in hostilities is limited to 60 days, after which specific congressional approval is required unless a separate authorization exists. This does not mean that every military operation stops automatically on the dot, but it does mean that the political corridor for a prolonged war without congressional backing narrows sharply. For Trump, this is especially sensitive because there is nothing close to a consensus on Iran within the American political class. More than this, the issue has already generated new tensions over presidential authority and the role of Congress. The Iranians, of course, see this vulnerability no worse than American lawyers do. When one side understands that the other is not merely fighting against military constraints, but against domestic political time as well, the incentive to make concessions falls sharply.

The US has also found itself in a political deadlock because it failed to turn its campaign against Iran into a broad international coalition. Even among NATO allies and close partners, support proved limited, and to a significant extent, non-military. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte himself acknowledged that some European allies had “failed the test” in the Iran war, while the British leadership separately emphasized that it had not taken part in the strikes, even while offering other forms of support. These signals mean that Washington failed to present its line as unquestionably legitimate and broadly Western. American power works best when it appears not merely as the power of the US, but as the institutional power of an entire bloc. In the case of Iran, this did not happen. And when allies hesitate, the adversary gains an additional sense of time and space.

Inside the US, the situation is no less difficult. The longer the war affects oil prices, gasoline prices, shipping costs, and inflation expectations, the weaker the argument becomes that coercion can deliver peace and stability quickly. Markets are already reacting to the collapse of the talks as a warning of a potentially prolonged energy shock. Reuters reports new nervousness on Gulf stock exchanges and notes that the conflict has already dealt a serious blow to the global economy and pushed oil prices higher. For Trump, this is particularly dangerous for political reasons. His electoral logic has always rested on the image of a leader who lowers costs for the ordinary American, not one who drags the country into an expensive foreign adventure with unpredictable prices at the pump and a new wave of inflation. That is why even the threats to resume strikes now sound more like those of a leader trying to preserve an image of toughness while the material consequences of that toughness are hitting his own political base.

Iran sets the price of de-escalation

Against this backdrop, it is especially important to understand why Iran entered Islamabad with a stronger negotiating position than many had expected at the start of the war. On paper, the US and Israel should have possessed a decisive military advantage. But the political reality of war is often determined by who succeeds in imposing an unfavorable form of conflict on the other side. By closing and effectively controlling the passage through the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran transformed itself from an object of pressure into an actor capable of influencing the global economy almost in real time. Hormuz and the conditions of navigation became one of the central knots in the negotiating deadlock. While the US speaks of freedom of navigation, Iran speaks of control, coordination of passage, and the right to levy charges. This is a dispute over who, after six weeks of war, has the right to define the price of de-escalation. And it is precisely here that Iran has shown that the price for the US is exceedingly high.

No less important is the internal dimension of Iran’s position. AP reports that in Tehran, the collapse of the talks produced a mixture of disappointment and demonstrative resolve, while some public reactions boiled down to the view that Iran should not squander at the negotiating table the gains it has secured on the battlefield. This is a crucial psychological shift. A campaign that, in the design of the US and Israel, was supposed to weaken Iran and perhaps fracture it internally has thus far produced the opposite effect – the consolidation of a significant share of Iranian society around the state and the idea of resisting external pressure. For the authorities in Tehran, this means greater room for a hard line. Iran emerged from this phase of escalation unbroken. And in Middle Eastern politics, that is already half the victory.

The Israeli factor also deserves particular attention. Even setting aside every conspiratorial exaggeration, the open evidence of recent days shows that the Israeli leadership has displayed no real interest in swiftly closing the conflict on terms that would allow Washington and Tehran to move toward a stable compromise. On the contrary, Israel’s line remains maximally hard. Parallel to the Islamabad talks, Israeli strikes in Lebanon continued, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly stressed that the campaign is not over. For Iran, this is a direct signal – even if the Americans are ready to discuss a pause, their closest regional ally and effective co-author of the pressure campaign remains interested in a continued military scenario and does not want Tehran and Washington to stabilize relations. Here the US problem is twofold. First, Tehran does not believe Washington is truly capable of restraining Israeli escalation. Second, even if part of the American establishment would like to stop, it cannot do so without costs in its relationship with Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition. Iran therefore logically proceeds from the worst-case scenario and feels no urgency to yield.

A dead end

In this sense, Islamabad became not a venue for peace, but a mirror reflecting the full contradiction of the American line. On the one hand, the White House threatens new strikes and a naval blockade, and gives ‘final offers’. On the other, the very fact of the two-week ceasefire, Pakistan’s intensive mediation, and the rush to diplomacy show that the US has neither free hands nor a clear exit strategy. After the failure of the talks, AP and Axios reported further hard-line statements from Trump and new American moves around Hormuz. Yet every statement now works in two directions. It may intimidate Iran, but it also reminds everyone that Washington has not achieved the essential goal – it has not broken the will of its adversary, has not reopened the strait on its own terms, has not assembled a full coalition, and has not secured a sustainable diplomatic outcome. In this situation, the threat of force ceases to be an instrument for solving the problem and becomes instead a symptom that fewer and fewer instruments remain.

This is why saying the US is now trapped in a political deadlock is a fairly precise description of the present reality. Continuing the war is dangerous because of law, economics, allies, and internal division. Ending the war on acceptable terms is difficult because Iran does not see itself as the defeated party and is demanding not mercy, but a price. A return to old formulas is impossible because the war has changed the very structure of bargaining. The Trump administration wants to speak at once in the language of coercion and in the language of dealmaking, but after February 28, 2026, these two languages no longer fit together. To Tehran, the American promise of peace appears too reversible, too dependent on domestic political calculation, and too vulnerable to Israeli pressure. This is why the Iranians are demanding more and speaking more harshly. They believe they have paid far too high a price for their current position to exchange it now for yet another set of guarantees that may evaporate at the first new crisis.

What comes next is perhaps the bleakest question of all. Formally, the diplomatic channel has not yet been completely destroyed. Pakistan will clearly try to preserve at least the remnants of a negotiating infrastructure, because it has invested enormous political capital in the present pause. But there is so far no structural basis for a rapid breakthrough. If Trump truly demands that Iran halt its nuclear program, hand over enriched uranium to the American side, and fully reopen Hormuz without substantial reciprocal political guarantees, then that will not be a roadmap to peace, but merely a repetition, in updated language, of the same ultimatum logic that already led to the collapse in Islamabad. Iran, by all appearances, will not accept these terms – which means the risk of the war returning to a hot phase is indeed very high.

Ultimately, this is the principal lesson of Islamabad. The negotiations did not fail because of a single disputed clause, a single harsh remark, or even one sleepless night at the Serena Hotel. They failed because an entire American way of conducting Middle Eastern policy has reached its limit – first apply pressure, then offer compromise from a position of strength, and then wonder why the other side does not believe in the sincerity of the offer. Whatever one thinks of Iranian policy, Iran no longer feels that it is the side obliged to hurry. The US, for all its military power, for the first time in a very long time, looks like the side that is in a hurry. The Islamabad talks were the collapse of the American illusion that it still holds a monopoly over the terms on which wars in the region can be brought to an end.

Ukraine attempted to strike a Russian cosmodrome the same day as a rocket carrying satellites into orbit was taking off, Russia's space agency Roscosmos has confirmed. Speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, agency head General Dmitry Bakanov said that an attempted drone strike on the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northern part of the country was foiled.

Bakanov, who has led Roscosmos since February 2025, made the comments on Saturday prior to Cosmonautics Day, which marks the first human journey into outer space, undertaken by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.

Putin praised the March 23 launch as a key milestone for Russia’s space program, while Bakanov said that Ukraine had attempted to disrupt it. Plesetsk Cosmodrome lies about 800km north of Moscow and roughly 1,300km from the Ukrainian border.

Bakanov did not provide details on the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry did not explicitly comment on the space base assault, but reported the downing of dozens of drones across the country around that date.

The Roscosmos chief was referring to the launch of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket, a medium-lift launch vehicle used as the workhorse in the Russian space industry. The rocket was carrying 16 satellites belonging to the Rassvet constellation, developed by Russian private aerospace firm Bureau 1440 – widely described as Moscow’s answer to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system.

Russian officials have been suspicious of Starlink, which is not operating in the country, but is actively used by Ukrainian forces.

The Russian satellites operate as 5G base stations, interconnected via laser communication links and capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s. Their target orbital altitude is 800 km. Bureau 1440 is planning to deploy more than 900 low-orbit relays by 2035.

The conquest of frontiers and expansion into the unknown are often considered distinctly American pursuits. And indeed, it’s hard for modern people to grasp the monumental efforts undertaken by early settlers. 

However, Russians share a similar passion for filling in blank spaces on maps. And when there were no uncharted territories left on Earth, they turned their gaze toward the stars.

April 12 is Cosmonautics Day in Russia – a day when every Russian can reconnect with their childhood dream of becoming a cosmonaut, and on streets and TV screens across the country, we once again see images of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

In medieval times, Russian expansion often contradicted the wishes of the country’s rulers. Many of the pioneers settling in the country’s northern and southern frontiers were runaway serfs or simply sought a freer life. The colonization of Siberia even began against the wishes of Tsar Ivan IV, who was preoccupied with the Livonian War and was reluctant to divert attention eastward. However, the Stroganov merchant family financed an expedition beyond the Ural Mountains. 

Soon, Moscow recognized the vast wealth that lay hidden in Siberia, and waves of settlers migrated there. Some sought riches, while others ventured farther to escape the growing imperial bureaucracy. These pioneers were often generously rewarded with money, trade monopolies, promotions, titles, and land.

When no unclaimed territories remained on earth, restless individuals turned their attention to the skies. 

Most Russian philosophers showed little interest in politics or laws but passionately debated the nature of humanity and civilization. By the late 19th century, spurred by a surge of interest in physics and astronomy, many became interested in space. Thus, Russian cosmism emerged. 

Its followers sought to understand humanity’s place in space and arrived at some optimistic conclusions:

- Humans should not submit to nature but should explore and transform it to improve the world 

- Humanity will inevitably venture into space and inhabit the universe 

- Space exploration has the potential to make people better – they can unite for a common purpose, setting aside wars to pursue new worlds 

- Humans are part of the cosmos and should not fear the unknown

Some cosmists were captivated by the ultimate goal of conquering space: Defeating death and even ‘resurrecting ancestors’. Others, including self-taught scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, focused more on practical matters like the construction of rockets and space stations, believing that these ideas were not mere flights of fancy.

“First, inevitably, the idea, the fantasy, the fairy tale. Then, scientific calculation. Ultimately, fulfillment crowns the dream,” Tsiolkovsky famously said. 

During a time when politics and materialism dominated intellectual discourse, cosmism remained less popular. However, cosmists had their followers. It is said that one of them visited Tsiolkovsky after the Civil War to discuss his engineering career and was encouraged by the scientist in his plans to build rockets. 

This engineer was Sergey Korolev. Little did he know then that he would send the first man into space – a realm where no one had ventured before.

Engines of the space race

Stalinist industrialization had many issues and brought a lot of unwarranted suffering. Yet it established the infrastructure necessary for rapidly mobilizing vast resources and tilted production capacities toward the military industry. As a result, when the space race began, the Soviet government was able to swiftly recover from post-war devastation and embark on ambitious new projects.

The space program benefited from close collaboration with military projects. For example, when there was a need to build a new launch site to test the new R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to deliver a hydrogen bomb, engineers and generals quickly realized that they could develop space launch vehicles at the same location. 

Thus, the world’s largest spaceport, Baikonur, was established. Located in a desolate area far from major population centers yet conveniently close to a railway, it provided ideal conditions for large-scale secret and potentially hazardous projects. Construction progressed rapidly: Within two years of breaking ground, Baikonur launched Sputnik-1, the first artificial Earth satellite, into orbit.

Sergey Korolev headed the program. He began his scientific career in aircraft engineering but soon transitioned to rocket science. Like many top engineers of his time, he learned from internationally-renowned former imperial professors who remained in the Soviet Union. Specialists in his field were scarce, so after the war, he collaborated on many classified projects. 

Korolev was inspired by the ideas of Tsiolkovsky and urged party officials to pursue space exploration. The obvious next step after the launch of Sputnik was to send a human into space. The USSR already possessed the resources, technology, and talented scientists for it, but lacked the cosmonaut.

Ultimately, Korolev was presented with three candidates, the leading one being Yuri Gagarin – a 25-year-old senior lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force. He had a charming smile, loved sports, demonstrated initiative, and had good leadership qualities. Friends noted his enthusiasm for heroism and said his favorite word was ‘work’.

Time for preparation was limited; Korolev was informed that the Americans were also gearing up to send a man into space, and the Soviets needed to beat them. Scientists, engineers, and cosmonauts worked tirelessly but met the deadlines. By April 1961, it became clear that history would soon be made at Baikonur.

Despite the initial success of space programs, many skeptics, both in the USSR and around the world, thought that a manned flight would end in catastrophe. The Soviet authorities were cautious. They prepared three statements for the media: One in case of a successful flight, one in case of an emergency landing, and one in case of tragedy.

On April 8, the mission for the space flight was officially approved, with Gagarin confirmed as the pilot. Two days later, an unofficial meeting took place between cosmonauts, engineers, and Soviet military leaders.

At 3:00 AM on April 12, final checks began on the launch pad. Korolev himself was present. At 5:30 AM, Gagarin was woken up with the words, “Yura, time to get up.” After a medical check-up, he had breakfast consisting of meat puree, currant jam, and coffee. By 6:50 AM, Gagarin exited the bus at the launch site and climbed into the rocket.

For the next two hours, he ran system checks in coordination with mission control. During this process, a malfunction was discovered – the hatch wouldn’t close – but it was fixed within seven minutes.

At 9:00 AM, one-minute readiness was announced. Gagarin hummed the song ‘Fly, Doves, Fly’. At 9:07 AM, ignition was activated, and Gagarin uttered the legendary phrase, “Let’s go!”

Throughout the flight, Gagarin maintained communication with Earth, professionally reporting on his condition and what he could see. However, even this seasoned pilot couldn’t help but marvel at the breathtaking views around him.

The spacecraft completed one orbit around Earth and landed at 10:53 AM near the village of Smelovka in Saratov Region. The flight lasted 106 minutes.

Close to the landing site, the cosmonaut met the bewildered wife of a local forester and her daughter. Gagarin joked, “Don’t be afraid, comrades, I am a Soviet citizen like you!” Soon after, military personnel arrived and transported the cosmonaut to their base.

Messages of congratulations flooded in from heads of state around the world, from France, Japan, India, and Cuba. John F. Kennedy also sent a note expressing hope that “the Soviet Union and the United States may work together on the matter of mastering the Universe.”

In the USSR, a wave of patriotism surged. Yet public affection wasn’t directed towards the party, the military, or the scientists, but toward Gagarin himself. He didn’t deliver speeches about the triumph of communism or talk of the ‘enemies of the people’. Gagarin remained humble, met with ordinary people, and signed autographs. He continued to smile broadly, even during a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, who broke royal protocol to take a photo with him.

On March 27, 1968, Gagarin died in a plane crash in Vladimir Region while conducting a training flight. He was just 34 years old. The USSR declared a national day of mourning – an unprecedented move for someone who was not a head of state.

Some believe that his early death further solidified Gagarin’s legend. The world never saw him grow older or become involved in politics – though he could have easily become a political figure. Gagarin will forever be remembered as the young, smiling pilot.

The new leadership in the USSR under Brezhnev showed less interest in the space program. Korolev’s proposals for missions to the Moon and Mars were rejected as the country faced an increasing shortage of consumer goods, and budgets shifted to other sectors.

With the end of the Cold War, space lost its strategic importance for a long time.

Recently, however, interest in space has been rekindled in Russia. A new space program aims to create a Russian orbital station to replace the ISS, along with a three-phase lunar mission culminating in the establishment of a permanent lunar base.

On Cosmonautics Day, however, Russians tend to focus not on ambitious plans, but rather on the smiling pilot who calmly accepted the offer to journey into the unknown. And they remember the words he spoke shortly after his return: 

“Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called opposition leader Peter Magyar and congratulated his Tisza party on its election victory. At the time of the call, Tisza was leading Orban’s Fidesz party by 52% to 39% of the vote.

Magyar dominated pre-election polling, after campaigning on corruption, public services, and restoring ties with the EU. His victory determines not only who governs Hungary, but also how far Budapest resists policy proposals coming from Brussels.

Orban has spent years frustrating the EU with his stance on Russia, sanctions, and military support for Ukraine, making this election a closely watched test for Brussels as well as for Orban’s allies on the international right. Ukraine is also watching – and allegedly interfered in – the vote, as Orban is currently vetoing the EU’s planned €90 billion loan package for Kiev.

Independent polling summarized by AP suggests Tisza entered election day with momentum, though the race was still expected to be tight because of Fidesz’s entrenched rural support and the advantages Orban enjoys from incumbency and Hungary’s electoral system.

Earlier, Magyar wrote off reports that he was planning to instigate post-election riots as “scare stories and lies," after a former Tisza party adviser released a document alleging that Magyar’s EU backers were urging him to declare victory prematurely, and start street-level violence modeled on the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine if the result doesn’t go his way.

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The Holy Fire was delivered from Jerusalem to Moscow on Saturday and received at Vnukovo Airport before being used in Orthodox Easter services.

The flame is lit each year on the eve of the holiday inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, at the site associated with the burial of Jesus Christ. The ritual takes place in the Kuvuklia, a chapel built over the tomb, where the Patriarch of Jerusalem enters after prayers and distributes the fire to clergy and pilgrims waiting in the darkened church.

A delegation from the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation transported it to the Russian capital aboard a Roscosmos aircraft after receiving the flame earlier in the day at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The group, led by foundation board chairman Vladimir Yakunin and Metropolitan Feognost, a vicar of Patriarch Kirill, arrived in Israel on April 10 and departed from Ben Gurion Airport following the ceremony, during which Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem prayed alongside clergy and pilgrims.

At Vnukovo Airport, the fire was received by representatives of multiple dioceses before being taken to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

It was used during the Patriarchal night service and later distributed to several dioceses and churches across the capital, including Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhovo and Znamensky Cathedral on Varvarka Street. The flame will be delivered to regions across the country, allowing worshipers to light candles from it throughout Easter week.

Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov said the delivery went ahead despite tensions in the Middle East.

“The situation in the Middle East is not simple, but it was important for us to fulfill the mission of delivering the fire, which millions of Orthodox Christians in our country await for the Bright Easter holiday,” he said.

In 2026, concerns were raised that the fire might not appear due to restrictions on access to Jerusalem’s Old City and a more limited format for the ceremony. The failure of the ritual is traditionally viewed by some as a sign of future misfortune.

This year, Easter coincided with Cosmonautics Day on April 12 to commemorate Yuri Gagarin’s first human spaceflight. Patriarch Kirill exchanged greetings with the Russian crew aboard the International Space Station. Roscosmos cosmonauts sent holiday messages from space.

“Our goal is to ignite in the hearts of millions of Russian boys and girls a love for space,” cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev said.

A man has been arrested after breaching security at Ireland’s Shannon Airport and damaging a US military aircraft, in an incident that briefly shut down operations and reignited scrutiny of America’s long-running use of the facility.

Footage circulating online appears to show the intruder climbing onto a US Air Force C-130 Hercules parked on a remote taxiway at the County Clare airport. Some reports said he was wielding an axe, hatchet, or hammer as he struck the aircraft, though police have so far only confirmed an arrest for alleged criminal damage.

According to the Gardai, the suspect, a man in his 40s, entered an unauthorized area of the airport on Saturday morning and was arrested shortly before 11:00 AM under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. The response involved airport police, Shannon Airport’s fire and rescue service, and Irish defense forces stationed on site.

𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗢 | A protester breached the airside perimeter at Shannon Airport in Ireland, climbed onto the wing of a parked US Air Force C-130 Hercules and damaged the aircraft with what is believed to be a hammer, temporarily taking it out of service and forcing a brief airport… pic.twitter.com/PD9M9ftkry

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) April 11, 2026

The breach forced Shannon to suspend operations, with two departing flights delayed and an incoming aircraft from Lourdes, France placed in a holding pattern before the airport resumed normal operations at 10:15 AM.

It remains unclear whether the attack was motivated by the US campaign against Iran, but Shannon Airport has seen repeated incursions linked to opposition to the airport’s role as a refueling and transit point for US military traffic.

In a more recent incident in November 2025, three activists reportedly drove a van into a restricted area, approached a parked US military plane, and spray-painted a US Navy Reserve Boeing 737-700, forcing another shutdown. Months earlier, three women were arrested after breaching the perimeter and throwing red paint over a US-linked aircraft.

A Ukrainian man was violently seized and beaten by conscription officers in the southern city of Odessa, according to footage circulating online, in the latest incident highlighting the brutality of Kiev’s conscription drive.

As Ukrainian forces suffer mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and the pool of willing recruits continues to shrink, draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to coercion to fill the ranks. The practice, commonly known as ‘busification’, involves military-age men being snatched from the streets, workplaces, and residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will, often triggering clashes with relatives, neighbors, and passersby.

In a video published by a local Telegram channel on Friday, five officers from Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Center are seen hauling a man out of the entrance to a residential building in Odessa. Grabbing him by the arms and legs, they drag him toward a waiting vehicle as he resists and cries out for help.

“What are you doing? Let him go, you bastards!” a woman filming from a nearby balcony is heard shouting. Another voice calls on bystanders to call the police, while one of the officers repeatedly punches the man.

The backlash has been building alongside the violence. Ukraine’s military ombudsman, Olga Reshetilova, said that even schoolchildren are now increasingly “harassing” draft officers after watching viral videos of their violent behavior.

Some Ukrainian officials have acknowledged the depth of the recruitment crisis. According to Vadim Ivchenko, a member of parliament’s national security committee, only around 8-10% of new personnel entering the armed forces are willing recruits.

Moscow has accused Kiev’s Western backers of fighting “to the last Ukrainian.” Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has estimated that Ukraine lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has suggested that the country’s total military casualties have surpassed 1 million.

Millions of Russians are celebrating Orthodox Easter, the most important holiday in Christianity and one that carries deep cultural significance across the country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the Easter night service at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia traditionally leads the Easter Matins and Divine Liturgy.

The Holy Fire was delivered to Moscow from Jerusalem on Holy Saturday, arriving at Vnukovo airport before being taken to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior for the Patriarchal Easter service. The flame, lit annually inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the site associated with the burial of Jesus Christ, was transported by a delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation aboard a Roscosmos aircraft and later distributed to churches across the capital.

After the service, the Russian president and Patriarch Kirill exchanged traditional gifts. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church also thanked the head of state for facilitating the transfer of the Vladimir and Don icons of the Mother of God, calling the move a historic event. The Russian leader crossed himself after the remarks.

In Russia, Easter goes beyond its strictly religious meaning. In a country shaped by diverse cultures and faiths, including Islam and Buddhism, the holiday is observed not only by Christians, but also by many non-believers and followers of other religions.

Some 73% of Russians plan to celebrate Easter this year, according to a survey published on Friday by the state-run pollster VCIOM. Only 15% of respondents said they do not intend to mark the holiday.

Only about 20% observe Lent – a nearly seven-week period of fasting preceding Easter in the Orthodox tradition, the poll suggests. Around 15% of respondents named egg painting as one of the most significant Easter traditions in Russia, while 10% highlighted family gatherings.

Millions of Russians are expected to attend church services on Saturday night as part of traditional Easter celebrations.

Orthodoxy is experiencing a resurgence in Russia, according to VCIOM, with the number of followers growing, particularly among young people. The share of people aged 18-24 who identify as Orthodox Christians has grown from 25% to 45% in recent years, the agency said in July 2025.

What will be the consequences for the United States of refraining from taking extreme measures against Iran?

It is too early to say what kind of lasting order, if any, will emerge in the Middle East after the failure of the US and Israel’s campaign against Tehran. Yet the decision to avoid escalation, and ultimately the destruction of an entire civilization, already allows for several conclusions, not only about the region but about the wider trajectory of global politics.

First, the episode once again demonstrates the limits of superpower capabilities when vital interests are not directly at stake. Second, international politics continues to drift in a dangerous direction, where the possibility of a general military catastrophe remains ever present. That drift, moreover, shows no immediate sign of slowing.

Once it became clear that Washington couldn’t break Iran’s resistance or force it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz using conventional means, the US faced a stark choice: retreat or escalate to the nuclear level. The latter was never seriously contemplated, despite the rhetorical threats. The US leadership understood that the stakes simply did not justify such a move.

As a result, the conflict has effectively been brought to a halt on terms favorable to Tehran. For many observers, this amounts to a fiasco for the United States: a failure to defeat a significantly weaker opponent and an inability to shield its Gulf allies, who have suffered from Iranian counterstrikes.

For Washington, in other words, the game was not worth the candle.

This restraint, however, carries consequences. It has become increasingly clear that American “security guarantees” are conditional and limited. The US will not go to any lengths to defend its partners, even those who rely on it most heavily.

This reality extends beyond the Middle East. In Europe, particularly among states along Russia’s western periphery, confidence in unconditional American protection has long been taken for granted. That confidence can no longer be absolute. Countries such as Finland and the Baltic nations have operated under the assumption that the US would always intervene decisively. Recent events suggest otherwise.

There is also a broader political dimension. The current US leadership, under Donald Trump, reflects a mindset in which material interests outweigh abstract considerations of prestige or power. Trump and his circle approach international affairs less as statesmen and more as businessmen.

The potential destruction of Iran would have had far-reaching consequences for the Middle East and the global energy system. Washington is neither prepared for nor interested in such an outcome. Other major powers are drawing their own conclusions from this. China, in particular, has already adapted its approach, and Russia is doing the same, placing emphasis on pragmatic cooperation and mutual benefit in its dealings with the United States.

Looking ahead, this pattern is unlikely to change quickly. Should Trump be succeeded by figures such as J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio, the underlying logic will probably remain intact. These are politicians who are similarly disinclined to sacrifice tangible gains for abstract political objectives.

This trajectory will persist until the US either accepts a diminished global role or finds itself in a far weaker, potentially unstable position. It is precisely at that point, when the costs of inaction begin to outweigh the risks of escalation, that the calculation may change. Only then might the game truly become worth the candle.

And when that moment arrives, the consequences are unlikely to be contained.

This article was first published by the magazine Profile and was translated and edited by the RT team.

Seven Russian civilians, the last held by Ukraine since the 2024 Kursk incursion, have been freed after nearly 500 days in captivity, Moscow has said.

Their release came as part of a prisoner swap on Saturday, with 175 Russian servicemen returned in exchange for 175 Ukrainian soldiers, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

“We fought for nearly two long years to bring home all Kursk residents who became hostages in Ukraine during the occupation of our border region,” Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova wrote on social media. “Today, the last seven of our compatriots have been freed and can finally embrace their loved ones. In total, 165 residents of Kursk Region had been illegally held by the Ukrainian side since 2024.”

Earlier, she said that Kiev had sought to exchange the civilians for Ukrainians detained in Russia for various crimes. Moskalkova called such demands unacceptable, arguing that the Russians had been held by Ukraine without legal grounds and in violation of international norms, had not committed any actions that would harm Ukraine.

In January, Russian Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik, who leads a Foreign Ministry mission that tracks alleged Ukrainian war crimes, also said that Kiev was trying to secure “the return of Ukrainian war criminals held in our custody” in exchange for civilians.

The Ukrainian advance into Kursk Region in August 2024 was quickly halted and fully repelled in April 2025. In January, Moskalkova said that the Russian authorities found 524 bodies in “mass burial sites” in the border region following its liberation.

Russian officials have reported numerous testimonies alleging war crimes, including rape and abductions, as well as abuses of POWs, during the Ukrainian presence.

A UK jury has found former BBC producer Dylan Dawes guilty of downloading more than 6,000 child porn images.

The verdict was delivered at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday, following a four-day trial. Dawes, who started working for the British public broadcaster in 2001, had pleaded not guilty to the three counts of possessing indecent images and three counts of making indecent images.

Dawes was arrested in 2022 after police officers raided his home and seized computers and storage devices, where they discovered the incriminating material, according to the Daily Express.

“During a period of time of about 16 years between December 31, 2006, and March 1, 2022, the defendant has been downloading child pornography” on four different devices, prosecutor Harry Baker reportedly told the court, adding that 192 of the images were category A – the most egregious kind.

Judge Eugene Egan said the jury found Dawes “guilty on what they found to be absolutely overwhelming evidence,” according to Wales Online.

The former BBC producer will be sentenced on May 14, and must now register as a sex offender.

The British state broadcaster has a growing record of employing and harboring pedophiles in its ranks.

Infamously, the BBC allegedly suppressed complaints about sexual abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile, who is believed to have had as many as 450 victims. His crimes came to light after his 2011 death, and while he was never officially prosecuted, the revelations prompted an unprecedented investigation into how the BBC handles internal abuse reports.

“You can pursue a sensible policy… as an EU member only if you are sovereign [as a nation],” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during his first meeting with journalists from international media outlets this year.

That meeting was quite significant, since Orban laid out his team’s approach to both foreign and domestic policies – an approach that has drawn sharp criticism from the European Commission.

When asked about Hungary’s potential exit from the EU, he said that “EU membership is an important option,” dispelling any notions that he wants the bloc to be dismantled. However, regarding migration, he declared, “Hungary will not accept Brussels deciding who we should live with.”

His reaction to the January 2026 kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by American forces was also noteworthy. Orban called it “a new language... that the world will speak in the future.” Essentially, he acknowledged the erosion of the ‘rules-based order’ – a concept the EU defends to maintain itself as a prominent center for moral and political judgment on global events.

Orban also said, “It makes sense to have optimal relations with other blocs [besides the EU], including America, Russia, China, the Arab and Turkish worlds.”

Naturally, such dictates from Brussels were supposed to be followed by all EU members. Rebellious European politicians were instantly branded ‘pro-Russian’. Orban too fell under this category because of his calls to establish dialogue with Russia.

However, before labeling Orban ‘pro-Russian’, we should delve deeper into Hungary’s political psychology.

Hungary’s three grievances 

The struggle for self-determination is deeply rooted in the mindset of the Hungarian political class. Following the collapse of the socialist bloc, for the first time in centuries Budapest had a real opportunity to pursue an independent policy. 

Hungary’s historical worldview stems from the fact that in the 20th century, its fate was determined by external powers in three instances. This has significantly shaped the psychology of today’s politicians: They understand that, in decisive moments, Hungary might not have any allies. 

The first example occurred in 1920, when the Treaty of Trianon was signed at the end of the First World War. The victorious countries – Britain, Italy, France, and the United States – effectively dismembered Hungary, stripping away about two-thirds of its territory in favor of neighbors like Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Austria. A portion of Hungary’s historical lands later became part of Ukraine.

The second time, the fate of Hungary was shaped by the USSR, the US, and the UK at the Yalta Conference following the Second World War. Budapest then became part of the socialist bloc. 

In 1956, Hungary attempted to assert its own path through an uprising, which was crushed by Soviet forces. The memory of this event remains significant in the context of modern relations between Russia and Hungary.

Orban is well aware of these historical events and understands that during times of great upheaval, more powerful neighbors can easily disregard the will of Hungarians – a reality Hungary has faced repeatedly. He knows all too well what can happen to smaller countries when military tensions arise in Europe.

This is why Orban pushes for a resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. His primary aim is to douse the flames of conflict, even if extinguishing them at their source is no longer possible. If engaging in dialogue with Russia is necessary for this, then that’s what he intends to do. This pragmatic approach, rather than any ‘pro-Russian’ sentiment, likely underpins his foreign policy. 

In 2023, Orban noted that Hungary had not forgotten the lessons of 1956. “[Hungary] looks beyond its borders with only one thought: the most important thing is that Hungary should not share a border with Russia… Hungary’s interest is that there should always be a territory controlled by another state between it and Russia,” Orban said, commenting on how he envisions Ukraine’s future borders after the conflict.

Hungary’s reluctance to form allied relations with Russia is evident. Since opting for a European path after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Hungary has never questioned this choice. Orban openly declares that being part of the EU provides certain benefits, despite the fact that Brussels freezes some funds intended for Budapest due to the latter’s stance on various national security issues, such as migrants and the activities of foreign media and NGOs.

The Hungarian government approaches its relationship with Moscow largely through the lens of benefits and practicality. Budapest has consistently maintained that sanctions are detrimental to the European economy (though it also voted for them), opposed stringent EU measures against Russia (while condemning its military operation), and criticized European foreign policy (without actively countering it, at least until oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline were halted).

Hungary also finds value in its energy ties with Russia (e.g. Russian energy resources and the Paks II nuclear power plant project involving Russian specialists). This prompts Budapest to advocate for exemptions from sanctions, so it can continue accessing affordable Russian resources.

This somewhat resembles Russia’s approach. Russia also sold gas to Europe not out of altruism, but because this benefited Moscow. However, this does not make Russia’s policy pro-European or Hungary’s position pro-Russian.

Profit, however, turns countries into partners rather than allies, and it’s essential to understand this distinction clearly. This also aligns with Russia’s strategy. While Moscow had once aspired to forge allied relations with Europe, these attempts have not succeeded. Nevertheless, for a long time, Russia was willing to maintain partnerships that could facilitate strong foreign policy ties on various issues, including security concerns.

Hungary, like Slovakia, has opted for a path of partnership with Moscow, but its ability to fully implement this policy is hampered by Brussels’ anti-Russia rhetoric. The European Commission labels this pragmatic and measured approach as ‘pro-Russian’; however, it would be more accurately described as friendly and rational.

On April 12, Hungary will hold parliamentary elections that will put this rationality to the test. Orban faces a challenging campaign, as the entire European bureaucratic machine appears to be working against him. In fact, Hungarian voters will decide not only the direction of Hungary’s domestic policy but will also determine whether Budapest remains a dialogue partner for Moscow. This election will be significant for both Budapest and Brussels. Meanwhile, observers in Moscow can only watch the developments in Hungary, hoping that regardless of the government that comes to power, Budapest will remain focused on swiftly resolving the Ukraine conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Spain over what he described as repeated opposition to Israel and the “defaming” of the military after Madrid slammed the IDF over the recent strikes in Lebanon.

In a video address on Friday, Netanyahu said he ordered Spain’s expulsion from the US-backed coordination center in Kiryat Gat that oversees the Gaza ceasefire, calling it punishment for opposing Israel.

“Israel will not remain silent in the face of those who attack us. Spain has defamed our heroes, IDF soldiers – the soldiers of the most moral army in the world,” Netanyahu said. “Spain has chosen repeatedly to stand against Israel… I do not intend to allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

“Israel will not remain silent in the face of those who attack us.

Spain has defamed our heroes, the soldiers of the IDF, the soldiers of the most moral army in the world.

1/4 pic.twitter.com/c95fTDNXkW

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 10, 2026

Spanish officials, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, have been among the most vocal critics of the US-Israeli war against Iran, warning that further escalation would bring severe humanitarian and economic consequences. Last month, Spain closed its airspace to US aircraft linked to the war and permanently withdrew its ambassador from Israel, downgrading ties.

The strikes – called ‘Operation Eternal Darkness’ – lasted ten minutes, but are considered the most intense aerial assault since the broader US-Israel war against Iran began on February 28. The IDF said it hit around 100 Hezbollah targets and killed over 180 militants. The Lebanese authorities said at least 357 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 1,223 were wounded.

Following the strikes, Sanchez slammed Netanyahu’s “contempt for life and international law,” calling it “intolerable” and urging Brussels to suspend the EU association agreement with Israel. Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares echoed the criticism, calling the strikes a “shame for the conscience of humanity” and accusing the IDF of “indiscriminate bombings” targeting civilians under the guise of fighting Hezbollah.

Senior Iranian and US negotiators are in Islamabad for what Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called a “make-or-break moment” to turn the fragile ceasefire into a broader deal.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, leading Tehran’s delegation, said he arrived with goodwill tempered by deep mistrust, noting that the US attacked Iran “twice within less than a year” during negotiations. US Vice President J.D. Vance, leading the American team, said he expects productive talks but warned Iran not to “play” the US.

Washington has agreed to release frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar and other foreign jurisdictions, a move seen as a sign of “seriousness” in reaching a deal between the US and the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing a senior Iranian source. Negotiators from both countries have arrived in Pakistan for talks.

High-level Iranian and US delegations arrived in Islamabad on Saturday to continue negotiations on a proposed peace framework. Some elements of the plan have been circulated in media reports, although no official details have been released by either side.

Unfreezing the assets is “directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”, a key issue in the talks, an unnamed official told the news agency. The source did not disclose the amount, while a second Iranian official said the US was ready to release $6 billion held in Qatar.

However, CBS News reported, citing a senior US official, that the White House hasn’t agreed to authorize release of the funds.

The exact value of Iran’s frozen assets remains unclear, though by some estimates the figure exceeds $100 billion. It includes funds immobilized directly in the US, assets restricted abroad, oil revenues in escrow, and central bank reserves blocked due to US secondary sanctions.

However, following the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Iranian ally Hamas, the administration of then-President Joe Biden re-froze the funds, stating that Iran wouldn’t be able to access the money for the foreseeable future and that Washington retained the right to fully block the account.

The funds, originally frozen in 2018, stem from Iranian oil sales to South Korea and had been held in South Korean banks after President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran and withdrew from the nuclear deal during his first term in office.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted a POW swap involving 350 captives, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Saturday, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary ceasefire for the Orthodox Easter weekend.

In a press release, the Russian MOD said that “175 Russian service members were returned from territory controlled by the Kiev regime, while in exchange, 175 Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war were handed over.” The ministry added that separately, seven civilians from Kursk Region – said to have been the last hostages still held from the Ukrainian incursion last year – were released and will soon return home.

According to the ministry, the Russian servicemen are currently in neighboring Belarus, where they are receiving psychological and medical assistance before being transported to Russia for treatment and rehabilitation.

Since the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in May 2025, the sides have regularly carried out exchanges of POWs as well as of the bodies of fallen troops. The previous exchange occurred on April 3, when the sides swapped 600 captives.

Moscow has previously declared unilateral pauses during Orthodox holidays, but last year’s Easter truce was only partially successful: Kiev violated the truce more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian MOD. This time, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky pledged to “observe a ceasefire regime” and “act exclusively in a mirror manner.”

The Easter weekend ceasefire announced by Russia has come into force. President Vladimir Putin ordered the nation’s military to halt all operations against Ukrainian forces from 16:00 Moscow time (13:00 GMT) on Saturday until the end of Sunday.

According to the Kremlin, the move is a humanitarian gesture, not a substitute for a lasting peace with Ukraine.

The Russian military will be ready to respond to any Ukrainian offensive operations or provocations, Moscow stated.

“We expect the Ukrainian side to follow Russia’s lead,” the Kremlin said when it announced the ceasefire earlier this week.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responded by claiming that Kiev was “ready for mirror steps.” He also called for a prolonged truce extending beyond the Easter weekend.

“We want not a ceasefire, but a lasting, sustainable peace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, commenting on the development. He added that peace could be reached if Zelensky “takes responsibility” and makes the necessary decisions.

Moscow has said it remains open to negotiations, but insists that any lasting settlement must address the root causes of the conflict. These include Kiev’s neutrality and the reversal of discriminatory policies targeting ethnic Russians and Russian culture.

Ukrainian forces violated the Easter ceasefire 1,971 times from 4:00 PM on April 11 to 8:00 AM on April 12, the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier on Sunday.

All Russian troops strictly observed the ceasefire and remained at their previously held lines and positions, the Defense Ministry added.

Russia has previously declared unilateral ceasefires for Orthodox religious holidays. In 2023, it observed truces during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and over the Easter weekend in April. In 2025, Moscow declared an Easter truce, but it was violated by Kiev more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

“My daughter is sleeping in the ICU of a hospital in Mohakhali, Dhaka and I have been in the queue at the Trust filling station since 1:30 AM. It is now a quarter to three... If I cannot get fuel, I will leave the bike on the road and just walk away. I do not have the strength left in my body to push this bike all the way to the hospital.”

A Bangladeshi journalist posted this on social media – one more voice in the flood of similar posts over the past few weeks as the energy crisis triggered by the Iran war has swept across the nation of 177 million people. The post was later updated to say that the man finally received 5 liters of fuel at 6:50 AM.

Social media is now full of images of long lines at gas pumps across Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and the situation is reportedly even more acute in other parts of the South Asian nation hit by severe energy crisis triggered by the conflict in the Middle East.

Thousands of fishermen across Barishal, the country’s southernmost division, have been passing idle days and suffering financial losses as most fishing trawlers remain tied up at the docks amid the ongoing fuel shortage. More than 1,000 seagoing trawlers are stranded in Alipur and Mohipur in Barishal, leaving over 100,000 fishermen and workers out of work.

Pritam Das, the owner of two trawlers that have been docked at Mohipur river port since Eid-ul-Fitr, a major religious festival in the Muslim-majority nation, said each vessel needs around 14 barrels of fuel per trip, but they have not been able to collect any fuel from dealers. The crisis has also significantly disrupted the supply of fish in local markets.

Although a fuel crisis is visible at gas pumps across the country, including in the capital, Dhaka, amid the Iran war, the government maintains that there is no fuel shortage.

While early March shortages were aggravated by the Eid holiday banking shutdown, which disrupted supply chains and delayed payments and deliveries, fuel distribution remains irregular even after the holiday: Stocks are limited, sales are capped, lines are long, and pressure on filling stations continues as demand still exceeds supply in Bangladesh.

New government, mounting challenge

Since the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) assumed power in Bangladesh last February, it has been grappling with a mounting fuel crisis that continues to pose a serious challenge for the new government. 

Despite assurances and policy efforts, supply disruptions, panic buying, and market irregularities have made the situation difficult to control, highlighting the government’s struggle to stabilize the energy sector and restore public confidence. 

In response to the ongoing fuel challenges, the new government has introduced a series of measures aimed at stabilizing supply while minimizing economic disruption.

The authorities have decided that shopping malls are to remain open until 7:00 PM – as a number of power plants in Bangladesh run on fuel. At the same time, officials have assured the public that the country is working to build sufficient fuel reserves, with plans to maintain a buffer stock for up to three months to ensure supply stability and meet rising demand, particularly during the peak agricultural season. 

“If we can reduce traffic on the roads and introduce a rationing system for fuel, it will help conserve fuel. That is why we are thinking of bringing schools in metropolitan cities – where traffic pressure is high – under an online-offline system,” Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon said.

Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku said this week that the country has adequate supplies of fuel, while stating that he would continue the nationwide drive against illegal fuel hoarders.

“The country so far has no fuel shortage and has enough stock of all sorts of fuel including petrol, octane and diesel while a geopolitical instability is prevailing in the Middle East,” he stated.

Zahed Ur Rahman, an adviser to the prime minister, admitted that there is a slight shortage in fuel supplies, though he reiterated that the situation remains under control as the government works to ease pressure. “Operations have been intensified to prevent illegal hoarding and smuggling of fuel,” he said.

Local experts maintain that the ongoing fuel strain is unlikely to ease anytime soon, as global supply uncertainty and mounting domestic demand continue to put pressure on the country’s energy supply chain.

With no clear end to the Middle East conflict – despite the announced ceasefire and ongoing talks in Islamabad – concerns are growing over shipment delays, particularly for April, when only a limited number of planned consignments have been confirmed so far. In the coming weeks, supply is likely to remain manageable if imports arrive on schedule and demand does not spike further.

Supply vs stock: The real constraint

As of April 7, the total stock of octane and gasoline stood at 10,500 tons and 16,000 tones respectively, enough to meet demand for 9-11 days, according to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC). For April, around 110,000 tons of diesel imports have been confirmed and another 60,000 tons is in the pipeline, according to BPC data. In addition, existing depot stock stands at around 130,000 tons.

This suggests a total available supply of around 300,000 tons, or 86% of typical monthly demand.

In Bangladesh, the government has begun rationing fuel to avoid a shortage, as the country meets 95% of its oil and 30% of its gas requirements through imports.

Energy-sector analysts predict that electricity supply in the country could be affected in the coming summer season, as many power plants are likely to remain underutilized due to shortages of gas, coal, and furnace oil. Around 40% of overall capacity is expected to remain idle during peak demand from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. 

Out of the total 12,204 megawatts (MW) of gas‑fired capacity, the Bangladesh Power Development Board – the state‑owned agency responsible for planning and developing the nation’s power infrastructure – will be able to use at best about 5,200 MW, leaving nearly 7,000 MW offline.

Gas shortages have already forced five of the country’s six fertilizer factories to remain shut since March.

The country will have to rely heavily on coal‑fired power plants and furnace oil for electricity generation, as it has installed only 1,059 MW of renewable capacity – just 3.7% of total demand – with 757 MW from solar, 230 MW from hydro, and 62 MW from wind.

Hunting for fuel worldwide

As geopolitical tensions escalate, the government of Bangladesh is moving to diversify fuel imports as traditional shipping routes face disruption. Dhaka has requested a sanctions waiver from the US so that the country can purchase refined fuel from Russia without repercussions. At the same time, officials are negotiating with a range of countries across Asia, Africa, and beyond to diversify fuel sources.

According to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Dhaka wrote to Washington in March, requesting permission to import up to 6,00,000 tonnes of refined fuel from Russia, or alternatively, to obtain a waiver for at least two months. Officials did not provide details on the procurement mechanism, including whether shipments would come directly from Russia or a third country.

Dhaka has also been trying to secure additional supplies from regional partners. Officials said India earlier committed to supplying around 60,000 tons of diesel from January to June under an existing arrangement. So far, Bangladesh has received three consignments of 5,000 tons each through the India-Bangladesh pipeline and another shipment of 7,000 tons via the sea route, bringing the total diesel imports from India to roughly 22,000 tons.

The authorities have also reached out to Iran to explore possible shipment arrangements, though logistical and security complications remain.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has yet to recover in any meaningful way despite the US-Iran ceasefire. Iran previously listed Bangladesh as a ‘friendly nation’, and indicated that Bangladeshi vessels may be allowed safe passage through the strait. In reality, however, vessel movements still hinge on how the talks in Islamabad proceed.

Officials said they have examined several alternatives, but many have proven economically unviable, noting that “all procurement decisions must ultimately be economically viable.” The search for new suppliers has also become harder, as some traditional exporters are adding surcharges on top of already surging oil prices. For now, the government can secure supplies for the immediate future, the ministry spokesperson said, urging people not to panic, but officials cautioned that it is too early to predict supply conditions for May and June, even though plans are in place to build a three-month fuel reserve.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to develop a national plan for the deployment of AI technologies, emphasizing that the accelerated adoption of AI is crucial for the country’s future.

Speaking on Friday at a meeting on AI development, the president called for faster integration of the technology in the economy and public administration, adaptation of education, risk assessment, and advances in defense and security, while also stressing the need to promote Russian solutions abroad.

“Artificial intelligence, along with digital platforms and autonomous systems, is shaping a fundamentally new image of the economy, social relations, the social sphere, education, healthcare, logistics and industry, defense and security — and indeed the entire life of the country,” Putin said.

Russia must develop its own artificial intelligence solutions for national defense and security, the president said, warning that the country’s sovereignty and very existence depend on its ability to keep pace with global change. 

“We must possess the most advanced technologies and rely on fully sovereign domestic products,” he stressed.

“These artificial intelligence agents are already approaching a new level of independence. They are learning to plan their actions, evaluate the results they achieve, and interact with people and the real world,” he said.

Mozambique may soon see a spike in air travel costs as global jet fuel prices surge, the country’s national director of hydrocarbons and fuels, Felisbela Nhate, said on Thursday. 

Speaking to reporters, Nhate said that aviation fuel has experienced a steep price increases in global markets recently. She noted that prices have climbed from around $769 per ton to $1,595.   

Nhate’s comments come amid global supply disruptions following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the US-Israeli war on Iran. The disruption to one of the world’s key energy routes has sent oil prices higher and triggered knock-on effects across global supply chains.  

According to Nhate, these developments are already driving up operational costs for airlines, which could ultimately be passed on to passengers through higher ticket prices. 

Against the backdrop of a deepening fuel crisis, Kenya Airways increased fares across its network last month. Air Mauritius has announced it would continue increasing its fuel surcharge.

Ethiopian Airlines also raised its fuel surcharge, stating it would continue to monitor developments in the region. RwandAir has introduced a temporary fuel surcharge adjustment on select fares.

The home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was struck with a Molotov cocktail on Friday, San Francisco police said in a statement later confirmed by Altman. The individual was later arrested after appearing at the company’s headquarters and allegedly threatening to burn it down.

The incidents unfolded within around an hour. According to police, a 20-year-old male first approached Altman’s home and threw an “incendiary destructive device,” setting fire to an exterior gate, before fleeing on foot.

About an hour later, officers responded to a report of someone matching the suspect’s description threatening arson at another building, later identified as OpenAI’s San Francisco headquarters. The suspect was arrested, with charges pending. Police did not immediately comment on a potential motive. OpenAI confirmed both incidents, with a spokesperson saying no one was hurt.

View our latest statement regarding an incident that occurred early this morning at a North Beach residence. Officers have made an arrest, and no injuries were reported as a result of this incident. pic.twitter.com/t4DsF31uxh

— San Francisco Police (@SFPD) April 10, 2026

Altman addressed the situation in a blog post, sharing a photo of his family and expressing hope that “images have power” and might help deter similar attacks.

I wrote this early this morning and I wasn't sure if I would actually publish it, but here it is:https://t.co/7Dw9UFpeep

— Sam Altman (@sama) April 10, 2026

He added that he “underestimated the power of words and narratives,” noting that the incident came days after “an incendiary article” about him and his company, likely referring to a New Yorker investigation detailing allegations of deception and safety failings at OpenAI, as well as scrutiny over its recent $50 billion Pentagon deal.

The incident comes at a difficult time for both Altman and OpenAI. The company has faced backlash over its Pentagon deal allowing its technology to be used in classified military operations. Critics warn that the tools could enable warrantless surveillance, with users and developers accusing the company of prioritizing government contracts over public trust.

In a case set to go to trial later this month, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and Altman, alleging that the CEO “manipulated” him into donating $38 million on promises that the company would remain a nonprofit. Musk, a co-founder who left in 2018, is seeking Altman’s removal.

Iran and the US could still reach a peace agreement as long as the “American government abandons its totalitarianism,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated.

His remark on X came hours after US President Donald Trump declared that the US Navy would immediately begin a “blockade” of the Strait of Hormuz, following talks in Islamabad that ended in an impasse. He accused Tehran of extortion, referring to the fees charged to vessels seeking to traverse the strategically vital waterway.

“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” the US president stated on Truth Social, threatening not to deny “safe passage” to ships that have complied with Iranian requirements.

According to Trump, the US Navy will also begin a minesweeping operation in the strategically important waterway, threatening to destroy vessels obstructing the effort. Tehran, for its part, has insisted that any attempts by enemy warships to operate in the strait will be met with force.

US Vice President J.D. Vance, who led the US delegation during the failed Islamabad negotiations, said on Sunday that Iran had “chosen not to accept our terms.” 

A source close to the Iranian delegation told Fars that Washington was “looking for an excuse” to walk away, adding that Tehran refused the US conditions on the Strait of Hormuz, peaceful nuclear energy, and other core issues, and added that Iran has no plans for further talks.

Commenting on the failed talks in Islamabad, Trump claimed that the Iranian negotiators “were very unyielding” on uranium enrichment, the “single most important issue” to the US.

Key developments:

• US Vice President J.D. Vance, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and the rest of the US negotiating team have left Pakistan, according to media reports. 

• The IDF has been instructed to assume a “heightened state of readiness” in anticipation of a resumption of the hostilities, Israeli media reports. 

• Trump has said he ordered the US Navy to remove Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM earlier announced that the US Navy destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen and USS Michael Murphy crossed the waterway and operated in the Arabian Gulf as part of the mission.
  
  

• Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari has denied US claims of a minesweeping operation in Hormuz, insisting that any vessel seeking to pass through the key waterway requires permission from the Iranian armed forces.

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

NASA’s Artemis II astronauts have safely returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California and closing out the first crewed journey around the Moon in more than half a century.

The mission marks NASA’s first crewed Artemis flight and the first time people have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Aboard the Orion spacecraft were Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, the four-person crew spent around ten days testing the spacecraft and its systems on a lunar flyby designed to help pave the way for future missions.

During the mission, Artemis II set a new distance record for human spaceflight, with NASA saying the crew surpassed the mark set by Apollo 13.

Orion's main parachute has deployed. The spacecraft has a system of 11 chutes that will slow it down from around 300 mph to 20 mph for splashdown.

Get more updates on the Artemis II blog: https://t.co/7gicm7DWBt pic.twitter.com/ReXHTfkFld

— NASA (@NASA) April 11, 2026

The astronauts also conducted a high-profile flyby of the Moon’s far side and captured dramatic images of the Moon and Earth during the return leg.

Artemis II may have splashed down, but our photos and videos from the mission are still rolling in! Keep an eye on the latest: https://t.co/rzM1P0QbOl pic.twitter.com/HahXb0gCYC

— NASA (@NASA) April 11, 2026

The final descent was among the most critical phases of the flight. Orion hit Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed, endured extreme heating during reentry, then slowed under parachutes before splashing down.

The crew module on Orion has separated from its service module. After traveling around the Moon, seeing its far side, and experiencing a solar eclipse, the Artemis II astronauts are on the last leg of their trip home. pic.twitter.com/j9u5j1Noi9

— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026

NASA and US Navy recovery teams were positioned to retrieve the spacecraft and crew after landing.

After a journey of more than 690,000 miles, the crew is nearly home.

The Artemis II crew will splash down off the coast of San Diego later today and, though it won’t be visible from land, you can still wave in their general direction to welcome them back to Earth! 👋 pic.twitter.com/ZZX23QCTpb

— NASA (@NASA) April 10, 2026

Artemis II did not land on the Moon, but NASA described it as a crucial test of the systems needed to send astronauts farther into deep space and eventually back to the Moon.

The mission’s results are expected to shape the next steps in the Artemis campaign, including future crewed lunar operations.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the head of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), on Friday and stressed that no global changes would stop “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” including its people across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan became a de facto self-governed territory after Chinese nationalist forces lost in the civil war against the communists and fled to the island in 1949. Beijing considers Taiwan an inalienable part of its territory under the One China principle, which the overwhelming majority of UN member states adhere to.

The opposition leader arrived on the mainland on Tuesday at Xi’s invitation. Taiwan’s ruling DPP condemned the visit, but Cheng Li-wun described it as a peace-building mission – the first event of the kind in a decade.

“We welcome any proposals conducive to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and will spare no effort to advance any endeavors that promote such development,” Xi said in a speech at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, adding that forces promoting “Taiwan independence” are the primary instigators of tensions in the region.

“No matter how the international landscape and the situation across the Taiwan Strait may evolve, the overarching trend toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will not change,” Xi said.

Cheng’s rapprochement visit comes ahead of an expected summit between Xi and US President Donald Trump, which was earlier postponed due to the Iran war.

They may appear to be innocuous – even elegant – on the landscape as they collect power from the currents, but wind turbines have their own set of problems that environmentalists wish to ignore due to their eco-virtue-signaling.

As environmentalists look at a sprawling field of wind turbines as ‘good for the environment’ – unlike giant smokestacks on the horizon emitting noxious greenhouse gases into the air – the dangers inherent to wind energy are mostly invisible from a distance. Take a closer look, however, and it becomes quickly apparent that wind farms come with their own high cost to the environment and our health.

In a new report, it has been estimated that close to a million balsa hardwood trees are being illegally logged in the Amazon rainforest every year to support the hefty demand for wind turbines around the world. Balsa is a lightweight but durable wood that is regularly used in the production of the massive turbine blades. Each set of three blades requires up to 40 trees to produce.

Balsa is a relatively rapid-growing tropical wood and until the mounting demand from turbines began, it was safely harvested in sustainable plantations. But since a few short decades ago, the harvest could no longer keep up with demand as the clear-cutting of this precious commodity surges. In a critical survey, the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) found that exports were increased by up to 50% following illegal logging in virgin rainforests.

In 2020, it was reported that over 20,000 balsa trees were illegally cut down from March to September in the Achuar indigenous territory along Ecuador’s Copataza River. Ecuador produces over 90% of the balsa in the world, with annual exports averaging 56,000 tons from 2013 to 2022. Other studies point to excessive illegal logging, with some estimates noting the removal of 75% of the trees in some areas.

“These inefficient, unreliable, unsightly monsters require a large footprint on land and sea, kill millions of bats, decimate raptor populations, sweep the air of quadrillions of insects and alter local ecology on both land and sea,” Chris Morrison of The Daily Sceptic writes. “Nobody would install one in a free market, so they require vast financial subsidies to produce expensive electricity.”

Another problem arises from the waste derived from these monstrosities. Wind turbines have a life expectancy of just 20 to 30 years, at which point they must be disassembled and hauled away (compare that to the lengthy life span of a coal-burning plant). When they are put out of commission, the towers and nacelles contain recyclable metals like steel, zinc, and copper. For the massive blades, which are about the size of a Boeing 747 wing, it’s a different story. Most are constructed from fiberglass-reinforced composites that are difficult and expensive to recycle, and many end up in garbage dumps.

Others point to the disruption of scenic landscapes – “industrialization of the countryside” as it has been called – that comes with sprawling wind farms. Some wind farms are opposed for potentially spoiling protected scenic areas, archaeological landscapes, and heritage sites. A 2017 report by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland concluded that wind farms harmed tourism in areas known for natural landscapes and panoramic views.

As the author pointed out, “our hills and wild places are small and finite. They deserve better than yet another short-term wave of degradation and exploitation... to produce profit for often-distant companies and shareholders.”

That sounds like an appropriate epitaph for this questionable energy source that falls far short of its myriad promises.

American journalist Tucker Carlson has said an Israeli strike targeting RT correspondent Steve Sweeney in Lebanon was an “attempted assassination,” as he spoke with the reporter about the attack and his work in conflict zones.

Sweeney and cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity were injured last month when an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at their filming position near the Al-Qasmiya Bridge in southern Lebanon, close to a local army base. The crew, who were wearing clearly marked press gear, said the jet “deliberately attacked” them, with Rida’s camera capturing the moment the blast struck less than 10 meters behind Sweeney as he ducked for cover.

In the interview, released by Carlson on Friday, he told viewers that the strike was “an attempted assassination.” Sweeney said they “were incredibly lucky to come out of that situation alive.”

Sweeney said the munition, which he identified as a GBU-38 bomb fired from an F-16 fighter jet, passed through a hole in the bridge which was already destroyed, arguing that there was “no military objective” in striking it again. He described the attack as “an assassination attempt by Israel to silence the voices on the ground, to silence the truth.”

“I have complete freedom to report exactly what I want, and nobody tells me what to say,” Sweeney said regarding his work at RT. He noted that RT is banned in the US and EU, while Western broadcasters are still allowed to operate and question officials inside Russia.

Sweeney told Carlson that despite the near-fatal strike in Lebanon, he has “no intention of leaving” the country or stopping his work.

There is a time for goodbye – and a time for reunion.

When foreign companies beat a hasty retreat from Russia in 2022 amid the Ukraine conflict, they framed their departures as a moral necessity.

In truth, for many, it was a costly act of panic: Abrupt, politically driven, and strategically short-sighted.

Now, as the global business climate is tempered by a more sober reality, the moment has come for foreign multinationals to reconsider – true to the old wisdom that illness is best treated early, before it turns chronic.

Returning to Russia is not merely an opportunity for commercial redemption; it is a strategic imperative for those seeking long-term relevance in one of the world’s most critical markets – and an exceptional opportunity for first-time entrants far-sighted and bold enough to seize it.

The Great Exodus: Wandering into the commercial desert

In the aftermath of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, hundreds of multinational corporations suspended or terminated their operations in Russia, while the smarter ones chose to stay.

Household names in consumer goods, automotive, retail, and food service exited with dramatic announcements, citing reputational concerns, stakeholder pressure, or political uncertainty.

Yet the consequences were severe.

For a host of companies, departure meant surrendering years – sometimes decades – of investment in market development, infrastructure, local partnerships, and customer loyalty.

Businesses sold assets at steep discounts, abandoned supply chains and sales networks painstakingly built over extended periods, and ceded market share to domestic competitors or foreign rivals eager to fill the vacuum. In doing so, they consigned themselves to navigating a diminished global business landscape of their own making. McDonald’s offers a vivid example.

In 1990, the iconic burger chain became the first US fast-food chain to establish a presence in the Soviet Union. It soon grew into one of Russia’s most prestigious employers, while its restaurants became landmark venues for family celebrations and even wedding feasts.

When McDonald’s precipitously concluded that operating in Russia no longer aligned with its values, it left behind 850 restaurants and 62,000 jobs across the country. The withdrawal meant abandoning a market that, together with Ukraine, had generated around 9% of its global revenues and cost McDonald’s an estimated $1.2-$1.4 billion in earnings charges. Yet the greater loss was strategic.

Business systems cannot simply be reassembled by flipping a switch. Once forfeited, rebuilding market position is path-dependent: With capabilities dismantled, local replacements rooted, and habits transformed, the business must be reconstituted from scratch.

Russia also had to absorb costs. Consumers were deprived of familiar brands, workers lost jobs, and sectors dependent on foreign expertise faced disruption. But the market void proved short-lived.

Russian companies swiftly adapted and claimed the ground multinationals abandoned, giving rise to a new generation of domestic businesses – stronger, more confident, and politically ascendant.

McDonald’s former Russian business now operates successfully under the domestic brand Vkusno i Tochka, created by Aleksandr Govor, a Siberian entrepreneur who took over its assets in 2022. He stands as a powerful new incumbent with whom McDonald’s must first come to terms before returning to Russia.

The Great Return: Reentering the land of commercial promise

For multinational corporations, the strategic rationale for return is compelling.

Companies owe their duties not to political fashion, but to their stakeholders at home and abroad: Shareholders seeking profit, employees seeking security, customers seeking choice, and host countries that enabled their growth.

Russia remains a major, geoeconomically pivotal economy with vast natural resources, abundant human capital, solid industrial capacity, and substantial consumer demand.

Those who return now can still gain an early mover advantage.

The first wave of returners will enjoy the best chance to reclaim valuable lost ground before markets become permanently reorganized and definitively occupied by domestic and foreign rivals alike. Delay carries a heavy price: Every quarter spent waiting strengthens competitors and weakens the returning company’s negotiating leverage.

Business history offers countless examples of late returners paying more for re-entry than they saved by leaving. In commerce, as in life, reconciliation is easiest before distance hardens into permanence.

The rallying cry, then, is unmistakenly clear: Better late than never, but earlier is always better – for in medicine no less than in business, the sooner the diagnosis and intervention, the surer the cure.

After apartheid ended, South Africa chose reconciliation over retribution through its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 1995 under the leadership of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and backed by prisoner-turned-President Nelson Mandela.

Rather than pursuing blanket punishment, the TRC created a structured process through which perpetrators of politically motivated abuses could receive amnesty if they fully disclosed their actions and accepted responsibility.

Its success rested on several factors: Differentiation between degrees of responsibility, public acknowledgment of harm, conditional forgiveness, and a forward-looking commitment to national rebuilding.

The benefits proved significant: The strife-torn country created a moral basis for coexistence, enabled peaceful reintegration, and avoided cycles of revenge. Inevitably, however, the undertaking also had drawbacks, including perceptions that some offenders escaped full justice and that material reparations were uneven.

Russia, which can prosper without foreign companies yet stands to gain from their presence, can draw on South Africa’s example by pioneering a Commercial Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CTRC).

Rules for Russia: Reconciliation, not retribution

Russia should manage the return of foreign companies with pragmatism, not resentment, applying in business what South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation model achieved in politics: Distinguish degrees of responsibility, document harm honestly, and favor constructive reintegration over vengeance.

First, Russia should craft and institute an innovative, differentiated integration approach.

Not all departing companies acted alike. Some, administered by technocrats, withdrew reluctantly under pressure from governments, media, financiers, or activist shareholders. Others, driven by ideologues, embraced overt, dogmatic hostility toward Russia. They harmed Russian stakeholders by failing to honor financial obligations, such as employee payments, and product commitments, such as spare-parts supply. These cases should not be treated identically.

Companies that exited without inflammatory rhetoric and preserved respectful relations with Russian partners – the ‘benign penitents’ – should qualify for fast-track reintegration: Broad amnesty, formal ‘homecomer’ status (a symbolic recognition for constructive re-engagement) and expedited approvals. A dedicated one-stop ‘Corporate Welcome Center’ (CWC) could seamlessly oversee and streamline the entire reintegration process.

For more hostile, Russia-phobic actors, forgiveness should still prevail – but clemency must be conditional upon acceptance of responsibility. Companies that inflicted deliberate political and economic damage should remain eligible for rehabilitation and return under the auspices of the CWC.

Reentry, however, should only be permitted after documented review of the harm occasioned and appropriate compensation or restitution whenever warranted. As in South Africa, the goal should be not punishment for its own sake, but the careful balancing of accountability with pragmatic reintegration under a stable framework.

Second, Russia must also involve domestic buyers who acquired foreign assets. These companies helped stabilize the economy during disruption and deserve a decisive role in shaping future win-win arrangements, whether through licensing deals, reciprocal market-access agreements, or joint ventures.

Third, Russia should consolidate and deepen the economic and technological gains achieved since 2022. In particular, efforts aimed at building critical domestic capacity to bolster strategic resilience must continue. Reentry should strengthen the system, not recreate past dependencies, especially in vital sectors such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and aviation.

The leaders of returning companies, for their part, must recognize that reentry requires a fundamentally different bearing. They must embrace a novel business philosophy and radically rethink how they engage with Russia. Early intervention yields the best outcomes.

First: Discard ideology. Markets are built on commercial logic, not political hysteria. Russia is too important to be treated as a temporary moral theater.

Second: Return with humility. Companies that departed – especially abruptly, and in a time of crisis – have damaged trust. Rebuilding credibility requires genuine contrition, candid acknowledgment of fault, patient long-term commitment, and sincere respect toward Russian workers, consumers, and institutions.

Third: Create mutual benefit. The homecoming should neither be motivated by self-centered, profit-driven opportunism nor be cloaked in self-congratulatory gestures of corporate charity, but embody an authentic partnership centered on reciprocal gain.

Foreign companies that invest in technology transfer, local production, workforce training, and export collaboration will garner a warmer reception than those seeking only quick profits.

Truth and Reconciliation 2.0: Reunion, not reversal

The Romans put it plainly: A certain friend is discerned in uncertain times.

After the initial rupture of friendship, the story of foreign business in Russia is no longer one of departure. It is now a test of whether companies from abroad possess the strategic maturity to recognize their mistakes and appreciate the new realities – at a moment when truth and reconciliation are wiser than self-deluding, ruinously stubborn absence and estrangement.

The way back to Russia’s commercial promised land is invitingly open, and those who enter first will reap the richest harvest. By contrast, as every physician knows, delay is rarely the ally of recovery and only narrows the path to cure.

There is a time for goodbye. And there is a time for reunion.

For foreign multinationals seeking moral redemption and corporate rebirth, that time is now.

Dobro pozhalovat to the pascal land of milk, honey – and market share.

A recently analyzed 250 million-year-old fossil has shown that early mammals laid eggs, according to a paper published in the PLOS One journal on Thursday.

While some examples of egg-laying mammals exist today, such as the platypus and the echidnas, scientists have spent decades looking for proof of this in earlier ancestors.

According to South African Professor Jennifer Botha, one of the scientists behind the breakthrough research, the fossil was discovered in 2008, but could not be analyzed for years without cutting-edge and delicate scanning methods.

“It became clear that it was a perfectly curled-up Lystrosaurus hatchling. I suspected even then that it had died within the egg, but at the time, we simply didn’t have the technology to confirm it,” she said in a statement cited by phys.org.

With the use of advanced synchrotron X-ray CT scanning, which uses a particle accelerator to create extremely high-resolution non-destructive 3D images, the delicate fossil could be studied in depth.

Lystrosaurus was a herbivorous mammal ancestor which survived and then thrived in the tumultuous period after the End-Permian Mass Extinction around 252 million years ago, which is believed to have wiped out up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of land vertebrates on Earth. The catastrophe is theorized to have been caused by massive volcanic eruptions and resulting coal burning, which caused rapid global warming, and left a world of extreme heat and environmental instability.

Judging by the development and properties of the hatchling, the Lystrosaurus likely did not produce milk but laid large eggs, which are more resistant to drying out in a hot, arid environment, according to Botha’s Witwatersrand University.

Its young likely hatched at an advanced stage of development, ready to feed themselves and thrive in the hostile world following the worst extinction event in history.

The EU is sliding into a fuel crisis driven by a global supply shock caused by the US-Israeli attack on Iran. It has already triggered protests, early signs of shortages, and warnings of the wider economic impact.

This has resulted from the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global energy shipments. Oil prices surged above $120 per barrel during the escalation, and while crude fell below the $100 mark after a two-week US-Iran ceasefire was announced on April 7, it remains well above the $70 level before the war. Prices have remained volatile amid uncertainty over the truce and continued disruption to shipping through the strait.

Why has diesel become more expensive than gasoline?

The European market has shifted toward higher diesel consumption following decades of tax policies that lowered diesel taxes compared to gasoline.

The EU’s refining system produces a different mix of fuels than the market consumes. A barrel of crude oil typically yields about 40-50% gasoline, but only around 30–40% diesel and jet fuel combined, with the rest made up of heavier products.

This mismatch has left the bloc structurally short of diesel. The region is a major net exporter of gasoline but relies on imports for a significant share of its diesel and jet fuel.

Diesel has traded above gasoline prices at the pump in several EU countries.

Why are farmers and truckers protesting?

Rising diesel prices are hitting sectors most dependent on the fuel, particularly agriculture and road freight. The EU’s transport sector is facing a “fast-moving diesel shock,” according to logistics platform Logifie.

Ireland has become the most visible flashpoint of the crisis. Fuel protests have spread nationwide since this past Tuesday, led by farmers, truckers and transport workers, disrupting supply chains and transport networks, according to local media.

Blockades have strained fuel distribution, with queues forming at petrol stations with some running dry amid panic buying. On Thursday, the government called in the army to clear the blockades.

During a protest march in Dublin on Friday, demonstrators carried a coffin with “RIP Ireland” written on it.

Fuel protesters now leaving O’Connell Street for Kildare Street, carrying a coffin pic.twitter.com/5tbT6wkMNL

— Nicky Ryan (@NickyRyan_) April 10, 2026

What do jet fuel shortages mean for summer travel?

Airports across Europe could face “systemic” jet fuel shortages within three weeks if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, according to a letter sent by an airport industry group to the European Commission, as cited by the Independent.

According to Corriere della Sera, “some airports on the continent have been experiencing shortages in jet fuel quantities for days without officially reporting it.” The outlet cited its sources on Friday as saying that “it’s such a sensitive issue that official talk remains tight-lipped,” adding that Brussels is hoping the truce between the US and Iran will hold.

The war in the Middle East has delivered a major global energy supply “shock” that will push up prices further and leave the world economy facing weaker growth, the IMF has warned. 

The US-Israeli attack on Iran and subsequent Iranian retaliatory strikes across the region, including on energy infrastructure, have stressed global markets, driving oil prices higher and raising fuel costs. The conflict has effectively choked flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route that accounts for a significant part of global oil and gas supply. 

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday that the turmoil amounts to a negative supply shock that is “large, global and asymmetric,” hitting countries differently depending on their reliance on imported fuel.  

Global daily oil flows have fallen by about 13% and LNG shipments by some 20%, she said, warning that even the IMF’s “most hopeful scenario” now involves a “downgrade” to world growth. 

“Had it not been for this shock, we would have been upgrading,” Georgieva said, adding that infrastructure damage, supply disruptions and loss of confidence will leave lasting “scars” on the global economy. 

A further 45 million people have been pushed into food insecurity as a result of the escalation, taking the total number facing hunger to more than 360 million worldwide, according to the IMF. 

The grim outlook comes as Washington and Tehran are expected to hold high-stake peace talks in Pakistan this weekend, after they agreed a two-week ceasefire late on Tuesday. Iran says any ceasefire must include Lebanon, which has been heavily bombarded by Israel this week. The scaled-up attacks, which killed hundreds and wounded more than 1,100, have raised concerns that the Iran ceasefire could be derailed.

Viktor Orban will most likely win the upcoming parliamentary elections in Hungary on April 12; however, for the ruling party, this will be an extremely difficult and hard-fought victory.

The issue is not the loss of charisma by the bright and skillful long-standing leader of Fidesz, nor even the 25% inflation the country experienced in 2023, but rather a shift in the focus of Hungarians’ historical memory. A new generation has grown up within a different historical paradigm and wants a change in political reality, even if this entails foreign-policy and reputational risks for the country.

Walking through the streets of Budapest these days, one gets the sense of two political realities coexisting. In one, there are blue billboards of the ruling Fidesz party with slogans like “Stop war!”, featuring the faces of opponents and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky labeled as a “danger.” In the other, there are rallies of the Tisza party, without party bureaucratic elites but featuring young people in Hungarian national dress carrying EU flags, with photos of the party’s young leader displayed on the hills of Buda. Budapest, like other Hungarian cities, is preparing for the parliamentary elections this Sunday, drawing the attention of political elites from around the world.

Peter Magyar: Not just a boy

The main intrigue and driving force of the current political campaign is the young energy of the Tisza party, particularly its leader with the resonant name Peter Magyar (literally “Peter Hungarian”). Notably, Magyar, who presents himself as a conservative liberal, comes from the very heart of the Fidesz system and Hungary’s highly closed elite. He is the former husband of Judit Varga, who served as the country’s minister of justice in 2019-2023, a great-nephew of Ferenc Madl, Hungary’s president from 2000 to 2005, and the grandson of a former Supreme Court member; his parents also held high-ranking positions in national legal institutions. He speaks the language of Fidesz about national interests, family, a “new homeland,” and a “modern European country” where one can live well and raise children. At the same time, his main criticism of the current ruling system focuses on corruption within the governing party and the need to overcome the entrenched division between right and left that has existed since the early 2000s.

Elections 2026

It can be stated that the real gap between the parties is around 2–3%. Orban draws support from villages and rural areas, while Magyar holds the more progressive Budapest (both halves: the elite Buda and the more relaxed Pest) and other large Hungarian cities where younger populations live and work. Polling data varies depending on the research institute. According to the Hungarian pollster Median, which predicted Orban’s victory in 2022, Tisza leads with 58% against Fidesz’s 35%. The opposition Research Center 21 shows 56% for Tisza and 37% for Fidesz, while the pro-government Nezopont Institute suggests 46% for Fidesz versus 40% for Tisza.

The intensity of the race is also influenced by Hungary’s complex electoral system, where districts are drawn to include both a liberal urban area and several conservative villages. The voting system is mixed, but under its rules, a candidate can win a mandate even with a one-vote advantage, and there is also a ‘winner compensation’ mechanism, where surplus votes for the winner are added to the party list. While this system has previously helped Orbán and Fidesz secure victories, in the current tight race it could work against them. Thus, the question of who will win remains open until the final vote count.

Economy

At first glance, Hungary’s main problems lie in the economic sphere. In 2023, the country experienced the highest inflation in the EU, peaking at 25%, with food prices rising by about 50% in what is de facto a wealthy agricultural country. The situation is worsened by Orban’s conflict with the European Commission, which has frozen more than €19 billion in EU funds owed to Hungary – which amounts to nearly 10% of the country’s GDP.

Magyar claims he could unlock the frozen funds within a month, which would help stabilize the economy and ease social tensions.

Trianon and ‘Deep Hungary’

It is important to understand that Hungarian society is entering a new phase of development. Throughout the 20th century, it was shaped by a sense of deep historical injustice stemming from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the humiliating Treaty of Trianon (1920), which stripped Hungary of two-thirds of its territory.

Even being in the Soviet orbit was not as painful for this formerly imperial society as the loss of territories inhabited by ethnic Hungarians to neighboring states. This does not mean Hungarians have forgotten the suppressed 1956 uprising, but the trauma of Trianon still evokes sentiment and, among some – primarily older rural populations – a desire to ‘take back’ regions like Transcarpathia or parts of Transylvania, which they believe belonged to Hungary for a thousand years.

The euphoria of “returning to Europe” and joining the EU in 2004 has been tempered by difficult and unfavorable economic and agricultural conditions within the EU, as well as challenges integrating into negotiation structures that often disadvantage newer member states. This has fueled feelings of injustice and disappointment, tied to the perception that major political decisions are now made not in Budapest, but in Berlin, Paris, and Brussels. Big politics is inaccessible to small states.

However, historical memory has its limits. A new generation of Hungarians, raised during the country’s integration into the EU and accustomed to free movement across Europe and the world, seeks a more pragmatic and comfortable approach to life and development. They are more cynical about life and family and do not relate to the ‘phantom pains’ of Trianon. Young Hungary increasingly operates with the mindset of a small country navigating within the orbit of major global powers.

This is the core drama of the current elections: two competing visions of how to live in the modern world and within an emerging global order. Which path conservative Hungary will choose will soon become clear. In conclusion, the current difficulties faced by Fidesz signal to Hungary’s ruling elites the impossibility of rewriting history or reversing the course of events already set in motion.

Hunter Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, has challenged President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons to a “cage match,” in an Instagram video published by content creator Andrew Callahan.

Biden, 56, called out Donald Trump Jr., 48, and Eric Trump, 42, with the president’s sons yet to publicly respond.

“I just got a call from Andrew Callahan… He’s trying to organize a cage match, me versus Eric and Don Jr. I told him I’d do it, 100% in,” Biden said in the video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Channel Five (@channel5)

The popular YouTuber told USA Today that the ex-president’s son had likely made the suggestion “in jest.” However, he is willing to facilitate the fight if Trump’s two eldest sons are “willing to engage Hunter in mutual combat.”

Last year, Melania Trump threatened to sue Hunter over his claim that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to her husband.

The cover-up of a major scandal involving Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he forgot in a Delaware repair shop in 2019, contributed to his father winning in the 2020 election, according to President Trump. The leaked contents of the laptop potentially implicated the Biden family in several foreign corruption schemes.

As one of his last and more controversial decisions as president, Joe Biden granted a sweeping pardon to Hunter, who was convicted in 2024 of breaching federal gun and tax laws.

The pardon covered any offenses Hunter “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” It covers the time period of Hunter’s crimes and his tenure on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, when his father was in charge of US policy in Kiev during the Obama administration.

Germany has rejected 95% of all new asylum applications from Syrian migrants following a policy reassessment of the Middle Eastern country, according to media reports, citing an official document.

The change represents a stark reversal from the peak of the influx in 2014-2015, when recognition rates for Syrians frequently exceeded 90%. Germany emerged as a primary destination for Syrians fleeing war, driven by the open-door policy of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The country has since become home to one of the largest Syrian diasporas in Europe, with estimates putting the population at close to 1 million.

The figures come from a German government reply to a parliamentary inquiry by Left party lawmaker Clara Bunger, reported by multiple media outlets on Thursday.

According to the document, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is now applying stricter case-by-case assessments. In October 2025, the BAMF ruled on 3,134 Syrian asylum applications, granting protection to just 26 applicants across all categories. Recognition rates reportedly remain higher for some minorities, including Yazidis, Christians, and Alawites.

After meeting al-Sharaa in Berlin in late March, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said up to 80% of Syrians living in Germany could return home over the next three years, describing it as part of a joint effort to support reconstruction.

Merz later backtracked, saying the figure was proposed by the Syrian side – a claim that al-Sharaa said was exaggerated and did not reflect his position.

The government’s shift in migration policy comes amid pressure from right-wing parties, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which portrays migrants, particularly from outside Europe, as a burden on public services and a driver of crime and social strife.

It also follows a series of violent crimes involving asylum seekers, including a 2024 knife attack in Solingen in which a Syrian national fatally stabbed three people and injured eight others.

Israel has carried out multiple strikes across Lebanon over the past 24 hours, fueling fears that the escalating violence could unravel a fragile two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran.

The expanded offensive in Lebanon since March 2 has killed 1,888 people and wounded 6,092 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It says the April 8 bombardment alone involved “over 100 strikes within minutes,” leaving more than 300 dead and in excess of 1,100 injured.

RT’s Steve Sweeney, who, along with his cameraman Ali Rida, was caught up in this week’s Israeli strikes on central Beirut, reports from the Lebanese capital on the aftermath, where shattered residential buildings, children’s school bags and household belongings lie scattered in the rubble, and the seafront is filled with displaced families sheltering in makeshift tents. 

Residents live with an “overwhelming sense of anxiety,” fearing that “every sound” could signal another strike, he says.

The EU has sharply increased its purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the first quarter of 2026 even as it insists it will phase out Russian energy by the end of next year, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

According to Kpler data cited by the outlet, the EU’s imports from Russia’s Yamal LNG project in Siberia rose 17% year-on-year to 5 million tons in Q1, with the bloc spending an estimated €2.9 billion ($3.1 billion). The EU took 69 of 71 shipments – or 97% – including 25 in March alone, compared to 59 of 68 shipments (87%) in the same period of 2025.

The surge shows there is “no appetite from European buyers to stop buying Russian LNG,” Sebastian Roetters of environmental NGO Urgewald told FT.

The conflict has severely disrupted flows through the Strait of Hormuz – a key chokepoint handling about 20% of global seaborne oil and LNG – and hit Gulf energy infrastructure, driving a surge in LNG prices. Asian spot rates and European TTF nearly doubled before easing after the April 8 ceasefire, but both remain well above pre-conflict levels.

Moscow has echoed the warnings. According to Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, “Europe and Britain will beg for Russian energy” as the crisis deepens, arguing that the bloc is unprepared for a “long-lasting energy shock” due to its failure to diversify supplies – a shortfall he blamed on “Russophobic, Green, and woke ideology.” Reacting to an FT report on X, he added: “As predicted, Europe needs Russia to survive.”

As predicted, Europe needs Russia to survive. https://t.co/v0z7HuPIh0

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) April 10, 2026

In late March and early April, Ukraine launched a series of drone strikes against the Baltic ports in Ust-Luga and Primorsk, as well as oil terminals on the south of the country in the city of Novorossiysk. This was clearly an attempt to disrupt Russia’s ability to export petroleum products. Additionally, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have targeted other Russian regions to inflict further damage to the oil and gas industry and strain Russia’s air defense network tasked with protecting critical infrastructure. 

Given the current global situation, increasing exports of petroleum products would provide Russia with much-needed revenue. This income could help offset losses from Western sanctions and stabilize economic growth. Of course, these additional revenues would also benefit Russia’s military-industrial complex, a fact that Kiev is undoubtedly aware of.

Ukraine’s intensified strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure, particularly export terminals, aim to reduce Russia’s export capacity. A secondary goal may be to influence the media narrative by demonstrating the AFU’s enhanced strike capabilities. The third objective involves depleting the missile stockpiles of Russia’s missile defense systems through massive drone attacks.

Routes, tactics, and technological edge

In March 2026, the AFU set a record for long-range drone usage. According to Western sources, Ukraine deployed over 7,000 drones. This has been possible due to the mass production of relatively inexpensive drones of various types, with a range of up to 1,500km. Notably, the cost of these drones is quite low, and Ukraine faces no shortage of components, as sanctions and other restrictions do not hinder this supply chain. Drone manufacturing can be decentralized, with some production potentially taking place outside Ukraine. Final assembly likely occurs in several facilities in various locations, disguised as ordinary manufacturing or logistics centers. Clearly, the mass production of drones is a major state industrial effort that also involves commercial companies.

While the flight paths of drones from Ukraine to Novorossiysk raise no questions, the routes by which the drones reached locations as remote from Ukraine as Ust-Luga in Russia's northern Leningrad Region remain less clear.

Several hypotheses exist regarding the flight paths of Ukrainian drones. One hypothetical route extends from northern Ukraine, over Russian territory along the eastern border of Belarus to Leningrad Region, and then onward to the Baltic ports. This route is supported by data on air-raid alerts in western Russia and various accounts. The use of Belarusian airspace is theoretically possible, yet Belarus possesses a robust air defense and detection system. If drones were to infringe upon its airspace, it seems likely that such incidents would be reported.

There is also another interesting hypothesis: the drones may be taking a roundabout route through Poland and the Baltic states, then flying over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea to approach the ports from the sea. The absence of surface-to-air missile defense systems over the sea lends some credence to this theory, especially considering the reports of drones crashing in the Baltic states and in Finland. It’s also quite possible that NATO countries may allow drones to be routed through their territory. However, this theory lacks ample supporting evidence, and the Russian Foreign Ministry’s response came only several days later and included no substantial details.

Considering the current advancements in autonomous navigation systems, it seems more likely that the drones were routed through Russian territory, using the natural characteristics of the terrain to approach targets from unexpected angles. Drones routed over the sea may be easier to detect – though that’s not always the case. For example, it wasn’t easy for air defense systems to detect drones traveling over the Black Sea.

As a conspiracy theory, one could speculate about the installation of radio beacons in Russia or neighboring countries to enhance the navigation of attacking drones under conditions of electronic countermeasures against existing navigation systems. This is technically possible and does not necessarily violate airspace, although it would require an intelligence network. I believe the military has already figured out how the drones reached their targets. 

So, what steps should be taken to defend against such attacks? What scenarios and methods need to be implemented for effective protection?

The main priority is timely detection. Lightweight drones with piston engines are notoriously difficult to track with traditional airspace radar. However, they can be spotted visually and detected by the sound of their engines. Given that these drones have been in widespread use for some time, appropriate detection measures should be deployed. I hope this issue is being addressed at a level beyond volunteer initiatives, as part of the country’s air defense. 

The second task involves informing all relevant parties about threats. All the structural elements of the army’s missile defense forces must have real-time access to information on detected drones, their flight paths, and potential targets. This will enable swift countermeasures – deploying mobile units, preparing weapons, providing targeting data, and organizing layered defense. This should be the responsibility of a unified governmental structure within the armed forces; departmental or regional units aren’t efficient enough for this mission. Ultimately, the devices used to communicate this information to end users should be simple and user-friendly tablets, not multi-ton trucks. I believe this work is already underway and in the testing phase.

Finally, the third task is the destruction of the drones. On the one hand, any means necessary can be employed; on the other hand, using traditional surface-to-air missile systems (SAMs) isn’t always justified. Firstly, conventional SAMs may not be effective against small, lightweight drones. Secondly, the cost of a missile is many times higher than that of the drone itself.

This is one of the most pressing modern challenges: cheap drone attacks can financially devastate advanced missile defense systems. This is a global issue that affects all technologically advanced nations.

There are several options, each with its pros and cons. The most cost-effective solution in terms of firing costs is laser weaponry. The expense per shot can be measured in mere dollars. However, the systems themselves can cost millions of dollars. Moreover, lasers have limitations regarding range; as the distance to the target increases, the beam’s power significantly diminishes. These large, energy-intensive systems are stationary and primarily serve as a last line of defense. Nonetheless, they can effectively neutralize drones, cruise missiles, guided bombs, and other types of munitions.

Specialized interceptor drones are another promising and already deployed solution. Almost every nation focusing on drone defense is currently developing and implementing such interceptors. They are relatively low-cost, but they do come with a significant drawback: due to their design, they carry very small payloads or rely on kinetic interception – i.e., engage the target through high-speed physical impact. When deployed en masse, however, interceptor drones can prove effective in certain areas and situations. 

Lightweight, short-range surface-to-air missiles are another option. These missiles can utilize both radar and laser guidance; target illumination can originate from the launch platform or a separate carrier. They can be fired from specialized systems like the Pantsir missile system, as well as from aircraft, similar to American APKWS missiles. Their costs are comparable to those of long-range drones.

Additionally, we must consider the tactical construction of air defense. Ideally, we wouldn’t know exactly how this is organized – when it comes to missile defense, all armies protect their tactical secrets. However, it’s reasonable to assume that an effective air defense strategy combines layered stationary defense with mobile air defense units that establish operational lines in directions that are deemed a threat. In this regard, having a comprehensive and accurate picture of the air situation in the region would be invaluable – without such information, mobile units might prove entirely ineffective.

***

The massive waves of Ukrainian drone attacks have become a real test for Russia’s air defense system. Steps have already been taken to enhance both detection and response capabilities against such attacks. Efforts are continuously underway to modernize existing systems and develop new weapons designed to target lightweight drones. Tactics for countering large-scale drone swarms are being refined, and the production of ammunition for these systems is ramping up. Intelligence operations aimed at locating and destroying the production, storage, and launch sites of drones are also likely a priority for the military. Such a comprehensive approach is essential for effectively addressing the threat posed by drone attacks.

Iran should not repeat the mistakes of Libya, which paid a heavy price for trusting the West, the North African country’s former information minister, Moussa Ibrahim, has warned ahead of the talks between delegations from Washington and Tehran.

The first direct meeting between the sides since the US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28 is expected to take place in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, according to the White House.

The American team will be headed by Vice President J.D. Vance, and will also include special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Tehran hasn’t announced the lineup of its delegation yet, but reports claim that it could be led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

In an interview with RT on Friday, Ibrahim – a former cabinet member under longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was deposed and murdered in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 – said that “both parties come to these negotiations with different ideas about peace and conflict.”

For Washington, it is “actually very beneficial to continue to wreak havoc in the region to make sure that any rising regional powers are under control... that the region is never united,” the ex-minister, who now serves as executive secretary of the African Legacy Foundation, insisted.

”The Americans come to these negotiations hoping to find a way to keep the conflict going, but not as escalated as it was in the last few weeks, so they would keep their face and find other ways – economic, political, diplomatic – to punish the Iranians and their friends in the region,” he added.

Ibrahim advised the authorities in Tehran “to be very careful, not to believe the American plans for peace and never to give up sovereignty and deterrence” during the talks.

The Kremlin has clarified that Russia’s Easter ceasefire is a humanitarian gesture, not a substitute for a lasting peace with Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has ordered a halt to hostilities from Saturday afternoon through Sunday.

“We want not a ceasefire, but a lasting, sustainable peace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday. “And this peace could come today, if [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky takes responsibility and makes the appropriate decision,” Peskov added, referring to Moscow’s repeated demands that Kiev withdraw its forces from Russia’s Donbass region.

Putin announced the unilateral Easter truce on Thursday, ordering Russian troops to pause offensive operations from 16:00 Moscow time on April 11 until the end of April 12. The Defense Ministry has been instructed to maintain readiness to repel any Ukrainian provocations.

“We expect the Ukrainian side to follow Russia’s lead,” the Kremlin said.

Moscow has previously declared unilateral ceasefires for Orthodox religious holidays. In 2023, Russia observed truces both during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and on Easter weekend in April at the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2025, an Easter truce was declared again, but was only partially successful as Kiev violated the pause more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Trilateral peace talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the US have been on hold for weeks due to the Iran war, with no new date set. Moscow has consistently said it remains open to negotiations but insists that any lasting settlement must address the root causes of the conflict, including Ukrainian neutrality and recognition of the Donbass republics as part of Russia.

India has described the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon after the announcement of the ceasefire in the Middle East as “disturbing.” 

On Wednesday, Israel’s attacks on Beirut claimed more than 300 lives, as the Jewish state refused to halt its offensive in Lebanon despite a truce being called in the Middle East. 

“We are deeply concerned by reports of a large number of civilian casualties in Lebanon,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday. “As a troop contributing country to the UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) that is invested in Lebanon’s peace and security, the direction of events is very disturbing.” 

❗️India Voices Deep Concern Over Civilian Casualties in Lebanon

‘As a troop-contributing country to UNIFIL that is invested in Lebanon’s peace and security, the direction of events is very disturbing,’ MEA spox Randhir Jaiswal said pic.twitter.com/XBkvBrGa7v

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 10, 2026

New Delhi has always emphasized the protection of civilians as the foremost priority, he said.   

Observing international law and respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states is essential, Jaiswal added. 

Israel stepped up air strikes across Lebanon, pounding central Beirut, just hours after the US and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire.

The escalation comes in an apparent violation of the truce, which mediators said was meant to include Lebanon, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistance that it does not apply.

India has not condemned the US and Israel for their strikes on civilian targets or the assassination of top Iranian leaders. New Delhi has instead chosen to express concern and offer condolences.    
The South Asian nation, which has strong ties with the US, Israel, and Iran has also ruled out the possibility of mediating in the conflict, but has encouraged dialogue between the warring parties.

The European Commission could suspend up to €1.5 billion ($1.78 billion) in funding earmarked for EU candidate Serbia, Politico reported on Friday.

Serbia received €586 million ($685 million) in grants from 2021 to 2024 as part of financial assistance tied to its EU accession process, while a further €1.5 billion made available conditional on reforms could be pulled, Politico said, citing four Brussels-based sources.

The Eurobureaucrats have cited concerns over perceived democratic backsliding in Serbia as the main reason for the potential move. The EU has also long pressured Belgrade to align its foreign policy with the bloc, including adopting sanctions on Russia, a longstanding Serbian partner.

The EU’s enlargement policy has increasingly taken on geopolitical significance, with critics arguing that progress toward membership can depend as much on alignment with Brussels’ strategic priorities as on institutional reforms.

Expansion shaped by opposing Russia

Serbia is among several Western Balkan countries granted EU candidate status in the early 2010s, around the time Croatia joined the bloc.

In 2023, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia were also granted candidate status. The move was widely seen as a signal of the EU’s intent to counter Russian influence, rather than purely a reflection of the readiness of these countries to meet accession standards.

Ukraine has argued that fighting a war with Russia on the West’s behalf strengthens its bid for membership, a position broadly supported by EU leadership, although no clear accession timeline has been set.

Even Poland, a staunch supporter of Kiev, opposes swift accession for Ukraine, citing various concerns, such as the disruption of common EU agricultural markets if Ukrainian farmers gain full access.

‘Nice’ and ‘naughty’ candidates

The EU’s reactions to political developments in candidate countries appear to depend on their governments’ foreign policies. In Georgia and Moldova – which held parliamentary elections in October 2024 and September 2024 respectively – opposition groups alleged irregularities, including the silencing of critical media and misuse of state powers for electoral gain.

Brussels treated the claims in Georgia as credible and indicative of democratic decline. Before the election, Georgia was accused of becoming ‘more like Russia’ by passing laws promoting social conservatism and forcing transparency of foreign political funding. Like Belgrade, Tbilisi declared neutrality in the Ukraine conflict. Georgia’s EU accession process is now effectively frozen.

In contrast, similar accusations in Moldova were largely dismissed by EU officials, who suggested they were part of Russian efforts to undermine the country’s pro-EU leadership. Some Moldovan officials support absorption of their nation by EU member Romania as a path to joining the bloc.

EU ‘worse threat’ than NATO

Russia has traditionally viewed the EU as a mostly economic project posing no military threat, unlike NATO. Russian officials have stated that Moscow does not oppose Ukraine’s EU candidacy, as long as the country remains militarily neutral.

“The EU is no longer just an economic union. It can transform, and rather quickly, into a full-blown military alliance, one overtly hostile to Russia, and in some ways worse than NATO,” Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, warned last week.

Uncertain outlook for enlargement

EU leaders are also considering changes to the enlargement rules, potentially simplifying accession in various ways. There were even discussions of a “reverse” expansion, allowing Ukraine and others to become partial members with limited rights before meeting all requirements.

In February, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama advocated in an op-ed a two-tier integration model, which would give Balkan non-members access to the EU’s market and free trade arrangement. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos rebuffed the idea.

Given the EU’s challenging economic situation, near-certainty of long-term tensions with Russia, and increasingly heavy-handed suppression of internal descent, the benefits of accession may not be as attractive as Brussels imagines.

At least 30 civilians, including women and children, were killed when a drone strike hit a wedding ceremony in a town in Sudan’s North Darfur state, the UN has said.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric condemned the attack on Kutum as “unacceptable” at a briefing on Thursday, saying civilians continue to “bear the brunt” of the escalating violence in the African nation.

“Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected in line with international humanitarian law. In South Kordofan, clashes around the town of Dilling since last Monday have reportedly killed 47 civilians and injured dozens more,” Dujarric said.

Emergency Lawyers, a local rights group monitoring the war, said the drone bombed the gathering on Wednesday and denounced the attack as a “heinous crime.”

No party immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Drone attacks have become increasingly common in war, with both the army and the paramilitary accused of targeting civilian areas.

Last month, the World Health Organization said a drone strike on Al Deain Teaching Hospital in East Darfur killed 70 people, including women, children, and medical staff, rendering a facility serving more than 2 million people out of operation.

The Middle East ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz are based on extremely shaky ground, Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi has said, adding that Israel will do everything it can to reignite war in the region.

Speaking to RT India on Thursday, Marandi, a political analyst and professor at the University of Tehran, said US President Donald Trump has been forced to accept Iran’s framework for negotiations. 

“But right now there is a spoiler, and that is [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” he added. Pointing to the pounding of Lebanon by Israeli forces, Marandi said that “this means the commitments given by the United States are not being fulfilled. And that means that we could have a continuation of the crisis.”

Marandi accused Netanyahu and his allies of wanting the global economic crisis to continue.

On the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, he said Iran would like energy flows to be back to normal.

“That is what we want. We did not start this. We were doing business as usual until this imposed war by the Trump and Netanyahu regimes took place,” Marandi added. “But we’ll have to see, because Netanyahu is violating the ceasefire agreement.”

Marandi said Iran will also watch the American stance at the negotiating table, and see if “Netanyahu and the Zionist regime are able to wreck” the ceasefire. “I have no doubt that the Zionist lobby and the Israeli regime will do whatever they can to make sure this war reignites,” he said.

Marandi said the only thing Trump and Netanyahu have achieved from their war on Iran is to create global hardship.

“We are sanctioned by the United States,” he said. “They don’t want us to use their dollar. So we would prefer ourselves to use other currencies.”

The use of the Indian, Russian, or Chinese currencies is “open for discussion,” Marandi added.

The countries in the Persian Gulf that hosted US bases and facilitated attacks on Iran “have Iranian blood on their hands… They are complicit in this war. And they betrayed their own people,” Marandi stated.

The UK’s proposed digital ID scheme has drawn criticism for not recording whether a person is male or female – traditionally a core identifier alongside name and age – after the government deemed it “not necessary” for identification.

The scheme, unveiled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year, has been pitched as a secure, free digital credential stored on smartphones to replace physical documents for identity checks. Initially planned as mandatory, it was made optional amid backlash and a petition with nearly 3 million signatures. A full rollout is planned by 2029, with draft documents stating the IDs will include name, date of birth, nationality or residency status, and a biometric photo – but not sex or gender.

“Information about sex and gender is not necessary for the intended purpose of the digital ID,” the documents state, arguing such data does not improve verification, which will rely on “programmatic” checks and “biometric authentication.”

“Having struggled for so long to define what a woman is, Labour have now decided it’s easier just to abolish the concept entirely,” Shadow Equalities Minister Claire Coutinho told GB News on Thursday. “There can be no excuse for failing to accurately record a person’s biological sex.”

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry… This is ludicrous,” former Labour MP Rosie Duffield added. “The idea that one of the most fundamental identifiers… would not even be recorded… makes a farce of the whole idea.”

Social media users echoed the criticism, accusing the government of acting out of “fear of the woke mob” and branding the initiative “a joke.”

🚨🇬🇧 Meanwhile in bat shit crazy UK - New Government Digital ID won’t state gender.

“When you told me about this, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry”

The British government tyrannical digital ID scheme, which is the steppingstone to total Government control - won’t even… pic.twitter.com/AyJJkTGCvC

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) April 9, 2026

LOL the useless government is so woke its digital ID card won’t say if you are male or female.

Because they can’t ask the question without pissing off their supporters, they’ve decided not to bother 🤣

It’s actually funny. In fact the whole thing is a joke. pic.twitter.com/brHMro3lKH

— Bernie (@Artemisfornow) April 9, 2026

The proposed scheme had already proven controversial. While supporters say it could streamline services and boost security, critics warn it risks turning the UK into a “police state.” Concerns include mass surveillance, centralized data vulnerabilities, and a potential “honeypot” for hackers. A February Ipsos poll found 40% of Britons oppose the scheme, with just 32% in favor – a sharp reversal from July 2025, when 57% supported it and 19% opposed.

The White House has issued a warning to staff against using insider information on the Iran war to trade on financial markets, several media outlets reported on Thursday, citing unnamed administration officials. 

Federal employees are barred from gambling while on government property, while federal ethics regulations prohibiting the use of non-public information for personal gain. Some major policy decisions made by US President Donald Trump have, however, been preceded by well-timed bets, prompting some experts and politicians to question whether information may have leaked in advance.

The White House Management Office reportedly sent a warning email on March 24, a day after Trump ordered a five‑day pause in planned strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure.

Multiple news outlets, citing market data, later reported that about 15 minutes before the abrupt announcement of a policy shift, futures markets saw a surge in trading activity. More than $760 million worth of oil futures contracts reportedly changed hands in under two minutes. Several reports also said three Polymarket accounts collectively earned over $600,000 after correctly anticipating the timing of this week’s ceasefire with the Islamic Republic.

There was no evidence of leaks or misuse of insider information within the administration, with one official describing the email, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, as a timely “reminder” amid discussion of large market trades.

In recent months, media reports have pointed to heightened trading around conflict-related events. Reuters reported in January that an unknown trader made about $410,000 after betting on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. 

There were also reports of users in Israel placing bets on Iranian missile strikes on Israeli territory, with some cases involving attempts to influence related reporting in order to affect betting outcomes.

Earlier this month, Polymarket apologized after public backlash over allowing bets on whether American airmen from a downed US fighter jet would be rescued from Iran.

The Hungarian government has accused Facebook of interfering in the upcoming parliamentary election scheduled for Sunday by restricting the reach of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s posts while boosting the visibility of his main rival, opposition leader Peter Magyar.

Speaking to Politico, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs claimed that Facebook’s algorithm is “basically working against the government parties.” 

He argued that Orban’s official government page is subject to stricter advertising limits and reduced organic reach, while Magyar is allowed to operate a personal ‘public figure’ profile that enjoys greater algorithmic freedom. 

A report by the think tank MCC Brussels found that despite similar video views, Magyar’s posts have generated nearly three times the engagement of Orban’s. It also noted a trend of “disappearing comments” on content in support of the prime minister’s Fidesz party, while no similar behavior has been observed on opposition pages.

A Magyar aide has attributed the success to the opposition leader’s ability to “speak the language of the algorithm” and keep up with the speed of the news cycle.

Budapest’s latest allegations follow an incident in late February in which Facebook temporarily blocked three pro-government news outlets. The Hungarian National Media Association condemned the move as an attack on freedom of press, suggesting that the tech giant could be “punishing right-wing news portals.”

Last month, after several Fidesz members claimed that Meta started restricting the reach of their Facebook posts, commentators Joey Mannarino and Philip Pilkington identified Oskar Braszczynski as the employee likely responsible. Braszczynski, who works as Meta’s ‘Government and Social Impact Partner for Central and Eastern Europe’, has shared pro-Ukraine, anti-Orban, and pro-LGBT content on his personal social media accounts.

Orban has also accused Ukraine of cutting off oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline for political reasons, and blocked a €90 billion EU loan for Kiev in retaliation.

On Tuesday, US Vice President J.D. Vance visited Budapest in a show of support for Orban, accusing EU bureaucrats of “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference” he has ever seen. Vance claimed that Brussels has “tried to destroy the economy of Hungary” because they dislike Orban.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is facing the most serious threat to his power in decades, in an election that’s drawn in the EU, US, and Ukraine. RT explores the players, the stakes, and the dirty tricks shaping the Hungarian election.

We’ve delved into the election in our ‘Battle for Hungary’ series, but if you’ve just joined us, here’s what you need to know:

Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday, April 12, to elect all 199 members of the National Assembly. Elections are held every four years in Hungary, and take place over a single round on a single day. Results are typically known within hours of polls closing.

How many people will vote?

There are roughly 8.2 million registered voters in Hungary, and between 2006 and 2022, voter turnout typically ranged between 61% and 69.59%, according to data from the country’s National Election Office. The last election, in 2022, saw a record turnout of 69.59%.

Around 91,000 Hungarian citizens have registered to vote from abroad, with a significant number living in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region.

Who’s running for election in Hungary?

More than a dozen parties have put candidates forward, but the election is essentially a showdown between two: Orban’s Fidesz, and Peter Magyar’s Tisza.

Orban has been in power since 2010, and is seeking a fifth consecutive term in office. His Fidesz party and its Christian Democrat partners currently hold 135 out of 199 seats in the National Assembly.

Orban is known for his conservatism, drawing the ire of the EU for refusing to accept non-European asylum seekers and banning LGBTQ propaganda. He’s also known for his program of economic nationalism – known as ‘Orbanomics’ – and for his criticism of the EU’s financial and military support for Ukraine. Orban has blocked multiple rounds of sanctions on Russia, relenting only after securing exemptions that have allowed Hungary to continue purchasing Russian energy, and is currently vetoing a €90 billion ($105 billion) debt-financed EU loan package for Kiev.

A former member of Fidesz, Magyar resigned from the party in 2024 and joined the ranks of Tisza, a party that had languished in obscurity since its founding four years beforehand. While embroiled in two legal cases – one in which he testified about alleged corruption in Orban’s government, and another in which he was accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, former Justice Minister Judit Varga – Magyar was elected to the European Parliament that year, along with six other Tisza MEPs.

Magyar describes himself as center-right, and hopes to mend Budapest’s ties with Brussels should he win. Repairing relations with the EU is critical to Magyar’s economic platform – an ambitious program of public spending that entirely depends on Brussels unlocking nearly €20 billion in frozen funds. Magyar has not publicly supported or opposed the EU’s Ukraine loan, and his positions on immigration and social issues remain ambiguous.

What do the polls say?

Magyar’s Tisza is currently leading Fidesz by 49 points to 39, according to an aggregate compiled by Politico. However, individual opinion polls vary wildly, depending on the political alignment and funding of the pollsters.

For example, a poll by the 21 Research Center, which is financed by the European Commission, shows Tisza leading Fidesz by 19 points. Another by the opposition-linked Median shows Magyar’s party 23 points ahead of Orban’s. Conversely, a poll by the Center for Fundamental Rights – a conservative think tank – places Fidesz eight points ahead of Tisza.

Politico has reported that “many” EU leaders secretly believe an Orban victory is “likely.” Hungarian EU Affairs Minister Janos Boka thinks that the disparity between public surveys and private sentiment is no accident, and that by skewing polls, Magyar and his supporters in Brussels are “building the narrative that if they lose the election, then this is an illegitimate result.”

Who is interfering in the Hungarian election?

Panyi became embroiled in an election meddling scandal of his own when it emerged that he had collaborated with EU intelligence agents – possibly the same sources who fed him the ‘Russian interference’ story – to wiretap Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. The wiretap revealed conversations between Szijjarto and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Szijjarto insisted that having these conversations is part of his job as the EU’s longest-serving foreign minister, and that the positions expressed in these calls – opposition to sanctions on Russia and disdain for Brussels bureaucrats – are already well known.

Ukraine has stuck its thumb on the scales too. Kiev has refused to restart the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine, claiming that the pipeline was damaged in a Russian air raid in January. Orban maintains that Druzhba is operational, and that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is keeping it closed in order to drive up energy costs in Hungary and hamper his reelection campaign. Kiev has also trained spies working within Magyar’s party, according to Hungarian security authorities.

Why is the Hungarian election so important to the EU and Ukraine?

Why was J.D. Vance in Budapest?

US President Donald Trump is an ideological ally of Orban, and dispatched Vice President J.D. Vance to Hungary on April 7 in a show of support for the Hungarian prime minister. Over multiple public appearances with Orban, Vance railed against EU and Ukrainian interference in the election, calling their combined efforts “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I have ever seen.”

Vance also saved his most scathing criticism for Zelensky, hammering the Ukrainian leader’s “preposterous” threat to send soldiers to Orban’s house over Hungary’s vetoing of the EU loan package.

However, Vance was accused of election interference by Tisza and EU officials. After the US VP described Orban as “the single profound leader in Europe on the question of energy security and independence” and said that he would “help as much as I can possibly help” to get him reelected, the European Commission announced that it would “convey our concerns” about the visit to Washington.

“I would like to point out, since Vance is complaining about the EU’s alleged interference in the election, that the US vice president was in Hungary just a few days before the election. This fact alone speaks for itself as to who is interfering,” German government spokesman Sebastian Hille told reporters on April 8.

Speaking to RT, former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl described the election as a “proxy war” between Washington and Brussels, with the EU willing to “paralyze” Hungary (by refusing to pressure Zelensky to reopen the Druzhba pipeline) in order to oust Orban, and the US “cultivating resistance” against the bloc by supporting him.

Gabon has imposed a sweeping ban on social media use for people under 16, introducing one of the strictest digital laws on the continent, Gabon Review reported on Thursday, citing the newly enacted law.

The authorities declared it illegal for children to create accounts on social media networks or online platforms, except in narrowly defined education contexts. The measure was adopted on February 26 and officially published earlier this week.

Officials say the move is aimed at shielding children from online risks such as cyberbullying, harmful content, and disinformation. Oversight will be handled by Gabon’s High Communication Authority (HAC), which is tasked with monitoring compliance and auditing digital operators. 

The law introduces shared responsibility between families and tech companies. Parents or legal guardians are now held accountable for the online behavior of children under 16.

The law also requires platforms to respond swiftly to reports involving minors. They must acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and take action within 72 hours.

In February, the HAC announced a temporary social media block for an indefinite period. The decision was cited as a response to the spread of undesirable, defamatory, and offensive content, which they say is a threat to national security. No specific platforms were named.

The decision reflects a broader global push to tighten control over access to digital platforms for minors. Most of them, however, are still waiting for full implementation.

US President Donald Trump unleashed a “tirade of insults” at NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte during their meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Politico has reported, citing European officials.

Rutte’s trip to Washington followed weeks of Trump’s criticism of NATO over its reluctance to join the US-Israeli war against Iran and warnings about possible American withdrawal from the bloc.

The US president used the talks, which happened behind closed doors, to vent his frustration with European NATO members, Politico said in an article on Thursday.

“It went sh*t,” one European official told the outlet, adding that Trump had badmouthed Rutte and “apparently threatened to do just about anything.”

The official and another informed person claimed that the US president signaled that he was considering options for reprisals against the European nations, but didn’t provide any details.

Bloomberg earlier reported that the US president had issued an ultimatum to the Europeans during his meeting with Rutte, demanding a commitment to help secure the waterway, which accounts for around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade, “within days.”

A White House official approached by Politico for comment denied those claims, saying that Trump “has zero expectations for NATO at this point and did not ask them for anything, even though it’s a fact they benefit from the Strait of Hormuz far more than the US.”

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Rutte described his talks with Trump as a “very frank, very open” discussion between “two good friends,” but acknowledged that the US president was “clearly disappointed” with Europe. The NATO chief avoided a direct answer when asked if Trump had spoken about Washington leaving the bloc.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday that “none of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them.”

US President Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, urging voters to “get out and vote” for his reelection ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump described Orban – his “true friend, fighter, and winner” – as a “strong and powerful leader” with a “proven track record of delivering phenomenal results.”

“[Orban] fights tirelessly for, and loves, his great country and people, just like I do for the United States of America,” Trump wrote. “Viktor works hard to protect Hungary, grow the economy, create jobs, promote trade, stop illegal immigration, and ensure law and order!”

Trump also credited Orban with driving “new heights of cooperation” between the US and Hungary and said he looks “forward to continuing working” with him.

Trump on Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán:

I was proud to ENDORSE Viktor for Re-Election in 2022, and am honored to do so again. Viktor Orbán is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary — HE WILL NEVER… pic.twitter.com/uOWFCP7nRt

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) February 5, 2026

“Hungary: GET OUT AND VOTE FOR VIKTOR ORBAN,” he urged, stressing Orban has his “complete and total endorsement” for re-election.

Trump has repeatedly backed his longtime ally ahead of the vote. Earlier this week, he even called into a rally in Budapest via Vice President J.D. Vance’s phone, telling supporters, “I am with [Orban] until the very end.”

President Trump calls in during @VP's speech in Hungary to show support for Viktor Orban:

"I love Hungary, and I love Viktor. He's a fantastic man ... Remember this: He didn't allow people to storm your country and invade your country like other people have." pic.twitter.com/zPUhBAJDwp

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 7, 2026

Vance, who visited Budapest to boost Orban’s campaign, described Hungary as a “laboratory” for sovereign, conservative politics and accused the EU of “interfering” in the vote.

Hungary has opposed Ukraine’s EU ambitions, refused to supply arms to Kiev, and is currently blocking a €90 billion EU loan package – after accusing Vladimir Zelensky of cutting Russian oil flows via the Druzhba pipeline. Orban has also claimed Kiev is waging a “quiet war” against his government, alleging Ukrainian intelligence is operating inside Hungary to sway the vote toward the Tisza Party.

Orban has repeatedly accused the EU of trying to engineer a change in government and install a “puppet regime” in Budapest, alleging Brussels has already “picked” Magyar as a compliant successor. He has also argued that freezing billions in funding is a deliberate attempt to sway voters against him.

On March 25, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proposed by Ghana declaring the transatlantic slave trade the “gravest crime against humanity,” despite opposition from Western states. The measure secured support from 123 countries, including Russia and China, while the US, Israel, and Argentina voted against it, and 52 nations – among them the UK and EU members – abstained.

Why do the US, Israel, and Argentina stand against the recognition of the absolute horror of the enslavement of Africans? In fact, acknowledging this crime would expose them to the collapse of their own historical narratives. The US, in voting against, is rejecting its own indictment, built on the paradox of a proclaimed freedom resting atop an enslaving system it never truly reconciled with. To recognize this injustice is to open the door to reparations, and a reconfiguration of the social contract – something that today’s America, still shaped by persistent inequalities, refuses to confront.

As for Argentina, today it protects a national narrative built on a racial fiction of a white nation oriented toward Europe and severed from its indigenous roots. Acknowledging the full extent of the crime of slavery would mean reopening the wounds of a long-concealed historical erasure and genocide. Thus, this tripartite vote reveals a refusal to decolonize history and to face consequences, such as reparations, educational revisions, and transformation in global power relations.

Abstention in this issue, however, cannot be seen as a neutrality. When France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and some forty other states choose to abstain, they are fleeing history itself.

What does it mean to abstain from a resolution that recognizes the transatlantic slave trade and racialized slavery as an injustice against humanity? It means: “We know, but we will not speak. We acknowledge, but we refuse to assume responsibility. We see, but we look away.”

Belgium carries the shadow of the Congo Free State, an industrial-scale reign of terror where millions of lives were crushed for rubber and profit. Abstention allows it to continue sanitizing the past.

Germany, often praised for its work of remembrance regarding the Holocaust, exposes here the limits of its moral universalism. When it comes to the genocide of the Herero and Nama in Namibia, or its role in European colonial ventures, its discourse becomes calculated.

For Ukraine and other abstaining states, the link to historical responsibility in the transatlantic trade may seem less direct. Yet their abstention reflects geopolitical alignment, the desire not to offend certain allies. Historical justice is sacrificed on the altar of strategic interest.

This collective abstention reveals a troubling truth: the international system is incapable of delivering full recognition of the crimes that shaped it. The states that comprise it are simultaneously judges and parties, accusers and accused. Under these conditions, how can genuine justice be expected?

Abstention becomes a mechanism of preservation. It maintains the illusion of international consensus while avoiding necessary ruptures. In short, it is a form of denial.

But denial comes at a cost. It fuels distrust among African peoples and their diasporas toward international institutions perceived as partial or complicit. It undermines the credibility of Western human rights rhetoric and perpetuates legitimate resentment, born of centuries of unrepaired injustice.

Abstaining in this context is choosing inertia over justice. The abstained refuse to break with colonial logics, trying to perpetuate their consequences instead. But this strategy is doomed. France, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the other cannot hide indefinitely in this gray zone. There are moments when not choosing is betrayal, and this betrayal, though dressed in the respectable garments of diplomatic prudence, deceives no one.

And it is precisely this loss of control that frightens them.

To fully recognize the horror of racialized African slavery means to accept that the very foundations of Western modernity must be questioned. It is to acknowledge that the Enlightenment, often heralded as the dawn of universal reason, coexisted and sometimes co-constructed with the most radical darkness: systematic dehumanization.

The reality today is an Africa that thinks and demands. A diaspora that articulates claims, rejects half-truths. In the face of this, what is abstention worth? Nothing except the testimony of a refusal to take responsibility.

Yet there is still time. Time to understand that recognition is strength, not weakness. That truth, even painful, is the only foundation for a shared future. But this requires courage. And clearly, that courage remains in short supply. History will move on without them, or despite them. The abstainers and the calculating will only endure it.

An army general and several soldiers have been killed in an overnight assault by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants on military targets in Nigeria’s restive Borno State, the authorities said on Thursday.

The militants attacked the headquarters of the 29 Task Force Brigade in Benisheikh at about 12:30 AM local time, army spokesman Michael Onoja said in a statement. He said troops responded to the coordinated “terrorist” assault with “exceptional courage, professionalism, and superior firepower,” forcing the insurgents to retreat.

“Regrettably, the encounter resulted in the loss of a few brave and gallant soldiers who paid the supreme price in the line of duty,” the military stated, without specifying how many troops were killed or disclosing their names.

Local media, however, reported that Brigadier General Oseni Omoh Braimah, commander of the 29 Task Force Brigade, was among 18 soldiers killed.

A separate statement from Nigerian President Bola Tinubu appeared to confirm that the general died in the raid. Tinubu described the “insurgents’ counterattack [as] a sign of desperation” and said the government “will never forget” the sacrifices of the fallen soldiers.

“I extend my condolences to the families of our gallant soldiers, led by Brigadier-General Oseni Omoh Braimah, who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our country in Borno State,” he wrote on X on Friday.

Police in Borno said earlier this week that officers had repelled attacks in Nganzai and Damasak, days after four officers were killed in an assault on a divisional headquarters in the state.

Nigeria declared a national security emergency in November amid the deteriorating situation. The US, which has stepped in to support Abuja’s campaign against Islamic State-linked militants, has warned its citizens against traveling to the West African country, citing terrorism and armed violence.

The Gulf states have emerged much weaker than Iran from the Middle East conflict, leading US academic Jeffrey Sachs has said.

Countries in the region made a huge mistake by seeking protection from the US and Israel, Sachs told RT India in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

“This has been a disaster for them,” he said, adding that the “clever idea” of the United Arab Emirates as a financial haven and tourism hub “all… fell under bombing right now.”

“[The US] did nothing to help it. I think the Emirates made a terrible mistake in signing on with Israel and the United States saying, ‘This is our side. This is our protection,’” he said.

Sachs said he was baffled when Gulf countries pledged billions of dollars to the US when Donald Trump began his second term as president.

The US is not where the high-return investments in the world are right now, Sachs noted.

“But these countries believed that the US is their protector and that the US is their source of NVIDIA chips and data centers and cutting-edge technology. They’re not looking clearly at how the multipolar world is taking shape,” he said.

“They’ve come out way, way behind in all of this. It’s been clear that Iran can devastate them,” he added. “The desalination plants, the bombing of the oil and gas infrastructure, the vulnerability of these countries more generally. It’s been awful.”

Sachs said the Gulf countries “don’t have their own geopolitics… They have been under the US line. But basically, this is a debacle for them.” These nations need to rethink their politics, he added.

“The truth is Iran and the Gulf should be partners. They should be co-investors. They should be at peace.”

India knows from its time under British rule that divide-and-conquer is the essence of imperial strategy, Sachs said.

“The US has loved to pit Iran against the Gulf, and the Gulf fell for it. Big mistake that needs to be reconsidered,” he said.

The US is perceived as a threat by a significant portion of people in six leading European nations, a new opinion poll suggests. In Spain, a majority holds this view, it says.

Politico, which commissioned the survey, said on Wednesday that these perceptions are linked to the policies of US President Donald Trump.

Since taking office just over a year ago, Trump has imposed tariffs on European allies, pushed for the annexation of Greenland from Denmark, and started a war with Iran, jeopardizing global energy stability.

The European Pulse poll was conducted from March 13 to 21 in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, with at least 1,000 adults surveyed in each country. In Spain, 51% of respondents described the US as a threat, while only 17% considered it a close ally.

Six major EU countries now view the U.S. under Trump as a bigger threat than China, per a new POLITICO Pulse survey—a significant shift in European threat perception.pic.twitter.com/Bz7YtheU1b

— The Dive Feed (@TheDeepDiveFeed) April 9, 2026

Poland presented a contrasting picture, where the US is largely seen as a partner or ally. Only 13% of Polish respondents viewed America as a threat, with an equal share labeling it a competitor. However, a significant 16% said they are unsure how to assess the US.

The survey took place amid escalating hostilities in the Middle East, as the US and Israel attempt to topple Iran’s government through a bombing campaign. No European NATO members directly joined the campaign, but Spain was notably vocal in opposing it, calling the operation illegal under international law and refusing the US access to its airspace for strikes.

Earlier this week, Trump signaled openness to negotiations based on a ten-point proposal from Iran, which led to the announcement of a two-week ceasefire. However, the fragile truce has been strained by increased Israeli attacks against Lebanon. Washington claims these actions fall outside the scope of the ceasefire, but skeptics argue that Israel is deliberately acting against US goals to derail peace efforts.

The Trump administration has been accused of using bad faith negotiations as a diversion before surprise military actions against Iran.

North Korea has conducted a series of high-tech weapons tests as it seeks to expand its arsenal with electromagnetic weapons, carbon fiber bombs, and new mobile air defense systems, KCNA state news agency reports.

The tests were conducted over the course of three days. Kim Jong-sik, a general who oversaw the tests, described the electromagnetic system and carbon fiber bombs as “special assets” in the country’s arsenal, but provided few details about the nature of the new weapons.

The South Korean military said it detected several missile launches from North Korean territory. The projectiles flew 240 to 700 km, according to Reuters.

The tests came amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula. First Deputy Foreign Minister Jang Kum-chol described South Korea as the “most hostile enemy state” in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, Seoul apologized to Pyongyang over drone incursions, denying any official involvement and claiming that the launches were a private initiative. Three people – including an employee of the National Intelligence Service, a South Korean military officer, and a graduate student – are facing charges.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stated last month that a nuclear arsenal capable of posing a credible threat to the US is the only leverage against American “terrorism and aggression.” He also said North Korea would not give up its nuclear weapons and would oppose any efforts to challenge its status.

US First Lady Melania Trump has made a surprise public statement about Jeffrey Epstein, denying that she had any meaningful relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender, and insisting that he did not introduce her to Donald Trump.

In remarks released by the White House on April 9, Melania said she had “never been friends with Epstein,” described her contact with his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as nothing more than “casual correspondence,” and urged Congress to hold public hearings centered on Epstein’s victims.

“The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today,” the first lady said, accusing unnamed critics of trying to “defame” her reputation. She stated that she and Donald Trump had only occasionally attended the same social events as Epstein due to overlapping social circles in New York City and Palm Beach, and said she first crossed paths with him in 2000 at an event she attended with Trump.

First Lady Melania Trump’s Statement pic.twitter.com/fSEz24NEyg

— First Lady Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 9, 2026

Melania also denied ever being on Epstein’s plane or visiting his private island, and specifically pushed back against claims that Epstein played a role in her relationship with the future president. She further insisted that her name has never appeared in court documents, depositions, victim statements, or FBI interviews tied to the Epstein case.

The Trump administration has faced growing backlash over its handling of the Epstein files. One day earlier, several media outlets reported that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee, which has already heard testimony from former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The controversy has simmered for over a year. In February 2025, Bondi said Epstein’s supposed client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review,” fueling expectations of major disclosures. But by July, the DOJ said no such list exists, and that it did not plan to release additional records – a reversal that triggered ridicule from both Democrats and Republicans and intensified accusations of a cover-up.

US President Donald Trump has posted a horrific video of a woman being beaten to death at a Florida gas station earlier this month, using the killing to launch a blistering attack on former President Joe Biden and his immigration record.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the suspect is Rolbert Joachin, a Haitian national accused of fatally attacking a woman in Fort Myers on April 3. DHS said Joachin first entered the US illegally in August 2022 and was released into the country under Temporary Protected Status.

The suspect was tracked down and arrested with ICE assistance, and appeared in court on Wednesday, where he revealed that he went to the gas station specifically to kill the victim.

In a furious Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said he felt “obligated” to publish uncensored footage of the murder, previously shown in court, so Americans could “see what Democrats are protecting,” while warning viewers that the tape is “not for children.”

Trump branded the suspect an “animal” and blamed Biden and congressional Democrats for allowing him to remain in the country, arguing that the case was a brutal example of what he sees as the human cost of lax immigration enforcement.

Trump ended his post by offering prayers for the victim’s family and vowing that “quick and severe JUSTICE” would be served. DHS said ICE had lodged a detainer against Joachin and that he would face deportation regardless of how the criminal case unfolds.

The cooperation of private capital and state funding in space exploration and infrastructure became a key topic at the inaugural Russian Space Forum taking place in Moscow ahead of the upcoming Cosmonautics Day. The event will also delve into the use of AI, robotics and prospective medical technologies needed for flights beyond Earth orbit, such as to the Moon or Mars.

Kicking off ahead of the 65th anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s April 12, 1961 flight as the first human in space, the event brought together government officials, scientists, and investors from over 40 countries, including Russia, China and India.

“The advancement of the rocket and space sector, alongside the strengthening of its scientific, human resources, and technological potential, remains among our unconditional priorities. It is of utmost importance to expand satellite constellations and to widely integrate new materials, digital and nuclear technologies,” President Vladimir Putin said in a greeting message to the participants.

Just last month, Russia launched 16 communication satellites for the Russian Rassvet (Sunrise) high-speed internet project, which is being helmed by domestic company Bureau 1440, Bakanov said. The program will give Russia its own alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink.

“We work closely together, sometimes formalized through the regulatory framework, sometimes manually, to help companies thrive, to ensure fertile soil, and to create an investment climate conducive to people investing in the sector,” Bakanov said.

Real-time coordination between Roscosmos and private space firms was also discussed, to prevent potential collisions in orbit, which many fear could lead to the so-called Kessler Syndrome, a runaway chain reaction of crashes that could render entire orbital regions around Earth unusable.

China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) deputy director Bian Zhigang, speaking at a panel on future challenges and national strategies, spoke out against the weaponization of space.

“We need to support technologies in different countries in order to aid urban planning, resource exploration and disaster prevention. This requires all countries to cooperate,” he said, calling space “an important bridge” that facilitates this international collaboration.

The forum will also serve as the launchpad for a number of cooperation agreements between Roscosmos and Russian nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, as well as with private players in the space sector.

Russia’s Space Week, established by Putin to promote national achievements and popularize the industry, will conclude on Cosmonautics Day on Sunday with a number of other themed events all across the country.

Donald Trump has declared the start of a new “golden age” in the Middle East after announcing a ceasefire with Iran. The war, at least for now, has been paused. And while predictions are always risky with this White House, there is at least a chance that the fighting will not immediately resume.

That alone matters. A prolonged war would raise risks for everyone, but above all for Washington. For all the bombast coming from the US administration, America has always been deeply uncomfortable with prolonged uncertainty and strategic risk. It is one thing to threaten. It is another to endure the consequences when threats fail.

The precise terms of the ceasefire remain unclear and may not yet be fully agreed. But the central political fact is already visible: Faced with determined resistance, the US stepped back.

None of the sweeping demands set out at the start of the operation were met. Trump’s all-caps demand for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” now looks more like political theater than strategic doctrine. Yet behind the social media drama, something more rational prevailed in Washington: When pressure fails, it is better to retreat than to escalate into a situation you may no longer control.

The feverish rhetoric before the truce served a purpose. It allowed Washington to claim that Tehran had blinked, while creating such a sense of looming catastrophe that any pause in fighting could be sold as relief. The White House will now try to present restraint as victory.

This conflict is undoubtedly a milestone in the wider transformation of the international system. But it is not the end of that process. Nor is it the final chapter in the struggle for the Middle East.

Tehran’s response was not spectacular in the conventional military sense, but it was effective. Iran widened the theater of tension and signaled that the costs of escalation would not be confined to military targets. It forced its opponents to reckon not only with Iranian retaliation, but with the fragility of the wider regional system.

This matters because the endurance of the US and its regional partners is limited. Iran’s, by contrast, has historically been much greater.

The so-called Axis of Resistance also proved more durable than many had assumed. Despite the serious damage inflicted by Israel over the past two years, pro-Iranian forces in Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq remain a strategic factor. Even where they did not intervene directly, they raised the temperature and forced the attackers to remain on edge.

The broader effort to neutralize Iranian influence has therefore backfired. Iran has emerged bloodied but still standing. Even if Tehran’s claims that any settlement must happen on its terms are partly negotiating tactics, one thing is already clear: Iran’s regional weight has not diminished in the way Washington and West Jerusalem intended.

Negotiations with Tehran are now unavoidable. The real question is what Iran itself wants.

For the wider region, the implications are profound.

The Gulf monarchies have had a sobering experience. There will be no return to the comfortable old formula in which security could simply be outsourced to Washington in exchange for money and loyalty. That arrangement, which underpinned the region since the Cold War, has been badly shaken.

Publicly, the Gulf states are unlikely to make dramatic gestures. But privately, their search for new hedges and new partners will intensify. China, South Asia, Russia and, to a lesser extent, Western Europe will all become more important in their calculations.

That doesn’t mean the Gulf will accept Iranian dominance. The monarchies will not tolerate Tehran having unchecked influence over the Persian Gulf or the ability to dictate terms in the Strait of Hormuz. Their policy is likely to become more complex: containing Iran where possible while engaging with it where necessary.

The domestic consequences for the US are harder to judge. Trump’s self-congratulation already rings hollow, but much will depend on economics. If oil markets stabilize, the White House will try to move on quickly and insist disaster was averted thanks to Trump’s leadership. Whether that helps Republicans in the November midterms is unclear.

Still, Trump has always had one instinct his critics often underestimate: He knows how to survive setbacks and reframe them.

The larger conclusion, however, goes beyond Trump. The US remains immensely powerful. Its military reach, financial leverage and ability to shape events are still formidable. But they are not limitless. America can still influence outcomes but can no longer simply impose its will at any cost.

That lesson has now been absorbed far beyond Tehran. Allies and adversaries alike will draw their own conclusions. Iran may be a special case, but a precedent has been set.

This is another step toward a different world, one in which coercion is less decisive and the old assumptions about American omnipotence increasingly obsolete. Trump may wish to replace a liberal American-led order with an illiberal one under US dominance. But the events of recent weeks suggest something else: a world moving beyond any order Washington can fully control.

This article was first published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and was translated and edited by the RT team 

The homeless man accused of fatally stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska could see charges against him dropped after he was deemed unfit to stand trial, several US media outlets report, citing a motion filed by his attorney. He was previously indicted by a federal grand jury in the case, which could lead to the death penalty.

Zarutska was killed on a train last August in Charlotte, North Carolina. Surveillance footage shows Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, stabbing her three times in the neck in what appeared to be an unprovoked assault. The man was arrested shortly afterward and charged with first-degree murder.

According to a motion filed on Tuesday, Brown was evaluated at the Central Regional Hospital in late December and found to be not competent to stand trial. Under North Carolina law, a defendant must be deemed capable of understanding the nature of the proceedings, comprehend their situation, and assist in their defense in a rational manner.

If a judge agrees with the psychiatric evaluation, charges against Brown will be dismissed. A court ruling could still allow for the charges to be refiled if he ever regains the capacity to be tried.

Brown was also ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation as part of a separate federal court case, but it was not completed as of early March according to the court filings.

The man’s mother claims he is schizophrenic. Brown has a lengthy criminal record that includes robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Zarutska’s killing caused a public outcry and led to calls for capital punishment for the suspect. US President Donald Trump described Brown as an “animal” and urged that the death penalty be applied.

Mexico is looking to tap unconventional natural gas deposits to boost energy sovereignty, President Claudia Sheinbaum has said, as global energy markets reel from the shock triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The US’ southern neighbor is its biggest importer of natural gas, with the supplies covering roughly three-quarters of Mexican demand, while domestic output from conventional fields has declined and no longer meets the country’s needs.

“If we continue like this, we’re going to import more and more natural gas,” Sheinbaum said on Wednesday. “The other options are what’s called shale gas, unconventional gas.”

Unconventional deposits refers to gas trapped in dense rock formations such as shale, which do not allow the fuel to flow freely and require more complex extraction techniques, including hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Development has so far been limited due to environmental concerns, high water usage, regulatory uncertainty, and political opposition.

“What’s the problem with importing?” Sheinbaum asked rhetorically. “Just look at how lots of countries in the world are suffering because of what happened in Iran.”

Sheinbaum’s remarks come amid broader tensions between Mexico City and Washington.

In January, US President Donald Trump said he could order strikes against drug cartels on Mexican territory following the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US commandos over alleged narcotics trafficking.

Trump has also claimed that cartels effectively control Mexico and accused the country of “flooding” the US with drugs and illegal migrants.

Mexico has cooperated on anti-drug efforts but rejects any foreign military presence, with Sheinbaum warning any such action would violate national sovereignty.

There are moments in history when reality breaks through ideology with brutal clarity. Western Europe is living through one of those moments now.

The Iran war has sent shockwaves through global energy markets – but in Europe, the tremors feel like an earthquake. What was once dismissed as pessimism or “populist scaremongering” is now openly acknowledged at the highest levels of power.

With the Strait of Hormuz blocked, the EU faced a supply shock that promised to cripple manufacturing, ground airlines, hike up the price of food, spike borrowing costs, and send inflation spiraling back to crisis levels.

The crisis nobody can deny anymore

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has compared the looming burden to the darkest days of recent memory, warning it could be “as heavy as we recently experienced during the Covid pandemic or at the start of the Ukraine war.” Head of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde has admitted that the long-term effects are “probably beyond what we can imagine at the moment.”

Beyond imagination. That is where Western Europe now stands. And yet for millions of ordinary Europeans, the consequences are already painfully real: higher bills, shrinking savings, and a growing sense that something has gone profoundly wrong.

This is not just another cyclical downturn. It is something deeper – more systemic, more dangerous.

The greatest energy shock in modern history

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, did not mince words: “At this moment, we are losing 11 million barrels per day, which is more than the two major oil crises combined… the greatest threat to global energy security in history.” Unlike past crises, this one spared nothing. Oil, gas, diesel, jet fuel – everything was under pressure at once.

The illusion that Europe could insulate itself has collapsed.

For years, Brussels reassured Europeans that the continent’s limited reliance on Persian Gulf crude would protect it. But reality has a way of exposing half-truths. Europe depends on the Gulf for more than 40% of its refined products – diesel that fuels trucks, and jet fuel that keeps planes in the air.

Now those lifelines are tightening. Asian economies, far more dependent on the region, are bidding assertively, pulling supplies away from Europe. Tankers are changing course. Contracts are being rewritten. Prices are surging. And the EU – self-constrained, self-limited – has found itself last in line.

The consequences are immediate, tangible, and deeply personal. In some countries, diesel prices have nearly doubled since the start of the Iran war. Airlines are bracing for impact; Lufthansa is already discussing grounding up to 40 aircraft because of jet fuel shortages. The EU’s fossil fuel import bill jumped by €14 billion in mere weeks.

Behind these numbers are real lives. Farmers paying more to harvest their crops. Truck drivers watching margins evaporate. Families forced to choose between heating and other essentials. Businesses – already weakened – now pushed to the brink.

Higher costs in agriculture, transport, and manufacturing cascade through the economy. Prices rise everywhere. Growth stalls. Inflation returns with a vengeance.

Europe is staring into the abyss of stagflation – stagnant economies paired with relentless price increases, quietly eroding the savings and dignity of millions.

This is not just an economic crisis. It is a social wound. A psychological burden. Another chapter in a long decade of instability that has left many Europeans exhausted, anxious, and increasingly distrustful of those in power.

Leadership without answers

In times like these, people look to their leaders for clarity, for courage, for solutions equal to the scale of the problem. What they receive instead feels painfully inadequate.

Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has advised people to work from home, drive slower, and share cars. These are not solutions; they are coping mechanisms. They shift responsibility onto individuals while the structural failures remain untouched.

Even as shortages loom, Brussels insists on staying the course: a complete ban on Russian energy imports, no change to the plan to end Russian LNG imports by 2026, and pipeline gas by 2027. At the very moment when flexibility is needed, rigidity prevails.

Warnings are coming from all sides. Shell CEO Wael Sawan has said shortages could hit as early as April. Germany’s Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has cautioned that supply scarcity may emerge within weeks. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto confessed, “I’m forced to know things that don’t let me sleep.”

And still, the policy does not change. Even from across the Atlantic comes a blunt message. Donald Trump remarked: “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”

Harsh, perhaps – but not entirely wrong. The EU has boxed itself in.

Yet across the continent, a different kind of leadership is beginning to emerge – one that dares to say what many already know.

In Germany, Alice Weidel of the AfD has articulated a position rooted in economic reality rather than political fashion: “Germany must return to an affordable and reliable energy supply to be internationally competitive… we must purchase energy resources… where it is cheapest, which is Russia.”

More and more Germans understand this. It is no coincidence that the AfD has risen to become the second most popular party. People are not embracing extremism – they are searching for common sense.

Central Europe’s warning – and its resolve

Further east, the message is even clearer, shaped by geography and experience.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for immediate action, urging Europe to lift sanctions on Russian energy to avoid “one of the most severe economic crises in its history.” Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has echoed this urgency, calling for restored pipeline flows and renewed dialogue with Moscow.

His words cut through the diplomatic fog. The EU must “ensure the supply of these strategic raw materials from all possible sources and directions, including Russia.” Otherwise, he warned, the current path resembles a “suicide ship.”

These leaders are often dismissed in Brussels. Yet they are the ones confronting reality head-on. They understand that geography cannot be negotiated away. That energy cannot be replaced overnight. That ideology does not heat homes or power factories.

The return of reality – and of Russia

The Iran war has accelerated a reckoning that was already underway. It has shown, with unforgiving clarity, that the EU cannot secure its energy future by excluding its most logical supplier. Russia is not a distant option; it is a structural pillar of the European energy system – one that has been deliberately removed without a viable replacement.

The result is what we see today: scarcity, volatility, vulnerability. Restoring relations with Moscow is no longer a theoretical debate. It is becoming an economic necessity.

And the momentum is shifting. Across Germany and Central Europe – Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Czechia – voices are growing louder, more confident, more aligned in their insistence on pragmatism over ideology.

A turning point for Europe

Europe now stands at a decisive turning point. One path leads further into crisis: continued shortages, declining industry, rising social tensions, and a widening gap between elites and ordinary people. The other path is more difficult politically – but far more sustainable economically. It requires acknowledging mistakes. Reopening dialogue. Rebuilding ties where they make sense.

Above all, it requires listening – to the citizens who are paying the price, and to the leaders who have the courage to speak uncomfortable truths. Change is coming. The Iran war may well accelerate it. Because in the end, reality is undefeated. And Europe, whether it admits it or not, is already on the road back to it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the nation’s military to halt all operations against Ukrainian forces over Orthodox Easter weekend, the Kremlin has announced. The unilateral pause is scheduled to last from 16:00 (Moscow time) on Saturday until the end of Sunday.

According to the Kremlin, Russian troops should still be ready to respond to any Ukrainian offensive operations or provocations, with relevant orders given to Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

“We expect the Ukrainian side to follow Russia’s lead,” the statement read.

Moscow has previously declared unilateral pauses during Orthodox religious holidays throughout the Ukraine conflict. In 2023, Russia observed truces both during the Orthodox Christmas holiday in January and on Easter weekend in April at the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 2024, a pause was not announced, with Putin arguing that Kiev could use it to rearm and regroup its forces. In 2025, an Easter truce was declared again, but was only partially successful. Although a certain lull in the hostilities was observed, Kiev violated the truce more than 3,900 times, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky rejected Hungary’s calls for a Christmas truce last year.

Moscow and Kiev held several rounds of direct talks in Istanbul last year, as well as trilateral talks that also involved the US. The negotiations led to several major POW exchanges but ended without a decisive breakthrough. The trilateral discussions have been paused over the past months because of the US and Israeli war on Iran.

Russia has repeatedly stated that it is ready to resolve the Ukraine conflict through diplomatic means, as long as its root causes are addressed and the situation on the ground is taken into account.

A Republican-aligned political group has been accused of sending leaflets featuring Ku Klux Klan imagery to voters in Virginia ahead of a high-stakes referendum. The Washington Post has suggested that the campaign primarily targets black voters.

The mailers, reportedly distributed in recent weeks by the Democracy and Justice political action committee, use imagery associated with the KKK – a group historically linked to racist violence against Black Americans – alongside warnings urging voters to reject the ballot measure redrawing the state’s political map to favor Democrats.

The leaflet design combines emotionally charged historical visuals with simple, urgent messaging. One leaflet, shared by the Virginia Independent, features grainy black-and-white images from the era of racial segregation, including Klansmen in white hoods and scenes of Black Americans facing violence, alongside claims that “they want to silence your voice.” Another pairs civil rights-era imagery, such as marches and protests, with slogans like “politicians are trying to take our districts away.”

Idk man I’m just surprised they used images of the KKK on the vote no on redistricting mailer pic.twitter.com/WuKGgPZ6D4

— Kate Martin (@katekeepsit100) March 7, 2026

The April 21 referendum will ask voters whether to change how Virginia’s electoral districts are drawn, a decision that could affect which party wins more seats in Congress.

What is this crap (an inflammatory, false, absurd etc. anti-referendum mailer being sent out) and what's the deal with the group ("Democracy and Justice PAC") behind it? https://t.co/HdBJrU2Wr2 pic.twitter.com/8rJJiBefNQ

— Blue Virginia (@bluevirginia) March 7, 2026

Black voters make up roughly one-fifth of Virginia’s population and are a key voting bloc in statewide elections. Virginia, though Democrat-leaning overall, remains a closely contested battleground state where even small shifts in support can sway outcomes.

A group, Justice for Democracy, has been sending out mailers and texts with some clear dog whistles, using varying disclaimers in Virginia ("Democracy and Justice PAC" and "Justice for Democracy PAC").

Its treasurer is listed as Christopher Woodfin and its address is the same… pic.twitter.com/JvetyKGnbw

— Matt Royer (@royermattw) March 7, 2026

Virginia’s vote comes amid a broader national push by Republicans and Democrats to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 elections, with several states already adopting new boundaries to gain political advantage. District maps are typically redrawn once every ten years after a census, with the next scheduled for 2030.

Unlike most states, which make such changes through legislatures or courts, Virginia is putting the measure directly to voters through a public referendum. Former US President Barack Obama has urged Virginians to back the measure.

US energy giants ExxonMobil and Chevron have reported lower production and a financial fallout linked to the Iran war, citing operational disruptions and market volatility as a result of the conflict and restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz regarding shipping linked to the West.

In a filing to US regulators on Wednesday, ExxonMobil flagged a potential hit of up to $6.5 billion to earnings, noting that its global oil and gas production in the first quarter of 2026 will be about 6% lower than in the final quarter of 2025, partly due to attacks on facilities in Qatar and the UAE in which it holds stakes. Chevron on Thursday reported first‑quarter production of 3.8–3.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 4.05 million in the previous quarter.

Exxon, which has significant exposure to the Middle East, said the region accounts for around 20% of its global output. It added that damage to assets, including gas liquefaction facilities in Qatar, “will take a prolonged period to repair,” and that it is unable to estimate when full operations will resume.

The company also said the largest hit to its first-quarter earnings, estimated at $3.5 billion to $4.9 billion, is linked to price swings caused by the conflict.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Friday proposed a nearly $40 billion military buildup amid tensions with Beijing. This came just days after the head of the self-governing island’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), traveled to the mainland seeking rapprochement in the first such visit in a decade.

Taiwan became a de facto autonomous territory in 1949, after Chiang Kai-shek’s forces fled there following their loss in the Chinese civil war. Beijing considers the island part of its sovereign territory under the One China policy, which most UN nations, including the US and Russia, recognize.

Lai presented the massive military spending bill at a meeting of his party’s top decision-making body on Friday, calling it a way to counter the “threat of authoritarianism.” The proposal came just days after lawmakers from the US, Taiwan’s primary arms supplier, visited the island.

Earlier this week, Lai gave a speech positioning military strength, economic resilience, cooperation with Western and regional allies and “equality and dignity” as the main requirements for peace in the Taiwan Strait.

KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun, who arrived on the mainland on Tuesday, has stressed that opposing Taiwanese independence is a way to guarantee regional peace.

“The two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not destined, as some in the international community worry, for war,” she said in a speech in Nanjing.

RT has been covering the arrival with our correspondent Konstantin Rozhkov in China.

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